Blog/Journal

Describe the room you spent the most time in today.

Today I went to a nearby school and taught for an absent teacher in the first grade.  The children were typical of most first graders I have known.  Some were quiet and studious; some were boisterous and goofy.  I enjoyed the fact that many of the children remembered me from when I subbed in music earlier this month.  They were smart, funny, and loyal to their teacher. They spent a lot of their free time creating cards for her as if she were terribly ill.


The room was a typical square class room with student desks placed in clusters in the center of the room.  There was a kidney bean table at both the front and the back of the room, a bank of computers near the window.  The calendar corner near the computers had a multitude of activities to aid in the children's learning of basic concepts that they needed to know.  The children hung their coats and backpacks in a series of nooks just inside the door with a cubby for their books above.  The Ipads were placed on a table by the cubbies, opposite the computers and were the coveted activity for free time.


Upon entering the room I noticed a chill in the air.  I thought that I was just chilled because I had just come in from the below zero weather outside.  When the children arrived I noticed that they were reluctant to shed their snow gear and because I was frigid myself, I allowed it.  When the children left the room for lunch another teacher commented on the snow pants some of the children wore.  When I told her the room was cold she stepped inside.  "Burr" was all she had to say.  When I returned from the lunch room she had a thermometer in the room.  It was a toasty 52 degrees in the room and the custodial staff set about trying to get the heat to work.  By the time school ended the temp by the door was up to almost 70 degrees but near the massive windows it still felt like an arctic blast was blowing through an open window.


Tomorrow I will be in a different room with teenagers who sometimes could care less about their teacher's existence.  I will be thinking of the little blond girl who asked me if I could close the window (that wouldn't open if I tried), and I hope that the custodians crank the heat before lunchtime tomorrow.