2-1 thru 2-3

I got a surprise day off on Wednesday, which was GREAT! I got to go have lunch with the best grandmother there is in the world! Unfortunately, it got cut a little short because my poor ole lion got a thorn in his paw. (Matt got a tiny piece of glass in his foot.) But it was still an excellent day. Thursday, I subbed at Rich Kid High School. The kids there were significantly better behaved than the kids at Rich Kids Middle School. I subbed for Chemistry that day. Apparently, their teacher comes to school in shorts and a T Shirt every day, so there is a pair of dress pants just hanging out on the desk. That day was rather uneventful. It did help me discover that I HATE WHISTLING though. At least an hour straight of whistling. Blergh. I got to leave early that day because I can't really sub for track. Then yesterday I subbed at my alma Mater, West Red Neck High School. I subbed for Geography/Health in the morning and then choir in the afternoon. I accidentally spilled my coffee on the health teacher's calendar and then his students spilled it on some papers. It was not going well. Then I went and subbed for choir. That was uneventful except that I got invited to a party and some kids house. I wonder what the school board would do if one of their subs went and partied with their students. Now, on to something that has bothered me. At several of the schools I have gone to I have had teachers tell me "You're going to have to be really mean to these kids, or they'll never listen" and then they proceed to threaten whatever students I have in the room. And while I appreciate the advice, I've found that it's really just not true. In each class, I've explained to the kids "If ya'll will just chill out and not be crazy then I won't have to assign you additional work and we won't get yelled at by another teacher." And with fairly high results, it has worked. I've only had one class so far that I had to leave a bad note about and I don't get all stressed out and worked up. When the students start getting overly excited or loud I just remind them "Hey, quit trying to ruin this little bit of free time for the rest of the class." And I've REALLY found that when you apply the "win as a team, lose as a team" idea then the other students basically take care of those reminders for you. "Dude...you're going to make us all have to do work. Stop it!" So, I don't know what the point of all that was except to just say that it was bothering me.