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One of my hobbies over my two month Christmas break (in addition to watching Netflix, making hot chocolate, and pinning stuff on Pinterest) is subbing at a middle school. Although I'm not an English Education major - I'm just English - I sometimes wish I hadn't completely ruled out Education when I was choosing a major. My dad works at a middle school and so he encouraged/bullied/harassed me into applying to be a substitute over break. I applied, had a little interview, and then this past week I was asked to sub on Tuesday for sixth grade, then Wednesday and Thursday for eighth grade. 

Waking up at 6am when I had previously been waking up at 10-11am was exhausting, but hanging out with middle schoolers all day was even more exhausting! When I finally came home on Thursday afternoon, I collapsed in the kitchen and said to my 13 year old brother, "Michael - how do you hang out with middle schoolers all day. They're awful." I was looking for some sympathy but instead he just looked at me and said "Yeah I know. I knew you'd be eaten alive. That's why I didn't want you to be a sub in Gilford." Good to know that my brother supports me... but seriously, he's like dead set against me subbing at Gilford. I thought it might be good because he could tell all his friends to be nice to me. It probably won't happen though.

Anyways, so on my first day of subbing for 6th grade on Tuesday, I was a pretty nervous and didn't sleep the night before (because what if they hated me? What if they all turned against me and locked me in a closet?) but when my alarm went off at 6am, I leapt out of bed and hurried to get ready in the teacher-outfit that I had picked out the night before (note: I realized that I only have a few pairs of pants that aren't jeans. I have a black pair, a maroon pair, and a pair of grey jeans that I wore on the last day because I tried to pretend like they weren't actually jeans). So when I was finally in my first class at 7:30am, with twenty 6th graders looking up at me, I was still a little bit nervous but I was ready to get the day going. In all of my classes that day, I started off with "I'm Ms. Wernig, Mr. Wernig's daughter. You guys have had Mr. Wernig, right?" I had to clarify that I was his daughter because when I observed at the middle school last year, there were a handful of kids that thought I was his wife. Gross. 

When I mentioned that we were related, one girl looked at her friend and mouthed they have the same nose while tapping her nose with her index finger. Now this may not seem like a big deal... but if you know what a Wernig nose can look like, you would've been a little annoyed too. It's not a cute little button nose, to say the least. 

Overall, the sixth graders were pretty cute and mellow. There was one boy that said "Hi Ms. Wernig" or "Bye Ms. Wernig" or "See you after lunch Ms. Wernig" whenever the class left and returned from lunch or form another class. They were interested in where I went to school, if I wanted to be a teacher or not, etc. I told them that I would decide if I wanted to be a teacher after I was done with this whole subbing business. One girl said, "You don't look old enough to be a teacher. How old are you, sixteen? Seventeen? Do you drive a car?" Like I said, they were pretty cute. As cute as middle schoolers can be. 

The same can't be said for the next two days that I spent with the eighth graders. I had always heard that seventh grade is the worst grade. It's like they don't have the lingering cuteness of 5th and 6th graders but they're still not the "cool" eighth graders. But Michael is in seventh grade and he's pretty cool and not annoying. But after those two days with eighth graders... I'm pretty sure eighth graders are the worst. It's like they think they're really cool... but the problem is that no one in the world - except for these eighth graders themselves - think that they're cool. I get it - they're trying to figure stuff out and so naturally they're going to be awkward and strange and odd and sometimes just plain weird... but do they have to be so sassy?! Seriously. I'm pretty sure middle school in general is a breeding ground for awkwardness and attitude but eighth graders must be the worst offenders of this. Here are a few conversations that I heard in the hall at the beginning of the school day: 

"YES we have a sub in Mr. White's room!"

      "Who is it?"

"I don't know, but she's a young-un!"

      "Is she hot?"

"Who's that hottie substitute?"

       "It's Mr. Wernig's daughter!" 

Like I said... awkward. This wasn't something that happened over the past week but it was pretty funny - when I was there last year, one boy told me, "You're a lot prettier that Mr. Wernig."

So other than the fact that all of these eighth graders seemed to like my teacher outfit, they had so much attitude in the classroom! Like blatantly ignore me when I'd tell them to be quiet. They would look up at me, narrow their eyes and glare at me for a few seconds, and then turn their chairs around to continue talking to their friends. They'd try to convince me that they always leave the room without a pass, they always play board games in class, they always write on the board instead of do their work, they always play on the piano keyboard in the back of the room during a silent reading workshop. 

At the end of the day on Thursday, a boy came up to me and said "do you want a kiss?" and I pretty much fell out of my seat and said "WHAT?" Then he asked me again and put a little Hershey's kiss on my desk and ran back to his seat. I guess the eighth graders aren't all bad... Anyways, it wasn't too terrible and I do get paid for doing this, so I'm hoping to go back for a few days next week too. Then maybe I'll decide if I eventually want to be a teacher or not. ;)