Hi guys! I have been getting pics from our church's monster garage sale on Saturday ready to show you all. The proceeds from it go towards finishing our renovations for the church.
But I won't show them to you tonight, because I don't want to have a late night in case what happened today, happens again tomorrow......
'cause today....... I TAUGHT, FOLKS!
Imaginine the horror that momentarily coursed through my old veins at the speed of light when I got to the office to sign in as a helper, and the secretary buzzed the junior principal that I had arrived! I knew then that something was up. Apparantly the teacher whose class I have been visiting, came to school today, but very quickly realized that she should actually be in bed. And they wondered if I could maybe do the numeracy and literacy, and get paid. The teacher next door would open up the folding wall between us and teach both classes the new maths concept, and I would assist. That sounded do-able.
And it went well. I just wandered around doing crowd control, etc.
But at recess, that teacher said, 'How about we close the wall, and you give literacy a go on your own?
Kerthunk. (yes that was the sound of my heart pumped so hard with stress that it just popped right out and dropped onto the pavement beside us. I really was surprised that some vital organ didn't cave in, to tell you the truth.)
But what I said was, "OK!" with a bright little smile!
Then,'Um, excuse me, I might just go find a few things to do with the class."
I remembered from last week that the literacy class was so much naughtier than the numeracy class. Different kids, you see. The teacher I am with has her own home room class, but she takes a group of kids from all three classes in Stage 1 with similar ability in Numeracy, and a group who have about the same abilities in Literacy. And last week, the literacy kids were noticeably rattier. So I was scared.
It did not help that I had left at home the notebook into which I had put all the things the kids did last week, as far as routines and the teacher's special phrases for things that the kids are used to. It also had all the kids' names, plus brief descriptions so I could learn their names easily.
all I could do was look at her program, and gleaned a couple of things I knew I could manage.
A kind friend in the staff room gave me a mug of brewed coffee and a big hug (which I needed more) And then the bell.... And then it began........
What did I do with the darlings for an hour and a half?
Had them sit on the floor in front of me. Went through all the alphabet sounds.
The sounds of thisweek are 'guh (aka 'g') and 'huh' ( aka, say it with me: 'h') so I had one child tell me a word that began with either one of those sounds and then another person had to put that word into a sentence. and we did that for several minutes.
Then they went to their tables and did a worksheet cutting out pictures of things with those sounds and pasting them into their alphabet books!
Then I made up a story on the spot with a ton of 'huhs' and 'guhs' and they had to do an action for each sound and try to keep up as we went along.
I showed them how to write 'guh' and 'huh' on the board, and then there was only time for clean up and a quick game of 'Heads Down, Thumbs up!'
And do you know what? Those kids were just perfect for me. They just followed along as though I was actually their teacher.
I could not believe it.
Thank you Lord. So much. And I can tell you, I was praying!
So my first half day is over. A little bit of pay in the bank to go towards our dream of one day owning some land in the beautiful hillsides here.
