I substituted today, in the school at which I taught for the last 2 years. Let it be known that I do not miss teaching, not one bit, and I have no desire to go back to it. Ever. Subbing is as close I will get to working in public schools ever again.
Now, don't get me wrong--I didn't have a bad day. It was rather good, actually...but some of the students were less than desirable to be in a classroom with for more than 3 minutes. Our class periods were approximately 80 minutes.
Luckily, I had my knitting with me. I am currently working a pair of Basic Fingerless Mitts, a pattern I improvised during lecture courses in college. Because they are so simple, and I have the pattern memorized for different weights of yarn, it's my go-to travel project. My mitts kept my hands busy while the students "worked," and the mitts also kept me from becoming stressed. Knitting does that to me.
I don't know how many of you readers (if I happen to have any readers) actually knit or do other types of needlework, but it is certainly a productive way to decompress after any potentially stressful situation. It's also very helpful for passing the time spent in waiting rooms (doctor, mechanic, etc) and while waiting for your food to arrive when out to dinner...and also during baseball games...and while watching television... You get the picture.
Anyway, I was surprised when a young man came up to me while I was knitting at the teacher's desk. Why? Because he asked if I would be able to teach him.
That attitude is the only part of teaching that I actually miss, and I hope and pray that my children inherit that need to know.
Later in the school day, I was talking to a former colleague about the level of thinking that some of the students display, and it dawned on me that although technology is really great (I mean, look at what cool gadgets we have now!), it is ultimately destroying some young peoples' capacity for creative thought. Because of the games they play on their handheld devices, many of which have only one correct solution, they've been conditioned to believe that there is only one way to solve every problem. Nobody seems to be able to think "outside the box" these days.
I remain convinced that the more we allow children to use crayon and paper rather than computer and Paint program, the more we allow them to play in the dirt with sticks that they can pretend are people rather than the video games we seem to push on them, that they will grow up to be more well-rounded individuals with the capacity for in-depth problem solving.
Being someone who really sucked at math as a kid (and I'm still not that strong in it), and also not great at sports, I joined the school band in 5th grade and took up the clarinet, after beginning piano lessons the year before. Keeping time and the correct measure while playing my instruments and reading music helped me just a little with math.
Because of my inability to excel at sports, I turned to the kitchen and the sewing machine. That's where I learned my math skills. Because I was able to apply the math problems to real life, such as figuring out how much fabric I would need in order to make a dress AND a jacket, I was able to see it at work and understand it better. In the kitchen, I was able to see volume measures, not just imagine them. I was able to see how far a certain amount of ingredients could go when it came to feeding more than just me. These are real life problems that many kids today wouldn't be able to solve. Everything they learn is on a page in a book, but never applied outside the classroom.
I'll be homeschooling my children. My kitchen and dining room (which currently doubles as my sewing room) will double as my math classroom. My children will go to the grocery store with me and will be responsible for keeping within the budget for the week, while sticking to the list and the meal plan for the week. This is practical stuff! This is math at work, and they more than likely wouldn't even recognize it until I were to point it out...but it would help them so much in the long run.
Problem-solving is important, especially in real life, but so many kids today aren't learning it...
With that said, and I wasn't planning on saying any of that, I bid you good evening and bid my old life as a public school teacher goodbye.
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