Substitute Teachers Lounge
Substitute Teachers Lounge
Things I've Heard Teachers Say That Bother Me
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When a retired teacher dubbed me "the cancel sub" at a high school basketball game, it hit me—our choices as substitute teachers echo louder than we sometimes realize. This playful yet piercing nickname sparked a cascade of thoughts about the intricate dance between personal and professional life. You're about to join me on a candid journey where I'll share my story of blending coaching with substitute teaching, and the nuances of cultivating strong connections in a school setting.
Substitute Teachers' Experiences and Perceptions
Speaker 1Greg Collins substitute teachers lounge . You know it never ceases to amaze me . I'll go into a week and I'm thinking I wonder what I'm going to record the podcast about on this episode . And sure enough , something happens every week that's puts a thought into my head that makes me think I need to record it . About this I thought about naming the episode when substitute teachers find out what teachers really think . I thought about naming it things I've heard teachers say that bother me . Either one of those will work or maybe the AI is going to pick out something different for me . You've already seen what it's picked out and that's what we're talking about today . Welcome to teachers . All right , all right .
Speaker 1I'm watching lots of college basketball here in the next few weeks . Spring training has already started . I'm a Reds fan . I'm also a Cardinals fan , which is kind of unusual since they're both in the same division . But you should live in St Louis , still have best friends in St Louis . That explains that . But one thing that was said to me at a district that is a high school level basketball game . I was sitting on the front row of the second section with a sidewalk in between that in the bottom section . It was a perfect place to shake hands with people , say hello to people , because they walked right in front of us . I was sitting with the head volleyball coach that I will be working with next year . It was kind of my idea for them to see us together . That's another thing that I'm excited about . We're already starting initial meetings for that . I'm looking forward to that .
Speaker 1But something somebody said to me made me want to record this episode . Let me take you back a little bit . In fact it was I hate to use the phrase almost exactly , because I guess that's an oxymoron , maybe but almost exactly two years ago today this happened to me . I had I was long terming at a high school , the high school that I'm assistant coaching this year . Granted , sorry guys , it's probably my favorite high school to go to , because of its size , because of its quote personality , anyway . So I had been subbing for them since August . As you know , it is now March . I was subbing for them that long . It was three different teachers , but nevertheless I was subbing for them that long .
Speaker 1To be honest , they know this there was one class that was really getting on my nerves and you've heard me talk before about how , if I'm not having fun , I really don't want anymore . And then I found out that my brother , who lives in South Carolina and who still has season tickets to Texas A&M that always gets him good seats , no matter where the tournament was going to be In two years ago it was in Tampa , nice place to go right . So he asked me about it and I said you know , I want to do that . I want to start doing more things on my own and not substitute teaching as much . My wife is retired . We're going to start doing more things together and I guess the long term is tying me down too much and I'll go on it .
Speaker 1I felt bad about it . I really did . In fact , that's one of the things I mentioned in the regrets episode not too long ago . I felt bad about it . I told administration they couldn't have been nicer Probably nicer than I would have been had I been in administration . There are some of them .
Speaker 1Well , let me just get to the crux of what this lady said to me . So this lady's now retired . I ran into her at the ball game . She smiled at me , we waved and she said hey , it's the cancel sub and I'm thinking all right , they were as nice to me as they could be about it . But now she's telling me , obviously , that she remembers me as the sub that canceled out all them . She was saying it jokingly , but yet a truthful joke . I mean , I'm the same way . I'm retired . I would much more now say something than I would not have said before I retired . She's retired . She didn't care , she told me that and it made me feel a little bit strange and I said so . It did bother them . Now this is the lady that had to schedule the sub , so that was part of it . I'm sure it put them in a difficult situation .
Speaker 1I wanted to do something on myself , for myself , beginning then I wanted to do more things that I wanted to do , which is selfish , but it's what I wanted to do . So what I want you to do first now , having said that , and then I'm going to give you a little project here . Having said that , there are some teachers that I still I it's probably not true , but I just feel like the way they interact with me , they're still thinking about , even though they want me in the building . Now I'm there almost every day now , purposely because I want to be at the schools that have the volleyball players that I will be working with next year . So same thing I did last semester . It was a different school and I sub mainly there . So , but I see the look in their eyes . Sometimes they want me there , but maybe they still remember what I did to them .
Speaker 1Now here's your project . What would you have done in my situation ? It bothered me , but yet you might do the same thing and it wouldn't bother you because you're doing what's best with number one , right , and I'm not going to say anything about that . Everybody's got to make their own decisions . But it just surprised me . That is something that I never thought one of them would have said to me , even if they felt that way and you know , I guess I knew deep down that they couldn't help but feel that way I bailed out on them . I had a similar situation the following semester where I had to leave at the same school . So so wonder they took , took me back right , but I am still subbing there more than any other time . And the lady that now schedules the substitution , when she asked me to do something special , maybe cover for something I wasn't expecting her to ask me to cover . She is so nice about it . The other lady was nice too , but she is so nice about it She'll give me a pretty please on the text when she texts me . I know they like to have me in the building , so we'll leave that at that level , but that was in fact something that bothered me .
Speaker 1One other thing that I came across , I'll just say , in the last month at a different school , was how do I want to word this ? I was kind of bragging about a student . I guess this one falls into the category Not so much what teachers thought of me , but when maybe substitute teachers find out what teachers really think , because I was just having a conversation with her . I forget what she teaches , but I do know that she knew more than just the English language Because we talked about it and I mentioned to a student that I thought was a great student and how they knew multiple languages . And I was really surprised when the teacher told me oh , they don't let them fool you , they don't really know it as well as they think they do . And I'm thinking , you know , was that a very nice thing to say ? Was that just ? Is that one of those things you know you've heard me say before ?
Speaker 1I think we misuse the term realist now , because anytime we use it it's so that we can say something negative and then say I'm a realist . That's how I feel . So that bothered me a little bit , the fact that I was complimenting a student and they were trying to reverse my compliment . They were trying to say well , you know , maybe they don't know it as fluently as they're leading you to believe . Well , I don't know , man , if I learned six months worth of Spanish on Babel , I think I would still say I could speak Spanish , that I knew two languages . And I don't have to be fluent . I just I jokingly say this I just have to know how to order chicken and say Pollo and still Apollo . But that kind of caught me by surprise too .
Speaker 1One thing that I tell the volleyball players you know I'm not the type of coach that will instantly take them out if they make a mistake , but what I do tell them I've gotten pretty good at looking at players' faces and seeing how they're feeling , and if I see them overcome with either don't wanna call it embarrassment , that's too strong a word but feeling bad that they just cost the team a point . Volleyball is such a mental game . When I see that I tell them that's the time that I feel like I need to take you out because I don't care that you made a mistake . I care how I can see it affecting your face . I can see the emotions in your face . Maybe it's time just to set out for a rotation . I tell them that I also know this .
Speaker 1There are teachers to this day when I go to certain schools , if I walk down the hallway and I glance up and I see that they're looking at me and immediately turn their head . Well , you know , that makes me feel a little bit strange . That's the minority . I don't know why that teacher feels that way about me . Most of the time , every teacher , most every student that I run into while I'm substitute teaching , they'll say hi , greg , they're as happy for me to be there as I am to be there . But it always makes me feel funny .
Speaker 1Another reason why I'm not sure why a certain teacher or two feel that way about me , but obviously some do . Some would never look at me and speak unless they would look up if I spoke to them first , but they would never really look up and speak . There's something about the situation . Now , who knows , maybe I have done something . If I've done something , it was inadvertently and I just have to go from there . But sometimes I would really know , I would really just like to sit down and maybe be in a situation where then we're running a concession stand together and I just talk to them more and we open up more than maybe whatever it is gets put out on the table and it happens . To that regard , there are some things that I have said on the podcast . Even the one incident that I'm thinking of that I think bothered some teachers was four years ago . In fact it was just before COVID , and to this day there is a teacher or two that I feel like doesn't speak to me much because of that .
Speaker 1I was , you know , I've always been a student advocate . I always take up for the students . I jokingly said it One of the tournaments I was referring and one of the coaches was given her players a hard time . That was jokingly . That was working the table . It was their turn to work the score table and they looked up at me and said you see how she treats us ? And she looks up at me and smiles to see which way I'm going to go and I say I'm sorry , coach , I always take up for the players and she just laughed . She knew she was just picking on them anyway . But that's the kind of camaraderie I like .
Speaker 1Now , where are we going with all this ? I am not the type of person and I encourage you to not be the type of person that , when you're encountered with those situations , teachers look away from you , teachers don't seem friendly with you . It's your move . It's your move , you've got the ball . Speak to them . Speak to them every time you see them . Make sure , if they have students in the school , that you go out of your way to speak to them . Build student-teacher type relationship with them . Bridge that gap . That's always important . When you see them out in public , make sure you say hello , shoot , go and sit down next to them . I've done that before Somebody that I don't talk to .
Speaker 1Very often I just went up and sit down and killed some time by talking to that between volleyball matches that I was referring . It behooves you that's a good old fashioned word . It behooves you to do that . Who knows , that person may be a principal someday . It may be your boss in another environment someday , may work for you someday , who knows ? You need to build friendly relationships . I used to be in a I won't bring it up , say too much about it , I guess , but you know the career I used to be in Not a whole lot of friendly people in that career . When I went through out placement they told me I was in the wrong career because I was friendly . So that just sums it all up . Be the friendly person , be the one that goes out of their way to bridge those
Building Strong Relationships in Teaching
Speaker 1gaps .
Speaker 1Now I want you to think about specifically . I mean , I ran into several specific things this week . In fact I didn't mention a couple of them . One guy , jokingly , but I think he got tired of seeing me leave when he still had to work and he said I think it's time for a substitute teacher to stand out here and watch these cars , you know , after hours , of course . Or sometimes I heard one of them say oh , you're sneaking out , probably because my students were empty . Or I should say my classroom was empty of students . So I left like two minutes earlier , or maybe the last period that's what it was in this case the last period of the day was planning . They said it jokingly , but at the same time that wasn't really meant to mean you shouldn't do that , it was more meant to me .
Speaker 1Dog gone . If I have to stay , you should have to stay . But you know , should I feel bad about that , I got there probably 30 minutes before they did . I feel bad about that . But there's always situations out there that come up that make me feel like I can do something to make this relationship stronger . I know that happens with you .
Speaker 1So when it does , just make sure that you're I don't want to use the oakless say make sure you're the better person , because that person's not a bad person . They're just remembering . It's hard to forget stuff like that . If somebody inconvenienced you , it's hard to forget that I have inconvenienced others . I have to live with that . In fact , I probably won't do that again , just because I probably won't accept a whole lot of full time positions , especially if it's the time of the year when I know I'm going to be doing some traveling , that type of thing . But make up your own mind You're going to run into people teachers , students that , for whatever reason , come across as if they don't particularly care for you . Well , again , be the better person , if in fact that's what you are , and tell them you know , start a conversation with them and let's see if we can't build relationships that will help us in our substitute teaching in the long run , or maybe even in the short run .
