What is Work, Anyway?
I think it's pretty obvious that I'm a mom, and a mostly stay at home mom, at that. I pretend I'm a house keeper, but I think I'm more of a home maker... except my home is pretty messy... so I'm more of a home trasher... I think.
I am also an occasional teacher, or as some of you may know the occupation: a supply teacher. I don't mind the gig, it's flexible enough that I only have to go in when I know Erik can stay home with monkey, and for now that's exactly what I want. I get to be a creative teacher with my Tuesday night Catechism class, and maybe some day I'll get a full time gig somewhere, but right now I want to be home with my little man.
So yesterday I went to "work" (I think being a home maker is a harder job than being a supply teacher at the high school level*, but I actually get paid for it so, we'll call it "work")
So yesterday I went to "work" and in preparation for the many hours of sitting around watching teenagers do work from a textbook and/or watching the first or last half of a movie three times in a row, I brought my Christmas sock. BUT I was a good girl! I only brought the sock to work on at lunch time, and if I had an other empty slot in the schedule (secondary teachers teach three out of 5 periods, have one lunch period and the fifth is an "on call" where they catch up on marking and lesson planning, but are on call to cover a class if they are needed. Supply teachers sometimes have an "on call", but I go in so seldom that I almost always get a 4 period day.)
I during class I only checked my board email and read "Professionally Speaking", the magazine put out by the Ontario College of Teachers. This is usually my jam. I catch up on all the "paperwork" I have to do, some personal, some professional, but I always try to at least look like I'm being a responsible adult.
But that sock... it was so tempting... especially after lunch... it was calling to me "Janina! Janina, I'm right here, under the desk! I'm right here..."
"NO!" I said, "I must be strong!"
What to do?
I thought about writing this blog post, I'd been kind of writing it in my head all day, anyway. But that's not much better than pulling out a sock to work on in the middle of class... Then I decided to jot down my notes on paper! Even though I was in a computer lab. It took some discipline not to just log in to my Blogger account right there, but I didn't. I was a good girl.
Unfortunately jotting down notes for a blog is a lot less time consuming than actually writing said blog. So now what to do? I know! Let's send down attendance!
This is what an attendance sheet usually looks like:
This is what attendance looked like yesterday:
As I was filling in each little circle, it occurred to me that it's actually a really relaxing thing to do, just filling in little dots, one after the other, making sure they're just so.
I finished filling in the dots properly, I sent them down with a student and 15 minutes later I get a call on the classroom phone. It's the attendance secretary just calling to inform me that today is Wednesday.
OK, yes, and?
I'd been filling in the attendance sheets in the Friday column ALL DAY.
Oh well. Jokes on them, I didn't have to go to school today so it basically was Friday yesterday. That's not fair, I actually did feel really bad about it, as my silly goof made her have to print out new sheets for the rest of the week and then she had to fill in each of the many many dots that were on 4 classes worth of attendance sheets with 30 minutes left to go in the day. I can only hope she found the experience as soothing and zen as I did.
* Supply teaching at the elementary level is a completely other type of monster, where you actually have to teach kids curriculum based lessons, and life skills, except they aren't used to you and don't care about you and think they can get away with anything, so they try, and then you get mean, and then they cry. At least in my experience. I like high school.
I am also an occasional teacher, or as some of you may know the occupation: a supply teacher. I don't mind the gig, it's flexible enough that I only have to go in when I know Erik can stay home with monkey, and for now that's exactly what I want. I get to be a creative teacher with my Tuesday night Catechism class, and maybe some day I'll get a full time gig somewhere, but right now I want to be home with my little man.
So yesterday I went to "work" (I think being a home maker is a harder job than being a supply teacher at the high school level*, but I actually get paid for it so, we'll call it "work")
So yesterday I went to "work" and in preparation for the many hours of sitting around watching teenagers do work from a textbook and/or watching the first or last half of a movie three times in a row, I brought my Christmas sock. BUT I was a good girl! I only brought the sock to work on at lunch time, and if I had an other empty slot in the schedule (secondary teachers teach three out of 5 periods, have one lunch period and the fifth is an "on call" where they catch up on marking and lesson planning, but are on call to cover a class if they are needed. Supply teachers sometimes have an "on call", but I go in so seldom that I almost always get a 4 period day.)
 |
| Professionally speaking, how professional are you? |
But that sock... it was so tempting... especially after lunch... it was calling to me "Janina! Janina, I'm right here, under the desk! I'm right here..."
 |
| Shh! leave me alone, sock! And for the love of knitting get back in that bag! |
What to do?
I thought about writing this blog post, I'd been kind of writing it in my head all day, anyway. But that's not much better than pulling out a sock to work on in the middle of class... Then I decided to jot down my notes on paper! Even though I was in a computer lab. It took some discipline not to just log in to my Blogger account right there, but I didn't. I was a good girl.
Unfortunately jotting down notes for a blog is a lot less time consuming than actually writing said blog. So now what to do? I know! Let's send down attendance!
This is what an attendance sheet usually looks like:
This is what attendance looked like yesterday:
 |
| Most of the class were on a field trip |
I finished filling in the dots properly, I sent them down with a student and 15 minutes later I get a call on the classroom phone. It's the attendance secretary just calling to inform me that today is Wednesday.
OK, yes, and?
I'd been filling in the attendance sheets in the Friday column ALL DAY.
Oh well. Jokes on them, I didn't have to go to school today so it basically was Friday yesterday. That's not fair, I actually did feel really bad about it, as my silly goof made her have to print out new sheets for the rest of the week and then she had to fill in each of the many many dots that were on 4 classes worth of attendance sheets with 30 minutes left to go in the day. I can only hope she found the experience as soothing and zen as I did.
* Supply teaching at the elementary level is a completely other type of monster, where you actually have to teach kids curriculum based lessons, and life skills, except they aren't used to you and don't care about you and think they can get away with anything, so they try, and then you get mean, and then they cry. At least in my experience. I like high school.
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