Sub World

I as I began looking for a new job in the school district in which our Pistachio Castle is located, I quickly found myself confused!

In my former district my position was "instructional paraeducator".  There is no such title in the new place, and after a while I realized that the same type of job that I had down there doesn't exist up here.  Everyone who is not an actual teacher is called an "educational assistant" and that title could mean you are instructional or general.  The difference is teaching kids or babysitting.  

I'm not a big fan of babysitting.  I didn't do it much as a teenager and I'm not really interested in doing it now.  Unless it is an infant.  I would really like to hold a baby sometime soon. Like an actual little infant not a three year old, a three month old.

So my job search was confusing and I decided to be a substitute for a while to figure out just how things operate up here.  I'm keeping a mostly open mind when looking for sub jobs.  I really do want to try different schools, different ages, and different positions to see what will work best for me at this point in my life.

Today, I was a babysitter and food preparer. 

Yay.

Actually it wasn't bad.  Things are really different when you know you are only doing something for a short period of time.  

If I walked in to that room today with the understanding that I would be doing this every. single. day. I might not have had a smile on my face for long.

I worked in the dreaded preschool room.  I thought it was going to be special needs preschool but turns out it is just economically disadvantaged preschool.

I brought a pony tail holder because I have a phobia of headlice but turns out these kids were pretty clean!

We sang songs, ate lunch, played on the playground, sang some more songs, played in the room, ate again, and sang some more songs.

I was tasked with prepping the tables (clean double clean as per the food handing policy),  setting the tables, and cleaning them up.  Also, I had to participate in the family dining that was going on.  

Everyone is sits at the tables together, eats and shares conversation, practices passing the food, and using good manners, and then clears the table.

Today's meal...12 hour old chicken sandwiches, canned pineapple I think, cucumbers and milk.  Awesome.

I took 1 cucumber and 3 pineapple bits and a half of chicken sandwich.  I would play along with all the food but I am NOT drinking milk.  It turns out it was an excellent choice because one of the other teachers commented on how her milk had turned.  Precisely why I don't drink milk.

I suffered through that meal with nothing to wash it down.

We are supposed to brush our teeth after the meals, as in everyone including me gets to brush their teeth.  I said "oh I am sorry I forgot my toothbrush."  But wouldn't you know, they had an extra one for me.  Thankfully, we ran out of time and I didn't have to participate in all the toothpaste drool and spitting.

After playground time came "oh Miss C can you please help little boy in the bathroom".

Obviously it was my job to take care of the poo.

Super fun trying to change a pull-up overloaded with pre-school poo that has just been riding along in the pants for the entire playground time.

Did I mention the kid doesn't speak English?

Wait maybe I didn't mention that only 3 of the kids DID speak English.

I pulled some sweet High School and College spanish out of my back pocket.

I was darn proud when I could tell the kids to sit down, raise their hands, and wash their hands.  The washing of hands is really more about those signs in public bathrooms telling workers to lavarse las manos antes de volver a trabaja.

Things got weird when I switched to German and asked the little boy poo if "alles gut?"  

Snack time, little boy poo ate an entire cereal bowl full of oranges.  Let me just say this, I'm sure glad he got on the bus before those naranjas had a chance to make it into his diaper.

So day 1 of sub world went fine.  I lavarsed my manos muy mucho, signed for my dinero and bid those kids goodbye.  I suppose if I am bored I would go back to preschool but it isn't high on my list of things to do again soon.