Substitute Teachers Lounge

Back Pocket Ideas for the Substitute Teacher

January 24, 2021 Greg Collins Episode 87
Substitute Teachers Lounge
Back Pocket Ideas for the Substitute Teacher
Show Notes Transcript

What are those ideas that are great for the substitute teacher to keep in their back pocket to pull out when needed.  Let's find out!

You can email me at mailto: gregcollinssubstitute@gmail.com .

Join our several hundred member Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Substitute-Teachers-Lounge-108593060520316/?modal=admin_todo_tour

Buy the book "The Substitute Teachers Lounge Chronicles" (Kindle or paperback) at https://amzn.to/2P8s709

It’s a perfect time to start your own podcast.  I highly recommend Buzzspout
as your publisher.  They are the best at customer service, instructional videos, and statistics.  And, after you pay your second monthly invoice (no annual contract required), Buzzsprout will send you a $20 Amazon gift card.  You can see all that Buzzsprout has to offer at https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=344950

So what some of that stuff, the substitute teacher needs to keep in their back pocket for those times when you're through with the teachers material. But you've still got some time for some of your own. Let's find out. Alright guys, now, this is the honest truth of substitute taught, I started in November of 2008 teen, which means I've done it for more than two years now. And I'll bet less than 5% of the time Have I gone into a classroom, and the material that the teacher left took the entire period for them to finish. And to be honest, there's going to be some kids that don't even do their work that may be able to hide that from you. So I say all that to say this, the substitute teacher needs to have extra things in their back pocket, so to speak, to pull out when necessary to engage that class. That's what we're going to talk about today. A lot of these have already been mentioned briefly. But in separate episodes, I thought it would be a good idea to share both the ones mentioned, share some new things, and see if we can't learn what to do when we have material in our back pocket that maybe we can use to fill in for those gaps in the class. And you know, this is the honest truth. Once the kids have you for second and third time and know you're prepared in this way. They're going to look forward to you coming back. Now I'll give you a warning, they might look forward to you coming back so much that they want to do what you brought in rather than what the teacher is brought in. And of course, you can't do that. But I pride myself in being ready to do some things that those kids really enjoy doing after they get their work done. Let's talk about a few of these things. You've heard me say this before about debating in the classroom. I've mentioned it as recently as the last couple of weeks. But let's go into a little more detail in that regard. As you know, I'm I'm 62. But I still to this day remember incidences in my, at that time junior high school and high school were our teachers gave us topics to debate. And it was so much fun. They would give us points for if we want it to debate the more controversial side they give us points, even if they knew we didn't believe in it. But we're willing to debate, I've run into students in high school, especially that talk about wanting to be lawyers, attorneys. And I say, Well, if you feel like you can argue either side of an argument, then maybe you're heading down the right path, maybe that law, your life is for you. Now, of course, you'll have to pick and choose your topics. There are some topics that aren't suitable for middle school that maybe are suitable for high school. Now I say that. And I'll throw politics in as one of the ones that personally, I would save for high school. And I'll tell you why. If you do it in middle school, you pretty much don't have the students opinions. You have their parents opinion to what they hear their parents talking about. But then when you get to high school, I think a lot of them have made up their mind. Even if it's down the party line or whatever, based on recent presidents based on presidents they've studied in their history book as to how they're going to stand in their political beliefs. So discussions of that type I would save for high school, and you'll get some spirited discussions in high school, you know that some of those students will not change their mind regardless, that tends to be the nature of politics. But let's move down back into middle school for a little while. Now. You've heard me I bet I've said this half a dozen times throughout the series of the podcast, but as I mentioned, my favorite teachers allowed us to debate. I think that's why I enjoy allowing students to debate now. And it's ironic the topic that and you've heard me mentioned this before. I won't say that anymore. You probably tired of me saying that. But the topic that gets the most interest that I bring up. I actually discovered the very first week I was substitute teaching, one of the teachers left out some material for them to read. And they had them write up a summary for one of the articles. So I was flipping through it before class started. And it wasn't the one that they were going to write about. But I saw another interesting topic. And to this day, even though I discovered that in the very first week of substituting, I still bring it up all the time when I have time left over. So if you want a spirited debate, at any age level, bring up the topic of should your parents or guardians be able to track you, every where you go in yourself through your cell phone. Now, I don't want to give away what students have told me, I would like you to bring it up in your area. In fact, I would like for you to bring it up. In if you teach in a big city, if you teach in a small city, I would like to see how the answers compare to all kinds of areas of the country. Another topic I like to bring up from time to time and the kids think I'm crazy when I bring it up, but it has to do with time zones. I asked one of them to argue one side of the argument and one of them to argue the other side. And that is what if the entire world was on one timezone. Could we get used to it? Would it be better? Would it be better to plan travel? Would it be just too inconvenient to get over? It would mean just adjusting to the time that the sun came up in your area? And then that's your time from now on? Which side of that argument would you like to stand on, and I'll have to take each side. And it's really rather interesting to hear what they have to say. And by the way, I have had a cold this week, I'll get that out of the way real quick. So if I'm doing a little bit more, if I sell more stopped up today, I apologize for that. But let's just go ahead and move on regardless. So first, and maybe even your more popular pop, most popular thing to do is first thing in your back pocket, be ready to pull out some debate items that they're going to enjoy. Secondly, how about some hands on projects now, I'll be honest, right now, I've told you this before, there I go. Again, we're doing Pixar in a box from Khan Academy in my computer class right now. And one of the things we're doing is learning how they do computer animation. And one of the things we worked on this past week had to do with lighting. And one of the things that wanted us to simulate was a lighting project that we would actually construct in the classroom. So when you get to a place where you're in the classroom and everything, you have to do it safely, of course, but it was a basically building a shadow box that I remember we used to use back when we wanted to watch an eclipse, we would poke a pin hole and a piece of cardboard. In this case, we in the vein of producing animated movies, we would make a two wall and a floor so that you had brought all three of those pieces of cardboard to a point shine lights, lay a ball on that floor and shine lights in on it so that we could get used to how shadows change based on how bright the light was, how dark the light was, how close it was all that kind of thing, because that affects animation too. So that's kind of a fun lift over project that you could do in a classroom, specially if it's based on science, because that's definitely a scientific type of activity. But I enjoy doing hands on things like that where you could actually create things. So look for things to keep in your back pocket that you can create in the classroom. Anytime you have a hands on project, it just seems to work out better. The third thing I will mention, and you're gonna think I'm crazy, and I won't say I'm a great singer. But one thing that I did in a class one time and a science class, we were talking about phases of the moon. And especially those of you are that familiar with that. You know that Blue Moon is actually a face of a moon. What if you're as old as me and probably even younger, you know? The old Elvis Presley song called Blue Moon. Now, of course, it really has nothing to do with the blue moon in science. But we had some time left over. And I got some of the kids up with me, we pulled up the lyrics to Blue Moon and some karaoke type song to sing along with. And there we were at the in the class, three of us singing Blue Moon, one of the other teachers walked in, saw what we were doing, and joined us. So I'm not saying you've got to go in there and sing, but you know what you enjoy doing? Be creative, always have something out of the ordinary. I remember when my wife and I used to organize church camps. And we'd come up with the craziest games, one of the games, I'm not sure I'd do it now, because it was probably safer than it should have been. But we would have kids that on one end, we were outside, of course, had kids sit on a chair, on one hand, we make water balloons, they'd wear a hat that had a piece on the top of the hat that would puncture the balloon and one member on their team would have to run down, explode the water balloon on their hat, and then take the hat and sit down. And we did that. Now you can't do that in a classroom. But you know what your strong points are, think of some creative things that you can have in your back pocket that physically gets those kids involved. Any type of crazy game like the one I just described, those are the ones they remember, you know, I've done things like science, baseball, where you if you pick a single double or a triple a homerun, the questions are harder as you go up. And those kinds of things work, and they'll enjoy them. But what they'll enjoy even more is games that you've taken the time to just make up yourself, it makes it unique to you. And then they're going to remember you and ask you to play that game, every time you're in the classroom. Hopefully, it ends up being something that you can do at the end of the class and actually relate it back to the class material for that day. So that's a lot of fun. I like to be as goofy with those kids as possible, that gets them further engage. And I'll be honest with you, the more engaged they are. Even if it's with the goofy stuff, I think that helps with the learning as well. Now this picks back up pocket topic, you'll have to handle with kind of kid gloves, it's based on how well you know, the teachers that you're substituting with, I would wait until you know them real well know the administration will real well, maybe know that they enjoy having you there and would be willing to listen to ideas that you have. This is not something you want to try on your first day of substituting in a school. But another thing that I will do if I have some time at the end of class, is just at the kid ask the kids, what do you think? What do you think about this school? What do you think about how they teach you? What do you think about the extracurricular activities they have? And probably the most important question is what could you do to improve this school? are and what does this school do that's already great, you're going to get a lot of good ideas. Now, if you just ask them that, and aren't really prepared to share that with your co teachers, well, they'll realize that it's not really going to amount to anything, and maybe not open up to you. But if they're comfortable with you, if you tell them if I get good ideas, I'll share them with the teachers, well, they definitely will communicate. Now, what I like to do is I like to kind of hover around how they reward the students how punishment is enlisted. Now I can guarantee you one thing you'll find out is that most students do not like it when teachers punish a whole class for the behavior of just a couple of students. So you're gonna find that out. But do it in a productive way. Now, it's just you and the kids so you can really let them say anything they want. But if what they say is a little bit too harsh, challenge them say, Okay, I understand your idea. But that's not the way that I should present that to your other teachers. So give me a way where I could present that where they would be willing to listen. And you'll be amazed at how much those kids will open up and share that with you. And then you just go on from there. So that's another item to keep in your back pocket similar to a debate. But in this case, you're actually trying to get some productive information out of it that you can share with the school itself. And maybe they'll appreciate you for that. Now, this next one is really simple. You can do it with no preparation whatsoever. The instant you walk in and find out what your topic is, or if you're lucky enough to know the teacher, or be able to find out what that teacher teaches, and you can do it the night before, even better. But as soon as you know the subject, Google it, and not only Google it, but type in trivia like scientific trivia, or math trivia, and be as specific as possible to what exactly they're studying for the day. And just have a little trivia contest at the end of the class. Your teacher will appreciate you for that, because you really haven't worked that much harder than normal. You've looked up Google, you can find a trivia game, just general trivia questions about any subject that you're substitute teaching, I guarantee you, it doesn't matter what it is, somebody has created some trivia questions out there, then you can play trivia. And the other thing I would challenge you to do along with that, one way you could play it at that I've discovered there is random number generators, you can get on Google. And especially if you're able to flash this up on the screen, maybe you've got a login, a lot of schools have logins specifically for substitute teachers, you can flash the material up on the screen or Google up on the screen, and search for random number generators. In fact, if you've got a class of 21, students type in, I would type in 22, just in case somebody shows up late type in random 22 number generator, and you'll find programs that you just click a button and it automatically throws up a number between one and 22. So if you've got a numbering scheme in your class, and it comes up with 17, whoever number 17 is gets to ask the next question. And you can find some fancy ones, some of them actually look like dice, maybe High School, you would use the ones that look like roulette wheels or something like that. But it's really kind of cool that they anticipate whose number is going to come up, they know what the number is. Or even if they don't know what the number is, if you've got a sheet of paper up front with their names, you just count to number 17 as an example, and use that number. And that student answers the next class. So it's really a lot of fun, it adds just another spontaneous element to any game you might play. And guys, I have saved my favorite back pocket item to the end. And I'm guessing you already know what it is. Some of you may use other things other than Kahoot. And feel free to go ahead and use those. I've tried some of them, I always come back to Kahoot because it is so easy to use, just again to historically tell you how I discovered Kahoot. It's actually at the school I'm substitute teaching at right now two years ago, one of the teachers came in and said, You know, I will think I think it will be just as easy if you play Kahoot with them today on the topic we've been studying. Thank goodness, we had a graduate student in there who can help me out with it. But I just fell in love with that. Now Kahoot should always be in your back pocket. We I actually used Kahoot even on elevated levels. Now I've used it for testing. I've used it for getting prepared for a test. It's almost not quite but it's almost as strong as Google in that you can pick any topic and find a Kahoot on that topic. This week. We have given tests for sixth graders in dividing fractions, and I've given test to seventh graders on evaluating expressions in both cases, I just typed those words into a Kahoot and there was perfect kahoots out there all Ready create it. So don't panic in think you have to create one yourself, you don't, you can just go in and search for the one you need. Now, one of the things I've taught myself as well is now of course, you'll have to have a substitute teacher login or some kind of login, because so you will definitely need to project this up on the screen. And they can, they can participate by using their computers or their smartphones, if that is allowable in your classroom. So the setups pretty easy as long as you have a method to flash it up on the screen. But there is always topics out there for any subject you want. And you know what, what I have found works best if you take them through a topic, and I was going to mention that I usually annotator if you have an annotator that you're using that you can write on the screen, that's great. One thing that I've taught myself why we've while we use zoom during virtual classes is how to use the Zoom annotator. That's really nice. And for instance, as I use Kahoot to go through math problems. And I'll see how many of them got the question, right? And no, I mean, if they all got the question, right, I don't really have to annotate anything. But if half the class missed it, that means that you did a decent job teaching it to half the class and maybe the others weren't paying attention, or maybe they just needed a little more help. So actually sketching out how you would solve that problem or determine the answer to something helped out in that regard. So Kahoot could be used a lot of ways, have it in your back pocket, what I have found is, if you promise them that you'll do if you've got time to do a couple of different Cahoots. And this is another thing just like Google, as soon as you go into the classroom, and see what they're studying, go to Kahoot search for something on that topic and be prepared to throw that up there and tell them Alright guys, if you all participate well in this one, if you if the result, show me that you listened and we're paying attention, we'll do this educational Kahoot. And then we'll do a fun one after it's over maybe like on Marvel superheroes or on the history of television, or, you know, I don't care how far you go kids of all ages still like cartoons, they like comics, maybe the graphic novels that are popular now you could find one on that. There's plenty out there for political discussions that are toned down, you could use one like that. Just general trivia about different topics may work out as well. But be prepared at all times to have something like Kahoot in your back pocket, or go ahead and pick the one that you like most. And I think you will be happy that you did. I know that you've got a lot of back pocket ideas too. And a back pocket idea isn't something that is going to be the same for each and every teacher, it's going to be different. What I plan to do after this podcast has been out for this episode for about a week is go into the Substitute Teachers Lounge, Facebook group and see what your ideas are, what do you keep in your back pocket to continue to engage the kids maybe when the material runs out. Or maybe it's even while they're doing what the teacher has assigned. But it's a way of you being engaged with the classes. Like in history, maybe you lived through some of the history they're studying it was before their time, but not before your time, maybe you can share some things with them. That happened during your lifetime, like I was alive to see the moon landing. I was alive, although only five years old during the Kennedy assassination, but be able to relate some of the things that you've gone through with them, they're really going to enjoy that. Keep your personal backstories in your back pocket to share with them. Keep all the ideas that you find fascinating. They're going to like it, they're going to like it when you engage with them and don't sit in that chair like a bump on a log to use an old phrase from my childhood. So that's it for today. You don't have to use any idea I shared today but be aware of the concept of the back pocket. And always be prepared to have not just some stuff, but some fun stuff for the kids to participate in. If you should run out of material in the class or even while you're teaching the material that the teachers left try to find ways to teach it in a unique way. So take care of your back pocket habit stuff with great ideas to share with the students. You'll be maybe not surprised but most of you will be surprised as to how effective that will go for you. Alright guys, we will see you on Substitute Teachers Lounge next week. Provided by