A Note To Teachers
If you are a teacher, if you know a teacher, if your child has a teacher, if you were once taught by a teacher...
please be nice to your subs.
It is amazing to me the lack of information classroom teachers leave for me. It amazes me all the assumptions they hold on my behalf. It amazes me I even find my way to the end of the day sometimes. The following list is only a mere suggestion of what might be helpful information to a substitute teacher should you expect anything more than simple babysitting to occur. Although, from the way things have gone lately, I can only assume that what most subs do is little more than babysitting.
1. Is a seating chart or a list of names too much to ask for? Am I to simply telepathically know the name of the obnoxious child in row three?
2. Could you leave behind the schedule for the day? You know, perhaps knowing exactly WHEN lunch occurs (and even where in some cases) and WHEN exactly I need to pick them up again would be helpful. Likewise, just knowing when kids need to be on the bus would be equally important to know. I'll figure out how they get there and how they load and even what bus they ride on by myself. Just tell me when.
3. Could you leave twice as much work as you think we might get through in the allotted time? Just in case? Finishing early and having NO IDEA what else you might cover leaves me with time on my hands and kids ready to take over the world.
4. Perhaps some sort of a list of important phone numbers could be provided. It's handy to have that phone available right in the classroom, but if I have no idea that the office is actually extension 211, how will I ever actually get the help I need?
5. Tell me the name of one child (who is actually in class that day) that could be trusted to answer simple classroom questions. When assignments are complete, is there a "usual" location to put them? If you have indoor recess, can kids take books or games with them? Can children just take books to read off the shelves in the back or are those reserved for something else?
6. If you leave me a note (and thanks!) telling me to take the kids to the assembly, could you at least tell me if it's held in the gymnasium or in the cafeteria?
7. Perhaps it occurred to you to leave me with several rewards for a well-behaved class. Might you also leave me a few ideas as to what the students fear so I could utilize that information? Do I threaten (with intent) to call home, or send them to the office? Do I suggest they will stay in at lunch or have detention after school? What will hit home the fastest so I can stop wasting my time with threats they are unconcerned with?
8. Could you please let me teach? Don't pull in some para-professional who can't spell "seventy" to teach the math lesson. I can do it. Really. Really really.
9. If your classroom is in the mobile home parked in the parking lot, could SOMEONE provide me with a key to the room instead of just telling me to 'prop the door'? It only takes one little Kindergartener to open and then close the door when you are coming up to the door with 19 of his classmates to effectively lock you all out. In the rain. With no other adult in sight.
10. Above all else, could you PLEASE establish some general rules of respect and courtesy in your classroom on a day-to-day basis? Walking into a room that is completely unorganized, with no clear rules, with disrespect for each other as well as the regular teacher only leaves me, the sub, in a situation that is bad to start with and can only get worse.
Things I have witnessed in the last week:
1. A Kindergarten teacher's morning message to the kids read, "How do we use are hands everyday?" Um, 'ARE?' ARE you kidding me? (And no, despite my original hopes, it was not an intentional mistake for the kids to correct.)
2. A para-professional who repeatedly yelled at a Down's Syndrome child to stand at his desk because he allegedly was asleep at his desk. (She also yelled at him repeatedly to color, and then later to write his name over and over and over....he had no business being in the fourth grade room).
3. A teacher who asked students to give her their completed assignment at the end of the day and then yelled at the kids who got up out of their desk to go get the assignment they had put into the completed homework bin because she did not tell them to "get up out of their desks!"
4. A teacher so consumed with her cell phone call (about how her daughter's skirt was too short and she was going to have to take a different one for her to wear) that she did not acknowledge my presence in her classroom for TWENTY MINUTES despite the fact that I was standing right in front of her, in front of the class, without even knowing where to put my belongings.
I could go on and on, I just can't believe the state of some of these schools. I cannot believe how far behind academically some of these children are. I cannot get over the lack of respect at such young ages. I cannot believe that jeans and flip flops are acceptable teacher attire and are commonplace in the schools. Part of me wants to get my own classroom and try to help, and part of me is so scared of getting in and realizing I can't make a difference.
please be nice to your subs.
It is amazing to me the lack of information classroom teachers leave for me. It amazes me all the assumptions they hold on my behalf. It amazes me I even find my way to the end of the day sometimes. The following list is only a mere suggestion of what might be helpful information to a substitute teacher should you expect anything more than simple babysitting to occur. Although, from the way things have gone lately, I can only assume that what most subs do is little more than babysitting.
1. Is a seating chart or a list of names too much to ask for? Am I to simply telepathically know the name of the obnoxious child in row three?
2. Could you leave behind the schedule for the day? You know, perhaps knowing exactly WHEN lunch occurs (and even where in some cases) and WHEN exactly I need to pick them up again would be helpful. Likewise, just knowing when kids need to be on the bus would be equally important to know. I'll figure out how they get there and how they load and even what bus they ride on by myself. Just tell me when.
3. Could you leave twice as much work as you think we might get through in the allotted time? Just in case? Finishing early and having NO IDEA what else you might cover leaves me with time on my hands and kids ready to take over the world.
4. Perhaps some sort of a list of important phone numbers could be provided. It's handy to have that phone available right in the classroom, but if I have no idea that the office is actually extension 211, how will I ever actually get the help I need?
5. Tell me the name of one child (who is actually in class that day) that could be trusted to answer simple classroom questions. When assignments are complete, is there a "usual" location to put them? If you have indoor recess, can kids take books or games with them? Can children just take books to read off the shelves in the back or are those reserved for something else?
6. If you leave me a note (and thanks!) telling me to take the kids to the assembly, could you at least tell me if it's held in the gymnasium or in the cafeteria?
7. Perhaps it occurred to you to leave me with several rewards for a well-behaved class. Might you also leave me a few ideas as to what the students fear so I could utilize that information? Do I threaten (with intent) to call home, or send them to the office? Do I suggest they will stay in at lunch or have detention after school? What will hit home the fastest so I can stop wasting my time with threats they are unconcerned with?
8. Could you please let me teach? Don't pull in some para-professional who can't spell "seventy" to teach the math lesson. I can do it. Really. Really really.
9. If your classroom is in the mobile home parked in the parking lot, could SOMEONE provide me with a key to the room instead of just telling me to 'prop the door'? It only takes one little Kindergartener to open and then close the door when you are coming up to the door with 19 of his classmates to effectively lock you all out. In the rain. With no other adult in sight.
10. Above all else, could you PLEASE establish some general rules of respect and courtesy in your classroom on a day-to-day basis? Walking into a room that is completely unorganized, with no clear rules, with disrespect for each other as well as the regular teacher only leaves me, the sub, in a situation that is bad to start with and can only get worse.
Things I have witnessed in the last week:
1. A Kindergarten teacher's morning message to the kids read, "How do we use are hands everyday?" Um, 'ARE?' ARE you kidding me? (And no, despite my original hopes, it was not an intentional mistake for the kids to correct.)
2. A para-professional who repeatedly yelled at a Down's Syndrome child to stand at his desk because he allegedly was asleep at his desk. (She also yelled at him repeatedly to color, and then later to write his name over and over and over....he had no business being in the fourth grade room).
3. A teacher who asked students to give her their completed assignment at the end of the day and then yelled at the kids who got up out of their desk to go get the assignment they had put into the completed homework bin because she did not tell them to "get up out of their desks!"
4. A teacher so consumed with her cell phone call (about how her daughter's skirt was too short and she was going to have to take a different one for her to wear) that she did not acknowledge my presence in her classroom for TWENTY MINUTES despite the fact that I was standing right in front of her, in front of the class, without even knowing where to put my belongings.
I could go on and on, I just can't believe the state of some of these schools. I cannot believe how far behind academically some of these children are. I cannot get over the lack of respect at such young ages. I cannot believe that jeans and flip flops are acceptable teacher attire and are commonplace in the schools. Part of me wants to get my own classroom and try to help, and part of me is so scared of getting in and realizing I can't make a difference.
Comments
You go for it.
~applause~
Hang in there!
I think you would make an excellent teacher, Amy. And Jen's right--every single good teacher makes a huge difference, even if it sometimes feels like swimming upstream all the way. Could God be moving you in that direction?