Substitute Teachers Lounge
Substitute Teachers Lounge
Are Kids Different Now? How about Substitute Teachers?
Have you ever wondered if the essence of substitute teaching has truly changed over the years? As I step back into the classroom, I reflect on my own school days and how my role has evolved. Join me for a nostalgic journey that contrasts the traditional strict approach with a more positive and friendly style. In a recent elementary classroom incident, I found that kindness and understanding can have a profound impact, turning a day of substitute teaching into a truly rewarding experience. I’ll also share a memorable moment from cafeteria duty, illustrating how respect and empathy can create a more harmonious environment for everyone involved.
Greg Collins, substitute Teachers Lounge, december 3rd 2024. I've been looking forward to recording this one. I hope you enjoy it as much as me. I'm a nostalgic kind of guy. I even had a website at one time called Nostalgic Guru that I did nostalgic stuff on. I watched an older show that was based on even an older time period. Then it got me thinking about when I had substitute teachers when I was in school. Then I substitute taught elementary school and a couple of things happened that made me think, you know, are students different today than they were in years past? Or maybe, even more importantly, are substitutes today different than they were in years past? So that's what we're going to talk about. Happy Holidays, the fourth grade Substitute Teachers' Lounge. All right, hope you had a good Thanksgiving holiday. I know I did. We have found out that my daughter-in-law is going to be on one of the cookie challenges that's on the Food Network. It's going to be December 19th, I think that is at 9 pm, if you guys want to watch that Also. That same family, the same lady, is going to give us a new grandchild in July. So we're going to be up to seven grandchildren and that is certainly exciting for us. So monumental weekend for us, this particular episode.
Speaker 1:I've been thinking for a while of doing all right, I remember subs for my day. I remember students how they treated subs for my day and I'm thinking is it really that different than it is today? Now, I'll let you think about that for a while. I will tell you this I mentioned in the opening about an old show and even though that occurs first chronologically, I think I'm going to save it for last and I'm going to start with today. Okay, so, and remember, I've been subbing a lot of elementary school. I will say one of my memories of high school, and it wasn't really that bad I was in one class and a student reacted negatively to something I said and I just made the comment man, you really heat up fast. And when I said that to him, he looked at me and apologized and I realized, you know, rather I could have reacted differently. I could have said listen, you settle down the fact that I was, at least quasi, not nice about it. He said I'm sorry. And from then on I didn't have him in class that much, but every time he saw me in the hallway he would speak and wave and I thought that was so interesting that maybe, instead of us saying my how students have changed over the years Well, I'm not so sure they have they're still students that have needs.
Speaker 1:I know that when I was in high school I'm jumping around a little bit or jumping backwards a little bit I guess I remember when it was weird there was some students that were okay for the regular teacher but for some reason they thought they needed to be as negative as possible when a substitute was in the classroom. I wasn't like that, didn't see the point, didn't need to try to show off in front of other kids, so I never did that, but there were plenty that did. There are students around like that, the ones that cheer at the door when they see that there's a substitute teacher, no matter who it is. I guess deep down they're thinking all right, it's a substitute, nothing I do will affect my grade. The sub doesn't know how to affect my grade. They can leave lots of notes, but do people really pay attention to those? Do the regular teachers pay attention when they come back? Let me talk about you know. My general thoughts about when I was in school is that students behave better for the regular teachers than they did the subs, but not that significantly, at least from my perspective as a student.
Speaker 1:Now, were there substitute teachers in my era that I liked better than Other substitute teachers? Well, of course that's true, even if the gap isn't that wide. You formulate in your mind what you like best when you have a substitute teacher. Now, just as I am, I like the substitute teachers that were very friendly, shared stories. Having said that, now that's what probably made me substitute the way I am. I'm a positive person, so that helps too.
Speaker 1:But let me tell you what's happened to me in classes most recently. I'll give you, for instance and I just substitute taught yesterday a class that told me that you know they're honest with me. It was an elementary school class and they said Mr Collins, we'd love to have you back as a substitute again. We like to hear your stories. Other substitute teachers yell at us, and I'm not a big yeller, so they like me for that reason. It's not really that much. More, of course, in fact maybe less, I don't know. But my methods of teaching them were different. I didn't belittle them. Let me go back a couple of weeks and tell you why. I get bothered when I see young children treated bad and this wasn't that bad. I guess that should have been badly. I'm getting my adverbs mixed up, wasn't that bad? But still, I could see the expression in the student's face.
Speaker 1:We were in a cafeteria. I was doing cafeteria duty or just walking around talking to the students. Most of the students in there. They were from two different grades but I had subbed them all so they all knew me. So I walked around and talked. There was a lady on the microphone that was giving direction to what students should do, and then I happened to notice that one of the nice girls from the class. I like her, especially because she'll talk to me. She's very friendly, she's outgoing and I like those kind of personalities. Not that that's a requirement, but I like those kind of personalities she had, and teachers had shared that with me too. She has a very pleasant, positive personality.
Speaker 1:Well, it just so happened that the lady with the microphone yelled at her because she had her shoes up on the seat. Now, in actuality, she was sitting on her legs, so for that reason she had her shoes on her seat. But when she yelled at her it was in such a way that the entire cafeteria could see her and I could just see she was trying her best to keep from looking embarrassed, but I could see her head drop. She was trying to hide her facial expression from everybody. I later saw her hugging one of her regular teachers because I think she was just trying to be comforted in some way. She was trying her best not to react negatively to what that person thought. And here's my thought. I think that adult had no right to say that to her in the tone that she did. She could have said now, young lady, would you mind dropping your feet to the floor so that we don't get them dirty, all that good stuff? She could have said that way. Instead, she sat in a way that embarrassed the student. And when I see a student's facial expression change negatively because they're embarrassed, I'll be honest, it breaks my heart a little bit because I know maybe the student didn't deserve it. In fact, I'll even say in instances where maybe the student did deserve it still breaks my heart a little bit. But especially in this case, that student great student in the classroom, great personality, who talks to all her friends and comes over and talks to the teachers just pleasant to talk to that student did not deserve to be treated that way.
Speaker 1:So your students as substitute teachers, they're going to make perceptions. We did, we like certain subs better than others. Maybe you're one of those that don't care whether you're liked or not and if you're like that, okay, that's all I'll say. I don't. I really enjoy when I I mean the class I was in yesterday. I was just in there first time I ever met these kids and after three hours the classes were saying can you come back and sub our class again? Now, I'm not sure it's because I'm that much better. I think it's because I'm that much friendlier, and that's what substitute teachers really work, need to work on. Now I'm going to make the case, for probably things haven't changed that much over the years, I will even say, other than maybe the tools we have and what we can do today. Things haven't really, you know, other than that it hasn't really changed that much. The treatment of students is the same. All right, here's the tv show now.
Speaker 1:Every now and then, especially over the holidays, it seems like you're flipping through channels, watching to some, you know, waiting for, looking for something that will occupy maybe an hour of your life, before maybe you're going out to do something. Well, it just so happened that an episode of the Waltons popped up. Now, the Waltons was an old show from the 70s, but it was actually about the 1930s, the post-Depression era, when families were really poor. And in this case the title of the episode was the Substitute. And I got to thinking man, I'm going to have to watch that now to see if in fact they are talking about a substitute teacher, and sure enough they were. Now, keep in mind that the oldest student in the classroom was 18 and the youngest was six. So it was back in the good old days of one room classrooms where all the grades were the same.
Speaker 1:This substitute teacher I guess it's what we would call today a long-term sub, because she was going to be there for a couple of weeks and the oldest character in the Waltons, the oldest student in the Waltons, was called John Boy, and the first thing the teacher said to her is I think this teacher, her husband, had been involved with some kind of aptitude test and she told one of John Boy's brothers that you really don't belong in sixth grade. I'm going to start teaching you as a fifth grader. Well, she said that in front of everybody. I'm not sure how much. Well, we know it wasn't motivational and it really upset them. And the teacher didn't like the way where the location where the students were sitting, she moved everybody and one student tried to tell her how much she really needed to sit up front and she wouldn't listen to her and all that good stuff. And it turns out that the student that wanted to sit up front was because she was hard of hearing. That was the only thing. And because that substitute teacher, in my opinion, overstepped her bounds and would not listen to her students, she had a negative effect on them and John Boy, the oldest son, finally talked her into letting his brother go back to the sixth grade, made him feel better.
Speaker 1:Sometimes just a little positive motivation is all it takes that substitute teacher. The parents I guess it was the board of the school actually had to meet and tell her that it just wasn't working out. She didn't do a motivational job. Did she do the same style of substitute teaching that I saw in the 70s and that sometimes we see today? I'm sure she did. Substitute teachers haven't changed that much, but were there positive substitute teachers back then? I'm going to say yes, were there positive substitute teachers in the 70s, of course, and I think it's great for us to be positive today. So sometimes nostalgia teaches us a lesson.
Speaker 1:I'll be honest, some of my memories from my school, when I was in school, probably affects the way I sub today a little bit. I don't want to be treated the way some of the subs I saw were being treated, treat it the way some of the subs I saw were being treated. At the same time, I think the good old phrase of what goes around comes around. I really think if I start right out treating those students negatively, they have no reason to treat me positively. If I go in and start yelling at them and being a jerk and you think their reaction is going to be hey, let's treat Mr Collins as well as we should, let's invite him back all the time. No, it's not. You have to have a positive attitude.
Speaker 1:Our job, the teacher's job it's the teacher's job mainly, but our job too as substitute teachers is to keep those students motivated, keep them taught, follow the lesson plans that the teacher left the students that I had yesterday. They told me that they enjoyed the stories I told and I told them. I have to be honest, because I've noticed that the younger age group of kids that I have, the more they want to talk about the stories I've shared. As you get older middle school and especially high school they just listen. They enjoy the stories, but they just listen. And you move on, the younger grades they want to talk more about it. So you have to keep that in mind. So here's my conclusion Students really haven't changed that much over the years and the way they treat substitute teachers hasn't changed that much over the years and the reasons they treat them that way hasn't changed that much over the years. Substitute teachers they're probably the same as they were back in the day, but they will motivate their students better if they have that positive attitude. Maybe it's better to say motivating attitude.
Speaker 1:Kids, if we can get through this, we'll have a fun story after this. Kids, if you do your assignment the way you do, you will earn maybe a Jolly Rancher today. Here's it's funny. I took some Jolly Ranchers in yesterday and I heard one of the second period students as they were leaving a room and talking to the third period students coming in. Hey, you get Jolly Ranchers in. Yesterday and I heard one of the second period students as they were leaving the room and talking to the third period students coming in. Hey, you get Jolly Ranchers today and it was so funny that little cheap Jolly Rancher and how motivational they are. But there's my nostalgia for the day. We need to always look at examples of people that you enjoyed when they substitute taught you and substitute teach the way they did. Remember students that were always positive when you're teaching and were your favorite students in class, and try to treat the other students exactly the same way.
Speaker 1:I will tell you we've got two more episodes before the calendar year is over. I think they're going to be more, I guess not directly aimed at the students. I know the next one. I want to talk a little bit about anxiety. There's some small anxiety issues that I have developed because of my age. I'm going to talk about them, and teachers and students both deal with anxiety all the time. I'll just be specific about mine. I certainly am not going to give anybody any advice, but I'll tell you what I'm going through. And then the final episode of the year I think it's going to come out on New Year's Eve, if I've got my calculations right.
Speaker 1:We're going to talk a little bit about intermittent fasting. The second most popular episode ever of this podcast was back in 2020, when I interviewed a lady that wrote an intermittent fasting book and I'm in full support of that book, by the way but I'm going to tell you some things about it. She was a teacher, so we'll also talk about students. Does it have an effect on students and that kind of thing? And you know, let's face it, that's the kind of the year when, time of the year when all of us are wanting to do, you know, do a little bit better, maybe get back to the gym more, maybe watch what we eat more and all that good stuff. So glad you could be here with us today and I hope we all go out with that positive attitude when we substitute teach.
