Priceless Quotes

4-year-old: I'm going to do the impossible! Me: Wow! What is the impossible, I wonder? 4-year-old: Well, it's tricky, actually. It's a really tight square knot. I'm practicing other knots, such as the really tight square knot. And actually, it's not impossible. See? (completes the knot). I'm impressed.

Today, Title Pending

Being a Sub gives me the opportunity to observe without worrying about how I plan to document what I'm seeing. Except on my blog, I suppose. And what I'm observing recently is, somewhat disturbingly, not a lot of observing. Perhaps this is left over from my days of 27-page progress reports for preschoolers, but I've been a little surprised that I don't notice the teachers doing more, um, noticing. I assume this is because they see the children every day, when I'm just a visitor, and the behaviors that surprise me are now predictable, and also because observation is not necessarily observable. But I enjoy making my own observations, and occasionally sharing them (which is perhaps not welcomed by the other teachers) anyway. Today, I am pretty sure I saw a child peer-pressured into being a "mean kid" a la the 4-year-old version of that Lindsay Lohan movie. After building an intricate system of roads and tracks in the Block Center, 4/7 of the children began bringing over fierce animals to set up as "Booby Traps." They even went so far as to add misleading signs (enter here, bicycle crossing, which was interpreted by the class as "bicycles can enter") to encourage unwitting victims. The two children who wanted to just use cars on the tracks had their toys ravaged by statues-turned-vicious creatures until finally they said "Can I be on your team?" which was answered by "Sure! If you find a dangerous animal." Perhaps I'm being jaded and reading too much into this, but I found it disheartening. I look forward to hearing others' interpretations of these events.

Welcome to the land of "This isn't my class."

After a decade or so of teaching adventures in a variety of classroom types, after school programs, camps, et al, I moved to New York City with the dream of doing something big, profound, and meaningful. In the mean time, I'm substitute teaching. By which I mean to say, as a stepping stone to something that feels like the right fit for me on a more permanent basis. That said, I'm learning that the substitute teacher, despite his/her brief presence in the life of a school, can be a poem if not a novel, a firework if not a fireplace, a vacation spot if not a comfortable home for the mind of a student. And if not, at least the teacher - let's go with "Sub" - can learn a few things along the way. Like how a class that isn't yours operates on pretty much completely different rules.