For the last three weeks, I’ve been subbing for an English teacher. She has four classes.
I knew, immediately, that this would be a good subbing assignment. The students are respectful and work hard.
Last week, there was a fund raiser for leukemia and lymphoma. It was called Pennies for Patients. The way the fund raiser worked is that buckets would be given to each first period class. Every day, first period classes were encouraged to dump change in the buckets. The buckets would be collected each day, and the change counted with totals accumulating during the week. The class that collected the most money would be rewarded with a Chick fil A chicken biscuit party.
Well, you know me. I like challenges. I also like to win. Put the two together, and you have one very determined substitute teacher.
I went in, guns blazing, encouraging my the 23 students in my first period class to pull out all stops. Mrs. AuburnChick wanted a chicken biscuit party! More important, though, was the very worthy cause.
The first day, we only dumped in a couple of dollars’ worth of change. No biggie. Word was still getting out, and I was only getting started.
The second day, I grabbed a gallon-sized baggie and scoured my house for change. We have a large glass mug that we dump change into. Down it went, into the baggie.
When I went to school, I showed it to the students and made a big show of pouring it into the bucket. The girls who came around to collect change brought with them a small baggie.
“Honey, you’re going to need something a little bigger than that,” I told one girl. She grabbed the bucket and carried it off with her.
That day, we upped our total to over $30. My students were encouraged.
The next three days, we continued to put in money. My students surprised me by bringing in baggies of their own.
Day #4 arrived, and I could not believe what I saw when I got to school.
The bucket was nearly half full…
One student dropped in six, two-dollar bills! So generous!
Now, that day after first period, I had Planning. I became discouraged about some other matter and went back to school a little down.
When I returned, I started teaching my third period students. Unexpectedly, Chicky made an appearance in my classroom.
She had been in her Leadership class. It’s a class where the students assist one of the teachers with various SGA activities. These students do a lot of behind-the-scenes work and are vital to keeping various activities around school going.
They had been in charge of counting the money collected all week.
Chicky proudly announced that my class had collected a little over $114.
Just that day.
Day #4.
I sat in my chair in shock.
My spirits lifted.
My 23 ninth-grade students had collected over $100 in change.
Unbelievable.
Now, something I haven’t told you yet is that every afternoon, the teacher in charge of the fund raiser had been sending emails to the staff giving the top five class totals. My class started out not even being on the list. The second day we were in third place, but we dropped to fifth place on Day #3.
The teacher in first place also “happened” to be the teacher in charge of the fund raiser. She claimed it wasn’t rigged, but rumor had it that she had been throwing in $20 bills…something I could not afford to do.
So, I had gotten even more competitive. This is such a nice teacher…all of the students love her, and I have chatted with her a few times. She’s awesome! But I was out to beat her.
AuburnChick wanted a chicken biscuit party.
Day #4’s total put us in the lead by $50!!!
I was psyched!
I talked about it to everyone I knew. Other students asked me what I had said to them. I told them that I’d said I am a soccer mom. Second place doesn’t get the trophy. It’s not worth doing anything if you don’t give it your all.
Words of encouragement, don’t you know.
Plus, Mrs. AuburnChick wanted a chicken biscuit party.
After our grand showing on Day #4, I didn’t hold out much hope for Day #5. I mean, one can only collect so much change.
My students, however, had different ideas.
I got to school early, and the students were already arriving…eager to start dumping in change.
Folks, my students brought in MORE baggies of money.
We made a big deal of each one, holding each up for the class to see before pouring the change in.
Students dropped in $1 bills and dug in their pockets to fish out quarters.
Inspired, I hunted through my wallet one more time. I knew I had given every spare bit of change, but still I looked in the hope that I had missed a coin or two.
I found 50 cents in my pants pocket and a nickel hiding in my wallet.
I threw in the nickel with an Emeril “Bam!” My students laughed.
My bucket was now 3/4 full!!
The girls came in to collect my bucket, and their eyes bulged. I proudly announced that we had collected over $114 the day before, and I was hoping to top that amount.
They looked dismayed, and I quickly figured out why.
They were students in my main competition’s class.
(insert evil laugh here)
Yeah, I’m mean.
Before they could leave my class, though, one of my students arrived (a little tardy). She said, “Wait, I have money.”
We waited…
And watched…
As she reached for her wallet…
And pulled out…
A…
Crisp $20 bill!!!!!
We all cheered. You probably could have heard us from the front office.
I proudly displayed the bill for my class, explaining to the girls waiting to take it that my class had seen it. I didn’t want it to go “missing.” And then I buried it into the change just in case it wanted to “fly” off the pile when the girls walked down the hallway.
They left, one girl carrying the bucket with both arms.
I went to the door and watched them walk down the hallway. I encouraged them to be very careful. I didn’t want them “tripping” and spilling my precious change on the floor.
Yeah, I’m bad.
AuburnChick wanted a chicken biscuit party.
Chicky came into my classroom later that day.
Wanna know what we collected?
$125!!!!!
Can you believe it? We topped the previous day’s total!!
That afternoon, an email came across the system.
Chicky’s class had raised a grand total of $273.96!!! We beat the #2 class by $125.82!!
AuburnChick is getting her chicken biscuit party.
More importantly, the school fund raiser raised over $600.
In one week.
That’s no small change.
My students told me that if I was a regular teacher at the school, I would probably win all of the contests.
If there’s a chicken biscuit party (or chocolate) offered as a reward, you betcha!!
Filed under: Charity | Tagged: fund raising, teenagers | 5 Comments »
AuburnChick's Adventures 