Today Was a Good Day

By Jessica Smith in Introducements

Posted On January 22, 2010 2:33 PM

This portion of the blog is dedicated to your stories from the classroom. There are a lot of little things that happen in the classroom that you want to celebrate or laugh about. If you have funny or inspiring stories to share, please, in as few words as possible, leave them as a comment below.

Thank you for taking the time to share your triumphs in the classroom with us!

11 Comments

542 Views |

Print |

Send |

del.icio.us |

Digg It! |

Linking Blogs

Comments

(Comment Moderation is enabled. Your comment will not appear until approved.)

Add Comment | Subscribe to Comments

I had a good day and it was Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010. You see, I worked as a sub for special education students. The teacher had a detailed lesson plan for spelling words and we read THE CATERPILLAR. You see the caterpillar was fat and attached to a branch by a thread. A pupa formed and became a hard outside skeleton. Wings and legs followed and then a butterfly emerged and flew away. The kids ranked the previous sentences by order that they occurred and answered hard, creative questions like why was the caterpillar fat. Then they wrote 3-7 sentences about THE CATERPILLAR. This was so rewarding helping them write those sentences. Please don't refuse to take sub assignments to special ed classes. This was a day I will remember always.

# Posted By George Stanley | 2/1/10 4:46 PM

I had the absolute pleasure of subbing for a 1st grade class last week. We had a fire drill, and as we were walking back to the school building; one of my students remarked how he had been in his house when it caught fire. Totally amazed at this young 6 year olds brave story, he went on to tell me that he saved his little brother from dying in that fire. I was so proud of him and remarked to the class what a HERO he was. As I turned back to him, I asked him about how long ago it happened, he looked at me so brave and honest, tried and true, and said "Oh, about ten years ago".

# Posted By Kathryn Caselli | 2/1/10 8:32 PM

Before Thanksgiving, my sixth grade class (for which I had substituted a number of times) asked about my holiday plans. I explained that I did not have any family and while that was unusual my life after the death of my parents just became a new reality. I could go to a friend's house, but I would probably spend it quietly at home. Well, to my surprise, one of the student's in my class had his mother track down my phone number and call to invite me to their home for a family Christmas. I had to decline since I had volunteered to help at a retirement home...but the thought that that sweet young man and his mother had gone to effort to extend that invitation was better than pumpkin pie!

# Posted By Sharon | 2/2/10 9:05 AM

I LOVE the stories!! Hahaha! I've been laughing all morning!! Thank you for sharing!

# Posted By Jessica | 2/2/10 10:08 AM

Wow!! Sharon- your story brought tears to my eyes! I love days like that, stories like that, and kids like that. <3

# Posted By Laura | 2/2/10 10:58 AM

Today was the third day of a Kinder assignment from hell. The first day I went home and cried. The kids were out of control, running on the counters and throwing scissors. One child said she hated me. Another ignored my request to quit standing on the computer monitor. Did I mention that this was my first day ever as a sub! The second day was not much better. I had to call de-escalation several times for fear for other students lives. I could have quit the first day or the second and walked away with a horrible taste in my mouth and been forever traumatized. But today was a GOOD DAY! We learned and played and sung and wiggled. They all remembered my name and smiled at me. One little girl even made me a valentine. There were no melt downs and many hugs. Other kinder teachers said I should get the MVP award for my bravery. Several even asked for my employee number so that they could request me! Boy did I feel validated! I know that tomorrow at three I will be missing these kiddos. Its funny how one day can change your whole attitude on life. I am glad I had more than one day with these kids...hopefully more will come!

# Posted By Steph | 2/11/10 8:35 PM

I'm really enjoying reading everyone's comments! It's amazing the impact children have made in our lives and continue to make on a daily basis. They are little sponges that are so anxious to learn and experience new things. What a joy it is to be able to share this experience with them. Thank you for sharing your inspiring and humorous situations :]

# Posted By Stephanie | 2/22/10 3:31 PM

Steph, I'm so glad you stuck with our assignment. Experience is invaluable and it does get better.

# Posted By Jordan | 2/25/10 5:17 AM

I've enjoyed subbing. Working with the students has been so rewarding. As I was going through the lesson plan for a 3rd grade class, I mentioned a few basic German words (i.e. please, thank you, cotton candy...we all love cotton candy in any language! smile). Weeks later while subbing in the same classroom, the students recalled the German words to me. They are listening, they are learning.... I was so proud of them!

# Posted By Tondaleya | 2/26/10 3:01 PM

One day teaching it was Show and Tell, a preschool student brought in a bone from Thanksgiving Dinner. He told the other preschoolers that he didn't have turkey for dinner. I guess his Grandpa said they were going to have pterodactyl that year instead. This cute little boy asked if he could save one of the bones for show and tell. The other students were so jealous!! It made me so happy!

# Posted By Jessica | 4/8/10 4:46 PM

I agreed to sub for a high school speech communications class and I was very excited to take the assignment as I thought I would have a lot of useful information to offer the students. I have a degree in speech communications and have been in sales and marketing for the past twenty years. I taught the students quite a bit about sales and marketing during a lesson on persuasive speech. I thought they would probably forget most of what I told them. However, when I came back to teach another class, one student blurted out two things I had told them that day, "K-I-S-S Keep It Simple Stupid", and "Don't call their baby ugly!" (meaning- don't tell a person you are trying to persuade that their opinion is wrong). I guess they were listening!

# Posted By Christine | 4/14/10 9:59 PM

Add Comment