Central Park Zoo. Today as a substitute, I had to take my (kindergarten) class to the Central Park Zoo. I was nervous, but the trip turned out to be very nice. The program was very well organized. Basically, the program divided up each class (there were two from my school) and paired the small groups with park volunteers; the job of the teacher was just to supervise. I enjoyed the trip very much! I didn’t take many photos (only about 2). Too often, schools (where I’ve done subbing) have shown a dislike for me taking photos of the students when the students are going wild. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told, “oh no, you can’t take photos of the children without parents written permission. But if it is “related to school (translation = kids not shown wild and out of control) then it is okay to take their photos. So being the stubborn person that I am, I didn’t feel like guessing what photos would be okay to take, so I did not take any (of the kids). Relatively speaking, the kids were all nicely behaved. The other teacher I was with seemed a bit more relaxed.

After we returned to school it was time for the kids to leave. A good class trip is one when the kids return right at dismissal time. Today was the first time in a long time that I was able to leave school at 3pm. Except the assistant principal’s late approval of the homework sheet, meant that the kids did not receive their homework packet at dismissal time. But being the person that I am, I stayed after to write the students’ name on the packets and distribute the homework to the kids (most of who) were in the after-school program. At this school (and most of the schools that I’ve subbed at), the school policy is to give kids homework every day.

I was out of the building at 3:33 (still an early time for me). After stopping off at copy center, I returned to my shoebox.

My plan was to do the laundry, make some bake chicken and bake macaroni & cheese. When I told the boyfriend that I was planning to make some mac and cheese, he told me that he was also planning to cook after I was finished. Stupid me, I assumed that he meant he (or his girlfriend) would come into the kitchen sometime after I was finished (or nearly finished [as in the case of previous instances]). l went to the Laundromat to get my clothes out of the dryer. I was gone no more than 4 or 5 minutes (the Laundromat is in the building next door), When I returned, both the boyfriend and his girlfriend (the screamer) were in the kitchen cooking (he frying something, she making a cake). With my chicken still in the oven, my neighbor (the screamer decides that she wants to bake a cake (no special occasion she just felt like making a cake) and wondered how long I would need the stove.

When they finished in the kitchen, my other neighbor (40+) started cooking his dinner, The kitchen was free about 9pm. So once again it was canned soup (with the baked chicken that I had made that earlier).

Oh, my neighbor offered to share the cake she baked, it was a little over cooked, but it was good.

Tomorrow, I am going to try leaving the school between 3:30 and 4pm, so I can post this blog entry along with the last 2 or 3.

Post Date Sunday, May 21, 2006 6:58pm