What a week!

Last Monday afternoon, the sub coordinator called and asked if I could substitute a 1st grade class for the rest of the week. I agreed, but having subbed this class before I decided I better go in very well prepared! So after school I went down to get the lesson plans and teachers' manuals. Monday's substitute was still there, and she spent the next 30 minutes telling me how bad the class was and how sorry she felt for me. Scary! I spent a couple hours Monday night preparing lessons and trying to figure out how I was going to handle things. And I prayed, too!
The next four days were very challenging, but very rewarding. I really, really like teaching. I got my degree right before Katie was born (Sam wasn't quite two) and just didn't see any way, or have any real desire, to go to work. I have been very, very blessed to be able to stay home with the kids. It was NEVER the easy thing, just what I felt was the right thing. Several times during the last ten years I've thought about substituting or picked up the paperwork, but never went through with it. At the end of last summer, we found out that Nathan would have a spot in a really wonderful preschool four afternoons a week, and all of a sudden the time felt right (and truthfully it became a necessity) for me to work. I've been subbing since the end of September and I've enjoyed it. It has been really hard. I started off one or two days a week, and now I work 3-4. My kids have had big adjustments to make. I hate feeling stretched in lots of directions and feeling disconnected from my home and family. But if I have to work, it is the ideal job. I get to spend lots of time with kids, and try to choose classes where my my own kids or my Primary kids are. I am really blessed to have my mom or one of my good friends to keep Nathan for me in the mornings. I can choose when to work, it pays well for part-time , and back to my original thought of this post, I really do love teaching. Maybe it is the same "thrill" that singers get on a stage- I don't know! I like having to "think fast on my feet" when lessons need to be adjusted. I like coming up with a creative way to teach something. I like the little "tender mercies of the Lord" and the help of the Spirit that comes during the school day. Anyway, I had a difficult but very rewarding week. I was able to see my strengths and weaknesses (lots of them) as a teacher. I'm not as patient as I would like to be. I don't have a single clue what to do with little kids who have terrible home lives and come to school with no desire to learn and no desire to act nicely!! I'm glad for this opportunity to substitute and time to work some of these things out. When I do teach full-time (maybe in a couple years when Nathan is in kindergarten) I think I will be a much better teacher than I would have been right out of college.