Substitute Teachers Lounge
Substitute Teachers Lounge
Top Five Disciplinary Issues of the Substitute Teacher Year
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As the school bells chime for the final time this academic year, I'm pausing to reflect on a rollercoaster ride of triumphs and trials from the substitute teacher's perspective. Wrapping up before our well-earned summer hiatus, I'm bringing you a candid ranking of the five most testing disciplinary issues in the classroom—from the mildly frustrating to the downright exhausting. Expect heart-to-heart insights as we unpack why a physical scuffle ranked surprisingly low and unveil the origins of the term 'discipline' itself—hint, it's all about learning!
Disciplinary Issues and Summer Hiatus
Speaker 1Greg Collins . Substitute Teacher's Lounge . It is May 14 , 2024 . This is episode 260 . The last one before my yep . I'm going to take a partial summer hiatus . I'll talk about that here in just a moment . I thought maybe it would be appropriate at this time , since discipline always seems to be the more popular episode . So I'm going to tell you in my mind and I know this is going to be totally different than in your mind my top five disciplinary issues of the year , and when I'm finished , I might even tell you what the best thing was about my year this year . You be thinking about yours and I will tell you mine . Substitute Teacher's Loud . All right , guys , so here's what I'm doing .
Speaker 1You know I have been doing this podcast since summer of 2019 . And back then I had all kinds of ideas . Even now , I still have ideas , but they're always based on what's happened to me In the previous week . Almost always , there's something that comes up that I can talk about . Well , school's out now , so I can't do that as much and , let's face it , you're not going to be listening as much . So here's what I've decided to do . This will be the last episode for May 2024 . I will then do an episode . One episode for June that releases on the first Tuesday of June , one episode for July , one episode for August and then shoot , I'm even trying trimming it down some in September We'll see how it goes . Maybe I'll make it situational I haven't decided yet If in fact maybe I'll do it this way and I don't know but maybe I'll do one episode per month from now on , unless things when school starts in September just makes me realize I need to do this a bit more often . So that's where we're going with that . I have ranked for this episode episode 260 . I can't believe that . Why am I still doing this , guys ? I guess because you're still listening . I've got more and more students that are listening . I've got students , you know , and now that I think about it , I might already have my June episode planned , because two of the students went out of their way to get permission from their parents to be interviewed . So I'd like to do that some way . I'll figure it out and we'll have that as a future episode , hopefully .
Speaker 1But I'm going to talk about and I know , I know this is going to be different for you Think about the top five disciplinary issues you've had of the year . And as I'm glancing down through my list , it's not that much different than previous years , but I'm going to count them down from five to one and the way I define them . Number one is the one that aggravates me the most . Number five still aggravates me most . Number five still aggravates me . But you know a few notches down from number one and you might be surprised what my number five is you know .
Speaker 1Just to already take a sidetrack , it's kind of funny to me that the root word of both discipline and disciple and you know disciple isn't necessarily a religious word , it is a word that can be used in any situation Disciple comes from Latin for I think I'm pronouncing this correct discipulus , which means student , and then the Latin word disciplina means instruction and training , and all that makes sense for what we're talking about . Disciple is a student , a student of whoever . A disciple of I don't know disciple of baseball , is a student of baseball . Disciplina , instruction and training , that's what discipline is . So I guess I'm just fascinated by word origin sometimes . I guess I'm just fascinated by word origin sometimes .
Speaker 1My number five , okay , is fighting , fighting's number five . In other words , there are four other things that aggravate me more than fighting . You know I hate to say it like this , but fighting , as far as a substitute teacher goes , is relatively at least my experience so far easy for me because it's a no-doubter . You really don't have to be subjective . If there was fighting , well , there's a disciplinary issue . You fill out a piece of paper . You have administration . Fill out a piece of paper . You know something along that line . It's concrete . There's no paper . You know something along that lines . It's concrete . There's no exceptions . You never let fighting go . There was fighting in a school I was in this week . I've seen fighting earlier this year . They all result in the same thing . If you've listened to the podcast all along , you know that I've seen some fights this year that weren't really fights but yet because it was captured on a security camera in the school system , they disciplined and suspended both students . That was the one that I jokingly say . I'm not even sure either one of them ever landed a punch before their friend got in the way and separated them and they went their separate ways . And again , I didn't have any fights I had to separate this past year . I have in the past . It's relatively straightforward . That's got to go to administration . I hope that I don't ever have to get in a situation where I have to separate two people in a fight .
Speaker 1To be honest , maybe the first , only thing that I've ever come close to is actually on the baseball field . In fact , this was the softball field , I guess it was . It was handshakes after a game and I was there . I was no longer the . I used to be the president of that organization that scheduled the referees and I was on their board . I just came to watch the game this time and , lo and behold , if , when they were walking through their lines at the end of the game and shaking hands , well , one girl was upset with another for something , for a word . She called her . That word's going to come up later in the podcast , believe it or not . She called her . A word starts with a , b , and then her dad was the coach . He got mad at the other dad who was the coach of the other team , which , coincidentally , that dad was the president of the league .
Speaker 1And there we are Separates fights , the guy that was in charge of the league , I guess that game in charge of the referees . He had to separate the fight . He called me later on and we had to fill out paperwork and all that kind of stuff I've never really had to . I've almost forgot about that story . Never really had to separate a fight and all that kind of stuff I've never really had to . I've almost forgot about that story . Never really had to separate a fight per se in the classroom .
Speaker 1But that is my number five . Number four is the immaturity . Immaturity is starting to get on my nerves so much . I'll let you in on a little secret . You know from past podcasts within the last month I've told you that I'm not going back to middle school because of the immaturity , and I'm partially blaming it on the COVID break , but I guess the challenge was out there . And of all the middle schools that I have gone to in the past , the one I've enjoyed going to most I'm going to go back into tomorrow . There's only a week left of school and I want to leave it well with that school . They've got some volleyball players that are going to high school next week . That's one of the reasons I want to go back . I want to . This is actually going to be a sixth grade class . I've taught before and I remember them as a really good sixth grade class . So , guys , if you're listening to this , let's make this a good day . Now I've already looked at their calendar . Some of them won't even be there that day because , as is true with most schools , they're doing a few celebration days here at the end and I know they've got some field trips planned and all that good stuff . So that is my number four . Immaturity Now I will say this I have said to high schoolers here within the last couple of weeks guys , you're still stuck in middle school , get that out of your system .
Speaker 1And for the most part some of them think that's funny , but for the most part they realize . You know , that was kind of childish . I don't want him to call me a middle schooler again , so maybe I won't do that again . All right , immaturity was number four . Number three , and I won't preach on this one too long , because I say the same thing every time we talk about language in the classroom .
Speaker 1We had a post on Substitute Teacher's Lounge and I'll say the first letter of a word . I'm not allowed to say it . I don't mind saying it in the nature of this podcast , but because of the way my podcast is coded as family-friendly , I'm not allowed to say it . So , basically , somebody posted on our Substitute Teachers Lounge Facebook group that substitute teaching is the only job where you can be called the best substitute teacher in the world and a bee in the same day , and that's probably not that far from the truth . It's everybody's perspective .
Speaker 1What language do you let go ? I'll just remind you one of my favorite stories that I'll bet this is at least the fourth time that I mentioned , but I think it's worth mentioning . If your school has a policy about language , it will be near impossible to enforce unless they have specific words in the policy , which sounds ridiculous . But let's face it . Something that offends you , a word that offends you , might not offend me and I'll let it go in the classroom . Something that doesn't offend me , would I just said . That's the same thing . And something that offends me may not offend you . You would let that go in the classroom . I have been known to say to the students listen when I hear that language , listen . There's some words that I let go now that I didn't let go before , because they just seem I hate to say this they just seem low key . No , it wasn't aimed in anger , it was just an H of a mess , if you get my drift . So some words I let go , and that's a tough one . Look at your school's policy . See what it says . I'd be curious . Post it on Substitute Teacher's Lounge and we'll go from there . So that is number three .
Challenges in Classroom Management
Speaker 1Language .
Speaker 1Number two this has caused me . You can tell , you can hear the frustration in my voice when I talk about these last two . This has caused me so much grief this year . It has caused me to drop classes this year to say I'm not coming back to that class . I remember a story it's probably three years ago now where I was going to have a nice easy day in the library and I was called in the middle of or actually I guess , the end of the first period to go up to a different room for the second period and the rest of the day because those kids had aggravated that sub up there so much that she left after the first period , didn't tell anybody . So they sent me after cover . It closed the library . I guess they thought I could handle it . Lucky me .
Speaker 1And it comes from too many friends in the same class . That's number two . That's what has caused me to say I won't come back to classes . More so than not , it seems schools will put .
Speaker 1I don't even want to call them troublemakers , but they're students of like kind and I don't mean that in a derogatory way . I don't mean that in an educational way . I don't mean that in a learningogatory way . I don't mean that in an educational way . I don't mean that in a learning disability way , don't mean that at all . It's just students that when they get together it's just constant misbehavior , whereas if you had them spread apart in a lot of different classes , it's not as bad . But it seems like , more often than not , all of those students that just get under your skin more and more . There's so many of them in the same class and I don't know if they think that the teacher Once all them in one period to just get them out of the way rather than have them sprinkled throughout the day . Maybe that's it , but I don't know . That's my number two Too many friends in the same class .
Speaker 1And what happens ? The class that I left the class I said I wouldn't come back to . One kid used a word and then I won't repeat it because I don't remember which one it was looked around , he was so proud of himself . He looked around to see if the others were watching , listening . Some of them were smiling , so he giggled . He was so proud and he didn't care what I thought about it . Okay , those were the kinds of students in that room so he was doing that just to show off . I really feel like if he had been the only student of that genre in that room , he probably wouldn't have said those words . So there we go . The number two was too many friends in the same class .
Speaker 1Number one this is it . It's almost every week , even in high school . You know , this is when you get right down to it . This is a grandkid thing . This is the type of thing that you tell your grandkids to discipline them and it still happens in the high school . Usually it's the more immature high school students , to be honest . But here's my number one Doing things one more time right after I told you not to , and in fact you do it again because I told you not to , just as a challenge .
Speaker 1You feel like , oh , if you said one more time and you think it will get a nice laughing class if you didn't , then do it again one more time . Another , for instance this was from a couple of years ago . This was in a high school class and some guys were making sounds with their armpits and all that kind of stuff . And I said , all right , guys , one more time and we're going to have to move people around , we're going to have to take smartphones just as punishment , all that kind of stuff those guys quit . They quit doing it .
Speaker 1But right after I said that another guy who hadn't even been doing it makes a sound just because I told him not to , and I said , man , there's nothing . And he felt bad about it because he could tell I was serious and he's actually a student that I don't have much trouble with Usually , I said there is another , there is nothing . I should say that makes me more aggravated than if a student or if anybody in my life does something right after I tell them they can't do that anymore . That will get on my nerves more than anything , and I did discipline the child . Also told him you know , once it's over , it's over , so let's just go back being having a good teacher-student relationship after this time . So there's my top five guys Closing out my favorite thing of the year . There's so many of them , to be honest , because I had a pretty good year .
Speaker 1Anything that makes me feel special , that's my favorite thing , one of my favorite things , and it's just a silly little thing . I showed up to substitute teach and it was in the middle of the day and the students cheered when they saw me walk in . That's not going to happen in every classroom , but it happened in this one and , I have to be honest , it made me feel so good . That was kind of cool , and when I run into volleyball players they will go out of their way to talk to me . I think that is so cool . I hope that I can make a difference in their lives . They are certainly making a difference in mine , because any type of that feel good stuff really makes me well feel good , even from the standpoint of when administration says all right , we have to have five substitutes . Today , mr Collins , we're giving you first choice .
High School Romance and Substitutes
Speaker 1Let me close with this story because it just happened today . A young man who goes to my church is dating a girl that is also in the high school and her father is a substitute teacher . So we saw them walking down the hallway before classes started this morning holding hands . They're a great couple . I love both of them .
Speaker 1I had the girl in classes too and he jokingly said the guy jokingly said when he saw us hey , there's our two favorite substitutes , pointing to me and we were talking , I was talking to her dad pointing to me and her and his girlfriend's father , and I said all right , you're going to have to tell me which one is which one of us is first , which one's your favorite substitute ? And I put him on the spot . So I kind of bailed him out a little bit and said you got to say her dad man . You got to say that , and I thought that was so funny . He was sincere from the standpoint of he does enjoy me there as a substitute teacher .
Speaker 1I enjoy both of them as students . I enjoy talking to her father because he's a really nice guy , and that was it to her father because he's a really nice guy , and that was it . So that's it for me . Until the first Tuesday of June 2024 . We'll go to a once per month format for about three months . See how it goes from there . So sayonara and have a good summer and we'll catch you on the backside .
