Substitute Teachers Lounge
Substitute Teachers Lounge
You Can't Say That to Those Kids!
Ever wondered how humor can work for or against you in the classroom? We're here to discuss and dissect the dynamics. Also, navigating political discussions in classrooms can be like walking on a tightrope, right? Let’s make that journey a little less nerve-racking.
Greg Collins substitute teachers lounge. I was in a statistics class one time and Remember the teacher came in, was going to hand out paper test results and he said Alright, I'm gonna hand these out in the order of highest grade to lowest grade. And when he handed out the last paper to the one remaining embarrassed student, he said this is the last paper I'm handing out. What would have been your reaction? All right, I just asked you what would have been your reaction. Maybe I should have asked you is that something you would have done? Is that something you have done? By the way? After the teacher said this is the last sheet I'm handing out today, he also said by the way, I was just joking about that handing it out in grade order stuff, and everybody just cracked up, started laughing. To be honest, I don't think I would ever do anything like that, because that is some real Embarrassment situation and you better be sure that the student that's the last student Can handle the joke. We're gonna talk about that a little bit today.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you one more story, really more intense than the last story I just told you. Now, this was freshman college, but not that much different than high school. Senior definitely don't try this with a younger age. But we were as a first couple of days of class. He walked up to a girl in the front of the room and Said Ma'am, did anyone ever tell you that you're extremely ugly? I hope your eyes got big and your mouth dropped when I made that statement, because mine did. Well, the reason he said that was that we were getting it's a health class and we're getting ready to talk about how your emotions can sometimes affect your decisions, or in other words, if somebody made you upset, you might make bad decisions. So we got the joke. Now. Not only was the girl attractive, but he had talked to her before the class and she knew that was coming and, to be honest, it kind of turned her into a bit of a celebrity. He called her ugly every day of class from then on and everybody just laughed about it. Even I guess it made a little different. She even got asked out by several of the boys in the class because the teacher gave her more attention than any of the others, I guess. But think about those two situations.
Speaker 1:You know that I have told you that I tell the students I have a very sarcastic sense of humor, so once I get to know you better, you're going to hear more of that and they nod their head. I'm not sure they're crazy about the idea, and my favorite students are all. I shouldn't say it like that. Students I most enjoy having in class are the ones that will joke back with me. We're going to talk about all that. We'll leave the more serious side of the discussion for closer to the end, the kind of the discussion that you just said, something that may actually get you in trouble or may actually take the class down a direction you did not want to go.
Speaker 1:But first let's talk about something that happened to me this week that I regret it, even though the student I found out could have cared less. But remember, it's summertime, I'm not teaching anybody. I'm starting to work with the volleyball team I told you about last week. Oh man, it is so much fun. I definitely made the right decision. You can go back and listen to the podcast. It was both a financial decision and a personal decision for me to get out of a refereeing volleyball and instead help with the team.
Speaker 1:Some of those players I had taught since the seventh grade they're now seniors. They came up and welcomed me. It was funny. By the time we got to day four, the coach knows how much they like having me there, like me teaching the class every now and then. Right, I've told you the story before how there's some classes six graders especially that I'd walk into and when they'd see me they'd cheer a little bit. But you know what, by day four they're not really cheering. They're used to having me there, so it's not as much of a class reunion, so to speak. And that's what happened this week. By the time we got to day four, there weren't that many players that greeted me when I came in. Now, when I chose to be silly and do some of the exercises, some of the sprints that they had to do, they would cheer me on. So it's just a great situation. Here's what I did once. Keep in mind these are high school students and this wasn't that bad, but it made me feel bad after I said it.
Speaker 1:So we're practices over, we're going outside. I'm looking at all the cars that some of those seniors are driving. One of them was a brand of car that typically is thought of being a bit more pricey. She got in. One of the other players got in to ride with her. They're both very friendly, they both talk to me all the time and I said oh, so you must be a rich girl. And I may have misinterpreted the look on her face, but she didn't really smile that much. I might have embarrassed her a bit.
Speaker 1:Next day of practice, about halfway through practice, we were just kind of standing around and she just said something like are you having a good day, greg? And I'd say it and I knew I was gonna apologize to her. I was just waiting for a more. I didn't wanna make a big deal out of it. So you know. I said you know I was gonna. I'm gonna apologize to you today. And she said what for? And I walked there and there were three of her friends sitting around. I said because I called you a rich girl and that wasn't very nice. And she just laughed and said I didn't think a thing about it. In fact, that car is several years old, so you were wrong anyway.
Speaker 1:Now let me let that lead you to another conversation about things that I have witnessed. Several years ago really, I was once in a situation where there was a large group of kids around. It was a camp. The kids were around several days and we had chosen to be counselors, and there was this one young lady, young lady, she herself would joke about the size of her nose. Okay, now, I think I've shared this before maybe the first year of the podcast, I don't know anymore but anyway she would joke around it all the time.
Speaker 1:Well, there's some people that think that when another person jokes around about something about themselves that or about themself I should say, use the non-plural word there then it's free for us to joke around about it too. And sure enough, one of the adults made a comment later in the week that was about her nose, and her rationale was I said that because she says that about herself. So that's okay, isn't it? Well, I could see the embarrassed look on the student's face. Another thing happened this is more recent, but not within the real recent time when a young man was making fun of his body being out of shape, and so then an adult made fun of it too. Well, I'm here to tell you this you got to do what you got to do. If you think that's okay, that's fine. My opinion is this just because someone makes fun of themselves does not give you license to make fun of them as well, for the same reason. Now, if you wanna pick out something random, I joke around with them all the time.
Speaker 1:I had a girl in class I forgot about this almost One of the last months of this past school year and she's gonna be a junior. I had known her since she was in sixth grade and I knew her to be really smart and she knew that I would be smart with her sometimes just to see how she would react to it, and she was fine with that. She would always have a very clever comment to make back. Well, I was walking around the room and I said all right, when the last one gets finished, I will hand out the next assignment. That's why I'm standing here next to her, because I assume she's gonna be the last one finished. And she looked up to me, didn't smile, gave me a dirty look and said I'll show you, mr Collins, and she was one of the first ones finished and the she made a point of proving to me that I was wrong, even though she knew I was joking around, because I joke around with her all the time.
Speaker 1:So think about what you're saying. Just because somebody else makes fun of themselves Doesn't give you proper license to do it as well. At the same time, like I say, I'm gonna have a sarcastic sense of humor. Once I I tried to gauge. I try not to be too sarcastic the first few times I meet students when I see that they like to joke around. I'm not gonna say something about their intelligence or their appearance, but I'm like Pope fun. Like they probably watch old TV shows from the 70s, something that they wouldn't think would be that cool. I might try to embarrass them that way and, though, joke around with me. Many students will joke back at me in the same way. Like you know, did you ever see a dinosaur when you were a young kid? All that kind of stuff, and I love that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:So think about the things you say. Don't Embarrass students. You may lose them. You may Affect them in a way that it's difficult to get them back on your side. Now, more seriously, let's talk about some things that could potentially I Get you in trouble. Some of them may, but let's talk about the more serious things, not to say to students. I'm gonna talk about politics. It's much more polarizing, but that let's save that for after a, a topic that I want to call don't get sucked in to a discussion that the student is just trying to get you upset about. I Want you to use your imagination a little bit, or I guess that's really the wrong word use your memory a little bit and Think back.
Speaker 1:Was there ever a time when you could tell a Student was just trying to aggravate you about something? They were trying to get you sucked into their conversation. A lot of times it's best just to ignore that. I remember a kid Saying something I've got that. I don't. I'm not, I'm not bald at all, but I do have a spot in the crown of my head that Is more bare than the other. Hair hits my head and he said something about. He said something about it because I was trying to get him to work, so I didn't say something smart alec, but I did say something back to him that the kids in the room Realized that I kind of topped what he had said and we went back and forth a little bit and then I just let it drop. If you go back and forth too much with a student that's trying to get here's a good old phrase You're dander up such a reference to a duck, then they have won. They have gotten you over to their side and you might lose a bit of your Credibility with the other students. If they can see you can be that easily Manipulated, that will come back to haunt you. So the best part is just to ignore it. Don't snap off at them. Try to come up with something constructive to say back and go from there.
Speaker 1:Now I do want to talk about one of the most Polarizing topics that we can talk about today and that's politics. Now I do not enjoy Discussing politics. I am one of the least political people you'll ever meet. I have multiple, multiple close friends who are just the opposite. They love talking about it. If I know, something is Just kind of going on that's brutal in the world or in the nation right now. I don't even watch the news that much because it just makes me uncomfortable hearing it. I know if it's important enough, I'll hear about it eventually anyway.
Speaker 1:But you know, if you want a your side of a political argument, if you want to watch a TV show that centers on your side of the argument, that's easy to find. If you want to find a TV show that's just the opposite, that centers on the opposite of your argument, that's easy to find when I was in high school. I'd like to say it's a little bit different. I don't know if it was. It seems like there were more bipartisan decisions back then, but it was probably just my perception. But I know our civics teacher loved to get us into political discussions all the time. It was still not too many years removed from moon landings. We talked about that, whether we should be doing it if we're back. Then they actually thought that might Include us inhabiting the moon eventually. So we had some really good Discussions. You didn't see too many nasty discussions now.
Speaker 1:Obviously, in the world today you can certainly say something that is going to get somebody upset if it's against their political candidate or against their political views. Here's the way I would encourage you to have a political discussion in your classroom. Don't avoid it like I do sometimes. I don't avoid it in the classroom. I'll give them my opinions but to be honest, it's usually something that they brought up first. But if your sub job that day it has to do with discussing things politically, be all for it. Hopefully you know the night ahead and you can be prepared for it. Don't be too biased. Feel free to share your ideas, but be open-minded to the other ideas too. Anybody that says they're just for that this candidate and doesn't really have a reason why. That's just an emotional conversation. But be prepared for political discussions.
Speaker 1:The cute ones are in elementary school when the teachers have the kids dress up like a candidate. They Argue, which you know. Most of their arguments are going to be based on what they've heard their parents say. They argue back and forth that type of thing. And the older ones in high school They'll have very strong beliefs. They'll call some candidates idiots. They'll call them there's no way I want them leading our country, leading our state, whatever it might be. So Both of these last two more serious discussion, one on politics, one on getting sucked into their conversation.
Speaker 1:You know you can think of topics right now that if you get sucked into a conversation and accidentally let something slip out, that's not acceptable. Perhaps you may hear from a student's parents in the state of Kentucky. People have the right to sue anybody for any reason. Doesn't mean they'll win. But who wants to go through that? If you slip and say something politically that maybe you shouldn't have expressed that argument, I don't know. Maybe you can get in an uncomfortable situation for that. So be thinking as the summer rolls on, we're now most of you will probably Be back in school in about a month be thinking about, be feel free to joke around with Students, be sarcastic with students, but think about some things before you say them. Think about whether or not it's going to be be acceptable to that student or if it would perhaps hurt their feelings. Or Definitely try not to get into Conversations that's going to get you in trouble or lose your credibility in the long run.
