Is it advisable in certain situations for substitute teachers to ignore the teacher's lesson plans?
Is it advisable in certain situations for substitute teachers to ignore the teacher's lesson plans?
Man, is that really true? Is it time for substitute teachers to ditch the lesson plan and go out on their own? We're gonna find out all right, I'll admit, I worded the title in that way, hoping I would get some teachers to drop in and see what this idiot is going to say this week about substitute teachers, it might not be what you think it might be what you think I'm going to say a little bit of everything. And it's because I've encountered teachers of all types, I've can encounter teachers highly organized, I've encountered teachers that were probably never organized. And then maybe in the middle, especially here in the last 12 months or so. It is November 20, fires 2021, we're heading into the Thanksgiving week for this year. And we still got a little COVID product called going on. And sometimes it causes teachers to have to leave quarantine very quickly. And maybe the lesson plans weren't laid out as perfectly as they had hoped they could when they were absent. So we're going to talk about all of that. Let me offer some advice to new substitute teachers, there's a lot of you out there, my goodness, there's so many this year, I'm currently working at a school that they just told me, even when my long term role was over earlier in the year, to just keep on coming in every day, because every day they knew they were going to need a sub. It's funny the here recently, I've just begun this week, a long term role that is going to last through the holidays. So it's basically I counted up 19 classroom days until they will most likely have a full time teacher, it's a teacher that left to go to another area with her husband, they both have jobs there already. So that took place this week, as I've done two days of that class so far. And probably the permanent teacher will be there in January. But you see the situation I'm faced with, it's kind of unique in that. I guess it's the first time in three years where I go into a class. And there are no lesson plans of any kind, really, unless you go back to previous years and previous material and files that were filed in the Oh, Google Drive that the school may have you so and I've done that. But it's different when the teachers just gone not to come back. So I got hit with that this week. And I had to do some things on my own, sort of prompted me to do this. And the teacher that left. The reason I brought it up on Monday, I chose to hang out in the room with her and just see how she does things which was very well, by the way, see how she does things what she'd covered so far so that I wouldn't duplicate the ever. But that's one of those situations since I didn't really choose a substitute teacher role that day. Well, then subtalar and Frontline kept showing me the openings. And on that Monday, county wide in my area. I come from a county, there's two high schools in the county. I think if you add them up, you're talking 4500 students, maybe something in that area, that's just the high school, all the elementary schools to support that all the you know, middle schools, the preschools, the kindergarten, all those different schools. Those goals had about 26 Teacher absences on Monday, I normally don't see those because I've already once you sign up for a substitute teacher role for the day, then the rest of the job is don't display to you because you've already got a job. But it was really crazy. That's how high the demand is. So you're going to be faced with a lot of different situations. First of all, if you're a new sub, I know this is hard to get in your brain. I know what you're hoping is to walk in the room every day and see the most organized substitute teacher notes you've ever seen. In fact, that's happened to me recently. I went into a classroom I did several weeks after my full time before the next full time I'm roll came up, I went into the classroom and the teacher was highly organized, still had to kind of ditch some lesson plans. And I'll tell you why. But let's start with you new people FERS, here's what you need to be prepared for. You're going to walk in, I this has happened, you know, I've done it three years, probably twice at the most. I walked in, there was nothing on the desk, nothing. piles of papers, I tried to even dig things out. One of the teachers down the hallway eventually came in and tried to get me started. And that teacher, in fact, actually made the comment, I can't believe this teacher works this way. So you're occasionally going to come across some things. And I'm not even going to fault the teacher much. I don't know how suddenly they had to leave. And, you know, if it's like me, when I sit down to do this podcast, I don't have a laundry list of every single thing I'm going to go over, I do bullet points, I can, most of the time talk for 30 minutes to an hour, just on the number of bullet points, I can get on an index card. So maybe that teacher was like that, maybe that's the way they teach, they don't have to keep a whole lot of notes, because they've got it right upstairs in their brain. And that's okay. But it doesn't help substitute teachers much. So new people, especially when you walk into a situation, and you have no lesson plans, you should at least be able to look around the room, figure out this subject, maybe glance at some papers, open textbooks, whatever and realize about where they are, and be prepared. The great thing today is you can go to Google and find anything, let's say you walk in and they've been working on trigonometry, you can find videos, you can find Kahoot, I'm going to get more to Kahoot later, you know, I'm licensed in it, and I love talking about it, you can find Quizlet. I use that a little bit this week, by the students request. And I'll get to that distant here in a moment, too. So that's the first type of situation. It's not that you're dishing the lesson plans, there are no lesson plans to dit. So you've got to come up with something and you got to come up with something fast. Don't try to teach that class the same way that teacher does. If you've seen the teacher teach before, don't teach it the same way the teacher does. Add your uniqueness to it. That's what makes you special. That's what makes the kids love to see you come back. I can't tell you to be an outgoing personality. Some people just are not. I can't tell you not to be mean. You can be an introvert and not treat those children badly. Use your sincere attitude, be willing to help them. I'll say this statement again. Because when the student said it to me, I knew exactly what he meant. Great Teacher. But the teacher had a habit of telling the student, you should already have known that before they offer their advice. Well, what happens? That student did know they should already do that. Maybe they weren't listening before. But that's also going to create a situation where they're not going to ask that teacher again a question because they're afraid they're going to get belittled a little bit by that same comment. So first thing out, let's finish the discussion of no lesson plans available, you need to be ready, I talked about the back pocket all the time, there's even an episode called back pocket ideas. You got to have some things ready to teach that class just in case something happens. And you have to be in there with relatively nothing. Don't just set or read a book, don't just tell students, it's a free day, do whatever they do. And by all means, I'm sorry, teachers, I get so tired of showing movies, just to fill in the gaps. I don't like doing that. Here's a shocker. It does not hold their attention. Even if they pick out the title. They're just going to go for titles that are familiar to them. And then they won't pay any attention. Do some things if you have to show a movie. Stop it every few minutes. Ask some questions about it as some observations. If you're showing movies about the wars we have been in if you've shown the movies about things that have happened in our history, turn it off get their attention I'm planning on this week. I'm going to teach him by ology right now until they get that position field and I'm trying to add my own unique role to it. This Wait, we're gonna have a note taking day. But from those notes, I'm going to set up some debates. Yes, you can even debate by, gee, maybe not, from a standpoint of is this bone truly connected to the other one, but just some general things, and I'll have them suggest the topics they love stuff like that. So, first step, be creative enough that if you walk in and there is no lesson plan, you're still ready to go. Now let's go to the other extreme, let's say absolutely detailed lesson plans, you walk in, there is so much work left for him. In fact, the students are probably going to grimace when they first see there's a sub and then see all the work you have to give them. So that's the other extreme. Now, when do you ditch the lesson plans? Guess what? I've done this. I didn't ditch the lesson plan. But I did sort of ditch part of it. Here's what happened in this particular class. I think it's one of those situations where the teacher had to leave suddenly for a few days, and they had somebody make copies. What just so happened in a couple of those classes, the students, even the ones that I had taught before, and I knew they were a students. They mentioned that their teacher really hadn't gone over the material yet. They knew they were going to but they hadn't gone over it yet. So here's a situation where you've given them work, and nobody knows what to do. Well, I'm here to tell you now, at least figure out and a fun way to add a component to it. Here's what I did one time in the classroom, it was obvious that the handouts that were left were they were copied by another teacher, wherever they came from, the students weren't getting it. And it just so happened, I was with these students a couple of days in a row. So I looked for that same subject that I saw in the handouts, and I looked it up on Kahoot. Because I know Kahoot there's been so many people create lessons on Kahoot, that you can find a lesson on anything, I said, Well, okay, I'm going to back up a little bit, it's not going to do me any good just to give them a Kahoot on the stuff they don't already know. So I'll back up, I'll ask them the first day, what they have been studying. And then the second day, I'm going to pull up a Kahoot. It's amazing, even in high school, even though they think that might be a more juvenile thing. If I tell them that I'm going to show the reports to the teacher, if the teacher wants to use them, they're interested. And before you know it, they get intense to it just like every grade level. That's every ever doing it. They want to have the best grade, they want to have the fastest time they want to compete. They want to show that teacher how well they can do. That's what makes Kahoot cool. All the reports you can get from that. All you have to do is tell the teacher ah, what I told the teacher I didn't come right out and say they acted like they really didn't know the material you left. I said, All right, in a couple of classes. I was able to supplement with this Kahoot lesson and they could see every question. They knew that it pertained to that class. They even told me thank you because it kind of gave them a feel of where that class was. And you know, maybe if they the teacher knew that they thought that they were further along than that. But she could tell by the questions that that wasn't the case. Well, maybe she knows that she needs to review a few things over again with them. So that's the second reason that I did a lesson plan because it was obvious the lessons that were left were not working. The next thing I'll mention what we've talked about so far would apply for brand new substitute teachers. This next one will not you need a little bit of experience substitute teaching before you can get to the point that the teachers really start to trust you. They ask you back to their classes. They know when they ask you back to the classes that if the material they left was not sufficient, that you're smart enough to know how to fill in the gaps whether it's Kahoot whether it's something you know, I would challenge if you're going to show videos, make them short and make them At least have an entertaining component. Don't make it a DRO blah, lecture. It's okay to have a lecture. But you're going to hold those kids interest more if the video holds their interest more. So, look for things like that, be ready for that. But my point is, if those teachers know you, here's what they're going to say to you. Eventually, they're going to say, Greg, I know you're filling in for me today. Here's what I had planned. I'll leave out the lesson plans. If you come up with anything on your own, that teachers the same thing that you're more comfortable with. Go ahead. Do all the teachers tell me that? No, are there some teachers that would probably never tell me that? I'd say that's no as well. There are some teachers out there that would never say to that, even though they're always very friendly to me, but they know what standards need to be taught, they want to stick to their way of teaching. But I'll have to admit, now that I've been doing this for three years, the majority of the teachers say, here's the subject we need to cover, here's the lesson plans you can use. But if you want to ditch those plans, and teach it in a way that you want to a way that you're more comfortable with, by all means, do it. Guys, when you've got some experience, you're going to find out and and they like seeing you come back, you're going to find out that the majority of the teachers will tell you that they're ready for you to cover the material in your way. And most of the time, what's going to happen is the lesson plans won't last the whole class and then you're free. Even if you use those lesson plans, you're afraid to ditch the plans for the last few minutes of the class and go out on your own things you're good with things you like to do. Sometimes even I'm stretching, I mean, whoever who would have ever thought that having a debate in a biology class was interesting, but I know how to structure it. I've watched some classes that have done that. I know some subjects to pick all you got to do, man, Google is so beautiful, use Google and find what you need. Now, I will caution you in this way. And I made this mistake early in my substitute teacher career, find a video, the picture on the video looks good. But I didn't take the time to preview it. Now there wasn't anything in there objectionable. But there's sure wasn't anything in there to hold their attention for maybe the first, you know, the 10 minutes of the video and I said, Man, I should have done my homework, put some work into it. If your long term sub and you know how many days you're going to have put some work into it, find some things that's going to hold their interest, that's the key, it's going to pay off for you. If you don't give them something that's gonna hold their interest, then all of a sudden, you've got more talking you have to deal with, you've got more idle minds that you have to deal with all that kind of stuff. Now, the other part of that, and probably the most common thing that happens is you've got the lesson plans. But some students are just more advanced than others and they get finished first, what are you going to have them do, you might be able to start them with something else. So be prepared for that. At the same time, if you say if you get finished do this. Well, if the second thing is more interesting than the first thing, then they'll rush through the first thing just so they can do the second thing. Can't do that either. might be best to give them the lesson plan assignment first and then mention maybe 10 minutes in, when you get finished do this, that might be a way to approach it. But it's going to come up you're going to have to find out ways to keep everybody in that class occupied. Now one of the cool things like this goes better maybe with middle school, the younger ages. I do a lot of high school now. Have the people that finish early if it's their personality, especially have them help others if they want to be helped. Most of them do. They'll say, you know, can Sally help me since she's already finished. It pumps up the student that gets to offer the help. It helps the student that needs the help. Sometimes they would rather for their friend help them than the teacher. It's don't copy it. Don't allow them to copy it. But use that method try to encourage students to help other students as much as you can. And then one last extreme on ditching lesson plans. Is there ever a time when I went in? And I just tossed the lesson plan aside? You know, I have to say yes. I didn't know the teacher. I wouldn't do this with The Stranger, but I knew sound some way I could accomplish it in another way and teach them the other way. And I did in fact, do that. Did I stretch the truth a little bit when I told the teacher about it, I don't want to thank so but maybe I didn't tell them everything. So there's going to be sometimes when you go in and you're going to have a topic that you're just totally uncomfortable with, you're going to have a method of teaching that you're just totally uncomfortable with, you got to deal with it. So in all of these situations, if there's a lesson plan, you have to ditch if there's part of a lesson plan, you have to ditch or if you just have to ditch it, because they're finished with it, and you've got time to feel in the last few minutes. Be prepared on the way in there. Am I telling you to walk in the room and look forward to ditching that lesson plan? If you don't want to do it? No, never, the teacher put the work into the lesson plan because they knew it would be important for those students, at the same time, are there times situations, inconveniences, whatever, that's going to cause you to ditch it in a way that you're just kind of veering aside for a while, you're filling in the gaps for a while, by all means that is when you need to do it. Okay, I want to share one unrelated story before we get out of here. A story that happened this week in a class, we I taught the classes two days, there was one class in which I didn't really have one call this punishment, but I did have to move some students around because they weren't paying attention. And I think they you know, I sometimes I'll joke with the students don't take advantage of me, because I'm nice. They understand what that means. If I felt they were taken advantage of me, I move them. What I noticed, I really the situation that happened this week, I really thought you know, I'm going to have trouble keeping that student motivated for 19 days that I have to do this long term row. So the next day rolled around, I had them all setting in their assigned seats. I told them, perhaps while I'm in there, you'll earn the right to move to a different assigned seat. It's really important right now because it COVID protocol, because we always have to have seating charts and know where everyone is seated. But I'll let you earn the right to set with one of your friends, keeping in mind that if that doesn't work out, I also earned the right to put you back where you belong. Well, this student I had to move. I noticed the next day, our assignment, everybody's sitting in their normal seats. That student made a point of walking up to me and showing me their progress on the assignment for today. Now, was it the best job in the classroom? No, it wasn't was it even in the top half? Now, it probably wasn't. But did that student go out of their way to show me their progress they did. What it really showed was that student wanted me to know, I'm sorry, I put you in the situation where you had to move me yesterday. I want you to know that I can get work done. And I don't want to take advantage of you again. That student didn't have to come up to me, they could have ignored me the next 19 days and said, you know, Greg, Mr. Collins doesn't know what he's doing. I'm not going to do what he says I'm just going to come here and occupy time, they didn't do that. They actually sat down and did their work. So that was kind of a milestone moment. For me. I thought a student was going to give me a hard time but be hard to motivate for 19 days and then all of a sudden, they went out of their way to show me that they want it to do well. And when you have situations like that, always keep your mind open. Don't start looking for the same student to give you problems all the time. give the student the benefit of the doubt and be willing to keep those ears open and give even them a chance to show you they can do better