I have returned! Again, apologies for a long absence, but my excuse this time is so crazy you'd be crazy yourself to not believe it's true. I don't typically invent things of this caliber on my own.
I had remained in Stacey's room to finish out the Greek unit with plans to return to Mick's after spring break, when we will begin literature circles in RLA. This past Monday, however, my phone started buzzing at about 6:45 a.m.; since it was my birthday, I thought it was a pesky friend or relative calling to wake me up with birthday wishes, but what I got instead was a request from Mick's wife Julie that I sub for him that day. She was calling from the emergency room. Mick was conscious but in a lot of pain, and nobody could figure out why.
Of course ready to oblige and help where I could, I filled in that day, comfortably (I'm happy to say) collecting assignments, directing kids on their next move, and going about business as usual. And since I had passed my midterm, I was actually getting paid to sub, which was a pleasant little bonus to being in total control of a classroom for the whole day.
By the end of that same day, the doctors had discovered Mick's problem, and he went in and out of full surgery with little to no problems. The process went smoothly, but he was to stay in the hospital for at least the rest of the week recovering, and I was to take over his classes for the time being.
I wouldn't have blinked an eye, normally, because especially over the last few weeks the kids have began to respect and trust me more, and I've been at least mostly successful in helping them grow both academically and socially. I'm kind of good at this, if I do say so myself.
What tripped me up, however, was that Friday, March 25 was the end of the quarter, Mick was at least 3 weeks behind in scoring and posting grades, and we were between units in both RLA and Science, and I didn't know what he had planned for either. Not to mention they were straight up finished with the textbook in Science, so it wasn't exactly going to be a la-dee-dah just move on to the next chapter type operation. I had to plan a week's worth of classes on the spot, grade a mountain of homework, post all the grades online, get students missing work so they wouldn't get zeros on everything (we had eight or nine kids out sick every day the week previous), and fulfill Mick's door duty before school, all in four days' time. Plus, I'm by no means a PE teacher (or even vaguely PE-inclined), so figuring out what to do for that was a bit of a doozy too.
Lucky break number one: The vice principal made a general shout-out to the staff, who covered Mick's door all week. Thank you!
Lucky break number two: All the assignments Mick had yet to grade were easy to assess and I was able to blast through most of them fairly quickly. I still have a lot to do, but all I can say is thank goodness I have no problem with objectivity.
Lucky break number three: I had already been planning on squeezing in a Found Poem project, so I used that to fill my time in RLA. More on that later.
Lucky break number four: The catch-all, be-all Planet Earth "Mountains" episode, which covered both the Great Rift Valley in Ethiopia and the Himilayas, which were two things we had talked about in previous science units. A whole day covered with that baby, and I could grade during class.
Lucky break number five: "You know there's another textbook, right? And you just go on to the next one?" BOOM! Go-Go-Gadget Water and The Atmosphere! (Lucky break number six: The sixth grade science curriculum is the bomb and even though I could never teach anything more advanced, the water cycle is totally my style).
Lucky break number seven, eight, nine, and ten: The kids, parents, other sixth-grade teachers, and principals have all been incredibly supportive, flexible and patient with me. My kids especially seemed to be aware of what a bizarre situation this all is, and were able to largely-self direct; I could write a "To Do" list on the board, and with very little instruction the majority of them could move through it with ease. I could therefore spend more time with kids who had missed a lot of class time, or had missing assignments otherwise, and by the end of the week we got almost everybody on the same page! And we went to Dairy Queen! Yes!
I will continue to update on Mick's recovery and my general sanity. Thank you to parents and fellow teachers for patience and support. I would like to also thank my University Supervisor Caroline, who was largely responsible for getting me the okay to continue to sub; student teachers are typically only allowed five days, but because of the extreme circumstances, Caroline, Stacey, and Paul (the principal) all vouched for me and told the district I should get paid next week, too.
I'd also like to thank Clark for being my rock and putting up with me this week, and for buying me the most beautiful birthday cake I've ever had.
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