Substitute Teachers Lounge
Substitute Teachers Lounge
Substitute Teaching Elementary School, Oh My!
What if your next teaching assignment was predicted by a humorous Instagram post? Join me on a fascinating journey as I recount my first day as a substitute teacher in an elementary school, filled with nerves, surprises, and delightful moments. I'll share how a seemingly random social media post added a layer of foreshadowing to my day, and why, despite initial reluctance, I found myself thoroughly enjoying the experience of teaching third graders. Reflecting on seven years and nearly 700 days of substitute teaching, this episode offers insights into how elementary students' chattiness contrasts with older grades and why this particular day stood out as one of my all-time favorites.
We'll also uncover the power of icebreakers and the art of connecting with students through their personal belongings. From prized shoe charms to shared TV show interests, you’ll hear how these small details can build rapport and make a significant impact. I’ll recount the joy of receiving heartfelt thank-you cards from the students and how a simple discussion about MasterChef turned into an engaging conversation. Finally, discover why I might have found my ideal teaching level in third grade and how this positive experience has reshaped my perspective on subbing for younger students. This episode is a testament to the rewarding moments and connections that make teaching such a fulfilling profession.
Greg Collins Substitute Teachers Lounge. I remember it like it was yesterday, november 27, 2018. I was nervous because it was my first day ever of substitute teaching. I was at a middle school. I found out quickly. I had nothing to be nervous about. I liked the job, the kids liked to have me in the room and I was never nervous again about substitute teaching until this week, my first day ever subbing elementary school. Specifically, I was subbing third grade, and all I have to say is we got to talk Substitute teachers loud. All right, guys, this is the September 24th, 2024 episode, episode 268. That's a a bunch talking about elementary school.
Speaker 1:Today, I want to tell you how one of my instagrams was clairvoyant and I'll play it for you. It's about 30 seconds. So the instagram thing is going crazy. The one I'm getting ready to play for you. I recorded the week before I taught elementary school for the first time and I just happened to choose third grade in the lyrics. Well, at that point, all my assignment said was teacher. I didn't find out what grade I was teaching until I went in that morning and it was, in fact, third grade.
Speaker 1:Well, well, that episode of the instagram has gotten about 1200 views. I always shoot for a thousand, but let me tell you one of the ones that had billy eilish playing in the background and was called I'm the bad sub, just one I did for fun. For some reason, enough people picked it up and shared it that it just crossed 60. That's six, oh 60 000 views. That is so crazy and I know all you guys can't do that and, to be totally honest, I only get views like that when I'm doing something silly and funny. My daughter and her husband were over at the house the other night and I was telling them about it, so they pulled it up and they were laughing at them and they hate laughing at my jokes. Now I tell the same jokes over and over, but it's so cool If you can ever bring yourself to do that. I am going to play the one about the third grade about 30 seconds right now.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I can teach third one about the third grade about 30 seconds right now. I know I'm not a fool, but why should I sub elementary school? Their snotty noses and their constant drool? Why in the world?
Speaker 1:teach elementary school. All right, and of course, those of you that are familiar with the music that is the Weeknd Blinding Lights Playing in the Backgrounds a karaoke version, of course, but I had a lot of fun with that. It's funny. One of the girls that graduated last year, she sent me a message when she saw it. She said well, that's a fine thing to be watching when I'm studying to be an elementary school teacher. And then she just kind of laughed about it and I guess I felt like I was clairvoyant after that because sure enough I went in in the morning and I'm actually recording this episode early. So this happened yesterday.
Speaker 1:As far as when I'm actually recording this, I wanted to do it while I had it fresh in my mind. I'm going to go ahead and give you my conclusion First. You're probably going to want to know if, for somebody that has substitute taught middle school and high school and really said that I would never do elementary school, but I wanted to push myself this year I was still reluctant to do it. I'll tell you my conclusion first, and then I'll tell you, as I've thought back on the process, the things that I would do differently than what I was doing before or what I did yesterday, and hopefully give you some ideas that will help you if you are teaching elementary school. Let me preface that by saying one of the comments on this Instagram post was something to the effect of I was a teacher for elementary school all my life and loved it, but in retirement they said they were now subbing middle school and loved it so much that they said they probably wouldn't go back and sub elementary school. So there's all kinds of opinion. I'll tell you my first conclusion. This will make it easy for you to determine whether I liked it or not. After I got home, a absence popped up for a different elementary school next week and I took it. So, and again, I don't know what they're doing, but this one said teacher as well. It just says teacher. The last one it was because that teacher was going on a field trip. I ever actually met her before she left. It was a field trip she was just helping with, so her particular students weren't going. But bottom line is this, and I told these kids this that was, it was special, it was 28 students. That was one of the most enjoyable substitute teaching experiences I've ever had. I hope some of the ones at the school is listening to this.
Speaker 1:I told the kids while I was in there I was trying to count up in my head. This is the seventh year of substitute teaching. I've done, and I'm guessing I've done, at least 700 days, because what are those? 240, maybe teaching days in a school year? I probably do at least 100 a year, more than that. I mean I'm doing at least three days a week. Usually it's five days a week, and so you know, guys, I have taught 700 substitute teaching classes and you guys are probably one of my top five enjoyable days that I've ever had.
Speaker 1:I said I'll make sure I let your teacher know that. Were they ever loud? Yes, it's funny. I had two teachers tell me that they can be chatty sometimes, but after spending a day with them, the level of chattiness that they had was nothing compared to what I was used to. So I would go back and do it, but that's my conclusion. So I'm doing the end of the discussion first, and now I want to go back and tell you some of the things that I there was one thing, let me just mention one thing.
Speaker 1:I heard one of the teachers mispronounce some words that they probably just weren't familiar with and mispronounce. I was familiar with them. It's more of a Jeopardy thing. I mean, I'm pretty good at spelling and pronouncing words correctly. It's kind of a pet peeve of mine. I bit my lip, though, because I didn't want to correct the teacher in front of students. So I would recommend you do the same thing as you're learning to maybe Now. There have been times in my past that I've looked on a board and seen a misspelled word and I'll just challenge the kids and say you see a misspelled word up on the board. They probably never, never, tell the teacher that I pointed it out. They probably forget about it. So I have done that, but that did happen.
Speaker 1:You know, third graders I described into the teacher. I said, after I've been with so many middle school and high school students, these kids, they're so cute, they're little third graders, they've got those high-pitched voices. When we went out for recess the girls screamed when they saw a grasshopper until I just kind of picked it up and let it crawl up my arm, and then they did the same thing, and then they were so sad that somebody accidentally stepped on it, because I told them. I said you know, don't kill it, it's got a right to live. It's not bothering us, and they were pretty upset about it. So I learned so much about them. Here's one thing that I did all day long, all day long, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to change it because it is so ingrained into my personality Years ago and since then.
Speaker 1:But years ago, when I was interviewing a group of volleyball players for the podcast, just asking them what they thought about substitute teachers, one of them said their favorite substitute teachers were the ones that shared personal stories. Well, that goes over great in middle school and high school. High school, you don't have to worry about any feedback, they just kind of laugh and move on. Middle school, the same thing happens that I'm getting ready to describe. Laugh and move on. Middle school, the same thing happens that I'm getting ready to describe. But oh my goodness, elementary school if I shared a thought from my life or something that had happened to me, every hand all 28 hands went up in the room because they had a similar story that they just had to share and I unfortunately had to cut them off after a while and said we got to get on with our work and I said that's my fault. I shared a story with you guys and you all wanted to share a story with me. I'll let a couple of you talk.
Speaker 1:And then I really had to be conscious of what I said. The teacher had us. It was a really nice room. I liked the setup, you know, tables with their size chairs, and then there was a carpeting in the front that was made for them to sit on and relax at the beginning of the day or maybe just during a chill hour or so and do the reading or their Chromebooks. Man, I wish I had all this stuff in third grade. You know, they had the big, nice automated touch screen that looks like your computer screen but you can actually touch it with your finger and drag things around. Those are so cool, man, I love those.
Speaker 1:This was a newer elementary school in the area. There are some high schools and middle schools in my area that there are some high schools and middle schools in my area that do not have these. So I did have the ability to do that. I ran into a lot of people that not only already knew me most of them knew me because of my wife and she didn't even teach that elementary school but she has been there as a sub and there's so many that knew me. The librarian there is my next door neighbor and we talked both when we saw each other at the beginning, and then my students actually went to the library for a half an hour. So it just set up to be such a perfect day.
Speaker 1:The sun was out, the recess was perfect, there were kids showing off for me when we got to recess. One of the girls wanted to show me how she could flip. The guys wanted to show me how they could climb. I don't know if they still call them monkey bars, but those bars and you know it was always. Look at me, mr Collins. One thing I did change, by the way. I thought that group was a little bit young to allow them to call me Greg. If I had had one of my grandkids I'm teaching third grade. One of my grandkids is in fifth grade at that school, one is in kindergarten If they had called me Pops that's what they usually call me I might have let the kids call me Pops, but I didn't tell them my first name and they called me respectively respectfully, I guess, is the word I'm looking for, mr Collins, all day long, and I do mean all day long we had such a good time.
Speaker 1:Some of the other thoughts that I had that I might do differently or that. I just want to make you aware of One thing that I did do when I took them to what they call their activity hour. I actually take them to the gym and the gym teacher told me you can go ahead and leave, I'll have them for the next half hour and then they'll go to the library. So I went back to the room. I didn't stay quite an hour because I wanted to go back and be with the students and see what they were going through.
Speaker 1:And one thing I did I was sitting in the room and they had left all their stuff in there and a lot of times you can figure out personalities just by seeing what's on what they've chosen to put on their headphones, what they've chosen to put on their backpack or the style of backpack they bought, the characters Maybe they're into Marvel, maybe they're into princesses, all that different kind of stuff, super Mario, all that. It kind of gave me a feel in each area of the room. I didn't touch any of their stuff, but I looked at it and saw that and said, okay, I know what this kid likes. I know what this kid likes. I know what this kid likes. They've got that on their shoes, their Crocs, the little things, the charms, I guess at the edge of their Crocs. They're everywhere. So it helped me learn something about the student Also, now, these types of icebreakers.
Speaker 1:They don't go well with middle school and high school because they hate them. But the teacher had asked me. She said to break the ice, why don't you have them sit on the carpet to start out? Have them tell you what their favorite TV show or movie is. To that I said all right, I'm not going to remember everybody's name, but I do want to at least hear your name. So when I point to you, tell me your name and your favorite TV show or movie. They love stuff like that.
Speaker 1:And then I gave my first story that I shared after they were finished. I didn't want to tell them I was a Breaking Bad fan. That's the wrong group to share that with. Probably the only two actual TV shows that I watch or I actually record to watch, is America's Got Talent, and I think I can't even remember if it's over or not, so I'm probably not paying much attention. And MasterChef. I love the MasterChef series and if you all know anything about MasterChef, as soon as I made that comment, every hand went up because they liked it too. And they liked it because there's a version of MasterChef called MasterChef Junior that kids their age get to go on and cook, and of course everybody wanted to share those stories. So that was a good way to start.
Speaker 1:By the end of the class, all the kids said I should say all the kids said that I don't have any proof that it was everyone. But the kids were telling me mr collins, can you come back and sub our class the next time we need to sub? And and I said well, if they want me to, I will be happy to do that. A couple of the girls asked me close to the end of the class. Now, by the way, the teacher left me very detailed things of what to do, but she did say don't worry about getting through it all. And she also said, in fact, if you have any of your own ideas and you want to do something else, go ahead and do it. So I had all kinds of latitude. Two of them asked me at the end Mr Collins, do you mind if we take some paper and make some cards and I said sure, go ahead. And I thought they were making some kind of cards for their friends or whatever. They were actually making cards for me that had a heart on the front and said thank you for subbing our class today.
Speaker 1:The teacher got back right before the day was over, so she then took over the duties and told me it was only about 10 minutes early, but she told me I said you know I'm, I'll stay around and help you with the car riders. And she said no, I got this. I do this every day. You're free to go. And it was just a great day. They shared those cards. One of the little girls that didn't bring a card to me said Mr Collins, I helped her with that card, so it was just so cool.
Speaker 1:I used to describe sixth graders this way. I don't describe them this way anymore, but I used to describe them as kind of huggy. They want to hug you all the time. I do tell them that they shouldn't be touching people because of I usually blame it on sanitary reasons and things like that. But, guys, I know you're not listening, but if you were, I would say that was one of the most enjoyable experiences I ever had. I will do a lot more elementary school. I will say this as a final conclusion, something I've thought about Third grade, when it was over and I had time to think about it, I'm thinking, you know, that might have been the perfect grade for me to teach in elementary school.
Speaker 1:Here's why they, as soon as I said be quiet, they did. As soon as I would ask them to do something, they did. They were very attentive, they were like I said, they were very complimentary. I think that maybe when you get to fourth grade and fifth grade, you kind of grow out of that little huggy attitude and friendly attitude. It doesn't mean you're not friendly and the younger grades they're just harder to discuss things with. I think the third grade might be my wheelhouse. I might try to seek out third grade when I can. I don't know if I ever want to sub kindergarten. Maybe the only time I'll sub it is if it is my grandson's class and I know it going into that. But guys, what was I thinking in years past where I was thinking I just don't think I can do elementary school. Those students were great and I can't wait to go back and sub third grade again.
