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
Do not assume that the sub knows ANY of your procedures, unless you know them/they’ve been in your room before.
From A to Z: lay it out. No confusion for the kids, no confusion for the sub.
If you write up daily procedures ONE TIME, you have that ready to go.
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.
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).
Don’t treat a sub like they are stupid, though.
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.
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.
Study Hall or Independent Reading instead of actual work is futility for a substitute, and the kids normally take advantage of that fact.
Have the sub collect the work you assign so the students DO SOMETHING and are held accountable for it.
Telling them to do work and then allowing them the choice to finish for homework? Another disaster for the sub.
Homework is homework. Classwork should not be interchangeable.
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.
Do not expect the sub to be proficient in all core subject matter.
If there is an answer sheet, please provide it for them.
Please provide times for all subjects (when the change is, bell is supposed to ring, etc.). Simple, yes, but not everyone does it.
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.
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.
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}.
Please make sure your Sub Folder is current with students attendance sheets, allergies, dismissals, etc.
When you have a change in the classroom, please update your Sub Folder.
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.
Please indicate who can help the sub out if needed by teachers you are surrounded by/work with on a regular basis.
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”
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.
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.
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.
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.
A 68 year young bus monitor, in upstate New York, was verbally assaulted by a group of Middle School (MS) students. The abuse was caught on video and broadcast on YouTube and all over Facebook and Twitter. According to the article/CNN report, the students will be facing disciplinary actions, and the police are involved in this action.
I’m sure, by now, you’ve seen or heard about the video. The CNN link above only has a fraction of it, and I would not post the entirety of it here. The students who did this need consequences for their actions, not further hits on the video. I do send out my thoughts to the woman who was attacked. My hope is she can find some strength in the fact that she held her own, did not sink to their level and attack back, and that the majority of those sounding off on this are on her side.
We have our share of bullies in all age groups, in all parts of our society. Yet, the majority of our focus is on the school bullies. When I went looking for bully images to use with this post, there were few images that dealt with adults: one adult yelling at a group of kids; one woman berating another. The rest were signage, the red line through the word BULLY and the like.
Alongside issues of bullying in schools, which is desperately needed, I feel all adults (Parents, the workforce, police, politicians, teachers, principals, etc etc etc) need the same sort of awareness programs, if not more so. Not only do they need to learn how to properly deal with this behavior from students, the adults need to see what THEY do that constitutes bullying.
I saw it in action, recently, in working with an older population group. I have seen it in action in schools and business. It seems to be not only a common practice from management to workers at times, but along the peer level. Bullying tactics are not relegated to just children.
Adult bullies, to other adults &/or children, is a seen behavior that is picked up by the young. If an adult does it with little to no consequence, then why can’t a kid? They may not go through that exact thought process, but it’s there: we teach our children outright what we want them to learn, but we are not careful about the rest of our actions, what they observe and take in.
I think we need to label bullying, if we have to label at all, for what it truly is: a hate crime.
Bullying wasn’t okay in elementary school and it isn’t okay now, especially when it comes in the form of a U.S. Supreme Court decision. John Doolittle
Some people won’t be happy until they’ve pushed you to the ground. What you have to do is have the courage to stand your ground and not give them the time of day. Hold on to your power and never give it away.
― Donna Schoenrock
Here are two student video reactions to the bullying of the bus monitor.
I’m completely blown away. Schools are probably the last place we should be cutting budgets, since the future of our world depends on the children. We propagate the species to continue, and I would hope we’d like to leave a better world, and give our kids the chance to advance.
Doesn’t seem like it.
These types of cuts will not happen in private schools. These schools have the means to make sure all the educational hurdles we are facing does not happen to their academics. They’ll continue to have Kindergarten, Art programs, Sports programs, and have a more well rounded student in the long run. They’ll take working models and stick with them, instead of futzing around like the public sector does.
As part of the public, we should allow all children the best education possible, no matter the social/economic happenstance of the family/community.
I was just on an interview for a job I would love to have. One of the questions I was asked was about the working hours: would I mind working the longer hours this new school would schedule. What struck me is that it needed to be asked at all: there are many, many reasons why extended school time is needed today.
Before I continue, these are MY opinions from what I’ve observed in the field (I have taught as a Teacher, Teaching Artist and as a Substitute Teacher); I’ve left you five links above for others on the subject. Object if you must, but do so with justifications and always keep it civil.
I have heard from too many educators that there is just not enough time in the school day to accomplish all that must be done. I’ve experienced it myself: you just get things going, and they have to rush to another class instead of investing the time needed t o really explore. I’m not talking about busy work, which I have seen in an abundance. Actual student engaging moments get cut short many times.
We have a shrinking teacher base, due to budget cuts in places there should not be budget cuts. Classrooms are overcrowded. Tests and evaluations and rote “learning” practices shove aside a real chance for connections and actual learning.
Yes, we should have more teachers, more classrooms, and less students per class.
With the changing economic realities, parents are not always home until later in the day. The idea of Mom always being home after school is antiquated in many parts of the US; that has changed, but the schools have not changed with the times. There are after school clubs and such already in place; but again, the idea for a longer day is not just social activities (which they do need to foster as well, since much of home life gets truncated that way).
Double blocks of teaching (80 to 90 mins) during the day gives the teacher and the class to work on projects. The time constraints we have now means that there are only three classes per day that way. A longer day would allow more constructive work.
Advisory meetings, portfolio work, special projects that have a true impact and are not busy work (again, seen too much of that), planning sessions; individualized work (NOT study halls: I saw, in one location, 12 students on computers playing Halo in study hall; not making that up, and it was not my place to stop them)…there is so much that can be accomplished with proper time use.
The long summer breaks were originally set up by agricultural needs: farmer kids needed to work on the farm. School came second.
Education should not come second in anything we do.
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.
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.
To trade goods or services without the exchange of money.
A tagline to a newspaper article caught my eye: “Uninsured Can Exchange Talents for Care.” Lincoln Hospital, in The Bronx, is offering artists in that borough of NYC a chance to get health care; they get credits for each hour worked that can be used towards a variety of medical treatments & prescriptions. Their program, Lincoln Arts Exchange, is modeled after the Artist Access program at Brooklyn’s Woodhull Medical Center.
Bartering is nothing new. It is used in markets across the world, trading goods. Services may have taken a back seat, but the idea works for me. I have no “goods” to barter, but I do have a “service,” and that is my art, whether it’s a performance (Storytelling or Interactive Theater), workshop, or Editing/Copy writing service. With money tight, if I can exchange some of my time and energy to get something I need…bartering is a great idea.
When I ran my theater company (The Brothers Grinn: 1994-2006), I rarely paid for rehearsal space (until the need for an abundance of NYC members of the company). I bartered with a few places (Two churches and a couple of other locations), offering them either free group performances or solo workshops for weekly rehearsal space. This was a huge savings for a company that was young and toured an average of 120 performances a year. We had no “home” space to perform/work out of but the spaces I found worked for us on many levels; the money I saved that way was put into many things the company needed (costumes; sound equipment; insurance; etc).
What Creative Service Do You Have To Barter?
Health Care, rehearsal space, food…what can you add to the list? I’ve only just started a very small section of what could be possible if more would open their minds to the idea: Artists have something to offer.
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.
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?
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.
