Substitute Teachers Lounge

Substitute Teachers Gotta Have a Routine - Don’t They?

May 28, 2023 Greg Collins Episode 210
Substitute Teachers Lounge
Substitute Teachers Gotta Have a Routine - Don’t They?
Show Notes Transcript

Let's discuss a routine for the substitute teacher, and whether it's really necessary.

Unknown:

Hey, this Greg Collins, Substitute Teachers Lounge, man, I am one routine oriented person, everything has to be in its place. And by the time Today's episode is over, I'm going to convince you, you need to be just like me. Or maybe I'm going to convince myself that I need to back off a little bit. Summertime summertime, we're all out of school, maybe a few of you possibly in the 80s, to had many more snow days than we had here in Kentucky. In fact, you know, COVID changed all that we tend to do a lot more NTI sometimes will have Chris traditional snow days, but not very often. But it's summertime. As we get into the episodes for this summer, they'll be more laid back. Obviously, I won't have as many stories to share with you, because I'm not going to the school, my summer is going to be filled up with vacationing, I'm excited that in our area, that they're starting up a volleyball club for ages as young as eight years old, both boys and girls. So that's how I'm going to occupy my summer. Now, if you haven't already picked it up out of the first 209 episodes of this podcast. I don't know maybe you're not listening carefully enough. I am a very strong type A personality, which is associated with routine type A, everything has a routine, everything I do things over and over the same way all the time. Give me a forensic first of all, let me just say, you can go out and find a right brain left brain test. Most people are relatively even maybe 50%. Right brain 50% left. By the way, this test, there's some people that tried to discredit the test. It's right on the money with me. I think sometimes people are looking for things to do. And they say, Okay, I'm gonna see what I can find wrong with this, then they write it up and said, I'd never, never didn't make any sense in the first place. Well, I am very heavily left brained, the left part of your brain has to do with thinking and logic. Most math, people are left brain people, the creative people, they're the right brain people. They're the ones that know how to create things. To be honest, I would say that, you know, I'm a little jealous of them, because I don't have a creative bone in my body. But I'm very type A, I used to come out on those tests at about 90% type A, some of the examples that I'll give you about my routine things that just have to be perfect, I have to do things exactly like this all the time. First of all, my parents used to make fun of me for being this way. And in fact when they they they've passed on now but they used to own a trailer, a vacation trailer in the Anna Maria Island area of Florida. And the first time when our kids are little our kids are grown now. But I remember back when I think the boys might have been three, three to five, which makes my my daughter would have been about nine then I remember telling them I'm gonna be down at 10am. We'll be down at about 10am On Saturday, he made fun of me because I got there at 955 I am so routine oriented that a 12 hour drive. I knew exactly when I'd be down there. I knew about how much time we'd spend in eating if we got the eating faster, I would take my time and other activities. I got there at 10 o'clock because I am extremely routine oriented way back on March 20th 2020. And the reason I remember is caused this interview took place right after the COVID announcements because I remember talking to Jin Stevens, who is the author of among other things, fast feast and repeat. It's a book about intermittent fasting and go back and listen to that if you'd like it's a great book. It's I'll talk about it just a little bit so we can move on but there is a reason I refer to this as a root Hanging podcasts because I think since I am so routine oriented, this, I'm going to use quotation marks that's diet are really a better way of eating. But they all say that was very it was routine enough that it was perfect for me. I remember interviewing her on I think it was March 20 2020. Because we discussed it was the Masters was going to come up that weekend and it got canceled, just like everything else in the world got canceled. I remember we talked about that move forward, we actually got started with the show. So that's how I always remember about the time I interviewed her. Her suggestions in there were perfect for a routine oriented person, I shifted into a mode where I only ate four hours a day, and I the time slot I chose was about one to five o'clock. Now. I'm so adamant about this not being a diet, I said, Alright, I'm going to test it, make sure it's not a diet, I'm going to eat a lot during those four hours and see if it still is works. Because if all I do is cut calories, well, that's a diet, right? What so I ate the same amount, and in fact lost 35 pounds. Over a series of weeks, I've gotten sloppy with it, I got away from it. When I do go back to it, it works every time. So that's something you can look at if you're it's based on insulin release, and all that kind of thing. So it makes more sense if you read the whole book. And she suggested on that interview, a much more healthy diet than I was doing. I mean, I was actually recommending this, I was actually eating chips, and things like that during my four hours and still losing the weight. But the reason I liked it, it was a routine. I knew every day, one o'clock to five o'clock was my eating period. I actually look forward more to eating than I ever have in my life. And it worked just like it was supposed to work. So I am very routine oriented. I want you to think about how routine oriented you are. There's some negatives about being routine oriented. And we're going to talk about both the routines that you got to have and the routines that I need to back off on because sometimes I won't say it gets me in trouble. But it detracts from the class. First of all, I am not promoting another podcast that I do. But I do do another podcast with my preacher. It's called the church debater, and preacher Mike, you can guess which one I am. I tried to bring bring up controversial church type topics and let him talk about them. We'll disagree. We want to disagree so that we can get the truth out and that kind of thing. Again, I'm not promoting it. But the reason I bring it say that he's a preacher. He's much more a type B person. Since I'm type A, here's a phrase I thought that applied to the two of us perfectly. If I am five minutes early for recording session. I think I'm late. If he's five minutes late for a recording session, he thinks he's early. It's just a mindset, every meeting in my life I've ever gone to. I've been five minutes early. I think the majority of the people show up to a meeting late sometimes they just want to make people think they're more important than they are they just couldn't get away from their schedule, all that kind of thing. So that is a description of being may be a little too, too routine oriented maybe to type A. The other way I'll describe it is for Type A personalities for highly routine oriented people. That is their greatest strength. And very often also their greatest weakness. Well, let's talk about how that's possible. I know in my case, when I worked myself through my career into various management positions in which I had people reporting to me, when I called a meeting, they knew I wanted them there. I'll give you one thing that I almost did that because of my routine oriented personality. We were going to hire a new employee. We were interviewing people, and there is a lady that showed up late ate to her interview 10 minutes late. She tried to make an excuse, but I didn't buy it because that's just not my mindset. Okay. I almost didn't hire her, because she showed up late for that interview. And when I was talking to the other people in the room after she left, and they felt like she was the strongest candidate, I said, Alright, let's give her a shot, she turned out to be an excellent employee. So I almost let my type a routine is talk me out of hiring a good person. So I know all of you have routines that you use as a substitute teacher. With me, it's some things as ridiculous as getting up at the exact same time every day getting to school at the same time, doing the exact same things. Now, I'm going to guess that the first thing you do now, part of my routine NIS is I get there at least a half an hour early before things start what I'm long term, it's older than that, because I like to have my ducks in a row. I like to have my stacks of papers ready to hand out in the appropriate place. I'm a big loser, I lose things. So I want to make sure I've got everything in a place where I will see them. I am routine oriented. In that way. I am sure you do this too. The first thing you probably look for out of routine is that sub notes, that sheet of sub notes laying on the teacher's desk so that you know what you're doing. I'm going to guess there's not many of you who don't do that first thing, maybe I am totally wrong. And I would love for you to jump on the substitute teachers lounge, Facebook group and tell me that maybe a lot of you just show up, walk in the room while back out in the hallway, socialize with the teachers, maybe get some of their free coffee, if they have some that type of thing. And then when the students finally show up, you walk in and hope there's notes there, that would drive me bananas, but have a low tolerance for that. You also have routine ways that will help you teach a class. Maybe in your mind, mate, you know, it's not always written down. But probably in your mind, especially if you're meeting some new students, you've got that little thing going on where you introduce yourself. You do you don't want to use the word icebreaker because the kids cringe when they hear that, oh, she's gonna make us answer the roster with our favorite animal or our favorite food. I hate that. Instead, you tell them a little bit about yourself. Maybe you'll let them ask you questions about yourself. That's your routine. That's how you get to know those students, then you hand out the sheets. With me, I will give them little reminders about how much time they have left. You know, your first class of the day is always going to be your experiment anyway. Right? Because you gauge the rest of your day. If it's the same class, the same material, you gauge the rest of your day on how well it went in that first period. How will your routine work? If it didn't work back off of it? So that it flows more smoothly with periods two through six. Okay, maybe they ran out of time. I remember times I am. I had to my only week of substitute teaching this week because it was the last two days of school was to monitor them while they were taking their final. Well guess what? I'm a talker. Even during that when I knew they needed that time. I would find myself talking to them again. So I had to really back off break out of my routine and do something I wasn't used to. But they did all right. I've had classes before that they got me off topic. They know how to do it. They know what buttons to push to get Mr. Collins off topic because they'd rather hear me talk than do their work. Okay, but your routine probably has you going into the room. And then by the time you get to second period, you might say something like, all right, it took the first period this long, so I suggest you use your time wisely and move from there. I'm going to use a meeting I've been to before that you know I'm a question asker I want to test the speaker's minds. The speakers that I disliked the most now obvious Now I'm talking more of a small group setting than a huge auditorium setting. The speakers dislikes too strong a word, but let's turn it around the speakers I like best other ones that don't get so caught up in the material that they're presenting that they won't let the members listening to distract them because they are have to get through all their notes. They've got to get through this by 10, after they gotta get through this by 20. After that makes you have a less effective presentation. I like the teachers that are the speakers that let us talk to them, even if it means we're going to get way off subject. We're still learning things, but we'll get we may get way off subject and he may not even finish his speech for that day, the classrooms the same way. Okay, you've got this routine, this probably applies more to long term jobs, but you've got this routine of what you want to go through every day, I would encourage you in this effect, use your routines, find out your routines that are best, but in this effect, don't be like me, do something that I'm trying to work on. And if you find yourself in that mode, where you're afraid you're not going to get through everything. That's okay, adapt to it, because you're going to turn that class into something special. If instead of strictly following your plan routine, you open it up and let there be interaction between you and the students. They'll get to know you better, you'll get to know them better. And by simply pulling off from your routine a little bit, all of a sudden, that is a memorable class and they'll look forward to having you back in there again. So be like me, in that you have to have some routine just to keep yourself organized. Don't be like me, in that. Don't feel like your routine is so important and so strong that you'll never pull off of it even if you offend somebody else or even if it draws away from the success of the class or even if you get upset at another adult because they got you out of your routine. Try to get a nice smooth combination of just the right amount of routine in your life and in your classrooms. That it makes that classroom extra special.