100th Day of School

Yesterday was the 100th day of school! And it was also my first day working as a substitute teacher. It was exciting, nerve-racking, scary, intimidating and rewarding. To give some background about my first day, I was a substitute for a "traveling" special education teacher. I wasn't too nervous about accepting this job because I have some knowledge of special education through my mother (and some limited knowledge through my background as a psychology major). I also really liked the idea of substituting for a special education teacher because she only works with a couple of students at a time. Her schedule took me to two elementary schools and an hour at the middle school. I worked with 1st graders through 6th graders. It was a busy first day.

I like lists, so here is a list of some of the things I've learned about my first day:

1. Second graders are ADORABLE dressed up as 100 year old people. Kids are adorable anyway, but add some suspenders, curlers in their hair or a little cane and they are 10 times cuter. I feel like Captain Something Fun when I say this, but I really wish I could have taken a picture of them and shared it with you all.

2. It is difficult stepping in for another teacher (especially when you have no teaching experience...and you don't know the layout of the buildings). Some people are very understanding about this and others aren't. First of all, the school buildings I went into, I had no knowledge of their layout which made it difficult to find my way. Luckily, many of the staff were very nice in directing me, but some of those buildings really felt like mazes. They were difficult to navigate. In the middle school, I went out a different door than I went in and had to walk around the building to my car. I am grateful to the people who were friendly, helpful and understanding when I was unsure about what I was doing, both with directions and with the children.

3. Communication is very difficult when a child has poor speaking skills or an inability to speak at all. I became very aware of the importance of speech yesterday. I worked with two kids who were unable to speak except with a computer (or iPad) and two who had limited speech perception as well as speaking skills. Wow. One of the students could communicate "yes" or "no" with her eyes by looking up or down, and with the computer (she had very little use of her arms/hands), she would make eye contact with the screen, and make selections for various words corresponding to what she was thinking. The problem is, the computer she was using to communicate had a limited vocabulary. So she could only say a limited amount of common words. I felt sympathy for her and her situation. Can you imagine not being about to always communicate exactly what you were thinking by using spoken languge or sign language?

4. Parents send junk food for their children to snack on. I can't say this really surprised me that much, but it was crazy to witness. I was in a regular classroom in the morning with two of the students who needed extra help and when it was snack time, I was horrified at what most of the children pulled out of their bags. Doritos, candy, cookies,...I don't think I saw one piece of fruit. I didn't examine the food on everyone's desk at snack-time, but most of what I could see was terrible food for a child's snack. I counted one child with 5 or 6 regular size cookies in a bag. I thought..wow, if I sent my child with cookies to school, it would be one cookie, not six. Not that I don't ever eat these junk foods..I like them too. But that kind of food isn't appropriate for daily snack time! Thinking back to my childhood, my mother would have never sent me to school with a bag of chips or a bag of candy for a snack. Not that we never got candy or chips, but it was all in moderation. And I just don't think daily snack time should consist of these foods. I was reminded of some of the work Save the Children does in the schools in certain parts of the United States, educating children and parents about healthy eating habits and healthy lifestyles. If only they could educate parents, children and teachers everywhere!

5. It was really weird to go my Miss Lutz. It made me feel old.

6. This is going to be a difficult job, but I also think it will be rewarding and it will give me many days of real-life experience with children which will hopefully prepare me for my future work. I'm nervous about what my future days as a substitute will hold, but I'm excited that I am stepping out into the unknown and learning countless new things.

That's all for now folks, hopefully I'll have more stories of my journey to tell you about soon. Tomorrow I am going to work as a teacher's aid in a classroom at the Early Childhood Center. I'm excited about working with even younger munchkins!

The Farmer's Daughter