On Thursday, I was substitute teaching assistant in one of the lower-el Montessori classrooms (grades 1-3).
When I arrived, later in the morning, the kids were fighting fatigue. I saw one boy who was not just tired, but idle too. "How are you today?" I asked him. "I'm bad," he replied. "How bad?" I asked. "Too bad" he answered.
I saw a girl who looked stressed; maybe ready to cry. "You look sad," I said. "Are you OK?" She answered, "Oh, that's just my normal face." She may have been right. Her answer confused me enough that I let the matter drop.
After assisting the teacher and the kids with their various assignments it was time to escort the kids to lunch. The teacher assigned one of the girls to look after me, since presumably I didn't know enough and would need help. The girl quickly deputized several of her friends to assist. Indeed, I didn't know as much as I thought, and the assistance of the girls was crucial. The teacher tossed me a first-aid kit, including an epi pen for emergency assistance for one of the kids with a peanut allergy, if necessary.
Everyone had to first line up properly in a certain place and then receive hand sanitizer before entering the lunchroom and eating lunch. The class had to sit at specific tables. The deputized girls explained everything: how lunch would end with a word-guessing game, with the winning class exiting the lunchroom first; how I needed to get the class lined up first in one place, then move the line a short distance away before receiving the signal for recess to commence, etc. These girls thrived on proper order!
Then recess commenced, and the class dissolved into the much larger group of all schoolkids at recess. I quickly lost track of everyone in the chaos.
A large group of girls were gathering in the girl's bathroom, and spilling out. Trouble of some sort was brewing. One of the deputized girls hastily ran over to me to explain the situation. She said girls were using hand soap not only on their hands, but on their faces too, and that was against the rules. Myself, I saw no reason why girls couldn't use hand soap to wash their faces if they wanted, but whatever, the group needed to disperse. I walked over to wave everyone away, and discovered the reason they wanted to wash their faces was that someone had brought many stickers to apply on their faces, and that's why the crowd gathered. I dispersed everyone away from the bathroom door.
Then the deputized girls brought a new situation to my attention. Two of the boys were playing basketball. The girls explained how there had been trouble on the basketball court earlier in the week and so the teacher had forbidden any playing of basketball by the class for the rest of the week. The boys were flagrantly breaking the rules. Myself, I had a hard time caring whether anyone was playing basketball, provided no one was getting hurt. And the boys seemed to be playing without any recklessness. Still, with reluctance, as the deputized girls watched, I moved to end the basketball game.
The boys were defiant. "We are not playing basketball," one boy explained. "Basketball is a game. We are shooting baskets!" (I swear, these kids will end up as lawyers.) So, as I maneuvered awkwardly under the basketball hoop and tried to knock the ball away, the boys shot baskets over my head. The deputized girls were dismayed. The boys were getting away with it AGAIN!
Then, someone hurt themselves elsewhere on the playground. I had the Band-aids so I was called away to help. By the time I returned, recess was over, and the deputized girls had already explained the situation to the teacher. She seemed almost apologetic about the basketball situation. No apologies necessary. The nice thing about being a substitute teaching assistant is that I have very little at stake. No ego involved here.
Since I have substituted in several classes by now, I notice that I'm getting more recognition. Lots of students, and teachers too, wave hello. And I'm finally beginning to remember some of their names.
