Learn and Serve Day 1- 9/23

I am excited to be in a 7th grade English classroom this semester. Last Wednesday was my first day. The teacher that will be my Learn and Serve "mentor?" was not there. There was a substitute teacher and an aid in the classroom. Within the first five minutes of my arrival, a group of boys threw a balled up piece of paper at a group of girls. The substitute picked up the paper and ignored the behavior. In this case, his strategy worked because they stopped. A few minutes later there was an outburst between two boys. (They were supposed to be reading silently.) One boy said, "Stop looking at me! Are you gay or something?" All the students started laughing. In this case the aid interveined. She took the boy who was being disruptive (and mean) out into the hallway and had a talk with him. After that, there were not anymore problems with him. The substitute teacher read aloud a short story "Mechanical Mind", by Gary Soto. The students completed a worksheet on the story. I noticed while the substitute was reading that one girl was not paying attention or following along in her copy. The other two teachers in the classroom did not seem to notice. When it came time to complete the worksheet, she just sat there. Her friend, who was sitting next to her finished her worksheet in about ten minutes. When she was done, she gave it to her friend and her friend started to copy. Again, I think I was the only one who noticed this behavior. I didn't know if I should step-up and say something or not especially since it was my first day. I walked over to the girls and said very quietly, "You should try to think about the answers yourself. You can use the story to find the answers. If you need help, let me know, I will help you." The girl who was letting her friend copy, removed her paper from her friend's sight. After class ended, I looked at the student's paper who was copying. She had finished the worksheet and she had come up with some good answers on her own. During the class almost every student asked to either get a drink or go to the bathroom. They may have been taking advantage of the substitute. This class had 18 students. The second class period had 25 students and hardly any disruptions or problems, with the same class schedule as the first.