Tuesday, October 21, 2008

9 Pages

Does that sound excessive for a guest teacher to read before they are "sufficiently" prepared to sub in my class? I just realized that's how many pages I have for my sub tomorrow. To be honest 6 pages of it are my general sub information that will be going in my sub binder including an index but no appendix and 3 are specific to tomorrow. It covers all my routines from duty, to behaviour, to bathrooms, to snack (hmm... right beside bathroom in this list), and how to properly send my children home (after all they can't just go home with anybody).

Neurotic? I'm not sure. I mean if someone had never met your kids before and they were going to be with them for 2 1/2 hours and had to get some very specific things accomplished wouldn't you leave a list that was even longer? I wonder some days how being a parent is going to compare with being a Kindergarten teacher. In a way it's different because I feel like I have 40 parents who trust me everyday to protect their little person. While if it's your own child it's your own flesh and blood that you are protecting. Guess I'll wait a while to blog about that.

And in case you were in suspense. The dairy farm went well today. Going on the bus was a big thrill for those of my students for whom it was the first time. We got to pet the calves, watch a cow being milked and we even got chocolate milk in convenient little cartons. Not straight from the brown cows this time.

Cheers!

3 comments:

pam said...

I've never been a substitute teacher, but I would think the more information you have, the better. I imagine it feels pretty daunting to walk into a classroom where you don't know the kids, the routine, or what's been going on, so I don't think 9 pages is too much. Now, if it's 9 pages, single-spaced, and double-sided - now that might be too much.

Andrea said...

I think it's great that you were so detailed. Like Pam said, it's great for the substitute teacher -- but it's also great for the parents, that you care so much that you want everything to go smoothly.

Jolene said...

No worries...you should see the binder of instructions I left when I took off on mat leave part way through the year. One piece of advice for you (from ALL my years of experience): Prepare your mind for someone who will absolutely ignore those 9 pages or decide that because you are not there the kids should get a "day off" from the routines. It has happened to me often. It is so painful to leave your "kids." Here's hoping you get one of the great subs.