Tis the Season for Substitute Teachers to Get Gifts

It's the holidays!  Is it better to receive or give?

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This Greg Collins substitute teachers lounge, it's December 18. And this week, I got gifts from students for the holidays. That means they like me, right? All right. Now granted, we as substitute teachers don't get gifts like regular teachers do. Unless we're at a long term row at Christmas, or maybe at the end of school, or maybe you're just in the building for a couple of days, and the kids like you enough that they give you gifts. Now, what does that mean? I will tell you this, those of you that are into gifts, if you're in elementary school, you're going to get a lot more than you do in high school. You know, elementary school, that's just kind of a thing to do. It's like exchanging Valentine's, you're getting gifts from the kids. Now, I'll be honest, you get more gifts in elementary school, but probably they're giving you gifts out of the sense of obligation. You get to high school I got a few gifts this week, was probably the best gift was from a student who I haven't taught since the second week of August. But yet I taught her She's a freshman. Now, I taught her way back when she was in the sixth grade. And I remember some of the conversations we have. And I know that she gave me a nice Chick fil A gift card, because she likes it when I teach her class. I like her. I like all my students, I got some more gifts beyond that. But let's be honest, we're not in this for gifts. But there are things that students can do is some of you might consider it a bribe, maybe they gave you the gifts early, because they wanted a good grade on that final exam. But we're going to be talking about it's the holidays, I am going to continue to have an episode. throughout the holidays, I am making a little bit shorter. But that's okay, you probably got stuff you have to do, and you don't have as much time to listen either. Here's the stuff about giving. Don't feel guilty. First of all, if the kids give you a gift, you shouldn't feel guilty at all. That makes them feel better to give you that. Think about when you give things to others. You feel good about it, just the fact that you're giving it You're not upset if they don't quite get the reaction you thought you would. You're just happy to give right? So that that's what giving really is. I've joked with my daughter, it's not really a joke, but I told her I knew she had matured in her giving when I could see and this was at a young age for her. I could see in her face, she got more joy out of watching other people open the gift she had given them, then opening her own gifts, or even getting joy out of all the gifts or friends were opening. That's when you know you've crossed the threshold. But as you might have expected, this is an episode about monetary gifts. Let's talk about since it's this season, let's talk about what we can give and some of the things that I was given these last couple of weeks. Now, some of this is a small repeat, but I'll go into a little bit more detail. I've told you a couple of weeks ago that was there was part of the science curriculum that I was having a different time preparing for and teaching to the students. Well, here's what the school did for me. They made it as easy as possible for me, they gave me teachers to use as resources. I was out the first three days of this week unplanned for a couple of personal reasons. And they rose to the occasion. One of the teacher said, Hey, we've got a room big enough in the building and I'm teaching the same subject at basically the same time. So we'll combine their you know, Greg's class with my class and I will teach them together. Guys that's giving I mean she got teacher gave from her heart. You know, she even made the comment in one of the emails so we you know, we're family at this school. We want to support each other. I'll tell you one thing that kind of breaks my heart a little bit on our substitute teachers lounge Facebook group. There's some conversation going on right now about, and it came from the episode a couple weeks ago about teachers looking down on substitute teachers. And there's really been some strong discussions about it. Some of the substitute teachers do, in fact feel like they're looked down upon pretty severely not included in things. Whereas I'll be honest, I've got the blessing that I've been at a school that they include me with everything that teachers do, they thanked me for the abilities that I have what limited they are that they may not have, like Google Classroom, Kahoot, stuff like that. There's some math I'm very comfortable with, I can help with that. And at the same time, I try to go out of my way, not in an artificial way, but in a way that I can thank them for the help they've given me. So this week, they included me in their Christmas luncheon. This week, they helped out for the days, I couldn't be there. This week, they gave me some little tools they had found that would help me teach. Again, I brought it up last week, valence electrons, we actually got through it, the kids did pretty well on the test. And I'll say this, even though some of the kids had, you know, as always, that you have some kids that give you a hard time, I was amazed at how those kids had actually stopped, you just never know, they had studied for a test. I had a few students who I would have thought and I could just look at their grades until the same thing that would never study for anything. They decided to study for the final exam and got very respectable grades a's and b's, and it's going to help out their grade a lot. Did I help with that? I don't know. But I want to thank that the fact that I gave myself a little bit to encourage them helped out in that regard. I was giving to them, they gave back to me. And just as I was talking about my daughter, I was excited to see their score as they were. A couple of them were jumping up and down because they couldn't believe they had gotten that score. And it's basically because they studied the ones that study got a good score, some of them did not because they didn't study, there were some things that were done by students in that regard with other students. This is what really gets you excited. And one of the students this week said, Mr. Collins, you know, this student over here needs a little bit of help. I think I understand it. Well, can I help him out? And of course you can. So she took the time to help that student out. That student's grade improved. So should I be giving and give her maybe a bonus point or two, I chose to do it. I chose to do it, especially, you know, she did that from her heart. To be honest, she didn't need bonus points. But she did that from her heart. And she just wanted to help out in the class. And I was really thankful for that. This particular student had one of the highest grades. So again, she wasn't doing it as a bribe. So that was a giving thing I did monetarily probably shouldn't say, monetarily. I did go buy some cupcakes. This week, we paid played a fun Christmas Kahoot. Basically the way our finals were set up, they took half their finals one day half their finals, the next day, those periods were extended. And they're off periods between the two finals, they was only about 30 minutes. So it was meant to be kind of a more of a fun, Christmas type atmosphere. So we played some games gave away some cupcakes and all that kind of stuff hits amazing. I've said it before how much kids even in high school, well, all of a sudden want to participate when cupcakes, candy. Whatever is involved, I had a couple of gift cards that I was able to give out. They weren't that many, but still it was special. They knew that I was going out of my way to help them out in that regard. So I had students helping students. I had teachers giving back to me. I think they liked me and here's why. I've been retired from accounting for three years. I do substitute teaching for fun. I don't mind the money, but I do it for fun. My wife retired in August. She had taught fifth grade for 25 years. So she retired. We're both retired. As much as I love those kids. As much as I love those teachers. We decided to take the entire month of January off. We're actually going to travel for most of that we're going to Florida we're going on a cruise, don't worry Y'all stay healthy, we're fully vaccinated, and I will get all the things that I'm supposed to get before all that starts. So we're doing all that. And I almost hate it to tell the secretary because I know they're really struggling for substitutes. You know, I consider myself a good substitute and they're struggling for good substitutes. They want more than just a warm body, somebody to go in and yell at the kids or not watch them at all. They want somebody more than that. So it almost made me feel funny to ask them that. But they said, Mr. Collins, we understand totally, we wish you were here. But we understand totally, if we were in that situation, we'd probably be doing something like that, too. And I thought, well, you know, who knows, you know, those administrators are really nice people. But you know, am I burning my bridge? Are they going to go with other substitutes? Because I'm choosing to take a month off and spend it on myself? Well, they didn't, because they've already asked me, all right, we've got someone who's having a baby. And we have a long term open beginning in February. So they have already asked me to come back, there was a part of me that said, Well, you know, if I don't get a full time role, it'll be fun to hop around to the other schools again, but I'll have to admit, when they told me that I was excited. And I think I've done a good job, because it was an hour after they told me about that February need that I passed that very expecting mother teacher in the hallway. And she's already telling me, Hey, I hear you're going to be taking my class. Now. If I was somebody that they didn't want in their class, they might even look the other way. You want to walk down the hallway, but they were excited about that. Giving is one of those kinds of things that you get back what you give, but you shouldn't do it. For that reason, it's really tricky. But if you go in and do your job you are giving to others, you'll see the record of that in the way that they give back to you. They thank you for being there. They thank you for helping those kids. There's kids again, in that class, some of the classes that I never would have thought what they did here at the end, they were excited. I was excited. We enjoyed each other's company, it was beyond just teaching each other and being with each other. We actually legitimately enjoyed each other's company. You don't hug as much in high school as maybe it did in elementary schools, those kids need a little bit more Pat's on the back and stuff like that. The high schoolers don't quite need that. But you can see it in the way they greet you in the hallway is funny out, I returned some Chromebooks to a room this week, that was in the middle of their exam, and I have a key so I didn't want to bother the teacher. I just opened the door and let myself in. And she would prefer that anyway. And she smiled and looked up. And a couple of students looked up and said, There's Greg. And she said, you know, you're popular when you just walk in the door, and people start saying your name, and she was just laughing about it. But I've given to those kids. I didn't want anything in return. Do I like the kids more? That gave me something before I got out of there? Of course not. That's not why I was there for do I appreciate those students. Sure I do. It gives you that warm and cozy feeling that chicken sandwich I got with that gift certificate that didn't have that great value. That just the thought that the student thought enough of me to treat me that way. Even when I wasn't their teacher in a long time. I hit mid enough to that student. Same with me. The reason I continue to want to go back the principal knows I feel this way. I'm not doing this for the money. I'm doing it for fun. I just like being with those students. So that's the kind of attitude they want. So in this abbreviated episode for the holidays, guys, remember, give of yourself to those students, give of yourself to the teachers and to the schools. Whether you get something back or not, that's the way it works. You'll get something back you'll get benefits from there, but you don't want to do it artificially. You want to do it for real and that will make your life in general so much better. Keep that giving attitude.