Who knows?

It is Sunday, and I have no jobs scheduled yet for this next week. On the surface that seems like a bad thing, but I also start my Masters program this next week, so it might be good to have a few days of that under my belt before working again.

I am also constantly on standby if Whitney goes into labor early. If that happens I will have to jump right into the kindergarten position. I would not be too upset with that scenario! But, of course I want what's best for you and Riley Whitney:)

Anyway, I am sitting at home with a headache and a clogged bathtub so I have a full day ahead of me.

Thank you all for reading my blogs and commenting!

Good luck with THAT one!

Today was a fairly easy day. I spent the time in ESL putting letters together to go home to the children's parents. This year, only 32% of the children at Mill Park have English as a first language.

Anyway, fairly uneventful, until I had a conversation with a child in the cafeteria. It went something like this:

Child: Hi Mr. Mason!

Me: Hello there child!

Child: Are you a teacher now?

Me: Yes I am.

Child: That's weird!

Me: What's weird about it?

Child: Well, you used to be a helper and now you're a teacher!

Me: Yah I guess that is kind of weird!

Child: Yah...Good luck with THAT one! *rolls eyes*

End scene

I have no idea what the eye roll meant, but it made me laugh for hours! This friends is why I love children:)

Glitter is like nose candy! Week One

This week I have had a job everyday. On Monday morning I subbed in a kindergarten class. I really enjoy kindergarten, but it is very difficult to go into a school you have never been to and teach. The children don't know you, the staff don't know you and you have no idea where anything is.

The teacher had trouble printing off the sub notes so she gave me most of my instructions verbally.

One of the lessons that I was to teach was on washing your hands and sneezing into your elbow. I put glitter in my hand and sneezed into it to pretend like the glitter was germs. The idea was that I would show how quickly germs can spread. Well, I sneezed into my hand and glitter went EVERY WHERE! The children all gasped. One of them asked if I had tucked glitter into my nose. That was fairly funny.

That afternoon I went to another school and taught third grade. I have worked with these children before, so it was a little easier.

On Tuesday I worked in a second grade classroom in the morning and a kindergarten class in the afternoon. My experience now tells me that preparation is the key. I showed up to the afternoon sub job as the children were coming from recess. I hadn't had a chance to look at the plans or get anything ready and I had children looking at me waiting for me to do something.

I looked at the notes, and like my worst nightmare, I couldn't understand any of it. They were written by hand and the teacher used short hand or something because there were acronyms, the likes of which I have never seen! I asked the assistant and she couldn't understand it either. All of a sudden I have to shoot from the hip. Shooting from the hip is not a problem for me, unless I have 25 five year olds staring at me and becoming restless...I'll be honest, I froze for a moment.

That is when the children attacked. They all had to go to the bathroom, and they all had ants in their pants. I finally got them wrangled to the carpet and I read a story to them. That was the best 8 minutes of my day. The children calmed down and I was able to relax and enjoy them too! But that would be the only restful moment in my day.

P.S. On both Monday and Tuesday I went home with a headache!

Like a golden fleece from the sky, Wednesday arrived! Not only did I just have to work in the afternoon, I was with the kindergarten class that I will be doing my long-term sub job with. I love these children. They are calm and quiet! They are loving and I know them. I had a great afternoon of writing (mostly picture drawing) and calendar activities. I also got to sing the song they love to sing where I put their names in a song. I had a great afternoon! I did NOT end this day with a headache:)

That brings us to this morning. Thursday has been like no classroom experience I have ever had. I stepped into the room and the children were very loud. Some background on this classroom: School has been in session for three weeks, but this class was just formed this week to deal with overcrowding in the other third and fourth grade classrooms. These children have been together for four days.

I walked in and tried to take over where the teacher had left off, but that was not working. I tried to get the classes attention, but there were a few children that thought they would talk over me.

I picked up a pile of referral slips, lovingly called "Zingers", and started walking around the class. I would nicely ask a student their name. When they told me I wrote their name on the zinger and put it on the desk. I said, "If you talk over me one more time I'm going to fill this out!"

I did that with multiple children, and like magic it was quiet in the classroom. We had a fairly lovely day after that. Noise is going to be this classes biggest issue, but its easy to deal with. I think I grew a little taller today:)

On Friday I have a sub job in the ESL (English as a Second Language) classroom. The school has not started offering these services yet, so I will more than likely be doing busy work tomorrow.

This has been a difficult week for me, but I didn't dislike it at all. Every job you survive, the more confident in your abilities you become! I am going to be an unstoppable force some day! Don't mess with the substitute.

Year one..Let the GREAT EXPERIMENT BEGIN! *random Arrested Development quote

Four years ago I started out on a journey that I wasn't sure would really end anywhere! I thought for sure that there would be a horrible world wide disaster before I graduated college. But, nay, I have made it through school and everything is going my way...except for that one little thing that is hindering me...

I do not have a job. That is because I have entered my field at the worst possible time. The economy has gone down the drain and people are being laid off right and left. The news says that the only fields not effected by the recession are medical care and education...I'm fairly certain that is the fattest lie that the media has ever told. You see, I am a teacher, check that, correct that, I am an unemployed teacher, which makes me capable of being a teacher, sort of!

When I pictured myself as a teacher ohh so many years ago, the furthest thing from my mind was being a substitute. Of course, when I joined the Marines, the furthest thing from my mind was running around the barracks with a mattress on my head, but that didn't stop it from happening. Four months ago I came to the startling conclusion that I may have to be a substitute. Immediately, images of a fat bearded teacher reject entered my mind. I didn't want to be the weird guy that went from classroom to classroom showing videos or playing heads up seven up because I couldn't cut it as a REAL teacher. I had thoughts of children laughing at me as I fumbled through notes from the REAL teacher, trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing!!! Not me...that can't be me...I am BETTER than that...silence...

After 6 interviews and 5 principals telling me that I didn't have enough experience to trump the 300 teachers that are currently out of work I realized that this was my destiny. I had failed. I had not done what I set out to do so many months ago. Wasted are the many resume pages I printed. Wasted are the multiple dry cleaner runs for my suit. Wasted are the countless hours of butt kissing and menial tasks for undeserving principals and teachers. Wasted are the hours spent on the internet applying for position after position. What was the point...why did I do this only to be thrown in to the pit of reject college grads that stand no chance of getting a job. I am 34 years old. I do not have time for this CRAP...I was angry...

Now before the teachers I have worked with become angry, themselves, because of my slanderous talk I must come to my point quickly. I have worked with and become friends with some of the best people in the world through my experience thus far in education. I have two teachers specifically that have become real mentors to me.

My first year in the EOU program I was an Educational Assistant at Mill Park Elementary in the David Douglas School district. I worked for a first grade teacher that literally became a model of who I want to be as a teacher. Our personalities are so similar and her philosophies so alined with mine that it was a match made in heaven. She selflessly mentored me through the first year of my professional development. She was tough on me at times. I felt really uncomfortable at times, but she was gracious to me the entire way and I came out the other end a better teacher because of the experience.

My second year I was an EA at the same school, but I was placed with a different teacher. This teacher was also a first grade teacher, but she had taught kindergarten for the five years previous. The first thing that I noticed was that her philosophies didn't seem to aline with mine. Our personalities were very different. I did not see that I was going to get much out of this experience...poor naive Wayne! There is so much I want to tell you! This teacher not only dedicated herself to making me a better teacher, she showed me that there are several approaches to teaching in a classroom. This teacher went on to be the teacher that I did my student teaching with as well as the teacher that gave me my long-term sub position, but that is for another time. She also coached me almost completely through my application process this last summer, which, although fruitless in appearance, ended up being an amazing journey, but that is also for another time. Thank you to my two mentors that are completely different, but have had an equal impact on me as an educator and professional.

I now return to the scene of the crime...I don't have a job. Four years, and $50,000 later, I am unemployed. I'm going to have to be a substitute. This is where it gets interesting...much like all facets of Wayne's life, things do not always go as planned and much hilarity, coincidence and heartache ensues, usually all in the same moment. But that is all part of what makes me so fun to watch. Stick around and you may get a chance to take a spin in my clown shoes!