Well, it has been quite a while since my last post but there
is a lot happening in our lives, both good and not so great, and time is sure
flying by! Here are some updates about our lives:
Teaching- Subbing
has really picked up in the past few weeks! I have been at Central Catholic a
lot and I love it there. It is a smaller private school and I have really
taught a variety of subjects. I have taught English, Gym, Religion, Chemistry,
Physics, and today I was back in AP English.
Negatives of Subbing-
1) Teaching a subject that I am not
familiar with or that I really hate (grammar) is very difficult. I love
teaching but when students ask me questions about these subjects and I don’t
know, I feel terrible. I don’t want to lead them astray and there is only so
much that a teachers addition textbook can do!
2) Also, I hate teaching lessons I
didn’t plan because I don’t know what to expect, I don’t know how things are
supposed to go and sometimes it is really hard to teach a lesson that I feel
could be presented better. As a sub, I don’t want to alter the plans left for
me because that is what the teacher wants the students to learn and I don’t
want to offend the teacher by adding my own spin but when the kids are getting
frustrated or out of control, it is difficult to follow the lessons.
3) Sometimes there are no lessons
and that also makes things interesting. Last Wednesday when I was subbing for
religion, there were no lesson plans left for me because of a sudden illness.
Thank goodness the office had a video for me to show but I had to fake my way
through the introductions and it was interesting to say the least.
4) Cell phones drive me crazy!
Honestly, it would not be a big deal to me if there is some cell phone use for
academic purposes like looking stuff up quickly and I know that kids are going
to use their phones because I did when I was in school. However, when I say put
away your phones at the beginning of class and most of the class just turns
them face down on their desk, that makes me mad. When I specifically state put
your cell phones away and they continue to blatantly use them, I feel
incredibly disrespected and I would like to smash some phones. I am going to
have to get tougher and start taking some phones.
5) I feel like I am walking a tight
rope between being too lenient and too strict. As a sub, if you are too
lenient, the students walk all over you and you cannot control the class. If
you are too strict, the students feel the need to rebel and become even more
defiant and they don’t want to listen. Finding the happy medium is tough.
6) Lastly, there is little to no
accountability that you can have over the students. As a real teacher you
automatically have more authority and students respect you more because you are
there everyday. Also, if students get talkative or difficult, you can move
their seating chart, take points off their grade or give them detention or
somehow hold them responsible. As a sub, there is very little I feel like I can
do to hold them responsible. I can move them but even that is a struggle
because they then get angry or sassy and act out in revenge. I don’t care if some
students don’t like me because I know that will happen because that is the
nature of the beast. However, I do not like being disrespected or when students
flat out don’t listen or do the opposite of what I say and there is nothing I
can do to stop that.
Positives of subbing-
1) Teaching at the same small
school allows me the chance to learn names and students. I know who to watch
out for, who will be chatty, who will be helpful and honest and what classes to
drink extra coffee for. The students also learn who I am and we can have fun
with each other. Being a sub in a new class, especially a talkative class, I
don’t get to be nice or fun because I feel like I have to establish myself as
an authority figure and if I joke around, they won’t listen. However, when I
know the class and they know me, we can have more fun with each other and we
can get along without me having to raise my voice. Central has been fantastic
and I love the class sizes, students and staff. In one class today we had a 5
minute discussion about the best Disney movies and they knew the ones I grew up
with! It was amazing!
2) I was also at a public high
school on Friday and that was really fun because a lot of the kids I know from
the youth center were in my classes and they were very fun to have. I also
worked at the youth center that night and the kids got to talk to me about how
class went and what happened that day. One girl asked “Ms. Hannah, how did you
know we were trying to sneak out of class early!?!?” to which I replied “It
wasn’t that long ago that I was in high school, I know the tricks.” It was fun
being able to recap the day in a more relaxed way where they could talk to me
in a more personal way. They are good kids and I really enjoy working with
them.
All together, I love working with
these kids but I would give anything to have my own classroom and some
consistency in my life. Last Friday I made the mistake of sleeping in and
thinking that I wasn’t going to get called to sub. Wrong! I got called while
still in bed and had to fly around the house frantically getting ready so I
wouldn’t be late to teach. I definitely will not make that mistake again!
Anthony- Life has not been easy for Anthony lately. As I
said in my last post, Malmstrom is like the Crucible meets the Red Scare right
now. After the original 34 people were found for some sort of involvement in
the cheating scandal, the investigators then decided to throw the book at
everyone and make
everyone’s lives a living hell. So, people started getting called in and
questioned about it and now the number is in the 90’s of
people being investigated, although most of those people have nothing to do
with it. Among those wrongly accused and royally screwed over is my dear
husband who wouldn’t do anything that even felt morally wrong. This is a man who
got mad at me for stealing bath soaps from the maid cart as we were leaving a
hotel. On January 20th he was called into the head people’s (OSI- Office of Special Investigations) office to be
questioned about the events that had happened. Smartly, he said he wanted a
lawyer before he answered any questions because we have heard that they try to
trap and manipulate you into implicating yourself or others, even if you didn't do anything wrong. Although he is completely
innocent, his phone was still taken and he is not able to go out on alert until
this whole matter is resolved. Needless to say, this did not make my birthday a very happy day. Everyone was very stressed and upset about whats going on. We know many people in this situation and it
just makes me sick that their lives and futures in the air force may be
completely compromised just because some people got over zealous in their
investigations and started accusing innocent people. I say this because even if
these people are cleared, they still were implicated in the matter and even
that can damage their opportunities for advancement. Anthony is the hardest
working person I know and to see him dragged through the mud like this is
heartbreaking. When this all first happened he asked what is the point of
working hard and trying if you are just going to get pulled into something like
this and treated like a criminal and your whole career is gone. He has been pretty down since this whole
thing happened so please keep him in your prayers. If you know him, you know
that he definitely didn’t do anything wrong and that is why this whole
investigation has become a joke. We hope he gets to go back to work soon
because for now, he and everyone else accused are doing odd jobs around the
office that no one else wants to do so his life is not very fun right now. He
still doesn’t have his phone back but things could be worse, some people got
their computers taken as well as their phones. I told him that if they try to
take my laptop, they will have to take me too because I am not letting this
thing out of my sight. It cost too much and I do not trust them. I may be
arrested but I do not go down without a fight. Things for those who have not
been accused are not easy either. Many are going out to the field more often
and for longer periods of time because there are so few people who can actually
work. Many people have been going on 48-hour alerts and 48 hours in a dark, and
from what I hear, smelly hole underground sounds terrible. The really hard part about this is hearing the gossip on base. Thursday I was at a spouses club meeting and some of the wives were talking about how unfair it was that their husbands had to go on alert while the criminals weren't doing anything and still getting paid. I tried to politely correct her by saying they are still working but what I really wanted to do was take my plate and smooth her face in my pasta. It took everything in me to not to scream at her and it was only because I love Anthony that I was able to bite my tongue because I don't want to get him into any more trouble. Hopefully he will be
cleared soon and leadership will realize they made a huge mistake accusing
everyone and their mother but for now all we can do is pray and thank God for
the people here. Our friends on base have really been supportive and we cannot
thank them enough for all they have done to help us during these stressful
times.
Puppy!- To end
this post on a positive note, we are officially getting a puppy!! She was born
on January 20th and she is a little beagle! We get to pick her up on
March 1st and we could not be more excited. Last night we went to
pet-co and bought a bunch of stuff for her and we started to prepare our house
for her. We had a lot of fun playing with the different toys and looking at the
cute outfits! We have decided that she is going to be chewy from Star Wars for
next Halloween and Anthony was excited that we got her a Vikings dog tag. We
have had lots of fun reading about puppies and training and we are definitely
learning a lot! The puppy came at a perfect time because it gives the both of
us something to look forward to and it will help distract from everything going
on. Her name will be Daphne and we are counting down the days until we can
bring that little bundle of joy home.
