October 13, 2013
Oh- No School Day
By: Sophia Dewar
One glorious sunny spring morning on my way to South County College I got a
call from the superintendent Mr.Haller at CVESD insisting that I have to substitute
teach a class for the day because a thoughtless teacher just quit on him. I was
speechless the rest of the elegant morning. I was worried the kids wouldn’t like me
as much as their regular teacher. I asked Mr.Haller, “Do I substitute today?”
He replied in a shriek “Yes! You substitute today. Why do you think I called at
6:45 in the morning?” A few seconds later I started to plan the day. After all I start in
60 minutes. I teach at room 606 at Heritage Elementary I was so nervous I wanted
to fly to Philadelphia. Once I got into the classroom I saw 6 boys and 18 girls anxious
to start the day. I felt my cherry red balloon cheeks ready to burst I was so nervous.
When the fine April day was just getting started I put my name on the
whiteboard and I didn’t hear a single word while I was doing it. Since this was a
special school we started off with the “National Anthem” and they even had a
celebrity come and sing it. Afterward we started with Language Arts they just
finished reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Then they had a test. They had to
find evidence for every question. All of them question 1-15. Toward the end as I
corrected them I saw that everybody at least got 90 percent. Except for 1 student
who got an F. I was beginning to think if these kids were enchanted. While it was
leading up to the time of recess we did physical education for 20 minutes. We played
sharks and minnows. I began to believe that the children are super kids because
lickedy split the sharks tagged every single minnow. After that it was time for
recess. They have this game where there are special bouncy ball seats and
whichever table has the most students in their chairs would get to sit on the bouncy
balls, and get to go out to recess first. At recess they played soccer and wall ball then
I though «Wow these kids are not only smart but athletic too». At recess a little girl
called Maura tugged on my caramel brown hair and asked, “Could I please have
some of that creamy cinnamon brown chocolate covered poppy red strawberry Mrs.
Dewar?” that day her almond brown hair danced in two perfectly poufy ponytails.
She was wearing an aqua sea blue dress with smiling marshmallow white daisies on
it. I kindly replied in a sweet voice,
“Of course my shining little sunflower!” Secretly startling me the bell rang. It
was Mrs.Brantuas. I was about to bellow out, “ Are you crazy?,” but fortunately there
was a boy behind me named Henry who tugged on my turquoise skirt just in time
he said,
“Hurry up Mrs. Dewar it’s time to go to the library for science.” I politely
waved goodbye to Mrs. Brantuas and jogged to the 606 line and led them to the
classroom.
In a jiffy they silently got hand sanitizer and headed toward the door. They were
like baby mice and I was their mommy. In the computer lab they were working on
interesting static electricity. They were finding out the negative and positive types
of charges. We stayed for about forty-five minutes. Then all of a sudden it was time
to go. In a flash like a camera the computers were on the blue screen with a majestic
nectarine white and sequoia brown hawk. Then the students started working on the
Native American compare and contrast essay. When I was finished a boy named
Cacho came and suggested that the next essay would be about a special treasure
hunt that you would want to go on. The children could type as rapidly as a person
being chased by a cheetah. Soon it was time for lunch and we played a silent game
and one boy named DC got out as soon as I asked him if he liked dogs. At lunch I
could hear the kids yell, “See you in one hour Mrs. Dewar.” I replied
“Will do.”
After one hour at 12:30 we started math. The A+ students were already on
dividing one thousands by one digit numbers. They went onto a difficult fraction
lesson. They were multiplying fractions! They were onto fraction multiplication
tables, two were on their nines and the rest were on their commutative 0-5. Only
Henry and Maura passed 0-5 but no one else passed. At the end of the day we went
onto project wisdom which grabbed the student’s attention. It was about the good
and horrible (bad) attitudes. Then they bolted and started to write the answer to the
question. We had a raffle at the end of the day to see who would win three
homework passes. I announced, “We have a winner. The winner is drum roll please,”
they all started to pound on the table like a dog wanting bacon, “Maura Yumul!” She
jumped up and down like a pouncing puma. She shouted,
-“Yippee! Yeah I won the grand prize.” She received her prize and seemed as
happy as the moon and the stars. We ended the beautiful day by stacking the chairs
and cleaning up so that the room was spotless. Everyone had to do at least 1 Kid Biz
during the weekend. I was stunned most teachers never hand out homework for the
weekends. After that thought, I dismissed every one and corrected perfect papers
for 900 seconds (15 minutes.)
While I was driving home from the most awesome day I’ve for years and
years of substituting, I got a call from Miss Hultenius saying that she just answered a
call from one of the moms. She was saying that her daughter loved you and wanted
you to be her substitute every day. While I was making my summer sausage,
strawberries, and pink lemonade dinner, and then eating my Dip ‘n Dots dessert, I
wondered if these kids were actually human beings or computers. When I went to
bed in my penguin PJ’s I said to myself, “Man did I have a great day with Miss.
Hultenius’s class.” My dog Flower started to lick me and I finally whispered, “Best
class ever,” and I closed my coconut brown eyes and fell asleep in my comfy, fluffy,
and cozy bed with Flower.