First Day of School: Self-PortraitThat's right. I can now count myself among the gainfully employed once again. And none to soon; the coffers were running low. I wanted to write this post to share this good news yesterday, but it was a housemate's birthday and festivities had to be provided for and attended to (and I didn't have to sub so I spent the first 6 hours of the day in my pajamas reading books and playing games). And this evening I have plans too, so this will have to be brief. Now I give you thoughts on and recounted adventures in SUBSTITUTE TEACHING...
Monday was President's Day. I was taking it easy, relaxing, half-heartedly looking for jobs... and I was still under the impression that the required criminal background check for my substitute teaching license wouldn't be finished for at least a few more days, maybe a week. So though I went to bed with my phone turned on and atop my night stand I also went to bed at 1:30 am after a showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, some funny YouTube videos, and half a chapter of a really cool/nerdy book (The Visual Display of Quantitative Information). And wouldnchaknowit, the phone woke me up at 6:30 the next morning. "Good morning. Can you sub today?" Now or never. "Sure." "Okay, you'll be subbing for Mrs. Yoder at the Middle School..."
This was it! Having never set foot in a classroom (other than as a grade schooler myself, or as a college T.A.) before I donned myself in professional raiment, brushed the snow off my car and drove in the direction of that huge metaphorical 'fire' into which one is thrown to be tested. (I came out a little over-cooked, thanks in part to my previously mentioned sweater vest.)
I was to sub for a 6th grade English teacher. Fun. With the exception of perhaps all of K-5, this setting terrified me the most of all the possibilities. On the plus side, if I could survive this, I could survive anything. And it wasn't too bad. I surprised myself. Before I go on about my Mad Kid Skillz let me just give a shout out to the real heroes: Rita, the super-nice secretary who greeted me when I first came in, Anastasia, the super-nice teacher who led me to my classroom, befriended me and let me eat lunch with her and others, and all 3 of the amazing paras who worked in my classroom and helped keep the situation contained. I guess when it's a thousand vs maybe a hundred, the hundred have to band together if they want to have a hope of keeping the punk-ass thousand at bay.
My day as a 6th grade English teacher was trying. My first two classes were honors classes, and they mostly stayed on task, but I still had to put out my share of fires: kids talking, getting up out of their seats, ripping up their magazines... and the basic English classes were even worse. In short, it was a day-long lesson in how to efficiently use discipline, or the threat thereof, to keep a small mob of hormones from destroying the room. Every class did have its good students, and whenever I could I tried to help and encourage them, but those free moments were few and far between. (Thank god for my planning period - one full hour of paid bliss... and frantic alteration of strategy and rallying of courage!)
Today I was called back to duty. Apparently I left a good impression on the GMS English department because today I was in the classroom of an 8th grade English teacher. Maybe it's because this teacher had a much better handle on her class, maybe it was the maturity that 2 years can develop in young adolescents, or maybe it was the fact that two of my classes today were honors, but today was AWESOME!! The kids were quiet (with some motivating on my part), helpful, respectful and just plain good. Though I had previously sworn I would never teach any grade below 9th, this week's transition from 6th to 8th grade left me feeling pretty good about 8th graders.
Now I really should be heading to dinner, but before I do, some quick thoughts and anecdotes (I'm sure there will be many more to come, as education is fast becoming a passion of mine and... kids say the darndest things...):
-I really feel for good kids stuck in groups or classes with rowdy kids. So many times on Tuesday I wanted to just ignore the kids who were throwing stuff and work with the good kids on learning. Likewise I found it difficult to mandate a one-library-pass-at-a-time policy (to keep the rowdy and grinning boys from wreaking havoc in the hallways) while there was also a line of perfectly responsible children with legitimate reasons for going.
-Surprisingly, the only two comments on my long hair thus far: "Are you a hippie?" and "How long did it take you to grow out your hair?!"
-How does one maintain control? A fellow 6th grade teacher advised starting off on a stern, in-control foot and never backing down from there. And that was more or less necessary with the 6th graders. Today, however, I found that giving students the benefit of the doubt and respecting them resulted only in students who were more open to doing what I told them. Maybe (probably) it was just a difference in maturity, but it will be interesting to experiment with the gentle-but-firm respect vs Super Substitute Smackdown laying on of authority ratio.
-Today, a question from the student after their assignments were completed: "Do you play video games?" Yeah, sometimes. "Oh! What kinds?" Mostly ones for 64. [blank stares] Nintendo 64. [blank stares] You know. Old school. "Ohhhhh, yeah. Yeah, like Super Smash Bros..." At a mere 23 years old, only 2 years out of college, I reeeeeeally dated myself today.
-Another question: "Do you like [name of clothing brand I'm not familiar with]?" I don't know what that is. "Like the clothes." I've never heard of that. "Are you a prep?" Uh... no, I'm just poor.
Well, off I go. More later. Just rest assured (for those who were concerned) that I'm back to work.
Woot.
Here's my favorite subbing story. Once I was subbing for a teacher who taught French at the middle school and high school. Her first class of the day was a middle school French class. We flew through everything the teacher had planned for me, so I used a handy sub trick and told the kids that their last task for the day was to write a letter to their teacher about how their class went that day. The best response:
ReplyDelete"Our sub today had an eyebrow ring. She didn't speak a lick of French, though."
Keep up the good work! Subbing is tough! I agree that discipline is important. The high school seniors especially will try to get away with murder unless you establish up front that you will make them do their work and you will require them to pay attention to you. :)