Amid a national shortage in school subs, my new part-time role--from teaching kindergarten pupils to high school students--has been a grueling, yet gratifying work in progress.
A great topic and kudos to you for going after this opportunity. I would like to see more depth and perhaps a continuation of the journey. Im curious about some things, how it is possible to drop in each day to a different subject and other teacher's curriculum and pick up with it running. Basically the baton hand off. And secondly how your segment of the relay goes --the education being conveyed as you venture across disciplines perspective. I come from a teaching family so this topic is very interesting.
I agree with W. Gale, the dropping into new curriculum and stages of maturity requires maturity and grace and a profound sense of empathy with both the young scholars and the hard working teachers. The ways you prepare, Matt, would be very interesting ...
Thank you, Bill. Great questions. So far, the "baton" varies in quality. Even when those lesson plans are detailed, other technological hindrances and issues arise that usually make it a less than ideal hand-off. That being stated, I take seriously the potential to reach and teach--so I provide individualized instruction and guidance to those students who are open to it. It's obviously an art, not a science, so I am confident I will grow in this respect with more repetitions.
Matt, I really enjoyed this piece. I tried a stint as an after-school tutor with my church at a school in north St. Louis, and discovered that I don't have the temperament needed to have the student be successful. I have instead decided that I can be most useful to the school in the office, assisting where needed in that capacity. I'm sharing your article with my daughter who is an elementary and middle school music teacher. I'm sure she will agree that it's a non-stop pace throughout the day!
Since I mentioned I have worked as a substitute, it would be avoidant of me not to say something, and I was certainly eager to see your post. Unlike you, I did not have a rewarding experience. There would be nothing odd in that except that I had truly thought I would like it and be good at it. By anyone's lights, I have any number of horror stories. The only saving grace was that these were mostly witnessed by only one other adult and /or my class, who did not seem to fully comprehend the horror (while then they would race to gossip about something else that would be of no consequece to any adult). I guess a second perk is that horror stories are still stories, and they did not fall on deaf ears when I needed to unload them. But what could go wrong, did go wrong.
I know that my middle school students did not understand me. They saw me as humorless, inflexible, and untrustworthy and yet still unable to control things. I was the anti-cool. In reality, I cared about rules and was disgusted by their rudeness, but I let them get away with things not because I was weak but because I thought their behavoir was ultimately their choice. I wanted to create a different, more enlightened kind of class than I had experienced as a student at the same age. They interpreted this as simply inscrutable, or a derelection of duty.
The question I have been pondering over the last two or three hours is if I, perhaps, did not understand them, as they did not understand me. Were they lacking and immature, or just different? I like people in general, and I would open up whenever a student showed enthusiasm or politeness, no matter how much abuse he had hurled at me in previous days, but if truth be told, I did not like them, and maybe that means I did not understand them. They certainly did not understand my sense of humor; I found that if I said anything at all interesting or colorful, it was twisted and leveraged for accusation (either willfully or stupidly). I know that for my part, I did not understand their sense of humor, either, but I thought that was o.k., because I thought it was just childishness. Why did they like to look out the window while other classes were at recess? Why did every sound attract them? Why did they like to make messes and experiment with materials? Anyway, I can't seem to put a bow on this, so I'll trail off here.
I think where I most identified in your post was when you were talking about having to handle one class after another, and be "on." I also never operated with prefab lesson plans and would overestimate how long lessons would take and would run out of material. This is perhaps more of a danger in Humanities.
As always, Matt's writing brings tears and laughter. You get to the heart, Matt. As a retired teacher (20 years, high school) I agree with your "best parts of the day," "dancing and playing music with the young people." I appreciate you concluding that the vision and mission of a teacher is to figure out, minute to minute, day by day, what these young people need in their class day. I also appreciate the stats on teacher absenteeism. Your neutral message on that is edifying and intriguing. I am concerned that some responsibility for absenteeism must be placed on (along with the low pay and lack of pop culture's respect) a number of the teachers who choose to be absent or to 'phone in' their work. A person who chooses to be a teacher, chooses to work with youngsters, the folks in our society who are most vulnerable and least responsible for low pay or pop culture 'respect for glamor professions.' I worry that absenteeism has become an increasing trend with a whiff of acting for the improvement of the conditions of the profession, if that is the case, a lot of young folks are suffering the neglect and a lot of dedicated teachers are suffering the chaos created when they never have a strong, resilient, predictable work team. On the other hand, thoughtful, prepared, consistent subs such as your self are a welcome, strong addition that make such a team workable over the long haul. Thank you for all you do, P
I really enjoyed this blog post, too. I've enjoyed all of them, but this one really stands out. Some of that might be because my youngest daughter is in college, studying to be a teacher. But I think it's also just an interesting, kind of fascinating, "fish out of water" type of topic. Anyway, you've got my admiration for doing this, and I do think the kids who wind up with you in their classroom are very lucky. If you keep this up, I have a feeling you're going to be in demand and everybody's favorite substitute teacher. We all had our favorite substitute teachers as kids.
It's exceedingly hard I would imagine. As it is for me to use proper capitalization, punctuation and grammar here in this forum in respect of your craft 🙂. But seriously I look forward to more of you insights I think this topic is so very interesting.
A great topic and kudos to you for going after this opportunity. I would like to see more depth and perhaps a continuation of the journey. Im curious about some things, how it is possible to drop in each day to a different subject and other teacher's curriculum and pick up with it running. Basically the baton hand off. And secondly how your segment of the relay goes --the education being conveyed as you venture across disciplines perspective. I come from a teaching family so this topic is very interesting.
I agree with W. Gale, the dropping into new curriculum and stages of maturity requires maturity and grace and a profound sense of empathy with both the young scholars and the hard working teachers. The ways you prepare, Matt, would be very interesting ...
Thank you, Bill. Great questions. So far, the "baton" varies in quality. Even when those lesson plans are detailed, other technological hindrances and issues arise that usually make it a less than ideal hand-off. That being stated, I take seriously the potential to reach and teach--so I provide individualized instruction and guidance to those students who are open to it. It's obviously an art, not a science, so I am confident I will grow in this respect with more repetitions.
Matt, I really enjoyed this piece. I tried a stint as an after-school tutor with my church at a school in north St. Louis, and discovered that I don't have the temperament needed to have the student be successful. I have instead decided that I can be most useful to the school in the office, assisting where needed in that capacity. I'm sharing your article with my daughter who is an elementary and middle school music teacher. I'm sure she will agree that it's a non-stop pace throughout the day!
Thank you, Maureen!
Since I mentioned I have worked as a substitute, it would be avoidant of me not to say something, and I was certainly eager to see your post. Unlike you, I did not have a rewarding experience. There would be nothing odd in that except that I had truly thought I would like it and be good at it. By anyone's lights, I have any number of horror stories. The only saving grace was that these were mostly witnessed by only one other adult and /or my class, who did not seem to fully comprehend the horror (while then they would race to gossip about something else that would be of no consequece to any adult). I guess a second perk is that horror stories are still stories, and they did not fall on deaf ears when I needed to unload them. But what could go wrong, did go wrong.
I know that my middle school students did not understand me. They saw me as humorless, inflexible, and untrustworthy and yet still unable to control things. I was the anti-cool. In reality, I cared about rules and was disgusted by their rudeness, but I let them get away with things not because I was weak but because I thought their behavoir was ultimately their choice. I wanted to create a different, more enlightened kind of class than I had experienced as a student at the same age. They interpreted this as simply inscrutable, or a derelection of duty.
The question I have been pondering over the last two or three hours is if I, perhaps, did not understand them, as they did not understand me. Were they lacking and immature, or just different? I like people in general, and I would open up whenever a student showed enthusiasm or politeness, no matter how much abuse he had hurled at me in previous days, but if truth be told, I did not like them, and maybe that means I did not understand them. They certainly did not understand my sense of humor; I found that if I said anything at all interesting or colorful, it was twisted and leveraged for accusation (either willfully or stupidly). I know that for my part, I did not understand their sense of humor, either, but I thought that was o.k., because I thought it was just childishness. Why did they like to look out the window while other classes were at recess? Why did every sound attract them? Why did they like to make messes and experiment with materials? Anyway, I can't seem to put a bow on this, so I'll trail off here.
I think where I most identified in your post was when you were talking about having to handle one class after another, and be "on." I also never operated with prefab lesson plans and would overestimate how long lessons would take and would run out of material. This is perhaps more of a danger in Humanities.
Lots to unpack here, David---to be continued, I am sure! Thank you for reading and replying so transparently.
As always, Matt's writing brings tears and laughter. You get to the heart, Matt. As a retired teacher (20 years, high school) I agree with your "best parts of the day," "dancing and playing music with the young people." I appreciate you concluding that the vision and mission of a teacher is to figure out, minute to minute, day by day, what these young people need in their class day. I also appreciate the stats on teacher absenteeism. Your neutral message on that is edifying and intriguing. I am concerned that some responsibility for absenteeism must be placed on (along with the low pay and lack of pop culture's respect) a number of the teachers who choose to be absent or to 'phone in' their work. A person who chooses to be a teacher, chooses to work with youngsters, the folks in our society who are most vulnerable and least responsible for low pay or pop culture 'respect for glamor professions.' I worry that absenteeism has become an increasing trend with a whiff of acting for the improvement of the conditions of the profession, if that is the case, a lot of young folks are suffering the neglect and a lot of dedicated teachers are suffering the chaos created when they never have a strong, resilient, predictable work team. On the other hand, thoughtful, prepared, consistent subs such as your self are a welcome, strong addition that make such a team workable over the long haul. Thank you for all you do, P
Thank you for your insights, encouragement and kind words, Patti!
I really enjoyed this blog post, too. I've enjoyed all of them, but this one really stands out. Some of that might be because my youngest daughter is in college, studying to be a teacher. But I think it's also just an interesting, kind of fascinating, "fish out of water" type of topic. Anyway, you've got my admiration for doing this, and I do think the kids who wind up with you in their classroom are very lucky. If you keep this up, I have a feeling you're going to be in demand and everybody's favorite substitute teacher. We all had our favorite substitute teachers as kids.
It's exceedingly hard I would imagine. As it is for me to use proper capitalization, punctuation and grammar here in this forum in respect of your craft 🙂. But seriously I look forward to more of you insights I think this topic is so very interesting.
This is truly admirable. Wow, what a man.
Thank you, Bruce, for your kind and humbling words.