Hell is Chrome

Day. From. Hell.

I have substitute taught seven times so far in just a few weeks. Basically, twice a week. Twice at the elementary school. Twice at the middle school. And three times at the high school. My experiences with the high school were ok. Nothing too troublesome. Nothing I couldn't handle. Last Friday I subbed for 7th grade Home Ec. (or Family Consumer Sciences as they like to call it nowadays). It was wonderful. The kids were great (most of them). Once again, nothing I couldn't handle. My two elementary and other middle school experiences though have been absolute hell. My first subbing day, 3rd grade, I walked into the classroom never having taught reading, language, math, nor science. It was a miracle if I could get the students to not hit each other. This past Tuesday I subbed just for the afternoon for a 2nd grade classroom. The students could sit still for 5 minutes. They were either snapping their silly bands (which are pure evil), trying to do karate, or sharpening their pencils. I'm surprised anyone got anything done that afternoon. And today I took over a 4th grade classroom. The morning went fine (other than one student consistently interrupting class). Though, the students I had all morning weren't MY students. These were the reading and language students. Not the homeroom kids. The afternoon came, and all hell broke loose. The students had no respect for me whatsoever, nor did they have any for each other. One student repeatedly spoke back to me, and glued the bat wings he was supposed to make for his art project on to the shoulders of his sweatshirt. A student sitting behind him kept crawling on the floor and running around the classroom. She even yanked the Halloween windsock the teacher had hanging in a corner of the classroom from the ceiling. I then caught her using the cutting board (BIG NO NO). The majority of the students couldn't keep their hands off each other. It was the constant tattling. "Miss V, so&so pushed me." "Miss V, so&so won't stop whistling." "Miss V, so&so took my eraser." And while I would try to help someone individually, three people would come up to me one after the other, insisting that he/she was there first to get help and start going off on what he/she needs help with while I'm speaking with another student. This class was awful. I took two students out to the hallway to talk to them to see what was the problem. I spoke with the boy who glued wings to his shirt first. He walked back into the room crying. Don't think I'm a butthead for making a 9 year old cry, because he was back to his shananigans 10 minutes later, writing inappropriate things on the marker board. I left the school madder than hell, with a sore throat to tote.

I ran into teachers once again who remembered me and said hi. Some I didn't mind seeing, and some I could honestly do without. I'm still shocked the librarian remembers me. It's so strange. My art teacher recognized me instantly. This is a man I could have done without seeing. He used to be my neighbor growing up and his youngest daughter was my best friend until her parents divorced and she moved to live with her mom in Seward while her sister (who is my brother's age) stayed in Sky-town. However, K~ died in a car accident the winter of my junior year of high school. It sucks when you think back to all of the promises you made to each other, all of the waves and mouthed 'hellos' you would make to each other while sitting in class as you would see one walk by, all of the things you think about and analyze that explain why you are the person you are now. Huhhh… Talk about timelines and tragedies. I spoke with the music teacher. She was my very first public school music teacher, and I'm fascinated that she still works there. However, she informed me she has a feeling the school district is going to drop her job because they already have her teaching reading ON TOP OF teaching music. Jesus already.

Going over the bits and pieces I've stored in my memory now for my substituting experiences thus far, I only have one question, "When did it all go wrong?" The things that have happened never would have been allowed nor happened when I was that age. Having explained this and more to my mom, she said the stuff these kids were doing would have never gotten by. So somewhere over the past 10 years, something happened that created the downfall of the Sky-town school system. As much as I yearn to be in a music classroom, being in the shoes of a regular classroom is really, and I mean REALLY see and understand the flaws in the system (thanks NCLB). I want to overhaul the system.

I want to create a revolution.

I've spent all evening trying to put myself on vocal rest and the past hour and a half trying to numb my throat with herbal throat drops. I think tonight I might throw in the towel early. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel in better shape to tackle the world once more.

Peace out.