English, Japanese, and English Again!

I'm a little behind on my sub blogging.  A few Thursdays ago, I got an early morning call to sub for one of my closest friends.  Luckily it was an easy day...only two periods of English.  The kids wrote an in-class essay and then moved on to watch a movie.  Nothing very interesting happened, except for one little incident.  The kids had 50 minutes to write their essays.  After about 45, a kid raises his hand as asks, "Are you an English teacher?"  I say yes and he asks for help.  I walk over to find him on his intro paragraph saying, "I don't know how to write a thesis for this book."  They were allowed to prepare an outline and use it for the essay, but he failed to do so.  I said, "Well what do you think the theme is for this book?"  It was Steven King.  He said, "There is none."  I said, "Then prove it in your essay."  He responded that he didn't know how and basically asked me to write the thesis for him.  After 5 minutes, not much more progress was made.  Needless to say, I was frustrated.

Last Friday was an AWESOME day!  I subbed Japanese for another good friend.  The students were so incredibly respectful...I was literally in awe.  They spent the whole period writing a manga (or a Japanese comic strip).  After two periods of the best classes I've had to deal with, I decided to let my last class do their work on the front steps and enjoy the lovely sun.  I got lots of grading done while they worked and my mom was even sweet enough to bring me a mid-morning pick-me-up....my favorite: a soy Dark Cherry mocha!

Today has been quite interesting.  I'm subbing for sophomore English and the first period was a riot.  They were loud...but the kind of loud that isn't annoying.  After my first few sassy remarks to zip it and that I didn't care if his book was bent, they started to really light up and enjoy class.  We discussed poems and songs about social issues, which was very interesting, and they kept saying, "SERIOUSLY!  Sub for us more often!"  I felt so loved.  The girls don't seem to react as well to my sassiness.  They take it as me being a witch.  The boys love it though.  It was a great class and I really had fun with them.

The next period was much more disruptive and chatty...in the annoying way.  I asked the same kid to shut up twenty times over the period and he just kept giving me the stink eye.  Other girls kept talking, even when they saw me staring at them!  They didn't feel like discussing anything, so I had to probe them a little more to get them interested.  At the end, one of the louder but more respectful boys raised his hand and said, "Ms. Ryder, you are a GRADE A Ball Buster....it's awesome!"  I thought that was a good thing!  I'm all about being stern with my kids.  I'm writing this at lunch so 6th period is next.  I've heard from everyone (including the teacher) that they are hell.  Let's see how it goes....

So that was the most fun subbing I've had!  I warned the class in advance that I heard they were horrible and that I was not afraid to be mean.  During the silent reading period, one boy said "I like your dress".  I thought it was funny but he kept going.  After our first poem, he asked, "Do you have a boyfriend?"  When I said no, he said "YES!!" and I said, "That doesn't mean the door is open to underage kids!" and he said, "But it doesn't mean the door is closed!"  When a prior student came in to visit me (a very popular Junior), the kid freaked out and yelled "You said you didn't have a boyfriend!"  He then told the boy to leave because he was ruining his chances with me.  I ignored it all, silently laughing inside.  When I couldn't get anyone to read a long poem, "Mike Teavee", the boy offered and said "This one's for you baby"....half way through the poem, he came to a line about treasure isles.  Unsure how to pronounce it, he said "treasure izzles".  I almost fell off the chair laughing so he STORMED out of the room....all in good fun of course.  It was so entertaining, but when he raised his hand and asked me what my number was, I shut him down hard.  Can't leave that door open.  I know these boys, though...I know their type.  They enjoy the harmless flirting because it gets them attention and it entertains their classmates...so there is no harm.  Overall, it was a VERY funny period and they were fairly well behaved.  Plus, I just added a whole new group of kids to my Ms. Ryder fan club...who will hopefully be there to cheer me on at Fractured Follies next Thursday!