Elementary, My Dear- The Substitute Teacher's Best Gig

After six years as a substitute teacher primarily in middle and high schools, I've discovered that elementary school—specifically third grade—has become my preferred teaching environment.

• Elementary students are more engaged without smartphones and more enthusiastic about learning
• The COVID break significantly impacted middle schoolers, making them noticeably less mature
• Teaching the same class of students all day with scheduled breaks creates a better teaching rhythm
• Third grade is my "sweet spot" with kids eager to help and not yet developing attitude problems
• I still maintain special connections with former students, including my first long-term class now graduating
• Elementary students are genuinely excited to see me in the hallways and respond enthusiastically
• Try teaching all grade levels before deciding which one suits you best

Chapters

• 0:00 Unexpected Career Direction
• 3:10 Post-COVID Impact on Student Behavior
• 5:30 My First Substitute Teaching Experience
• 7:45 My Favorite Teaching Group
• 9:20 Why Third Grade is My Wheelhouse
• 11:10 What Makes Elementary School Special
• 14:30 Try Teaching All Grade Levels

Transcript

Greg: 0:00

You know I'm not a big gambler. Sometimes I'll dabble with DraftKings, but I'm too scared to bet more than $5 at a time. But I say all that to say this If I had bet this time last year that I would be recording a podcast episode like this one a year later, I would have said you're crazy, there's no way. But in fact we're going to talk about elementary school once again, and our most popular episode in 2024 was back in September about elementary school. We had another one in November for elementary school, and I tell you what I've got to talk about it again because, after subbing elementary school for 10 days in a row and then doing two days of high school, when I walked up to that high school door, the first thoughts that popped into my mind were man, what am I doing here? Substitute teachers loud, all right, before I make my high schoolers mad, because I know they're listening to me. Walking up to the high school door and thinking what am I doing here has nothing to do with the conclusion I've come to. Not only that, the high school class the first day was a group of honor students. All day long they were in honors classes. The second day was a very a class for a teacher who's also a friend of mine and it's always a good class. It has to do with, you know, going through life, the first years of life, that kind of thing, and they were both extremely enjoyable. When I got in there In fact the second one, the life thing for about two hours that day, they brought in two and three-year-olds for the students to teach. That was so cool and I couldn't help. But every time I heard those high-pitched voices from the other room I had to stick my head in, see what was going on and as they were leaving I walked out with them. They hadn't really met me, in fact. One little girl said who are you? And I thought that was funny. So as they were leaving, the main teacher was saying all right, hug, miss, and all this kind of stuff, and then finally she looked at me and said hug, mr Collins, you know, and I thought they might've been thinking stranger danger, but they, sure enough, they came up and hugged me and I love those little kids like that.

Greg: 2:50

I have gotten to the point now where I'd prefer elementary school. I even talked about this to some of the high school students one-on-one when we were just casually talking and they seem to understand because at that age they're still impressionable. More impressionable they still and I don't mean this, in fact I said something similar to this last week but I love the way that they jump up in the morning and do whatever the principal tells them to do while they're on the announcements. I don't care about smartphones in the classroom, but obviously when you're in elementary school you don't have them. It does add a different dimension to those young kids, because even the most behaved high school students they've still got their smartphone. I noticed even in the classes last week, the honor students. You can't keep their attention more than about 20 seconds until they're pounding their phone for some reason, or at least glancing at it would be probably a better way of saying it, and it's just kind of refreshing to see the younger kids do that.

Greg: 4:06

Now I'll tell you the only reason. I even tried elementary school. I keep blaming things on the COVID break, but sure enough, that time, when we were all off and then had a year of virtual learning that affected a lot of kids, I could trail right away at middle school, which was my favorite school to teach for a long time. You could just tell the batch of new middle schoolers coming in were so immature, bless their hearts. There wasn't a whole lot they could do about it. They just missed a year of socializing, interacting with the other students, and you could really tell sometimes. You know, that same attitude wouldn't get on my nerves in elementary school. It did in middle school, because we got to go on and do more important things and they still had old middle school or I should say elementary school habits and it was impossible to get them to break that. So I finally said, all right, I'm going to try some elementary school. My wife did it for 30 years. Of course I would hear all the stories. You still got to deal with parents. You still got to deal with that occasional kid that doesn't behave himself in school. Sometimes perhaps it's the fault of the parents, maybe they needed a little bit more discipline at home, and then you get to flip side. Maybe the only discipline kids ever have is at school. And you know I've been told this by teachers before that you know. I think the kids like you because you're friendly and I think some of them look to you as a father figure and man, that's heavy, that's heavy stuff right there. So all of that Now. I'm going to back up now and go back to six years ago and tell you. I'm going to start with how middle school became my favorite and then we'll go from there on how I think and, you know, I'm not even sure any of these reasons will be a reason for you to like elementary school, but I certainly would encourage you to try it.

Greg: 6:17

Way back 2018, november, first time I ever substitute taught. I loved it. I couldn't. You know. I walked in that day thinking, man, what are these students going to think of me? Are they going to just think I'm some idiot up here trying to teach them? Are the teachers going to think I'm some idiot that's inferior to them? By the time the end of the day was over, the students were telling me oh, mr Collins, can you please come back to our class again? The teacher the teacher I was subbing for was actually in the building in a meeting all day. She said oh, I'm going to keep you on my list and have you sub for me again. And you know it went great from that point forward.

Greg: 7:02

One of the schools that I subbed at several days and already got close to the sixth graders there well, they decided that they wanted me to teach that class, a math class in sixth grade, from a week before spring break until the end of school, and I did just that. I feel like I got so close to those kids. They I'm not sure much how much I taught them, but I think they look back at that year as fondly as I do and doggone it. If those guys aren't seniors this year, I still tell them. Aren't seniors this year, I still tell them, you know, I'm honest with them. I say now, part of it's because you're my first long-term class ever I still look to them as my favorite group of kids that I ever taught.

Greg: 7:56

They have a couple of them have already invited me to their graduation. Of course it's a ticketed event. One of the students has told me she's going to give me one of her tickets because they want me to be there. I'll be there. They know that I'll probably cry when I see them for that last time and you know it's so. It's so sad's not the right word. I guess melancholy. I'll get melancholy because I realize that the vast majority of those kids I won't see again ever. They're going to go on with their lives. Maybe I'll run into them at the grocery store or the pharmacy, shoot.

Greg: 8:37

Some of them are going into the medical field. It was a standing joke when I subbed a medical pathway one time because they were complaining about how much they had to memorize. I told them I said well, when I get older and older and one of you ends up being my doctor, I want you to know every word on this sheet. So I really got close to them. I'm going to miss them a lot. I think that's. I think I feel like that when they're gone, maybe high school won't be as much fun.

Greg: 9:08

Middle school is just not like the way it used to be. Because of that break and the things that you have to settle them down from now, it just is no longer my favorite. Elementary school is my favorite. Now I even catch myself classes for middle school and high school that I would have taken in years past. Sometimes I'll let them go for a while to see if anything from elementary school is going to come up Now.

Greg: 9:44

I've already noticed difference in grades. I'm going to have to say my wheelhouse is third grade, because every third grade I've done, I loved it. Fourth graders, just one year later, are already starting to develop their attitudes. Some of them are already setting during Pledge of Allegiance and I'm sure that's something their parents told them to do. I don't think they came up with it on their own. But third grade is definitely my wheelhouse. Here's what makes elementary school fun. Now, in our area the break between the grades is the same in that for the grades up through third grade the teacher has the same students for the entire day, other than when they go to activities and lunch and that kind of thing.

Greg: 10:43

Once you get to fourth grade and fifth grade, well, they start changing classes. I remember we changed classes when I was in school. We did it in the fifth grade, but it was only because two teachers that were kind of off by themselves. They wanted to do it. We flipped back and forth between those two classes. The rest of the fifth grade students didn't do it. They kind of envious of us. I thought it was kind of fun to do that, but they changed classes.

Greg: 11:11

Here's what makes I was going to say recess. Here's what makes elementary school fun. In third grade they have two 15-minute recess classes. Teachers go out with them. They have their fun. I love seeing them experiment with. We used to call them monkey bars. I don't know what they call them now, but they're still out there. They no longer have the 15-foot-tall metal slides that we used to have or all those other things on the playground that would hurt you. In fact, you have as many team sports at recess now, like soccer or shooting some basketball, as a lot more than we had back in the day.

Greg: 11:55

But that's two things. That kind of breaks up your day a little bit. You also have an hour each day of activity. So the third grade I did last. They actually had their recess, their first recess. It's 15 in the morning and 15 in the afternoon. Their first recess and then their activity and then there was like 15 minutes of reading before lunch. So you really had like a two-hour period there where the students weren't in the classroom for most of it, and that's kind of a break. I mean the planning period for teachers just about at every school level is during related arts. They call it activity in middle school or I should say in elementary school most of the time art, music, pe, library, those kind of things, and that's really refreshing.

Greg: 12:52

So you have the same kids all day long, but there are breaks in there and those kids as the weeks went on I shouldn't say the weeks as those days went on. They would have done anything for me. Every time I told them I needed some help with something, even if it's just passing out papers, they were really falling over themselves to try to help me out before somebody else did. Now there might be some of that in high school. I don't see it very often and I don't fault them for it. It's just older kids don't volunteer as quickly or as enthusiastically. Just to hear them shout out they do a morning class motto and to hear them shout it out so enthusiastic with those little high-pitched voices was so cool.

Greg: 13:46

I've gotten to where I really like it a lot the third grade class that I had recently taught for four days in a row, the principal. I knew him before he was a principal. I actually worked with his father at one time but he came in that fourth day like he always does. He always drops by all the classrooms as he makes his rounds and he came in and said how's everybody doing today? And they enthusiastically answer him and he said are you guys going to miss Mr Collins after today? And you know they answered right away and that really made me feel good and I'm so glad when I can have an effect. You almost feel. I told this to some high school students. At the high school class I said you feel like you can affect their lives in a good way and you know when they're that young. And the high school student told me he said you affected my life too. So you know all these heartstring things that are going on.

Greg: 14:48

But I'm here to tell you now that I seek out elementary school. I like to do third grade and higher, but I am going to do it all. If I see a kindergarten or first grade or second grade come up, I'm going to take it. I'm going to experiment with it, see if I like it just as well. You got to make up your own mind. But do all three, do elementary, middle and high school. And even there's an Ignite Academy in our area that does I don't know how I would describe it. You know you learn welding or you learn car repair or you learn how to play the guitar. So all of those classes are out there, along with some business-specific classes, nursing-specific classes, even to the point of getting your CNA so that you can become a nurse's assistant.

Greg: 15:34

But anyway, that's my story. That's why elementary school is kind of my gig now. I like to do it best. I like to see those kids I like when I go back and whenever I go in, take the kids to the cafeteria. There's always students from another grade when I first get there and a different grade when I leave and and most of them know me now and they all wave and it's so cool. I don't get as many high schoolers waving at me Some of them do, but some they're too cool for that man. What am I doing waving at an adult? Anyway, I like elementary school. Now. Give it a try if you haven't already. If you're mainly elementary school, give middle school and high school a try. I surprised myself how much I liked elementary school. No-transcript.