Substituting

     I fell in love today.  I fell in love with my kids and I fell in love with teaching.  The day started off with Chocolate Drop coming in for first period.  He walked right up to me and said, "I got it! At first it was hard, but then I just looked at it.  Then it made sense.  It was still a little hard, but it didn't matter because I could do it."  I wanted to hug him and cry some of my happiest tears at the same time.  He got it! And the best part was that he knew he got it and had confidence in himself.  I loved it!  First period is Algebra II and it's the shortest class of the day and seemed to go by even faster than usual.  I see those kids every day, so it's been really easy to learn all of their names and get to know them better.
     Second period was Pre-calculus.  They're a little more rowdy and at times it was hard to keep their attention.  I think out of all my classes they were the toughest to manage.  They are mostly juniors and kind of have that "you aren't the boss of me" attitude.  One day though, they're going to see that Ms. Willerth (my mentor teacher) really nice to them.  Hopefully, for all our sakes, some of her patience will rub off on me before I become the boss :)
      Third period is two hours long.  It's another Algebra II class.  Maybe it's just the content, but my Algebra II kids are so nice.  They are just fun loving and are really easy to work with.  I kinda had a Freuline Maria moment though.  A couple of kids were trying to pull my leg and get away with things that Ms. Willerth doesn't do, and good ol' Sam stepped up and set them straight and helped me.  He was my own personal Grettel.  Things went smoothly after that.  I got a few new name requests in that class: Queen of the World and Chase (pronounced Chaw-say).  Haha kids! :)
      From the beginning of lunch to the end of the day, I had planning time.  I put the attendance in the grade book and graded the quizzes they took that day.  I came home from school, took a little bitty nap (substituting really takes it out of you) and then went to Institute.  I'm really excited for Institute! I still felt like a little bit of an outsider but once I get into a class and find friends it will all be so much better.  Oh! and my roommate invited all of us to someone else's party Friday night.  That could be fun...