Substitute Teachers Lounge
Substitute Teachers Lounge
The Beloved Substitute Teacher: Balancing Freshness and Familiarity
Ever yearned to be the beloved substitute teacher, the one students are excited to see walk through the door? That's exactly what we're unpacking here as we talk about the art of balancing freshness and familiarity in the classroom. We delve into the power of self-deprecating humor and how it can make you relatable to your students. The art of keeping your classroom an enjoyable space is like maintaining a good sitcom - it needs to be consistent, yet full of surprises. So join us on this journey as we dissect the art of substitute teaching, one laugh at a time.
I almost called this episode the class reunion episode, but I thought that'd be kind of confusing. What we're gonna talk about today is that syndrome, for lack of a better word how you may be the most popular sub on your first day all the kids are glad to have you there and then, after a few days, not so much. You just kind of blend in with everybody else. So let's talk about what happens, how we can keep those things fresh as long as possible. Greg Collins substitute teacher's lounge, october 3rd 2023. ["ghostly Life"]. All right, before we get started, maybe one of the most unusual things I've ever heard of this podcast is that I had a mother of a student come up to me who also knows me from the volleyball program and who also is a teacher that I have substituted for before, and she said boy, the kids I've talked to are really impressed with your podcast, and they were talking about how you even played your own music on there. Now, I'm not sure where they got that from, but that is not me playing music. That is a piece of music that I have borrowed that borrowed it legally, in fact you can. At the end of the episode there's always a disclaimer about it and where the music was retrieved from, but I thought that was funny.
Speaker 1:This week I also had a hard time. Let me back up. Early in the week is when I decided to do this, from both a volleyball standpoint, mainly from a teaching standpoint, because I was substitute teaching for the same teacher four days in a row. If you've listened to our podcast from the beginning, you know that there was a time when I was a long-term sub. First of all, an entire year after COVID our districts were allowed to hire full-time substitute teachers and I had a full-class load, same school all year long. After that I substituted long-term for another year and a half. So two and a half years and my five years have been long-term subbing. So I sort of got tired of it. I like seeing different students every day, and so that's the philosophy I use now.
Speaker 1:But here lately I had a teacher who wanted me to sub four days in a row and on the fourth day I looked around. The first day, you know, kids were smacking me on the hand. They were joking around with me. They enjoyed having me in the room. It was a fun atmosphere. They were still getting their work done.
Speaker 1:But by the time we got to the fourth day. I'm looking around and this thought popped into my head. I said, well, I probably should talk about this in the podcast. They just kind of treated me like any other teacher. Yeah, greg's back for the fourth day. They weren't that rude about it, of course. In fact, that class actually needed a sub the day after I left and they expressed disappointment that I wouldn't be their sub the next day. But it gave me that feeling. I know the very first year I ever subbed sixth graders Now, sixth graders do this more often than anybody else.
Speaker 1:Not too many classes would do this but after I had subbed a few times and I showed back up in sixth grade, those little sixth graders were clapping and cheering that I was there, I guess just because I'm a goofy sub, and I fit in with them. And one of the teachers around the corner and she's a friend of mine, so she said this truthfully but jokingly at the same time and he said all right, greg, none of my students have ever cheered for me and it's because it was the newness of me being back. It was sort of like a little class reunion. I'd been away for a while and now I'm back. I hit the same thing I won't spend. I just can't get away from it.
Speaker 1:Guys, I have to share a volleyball story every time. When the first day I went in as a coach this year and keep in mind that we only got two days left in the or two weeks I should say, left in the regular season First day I went in here comes those girls Greg, what are you doing here? I told them the whole story and we were all excited together. Some of the seniors I had subbed since they had been in the seventh grade. We were having a good old time. When I went in the fifth day of practice, nobody came up to me. They just knew I was a part of the team and the head coach just laughed and said boy, their excitement goes down quickly, doesn't it? They still like me having. When I do something goofy on the court, they'll make fun of me. When I do something that looks like maybe I can go out there and play with them a little while. If I do a rare thing good, they'll say way to go, greg. Even if I carry something heavy into the locker room, they'll start saying something about it. So there's still that. But it is a legitimate concern to me that the more I teach certain students, the more I have to up my game a little bit.
Speaker 1:It amazes me, those of you that have taught for years and years and years still show up on students list as their favorite teachers. I had a student tell me hey, you remember back in my freshman year, she's a senior. You remember back in my freshman year when you gave me a cookie on the volleyball court and I did remember that and I'm thinking why would you remember that? But they remember stuff like that. So let's talk a little bit about what you should do to keep things fresh, to keep them involved and to keep the same. It leaves an old fashioned word when substitute teacher, when your popularity wanes, when it starts going down because you're just there all the time, they don't just see you once a month, they see you all the time now. So it's just they don't come up to you and act as jovial as they did at one time. Here's what I would suggest. First and what I have seen happen over the five years that I've substituted taught.
Speaker 1:Let me use me and my preacher as an example. We are both guilty of very sarcastic senses of humor. We can just rip into each other all day long and we both just laugh about it. Neither one of us it bothers. It's kind of hilarious to hear it. Sometimes we have a podcast of our own, but I won't promote that here because that's not why we're here, but we use a lot of that sarcastic humor on there. But one of the things we've talked about is you can't do that with everyone. Some people don't respond well to that. Now, I'm not talking about practical jokes. I don't like practical jokes myself. We once had a group pull a practical joke on me and my wife that they meant well with it. They were actually giving us gifts, but we were both kind of in a humiliation stage that we didn't enjoy.
Speaker 1:So my job is try to joke around with the students that you know can take it and the ones that you don't know as well. Back off a little bit. Don't just say the same thing to every student. I would word it something. Here's one thing that I do. I'll word it something like this Nothing really bothers me that a student says, unless it's obviously malicious If they joke around with me about being colorblind, about maybe weighing more than I should, anything like that doesn't bother me because I usually beat them to the punch. So I would say maybe the first thing you could do is think of things that students could poke fun at you about and instead be the first one to bring it up. Let me give you, for instance this is again going back to a coaching situation, but I remember a coach telling me one time that I've just stopped making fun of Greg because he makes fun of himself. Before I get a chance to and that's kind of what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:When you're in a room and you're trying to keep things fresh, poke a little fun at yourself, get a laugh at things that you've done in the past. Try to think of those good old, funny stories from your past about, for instance, like I fell off of the bleachers one time in a middle school during recess. I guess it was because it was raining outside. I've told that story before. I've told them why I was up there and why I was leaving so fast and ended up falling off. The bleachers Might've had something involved with a girl not gonna say, but they think that's hilarious. Keep things fresh. If they don't look as excited to see you on day four as they did on day one, maybe have something to say unique as they're coming in the door. Now I have seen videos of teachers that they learn the way. This is kind of a pre-COVID thing probably, but they learn the way their students like to shake hands or bump fists and they memorize each student. So that's so that when the students come in they can greet them in that way every time and it kind of keeps things loose. Now that probably is more of an elementary school thing than anything, but it's worth a try.
Speaker 1:When you're in the classroom, bring up some trivia ever now and then I was subbing for a theater class the other day and what I told them was some trivia from their generation that they didn't know. The answer to, I said the number one song of all time. If you roll in plays, radio plays, downloads and sales from back before you could actually download music. The most popular song of all time now is from two years ago, which would be 2021. One of them guessed it was Levitating by Dua Lipa. Well, I said no, but I get a different trivia question for that. That's the. That song was number one for the year 2021. But yet was never number one in any individual week during that year. It's because it was just on the charts for so long, so much longer than everybody else. It was the number one song of the year and of course, if you're curious, the number one song of all time now is actually Blinding Lights by the weekend.
Speaker 1:So look up trivia, look up ways to keep things new, keep things fresh. I'll even say this one of the discussion topics, the discussion openers I like to wear Hawaiian shirts. I've told you this before. The volleyball team had a dress like Greg Day, where most of them wore Hawaiian shirts, some of them wore referee uniforms. But if you're wearing a bright Hawaiian shirt every day, or maybe you've got shoes that are like that, or maybe there's another way that you dress that tends to lend itself to conversation. I will tell you this every time I wear a Hawaiian shirt into the classroom, someone always comments favorably about that shirt. They'll say I like your shirt. My most recent one is one that has Mickey Mouse on it. That's I bought at my vacation club that we own, and it's kind of a discussion piece and I think that's a way to break the ice.
Speaker 1:Do some things that draw attention to yourself. If you don't want to wear a shirt like that, I don't know. Kick the trash can over every now and then. How do you like that for an idea? Kick over the trash can every now and then so you give those kids something to talk about. Say something silly on the phone if it's not too out of place. If you're talking to another teacher, make the comment well, I should have known that. Or something that's gonna be funny to them to overhear you saying.
Speaker 1:But always try to keep things fresh. I like where I'm at now. I'm mainly doing the high school I'm coaching in. I go back every day and students since I am moving around from room to room and not in the same room every day, it still stays fairly fresh. I still have, of course, all the volleyball players talk to me in the hallway. I still have students that I have taught in the past one girl that I mentioned her a couple of weeks ago, one girl that I hadn't taught for two and a half years I had in class in this high school. Now she speaks to me every day that I see her. We had some good times in that class.
Speaker 1:But always make it your goal to I don't know, poke some fun at yourself. It helps the students realize that no matter. No matter what issues they have, there's ways to overcome those. There's way to feel better about themselves. It's a commercial on TV that shows a guy wrestling with himself in the middle of the street and that's kind of the point they're getting across. Is all this stuff that we do internally? Let's try to loosen up a little bit. Let's try to always be in a good mood. You know, those behaviors rub off on each other, just as when we're a volleyball team or we're a baseball team or whatever. If one person makes a mistake, it seems another one makes a mistake, especially if you roll your eyes after that mistake like it was all their fault. That does nothing to lift things up. Instead, if you're in the classroom and you're trying to keep people motivated, poke fun at yourself.
Speaker 1:Find a student that will let you joke around with them.
Speaker 1:There have been some that I've actually said hey, I wanna do this in here today and I wanna use you as an example.
Speaker 1:Is that okay? And normally they will say yes. I wouldn't have brought it up for a student if I expected them to say no. But make sure you keep your students involved. I want you, every day you go to class, to substitute each for it to be just as fresh as it always has. I want those students to enjoy having you in there just as much as they always have. Now, if you haven't been to a school in, say, a month and you go back, you're gonna get that feeling because they will have missed you and they were glad you're back in the classroom. If you're there more often, you gotta come up with ways to keep things fresh. So, whatever your thing is, if it's not laughter, like my thing is, then come up with your thing. Come up with something you can use in the classroom to keep it fresh every day and to keep those students saying I'm so glad that Greg is back in the classroom today.
