Long term sub job

The big news this week is that I made a decision to take a long term subbing job. This means that I will be teaching in the same position every day (no days off) until spring break which starts March 14. But now I will also be doing the daily lesson plans and grades. The absent teacher will be, and has been, helping me with the plans in general, but I will be deciding what we do each day. I am teaching English to all grades, 9-12th. The classes are small but the students are not grouped according to class or actual credit; they are all in there together.

I have substituted at this school many times before and always liked it. The Principal was an assistant principal at Harding and also at Northwest Classen when I taught at those schools. There are also teachers and counselors I have worked with previously at various schools and my old friend Sharyn whom I have known for over 20 years!!!

The school is Emerson Alternative School, a high school in Oklahoma City Public Schools. It is located downtown close to the Oklahoma Memorial (bombing site and museum).


This school consists of 2 programs, Outreach and Metro. Outreach is for girls who are pregnant or mothers. There is a day care for the children on the site. Metro is the program with which I will be involved. The students have been sent from another school in the district because of discipline, attendance or other problems they had in the traditional school setting. I know some of them from teaching at Northwest and I am getting to know the rest of them very quickly, if they are attending classes. The classes are rather small.

In 2007 Emerson was the recipient of the Oklahoma Medal for Excellence in Alternative Education. This is a very interesting video which was shown at the time they received the award. On the video you will see the principal, Dr. Debra Thomas, Ms. Bigger, who is the other English teacher in the metro program, a student Stephen Ward, whom I knew at Northwest and then encountered again while subbing at Emerson last year. This video presents the school in a much better way than I can just writing about it here, so I recommend you watch it. It is really very short.
http://www.ofe.org/awards/emerson-video.htm

This is the room I will be in. Sitting at this desk and trying my best to get the students to do something. I had a hard time this past week because they had had subs for the first 5 weeks of this semester and were sitting at the computers watching music videos or playing games. I had to tell them that if they couldn't get their work done the computers would not be available this coming week. Some of them were using the dictionary online to look up vocabulary words but most of the time when I checked on them they were looking for another music video to play. So Thursday after school the keyboards and mice (mouses?) were put away and the computers were disconnected from the Internet. I know I might have a riot on my hands on Monday, but that is how it will be. Good bye technology...

We are reading a very good book in class called "We Beat the Street." The three doctors who are the authors of the book grew up in Newark, New Jersey and have been featured on TV. They will be coming to Oklahoma City to Douglass High School next Thursday to talk to the students who have read the book. The books were donated to our schools by Integris Medical Center. So those students who have read the book will take a field trip to see them at Douglass. I hope I get to go with them!

This book is geared to young adults but there is also another book they wrote entitled "The Pact", which I intend to read now that I have read this one.