The award for the worst classroom ever goes to.....

The award for the worst classroom ever goes to the Kindergarten classroom I subbed for today! I am serious. I have taught on a reservation and saw a lot of stuff there, I have subbed three years in various classrooms, and this class was by far worse than anything I experienced and I have experienced some weird stuff.

There were only 17 little five and six year olds but it seemed like 40! The classroom was also last year's principal's office so you can imagine it wasn't that big. There were five or six kids in there with serious behavior issues. Why might you ask did they put them all in the same classroom? Well, this is their first year in school and they didn't know. They did know one had behavior problems since he is repeating Kindergarten but otherwise it just happened. I do wonder, though, why they did put the kid they knew had serious issues in the classroom with a first year teacher-yes, this poor woman's first classroom teaching experience (other than student teaching and subbing) is with this demonic class. I wonder if she'll decide to continue with teaching? I hope she realized that if she can survive this year they'll all be better than this one.

There were three aides in the classroom this morning-one or two just aren't enough. These aides spend a majority of their time physically restraining these kids. From pulling them out from under their desks to getting their coats off-the one boy lost his recess (he tackled a kid on the playground) and put his coat on when the others went outside and would not take it off so the aides had to physically remove his coat off from him since he was not able to go outside-I guess he thought if he had his coat on he was going outside. Things like this happened all day.

I tried to teach but it was so hard. Someone was always talking, or doing something they weren't suppose to or laying on the floor, etc. I felt bad for the kids that want to learn and are well behaved because I don't know how they're able to learn much in this environment. I wonder if the parents are aware of how bad it is in there? I would not want my child in that classroom.

There were a few blocks of time that I was by myself-luckily it was for short periods of time. I'm so glad there were aides in the classroom this morning. They let me know what was going on even though I could easily figure out which kids were the trouble makers. I asked if it was always that bad or was it just because they had a sub. They told me it's always like that or worse!

The majority of the kids with problems were boys but probably the worst kid in the class was a girl! I will never forget her-cute as can be-red hair and light blue eyes and guess what? When mom and dad took us out to eat tonight-she was there with her grandparents. She didn't see me but I pointed her out to mom and dad-what are the chances we'd go to the same place at the same time? I'll probably end up with her in my own classroom in a few years-hopefully not.

The day wasn't all bad though. I experienced a school I hadn't subbed at before-huge-over 700 students and I knew one of the aides and the Kindergarten teacher across the hall I've known since college so I was able to visit with her a bit at lunch and after school. I'm willing to go back to the school but I will never sub for this teacher again!!!