First day back on the job

How was your 08-08-08?

Mine has been fine. I called into the Sub Finder system this morning to see if there were any jobs available, and I nabbed one for a TA at Keva's school. As it turned out, I actually worked in Keva's classroom. I got to see her new teacher at work, meet her new classmates, and hug her old classmates. Such sweet kids!

There's one girl who gets a little intense and starts grabbing people really hard and pulling people by their hair. They have to restrain her to get her to calm down. One of the smaller boys got his arm grabbed by this girl and watched in horror as the teacher and aides got her settled into her seat.

"I want my Mommy!" he told me and put his arms tightly around me.

I hugged him and told him it would be all right, that the girl just didn't understand.

"I want to go home!"

"You'll go home later on today. It's okay."

As soon as I could see that he was starting to settle down, I got him interested in a puzzle. When the teacher returned, the boy declared the girl to be "mean." So the teacher explained how she didn't understand some things, and that we all had things that we didn't do right. We'd just have to work to make it better!

Later on that day, Keva had a throwing fit. She was bored, so she went around throwing toys and overturning desks. So the teacher figured out a way to coral her to get her to settle down by putting her at a desk and blocking her exit. He said, "Okay, Keva, you better behave or I'm going to have to right a note home to your mother!"

So, when we all got ready to leave today and helped get Keva's backpack together, I said to one of the TAs, loud enough so that the teacher would hear, "I better have a full report of Keva's activities today!"

Now I'm home and really sleepy. It's a good thing it's Friday. I didn't think I'd get a job today because subbing is scarce early in the year, so I went to bed late last night, planning to take a nap after the kids left on their buses. Wrong! Not even a Coke earlier this morning could get me pepped up! Fortunately, Keva's class kept me hopping.