On to New Adventures

I finished my longterm sub job a few days ago. I finished the required tasks yesterday, but wasn't paid for yesterday. As with many salaried jobs, completing the work defines the job not the days and hours. As a teacher you are finished when the grades are posted, not when the students leave the classroom.

It was a good experience at the Ag Farm. I enjoyed applying Math to the construction of a drain pipe and building a wrought iron fence. I started a compost bin and another teacher did also. The students will compare how material breaks down in a concrete floored bin versus a dirt floored bin. I also learned that certain liberties should be given to a working farm that is a "classroom" also. Things aren't always neat and tidy when you're trying to teach high schoolers about agriculture. Especially when the butcher  has just shot a pig that is bleeding out and will be skinned. That is Biology 1 at its best when students see the leg bone connected to the hip bone.

I was also reminded why I retired from teaching full time. I know I and less resilient and tolerant that when I was younger, but something is different today with many students. This will sound like an Old Man Rant, but students are more self centered and less empathetic. Cells phones are any issue and I don't have any answers regarding them. I see them a powerful tool to aid teaching, but I also see too many students addicted to them. The need to be connected to others should not be satisfied in your hands but in your conversations with other humans.

The best part of this gig was working with a great group of teachers. The three other teachers welcomed me, helped me and included me as one of their own. I was a part of a team and that is what human interaction is really about.