Well this weekend was a special one, for more than one reason. First my friends from Ohio came out and visited. Thbey came out to see their family and then came over here for the “nightcap” before they headed back. It took us a bit to decide on where to go for entertainment. For a very populated area I couldn’t think of much in that line. There is a lot of outdoor entertainment during the warmer months, but it was cold and wet so that was out. Indoor water park down the street? Too expensive. Laser tag? Kids not old enough. So we settled on Chuck E. Cheese. We got there and it was so packed that people were making their own parking spots at the side of the building. Fortunately some people were leaving so we got a spot. Inside, C bought a bunch of tokens which the older girls used for the most part. A couple of times C would raid the cup of tokens, but the two girls used most of them. There were a couple of rides, some skill games, a video roller coaster, and video games. The favorite seemed to be the Nickelodeon race game which basically stole borrowed heavily from Mario Kart. The younger of the two could not reach the accelerator when she played, so her older sister did that job for her while she steered. I didn’t get to talk to C and L much at this time, but it was quality time with their two oldest. Following CEC, we went to a local hot dog joint, down the street from me actually, and had us some good food. There is where we were able to talk, that is between young C spitting up and some issues that crept up with the girls eating. From there they dropped me off (we all went in one vehicle), changed the baby, and they were off for home and I was off to part 2 of this post…
…Drama. This was my cast’s weekend to perform so I had to be at my church at 3:30 for rehearsal. Between making a DVD for another friend in OH and the visit this mornig I had no time to shower so I dragged my grubby self over to the church. We found out that the learning center where we perform was in use so we rehearsed in the room next door. I gave the two giggling kids some candy (4th and 6th grade) and we were slowly able to get through the lines. We then did it with blocking a few times. Through all this time the guest author (there is a different “guest author” every week) never showed up. Steve, the children’s pastor, didn’t know anything about it so I gave the director a call and he was surprised that he hadn’t shown up. I hung up and a few minutes later Steve got a call from him and it turns out he wouldn’t be coming, so Steve would have to fill in (again…) for the night. The one who was supposed to be there would be there for the Sunday performances. Now, because Steve is the kids’ pastor he had many other duties to do so we still didn’t get to rehearse with him. This may or may not have contributed to what happened next during the performance. Bear in mind that I am an experienced actor and rehearsal had actually gone fairly well, especially line-wise by the time we got to the performance. I did my puppet part well, but when I walked out to do my live character, I started off fine but then I forgot my lines! How…? Anyway, I at least stayed in character and the others tried to cover until I was able to recover a few lines later. I almost missed my puppet entrance after that because I was mad at myself.
Today’s performances went fine though I am happy to say. There was a line flub by the kids in the first performance today, but mothing like my flub last night. I will miss this drama for the next two months. We will be off for the holidays. Next week is the last one until January, but it is a different cast so I am done until that time. Hey, more time to memorize for the next one, right? 
I only made one post about work last week? Well, I was depressed about the state of the elections I guess. I truly believe we are in for a very rough four years, and that’s all I’m going to say about that. I know who my messiah is and He isn’t a politician. So my last post was about Wednesday, so that day is covered. Thursday and Friday were the same job, a special ed teacher. The interesting thing about this job was that it was a teacher-grade job, but the duties were more or less the exact same as the prior week’s teaching assistant job! The difference must be behind the scenes. The job was itinerant (traveling) but I didn’t know that until I showed up at the wrong school Thursday morning. A phone call later to verify where I was supposed to start, I was on my way to the other school. Got there, got started. Detailed plans- good. Start off in 4th grade where there is a student who appears to be autistic. They’re still working on his diagnosis. I helped where I could and then I was off to another 4th grade class to help other students with writing. I edited the papers of a couple of students who were on the teacher edit stage and then it was time to go back to the first class. I pulled a couple of students and worked with them outside of the room for a while, and then it was intervention time- something that was skipped last week at my assistant job because I had no plans for it. Half a dozen third-graders came in and we did a reading lesson about visualization and bugs. That ended and it was time to go to the other school. Only a half hour before I was scheduled to be in another class so no time to stop for lunch.
So now I was at the school I had initially gone to in the morning. Went to her desk and- no plans. After the detailed plans of the morning (which only included the morning!) there were no plans here? Say what? Okay, she had a schedule, so I just went to the rooms in question and followed whatever the teacher had for me. Lunch was 45 minutes after my start at this school (and I did bring a lunch by the way- I just like to stop for lunch instead when I travel, in which case I would save the lunch I brought for another day), and that’s when I learned that the teacher I subbed for was not expecting an afternoon sub. Nice. In fact, she initially expected no sub at all- she was apparently told that her position doesn’t get a sub (this is her first year there by the way). Interesting considering I have subbed for many teachers in this district with her job title. Somehow that changed and she expected one for the morning only. Well, I continued to follow her schedule for the afternoon, which included two 5th grade classes and a 2nd grade class. The second grade class had a student who was in a way the equivalent of the 4th grader I mentioned in the morning. No intervention group this afternoon, but I did notice she had one tomorrow. I was getting a little worried about that.
After the last class I returned to her office, and surprise- the teacher I was subbing for was there, due into a meeting after school. That would solve the plans problem for tomorrow, including the intervention class. Whew. She explained to me more about the miscommunication and that she would be sure to have plans for me the next day.
Friday went much the same as Thursday, with only a slight variation. Same classrooms, same kids. Today I gave spelling tests to a few of the kids who had special lists. I did this for a few kids each in the 4th grade classes. For 3rd grade intervention I finished the lesson from the day before and let them read silently for the rest of the time. Since I knew I had an extra 15 minutes today for travel I had time to pick up a Wendy’s lunch and scarf it down before 5th grade intervention. This class just had a writing assignment so no big problems there. Like the morning, the rest of the time was spent in the same classrooms as yesterday. A few written notes later I was on my way out for a nice weekend. Next up: drama.
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