A few days ago I subbed for a seventh grade math teacher.
There was a student teacher, so I expected the day to be pretty easy. It was still early in her semester, so she was a little green, but over all pretty good. In fact, the only real issue I had was that she never explained who I was.
Now, just to be clear, I am not trying to "steal her spotlight," nor am I looking for extra attention. With her Master Teacher gone, it was her time to shine and be a Real Teacher in the eyes of her students. I've been there. I get it. However, the concern I had was that I'd only been in the building once before, and the kids didn't know me. They kept watching me. I heard many whispers of, "who's that guy?"
A quick, "Mr. Stevenson is gone today, and this is Mr. C subbing for him, but I'll be teaching today" would have been more than enough to keep my presence from being a distraction.
The main teacher showed up during lunch. He kept saying, "I can't stay," but he was there the rest of the day. I proctored some tests for him. He didn't introduce me either. He just told the kids, "go with that guy."
Also...
7th Grade Girl: Do you like Justin Bieber?
Mr. C.: Never met him.
I am so going to start using that.
ReplyDeleteHa! I like that one. I am always getting asked if I like, this singer or that ?? who knows what?? And they just think you are so Uncool if you say no. I remeber doing that to teachers. I was such an annoying kid. Substitute teaching is total payback for that!
ReplyDeleteJody
http://accidentalsubstituteteacher.blogspot.com/
When asked about my favorite music or movies, I also like to just make stuff up. Once I had a kid ask me, "what kind of music do you listen to?" Only to have another kid chime in, "he's the guy who only listens to show-tunes!"
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a student teacher, and I had a sub in the room, I introduced him to the first period class and told them that I would still be teaching like normal. Minor classroom misbehaviours spiked like crazy!! Rest of the day, as new classes filtered in, I just ignored the fact that there was a sub in the room, and it was smooth sailing. Maybe the student teacher just didn't introduce you to the class because they were scared of rocking the boat and changing classroom climate?
ReplyDeleteThat is a real possibility, and not something I had considered.
ReplyDeleteThank you.