Substitute Teachers Don't Just Teach, They Build Relationships

While substitute teachers need to make sure students get their work done, they also have a wonderful opportunity to build relationships with the students.  And guess what -- they will want to work harder for you as a result.

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Transcript

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So substitute teachers don't just teach they build relationships. And of course, full time teachers do that too. But with substitute teachers, it's just different. Let's go. Alright guys, today we're going to talk about relationships a little bit how substitute teachers can build relationships. Now, I know from talking to the students, I teach that some of their substitutes, come in, just sit in a chair, and really pay them no attention. Now, if you're like that, and you're one of those types of teachers, you've got the right to make up your mind, if that's your style, that's your style, but hang around, I'm going to try to get you to change your mind. Because I think substitute teachers building relationship with your students is one of the most powerful part of the learning process, they will pay attention more, they will do more for you. And they will look forward to you coming back. And of course, they'll tell their teachers that that they really enjoyed you and want you to come back. So I want to encourage everyone to listen to this podcast today. And we'll talk about those relationships. Now I'll start right out by telling you that one of the best things I've ever heard in my life, I never knew how the teachers felt about me as a teacher. Now, of course, I got the casual comments about how you're doing a really great job. I've been in a classroom, one classroom I was in for the first time, a co teacher was in there with me. I think it was a history thing where I was given the option to read to the students. And I did I mean, what better way to interact with the students of actually reading with them, letting them read from time to time, and I remember the CO teacher telling me that she called her actually text her teacher and said, Hey, you need to, you need to get this guy to come back. So doing stuff with the kids is the greatest. And the thing I remember most that a teacher once told me, she actually introduced me to somebody else and said, She didn't say anything about my teaching ability. She said, Greg is really good about building relationships with the students. So that's what we're going to talk about today. Now, I'm going to guess most of you are already like that, because the ones that find podcast are usually teachers who really, and substitute teachers who really want to improve themselves, and really want clues for how to have the teacher ask them back. And they want clues of how to be more popular with the students, not someone that just comes in and yells and goes home at the end of the day. So that's what we're going to talk about today. And that's what my goal has always been. Now, you know, that I'm a volleyball referee. And I'll suggest that one of the first way you can build relationships is to not just participate in extracurricular activity. But don't forget to tell your students in class, that you're going to come to their game that night, or you're going to come to their archery meet that night. Are you going to come to their academic team meet that night? That way they expect you to come? I've had, you know, players on ball teams, I don't get to very many basketball games because it coincides with refereeing volleyball for a little bit, but I do get get there on occasion. And I thought one of the coolest things that ever happened to me is when I walked into a basketball game, and the players were warming up. Two of them came over, they stopped their warmups, two of them came over and talk to me they were excited to see me there. It just so happened I had their class the next day and I had to read something disciplinary to them from the day before. And I think, you know, they told me they do better. I think it's because that I had built relationships. Now there's all kinds of way to do that. You can't not all of you can get to their extracurricular activities. That's, that's my first thing I would encourage you to do. But obviously, most of the relationship building part will be in the classroom. And here's my suggestions. You have to have things ready to discuss with them. That's kind of outside the material you're teaching. Now, you heard me say on the podcast last week, when rose asked me, Mr. Collins, what do you do when you run when the material that the teacher left runs out, and they're still class. And I said, if you remember, I said, You know, I usually hope for that, I want to have a few minutes at the end of class to do my own thing, and to interact with them to joke with them, share my corny stories with them, make them smile, but at the same time, what I shoot for now that I've gone through their class material and know what they're doing, I might Google a little bit while they're working on it, I will try to be as interactive as possible, I will immediately go and help a student when their hands are raised. Sometimes I will start by saying now, I don't know this topic, as well as I know some of the others, but I will definitely help you. And we'll try to do it together. They're not allowed to have their smartphone. So sometimes I'll even Google something and help them out a little bit, not going to cheat for them, I'm not going to just tell them the answer. But I will help them get started and maybe jog their memory as to what they've been taught. So that definitely builds relationships, walk around, even if you're not talking with them, if you walk around, what happened is when you get close to them, all of a sudden, some of them start opening up that weren't opening up before they start talking to you. And then when you come back around again, maybe maybe then they will ask you the question, maybe then they'll ask you something personal, maybe then they'll say, Can I tell you a joke, Mr. Collins, and you know, I'll be honest with you, even if it's not funny, laugh a little bit, maybe lead into a joke of your own, and build that relationship with that student. You know, I really think even outside of the stories and the jokes, you can tell them, I really think you build the relationship better. By doing the part where you're helping them with their work, they know that you genuinely are concerned, you're not in there just to go through a comedy routine. That's not what I'm talking about. Show them that you're genuinely concerned about what they're doing. I hope you guys get the opportunity to be a long term sub on occasion. I know a lot of you that listen to this are in the process of becoming a full time teacher. So you're already substitute teaching a lot. And I hope a lot of you fall into this category. But especially if these kids see you, day after day for a while. If you're in that long term, sobro, you have got so much opportunity to build those relationships, use that extra time, get them through class, here's my ideas, okay. Especially when if your long term sub or you're going to return to that class. And let's face it, if you're going to do this a lot, if you're not just doing it maybe a couple of days a week, and you're concentrating on a certain district, you're probably going to see those kids again, I I substitute at eight different schools, but they're all in the same district. And I don't think unless I stick with middle school, so unless it's something younger than that, or high school, I do some high school unless it's something younger than that. I would expect to see those students again, unless they're maybe sixth graders or freshmen and I had never met them before. So here's why I hope that I have time at the end of each class to do my own thing I like to do just kind of extracurricular topics outside of the classroom, I'll try to pick one that maybe they've been working on during that class period, but if I don't, there are plenty of middle school class materials. If you look around the classroom itself, maybe try to get there at least 30 minutes early as to when your shift starts. I'm an early riser. So I'm usually there an hour before I have any classes I want to get the layout of the room. I like to look around and take pictures sometimes and send them to you guys on our Facebook page. I like to look at that. I like to look on on the desk, I like to see what extra materials they have around because most teachers, they will keep materials laying around for students that get finished early for them to read from. Or occasionally you'll even see in your lesson plans, have them read from this weekly reader have some ob, actually use those as their assignments, have them read this article and write their opinion about it. A lot of times, I will look through those and look for ones they haven't been assigned. And then have them debate the topic. One of my favorite topics that I've debated, I guess I brought up for debates in class over the last two years, I bring it up all the time, because there's never a shortage of opinions when you bring this up. And the topic is students, should your parents or guardians have the right to track you through your smartphone, everywhere you go. I guarantee you, when you ask even if you tell them from the beginning, Don't raise your hand yet. They'll be squirming in their seat, they'll be one of the one of the first ones to talk and it's amazing what you'll find out. You might think you know, right now what there's going to their answer is going to be, you might be surprised because the overall opinion that I've picked up have surprised me, it changes a little bit with older students. But a lot of them understand why parents or guardians have to do that. So building relationship with kids, that works a lot, because I like to have something they can debate at the end of class and they appreciate getting the opportunity to do that. Have some good topics, and maybe have a few sports topics. But if you're a sports enthusiast, don't over, whelmed them with sports, because I noticed even when I asked questions on a quiz when I'm long terming if I have designed a quiz, and I just throw in a sport like football, because I'm trying to say if you know maybe if it's a multiplication problem, and the team averages so many touchdowns per game, how many touchdowns? Would they score in four games, something like that? Well, the very fact that I put football in there, that immediately turned some students off that don't have any interest in sports, so you have to be leery of using it too much. Even if the question was easy. If the answer finding the answer was easy, just the fact that it's sports and not something maybe that they're interested in, it turns them off a little bit. So I tried to build relationships with students pay attention. Now we'll say that when you're if you get the opportunity to design quizzes, put some of their names in the quiz. I've got a softball pitcher that I've used in a question. I've got an Academic Team person I've used in a question. I've got a Harry Potter fan, which I personally have no interest in. But I made one of the questions on the quiz with Harry Potter in the question itself. And it just kind of the kids get a kick out of it when they see it at first and then they concentrate on doing the question better? I think so. All kinds of extra stuff like that to build relationships, read articles, I would encourage you, especially if it's a history class, have them listen to one of the short news items now. It's been a while since two, you know we're in January of 2021. Now and it's been a while since we've had a lot of CNN, CNN 10 type of things to talk about. Because some of us aren't in the classroom as much right now. I we plan to go back this week, by the way this is Today is January 16 2021. So I hope that happens. And I hope everybody's getting healthy out there. But that will give you some good it set up even if you don't agree with everything cnn does. How often do we ever agree with anything totally. But it might plant some thoughts in your head as some from some discussion topics. So be prepared to discuss extra things with those kids to build those relationships. It lets them know that you think what they have to say is important, even outside of the classroom material and they will look forward to you coming back. Now, other ways you can build relationships with students is to I guess go to bat for them is the best way to say that and there's another baseball analogy, so I apologize for Many sports things. But I have been in classes, where sometimes it might just be where they've asked you to sit in a classroom with a group of students and have them concentrate on working a project. Sometimes you will see them get frustrated, maybe it's something automated. I've had this happen before that a student was working on something that was automated. And something happened in the program itself. I can't remember if they got kicked out internet wise, or if just there was some kind of glitch in the program. But it relays a race, like their last 10 minutes of work. And I I witnessed the whole thing. So I made sure everybody knew that about the student, I made sure that sometimes I would be in a classroom where, well, I won't say that students were being punished, they hadn't gotten behind in their work. And I had a classroom where everyone in there was behind in their work. And maybe the ones that hadn't got behind, maybe they were out, you know, having being rewarded in some way, maybe with a soft drink or something like that. And these kids didn't get to participate. Now. They needed to get their work caught up. So that's not an issue at all. But I will occasionally take up for kids in that situation. I know there's some schools that I have been to that don't ever do that. They they think that the I guess in quotes, that that appears like punishment to them. And they'd rather not do that to the students. They tried to encourage them in other ways. Maybe something to do that would be less harsh, would be to like if you're playing a game in a room, maybe that students to kind of harsh but maybe that student needs to get work caught up that and not participate in the game this time. So those are alternatives. But I have and I think most of the teachers were appreciative. But maybe some of them weren't. I have taken up for students that were in that situation and just say, listen, here's what I've seen it other schools that do it a different way. And maybe they don't they don't whether this is really a reward for the students that got their work caught up. But these students that didn't they see this as punishment, and I'll make some suggestions about how maybe they could improve on this, or would they consider doing it a different way. And I know sometimes I have to be careful about that, because it appears like I would take up for the students regardless of how the teachers felt. And that's not it at all. In fact, I have never taken up for students that I haven't talked to at least one or two teachers beforehand to let them know why it bothers me a little bit. And those teachers that I've talked to, unless they're lying to me, they always say, you know, I understand I've had one of them actually say, I'm kind of on your side, I'm not real comfortable with it either. So I'm the type A personality I will take up for kids regardless. Now, I won't take up for them, if they've done some bullying or if they've done some something in the hallway that they shouldn't done. Maybe they had used language, they shouldn't abuse, maybe they had just done something that is not proper in the classroom. Now if it's simple stuff, like you didn't come in dress code, I will talk to them about it, but I won't be too harsh now bullying, I will get right to the point, hitting somebody in the hallway, you know, that's going to get you in trouble and make you go to a special room anyway. But I will be much more serious. And of course, that is not anything that I would take up for the student. Now I will be less than willing to listen to a student over something like that. And it's really kind of interesting. I did have one situation where I went in to teach the substitute teach the teacher was actually a friend of mine. She had told me that I probably wouldn't have this certain student in the room today because he got in trouble for hitting another boy. So I said okay, but it turns out that his length of punishment was over. He wasn't in the special room that they go to when they're being punished for something like that. But when that particular class started, there he was and of course, you know, when a student has done something like that, and you've heard about it, you know, you he remember that I've always told you I'd rather not even hear about students beforehand too much because I like to make At my own mind, I want to learn about that student on my own. In this case, the student did show up in class, his punishment was over. I talked to him a little bit, I made a point to talk with him a little bit so that I could build that relationship. And in this case, now, this is not always going to be the case. But in this case, he talked to me too. And especially now I did see some things he did in the classroom, that's probably not the best. And I, I told him to settle down a bit. But I did open up the conversation. And it just so happened that that particular period was the lunch period. And their time to eat lunch was right in the middle of their class. So we had some class, then we went to lunch. And then we had the second half of the class of that period. So it's interesting, the first half of the class, I opened up the conversation and talk to him. And I even asked him, you know, what got you into trouble. He said, Well, I punched a guy. And that's all he said. But then we went to lunch. And we came back, and I was walking them back from lunch. And guess who caught up with me to talk to me? And he said, Mr. Collins, I asked you, what would you do in this situation? And it turns out that the reason he had punched a boy, is because this guy was walking down the hallway with his girlfriend, and another boy, called him called the girl a name that he shouldn't have. It's an offensive name. It's a bad, offensive name. It's a name that if I had been in the hallway and heard it, I would have immediately said something about it. But he asked me, he said, Mr. Collins, if another guy called your girlfriend this name, wouldn't you punch him? And of course, I said, No, I wouldn't punch him. I said, I know why you were upset, I would probably spout off at the guy and say, You don't call my girlfriend that. But you know, everyone reacts differently. I'm not a punching type person, I would never tell somebody to punch someone else. But did I at least understand him a little bit more when he told me that story? I did. And now, every time that I see him in the hallway, he still gets in trouble from time to time. But you know what? He talks to me all the time when he sees me, even if I'm not teaching his class that day, I hope to run into that guy when he's an adult, and be able to see that he's been successful successful. I'll close with one last comment about relationships that I've told this story to you before many episodes ago. I love it so much that I will probably tell you again someday. I remember going it was it was a long term role. But it wouldn't have mattered. If you were just here, a day here in a day there, it would have been the same deal. I had a student in class, nobody actually warned me about him. But I had a student in class that did some very disruptive things from time to time, he would walk to the front of the classroom, see how many kids would see him just to grab a tissue, and then he would make different movements, or he would be get himself a little carried away in the class. Sometimes I would have him come back and sit next to my desk. I could tell he was smart. I told him that I whispered to him, I said, Man, you're smart. You're wasting, you're wasting your ability. I later knew I was told a little bit about his background, his home background. I don't know if that contributed to it or not. But what I knows is I gave that kid just a few extra minutes of attention each time I saw him. And then one day we were in an assembly that I happened to happen to be substitute teaching. I wasn't even teaching his class. But I went up and sit in the bleachers. And lo and behold, this kid came up, he saw me he was already sitting with his friends. He saw me and came up and sit next to me now. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that if I hadn't tried and just give him a little bit extra time in class, he probably wouldn't have done that. But he felt good about coming up and sitting next to me and talking to me while that assembly was going on and I saw the little kid part of him then. And it really, it really paid off that I had spent that extra time with him. It turns out that the following year when he was in the next grade, he was I taught his class and knew he was smart and not only had he kind of turned his life around At least in the school, I don't know about his personal life. But he turned his school life around now enough that he was getting good grades. And when I was there, he went out of his way to say, Mr. Collins, Can I finish my assignment? Do you want me to help any of the other students finish theirs? Now? What a great story that is. I don't know that I changed that kid's life. But I want to say that just spending a few extra minutes with him like I did that at least played a small part in getting that kid headed to the right direction. Alright, substitute teachers and teachers if you're out there listening to this too. I would encourage you to not just go in, sit down and to be honest, not just go in and teach, build those relationships with their students. They need you they need you to be a role model for them. Okay, that's it for Substitute Teachers Lounge podcast this week. We'll be back again with a new episode next week. Uses provided by