Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Subbing, new jobs and homecoming, OH MY!

After many months of reading, stalking and enjoying other friends and family member's blogs, I have decided to stop procrastinating and join the blogosphere. I hope for "The Pohl Place" to be an outlet to update readers on the happenings in my family life, school life, give useful information and be a creative outlet to relay my thoughts and opinions. So, here goes...

Last week was a crazy whirlwind of a week. From my worst subbing experience (Boo!) to Brian finding out he got hired by Southwest Airlines (Woohoo!) to spending the weekend at Purdue celebrating Homecoming with members of both our families, there is much to write about.

So first off...the subbing experience. It was my first time subbing in a classroom for 7 consecutive days. It was fine the first couple days but then the whole newness of a substitute wore off and the resentiment of book work set in. I'm not gonna lie...the kids had ALOT of work to do while their teacher was gone. But, what was the alternative...study hall for 7 days? No way...that would have been mass chaos and who knows how many detentions would have been doled out. A busy student is a good student-or so I thought. The teacher I was subbing for taught high school Anatomy, Physics and Biology. Not easy shoes to fill. But her plans we well thought out and very efficient. I just didn't see the mutiny coming by day 3. I literally had a student stand up in class and say, "I don't want to take this test. What about the rest of you?" Like as if I was going to really give the class a choice. This one kid was able to turn the entire class on me. From then on I literally dreaded that period every single day. The kids were so disrespectful. Between the kids that refused to do any homework, the girl that told me "You suck", to the many kids whom I had to threaten to confiscate their cell phone because they actually thought I was born yesterday and didn't realize they weren't just resting their hands in their backpack the whole hour but texting instead, and the 3 boys that ran away during a fire drill, I was mentally done for. Homecoming couldn't come fast enough. Don't get me wrong...it was a worthwhile experience, but my goodness, I have never had to dig as far down within myself to test my character and patience before. I have to admit...I was a mean substitute. But, I kept telling myself,
If I don't establish respect in my classroom now, it will just be harder for me later on when I have each of these students in another classroom. At least they'll know that they can't get away with anything when Mrs. Pohl is subbing. Then later on I can let them see the nice side of me.
Only time will tell if my strategy worked.

On to better and brighter things--Congratulations to Brian for getting hired with Southwest Airlines!!! I'm not just saying this because he is my husband, but I don't know anyone that deserved this job more. He is a walking advertisement for the type of people SWA strives to hire. He has wanted to work for this airline since he was 18 and got his private pilot license. Even when his other friends started going towards other airlines he never changed his mind...never once did I hear him talk about going elsewhere. I'm so proud of him! The first thing everyone asks when hearing of our news is "Are you going to move?" Well, yes, eventually. But for now we're staying put unitl at least this summer. It doesn't sound like he'll start training until early next year or spring of next year...so, we'll just wait and see what sounds like the best option. Right now we're predicting either Orlando or Chicago.

I think this is a little much for my first post, so I'll end now and post about Homecoming next time.

**Funny Addison Quote of the Week: Yesterday Addi came up to me and said "Mom, I'm a different kind of lady." I almost peed my pants! I mean, what 3 year old says that and WHERE did she hear that from? Haha.**

1 comments:

Paula said...

CONGRATS BRIAN! I am so proud of you. Where did Addy get off saying that? Well, duh...she gets it from ger mum. You are a different kind of lady Brandy, in a good way! Love you and miss you!