School site: CHS
Subject: Where ever the heck they put me.
The holidays wiped me out. Retail is absolutely brutal that way, the funniest part is the majority of the stress came from our lack of trained staff. They were trained enough to preform their jobs, but certainly not psychologically prepared for what they would encounter. This of course is a post for different blog, so on to today's, insanity(?)
I've mentioned once or twice how impersonal substituting is. The mentality I receive most days is " you're not my real teacher..." which is followed promptly by bout of apathy regarding the person conducting the class. Don't get me wrong some classes are great, but this is often brought about by great teachers who have set a calm atmosphere for the class, a routine, and ultimately have some kind of personal connection to their students. This is what they taught us in our credential program, and it is evident in some classes, but if I had great classes everyday this would be a very boring blog.
I don't think I have found a less personal experience than being a roving sub. My assignment this week was to watch some classes while the teachers went to discuss a student's Individual Education Plan or IEP. These are for students who have been identified as having trouble in their classes. This student could have special needs ranging from bad vision to an auditory processing problem. Basically if the student needs specialized attention for a learning disability that has been -identified- if will be in this IEP and all teachers who have student will have to adhere to these guidelines.
So basically the teacher is out for a period, at the most, and many teachers do not have a sub plan written out for this occasion, I mean it's only one class. So I have encountered classes where I just sat and watched them goof off the whole time, to classes where they had a PowerPoint set up for the students to take notes on. This kind of amused me because before they left they did not really go over much of the content of the PowerPoint, but rather teaching me how to run the PowerPoint. I was polite because they obviously do not know my background, but seriously? I am well aware of how to run a PowerPoint. These were very simplistic explanations too, I mean
" So, just press the arrow forward to go forward, and press it back if you need to go to the previous slide, remember there are different things going on during the slides so press the 'forward' or 'back' arrow"
"Yeah, got it... "
The structure brought on by the teacher I'm subbing for is what I often rely on to have a decent day, but in these cases I only have an hour to really get accustomed to this structure. On a normal day I only see the students for an hour anyway, but I'm able to get a feel for the impact the teacher has made on their students. Do the students hate them? Are there pieces of " I love (teacher)" art everywhere? Does the teacher's desk look like a tornado hit it? These are all indicators of the kind of day I'm going to have. I can also get a feel for the type of students I'm going to encounter based on the first couple of periods, there are of course exceptions to this rule. The schools social network is also a buzz "Hey there is a sub in so and so's class" " Oh yeah he's cool!" or "Aww I hate that guy, I'm going to ditch." In the end I leave a pretty detailed note of how the day went and let the teacher really deal with anyone who was disrespectful or went against the rules of the class.
I don't get these kind of experiences being a roving sub, I literally show up, sit with the kids, or conduct whichever activity they were in the middle of, and 30 to 59 minutes later I'm out of there. In some respects it's like a band aid *poof* it's gone. On the other hand I need to work hard to find the flow to my day as a rover, which truly helps me set the teachings of my Sensei into perspective, "Your movements must be fluid, ever changing, both pulling and pushing, like the Yin Yang"
Would I do it again? Heck yes, I have definitely been in worse situations, block classes and alternative schools to name a few, I think the biggest downfall I see to roving is that I really am trying to progress in my career, and this feels more like I am filling space rather than "Teaching." You could literally stick anyone in that classroom for those 30 minutes, with the obvious exceptions, Herbert the Pervert, or a serial killer, and the students would be fine.
I was wiped out from the holidays, and not looking forward to dealing with more rude kids after retail hell, but subbing for a friend and roving this week has brought back the gluten in me, it has instilled some confidence in me, "Hey I'm still capable of handling myself in a classroom," and I think I'm ready for more abuse. This is of course once more jobs become available, the beginning of the quarter is usually very light, but you can see the semester wear down the teachers, and progressively more jobs are available midway through the semester.
Substitute teaching is an experience
