Substitute Teachers: How to Treat A Classroom

Yesterday, I left some suggestions for classroom teachers in what substitutes need. I’m sure there is more to the list, as each classroom and school differs from another.

As I mentioned, Substitutes also have a responsibility, and I’ve heard from teachers and students alike on things that need to be done:

Substitute Teachers

1. Be on time.
   1. This means, to me, being at least fifteen minutes early to where you are supposed to report (usually the main office).
   2. Dress appropriately.
   3. Ask for a security badge if not given one automatically.
   4. Ask for the Substitute Folder if it is kept in the main office.
      1. Make sure you have CURRENT attendance sheets.
2. Come prepared with at least one pen: don’t assume any will be left for you.
3. Get to the room you need to report to and read the lesson plans from start to finish.
   1. Hopefully, the teacher will have left you all material you need with the lesson plan.
   2. If not, round it up/locate it before the students come in.
4. If the teacher assigns a Study Hall or Individual Reading for that time period:
   1. Do not:
      1. Read the newspaper; text; be on the computer; discuss your personal life; comment on other classes/schools; listen to your own music with ear plugs; etc.
   2. Do:
      1. State you are in charge
         1. They have work to do: do it
      2. Take names if they are disrespectful to you
      3. Keep your calm
5. Leave the classroom, especially the teacher’s desk/work area, as you found it.
6. Leave the teacher notes on how the day was: good and not so good behavior.
   1. Don’t leave a novel: just highlights/bullets
   2. Some schools use some sort of feedback system, whether online or paper: follow through on it.
7. If you are working with any classroom aides or paras: thank them for their help at the end of the class/day.
8. When students say “..the teacher always lets us…” well, that is up to you and the feel of the kids, but more times than not the teacher does not  let them do whatever they’ve just told you.
   1. Apologize, tell them you have no notes to that effect, and they’ll have to do it your way for today.  Tell them you’ll leave a note for the teacher that you said no. They’ll usually stop at that.

How To Treat A Substitute Teacher

I am sure there are many jokes that can be made out of the title/subject line of this post. That is not this posting.

Today, this is for the normal classroom teacher.

The next post will be for the subs! Teachers, do not fret. Not picking on you, but there are things that are forgotten in the rush with all you have to do.

TEACHERS

1. Do not assume that the sub knows ANY of your procedures, unless you know them/they’ve been in your room before.
   1. From A to Z: lay it out. No confusion for the kids, no confusion for the sub.
   2. If you write up daily procedures ONE TIME, you have that ready to go.
   3. This is  true with Picking Up Students in the am (where they are; what row; etc)  and especially Dismissal: these procedures vary from school to school, and if a sub works more than one district, it can be confusing, and the safety of your students should not be left up to chance.
   4. If you have “special” names for something, please explain it (i.e. “Switch-a-Roo”: I had NO idea what that was, and it was only between two teachers who used it in the same grade).
2. Don’t treat a sub like they are stupid, though.
   1. All they want are detailed lesson plans, things lined up for them to use (they don’t’ know your room, know where the copy room is, break room, etc.), and what your signals are for classroom management.
3. Do NOT say “Just make it a Study Hall” or “Have them do independent reading” unless that IS what YOU would do during that time period.
   1. Study Hall or Independent Reading instead of actual work is futility for a substitute, and the kids normally take advantage of that fact.
4. Have the sub collect the work you assign so the students DO SOMETHING and are held accountable for it.
   1. Telling them to do work and then allowing them the choice to finish for homework? Another disaster for the sub.
   2. Homework is homework. Classwork should not be interchangeable.
5. Lay out your plans carefully, step by step, so that when you return, your classroom was run the way it would be if you were there.
6. Do not expect the sub to be proficient in all core subject matter.
   1. If there is an answer sheet, please provide it for them.
7. Please provide times for all subjects (when the change is, bell is supposed to ring, etc.). Simple, yes, but not everyone does it.
8. If the students need to be brought to another room, please provide that room number, not just Art or Music, or that teacher’s name.
9. If your school allows you to give a heads up on who has an IEP, please provide that. I know this is a tricky one, as things should not be left out that a student could read. There should be a way to let the sub know, not for judgment sake but for a heads up, to be aware who needs modifications for, who might do something that appears disrespectful to the sub but is normal for that child, etc.
10. If you have an Aide/One-on-One in the room normally, please give them a copy of your plans as well to help the sub out (as well as make it easy on themselves}.
11. Please make sure your Sub Folder is current with students attendance sheets, allergies, dismissals, etc.
    1. When you have a change in the classroom, please update your Sub Folder.
12. Please find out, if not automatically given by the office, which usually does NOT have the info, a Substitute log-in so they can use your Smart Board, etc. This will save time and frustration all the way around.
13. Please indicate who can help the sub out if needed by teachers you are surrounded by/work with on a regular basis.
14. If you encounter a substitute in the school, at lunch, etc, please be welcoming. It goes a long way to be made to feel welcome as opposed to being dismissed as “just a sub”
    1. Some of your students will do that already; don’t do the same, please.

     

    Again, I will write out something for Subs, as I’ve heard enough stories about what subs shouldn’t do in classrooms, but do anyway.
    Thanks.

Zero Tolerance & Broken Rules

Zero Tolerance and School Safety

The Time is Right to End ‘Zero Tolerance’ in Schools

Zero Tolerance Schools Discipline Without Wiggle Room

Zero Tolerance and Alternative Suggestions

 

The above links will lead you to sites on both sides of the debate over  Zero Tolerance in schools. I leave it to you to read them, make your own conclusions.

I won’t summarize them, but give you some observations:

A school with a strongly worded rules on dress code and school behavior online, with the consequences for infractions clearly stated. Syllabi/Lesson Plans, posted online as well, readdressing the same concerns. The conduct rules are posted in the main office as well.

What was seen: two students being taken out of the school in hand cuffs by police officers; not one student dressed in the very well laid out dress code (hoodies and hats were worn; scarves as head wear; tee shirts with graphics; etc); students walking around the hallways by the front door guard, near the main office, sitting on the floor; a school official hugging a student (one “rule” was “no contact between students of any type, hugging mentioned); a student walking into the office, talking to a secretary, her trying to send him on his way to class but he cut his class, as he came back in less than fifteen minutes later to “hang out”; and during the classroom change, uncountable number of cell phones and electronics being used in a school they are supposedly banned.

This was one school, but I’ve seen variations played out in many.

I made a mention of this, at times. to various teachers or staff, and the answer is almost always the same: a shrug of the shoulders, or the complaint that no one enforces it, or they can’t enforce them. They don’t get support from any number of sources (parents, the principal, whoever).

I’ve also seen schools where the parents are very involved and supportive, where the rules of conduct and dress are enforced. Are there still problems? Of course. You are dealing with a wide variable of situations. Yet, when rules don’t matter, consequences are basically non-existent…

I haven’t written here in quite awhile. Observing what I have in the last half a year (really, last four years) has sometimes left me dumbstruck. This experience just left me shaking my head.

What do you see that will work?

Share this:

Tale Spinning

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dog and Elephant, with long country nights,

Counted the stars as they wandered away

Into the meadows, into the fields,

Searching for the stardust that comets yield.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Oh, my friend,”said Dog, “look to the sky,

Another wonderful comet is passing us by;

It’s tail all a glitter, the rays it does glow,

Let’s follow it together, where ever it goes.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elephant counted up to eleven

Speeding comets diving through the heavens

She wondered at their leavings

Thinking “Did any have misgivings?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One came around it’s speeding course

And in a fit of complete remorse

Dog turned to Elephant, and did disclaim

“When comets go, nothing is the same.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View original post 218 more words

“Don’t Worry About Spelling”

“My spelling is Wobbly. It’s good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.”
A. A. Milne

“I don’t see any use in having a uniform and arbitrary way of spelling words. We might as well make all clothes alike and cook all dishes alike. Sameness is tiresome; variety is pleasing.”
― Mark Twain

“God, don’t they teach you how to spell these days?”

“No,” I answer. “They teach us to use spell-check.”
― Jodi Picoult

It goes like this: I’m at a school and giving the class a handout. I’m reading it along with them so I can answer (hopefully) any question that arises. The first page is a list of vocabulary words (the day’s “Do Now” is: “Why do you need to increase your vocabulary?”); the following pages (parts A & B) are fill-in-the-blanks based solely on those words. The kids are struggling already. The answers are on the first page given: they just have to read, go back to the list, circle the correct letter or fill in the blank.

Part C is different: it’s a journal entry that asks them to think. All well and good, but then it says (and I’m only slightly paraphrasing here):

“Don’t Worry About Spelling.”

That in itself boggles my mind, but it’s not the first time I have been mentally gobsmacked (hmmm..is that possible, since a gob is a mouth? Don’t care: I’ll follow Mark Twain from his above quote. So yes, I am dumbfounded).

I wrote about a previous experience with third graders before: in assisting a student with a written assignment, in my trying to help them correct all their spelling errors, which were many, I was informed that the school administration did not want that. If the word read like it sounded, then that was good enough. I informed the teacher that I’d rather be fired for trying to help the student spell correctly then to dumb down. Nothing more was ever said to me on that subject.

In the case of the above hand out, this was High School. Six and seven grades higher, and “don’t worry about spelling” is emblazoned on the paper.  Scary. Just plain old scary.

On a recent interview, I was told by the interviewer that they had to discard so many resumes and cover letters due to the amount of grammatical and spelling (many homonym) errors that a normal spell check system does not catch. I’ve heard this before, and I’ve kicked myself in the head the few times I did not proof read a cover letter as well as possible, catching that stupid mistake that makes me sound like a dolt.

So…the schools say “don’t worry about spelling.” The job force, which is getting stricter and harder to break through, IS looking at these things.

Scary…just plain old scary; and very, very sad.

Public schools need to raise their standards and return to a more traditional, classical educational learning method.

What we are churning out is not working.

What do you think?

(Are You A) New Leader in Non-Profit Arts?

I am not a novice with Social Media, dipping my fingers in  various pots; even so,  there are still many, many more pots waiting to be stirred. I’m also not a novice in regards to the arts and arts education.

I received the following from a FB acquaintance (thank you Susan Shatz), and knew I had to pass this on:

Barry’s Blog: The ARTS Dinner-Vention Project

There are many people who live, breathe, eat, sleep, etc. The Arts (capital letters on purpose) but don’t have the exposure or professional gravitas which would give them the recognition that they deserve. They may be young in age, or “still new” in their respective turn at this part of their career. In Barry’s words:

Regular followers of this blog know that late every August I publish a list of the Most Powerful and Influential Leaders in the Nonprofit Arts.  Most people understand that the list isn’t meritocracy based; it isn’t based on specific achievement or accomplishment per se; it doesn’t purport to necessarily identify the “best and brightest”, rather it merely identifies who has power and influence.

There has been some past comment that unfortunately the list excludes a whole cohort of serious thinkers – a group of younger (not necessarily chronologically younger) leaders omitted because their careers have not been long enough for them to develop the requisite power and influence the Most Powerful list embodies, and that there ought to be some mechanism that gives this cohort of leaders a voice and some recognition.  They are, after all, our future.

If you are interested/concerned about the state of the arts and nonprofit arts, I strongly suggest that you click HERE for the full blog entry. I know I’ll be giving this some serious thought.

Opening up dialogue with new thinkers, the ones who are doing the work, who resist hearing & living “we’ve always done it this way”…this is one way to acknowledge those who might seem behind the scenes but need to have a more national, if not international voice.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks.

About Barry: Former Director of the California Arts Council; President of the California Assembly of Local Arts Agencies; Executive Director LINES Ballet. Author (Hardball Lobbying for Nonprofits – MacMillan & Co.; Youth Involvement in the Arts – 2 phase study for the Hewlett Foundation; Local Arts Agency Funding Study for the Aspen Institute; City Arts Toolkit), consultant, public speaker. Barry’s Blog is a service of the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF). The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of WESTAF.

“You have enemies? Good. That means you stood up for something, sometime in your life” – Winston Churchill

A timely post with the elections coming up. Who will be the greatest supporter or killer of the arts?

bornstoryteller

The world is a dangerous place to live – not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.

– Albert Einstein

The Day The Music Died

What Happens When The Band Stops Playing?

Normally I talk about Theater Arts, as it is the discipline I am most involved in.  Theater is one of the first things to go in schools when budget cuts happen. Then the other arts slowly follow suit. Art is probably the last to go usually. Why? Because it can be displayed every day. It lines the hallways and shows off the student’s work, alongside their poems and essays and graphs and charts. It looks good, it is visually accessible. Theater, Music, Dance…not so much.

Sure, photos and montages…

View original post 1,060 more words

Share this:

Tale Spinning

I hit the night dirt running, Baby, and I’m out for blood and raw meat. The acacia tree branches twined around in a killer way, letting us rest. The sun set, the heat rising off the savannah slowly fading away, and my pads nestle deep into the tall, cool grass. It hides us as it hides our meal…but I can smell it. Them. Things for me to bring down. Yum.

My mate, She, growl s with a hunger that I can match, if not out consume. She catches up to me at a pace I admire, her flanks muscled and powered for action. She’s hot as the sun, golden in her fire, and her panting breath next to mine only goads me on.  She may not be in heat right now, but that won’t matter. Later, for now it’s about  the kill, the warm sticky fluid filling our mouths and…

View original post 472 more words

Share this:

While I have been slumbering, figuring out what to say/do with this blog, someone “liked it’ this morning: rereading it, it gave me a renewed sense of purpose. I am job hunting, and that has taken over most of my concentration. Today I have two interviews, both for Director/Manager of Education position in arts administration. This post already has helped clear some of the cobwebs I’ve laid in my own way. Thanks for the like, Isurrett2.

bornstoryteller

One of the most disturbing things that I have heard  from a student was:

“Why should I try? I’ll only be working at McDonald’s.”

I was an Artist-in-Residence for a year for a large school district in Westchester County, NY. Still early in my profession, that statement was both a shock and a revelation of a point of view I had never considered before: low expectations given, and projected; leading this student to live  that that is all they can do. The young lady who said that to me was in a ninth grade repeat class. Most of them, I was told much later, were on their THIRD repeat of ninth grade.

Yes: she was a third timer.

It was not that working at McDonald’s is such a negative job, but the expectation of that is all she could expect in life is. There are jobs that many would never…

View original post 343 more words

Writing Critique Partners: POVs

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own. ~Henry Ford

An art whose medium is language will always show a high degree of critical creativeness, for speech is itself a critique of life: it names, it characterizes, it passes judgment, in that it creates. ~Thomas Mann

I enjoy writing, but hate editing. I’ll do it, but it is a painful experience. From what I’ve read, a good number of you agree. Recently, I wrote two longer stories for submissions as opposed to the shorter/flash fiction I put up on Tale Spinning. For those tales I knew that if I was to have any chance of success they would have to be edited.

Luckily, I had a number of people I could call on to give my work an editorial eye. What I found enlightening was, through five different POV’s (points of views), that all who responded to my call saw something different. Grammatical changes pretty much were the same, with punctuation styles varying from one to the other.

What changed was how they approached the work: solely as Editor; solely as a reader of the genre; or a combination of the two. This allowed me to take what was offered, evaluate what I wrote through others eyes, and then edit myself to the point I felt I produced the best work possible.

To see the results of this: Nyctophilia (entered for the Figment/HarperCollins YA Defy the Dark contest). If the link does not work for you (and I think it only works in the US): go to Figment and type in the name of the story in the search box. I’d be interested in your comments, as I do think this story is publishable. The other story has been submitted, and only time will tell (both submissions had a September 1, 2012 cut off).

I want to thank the following for their time and effort: Golden Eagle; Allan Douglas; Roy A. Ackerman; Lisa Vooght;and someone who wishes to remain anonymous. The links are to their blogs. They are all well written, all interesting, and all very different POVs. Check them out.

Writers:

• How do you edit your work? 
• Do you hate editing your own work?
• Do you have Beta Readers/Critique Partners?
• Are you part of a writing group?
  
• If you have an editor that you work with consistently, how did you find her/him?