Have you ever wondered why discipline in a classroom swings between extremes? How does a stand-in teacher maintain equilibrium? As a seasoned substitute teacher, I've seen my philosophy adapt and evolve over time. The pandemic, as disastrous as it has been, has brought about a rebalancing act in the classroom. I've found myself becoming stricter, less lenient, perhaps a reaction to the changes in social interactions among students. In the process, I've made some unique connections with students that have left an indelible mark on my teaching style. Would this transformation make me a more effective teacher, or would it backfire? Let’s explore this journey together.
Have you ever wondered why discipline in a classroom swings between extremes? How does a stand-in teacher maintain equilibrium? As a seasoned substitute teacher, I've seen my philosophy adapt and evolve over time. The pandemic, as disastrous as it has been, has brought about a rebalancing act in the classroom. I've found myself becoming stricter, less lenient, perhaps a reaction to the changes in social interactions among students. In the process, I've made some unique connections with students that have left an indelible mark on my teaching style. Would this transformation make me a more effective teacher, or would it backfire? Let’s explore this journey together.
You know, there's an old episode of the Seinfeld series I think it was from the episode called the Keys where Kramer looks at George and says do you ever yarn? Well, I would instead ask you today if you ever ponder. I am sitting in a. It's like a vocational school background, it's an engineering class and I'm between classes. Right now there's no students in the room, so it's given me time to kind of ponder some things, because I've noticed some things over the last few weeks. I guess I'm changing Six years of substitute teaching and I'm changing my philosophy a little bit. So here's the three things we're gonna answer today what happened to make me change it? How am I changing it, and is this going to make me a better or worse substitute teacher? Alright, so I am recording this on the Monday before Thanksgiving 2023. I guess that makes it November 21st is when this comes out. Recording it on the 20th and it's really kind of I'm going through.
Speaker 1:I guess Melon Collie is kind of the right phrase, because I can tell my whole mindset is changing. Now, here's the reason I really got very, very close, or maybe I should say the more correct way of saying is that I've got a special place in my heart for several of the seniors. Coincidentally it's the seniors, among others, that were on the volleyball team and I had some others in that same class. I started substitute teaching them right off the bat. That would be well. I'm trying to do my math in my head. They're seniors and I substitute off of them in the seventh grade. So that's five years ago. It's almost six because I subbed them early in the year. But regardless, it's different. Now I can tell my mindset is changing because I'm coming to the realization that I'm not going to see them anymore. Now, on a smaller scale, at another high school, I went through the same thing a little bit last year because three or four of my favorite students at the other high school they were also graduating and they're doing great. I found out about them, they're doing great. But now I'm to the point that the remaining students with maybe a couple of exceptions the remaining students I didn't get as close to as I did those students.
Speaker 1:So it's kind of making me reevaluate how I substitute teach. I wonder if you, especially after a long period of time, do you ever reevaluate what I'm doing? I wrote down a few things like Do I let students do less now than I used to, and I know that I do. Am I I'm going to use a really strong old fashioned word have I become more? What is it Contankerous have? Am I more of a I don't want to say traditional, that insults too many people but am I more of a substitute teacher? Now? I had this episode a few weeks back that has less tolerance. Do I go about doing things differently? Do I ignore less than I used to? That's another thought that I wrote down and, as I said at the beginning of the show, I know I'm changing, but am I changing for better or worse?
Speaker 1:So you had your special students. You know. If you have been teaching for years and are now just substitute teaching, maybe in retirement. I know you don't want to admit this, but I know that you are remembering students that you had way back when. That still some of your favorite students to this day. It's just human nature. It's funny.
Speaker 1:We had our volleyball banquet yesterday and of course, the players always treat me a lot better than they probably should. They gave me a little certificate. You know about being the best sub and coach and referee and jokester. I think was on there Sarcastic trivia and I. You know, we have a mutual respect for each other. I had written a poem that I read to them that I told him it was going to be a roast and they liked it. But they laughed afterwards that I wasn't tough enough on them. They wanted me to be meaner if it was really a roast. So those girls really what's the phrase? Got it going on the old phrase from the 70s.
Speaker 1:But here's how I've changed and I think I'm OK. I'm not less nice, but what I can tell, and I might even blame the COVID years on some of this, because a lot of students, especially I'll say maybe six and seventh grade, are much less mature these days than the students that were six and seven Before COVID. And you know, it's simple, it's they had that year less of social interaction and you know it's truly amazing to see how much difference that made and how much difference the fact that they had that year their whole lives of getting together with friends and schoolmates and all that kind of thing. And here lately they haven't. Now there's exceptions. I've already told you about the eighth grade at one school that I think is the best eighth grade I've ever had.
Speaker 1:And here's how I've changed, though let's get this out in the open. I'm a big believer of second chances, but I really think in certain situations I will be doing that less. I think it's time for me instead of I'll be honest, and I guess in the beginning I want it to be the favorite substitute teacher way back episode to go, when I had one that was really popular about how to be the cool sub, and I started off by saying I'm 65 years old and I've never been cool a day in my life. But some of the kids call me the cool sub and it's probably just because I don't yell at them. I still will not be yelling at anybody, but I think I raise my voice more now. So here's how I've changed. I have gone from maybe letting kids get away with too much to being a little strict in that regard. Plus, I can tell that students that I remember from way back that seventh grade I was talking about five years ago, we just had a more cordial is that the word? Relationship in the classroom.
Speaker 1:These days I think it's harder to keep kids motivated, so it's hard for me to motivate myself to be that same teacher that I always have. I don't yell, but I do raise my voice more. I don't give as many second chances. I am short with students more than I used to be. I I still don't write students up. I don't know if I can bring myself to do that. Just refered a volleyball game. I'm recording this in pieces, so it's actually evening and I'm home now here at this part of the podcast. But I just got back from referring a ball game and I was jokingly talking with the visiting coach and told us six, six years and I've never given one yellow card in six years and it's just not my style.
Speaker 1:Well, I still think the kids like me to come into school, but they I'm in the mode now that they know I will not tolerate for a lack of a better word. I will not tolerate silliness, foolishness. Maybe that's the best way. And that doesn't mean I don't let them talk anymore. That doesn't mean that I don't still joke around with them, and almost to the point. You know sarcasm, I don't like practical jokes, but I do like joking around if that makes sense. And the students I encounter they like me to be that way that the volleyball players the certificate call me a jokester on one of those. I think that's the reason they like me around because they know that I'm a decent ad-libber, I know how to make jokes and you know, I'm 65 years old and even though I've forgotten a lot of stuff, I have that old joke bank that I've had for years and I can usually think of a joke for just about every situation and I think they like that about me and I like that about them too when I you know, when I let them joke back with me had a student today, as a matter of fact that was I mean, the teacher had already left me a note to try your best to keep this student motivated and he's one of those that would give up too quickly.
Speaker 1:And the project they were doing was a creation of a piece of material type project. They had to create it from paper and he gave up too quick. I can't do this, I can't do this. And then he was goofing off with a friend and kind of smacked him a little bit in the cheek and I said I have to write you up now. Well, he immediately got very serious. I did give him a second chance. I knew that was one of his friends and they were just horse playing, but I was less tolerant than I probably had in the past. Maybe sometimes in the past I would just ignore it and go on.
Speaker 1:But my point in all this is I'm changing a little bit now because it feels like the students that always touch my heart are just leaving now. That's a little bit crazy, isn't it? And the students that remain, while they're still special to me, it's just not that upper echelon of students that, remember. I still got some out there and I know some are listening to this and in fact I would almost say the exception to the rule. They know right now they're the exception to the rule because I've taught them long-term several times and I was happy I got to do that they'll be graduating not in 2024, but in 2025. Then I might really fall apart and not know what I should do next.
Speaker 1:But I have changed my style. I am still Mr Positive, but I will be less tolerant with them in a hopefully diplomatic way. I will share my thoughts with them more quickly. I will be more stern, probably a little bit. I won't be mean. I still will occasionally just pop me a big bag of those gummy what do we call them? Nerds, gummy clusters, the individual bags that I can hand out because I think that's kind of cool Just throw out some candy every now and then. I don't do as much cahoot as I used to because it seems like I concentrate on the upper grades. But if you have changed your substitute teaching style, I would love to hear about it on the Facebook page, our substitute teachers lounge Facebook group, and we'll go on from here.
Speaker 1:I have a really I'll go back to that word melancholy. I'm having a little withdrawal because every day I was with that volleyball team and now I only see them in the hallway. If I was the other coaches and never got to see them again, I'd probably be going a little bit crazy right now. But I know I'll get to see them from time to time. When I substituted that school, that will work out good for me. I guess that should be well. Gotta check my adverbs and I'm looking forward to put to practice. I wanna be a little tougher. I really do, and perhaps some of the reason I've been popular in the past is maybe I've been too soft.
Speaker 1:I had one incident today in which I finally just asked this guy. I said do you talk like this all the time when your regular teacher is here? And he said well, yeah, he said I talk a lot I probably don't talk as loudly as I have been and he settled down a bit. There's so many kids now that just tell me that they didn't take their medication and I wanna be sympathetic to that, but at the same time you can't let them be disruptive. They were during their work the whole time. So, long story short, yes, I'm changing. Still nice I hate to say it like this maybe I'm not as nice as I used to be.
Speaker 1:I'm changing the way I go about conducting classrooms now. I've been subbing every day I could really sub every day, in fact, the day this comes out this Tuesday. One of the schools called me the day before and said we need you to come in tomorrow if you can, and we don't even know who you're gonna be substitute teaching for, we just know that we're gonna need some substitute teachers. So they said just come on in and we'll assign you when you get here. So that's the way my day is going to go on November 21st our last sub day, by the way, until after Thanksgiving. So I hope this made a little sense.
Speaker 1:Today. I'm changing. I think it's okay to change. You don't wanna be totally soft. You don't wanna be totally harsh. Strive for something in between those two so you can discipline as necessary. You can keep from over-disciplining them and be ready to. If you're changing, figure out why you're changing. Don't become snotty if you've never been snotty before and don't become. I said soft before, but you don't want to be overly. You just let the kids walk all over you either. Was it a class the other day? And I was kind of surprised how loud the class next to me was. And then they said oh, they have a substitute teacher in there today too. And I'm thinking I feel sorry for them because that class is out of control. My class was not. I don't know if I was the reason or if I just had a nicer class. All that rolled up, though I'm going to try to be a little bit more direct and hopefully that will benefit the students too, and I know it will benefit me.