This was my second day of substitute teaching ever. Today was a full day of second graders. The kids were sweet, and very helpful. But they NEVER STOPPED TALKING! I was administering standardized testing for half of the morning. I asked them to stop talking. They didn’t. I firmly told them to stop talking and asked why I still heard talking. The volume reduced but there was still talking. I told sternly told them to stop talking and explained that this was individual testing, not group testing, and they were bothering their neighbors while they took the test. The talking momentarily stopped. Then I heard the following comments, each from a different individual: I know, I can’t hear when he’s talking. They shouldn’t be talking, they aren’t allowed to talk. I told him to be quiet. They know not to talk. Etc. So we had talking about not talking.

And then there was the “can I go to the bathroom?” and “can I go to the drinking fountain and get a drink?” I must have heard each of these about 20 times during the course of the day. Add to that, trying to figure out how to make the computer display on the classroom screen, and where all the various supplies were located. Whew!

The photo taken above was before I left for school this morning. The photo below is me after lunch. Did I mention I had cafeteria duty?

I hope that building up a tolerance to the younger kids constant talking and demands will happen quickly.

There are good times too. Like reading a book about the Titanic to the kids and seeing them sit with rapt attention to hear what happened next. And watching the joy on a face when they get the right answer.

What really makes it all worthwhile? The one little boy who ran up to me after he returned from art class in another room, gave me a hug and said he missed me.