daily lessons

Today I managed to learn a few lessons while substituting at Junction City High School. I subbed for an English class and I was actually kinda excited to maybe get to proof-read a few papers or offer pointers on grammar. Sadly, none of that happened but I was introduced to my second subbing experience and my first high school experience. Overall it was a good, easy day.

Reasons why I may enjoy high school more than elementary school:

• No students whined about their ailing finger, shoulder, toe, foot, stomach all day long
• More interesting, unique clothing styles to observe
• They generally do their classwork all by themselves
• I get to read Crazy Love during class and students remark, "I love that book!"
• There are new students each period
• I got a planning period and a lunch period combined for a total of a 2 hour break time mid-day!

Today I did not confuse a small boy for a girl. However, I did do something slightly similar. I was looking at a seating chart with pictures and first glance the picture looked like a boy so I said, "Are we missing a Mr. Jones?" Said Jones person was in the wrong seat. Turns out this Jones person was a girl. Oops. Moving right along.

Today at school I learned:

• The movie/play "A Raisin in the Sun" is fabulous! We watched the second half of the movie in 1st period and I really enjoyed it. It was the first play written by a black woman as well as directed by a black man on Broadway in 1959. It features issues of poverty, generational gap, and racism set pre-1950's in South Chicago. 
• Never send more than one girl to the bathroom at a time. I don't know why I was so dumb, but they really do a great job at making it sound like emergency. 
• Not much has changed; there is still really awkward PDA in the hallways.
• Occasionally over the intercom you hear, "Please do not allow any students into the hallway." This time a little while later we heard dogs barking and then the classroom beside us was asked to leave their coats and exit the room. Cool kids don't do drugs!
• JCHS is really not so bad after all. Growing up at the school next door, we were filled with this crap that it was an inferior, bad school. I had several students in my class that transferred to Chapman because their parents didn't want them in that school. Obviously I have changed a lot since high school, but I really enjoyed my day at JCHS. For one, I appreciate diversity a whole lot more now than I used to. I think diversity is key to giving children well rounded lives. I also think that if we're so sheltered from the outside world while growing up, then life is very difficult later. I wouldn't trade my days of youth for anything, but I would say that I hope my children have a lot more interaction than I did with diversity. I hope that they don't have such a closed minded idea of others outside their normal sphere of influence.