Relly, relly, relly sorry

Last week, I subbed for the South Elementary and Middle School Music teacher.  As you can see by the picture, it didn't go well.  The elementary kids were great, the 8th graders were awesome which was a big surprise, and 7th grade was okay.  The 6th graders...not so much, there are almost 50 of them though, whew, I had them for two days...it is always craziest for the last class of the day because they are itching to go home.  I told the music teacher about their bad behavior and this was the result...letters of apology, they really made me laugh, I think I might give them a bad report just so I can get some more goofy letters to read, just kidding, that wouldn't be right.  Here are a few quotes from some of them...

"Sorry for our bad behaveyor.  We would all love it if you came back.  This time we will sherly behave like adults."

"I am very sorry about this class had bad behavior and next time we will do much better with the talkers of the class.  I don't know what happened that day we just went crazy and that was very rude of us and my class mates apologize greatly."

"As I said we are humbly sorry please forgive us"

"You are a good substatute for a music teacher.  We were all ready to go home.  Sorry to make you sad and mad.  I promise it will not happen again."

"I'm sorry for me and my classmates behaveyour.  I know I was not as good as I shoud of been.  We relly are sorry.  And when you do come back, if you do we hope to sing better than ever!"  P.S.: Did I tell you were Relly, Relly, Relly Sorry. :(

"Mrs. D told us if we misbehave that there will be conqucens.  So we are doing this."

"I am so sorry for our misbehavior in class.  You did not deserve it.  We were acting ridicoulous."

"Sorry that we misbehavd and did a poor job.  We should have acted way better then this it's not your fault I don't know what got into us."

"We are sorry for the class and me messing up your week."

"I'm sorry for being rude and misbehaving.  This is a class for singing, not for messing around.  Next time (if there is a next time) I will behave better.  Thank you for your time."

"I'm sorry and I hope we didn't scare you off.  You'r a great music sub but we disbehaved."

"I am sorry for the undiscribable behavior on behalf of the class.  If I was a substitute teacher, I would have said the same thing I would come back the next time and see how any behavior is changed or left the same.  I truely am sorry.  I could see the frusturated and stres'd look in your eyes.  Sometimes it makes me wonder how anyone that loud and irritating could be let into this class.  I enjoy singing and I don't want anybody to ruin my fun either."

"I am also appalled at my class's behavior."

"Mrs. Hoagland rocks music class!  Super super sorry! No Joke! Best music sub on planet earth!! No joke!"

There were lots of please forgive us, we will be better next time, etc.  Mrs. D really laid into them.  I told her I would, of course, sub for her again.  After all, I need to see if there has been any change. LOL
sidenote: I found it very difficult not to correct their grammar and spelling while typing this.

Substitute Teaching is not for the weak...

I have been a substitute teacher for several years now for PreK to Seniors. There has never been a dull moment so allow me to share a few.
Kindergarten Komics - Subbing for Kindergarten is very exhausting, they are so high maintenance but they still have resttime, thank you Lord. I recently subbed for a very spirited group of kindergarten students, it was "Pajama Day" so they were more excitable than ever! One student in particular was only in my class for part of the day, he goes to a special class for his regular class time. At the end of the day is 'Show & Tell' time, Johnny (name has been changed to protect the innocent), said he had show & tell, so I said okay, meanwhile the other students were just shaking their heads whispering 'no he doesn't'. I let him go last because most of the time I don't know who is telling me the truth about who has what or what is supposed to be happening. Okay Johnny, your turn! He came proudly to the front of the room started digging in his backpack, he reached in to pulled a piece of paper out and said "I've got Homework!" The other kids just stared with blank expressions on their faces so Johnny said "Clap for me", they all began to clap and cheer which was really sweet. This is a good story but little did I know the day before was actually little Johnny's Show & Tell day and that he tried to show something much more interesting. You see, earlier the day before he had a quite messy #2 accident, he got cleaned up and his soiled clothes were put into a plastic bag in his backpack. Well, much to his surprise when it came time for Show & Tell, he had something in his backpack to show. He started taking that plastic sack out of his backpack and his teacher yelled "NOOOOOOooo!" Whew, glad I dodged that one! On a side note: there was a cute blonde headed little boy in this class and his name was Chris Farley! I about died, he was pretty ornery too.

First Grade Frustrations - This particular day had an array of various events. At the start of the day one little boy told me he had a nose bleed that morning and that it might happen again. Then another little girl kept asking me questions about her math and this big snot bubble kept bulging every few seconds, of course, I told her to get a tissue. Later at lunch all the girls were in an uproar saying another little girl stole Gabby's watch (yes these are still first graders). I walked the kids back to the room and kept the two girls involved in the hall to talk to them. I asked the victim her version of the story and then the alleged thief. She said she had the same watch. I told her I would call her mother and she said "Actually, it is a friend of mine that lives far away", I said "Give her back the watch and tell her you're sorry", she did. A little later another girl came to me holding out her cupped hands saying "I threw up", I told her to go to the nurse and for someone else to please get the door! She came back a few minutes later and said "The nurse is at lunch so I just washed my hands", I told her to go to the office, they sent her home and the janitor came and cleaned up, I definitely don't get paid enough for that. The nose bleeder did indeed have another nose bleed but it was minor. Then, right as the kids were getting on their coats and backpacks to go home, a little girl said she couldn't find her jacket. We were searching everywhere then somebody mentioned the thief from earlier in the day. Well of course I couldn't just call her out so I said "Just in case it accidentally got into someone else's backpack let's all opened them up and I will run down the line and check". I got to the little suspect and she was standing with her backpack still on and her back to the wall and she said "You don't have to look in mine, I'm telling you the truth, it's not in there". Well, wouldn't you know, there it was!

Art Class Accident - I was subbing for the Art teacher in a small school district, the high school and grade school is connected so the Kindergarteners had to walk a long way to get to the Art room, which is located in the high school, to get there. The class went pretty smoothly until the last 5 minutes, a student asked to use the restroom. Well, there were only 5 minutes left and it was a long way back to the grade school and his teacher would surely be there any minute so I asked him to wait. He didn't make a fuss so I paid it no mind until I saw his pants start to change colors...I yelled 'Go, hurry, run' who knows what else. Poor little kid, he was probably traumatized by this event and since then I always let the younger students use the restroom no matter how far away it is.