Friday, March 6, 2009

What I Learned At School Today


Whenever we had a substitute in one of my high school classes, we would do everything in our power to take advantage of the teacher. Very often it worked. I don’t recall any of my subs in elementary school but I’m positive we were on our best behavior. Things have changed-a lot. Now I’m the sub and every time I show up, I’m amazed at some of the stuff some kids try to pull-even the little ones-1st & 2nd grade for example. Take today. Throughout the course of the day I was in about 8 different 1st and 2nd grade classes-never for more than 30 minutes. Here are some of the things that happened:
1) When I told a particular student that it was OK for him to go further than p. 79 in his penmanship book and I was sure his teacher wouldn’t be upset with him if I told him to, he broke down in fits of hysterical sobbing screaming ‘but my teacher said not to go past p. 79!” The other students said he always did that. I let him read instead.
2) I called on some students out of their usual order for share time and a little girl screamed at me she was sick of so and so always going ahead of her. I managed to convince her to let the kid go first if I arranged for her to go first all of next week. I said I’d set it up with her teacher. She bought it but I forgot.
3) Along the lines of number 2, every time I did something slightly different or out of order, a chorus of voices corrected me-99% girls. I explained that I knew it was hard for them to believe but I do know what I’m doing. Didn’t matter. They weren’t buying it.
4) I asked a 2nd grade class if recess was 1:25 or 1:30. I was informed that it was supposed to be 1:15 and not to worry if no one else in 2nd grade was out there. That’s what always happened. I checked with the teacher next door. Recess was 1:30. I was then informed that since today was Friday, the schedule was different. It wasn’t.
5) In a particular 2nd grade class there was supposed to be a 10 minute period of quiet time. Two boys kept talking, I asked them what they didn’t understand about ‘quiet’. They said they knew what it meant, turned away from me and kept talking.
That’s probably the biggest difference in today’s students and those of my day. Most of them have no fear whatever. They’ll attempt to do what they want, when they want. Usually they lose-except for the kid who had the fit over the handwriting book. He won-today.

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