Loopy
12-15-2005, 01:37 AM
This is going to be a long and disjointed message, I'm afraid. Please bear with me :)
I've been teaching since 1999. I am qualified to teach in French First Language schools, as well as teaching French Immersion (oh, I'm in Canada by the way, that's what's up with all the french). I've taught everywhere from first grade to high school, and love them all. I'm a good teacher (I know, I know, no one ever thinks "I **************** at my job!" but I've always gotten great performance reviews from administration, students and parents, so I'm hoping that means something).
As I said, I've been teaching for six (nearly seven) years. Last year I got quite ill in October and had to take the rest of the year off. Because I wasn't teaching, I wasn't getting paid, so I had to move back to my home province and move into my parents' basement (eek! I'm 28!). I decided that this year, I'd start out by subbing, so I could "take it easy". I have to say, I really appreciate what some subs have to go through. I know that when I was teaching full-time, I would always OVERprepare for a sub. Now that I'm subbing, I can't begin to count the times I've come to a classroom and found maybe two little worksheets that wouldn't keep the kids occupied for more than 20 minutes.
Anyway. A local high school principal called me yesterday to see if I'd come in to teach grade 10, 11 and 12 French Language Arts on Thursday. Sure, I said. He told me that they're looking for someone to cover a maternity leave after Christmas; he'd be in the classroom during the day tomorrow to check out my level of French, and if that was okay (which I know it is, french is my first language) he would probably offer me the job (unless of course I totally **************** as a teacher or whatever, I'm assuming). Yay for me!
Then I got home today and there was a message on my voicemail from the teacher I'll be subbing for: "Hi Louise this is Mrs. X. You'll be in my classroom tomorrow. I was just thinking... I'm doing a novel study with my students and we're at a crucial point so I don't really want to leave you anything to do with that. And since Christmas break is coming up, I don't want to leave you anything new to start with them. So I hope that you can bring something in to do with the students. Like, have them read something, or write something. Or something. Since it's only for one day, you can have all three grade levels do the same thing. Okay bye!". I swear to God that was the message on my phone.
So. It's midnight, and here I am wracking my brain over what to have these kids DO! I mean, I've taught high school before, but that was Evolution and Oceanography, not Language Arts. I don't have any spare Language arts activities just lying around.
I wouldn't be stressing so much over it, aside from the fact that this is like, a try out for a job, and I really could do with a steady salary so that I can move out of my parents' basement. So now I have to come up with something to occupy (and hopefully educate) a bunch of teenagers who just want to be home on Christmas vacation. For an hour and ten minutes.
This'll be fun. Wish me luck, and suggestions are welcome
(keep in mind I have never been in this school, have no idea what resources are available and don't want to rat out the teacher I'm subbing for, because that might hinder my chances of getting this job).
I've been teaching since 1999. I am qualified to teach in French First Language schools, as well as teaching French Immersion (oh, I'm in Canada by the way, that's what's up with all the french). I've taught everywhere from first grade to high school, and love them all. I'm a good teacher (I know, I know, no one ever thinks "I **************** at my job!" but I've always gotten great performance reviews from administration, students and parents, so I'm hoping that means something).
As I said, I've been teaching for six (nearly seven) years. Last year I got quite ill in October and had to take the rest of the year off. Because I wasn't teaching, I wasn't getting paid, so I had to move back to my home province and move into my parents' basement (eek! I'm 28!). I decided that this year, I'd start out by subbing, so I could "take it easy". I have to say, I really appreciate what some subs have to go through. I know that when I was teaching full-time, I would always OVERprepare for a sub. Now that I'm subbing, I can't begin to count the times I've come to a classroom and found maybe two little worksheets that wouldn't keep the kids occupied for more than 20 minutes.
Anyway. A local high school principal called me yesterday to see if I'd come in to teach grade 10, 11 and 12 French Language Arts on Thursday. Sure, I said. He told me that they're looking for someone to cover a maternity leave after Christmas; he'd be in the classroom during the day tomorrow to check out my level of French, and if that was okay (which I know it is, french is my first language) he would probably offer me the job (unless of course I totally **************** as a teacher or whatever, I'm assuming). Yay for me!
Then I got home today and there was a message on my voicemail from the teacher I'll be subbing for: "Hi Louise this is Mrs. X. You'll be in my classroom tomorrow. I was just thinking... I'm doing a novel study with my students and we're at a crucial point so I don't really want to leave you anything to do with that. And since Christmas break is coming up, I don't want to leave you anything new to start with them. So I hope that you can bring something in to do with the students. Like, have them read something, or write something. Or something. Since it's only for one day, you can have all three grade levels do the same thing. Okay bye!". I swear to God that was the message on my phone.
So. It's midnight, and here I am wracking my brain over what to have these kids DO! I mean, I've taught high school before, but that was Evolution and Oceanography, not Language Arts. I don't have any spare Language arts activities just lying around.
I wouldn't be stressing so much over it, aside from the fact that this is like, a try out for a job, and I really could do with a steady salary so that I can move out of my parents' basement. So now I have to come up with something to occupy (and hopefully educate) a bunch of teenagers who just want to be home on Christmas vacation. For an hour and ten minutes.
This'll be fun. Wish me luck, and suggestions are welcome
(keep in mind I have never been in this school, have no idea what resources are available and don't want to rat out the teacher I'm subbing for, because that might hinder my chances of getting this job).