Sorry folks, I haven't had a single job of subbing this week! What's up with that? I did get a haircut, though, and I'm sitting in a sweet little coffee shop, waiting for a gypsy jazz band to start playing. Ah, Santa Barbara!

Merry Christmas!

Even though I am on Christmas vacation right now, I am still seeing kids that I have substituted for. Especially Amelia Badish. But she graduated last year! She was a student who, in order to come in late every day, would buy me something from Starbucks each morning. That was when I subbed for a week.

I have been seeing Amelia for almost every day of the break somehow. She keeps saying "Mr. V! This is getting kinda ridiculous!"

Yesterday, while substituting for junior high math, we watched the movie Stand and Deliver. There was a scene that caught my attention because I didn't know the Spanish term being spoken, and I usually pride myself on having a pretty good comprehension of Spanish.

This pretty Latina girl went off with a guy in a nice car and her friend said after her "She thinks she's so hot 'cause she dates cavachos."

I asked my class what that cavachos meant and about three or four kids pointed at me and said "You."

Apparently a cavacho is a white guy.

That kinda made me chuckle.

Hi there! This week has been pretty great in terms of subbing, and life. I subbed four days, took on a couple of extra tutor sessions that I didn't plan on (which meant I got some Christmas goodies as well!), I bought a fantastic new digital camera, and more.

I got to work yesterday and today but I also got to sleep in each day-- each class didn't start until 9am. Perfect. And tomorrow I think I will be done by lunch.

Today after a simple three-period day (during which I watched Stand and Deliver, the most fantastic math teacher movie ever), I called my good friend Felipe and found out he was going bowling with a bunch of the junior highers on a field trip with the school. I kind of invited myself as a chaperone and got to bowl two games and get a free lunch! I bowled a 140 and a 125. Decent.

I also got my test results for TB. I don't have it!

Here is a picture of Felipe and a picture of my new camera, which is one of the best out there :)

I received two compliments today!

"Mr V. I don't know what I wanna be when I grow up, but all I know is right now, I wanna be just like you."

"Phil, your curls are very luscious today."

These are from two high school kids. Funny stuff :)

I have been subbing at the junior high all week. Somedays I really really resent those kids. Somedays they are a joy. Today is a mixed day. I often think about how my days are dictated by my attitude or amount of sleep or my hunger. I don't know if I can quantify it, but I do believe that there is some corelation between my internal state and my response to the students.

Today I woke up rested, listened to heavenly music while I got dressed, rode my bike to work, and I feel pretty great. I also gave a kid a rubik's cube earlier this week and taught him the final steps on how to solve it today. He did it three times in class (AFTER he finished his test, of course).

Now I get to cruise the internet and do blogs while my shining 8th graders take their geometry quiz.

ps. Did you know that I tutor? I tutor for two hours every day after school, Monday through Thursday. I tutor rich elementary school kids. It's awesome. I just found out that the father of one of the girls that I tutor is a pretty phenomenal photographer. Browse his website, you'll see:

Michael Haber Photography

Guess what?

I passed my math exam to become a teacher!

This is one I had to retake because I didn't really study the first time around. Now that I passed, I hope to student teach this Spring, and be a fully certified teacher by next year! Whoo hoo!

Hello! Subbing for two days in a row: 8th grade math. Today we are watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving!



I actually learned something new about America. Did you know that the first settlers didn't even settle at the first land? They had to travel up and down the east coast to find good land. And two people died on the trip over, but one baby was born.

Yesterday I substituted for some 11th and 12th grade English classes.

I have a pen pal named Lisa who lives in Iowa. We exchange mix-CDs.

I asked a student to help design the cover of an envelope that I was sending off to my friend across the states (hi Lisa!). I've had students draw me things in the past, for my refrigerator, and I've received some pretty awesome pictures. I like this one a lot:

Ahhh, my hope is renewed for junior high. I had a great day today! Really mellow classes, nothing terrible like razor blades under desks, etc.

Something that I love is that kids actually give me hugs when they see me! How awesome is that? I'm not even a teacher there and kids stop by and hug me with big smiles and ask why I'm not subbing in their classes.

Let's see, anything funny to reproduce here? During lunch, I was sitting at my desk reading and eating a sumptuous Subway sandwich with my door open. Some guys started running by my door to distract me or trip me out or something. When I ignored them, they stepped it up a notch and started sliding past my door. I would hear a patter of feet and then a horizontal body would breeze by on the ground.

It was pretty funny, but I still didn't give them my attention. I'm a mean old man like that.

Yesterday and today I subbed for an 8th grade English class at a junior high in town. I get so tired of some of those junior highers sometimes. Just over it. I was talking with the school psychologist for a bit and she was agreeing with me that the main difference between high school and junior high is behavior management. Junior high is like 50 percent behavior issues, 50 percent teaching. 1/2 reigning them in, 1/2 getting stuff done. In contrast, high school is maybe 5-10 percent behavior management, and over 90 percent teaching. And that means that the teaching doesn't have to be boring or strict. If the teacher is relaxed and trusts the class, things can actually be fun. Believe it or not.

But for junior high, all this means is that most of class is just a brutal waste of time because of a handful of, well, let's be honest, assholes who don't care about school and their classmates and the teacher.

In other news, I found a razor blade underneath a trouble girl's desk.

One of the most beautiful things about substituting is that I can take whatever days I want off. I didn't work yesterday and I didn't work today. It's nice to not feel too stretched and stressed.

Watching the news!

Obama WON.

Say hello to Mr. Van Nerdstrand

On Tuesday while subbing at Dos Pueblos High School, a student was telling me about her dad, whom I know. I mentioned how energetic he is, and she agreed. She said she felt bad for him because he didn't have any boys (it's just the girl and her little sister). She said he builds things like tree houses and forts but he usually spends more time in them then the girls do!

Today I am subbing for a Special Ed teacher. The Special Ed classes are simply classes for students with learning disabilities or severe emotional problems.

My first period class right now has only four students and there is an instructional assistant in the class as well, which means there is a 1:2 teacher to student ratio. Not bad, not bad at all...

Not only does every class have about eight kids or less, but I am done by lunch today! Whoo hoo!

I rode my bike to work and a kid just informed me that it is supposed to rain today. I really hope it is not raining when I have to go home!

Riding my bike is about 2 minutes faster than driving my car. Isn't that crazy? I don't usually wait for stop lights on my bike, so that gives me the edge.

This my bike! Well, this particular picture is not MY bike per se, but mine is the same color, same gears, everything. My seat is lower, though, and my handlebars have red tape on them, not grey. It's pretty bad-ass, and I feel great cruising around town, passing cars on the street, listening to my iPod. My good friend Dave, who sells pistachios at the farmer's market, gave it to me. He has a tendency to collect things like squirrels collect nuts.

There is a kid in my first period Spanish class, we'll call him Grady, because that's what his name is, who is very, how shall we put this?... loud. He demands attention, from before the bell rings until the minute class is over. Throughout the class kids tell him to shut up. Nobody thinks he is terribly funny.

--
Ah, in fact, I just sent him outside.
--

It's always interesting having students like that in my classes. I can handle the disruptions and they generally provide light humor. The disruptions are funny not for their content but by the pure absurdity that the student embodies. Everyone shares the experience of witnessing someone who lacks nearly all inhibiting reflexes. Haha, type in "Lack of inhibition" and the first entry that Google gives you is a page on ADHD, or attention deficit hyper-active disorder.

Estoy enseñando español todo la semana.

I got asked to take over for a teacher at Dos Pueblos whose wife just had a baby. Today we are learning how to conjugate -AR verbs, such as "hablar," or "caminar."

For example, "Yo camino en el parque."

This teacher is great, because he leaves incredible notes, has a lot of time filling activities, and I get to actually teach stuff. Some teachers just have me show movies, and that's ok, but not fulfilling.

Today we played Matamoscas (flyswatters). This was a great review game! All the vocabulary words are written on an overhead in a random order around the page. One student from each team comes up with a flyswatter and when I say the word in English, they have to find the word projected up on the overhead in Spanish and swat it first, and then pronounce the word in Spanish. We played for a bunch of rounds and team B killed team A.

I went up against a student and beat him soundly. At the game, mind you, not literally. :)

Oh, by the way--

Last year, my seventh grade students set up a "wedding" for my girlfriend Elissa and myself. I came to the classroom one day and, lo and behold, all the seats were arranged differently. And students brought flowers. And made tinfoil rings. It was very cute. Anne was a bridesmaid. And Carter was the father who walked the bride down the aisle. Definitely a memory for a lifetime.

Hello.

I should have written last week but I wasn't terribly motivated to do so. I have time now, since it is a lazy morning and I am only subbing periods 4, 5, and 6 today. This is the best kind of morning...the sun drifts into my bedroom sidelone through my sliding glass door. I can tell from the very first moment that it will be a gorgeous, sunny day. I awake easily on bright days.

Last week I substituted for a Special Ed teacher. All of her students had some sort of learning disability, and the range was great. There were pretty high functioning students and there were pretty low functioning students.

The incident of the day occurred when R kept getting riled up by a couple of the other students in the classroom. A small little girl would discreetly tell him to get to work. Amazingly, almost without thought, R would respond with contempt, "Callate, pendeja!" Which, for you non-Spanish speakers, translates to "Shut up, F____"

Um, that's not ok. In any classroom of any school. Especially for a couple of little 8th graders. So I came over to him and said, "R, please don't swear. I speak Spanish and that's not ok. Ok?"

Then he slaps me on the arm with his book and says "Stop." At this point, the teacher's assistant, a lady who has been working with the students all year long, interjects from across the room with "R, GET BACK TO WORK."

Naturally, R replies to her, "Shut up."

And with that, he was gone. Sent to the office. Has detention for two days.