Adventures in Pre-K

Today was my first day of subbing for an actual teacher (the other times I've subbed have just been for aids).  It actually turned out to be a pretty good day... but there were a few things that I wanted to put on the blog. :)  I was subbing in a head start class, which means that all of the students in the class have been determined as coming from 'low-income' households...  so the school provides them with basic needs like breakfast and lunch and school supplies..  normal things that most kids have.  But most of these kids would probably not have the fortune of having if it weren't for this program.  Anyway, there were many sweet kids in the class, and the day started off with one little boy and girl telling me ALL the things that their teacher usually does (that I obviously wasn't doing right.)  :)  After awhile they realized that everything was going to be okay even if we did things a little different.

It became obvious to me very quickly that there was not much of a discipline routine in this classroom.  Most (and I mean most) of the kids had a hard time following directions and did not even heed warnings.  When I asked the aid if there was a time-out spot in the classroom, she said there was not. 'Hmm... okay, I thought.  what kind of consequences do I give then??'  Well, when I couldn't handle it anymore I asked the aid, 'So what do you do when they don't listen?'  And she directed me to a lovely little booklet that I could write names in when someone was misbehaving.  Should they get their name in the book, they would lose free time.  Great!

There was one boy in particular who was bent on testing me.  It's amazing how good children are at acting like they're deaf.  Sometimes I wish I had that ability to just totally tune someone out!  So anyway, this boy, we'll call him 'D' was running all over the classroom, standing on his chair, talking really loud, interrupting me, basically doing everything wrong.  So, after plenty of warnings I said, 'Okay D, you haven't listened to me, I'm writing your name down.'  It was so magical!  He pouted for a little bit, but for the rest of the morning he was pretty good.  When free time rolled around I was glad when the aid backed me up and made sure D did his time.  We sat him down and explained to him why he was losing free time.  His reaction was really interesting.  It was almost like the whole time he just thought we would forget about the fact that his name was in that little booklet, because when we actually followed through with the consequence, he had a meltdown.  He started whining and crying like a little baby.  He even threw himself on the floor a couple of times.  The aid said that he would only have 3 minutes of timeout... but because of the way he was behaving he spent 10 minutes in time out.  It was worth it!  The rest of the day he was like a different kid... quiet, controlled, obedient.  It just felt good.  The best part was at the end of the day when he was leaving to go catch his bus, he came over to me and said, 'Bye Mrs. Cornwall!' and gave me a hug!  That was definitely the highlight of the day...  Of course, when one girl pulled a cornflake off of a class project that was hanging in the hallway and popped it in her mouth, I definitely couldn't help but laugh... and there was another little boy who was so wrapped up in his own little world he couldn't seem to stop spinning around in circles, even when we were walking down the hall. 

Kids are so wonderful.  Their little smiles and waves and hugs and stories that you can only half understand somehow seem to make those frustrating moments a little bit more tolerable.