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
Be on time.
This means, to me, being at least fifteen minutes early to where you are supposed to report (usually the main office).
Dress appropriately.
Ask for a security badge if not given one automatically.
Ask for the Substitute Folder if it is kept in the main office.
Make sure you have CURRENT attendance sheets.
Come prepared with at least one pen: don’t assume any will be left for you.
Get to the room you need to report to and read the lesson plans from start to finish.
Hopefully, the teacher will have left you all material you need with the lesson plan.
If not, round it up/locate it before the students come in.
If the teacher assigns a Study Hall or Individual Reading for that time period:
Do not:
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.
Do:
State you are in charge
They have work to do: do it
Take names if they are disrespectful to you
Keep your calm
Leave the classroom, especially the teacher’s desk/work area, as you found it.
Leave the teacher notes on how the day was: good and not so good behavior.
Don’t leave a novel: just highlights/bullets
Some schools use some sort of feedback system, whether online or paper: follow through on it.
If you are working with any classroom aides or paras: thank them for their help at the end of the class/day.
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.
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.
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.
It was the 2012 Memorial Day Weekend, and I get a pleasant surprise: I have been honored TWICE with the One Lovely Blog Award, as passed on to me by Allan Douglas of Simple Life Prattle and The Write Stuff (and fellow Triberr buddy).
How could he bestow this upon me twice? One is for here, Born Storyteller; the other is for my creative fiction blog, Tale Spinning.
The “rules” are simple:
Thank the person who awarded the award (Thank you Allan) and link back to their blogs: Click HERE and HERE
Tell SEVEN things about yourself that no one knows (but two blogs… 14.. but…14? TMI)
Pass on the award to (15) blogs you follow and like/admire/wish they were yours.
I’ll do as many as I can.
So…
Seven Things :
I’ve lived on the East Coast of the USA all my life, but have visited more than half of the states now.
I read SciFi, Fantasy, Thrillers, Mysteries, and then the occasional other book. Existentialism, anyone?
I wish the lyrics to John Lennon’s song Imagine were achievable.
People find me unfocused in my field of interest (the arts); I find myself versatile.
I believe in ghosts, but not vampires and werewolves. Especially not shimmery vampires.
I like both cats and dogs; I do NOT like fish, as pets or otherwise.
I have never gone to a demolition derby or a monster truck thingy; I’d like to, at least once.
In no particular order, blogs I pass this along to, and you should give them a look/leave a comment (tell ’em I said Hi):
As of May 5th, 2012, over $419,000,000 (that is 419 MILLION US dollars) has been contributed to all candidates to run for the position of the President of the USA. Combined, not just one party, so I am not playing favorites here.
$419,000,000
Instead of bombarding us with ads and campaigning, wouldn’t it be lovely if that amount of money went somewhere else…oh, like say create or keep 8,038 teaching jobs (at $50,000 for the school year) for one year, or over 11,000 jobs paying as low as $35,000 a year?
Yeah, drop in the bucket, one may say…but to those 8,000 to 11,000? No, it would be a big deal.
Hard to judge who should get it, where it should go, etc etc etc…yes, it is, especially with so many out of work: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
Household Survey Data
Both the number of unemployed persons (12.5 million) and the unemployment rate (8.1 percent) changed little in April
Splitting all that money amongst all unemployed would only garner a check for $35.52. Not much of a help for anyone (well, for someone starving…).
I would rather see that money at least go to something good, something that would be helping others.
I would rather the President’s $191,000.000 fund education, or the Arts (yes, my personal bias: those in the arts need to live too), medical/health care, anti-violence/hate crime programs, the elderly, or something that would help other people. Better that then take up advertising time, spin negative ads against Romney, and such.
THAT would be the person I want running this country. Raise money from those who are fighting being taxed fairly and use that money for the common good.
No religious, political or personal agenda: just helping others.
You can believe in what you want. As long as it’s not hateful or harmful to others, I’ll even listen to your POV if you promise not to try to ram it down my throat, or try to convince me that your belief is the only right way.
Democrats and Republicans do many wrong things, for the wrong reasons: there are lobbies/big money that have no concerns for the people of this country, only profits.
The blame game is what is hurting this country. I read a series of posts on FB, an anti-President Obama thread, that were volatile and negative spewing. The main thrust was, from the person who started the thread, that he feels all Republicans should say NO to anything coming from an opposing POV.
No listening and judge on individual merits; no attempt to compromise; no attempt to work for the betterment of all the people in the country. Just Say NO was his mantra…and then he and others complained that “the liberals” only spout and don’t listen and run away from a fight.
[Side Bar: As to arguments about Bush Bashing…one thing to disagree with the man, which I do. I have my reasons: my two biggest complaints are: his getting the news of the 9/11 attacks and just sitting dumbfounded in a Kindergarten classroom, not making a move, not directing the country, not showing any action; the second is, when asked about his greatest achievement in office, he talks about a fish he caught. Joke or not, to me, it’s not funny. I’m not even going to go into the economic state of the union he left for whoever won the election to pick up after him. Nope. Not going there.]
Before any civil rights acts, inter-racial marriages were forbidden, as were inter-religious ones. They were, for those days, their own “war on marriage” which, yes, I have seen slogans for.
The President spoke his mind and made a stand: he believes in same sex marriage. He did not say any other state of marriage should be nullified, nor did he exclude anyone. He did not say, in any way, that this was a war on marriage. He did not say we all must believe as he did. Many won’t, and that is their prerogative. He is, if anything, advocating the civil rights of the “rest” of the country for consenting adults in love to get married.
If you don’t want to be married to someone of the same sex, or a different religion, or a different skin color, or a different nationality, then: JUST DON’T. But, don’t impose your own POV on someone else.
Why then, as a straight man, am I so behind repealing an amendment based on hatred and bigotry?
I’m also a JEWISH male, and if anyone wants to talk about history of abuse and hatred against a people, then let’s talk. We got ya beat by thousands of years.
It’s time to let things that are NOT important to the running of a country go, and focus on what we can do POSITIVELY and for the GOOD OF THE PEOPLE. The civil rights of American Citizens are being crushed under foot by those who say they love this country.
You love this country, then show it. Stop forcing your negative religious beliefs on others and do something positive with all that energy.
Fight poverty
Fight human trafficking
Fight hunger
Fight injustice (and you better believe this is injustice)
Fight for a stronger economy
Fight to bring our schools back to a place of prominence
Fight for a way to bring this country together, instead of continuously tearing it apart
Education (providing the best; promoting and supporting a healthy structure)
Unemployment
Health Care for all
…the list can go on, and please feel free to add on to the list of “Important Things.”
Yet, we as a nation focus on something that is NOT Important in how the country is run, how the lives of the people are improved on, how we can help to strive for a better future. We seem to be fixated on something that obfuscates real issues:
Who Can Marry Whom.
Used to be interracial marriages were illegal. Inter-religious ones were kinda verboten. Segregation issues (against Blacks, Jews, etc) were the standards. All along these lines, those barriers came down, and…unless it is hit with personal prejudices and bias, had not affected your life in any real way. You may not like it, still, but really: beyond sensibilities…?
If marriage is so sanctified (there again: marriage is NOT only a religious ceremony, and hasn’t been for a long time: civil court marriages anyone?) then why do so many heterosexual couplings end in divorce? Why do so many wind up cheating on their spouse (Yeah, looking at you, Newt)? Why do so many in POWER (talking money power too) think it gives them the right to abandon that sanctity for the trophy wife, the mistress, the pursuit of affairs outside of wedded bliss? How many heterosexual wives were jettisoned for younger models, straying outside of “under God”, etc?
So, about me…
I’m not gay
I’m not Black
I’m not a woman (which also brings up: why can OLD men in the Senate tell a woman what she can do with her body?)
I’m not overly political, but I lean more towards the Democrats than Republicans; I feel Libertarians have more to add to the discussion, but are too extreme for what we are now.
I AM for HUMAN rights and freedoms, ones that have nothing to do with a political agenda but one that should strive for the betterment of humankind. Except for committing violence against myself or others, I have no right to say to another: “hey, I don’t like you doing that, it offends me, so I will stop you from doing it.” I just don’t have that right.
Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase about “separation of church and state,” and while it is not in any formal document, I feel it should be.
The freedom of religion and of speech is set in constitutional stone; you can believe in what you want, and say it as well, but don’t push it on me.
I may not (and don’t, in this case) share your point of view.
Repel Amendment One, and put all this effort into something that will help other people, not bog us down in negative things.
What would happen if we put this much energy into doing something positive?
Dancing around a maypole at Barwick-in-Elmet, Yorkshire
A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.
~Albert Camus
All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half a year from November 1, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European pagan and the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations.
Coincidences on international workers day:
2011: President Obama announces the death of Bin Laden
Why were we subjected to a long wait of TV news time before he came out to announce it?
2007: President Bush announces “Mission Accomplished” re: the “major conflict in Iraq has ended.”
Announced on the USS Lincoln warship: Honest Abe…ahem
1945: the death of Adolph Hitler is announced
1707: Great Britain is formed, merging England, Wales and Scotland.
There are a lot of “big” events on May 1st (and I am sure you can find more on other days: that is not the point here); I just did not list them all. You can do some of the research yourself HERE. I just find it bizarre that three major events in less than 100 years occurred.
My feeling, and all it is is a feeling, no facts (so, yeah, kindly refrain from nasty comments: I’m allowed my feeling on this matter):
Starting in 1945, it feels like something Winston Churchill would have put forward, using a people’s day holiday to make a huge political announcement. It adds gravitas to the whole thing, big an event as it was unto itself. Someone savvy in PR in Bush’s cabinet could have taken notice of this and used that date to push the (erroneous) message out, bolstering the president’s “history” for future generations. Using the ship he did was overkill, imho. Lastly, with all the Bush bashing, what better day to upstage the 2007 announcement but to bring forward the death of another monster, and then make us wait with bated breath, probably smoking a cigarette and biding time to heighten the effect once announced.
Makes me wonder what the next “big announcement” on a May 1st will be.
Hi All…I’ve been away since mid March for a variety of reasons. In April, I spent the majority of my time writing everyday for my Tale Spinning blog, creating an interrelated anthology series. Please take a look HERE.
I’ll be back with BornStoryteller The Creative Series (still have guest posts that I never got around to sharing with you) and one or two other series ideas. That will all start soon, and I’ll do my best to keep a schedule going.
Thanks for sticking around, and thank you all for reading (and commenting) on 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 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.