Jan/100
Day 47 – 8th Grade Math
This was the first time I returned to a class when it wasn’t on consecutive days1. That made it a lot easier for both me and the kids in the class.
It was your basic math substitute day. Give the kids problems out of the book, take it up at the day, that sort of thing. I decided the part of my general being nicer goal should include letting the kids work together since there were no instructions and that they had to work alone. And except for having to remind one of the classes were quieter, things went pretty well.
It’s gotten to the point that school were all the kids know exactly what I’m going to expect them to do. Even the “bad kids” don’t try to pull anything on me beyond chewing gum.
Maybe it’s because I was so quick to send people out of the room before. Mmaybe it’s because I’ve just started to be nicer. Maybe it’s something else that I can think of right now. But what I do know is that I don’t think I’ll need to walk around with the referral forms anymore.
- But not the first time I’d picked up a job where I could return to a class, that one just hadn’t happened yet [↩]
Jan/100
Day 46 – 6th Grade Science
This was a very boring day, which I guess can be a good thing when you’re a sub depending on how you look at it.
This was my first day back at school I frequent most since Christmas break, and I could see the look of joy on some of the children’s faces when they saw me walking down the hall. I know it’s weird, but it’s true.
The first three classes just sat that their work. No talking, no trying to work together. Just doing their work. It’s probably every teacher’s dream.
Thankfully the last class actually made some noise right might have gone crazy.
Jan/101
My Subbing New Year’s Resolutions
Through a combination of my wife, some of our friends, and some comments I’ve heard from readers I’ve decided that there are some things that I could do better as a substitute teacher. I’ve taken some time to really think this over, including some actual days on the job. I think I’ve come up with a good list, but I’m open to suggestions.
- Be more understanding of what the teacher has left and how everything is left.
I think that one of my problems with this is that I’ve picked up most of my jobs at least the day before. In my mind, that has meant that the teacher had time to make sure that everything is ready for me. But I don’t know if that’s the case at all. They might have to rush out real quick at the end of the school day. In middle and high schools, they could have had another teacher cover their class for the rest of the day before. Heck, they could have had another sub the day before who didn’t leave a note or anything, which makes it look to me like the teacher was there the day before.I’ve also been assuming that teachers are super organized people. That was just stupid of me. Everyone’s different they’ll put things in a place that makes sense to them. And to me, having the sub folder out displayed prominently when you don’t need it most days just doesn’t make sense.
- Be more understanding of about the change in routine for the students.
These kids are used to the way their teacher does things, not what I or any sub would want. Especially in the lower grades, I think I can be better about keeping things the same for the students even if it’s not the way I’d like things to be done.
- Don’t get so annoyed/mad when I get asked about my name.
I have a last name that has some famous people attached to it, both real and fictitious. Just about every day I get asked by at least one student about these people. It gets old really fast. But I need to remember that while I’m hearing this everyday, the kids who are asking don’t know that. For the most part they probably think they’re being smart by making the connection.
- Remember to tell the class my name.
This one is only really a problem in middle and high schools. I tell the first few classes my name, and after that I have a tendency to forget. I think it’s because I’ve told the other classes so I think that I’ve already done it. Which I have, just not with every class. At least I remember to write my name on the board.
- Slow down with consequences that have lasting implications.
When I went through the subbing orientation they told us to take any crap from the students. I think I might have listened to that a little too closely. For example, kids who are talking during a video but are doing it quietly enough so that nobody else hears and the main reason I know about it is because I see their mouths moving. They probably don’t need to be sent out of the room and have something added to the disciplinary record. Sitting by themselves in the class should be enough. The class gets the message, and once class is over it really doesn’t matter anymore.
- Be less judgmental (with good and bad thoughts).
Judgmental probably isn’t the right word, but it’s the first word that comes to mind. What I mean is that I take a quick read of the students in the class as they come in and try to pick out which ones I think will be causing a problem. Here’s the problem though, I think I might be watching those students more closely. And if I’m watching someone more it makes sense that there’s a better chance of that person getting in trouble. To go along with that, it means that the other students can get away with more since I’m not watching them as closely. It’s really not a fair system, especially when I find out that I’m totally wrong about a kid.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on what I’ve come up with for myself and if there’s anything else you think I should work on.
Jan/100
Days 43, 44, and 45 – 7th Grade Math
I was sitting around the day before school started back up when I decided it would be a good idea to check and see if there were any jobs available. I’m glad I did.
This was originally a one day assignment. The first day was rather boring actually. Every class got the book for the state’s standardized test and did work out of that. Since I think that part of practicing for the test is putting them in as close to the same environment as I can, I had each student work individually and didn’t help anyone. And for the most part, everyone behaved pretty well. Not perfectly, I still had to remind people to stop talking and work by themselves. But they’re in 7th grade, if I didn’t have to do that at all I’d be a bit worried.
The next day was a little worse as far as behavior went. Three people got lunch detention for talking when they weren’t supposed to and one kid got a referral for arguing with me when I told him to move to a different seat and then later arguing again when I wouldn’t let him move back after the work had been turned in.
The only other issue that day was with one class’ homework. I let the class work together, and the didn’t do as good of a job budgeting their time as they should have. So there were some kids with lots of homework. I told them that the teacher would want to see it when she got back, but that I was going to be there again the next day and I wasn’t going to look at it1 so they’d have more than the one night to finish it.
Apparently that wasn’t enough to keep them from freaking out in the next class, where that teacher talked to the one I subbed for and together somehow came up with the idea that they didn’t need to worry about doing that for homework. Some of the kids got that message, some didn’t. Oh well, the extra work won’t hurt anyway.
The third day was the best as far as I’m concerned. It was another day of just giving the kids work out of the book. Like the second day, I helped out when I could because this wasn’t supposed to be practicing for the state standardized test. I did have one student who got a referral for arguing with me and rolling her eyes at me when I told her to be quiet after the class had lost the privilege working together and one kid who “forgot” that he had lunch detention for an inappropriate joke. He got off lucky and one of the other teachers on lunch duty just made him finish that day and do whatever time he’d missed the next day.
This was really a great group of kids and hopefully I’ll get the chance to go back. The other teachers and a few of the principals were impressed with the fact that I was able to keep them under control as well as I did and that I kept coming back. Hopefully that will turn into more work for me at that school.
- The teacher sent new lessons plan for each day and didn’t say anything about checking homework. [↩]
Jan/100
Days 16-42 All in One Shot
A new year is upon us, and due to a variety of factores I still haven’t gotten caught up with my subbing adventures. At this point, I feel like that would be pointless. I’ve had Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years clouding my memory.
Even without those three holidays, it’s been a while and I feel like I would be focusing way too much on the negative things that happend. I find that stuff better to read about when I go to other blogs. It’s also a lot easier for me to remember. Besides, a really good day is the kids sitting there doing what they’re told and what’s expected of them. If you ask me, that’s rather boring to read about.
So rather than trying to remember (and in some cases how to write it in a way that doesn’t make it too easy to pinpoint the school or anything) everything and write a day by day summary, here are some of the highlights.
- I had a computer class. The teacher left plans so I felt like I really had to let the kids use the computers, despite the fact that I never let that happen. One of the classes that day had to do work out of the book and didn’t like it that I wouldn’t let them work together.
- Later at that same school I had an art class. One of the kids from that computer class saw me and about wet their pants. I guess they thought I’d never be back. Another kid I had that day had to use the bathroom and when they didn’t have a pass decided it would be worth it to spend the rest of the class in in school suspension.
- I busted two kids at the same school but on different days for gun related stuff. One kid had drawings in a notebook that was left in the classroom. I talked to that teacher later and was thanked for taking care of that. Another kid got bored and started pretending to shoot toward the front of the room.
- I got another class with a student teacher. This time though the student teacher and the real teacher were both at the doctor so I actually got to do stuff.
- I had a husband and wife on two consecutive days. Same subject, but different schools and grade levels.
- I had strep but finished a day becuase I had no idea what was wrong with me. I’ve never had anything like that, and if I had thought about that at all I would have gone down to the nurse and gotten checked out.
- I got locked out of a school. They gave me a key but didn’t tell me how to use it. This was at the end of the day too. I almost had to walk around the entire building but luckily someone saw me.
- I had a few times where classes that I’d had before asked me when I would be coming back and told me their plans for getting their teacher sick so I could come back.
- I had a class who wouldn’t start behaving when I told them their regular teacher wouldn’t like it, but they started behaving when I told them that the student teacher some of them had the year before would hear about it.
- Right before Thanksgiving I was worrying about getting a job at all since it was a two day week. Then I picked up a two day assignment.
- I got to sub in a language class for a language I don’t speak. Thankfully that was middle school and they didn’t really speak it either.
- Right before Christmas I was worried about finding a job and honestly didn’t want to go into a class and give out busywork. Kids are smart, they know most of the time when the work doesn’t matter. Luckily I got to give a test, nobody can aruge that that doesn’t matter. I had a chance to go back to that same class the next day but turned it down because I had to be somewhere else at a time when I couldn’t do both things. Around 10am that other thing was canceled.
So there, I’m all caught up. From now the daily summaries will actually be written close to the day that’s being talked about.
Dec/090
Still Waiting
It’s the last week before Christmas Vacation1 Teachers shouldn’t be taking time off, the administration usually doesn’t like that kind of thing. They should be giving tests and taking up projects and other various end of the semester (or at least before a giant break) activities.
The jobs are a lot less plentiful right now. I have the website reloading every 5 seconds so I can grab something quick. I’m not really paying too much attention to what the job is, which is why I’ve picked up a 2 day assignment in Kindergarten for after the break.
I did have a PE job tomorrow. That got taken away from me for whatever reason. I’m going to tell myself that they wanted to assign it to a specific sub and put it into the system wrong. It makes me fell better.
I did have a job yesterday in middle school. I could have picked up a 3 day assignment for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. But I need to be somewhere ready to take pictures at 4:30 on Froday afternoon. The middle schools here get out at 3:45. I took too long trying to figure out if I’d have time to get over there, find parking, and get myself set up.
Waiting sucks. I can’t start doing laundry because there’s a chance I could get called or pick up something where they want me there 10 minutes ago. I can’t really go anywhere either. I mean, I guess I could and just have my phone with me. But I’ve picked up jobs online a lot more often lately then getting calls. Granted, I’ve also picked up most of my jobs the night before or earlier.
And those half days aren’t helping either. I’d be ecstatic to pick up a half day for today. But all of the ones that are showing up are for the rest of the week and I don’t like grabing half days in the future because it means there’s no chance in Hell that I can pick up a full day.
- I don’t care what the name of it technically is. I was at a school recently where a girl was reading the Bible during recess. That means I can call it Christmas Break if I want to. [↩]
Dec/090
Days 14 and 15 – 5th Grade
Alright, I told you that there were some happy times coming up and this is definitely one of them.
This was a two day assignment that I picked up one day at a time. I would have rather known that I’d be there for the second day. Mostly because the kids kept asking if I would be.
I think the best way to describe this class is that I could have put a baby monitor in the room and wandered around the halls and they still would have behaved and done their work. Not that I would actually even seriously consider doing that1.
I got into the room and they took a few seconds to see that they had a sub, then they started doing their morning work. That was the theme throughout the day, they did what they were supposed to do.
The only problem came in the first day. Most of the class was supposed to be pulled out for some kind of gifted program thing and the teacher was late for whatever reason. The kids I had still did their work, but they were constantly checking to see what time it was and looking at the door as if they had the power to make her magically appear to take them away.
If I could have a class like this every day I’d be a very happy sub. I also wouldn’t have anything to write about because I think reading about how a class behaved the entire time over and over would be rather boring.
- much less do it, no class behaves that well [↩]
Dec/090
Day 13 – 3rd Grade
I know I said I was going to make things happier for you to read. I really should have saved that, because this was about the worst class I’ve ever had. I’ll even go ahead and give you a glimpse into the future and let you know that I have not had a class as bad as this since either.1
There were kids who just wouldn’t stop talking and were distracting others. That was the problem with most of the class.
No, I take that back. The problem with most of the class stemmed from one kid who was walking around like he’d already joined a gang and didn’t have any reason to be at school because his drug money would support him for the rest of his life. The real problem was that everyone else in the class was watching what he was doing and would either laugh about it or come up to tell me what this kid was doing.
This kid was sent to the office pretty early in the morning. I’d like to think that I have enough patience to deal with kids who have attitude problems. But with the sheer amount of his actions, I couldn’t get the other kids to pay attention. So I sent his work up to the office with him. I know that some sort of legal guardian had to come to the school and talk with (I’m assuming) someone in the office.
It got to the point with this class that I had to stop teaching so I could get them to calm down. I’d also been told that the class had been behaving badly for subs, so I told the class that if they behaved for a sub that they liked then the teacher would ask that sub to come back and the sub would actually do it.
You’ll never guess what happened. The class started to behave. It was amazing.
The day wasn’t all bad though, even before that conversation. Throughout the day there were kids trying to get everyone else to pay attention, or at least be quiet so other people could pay attention. There were kids who called me over to their desk so they could get more instruction on something they didn’t understand.
And remember the wannabe gangster? At some point during the day the office sent him back. I’d sent all of his work up with him, so there wasn’t anything left that he hadn’t already seen. Well, he didn’t cause any more problems for the rest of the day. He didn’t even freak out when I went over some of his work with him and showed him which problems he needed to do again.
I think this was the most interesting note I ever left for the teacher. There’s no way I wouldn’t tell her about the problems we had that day. But then at the end I told her that I’d love to come back and she had a great group of kids.
Weird, I know. With the way the day started I never would have thought it had a positive outcome.
- I promise, the next entry will be a happy one. I looked on my calendar to make sure. [↩]
Dec/091
A Note to the Readers
First off, thanks for reading. I really appreciate the fact that you’re taking the time to do this. Also thanks for the comments. It’s great to see the reaction to what I’ve written.
One thing I didn’t want this to turn into is a giant bitch fest. I love subbing, and for the most part I’ve got good kids in the classes I visit. But it seems that one of my worst fears for this blog is coming true.
Part of the problem is that I’m still in the process of catching up with where I am today. It’s just so much easier to remember the bad kids/experiences for me, mostly because the goods ones consist mainly of people doing things that they were asked to do or otherwise should have been doing anyway.
That kind of thing would be memorable to me if I was there everyday to see it. But it’s not that memorable when I’m only there for one day. Especially when I have the other end of the spectrum in the same day.
I’m going to make an effort to not make this look like I hate the kids I teach. It helps that I’m pretty close to being caught up too, so I can remember more of what went on that day.
With that in mind, please know that there will be some good posts in the near future. But also understand that some days are just bad, and I’m not going to hide those. I know there are going to be times when there are 2 or 3 or maybe 4 posts in a row that make it seem like I hate doing this. The truth is that I don’t, and if I do decide that I really don’t like a certain school or class then I just won’t go back to that environment. There are over 200 teachers that I can sub for in the middle school in just 1 district that I work with. It’s not like I’m going to have to go somewhere that I truly don’t like.
Nov/092
Day 12 – 8th Grade Social Studies
You know how I got to start this day? In homeroom, or whatever the equivalent is, one of the kids told another student that he was going to shoot her. And we’re close to downtown, where the previous week someone really had been shot. I swear, that had to be one of the dumbest things that kid could have said.
I’m not going to play around and think that someone is joking with that kind of thing. Especially downtown. He went to the principal’s office and when that class came back they were talking about this kid being suspended. Serves him right for being a little dumbass like that.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Except for the one kid who thought that he could do whatever he wanted as long as he was super polite when he talked to me. Those kids are the worst. Being polite does not get your out of doing work or being quiet when I ask you to be quiet. Being super polite all the time just looks fake and annoys me to know no end.
Really, what can you do with kids like that? I can’t write them up because they’re being polite. I’m not going to hope that the office will see things my way, especially at a school I haven’t been to before. The most I can do is make them sit by themselves. Of course he argued about that, because he wasn’t allowed to sit where I told him to sit.
It was an empty desk with no one around it.
Because of today, when I’m in middle or high schools from now on I’m going to have the referrals out where I can grab them in less than 2 seconds.
