Substitute Teaching

I haven't written much in awhile, and I do kind of miss it. It's not that I've been too busy. It never is, of course, though I can always hope. :) But I have the past couple weeks had a job that has kept me off the computers, and I'm actually quite grateful about that. It's a little rough to be on my feet as much as I am, but I'm pretty grateful for the opportunity to be subbing again, now in the Prince George's County Public schools. I say again because I did it about 10 years ago in Alpine School District, which is the northern half of Utah Valley, Utah--from Orem to Alpine.

I have to confess I expected some differences in this area, and I've met up with a little bit of that, but there are definitely similarities. Kids are cute and have a lot of the same antics from one side of the country to the next, though it seems they start a little younger with some of the antics over here. There are students who are really bright, really eager for approval, really eager for attention, really eager for doing the right thing, and those who don't care quite as much everywhere you go.

Aside from the stresses of handling different classrooms of kids every day and spending the first half of the day trying to get everyone's name down and the second half writing those names on a a paper or the blackboard for later discipline from their teacher, it's also a little stressful not to know from day to day if I have a job, as well as to know that this is only until the end of the school year, therefore for about three more weeks. But the Lord has provided me with work as I've needed it, well, for the most part. I've had times when I could have used a little more income, but I've learned important lessons from those times as well. In any case, I'm sure things will work out.

Memory Challenge, Childhood sickness

On one of the author blogs I follow, the blogger has a weekly memory challenge, and today's was a little interesting. Maybe I'm just anxious to write, take a break from all the re-writing I'm doing. There is really so much a difference.

The memory challenge is this--what do you remember about being sick as a kid?
I remember when I had the chicken pox I was allowed to sleep on the hide-a-bed in the living room, and that I didn't have to go to school--kindergarten I believe. Unless I'm remembering when someone else had them. But it was pretty cool to sleep on the hide-a-bed. And then stay on it all day. Right there in the middle of the living room where everyone has to see you and feel sorry for you. Those red dots all over were pretty sweet too.

Reading about kids who got ice cream and pudding and stuff made me kind of wish I could get my tonsils out or something, but I was never that lucky. I actually had a pretty healthy childhood, didn't miss much school. I did miss a day in 3rd grade though. I don't remember what it was, probably just a cold or something. But the teacher still gave me a perfect attendance award at the end of the year. And that actually made me sad--she hadn't missed me, I thought.

Then in fourth grade, I had this, um, issue, I guess. It wasn't really sickness. I had warts. I know I counted them at the time, but I don't remember exactly how many--in the range of 10, I think, though most were pretty small. Three or four were pretty big though. Getting those frozen off, though--that little "surgery" wasn't anything like getting your tonsils out. This was just embarrassing. But I still got a day off for it. And this time, I didn't want to stay on the hide-a-bed in the middle of the living room. As soon as I got home, I went straight to my own bed and cried myself to sleep. Oh that hurt really bad. I might have got pudding or something. I don't remember. I just remember it hurt, really bad.

Other things I remember about being sick was that if you stayed home from school you couldn't play with your friends later, so you'd better really be sick if you wanted the day off. Sometimes I felt better at the end of the day, but I learned to suck it up. What about you? What are you memories about being sick?


I have to add this post script that my mother emailed me: So it seems I wasn't in kindergarten. But I do remember the couch. Funny. Maybe it was coming home to it when the others had it, or maybe a combination. A three-year-old can have memories, but since it was so long ago, it also makes sense that it would be jumbled a bit:

The Quist family endured the chicken pox twice. The first time was in Canada before John was born. One child got it and two weeks later the other three did. So in about a month’s time all four of my kids had chicken pox. If you do the math, you’ll know that you had chicken pox as a three year old, more or less six months. It’s interesting that during this same month, Kim had rubella, otherwise called German measles.

The second round was in Loveland when Nancy was two months old. One child came down with it and two weeks later the other three(including Nancy) got it.

So, your hide-a-bed confinement, if it was chicken pox, would have been in Calgary.

Logic? You bet. I do sudoku.