back to the supply world

As I mentioned earlier, I have been back to my old little school a few times since my LTO ended. And it has been great. All the teachers are glad to see me, I get to peak in on my old class, and it's so easy since I know all the school's routines and where everything is, and all that jazz.

So I was in a grade one class for two days, because the teacher had tonsillitis and strep throat at the same time (eek). I got there and understandably a few of the kids were confused. "Are you going to be our teacher today?" they asked. I told them yes and they were happy. I was obviously familiar, but in some ways they thought I belonged somewhere else... One student asked, "What grade do you really teach?" "I did teach grade two, right down the hall, but now I'm just a supply teacher," I answered. "So is it going to be hard today?" "No, no no," I said, trying to sound reassuring, "I'm not going to teach you grade two stuff! That would be too hard! Don't worry, we're just going to do what you normally do". "Oh," she said, sounding relieved. The poor thing thought that since I was a grade two teacher I was going to teach them grade two stuff! So cute!

Since they were learning how to do procedural writing (the steps for how to do something), the teacher had set up an activity where they had to take the steps for a task that they knew about, and put them in the right order. One of the kids said, in the tone of voice you'd expect from a teenager, not a six year old, "Soooo, we have to be able to read all this?" "Yes," I said, trying not to laugh at his smart alec comment. How do kids come up with this stuff?