Sub Woes

Oh. My. Goodness.

Can I just say it's a relief my two-day stint in THAT second grade room is over.  Within five minutes of sitting down after the first bell this morning, one of the little guys flipped off the Pledge of Allegiance then hightailed it under his desk screaming "Leave me alone.  I need my sleep now."  I like to deal with behaviors without office intervention but after all day yesterday with this defiant and disrespectful little guy, I dropped the students off to their morning special and asked for an intervention.  Turns out the little guy is supposed to be on meds and was most likely not taking them today. 

So...I know sub plans are a pain - I have written plenty myself and taken countless hours to do it, but teachers should give a heads up in their plans if they have any unstable students.  Don't you agree?

For all my two people out there reading this, I want to know if you have any pet peeves for subs.  Is there something you always think a sub should know that is a must have for plans?  Or is there something subs repeatedly do (and I've been on the receiving end of my plans being absolutely ignored after HOURS of slaving over them) that drives you bonkers?  Please share.  It'll be proof that I don't always talk to myself.  Which I do.  A lot.  But mostly at home.  Mostly.

Mother's Day Activity

Looking for something to do for Mother's Day with your students?  Head over to my TPT store and check out my just uploaded Mother's Day card made from a paper lunch bag.  Yup, that's right - instead of making a puppet, now you can use a paper bag to make a cute gift card.

Since TPT is having some technical difficulties showing photos of my sample pages, here are some pictures of the card and activities included with the packet.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mothers-Day-Card-Craftivity

Gulp, Eighth Grade???

So, I've been going through a bit of a STRESSFUL time looking for full-time work.  To help pay (very loosely speaking) the bills, I've resorted to subbing.  This week there was slim pickings.  Which explains why someone with over 4 years in first grade wound up in front of a group of 8th graders in a science lab.

It's almost like one of those nightmares you hope you will wake up from.  Except it turned out not to be a nightmare.  I know, right?  I was beyond shocked too. Well in first period I had a very belligerent young man that I removed from my presence and sent to the office before I lost face in front of the other 25+ students.  After that it was almost eesy peesy.  Almost.

Minus one minor incident with a pencil winding up in the ceiling, a confiscated cell phone for texting in class (friggin' technology era), and a rude comment about my presence as their teacher for the day...

Luckily for me it was tolerable since I'm returning to the same school on Monday to try my hand at teaching reading.  For an elective.  Hmm...I wonder if teaching will be taking place or if it's like free time to read???  They do already have a language arts class.  Maybe a bit too much to hope for?  Although it is end of the year and after AIMS.

I did get some nice comments from the students about how I was a cool teacher and they wished I would be there all the time.  A comment that came from multiple periods.  Unless they were all sarcastic and laughing behind my back.  Ha!  I will choose to believe they loved me.  Or at least liked me enough to get their work done.  Mostly.   Maybe that was the threat of their grade in jeopardy?

Either way it was nice not wrangling little ones all day and asking them to sit on their bottoms.  I went home on a Friday after subbing from preschool to 8th grade surprisingly not too exhausted.  Of course I didn't have to grade the 140-ish papers the students turned in today.  Bonus for subbing!

Counting Strips

I finally finished my counting strips I had started quite awhile ago.  Such a nice feeling having something marked off my to do list!

These are a great tool to help practice counting to 10 and can be modified for skip counting and addition practice as well.

Addition

Skip Counting

Number Counting

Feel free to check it out in my TpT store if you like what you see. It comes with easy-to-follow directions for your students.

A New Adventure?

Well, it's the end of the year and although school isn't quite out, I am.  Life happens and things change unexpectedly.  So my current adventure is subbing.  And it is definitely an adventure!

Even though I'm starting a new adventure, my goal is to do more blogging.  I am such a fan of all those awesome blogs out there (my blog envy is getting a little ridiculous) and it's been MONTHS since I started this.  Whoops. 

On the upside this time off has given me some time to try to finish up some projects I have had on the back burner.  Coming soon you'll be able to check out my space unit on TpT and hopefully some of my genre units I used with my gifted students.

Here's a sneak peek the space unit in progress:

My goal is to have it in my TpT store by next week. eventually.