You could be the next cool substitute teacher - and it's really not that hard.
You could be the next cool substitute teacher - and it's really not that hard.
Man when I was in high school, I don't think I was ever called cool a day in my life. Now when I substitute teach the students or walk by me and say, Hey, we got the cool sub today. What happens? Man oh man, I don't know if I hit a nerd last week, or if I actually provided some valuable information. But our episode last week on Kahoot is no longer a game anymore. We had more downloads in 36 hours than we normally have in a week. And it is destined to be one of our top five episodes ever. I appreciate that. I think part of the reason was I actually posted the link on a Kahoot teachers Facebook page, and only do that if it's specific about the topic of the page, which obviously it obviously it was. So I appreciate everybody I continue to think it's a valuable tool and it's it can be a great help to you. Whether you're a substitute a regular teacher, whether you're playing games or giving a test. It's it's very valuable. Man I grew up my teenage years was in the 70s. It still freaks my students out when I tell them I have live I'm 63. But I have lived in eight decades. Because I was born in the late 50s. And now we're in the early 2020s. So count them up. That's eight decades I've lived in, back in the 70s one of the best shows that I like to watch as a teenager. And I don't think my parents were really that crazy about it because sometimes it was a little suggestive, but it was, you know, it was what was on our minds in high school, Happy Days. Happy Days. It was a show from the 70s but it was based in the 50s. And people like Arthur fund's early Fonzie was cool. He had the leather jacket, he had the motorcycle, neither of which I've ever owned, by the way. I'm a nervous wreck of you with either of those. So but that concept of cool, I think it was magnified during the days of happy days. But you know, Henry Winkler, the guy that played Fonzie would, will tell you I've seen him say in interviews that he never was really cool. So he was surprised that he appeared so cool is just a short, skinny actor in that Joe, but yet it went across great. People could relate to it. Our kin to this day, think of who the cool kids were in high school, I was more on the geek side of the argument. the cool kids, they were the ones ever all the students like to be around to be associated with, maybe they were the ones that were a little bit arrogant. Not always some students that I knew I would consider cool. But we're always willing to talk to everybody, no matter what. I looked up in the urban dictionary that the title of coal that's in there is a cool person. To me. This is considered the top definition. I guess everybody can write into the definition. A cool person to me is being real, being themselves and not caring how other people view what they say or do when I say you're cool. That's what I mean. Today, too many people are concerned how others view them posting pictures on social media sites of themselves on vacation, or where they're eating dinner that evening, do things for yourself instead for what you enjoy. Not to show everyone else what you're doing. Well, I don't think that's why students sometimes call me cool, but I'll be honest, going back three years ago, there wasn't anybody more shocked than me. That students came up to me and said, Will you come back and teach our class again, I mean, it was the coolest. I mean, it really was it was the coolest thing ever. I know now, three years later, why they will call me the cool sub, and it's not that hard. Everybody within the sound of my voice, you can be the coolest. I can look in my mirror and tell you that it's not because of my physical appearance. It's not because I have stubble on my chin. That's not why they think I'm cool. It's not the way they call my I call my hair. It's definitely not the way I dress or the cars I drive. But I'm going to give you some suggestions of how you can be the coolest substitute teacher. One of them. You're going to argue with me about I'm going to save that one to the end. But there's some mental in nature, and there's some physical in nature. Now this first tip will help you in everything you do. If I asked the students to rank why they think I'm a cool substitute teacher, this aspect of the way I teach and it came naturally, I didn't force myself to do it, it's just the way I did it. I will never accuse of student of doing something. Before I get there side of the story, guys, I see this all the time. student gets in trouble. I you know that teachers substitute teachers will support the teachers that turn them in. And they won't even bother to ask the student what happened. Give me a for instance, I was one subbing at a middle school. And it was actually for a friend of mine, a church friend of mine. And she told me Listen, I've got one student that is in disciplinary, the disciplinary office, and you won't see him today. Well, it just she told me his name. And it just so happened that yesterday was his last day in that special office. So I was going to have him in there. I had heard his name, the kid really had a reputation. Not to be honest. I think one of the things that makes me cool is that when I hear of a student that has a reputation that I'm going to have, I kind of consider that a challenge. I want to say what I can do with or for that student. So that student shows up in my class that day. I don't artificially give him attention. But I do kind of make sure that he's keeping up with the assignment that we have going on. And I'll make small talk just like I do with all the students. We'll just talk about generalities. And I got him to open up and it just so happened, it was about lunchtime, this was a middle of the day period, he went to lunch, he had already discussed some things with me. And I could tell he was willing to talk. So when he came back, he shared already I'd only met him like 30 minutes before he already shared with me what happened. And basically it came down to another boy insulted in a very derogatory way his girlfriend, unfortunately, he took the wrong action and got physical. Well, he said, Mr. Collins, now, I asked you what you have done the same thing. And of course, I'm always going to say no to getting physical. What I have reacted negatively and tried to take up for that young lady, of course, I would have, I probably would have tried to have done it in a verbal way or some kind of reaction. But you know, back when I was in junior high, I don't know what I would have done, you know, you're still a bit on the inventory side, I was probably more immature than most back then. But the very fact that that student was willing to share that story. He opened up. And every time I taught in that school from then on, I don't think I hit him in class again. But when he saw me, he would always come up to me call me by name. And he I heard him tell others Mr. Collins is the cool sub. All I did was give him the benefit of the doubt. And I didn't convict the boy. Before I found out both sides of the story. I have been employed by people who they react first. And then they find out later they were wrong. My strategy has always been, you know, be fair to everyone just because somebody said somebody did something. Well don't believe them until you get the other person's side of the story. And I really think that students feel that I'm somebody that they can walk up to and share a story. I get more and more personal stories every day. Everything from family problems, two things they've gone through in their life. two particular things that really got them upset in school. All they're looking for is somebody that will listen to them. They know and I tell him this, I'm not going to share my opinion if it's something they should be talking to their parents or guardians about. But I will even in that situation. Listen to them. The first thing I'll recommend is that they talk to their parents about it, it's very personal, but I'll still listen to them, I'm not going to shut them down no matter what the conversation is, they want to have. So that's step one, in becoming the cool substitute teacher. Step two, only just a little bit behind step one, always be positive. Let me give you a for instance, I have been a co teacher in a class, where a student had their phone in the pocket out of sight. They weren't using it. But Doggone it, they forgot to silence their phone. Well, the phone started buzzing, and making noises. And teacher had two choices. They could be negative about it. They could be positive about it. They chose the negative side. And basically, they yelled at that student, just because they had forgotten to silence their phone. Now I know the rules. But in my case, when I'm in that situation, let's use that exact example. What I would have done. If it was a ringtone, I probably would have done some kind of silly dance. If it was noise, I might have shaken my head back and forth. Like it was rattling, you know, kind of get the guys chuckling. But then I would say, Hey, guys, let's remember to silence our phones. Now, that's just two completely different situations, same situation, two completely different reactions. And those 10 seconds of conversation between the teacher and the student made a difference. All of a sudden, that student may not like that first teacher very much. And I accomplished the same way. But I did it in such a way that they're gonna call me the coolest substitute teacher because I don't go off on them because they do something as trivial as forgetting to turn off their phone. So think about what you're doing. Don't react negative to those kids. Now there are some things that you do have to react negatively, immediately. I'm not going to go into a list, you know what they are. But something as simple as forgetting to silence your phone ain't one of them. Okay? But think about what you do with those kids. Be willing to be positive in every situation. Okay? Give you another example. And this might be hard in certain situations cut so not all teachers give you this freedom. I was given this freedom for the class I'm in right now. She is letting me work the class a little bit as I like to. I have converted a lot of her paper tests to Google Classroom forms or Kahoot tasks to make them just a little bit more pleasant to take and they have immediate feedback of their grades. I had a student in class, she had been through a quarantine situation it is currently I always like to say this when I talk about the pandemic. This episode is the Sep. tember 12th, Episode 2021. This student had been quarantined, she came back to take a very tough test and a test that she didn't realize was that tough. It was so tough for the other students, even though there was one perfect score across two classes, to medical test. I mean, medical tests are difficult. You're learning about parts of the body and all the bones and all that muscles, tissue, DNA analysis, all that kind of stuff. So you really have to stick with it. I know the first test we took back the very test that we're talking about the regular teacher, the one I'm subbing for, decided to curve the grades carbon grade is not a new concept. And in effect, it made everybody feel much better about it. They didn't stress about it as much. This particular young lady though she had to come back after a quarantine situation. I'm not sure how uncomfortable that situation was. I don't pry into their personal business in that way. I don't ask them if they were sick. I don't ask them anything like that. It was obvious to me when she came back and told me to go ahead and give her the copy of the test. And she took it. I could just see the look in her face. And when she turned it into me. That was one depressed young lady in regard to the in reaction to the test she had just taken. So I looked at it, and sure enough, it wouldn't have been very favorable. It would have been a high At most, and I said, Listen, I know how the teacher would approach this, I've talked to her about it, I could tell that you still have a lot on your mind. And you probably didn't get to study as much as you would have liked, maybe you thought it was going to be a little bit easier, you want to take it again. Now the second time around, this just happened to be a paper test, because the automated version of the test had already closed. So the later people had to take a paper test. So she thanked me for that, all of a sudden, now, I was the call sub in her mind, because I gave her another chance. Life is tough. Sometimes, I'd now sub for at least a half a dozen teachers who have the philosophy, I am not out there to zap you with a test, I'm not out there to try and see if I can trick you into answering as many things wrong as you can. I'm out there to teach you and teach you and teach you. And if that if that means taking the same test four times, that you're going to know the material best at the end of the fourth try than you would have at the first if I left you with a C, well, then I'm going to do it, I'm going to do whatever I can to make you learn that material that will turn you into the cool substitute teacher. All right, your substitute teaching for a day, here's the next one. You find out maybe you've got some duty for that teacher, maybe you've got to hang out outside the bathrooms to make sure there's no monkey, you know, monkey business we used to call it going on. But even if you don't hang out in the hallway, speak to everyone. Now, you're gonna find some kids that if you just artificially off the top of your head, say, oh, how you doing today, that's a little too bubbly. But if you just make a few comments, like what's going on, how you doing, they appreciate that. And if you're there for multiple days, or maybe just a day here and there, but the students will start to recognize you and then actually expect you to say something to them. And if you don't, it usually bothers them. And you might see them come around again just to get that Hello. That's because they now think you're the cool substitute teacher. You don't just hibernate into the classroom and let the students come to you. You go to the students, and you make them feel better. You're going to get to know their names, eventually, and then you can call them by name that is so cool. I have students come up to me every day. I bet I do. I don't know 2030 fist bumps per day. And it's not just me going up to them. It's them coming around my corner where my classroom is holding out their fist so I can bump their fist. I get that smile. girls and guys both I'm getting the smiles from them. I had a young man say, Hey, I'm, we have what's called an advisory. It's kind of like a homeroom. And we give directions to everyone in this high school for the week for the following week, every Friday, and the young man came by this, as I'm recording this on Thursday afternoon, came by and said, Mr. Collins, I'm back in your class. And to be honest, he called me Greg, and you know, I'll let the high school students do that. So he was excited about being back in my class. I FiOS with you since I'm on the topic. I think letting them call you by your first name, the middle minority of you are going to do it. I like it. I'm old enough that I can joke around with them that Mr. Collins just makes me feel old when you call me that. Call me, Greg, you're in high school. Why can't we be on a first name basis and make it as personal as we can in the classroom. Okay, so all those will make you the cool sub as well to physical things that I think will make you the cool substitute teacher. I'm teaching three medical classes. This has been a week that has just worn them down. So I'm going to be the cool sub tomorrow, because I'm bringing in cupcakes. Can't afford cupcakes for everybody. So I'll give it away in a cool way. Yep, you know what it is? We're playing Kahoot tomorrow and all of my classes at the end of class because they've got some regular classwork to do too. I've already designed them and I like them. The great thing about Kahoot man, I didn't come up with any of the questions, I borrowed somebody else's, if they choose to make their Kahoot public, anybody can play it, anybody can actually duplicate it and change it. But it goes down as a play for them. And people like the fact that there's so many people across the world playing their Kahoot. So I've teach three different, I teach five periods, but three different classes. So I found one for each of those three classes, I'm going to get at least half a dozen cupcakes, maybe I'll get more when I see what they look like in the morning, and I picked them up, and I'm going to give them away for the winner of the Kahoot. It's not I'm kind of tricking them a little bit. It's a review of their material. But I've also sprinkled in some personal questions about me that I think is going to make them like it more. If you don't have a whole lot of goofy personal questions about yourself. Throw in a movie question, throw in a Marvel movie question, throw in a Disney movie question. You've got some people in the classes, give them double Kahoot points for the fun questions. And then they're gonna think it's funny how it taking a 20 question test. If four of them are fun questions. They think the whole test was cool. They enjoy that every time I flashed the Kahoot code up on the screen. They're thinking now, there's some still high school students who think it's, you know, they're above that. But I don't have any of those in my classes this year. It's usually the ones that probably think they're cool. I don't know where they'll be 10 years from now, but they think they're cool today. So that's what I do for those classes last 10 minutes or so you can make each question 30 seconds. And then at most, if you have 20 questions, that's just a 10 minute Kahoot. And whoever finishes in first place in that group will get the cupcake. And I'll make the personal question to the fun questions worth double points so that everybody has a decent chance, even if they didn't know the material as well as they should. And they learn from that it is a learning tool. It is a competitive learning tool. So I think that's great. I'll close with this, you know that I've said this 100 times, but I do in fact think that students think I'm of course, because I'm not near as strict with their smartphones, as a lot of other subs and a lot of other teachers. Does this particular high school I'm teaching and have a policy about not having your cell phones out. Yes. Do I do it anyway? Yes. But I do it by the book, The school has said, students, you cannot have your smartphones out, unless the teacher is using them in the class. So pretty much everything that we're doing in the classes I'm teaching right now is in Google Classroom. The easiest way I like the way it's formatted on the smartphone better than the way it is on the Chromebook. They can get to their Google Classroom, from their app on their phone, or even through Safari on their phone and pull it up that way. So we let them take notes from their phone. They don't have to have a bulky computer sitting next to them to do that. So the fact that I am looser on the smartphones do I know they're doing stuff? Now? I was gonna say that they're not supposed to be doing. I'm not talking about bad websites. I'm talking about even texting friends do I know they do some of that some time? Absolutely. I'm okay with that as long as they get their work done. I'm not sure why anyone would get upset with that. If they're getting their work done. I mean, what is it we're trying to accomplish? I think the rule of no smartphones in schools are mainly because it's distracting the kids so much, in some cases, that they're not getting their work done. But if they are, why are we punishing them? I think that another one of the reasons down the list a little bit, not the most important reason. But I think they think I'm the cool substitute teacher because I'll let them keep their smartphones out. As long as they do productive things on it. They know I'm going to walk around at the end of the class and in fact, I called one student out this week, and he was saying it jokingly but I knew he was lying to me. He was probably he would probably call it more being sarcastic because he had waited too long. And I told him I said, Listen, now, here's what's going to happen if you're not productive with it. It's not going to be enough to punish you. I'm going to make everybody This room put up their smartphone because of you. Now that's a lot of pressure on a student of any age, they would don't want to be the reason one, nobody can have smartphones out on their table. So typically that's all it takes to clean that up. Always be positive. Always be willing to listen, always be willing to interact, be willing to build positive relationships with that students. Somebody asked on our Substitute Teachers Lounge Facebook group this week, what question they think they will be asked on an interview because they were getting ready to interview for a substitute teacher job position. My response is my favorite question that I would be asking, Is it more important to you to build positive relationships with students or educate the students? That's a tough one. A lot of people would pick education, I would pick the relationships because if you build the strong relationships First, the education is a piece of cake after that, because they trust you, you trust Him, and they're pretty much willing to do what you tell them to do. So you want to be the cool sub. You have some ideas now share your ideas with me because I want to be even cooler during my next class.