Spanish sub for the day

I received two calls this morning to substitute. The first one was that special ed school again. I turned that one down. I didn't want to try that again so soon.

The second call was to teach Spanish Level 1 at a middle school. I happily accepted this assignment because I do speak Spanish and received a minor in Spanish in college.

Well, I was hoping to be able to do a little bit of teaching today, but all I had to do in the class was show a DVD to the students. When I showed up to class, the other Spanish teacher brought in the DVD and said to show that and have the students write 15 facts about the DVD. It was a cultural DVD on Spain. I mentioned to her that I was hoping to do more than that because of my Spanish background. She was very surprised that I knew Spanish that well.

The teacher I was subbing for and this other teacher didn't expect to get a sub that knew Spanish. That's understandable. I'm sure most classes receive subs who have no clue about the topic. I would feel lost if I had to sub an advanced math class.

The other Spanish teacher did ask if I could leave my information with the school so that they could request me again if needed.

Now, here's how my classes went. The first and the last period where the worst. I'm sure that's because in the morning the kids just got to school and haven't been worn down yet, and the last period just wanted to get out of school on a Friday.

I quickly learned in the first period to take control of the class right away. The other Spanish teacher came in for a minute to help quiet the kids down, then I took over. I did very well with the next four periods, until that last one came in. They were very noisy and rowdy during the video. I'm still not sure how to handle those situations. I ended up moving a bunch of kids from their desks to other desks. That helped for a while, but I still have to figure out something else.

I'm sure these kids respect their teachers more than the subs. Otherwise, they are getting away with a lot more than I ever did.