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.

“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?

Would You Like Fries With That?

Reblogged from 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.

Read more… 424 more words

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.

Would You Like Fries With That?

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 consider ever doing in their lives as “beneath” them; there are people who feel that there are  jobs that  are forever out of their reach.

I worked at a private Prep school (the capital P is on purpose) for five years. They were a usual sort of kids, except for one basic thing: their parents had power (=Money). Money enough to afford the very high K-12 tuition. If I remember correctly, all of these students went on to Ivy League universities , or “back-packed” across Europe, before coming back to such schools.

Were they born smarter, more diligent? Driven, yes, by their parents status. Academically as well. They were not taught to pass a test as the NYC public schools are (and have been) but really had a well rounded curriculum.

What got me on this was reading Roy A Ackerman’s The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But The Truth… . Take a look.

I’ve already written, a number of times, about this inequality in teaching. If Bloomberg and other mayors really cared, they’d look at the educational platforms that these private schools use. Yes, money pushes those kids along. We can’t fight that, but…we can elevate the level of how students are taught, what the curriculum is, and the entire structures of schools. I wrote about some ideals of mine in What Constitutes Education? and also in Public vs. Private Schools (there is a comparison of NYC schools and the same private prep school mentioned above…hopefully, it’s eye opening).

The other part, and it is a huge part: The Parents.

Parents have to be involved. Not just in making sure that their kids do their reading/homework, but support them, encourage them, take the time to invest in what they are learning, get involved in outside of school learning (excursions outside of their neighborhood)…being parents, not just adults whose house the kids reside in.

So, the next time you see your lawyer go to a McDonald’s drive through (or his/her aide), think of who is doing the ordering, and who is serving.

Process and Practice in Education

Kid Politics: This American Life

Spending a Day with the Roma

Process Drama and Multiple Literacies

What hard choices have you had to make?

Do you:  Go with your gut reaction? Weigh the pros & cons, and come to a decision you can back up and justify? Do you follow what your friends/family/confidants say &/or do, without question?  Do you go against what you believe due to outside pressure?

On my way home from a great Interactive Theater workshop in NYC, I turned on the local NPR station (WNYC 93.9 FM). The program This American Life was on, and just in time: I had been hearing the teasers for the program and was hoping to catch it. A group of 5th graders (ten/eleven years old) were undergoing an amazing Process Drama:

“What if, say, the U.S.-led invasion of Grenada in 1983 had been decided, not by Ronald Reagan, but by a bunch of middle-schoolers?”

The students were led on an amazingly detailed program. Three rooms were set up for them: a press room, a command center, and the President’s office/war room. Split into three groups, the students were in role, being asked to make the hard decisions that adults with “experience” in these matters had struggled with almost thirty years ago.

I don’t want to spoil it for you. I included the link above (first one) so you can listen to the program (there are two other “acts”: one with a 14 year old discussing Global Climate changes and a school in Brooklyn that is governed by…the students). I hope after you listen you’ll come back here and leave some comments.

The second link is from the blog Woman Wielding Words about an amazing experience with practicing drama with kids from a very different culture.

The third link: really, the nuts and bolts of what I love to do with students: have them make personal discoveries and to think for themselves. Weigh it all out, find out what they feel is right or wrong, and then also look at how someone else see’s the same situation; How it is sometimes hard to make a decision at all.

There are applications for Arts in Education in all core curricula, as there is in Art in all aspects of life. That is part of what creativity comes into play.

Is There Creativity In Education? (The Creativity Series)

Creative Education Foundation

Creative Education Blog

The Children’s Movement for Creative Education

 

Is There Creativity in Education?

Since the middle of October, I’ve been asking people across arts disciplines and other careers to answer a few basic questions about creativity in their lives, how they use it, how it impacts them and/or others.

Only a few educators answered my call.

Now, the easy answer is that creativity is being deleted from many schools. Many Arts-in-Education programs are being terminated; new ones are rarely appearing. Arts organizations are scrambling for grants as the schools are losing the fundings they’ve had to bring in Teaching Artists.

I don’t believe that the only creativity comes from the Arts classes: theater, music, dance and fine arts. I feel that a good teacher finds creative moments daily, when the student surprises them in a positive or negative way. Finding learning moments, working around the boundaries that seem to hamstring some, how they find creative life outside of the classroom and use it…I’m only touching the topic here.

So…why have so few educators answered my call?

Busy? Sure, I do understand being busy. There are times I’ve got so much on my plate it IS overwhelming. Forgetting? Oh yeah, that happens too. Life happens. I get it. (BTW: I asked for 300-600 word essay; this post is 319 words and took me a half hour: just saying)

Now that schools are coming to a close for the holiday break, I do hope to see some of the guest posts promised and maybe a few unexpected ones, not just from people in the arts but outside of it, who find creativity in their lives, whether it’s in their career or daily life outside of “work.”

Personally, I feel there is a LOT of creativity in Education, and it extends far beyond a classroom. Learning happens far beyond a school setting, and it should be life long. I know I search for new things.

Open your eyes.

What creative educational moments do you find in your lives?

Happy Holidays

Why Creativity?

Nothing encourages creativity like the chance to fall flat on one’s face. ~James D. Finley

Creativity takes courage. ~Henri Matisse

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try! ~Dr. Seuss

I live a creative life. I don’t think – no, I know – I would not be happy living any other way. I do not think in a linear way and I am not the most pragmatic of people. I have my anal/stubborn periods that keep me fixed and inflexible. I do try to work on that. It is not an easy lifestyle due to the fact that there is not always a lot of money in it. That makes it hard especially for people who are very concerned with security and providing for their families. Still, it is my feeling, and my opinion, that living a creative life is a great way to live.

Not everyone embraces this way of thinking. Many have trouble wrapping their heads around the concept of living a creative existence. That’s all fine and good, but why do they have to put judgment blocks and hamper the creative process? Albert Einstein, one of my favorite people to quote as you well know, said “Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds.”

A number of corporations and businesses get locked down into the numbers game. Schools,  supposedly a hotbed for critical and creative thinking, or often anything but that. Too many school systems are playing the numbers game as well, although this has nothing to do with income but staying the course and remaining open. It has little to do, and very little regard, in what students are actually learning.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be having some guest posts from people with various areas of education and business. They will be discussing what creativity is for them, and why creativity is important. To be fair, I would also like to find people with the opposing view. I really want to see both sides of the picture. What works for me does not always work for another. I understand that. What I’d like to try to do is put myself into other persons shoes.

I just hope that they would like to try my shoes on.

Photo by Ian Crowfeather

Have you tried to look through someone else’s POV?

What Constitutes Education?

“Our large schools)..are organized like a factory of the late 19th C : top down, command control management, a system designed to stifle creativity and independent judgment.” David T Kearns CEO Xerox

‘The guiding principle being put forward is that schools must be self directing.’ John Goodland

‘It is, in fact, little short of a miracle that the modern methods of education have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail.’

— Albert Einstein

Alternative Education Resource Organization

K-12 Academics: Alternative Education

I do not believe education happens in just a school setting. If we are open to new things and explore what is around us, there is a lot of real education available. There is a whole wide world at our fingertips now. what we learn from it, what we take from it, is up to us. Or just you. YOU need to find what is out there.

We mainly think in terms of our children in education (unless you are into Continuing Ed classes or going back, like I did, for your Masters/PhD later in life).  If you are not seeking out “formal” paths of paper certified education, don’t think you still can’t, or worse, don’t, have more to learn. Opening yourself to lifelong learning is, to me, a very important part of life.

‘Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the life-long attempt to acquire it.’

— Albert Einstein

I’m now involved in the planning committees of TWO proposed Performing Arts Charter Schools. My work in curriculum development is being utilized here, making arts integration  the main foundations of the schools. Yes, I want separate arts disciplines to thrive on their own, but the guidelines and rules of these Charter schools get in the way. Yes…the states mandates still get in the way.

If you’ve noticed, I have been somewhat quiet about educational subjects lately. Personally, it has been a frustrating period, and I have been trying to wrap my head around the restrictions imposed the two projects. If you look at the second link above, you’ll find a slew of alternative ideas out there. I am doing more research, so more on new(ish) ideas and thoughts to come.

The Bosch painting that heads this is how I see what is going on. My interpretation: we are fractured in our murky confinement. Boxed in, and boxed in again. Encased, closed off, separated, and just uneasily floating in a bubble that is waiting to burst.

What Constitutes Education?

In no particular order, MY answers to this are as follows (but, really, are not closed: I’m always open to a new idea, or simply one I forgot):

• Inquiry Based Learning
• Peer to Peer Mentoring
• Freedom for Failure (learning from the “mistake”, not making it a negative)
• Open ended process at times, to allow interpretations (doesn’t always work in Math & Science, but…)
• Feeling safe in stating/putting out your ideas
• Dialogue & exchange of ideas (see above)
• Exploration of the world around us (parks, museums, historical sites, using the  internet properly, etc)
•  LISTENING and focus
• Not settling for mediocrity,
• Not rewarding for least effort/what was required; only for going beyond what was expected
• Drop all the PC garbage, which creates this new fear & loathing, and really teach the history behind something, to…
• Allow ourselves the freedom to think, create and critique for ourselves.

What Constitutes Education For You?

Will Work For Respect

If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that… I believe in what I do, and I’ll say it.
John Lennon

If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.
Maya Angelou

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.
Albert Einstein

So, I mouthed off yesterday about something rather subversive: I’d like to get paid for my craft, my art. I don’t want to get nickle and dimed, and I would like to be paid in a very timely manner, as in once I finish my performance. Not waiting up to six weeks, not two: paid after I get the job done.

Some of you on biweekly or monthly salaries will now chime in about suck it up, etc etc etc. Well, no, I won’t, and we should not have to. Here’s the thing: our work is a product, when presented, no matter how abstract our base might be. When you order something online, you must pay for that item before they will deign to ship it to you. Until you have that object in hand, it is an abstract idea of that product. When you enter a store, you must pay for it to be able to leave the store. If you hire someone to do cleaning for you, or construction, or whatever, you most likely will have to pay something, if not all, upfront.

So, why do Artists (see yesterday) have to be put on hold, or bickered/bartered/haggled down? As a performing artist, I will give you what you asked: entertainment for your audience. You’re not paying me if they show up or not, if they like the performance or not: the pay is to do the act itself. The rest will weigh in if you’d ever hire me again, or not. Or blackball me among your cronies. These things do happen. I’m using ME here, but it’s more universal among artists.

Virginia of Kiss Chronicles wrote in my comments yesterday:

The term “starving artist” doesn’t have to be literal!  Perhaps you could also put together a list of tips for artists about how to avoid such problems cropping up? Just a thought I had

So, yes Virginia, I could put together  such a list (and I hope others add in on things I might miss/skip over/never thought of). Not sure if there really is a Santa Claus, but here’s MY list, and I will check it twice before hitting the publish button:

1. BE PROFESSIONAL IN ALL THINGS YOU DO! (yeah, shouting here).
2. Create a contract that YOU send out; don’t always just sign the one from the location hiring you. You must state your “must haves” up front, and it’s a document YOU format. They need to know that you have principles and standards.
3. HAVE PRINCIPLES AND STANDARDS! (yeah, shouting again).
4. Do not just be on time, be early. Very early. Come in calm, cool and collected. Remain that way.
5. Say “Please” and “Thank You”.
6. Dress in a professional, clean manner. Save the torn and fou fou arty clothing for elsewhere. Costumes are one thing.
7. Leave the Diva and overblown EGO at home, if not exorcise that out of you 100%.
8. Follow up on all emails/phone calls.
9. Send Thank You notes. Hand written, not emails. Definitely NOT texts.
10. Be open to dialogue and conversations. Suggestions are just that. Demands are another thing.
11. If you had a bad encounter at a location, remember it and SHUT UP about it. It WILL bite you in the ass, along the way.
12. If you have equipment/things to bring to a show, create a checklist and use it. Don’t “forget” something. (go back to #1)
13. When creating a hand out/biz card: spend some money and make it look professional.
14. Do your research on the location/exhibit/whatever. Knowing some of the background DOES help.
15. If you are working with arts standards: KNOW THEM!! (yeah..I know…shouting).
16. Cold Calls: do them, but do your homework first: find out who does the  hiring, what their title is, and how to pronounce their name and how to spell it properly. Cold call for the info first; call back another time. Make it personal.

As To The Aspect of Working For Respect…

I had THE best experience today visiting a location I’ll be performing at on October 22nd: the Bard Graduate Center at 18 West 86th Street (South Side, closer to Central Park West).  The Family Day is entitled “Hold Onto Your Hats!” and is about, yes, Hats. I’ll be performing two sets: 1:30-2:00, and then again at 2:30-3:00.The full family day starts at Noon and goes to 4pm.

What made it the best experience:  Tracy Grosner, the Gallery Outreach Educator, and other members of the staff there made me feel not only welcome but SO  very welcome. This was a true professional experience in the way they offered of themselves, and I really felt there was a true collaborative creative process in my preparing for my performances. I did not have to ask for anything: they were generous in material, in answering questions, offering beverages, in supporting ideas. Not only did they give me a copy of the $50 book that supports the exhibit, not only did I get another book that I MIGHT perform (still have to read it)…they offered to pay my parking garage fee. Two hours of giving of themselves. Informative and all encompassing.
That is generous and really above the “call of duty.” So…I have already written them (the dreaded email, but I wanted something immediate in this case: after the performance is time for the hand written note) and this is my “love letter” to them, from an artist, who was treated with the utmost respect:

Thank You, Tracy and all at Bard Graduate Center. I so am looking forward to working with you.

All Children Are Artists

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.
John Steinbeck

Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact.
William S. Burroughs

Artists are traditionally resistant to labels.
Patti Smith

Artists have really never had any representation on Capitol Hill, because it’s not the nature of the artist to join together and make a unified presence. Those days kind of died in the ’60s.
Sheryl Crow

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
Pablo Picasso

All children are artists, yet we often try to take it away from them in the pursuit of testing…I’m sorry, education. Until they are told, in one way or the other, they can’t dance well, or sing well, or draw well, or tell a story/act well…well, they will just DO IT. They don’t start off with the negative filters that destroy them along the way.

I integrated all different art forms in the theatre classes. I looked to have the students explore, for themselves, how to find their artistic voice. Too many times, a student would tear up a piece of artwork. “Why?” would come out of my mouth. “Because it’s no good” or variations of that. Looking at the unfinished work, judgments in this child’s mind were already formed. Where it came from was beyond my scope most times. Seeing these 500+ students only once a week, for 45 minutes at a clip, did not afford me the full in-depth deciphering of their psyches.

Sometimes I would notice that the child would look at what someone else was doing and immediately stop. Rip, crumple, toss, and then maybe a hissy fit. Did this student have his work compared to another piece of art, directly or indirectly? Jealousy? Fear of failure? Ridicule lessons in the classroom or at home, or both? Honestly, most times I could not tell you. I’d let the classroom teacher know when she/he would pick the class up, but more often than not they dismissed it with the “oh, you know how ______  is.”

When does the toddler who throws him/herself into their art become their own worst critic?

How Appreciating Art Can Promote Literacy

Why Arts Education is Crucial, and Who’s Doing It Best

As to adults, why do many of us turn away from embracing an art form that we love? I often tell any class I lead, no matter what age level this very simple thing: When we create in art, there is no wrong answer, and there should be no judgment of what or how we do it. We CAN all sing, paint, dance, act, tell a story, play a musical instrument (yes, you can do percussion). If we compare it (See rule #1 above) to someone who either has practiced their artistic craft for years upon years (or are just artistic savants), well…we just do ourselves a disservice.

So what if you’re off key, can’t draw a straight line, are a klutz. If you love it, DO IT. Just do it. Do it for the love and happiness you feel when you let yourself be free. I can sing, but my voice is not trained like it used to be and I go off key a lot. My art is mainly doodles. My music is percussive or on a kazoo. My artistic language comes out in the written and spoken word, but I do sing, I do dance, I do play music, and I do art.

YOU DO ART…All children are artists. We’re still those same children, but the art has been beaten out of you. Take it back.

Give it back. Give the arts back to the schools.

The reason actors, artists, writers have agents is because we’ll do it for nothing.

That’s a basic fact – you gotta do it.
Morgan Freeman