October 5, 2010: children coming out the wazoo

So I don't know how much I've said about my job so far. My position is technically "Para-professional/Supervisor in the ESOL department of the Provo City School District." Sounds pretty fancy, eh? Nice how I can fool people that way: I'm really just a babysitter. While their parents go learn English, I take care of kids from 6ish-8ish Tuesday-Thursday, excluding holidays.

It was a pretty cushy job for a few weeks there. Three weeks ago on back, we had 4 'teachers' and a volunteer, to take care of 6 well-behaved children. Not exactly a hard job.

I guess I should have known it couldn't last forever. My supervisor quit, which means I got bumped up. More responsibility for the same pay...yay!....Why do I seem so un-enthused? I bet lots of people would love to be in my position! Let me explain:

I hate planning crafts. Hate it. When I worked in a pre-school/daycare center a year and a half ago, crafts were what sucked out my extra spending money and took up the only free time I had, and I was constantly agonizing "Oh man, what are we going to do next week?!" I'd spend hours trying to find 'crafts' or 'activities' online that could be fun for the kids, but didn't require many materials. This is harder than you would think! Or easier than I think. Either way.

My supervisor was great, because she was the head honcho and she would plan out our days. I just got to follow along, helping the kids. But since she's left, and our regular amount of kids has gone from six to 22, things have changed quite a bit.

It really is interesting how you never know what the day is going to bring. Some days I get home and think "That was tiring, but it was really great!" or other days "Ugh. I need to ask Sam to get a vasectomy." (Not really, relax...)

So what did today bring?
Well,
a) I had forgotten babies could scream so loudly and make themselves sick from missing their parents so much,
b) I was impressed with how the older troublemakers, when given some responsibility, can step up so much,
and c) I have that much more respect for Elementary Education majors. Seriously, why would you want to submit yourself to that? I'm glad you're out there, folks! I can only imagine the horror our schools would become if there were 20 Ariel's trying to teach the classes. Helloooooo five hour nap time.