Being the Substitute

I would never want to be a substitute.

Let me repeat.

I would never ever want to be a substitute.

Substitutes have

the hardest jobs ever.

The kids don't care about you because they know they'll never see you again.  Therefore they think they can do whatever they want. It's the psychology of anonymity. 

I had to sub before during ACCESS testing (testing English language abilities on ELLs). 

Define: ELL

English Language Learners

It was awful.  I'm a teacher, and I know classroom management.  But this was not my classroom, and I had no management.  Coincidentally, no one had fun.  I had to continually be on guard, reminding them to do their work, quieting them down, and telling them 'no, you can't throw paper airplanes across the room.'

David Sipress Cartoon

We are currently in PARCC testing for language arts and math.  This week is seventh grade.  Next week is eighth grade.  Because some of the teachers are pulled out of their classes to administer and proctor the test, the rest of us teachers help cover their classes during our prep periods.

Monday morning I had prep.  

Monday morning I was assigned to an 8th grade language arts class.  

Monday morning I had a plan. 

Before the students walked in, I told them in my teacher voice that they were to walk in quietly, take a seat, and get out a piece of paper and a pencil while I got their assignment from the desk.  

Define: Teacher Voice

A voice of power!!  I feel so grown up when I use it. 

(Use with caution-- never use to demean or criticize a student)

They walked in, I picked up the assignment, and walked straight up to the front of the room.

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    Students chatting to one another as they sit down. 

"Alright.  Mr. C isn't going to be teaching you today.  

    Slowly registering that someone is talking and slowly starting to finish conversation. 

"I'm your substitute.

"I know that it's not typical to respect substitutes, but today you're going to respect me.

    Quiet and listening. Who is this lady?

"So this is how it's going to go:

"This is going to be elementary.  You're going to do your work, as assigned to you.  There will be points given if you are paying attention to your assignment.

    Students looking at me with interest. 

"These points will be tallied up.  At the end of the class period, the three people with the highest points . . . "

    Students lean in for answer

"will receive a piece of candy."

    Students lean back. Smirks on 90% of the faces.  'She thinks she can buy us with candy??'

    No, dear children.  I think I can buy you with marks on a piece of paper called 'points'.  And I will. 

"Students who are not paying attention to their work will have their names written down with details on their behavior for Mr. C to review after he returns.  I will also be using the points to let Mr. C know which students were working hard and doing a good job. 

"[Calls on a student], would you please pass these out?"

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I could have lost them at this point.   If I hadn't continued and showed the students that I meant business, it could have been a disaster and I would have lost more respect than if I hadn't said anything to begin with.  The key is consistency.  If you're consistent, the students will respect your system.

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    [Student] is currently handing out assignment.

"I'm placing a post-it note on your desk.  Write your name on this as soon as you receive it."

    Student: our full name?

    Me: Yes. 

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As soon as I finish handing out post-its, I return to the first student and immediately give out a point (in my special purple marker that I'm pretty sure no student has a replica of in their backpack) to those who have followed directions and written their name down.  This is the key.  You start immediately with an easy direction for an easy point, so they can clearly see how it works.  I had a few students who had not followed this direction right away and missed this first point.  They tried to quickly scribble their name down, but it was too late at this point.  If a student complained, I simply explained in my teacher voice that the point was for those who had quickly followed my direction the first time.  There was no complaining after that.

Two minutes after this, I went around and again gave an easy point to those who had started reading their assignment.  Other students noticed and quietly started their work.  I did this again, 2-3 minutes after the first time. 

I then started lengthening out my point giving sessions.  If I were to give out a point every 2-3 minutes for the entire class, the whole system would come crashing down.  Not only would I become tired and weary from this tediousness, but students would see that if they missed one point round, then who cares, because they could do it in the next point round.  They can't know when you're going to come around.  

Can I tell you something?  This was a great class.  They quickly became mine and I became theirs.  We had a system, and it worked, and all the kids knew what was expected and knew how I would respond to them. I was able to use some of the time when they were reading to grade a few assignments.  I was later able to freely move about the classroom and help kids having problems with the follow-up questions, without worrying about what the other students were doing behind my back.  We had some great discussions.  There were some students who had some side conversations with their neighbors, but they knew to come back to their assignment on their own, without me reminder them to verbally (but maybe with the nonverbal reminder that I was giving another kid next to them a point for focusing on his work).  I was able to have a side conversation with them when one student asked what the schedule was going to be like this week during testing; and then they were able to return to work. Throughout this whole time, I would stop and give out points.  Sometimes one point at a time, sometimes two or three. 

     You see, children?  I won you with just marks on a piece of paper.  

I probably didn't even need to say that I had candy.  Maybe tomorrow in the class I'll be substituting for I won't mention it until the end.  Because you could tell it wasn't the candy they were working for.  It was your silent approval of them. 

The best part was that it was a positive experience.  I started out no-nonsense, but I communicated a system to them with the mutual understanding that they could achieve it.

There was one student who fell asleep.  I poked him a couple of times and told him he needed to wake up and start his work.  After that, I just let him be.  He didn't get any points, but I also wrote his full name down and wrote a little note for Mr. C. (This is another reason why you have the kids write their full names on the post-it note.  It makes it easier to identify them.)  Everyone else was responding well to the system.  Some kids took a while to warm up, but everyone was working at the end. 

At the end of class, I told them to count up their points and then hand it to me.  I had kids that were jesting "I have 34!"  "Well, I have 42!" when really the highest number of points achieved was 29.  But they cared about the points.  The top three were announced, and those three were able to choose a piece of candy (which I had gotten from a piñata at a 1-year-old's birthday party last week!).  The students who didn't win were still happy, because they knew they had performed well, and they knew that I knew about it, too.  I wrote a good note about that class to the teacher, with the exception of the note about the sleeping child. 

So maybe substituting isn't that bad after all. 

Well, I'd still rather be a teacher.