I did some math tutoring for a coupla of years. I actually had a substitute teaching credential, but I hated that. I discovered I was not a teacher. I'm a tutor. I don't like to teach, but I love explaining things. Couldn't keep the kids in their seats, couldn't get them to shut up when teaching, but if they ask you a question, then they are interested and will pay attention.
My first experience with "professional teaching" was when a principle of a Christian school called up and wanted my wife to come in for work. She was already at work and the guy asked me if I could just sit in on some preschoolers. That sounded like fun, so I said yes.
It WAS fun. I enjoyed it a lot. The only problem came when he asked me to teach a first grade class. I thought it would be like preschool, being as the kids were only a year older, but it wasn't anything like it. I hated it. At the time I hadn't gotten the difference between tutoring and teaching.
One time when I was subbing, this kid in the First Grade kept getting out of his seat so I had him sit on the floor. Then his buddy started up so I had him sit there too. That didn't stop them so I had them lay face down on the floor. I went back to my desk and when I turned around to look at the class, there were these two Black kids spread-eagled on the floor -- their hands out in front of them. Looked like I was training them for their future.
I quickly got them out of that position and back into their seats before someone came in and saw it. I then took the whole class for a walk around the perimeter of the playground. I noticed a lot of the teachers out there were watching us -- wondering what the hell we were doing. I never again subbed. I found out about tutoring from my middle son.
One time I had my son look at my paycheck. He handed it back with no comment, so I asked him, "Did I make $300 an hour? He said, "looks like it." I have no idea what that was all about. I don't think I was worth that much money, but you never know.
Middle school children -- from the ages of eleven, twelve, thirteen, like that, they understand the English language but they are sometime so naive about things that it blows the mind.
I was standing next to a teacher waiting for the children to come into the room and we were talking and I told her I thought the kids were like babies you could talk to and she said she didn't think that was true and just then this eleven or twelve year old girl came up and asked her a question that I wish I could remember, but I don't. Anyhow, as the child walked away I turned to the teacher and said, "See what I mean?" And she nodded and said, "Yes," with a humorous look on her face 'cause what the kid asked was pretty funny. It didn't make any sense, adult-wise.
One time a freshman asked me how many feet in a mile and I said, "Five thousand two hundred and eighty." She looked at me funny and said, "Aw, no it's not." I said, Yep, it is." She thought a while and said, "How'd you know that?" I said I learned it in school.
High school kids -- especially seniors, they were the easiest. The younger they were, the more difficulty I had. When I was pre-schooling I just played with the kids and read books to them. Once I noticed nobody seemed to be listening to my reading so I stopped and they complained. I said, "Well nobody was listening."
They claimed they were so I quizzed them, and by golly, young children can focus on many things at once. While they were listening, they were talking, looking around, playing -- all sorts of things. Bless the children.
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When I took the Volvo in for servicing, I used to go to this restaurant to eat while I waited. I always sat at the counter. On the wall above the cash register was a hundred dollar counterfeit bill. Also with it was a cashed three party check alongside a sign that said "We do not cash two party checks."
I asked the lady about these two things and she said the $100 counterfeit came from a guy that used to work there and it was the only $100 bill theytook in that day, so it was pretty easy to catch him. She said the guy told them that he bought it at school -- it was a copied $100 bill.
I asked her if the "no cash bad check" sign had been up there whey they cashed the bad three party check, figuring that was the impetuous for the sign, but she said no, the sign had been there when they cashed the check. She said the lady sounded so sincere, had a sick father that needed medicine and they had cashed checks for her before and they were all right, this one wasn't. She said she never saw the lady again.
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I was watching a Sacramento news station and they were doing a special on a local famous bail bondsman and bounty hunter. So I see this guy with a rifle and a sheriff standing next to him, and the guy is shooting at a fleeing felon on a motorcycle. It didn't seem like he was trying to hit him, but the puffs of dirt were coming pretty close to the guy's front tires, so I think he was trying to shoot out the tires.
What got me was that the sheriff and the bounty hunter were just standing there, the bounty hunter shooting at a guy, the sheriff commenting on how close the shots were. Now, the sheriff was not allowed to shoot at a guy that way, so what made it OK for a private citizen to do it? That's crazy, right? Something amiss?
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