A Sub's Plea as Teachers Start the New School Year

1) If you know you are going to be gone, let your class know.  This is especially important for the younger ones.  Sometimes, they get the mistaken idea that the substitute has come to take over, pushing out the regular teacher.  Let them know you will be back and that their good behavior reflects well on you, their regular teacher.  They are showing the sub that the regular teacher cares about how they act, even when s/he isn't there. 

2) Leave extra class lists.  Every time you get a student or lose a student, update your class list.  Leave a supply of class lists in an easy to find location - perhaps a sub folder.  Check after each absence to make sure there are still extra up to date lists in the folder.

3) Leave an up to date list of all of the kids who go to special classes, the times of those classes, and whether or not the child needs supervision getting to and from the class.  Does the teacher or a group of students come to pick him/her up?  Update this list regularly.

4) Leave a list of all of the health alerts for students in all of the classes that come into the room, or for which the sub is responsible.  If you switch for some subjects, include health alerts for those students as well.  Update this list regularly.

5) Leave a list of important phone numbers either in the sub folder or next to the phone.  If there are buttons that need to be pushed before dialing or answering, leave explicit directions for using the phone.  No, not all phones are alike and searching for directions on how to use the phone takes valuable time.

6) If you can find a map of your school, leave it in the sub folder.  Highlight the locations of your room, the office, the lunch room, adult bathrooms, the teachers' lounge, the copier, and any special classes.  Highlight any teachers that might be able to help, in case they are needed.

7) If there is a code for the copier, it would be great to let the sub know, in case extra copies of something are needed, or in case there is an unexpected need to fill in extra time. 

8) It would be wonderful if you could get a guest login for your computer.  This is especially important if the computer is to be used for showing movies or web sites.  Someone may log off the computer before the sub needs to use it and it is very disruptive to have to send for help to use the computer. 

9) If there are school or classroom rules or discipline procedures that the sub needs to follow or be aware of, write them up in detail and leave a copy of the writeup in the sub folder.   It also helps to have a list of things that are not allowed, e.g., drink bottles that might leak if tipped over, snacks at any time other than the explicit snack time. 

10) Leave a phone number if you are willing/able to take phone calls.  Personally, I hate to use this, as I am a phone phobic, but I know other subs appreciate it. 

Oh, and did I mention?:  LEAVE EXTRA (up to date) CLASS LISTS.

No Class Lists, Again

And AGAIN.  I know teachers do attendance on their computers, but subs can't do that.  It is very difficult to take attendance, if you don't have a list of the students' names.  This time - no homeroom list.  A list for literacy class (from the emergency folder), but no list for math class.  Two of the lists in the emergency folder were from last year. I wonder if the list of medical alerts was current.

Subs do not have time for chasing class lists and have very limited means for checking their accuracy.  PLEASE include them with your sub plans. 

Sigh.

Building Keys

Keys are a huge problem for subs.  The rules for acquiring keys vary tremendously from school to school and from district to district.  The procedure lately in most of the schools I have been in is to NOT issue the sub a key, but rather to get someone to unlock and re-lock the door, then put a magnet over the the door jam, so that the door remains openable, but the magnet can be quickly removed in case of a lock-down. 

These procedures leave subs in difficult positions.  At the high school I was at last week, I was a floater and had to keep my things in one of the two departmental offices.  Since I couldn't lock this door when I left, I had to wear my purse with me all day, as I went from classroom to classroom.  In addition, many times when I left the office, someone (yes, I suspect a student or two) would steal the magnet from the door jam, leaving the room locked.  I would then have to either call the office or get a teacher with a key to open the door for me.  It was VERY annoying and rather demeaning.

Some schools also lock the teachers' bathrooms.  I don't mind using the students' bathrooms, but the kids are sometime uncomfortable seeing a teacher there.  They feel as though I am spying on them.

And, today, I was in a mobile classroom.  I am not sure why nearly all of these VERY NEW schools weren't built large enough to hold all the students at the school, but every single one of them has a few mobile classrooms.  At any rate, I WAS given a key, because, in order to get into the school for specials, the bathroom, and the office, you have to use a clicker key.  Confident that this was sufficient, I used the key (to the mobile classroom) and the clicker card all day just fine.  Then, as I was leaving, I tried to get back into the school to check out - only the clicker card no longer worked.  I tried several times, until one of the secretaries took pity on me and came to open the door.  Evidently the clicker card stops working at 2:30 - the very minute school gets out.  I am not sure what a sub is to do to get back into the school after that time, unless the secretary happens to notice.  (And I wasn't told of this fact beforehand, so I could anticipate the problem.)  I am never ready to leave the moment the students leave, so this would always be a problem for me.

The schools and school districts may trust us with the children, but they don't trust us with working keys.  Yes, I understand that some subs may forget to turn in keys and it is incredibly expensive to re-key a building and issue new keys, but there are solutions to that.  One school had me trade my car keys for a room key.  I am not entirely comfortable with that, but I think schools that have me sign out keys to be returned at the end of the day don't have as much of a problem.  Annoying.

TEACHERS - LEAVE EXTRA CLASS LISTS FOR YOUR SUB!!!

Yes, I am shouting - because teachers neglect to do this so often and I am tired of it.  If the office is supposed to give the sub the attendance lists, the sub STILL needs a copy to keep when they are sent to the office.  If you want me to tell you how your students did while you are gone, I need a list to make notes on, so I can write that up in my note to you at the end of the day.  I can see dozens, if not hundreds, of students in a week.  I can't remember them all, but I can make notes on a class list so you can congratulate the great ones and deal with the not so great ones.

And, don't forget, if you switch classes for a subject, say social studies or math, give me a class list for the other class, too.  This isn't just for the above reasons, but also in case of an emergency.  The emergency folder by the door won't help, if the class I currently am taking is a different one.  And, if kids mysteriously disappear to a special class, I need to know that.  Who goes where and when?  When do they get back? 

Yes, I do know that I can ask the office to print extra copies of some of the above mentioned lists, but that takes precious time away from trying to figure out how to do my best with your lesson plans.  In order for me to prepare well, I need time to read through the lesson plans, locate all of the appropriate materials, check the classroom rules and disciplinary procedures, figure out the school layout and where various rooms are - library, nurse, restrooms, lunch room, where I pick the kids up from lunch, etc. Typically, subs have 30 minutes or less to get ready for the day.  If I am walking back and forth to the office to get class lists, this can take a good deal of this time, especially if I have to wait for the secretaries to help others and then print my lists.  [And subs are frequently NOT allowed to use copiers, even if they could find them.]

I need to know what the plan is for special education students in your class.  What do I do if Student X can't hold it together and needs to have someone come help her?  How do I use your telephone?  [No, they aren't all alike and all of the front offices in the various buildings I go to aren't called in the same manner.]  How about printing up and laminating directions and common phone numbers and leaving it in the sub folder? or PROMINENTLY near the phone?

Finally, please keep these lists updated.  Usually the kids can tell me if a certain student has moved away, but this ISN'T always true.  Don't leave this information for the kids to supply.

Sigh.

Reciting the Pledge Every Day

This is a duplicate from one of my other blogs, but I think it is relevant here, too, so I am reposting.  

As a substitute teacher, I get to visit many different classrooms in many different schools.  In many of these schools the students are given the “opportunity” to say the Pledge of Allegiance every day, usually at a designated time announced over the intercom.  This gives me the chance to observe what children of many ages do when reciting the Pledge.  Most stand; most put their hand over their heart – until you get to middle school and then the hand starts to sink lower and lower, until, in high school, it is much closer to the top of their chair.  Most say the Pledge.  Some just mumble in the correct rhythm.

I think reciting the pledge every day actually leads to complete disregard of its meaning. I am pretty sure that most of the younger students have NO IDEA what they are saying or why. And the older ones, who should have a clue, just mumble so that they appear to be patriotic, but they are really not thinking about it at all.

Yes, they do learn the words.  But I much prefer mindfulness in this regard.  If you are going to say the Pledge, you need to say it in circumstances where you are actually thinking about what you are saying.  It is much like the idea of praying for me.  If it isn’t done mindfully, it isn’t worth the time spent.

I stand, but I don’t say the Pledge.  I don’t say it, in order to respect those people whose beliefs don’t allow them to say it.  I don’t say it, because my mind is actually elsewhere, making sure the students are being respectful.  I don’t say it, because I don’t accept the inclusion of the “Under God” clause.

On the other hand, I love singing the national anthem.  Part of that is because I like to sing, but part of it is because I do so rarely enough that I can really think about what it means.

Positive Behavior Reinforcers

When I sub, I often am encouraged to use each teacher's or school's particular set of positive behavior re-inforcers.  One school will have tickets; another will have marbles; another will use adding letters to words to earn a particular reward.  Some teachers will use all of those things and more.

The other day, I was introduced to yet another variety of re-inforcer:  the ClassDoJo app.  The teacher I was subbing for had this app on her iPad and on her computer (PC-compatible).  I got to the classroom early (the previous day, I had had trouble finding a school that was unfamiliar to me, and I was afraid of it happening again - but, of course, when I leave EXTRA, EXTRA early, I have no trouble finding the school).  So I got to observe her working with her students and using the ClassDoJo app.  She had excellent control of the classroom and the students were working very productively.  They were working on writing and she was teaching a lesson about writing conclusions.  A lot of the classes I have been teaching lately have been working on persuasive writing, as it is part of the testing that is coming up soon in this state.  The lesson was well thought out and she taught it well.  The writing instruction follows the pretty much standard 5 paragraph essay: introduction (topic and opinion), three paragraphs, each supporting one of the major reasons, and conclusion.  Even the conclusion has a standard format: repeat topic and opinion, restate the three major reasons, demand/urge the reader to action.

While the kids were working on their essays, she used the ClassDoJo app on her iPad to add points to children's records for how they were working.  If they were following independent work expectations, she would tell them, "Good following independent work expectations, [Name]" as she awarded the point.  There was also "Good participation", and several other categories.  There were also negative categories, e.g., "Failure to Follow Instructions" and "Disruptive Behavior".  It seemed to work really well for her.

She needed to take her iPad with her for the meeting she was going to, so she showed me how to use the application on the computer.  It is relatively straightforward and easy to use.  But since the computer was set up to use the Smart Board for everything, it was also completely visible to the students, as it was used.  Evidently there is a contest for the students to have the highest points by the end of the day or week and they followed the standings throughout the day.  As a sub, I found this rather distracting, but the students seemed used to it.

The cracks in the system began to appear after she left me alone with the students.  I had little trouble using the system, but, as usual, the kids test the limits of the sub and using the system wasn't as efficient for me as it undoubtedly was for the regular teacher.  I had two different groups of students (she taught writing to two different classes and science to both of them as well) and I didn't know the names of the students.  The software doesn't use their pictures, just a name and an icon.

The students got work done and their behavior was acceptable, if not stellar.  But I left the school at the end of the day feeling uncomfortable.  And, on my long drive home, I was trying to figure out why I felt slightly down and depressed.  And, it occurred to me:  I felt like Pavlov's dogs: manipulated and conditioned, treated as an object, and not as a person.  I don't know if the students felt like that.  There was one student who said that this was the best school he had ever been in.  But there were 3 or 4 students for whom the system seemed to represent a negative.  I was only there a half day, so I don't know any more than that.  But I do know the effect that it had on ME wasn't especially good.  I felt that I hadn't had a chance to talk to kids, to interact with them on a personal level.  The system seemed to be a barrier between us.

When it is used on the iPad and is more hidden, it can give excellent information to the teacher about which kids are exhibiting which behaviors.  I am not sure how customizable it is, but it would be interesting to me to record things like higher level questioning, insightful answers, kindness to others, etc.  But I am not comfortable with putting such a strong emphasis on the number of points each student has and passing out rewards for that.  It feels a bit Big Brotherish to me.

Positive behavior re-inforcers seem to be very popular, but they make me uncomfortable.  And yet, most teachers swear by them.  I feel like we are manipulating students into behaviors that they should exhibit without the reward system.  They should be exhibiting good behavior for its own sake and not for the reward.  But, in some of the schools they seem to work.

I feel out of step.  Once, again.

This post is a response to SH's post Black Paper

This post is a response to SH's post Black Paper, found at:

http://chockyschild.wordpress.com/2013/01/19/black-paper/

Key points:

1. Children are not naturally good. They need firm, tactful discipline from parents and teachers with clear standards. Too much freedom for children breeds selfishness, vandalism and personal unhappiness.
2. If the non-competitive ethos of progressive education is allowed to dominate our schools, we shall produce a generation unable to maintain our standards of living when opposed by fierce rivalry from overseas competitors.
3. It is the quality of teachers that matters, rather than their numbers or their equipment. We have sacrificed quality for numbers, and the result has been a lowering of standards. We need high-quality, higher-paid teachers in the classroom, not as counsellors or administrators.
4. Schools are for schooling, not social engineering.
5. The best way to help children in deprived areas is to teach them to be literate and numerate, and to develop all their potential abilities.
6. Every normal child should be able to read by the age of seven. This can be achieved by the hard work of teachers who use a structured approach.
7. Without selection the clever working-class child in a deprived area stands little chance of a real academic education.
8. External examinations are essential for schools, colleges, polytechnics and universities. Without such checks, standards decline. Working-class children suffer when applying for jobs if they cannot bring forward proof of their worth achieved in authoritative examinations.
9. Freedom of speech must be preserved in universities. Institutions which cannot maintain proper standards of open debate should be closed.
10. You can have equality or equality of opportunity; you cannot have both. Equality will be the holding back (or the new deprivation) of the brighter children.

My Thoughts:

1.  I agree and I think we have lost sight of the fact that the word discipline means teaching - teaching the child the ways of society that make it function well.  We can't just go around doing exactly what each of us would like to do, because it infringes on the rights of others.

2.   Competition can increase both motivation and effort.  Too much competition can be unhealthy, but so can too little.

3.  Yes, we need quality teachers, but I think we also need a lot of them.  Part of the reason teacher quality has declined is that other occupations have opened up immensely for talented women.  Less competent teachers have had to fill the void.  But schools, in the US and I suspect worldwide, have also tried to economize on teachers.  They have purposely hired less competent, less experienced teachers, because these teachers cost less. 

I am also disturbed at the increasing class sizes I see as a substitute teacher in the last year or two.  Part of teaching is getting to know the students and developing solid relationships with them.  This is more difficult as the class sizes get larger.  To me, this is self-evident, but it is based on the following observation:  when I sub for classes of 24 or fewer students, I can manage to learn the names of each of the students in the class.  I even have time to learn a bit about most of them.  As class sizes increase over 24 students, I find this increasingly not even worth attempting.  And, learning a student's name is the first step to getting to know them.

I tend to see equipment in a moderate way.  You can do a lot with simple equipment - probably much more than most people think.  But some things are essential - stuff to write with and on; basic art supplies; things to read. 

4.  I think this is mostly semantics.  Schooling IS social engineering. 

5.  Agreed.  I think we fail in this respect to a large extent.  I used to strongly support bilingual education, but lately I have seen results of it that I don't think benefit the bilingual students.  I was subbing in a bilingual school where the students were to be taught in one language in the morning and in the other language in the afternoon.  I am fluent in only one of the languages, but understand a fair amount of the other one.  It seemed to me that the students who speak English at home benefited greatly from learning a second language at school.  But the students who spoke Spanish at home were being cheated by this system.  They only had to get through half of their school day in English.  The rest of the time, at school and at home, they could speak Spanish.  Consequently, their language skills, both reading and writing especially, were significantly below the level of the native English speakers.  If they are to have the full range of options for high school and beyond, they need to be fluent in English as well as, in this case, Spanish.  High school and college are almost universally taught in English in the US.

6.  I am not an expert on reading.  I expect this is true, but I have always HATED reading instruction, both as a student and as a teacher.  Thus, my opinions on this are suspect.

7.  This is one reason why I am a strong supporter of gifted education, especially in deprived areas.  Gifted students with parents who have the economic means to support them have a reasonable chance of succeeding.  Gifted students whose parents are struggling with basic necessities will have far fewer chances and need more support from the schools.

8.  I have recently begun to wonder if we couldn't entirely restructure education into learning modules and allow students to progress through them at their own rates.  There could be outside examinations for each module:  Reading, Level A, Basic Phonics; Reading, Level A, Basic Text Comprehension, etc.  One advantage of this is that now the students might perceive the teacher differently.  Rather than being the obstacle to their advancement to the next level, the judge of their efforts, the punisher of wrong answers, the students might begin to see the teacher as the guide to passing the next task, the facilitator of learning that we all hope to be, but sometimes fear we are not.  Unlike many teachers in the US, I actually LIKE standardized testing, but I think it is used incorrectly.  It is not typically used to inform instruction, but rather to judge the student and the teacher.  This is one reason why I like computerized adaptive testing.  Students can progress through the test to the level of their abilities and the results are available immediately, so they can be used to inform instruction.  "You have just passed Reading, Level G, Inferences from Pictures; you are ready for Reading, Level H, Inferences from Metaphors. "

9.  Freedom of speech is vital, but is seldom practiced below university level.

10.  Equality is impossible.  Any parent of more than one child knows this.  Any emergency room doctor knows this.

Thanks, SH, for food for thought. 

Even I Get Tired of My Complaints

I was subbing the other day in a technology class and, since the regular teacher hadn't sent in lesson plans, his friend, the librarian, was explaining what the kids were supposed to do. That much is fine, but why did I detect a note of "this is probably too hard for you to understand or do much about" in his explanation? True, I am older and probably don't look all that technology literate, but why is that an assumption? I actually have a master's degree in computer science. True, it is a bit outdated, but I have learned things in the meantime. And the teachers who stopped by to pick up printouts also seemed to have that look on their faces, that "Gee, I am surprised YOU are in this job" look.

When I sub for teachers who are actually there and who explain the day to me, I also sometimes get that look. And, even sometimes from other teachers who stop by to help. Don't get me wrong, I am VERY HAPPY when the teachers nearby offer to help (or even just introduce themselves and make me feel welcome), but I am often surprised what they offer to help with. The things that I often need are class lists (why, oh why, do elementary teachers usually forget to leave a spare class list and, if they switch classes for a certain subject, a class list for the other class as well), schedules, a map of the school, directions on where to pick up the kids after they go to lunch and recess, where the copier is in case I have to make emergency copies. Instead, what I often get is questions about whether I can handle the curriculum for the day. That isn't, by the way, usually the hardest part of the day.

Which brings me to another question: why do teachers often give busywork (a puzzle worksheet, a movie with note-taking) to a sub? The students recognize that it isn't part of what they would normally be doing. It is actually harder to get them to do work that is "easier". They recognize that it isn't important and that the regular teacher will probably just throw out any papers they do while the sub is there. What regular teachers would consider an "easy day" has frequently actually been harder for me. The only conclusion I can come to is that the regular teachers don't have much confidence in the abilities of subs. Perhaps this is justified. But in many cases it is not. I have talked to a lot of subs over the course of my years subbing and many are retired teachers, others are people new to the area, trying to get a foothold in the school district. They usually take only jobs for which they are qualified.

Perhaps the reason the regular teachers are less confident in subs is that subs DO mess up at times. Part of the problem is dealing with normal classroom routines, which the teachers often don't explain - How are requests to go to the bathroom handled? Are kids allowed to go to the library during independent reading? What do you do when the kids don't have any pencils? How do you switch the overhead projector from the document camera to the laptop?

There are lots of things that the teachers assume the subs will know or that the kids will tell them. But often the kids will tell the subs the wrong things - yes, we are allowed to wear hats in class; yes, we can chew gum; the teacher always lets us do X... And, in a few classes, where bossy kids have been designated as "helpers", I have gotten so annoyed at the "help" that I had to ask the student to stop helping me - you have to push this button to get the overhead to work; no, it must be this button; well, maybe this has to be unplugged and plugged in over here; no, maybe that was OK, but this needs to be turned on (and by that time, the whole set up is hopelessly messed up). There are times when I just want to say, "I CAN read the teacher's directions by myself." But, of course, there are also times when the teacher assumes that all subs can work their particular kinds of equipment. Guess what, subs are never trained on using the equipment - and different kinds of equipment are set up differently, are activated differently, and fail differently.

Yes, the curriculum is usually the least of my worries. But I think that probably, for the regular teachers, it is the MOST of THEIR worries, so they assume that it will be the biggest worry for the sub as well. Regular teachers are used to their equipment, their routines, their school procedures, and they don't have to be aware of them - they just ARE. Delivering the curriculum is their focus.

That, and the behavior of the students. I usually DO get warnings about the problem students.

Three Days in High School - Dress Code

OK, so I am getting up in years, but I really have nothing against the human body.  It doesn't bother me to see statues of nudes or paintings thereof, of either gender.  And I am a swimmer, so I regularly see women scantily clad in swim suits and naked in the showers.  And, furthermore, I acknowledge that it was hot in the classroom.  With 34, 28, 34, 37, or 33 students in there at a time, and located on the south side of the building, with air conditioning that doesn't work (and clocks that don't work), how could it be anything BUT hot.  BUT, I must admit that some of the things the high school girls wore, or more precisely, didn't wear, make me uncomfortable.  There was a cut-out t-shirt, with huge arm holes and a low neckline, showing virtually ALL of the denim-colored bra underneath.  There were several off-one-shoulder shirts, again with huge arm and neck holes, where you could tell exactly what type of bra the young woman was wearing and exactly how well endowed she was.  Strapless bras, with off-the-shoulder cover ups; multiple different colored bra straps.  VERY tight fitting or low cut t-shirts, that, again, left nothing to the imagination.  And the shorts, barely covering the bottom.  No to-the-arm-tips length requirement.  I think there might have been a no-midrift-showing requirement, as that was the only thing that seemed to be well covered.

Boys (young men) notice - how could they not.  The "dress code" says only, from what I was told by another teacher, that the dress should not be distracting.  Well, I think it is distracting.

Boys for their part seem to make their statements with hats.  In spite of the heat, there were, of course, the ubiquitous baseball hats, but also winter caps, including one that you would expect on a ski slope and one fit for Alaska with ear flaps and a strap that goes under the chin. 

Yes, I think acceptance has gone too far.  This attire is acceptable at the beach, at the mall, at home, on the sports field; it is not fine IMO in school, in church/synagogue/mosque/kiva, in a business work environment.  There is a distinction.  I think we need to help children make it.

I am sounding SOOOO old.