Substitute Teachers Lounge
Substitute Teachers Lounge
Substitute Teaching First Grade, What’s Going On?!
Breaking my own rule of "never below third grade," I recently stepped into a first-grade classroom as a substitute teacher and discovered a whole new world of teaching challenges and rewards. The experience was so transformative that I couldn't wait to share what makes seven-year-olds uniquely different from other elementary grades.
First graders operate in a heightened emotional state that manifests in three primary ways. First, there's the crying – whether from playground injuries, perceived slights from classmates, or frustration with classroom tasks. I quickly learned to crouch down to eye level, acknowledge their feelings, and gently guide them forward without dismissing their emotions. Then comes the "creative storytelling" when they make mistakes. While my high school technique of "you'll get in less trouble for telling the truth" works with teenagers, first graders haven't developed that level of maturity yet. Finally, there's the constant neediness – a forest of raised hands, endless questions, and students hovering around your desk from the moment they arrive until dismissal.
What surprised me most wasn't these challenges but how much I enjoyed navigating them. There's something refreshingly authentic about working with children who haven't yet learned to mask their feelings or needs. The connections formed are different than with older students – more immediate and unfiltered. Walking through the cafeteria to find students from various classes excitedly waving created a special kind of joy that made the challenges worthwhile. So much so that I immediately scheduled more first-grade assignments in the coming weeks.
For substitute teachers who typically stick with older grades, I encourage you to step outside your comfort zone. You might discover, as I did, that the youngest learners offer unique rewards that change your entire perspective on teaching. And who knows? Maybe my upcoming kindergarten assignment (in my grandson's class, no less!) will provide even more insights for next week's episode.
Greg Collins Substitute Teachers Lounge. I taught first grade for the first time this week and there's so many things to talk about it. They were great. The teachers were great. It almost didn't happen because I told myself I would never go below third grade. But then I enjoy this school so much I'm taking everything they offer.
Greg:And about two weeks ago this popped up the day before I got canceled and I said, oh no, I'm not going to be able to try first grade after all. It's because the lady was actually going to be there. After all, she's on a jury duty kick and sometimes you don't get called in. So I was disappointed. I was relieved, sort of, and disappointed at the same time. But then within a half an hour I hate to say it like this, but one of the other first grade teachers apparently got sick and I took her job and, man, it was a memorable day and I'm going to tell you how first grade of course, I've only done it once and a lot of you out there have more experience I'm going to tell you how first grade is different from the others. They were really well-behaved. It really has nothing to do about that, but it's their age and their personalities and just the fact that they're seven years old. I joked with the teachers that, well, first graders are great but they would be better in small doses. And so we're going to talk about first grade Substitute teachers loud, all right, you know it's funny.
Greg:I enjoyed first grade so much that I couldn't wait to record this episode. I actually had a different topic in mind, but after I did first grade I wanted to tell you this. It's on the way in to school that day I just happened to be walking down the sidewalk with another substitute teacher and he said who you got, what grade you got today? And I said first, and he goes oh, he said I don't think I could do first. And I told him my whole story about how I used to do middle school and high school only. And now it's hard to me for me to go back to that because elementary school has kind of spoiled me. Spoiled me and I told myself that I like third grade best. I still think that I had third grade my last day this week and it was one of my favorite classes and I enjoyed it a lot. But I got to do first grade and they were a lot of fun, but they were different, in fact I guess more so in elementary school than any other than middle school and high school. I'll say it like that. There's so much difference between each and every individual grade. In fact the day after this episode drops, oh man, here we go. Oh man, here we go.
Greg:I'm subbing my first day of kindergarten and it just happens to be the class that my grandson is in, so that will be interesting. I've already subbed my granddaughter. She's in fifth grade. I've subbed her class a couple of times and one little misnomer about me saying that I've never subbed first grade before is that I actually had two days subbing music last week, and when you're in music or I guess it's any related arts you hit on just about all of the grades every day, especially if you're there for two days. I was kind of blessed in that he let me prepare some things on my own. I'm a big Mario guy, so I found a nice Mario tutorial about how to sing Mario words but learn 16th notes and eighth notes and quarter notes and all that good stuff as you're doing it, and I was able to teach that in half hour slots all day for different classes and I met the first grade. They were fine. I actually taught a couple of kindergarten class and I actually think the kindergartners were the best behaved class of all of them. So I'm kind of looking forward to my kindergarten gig tomorrow. But let's go back to first grade. So it was a very busy day for them. They were actually practicing some things in music that took them out of their normal routine, so I was dealing with that.
Greg:But here's what I suspect is true now that I've had experience with it, is true of every first grade everywhere. I can just guess that this just goes on everywhere because there's seven. They are still highly emotional and it's funny. Every elementary school class you'll have students hovering around your desk all the time. With first grade it's really intense because they're hovering around a lot. They do things that every other class does, every other grade does, but they do them more often. Class does, every other grade does, but they do them more often.
Greg:My first example of this and sometimes they choke me up a little bit first graders. Well, they're going to cry a little bit more than the other grades and I saw crying on the playground because they got hurt. I saw crying. I saw crying on the playground because they got hurt. I saw crying when they thought somebody did something to them out on the playground or in the classroom, and you know you just have to deal with it. What I try to do with crying and I mentioned if another classmate did something to them I'll talk more about that here in a moment, because that's a separate issue from crying, because they don't always cry when that happens. But the crying part I try to, you know, kind of crouch down, get my face on the level or their face, so I'm not looking down at them, and then I'll just say, all right, let's see First of all down at them and then I'll just say, all right, let's see First of all, it's over, there's nothing we can do about it now. I'm sure it was an accident. One kid was even crying because someone had spilled water on part of a costume that he was supposed to wear, the part of it that was paper. So he was upset about that because he wanted his costume to be perfect. That's fair enough and I understood that and you go for what can.
Greg:If they act like they're hurt, here's what I would say to them. First I'll just ask them are you hurt? Sometimes they will nod their head, yes, and then I'll say, all right, show me where it hurts. And if they take too long to show you, well, they're probably just kind of making it up. If they finally point to something and it's an arm, if it's an arm especially, I'll just kind of, all right, rub your arm a little bit and I said, look, your arm's working. It's going to be okay. I said I don't want you to ruin the rest of your recess, so let's get over it. Let's see if we can dry up these tears. I might even have you got to be careful with this. I might even have a Jolly Rancher inside, but then they might force cry just to get a Jolly Rancher. It's amazing how much they'll do for a Jolly Rancher. As a side note, I went to a play a couple of nights ago at a high school that I haven't subbed at for two months. One of those students came up to me and said hey, mr Collins, good to see you. Do you remember you still owe me a Jolly Rancher high school junior from two months ago? So it is amazing, the jolly rancher effect. So that's crying.
Greg:That's the first thing you'll have to deal with. They'll do it in the classroom, sometimes, when I've had to come down on a student because they're repeatedly doing the same wrong thing. Well, they don't like to hear my more serious voice. They like my friendly voice. Sometimes I will tell them do not take advantage of me, because I'm a nice guy, because you don't want to see me when I don't get to be as friendly. And this young man, I think, has actually cried twice when I had to get serious with them. But he also wanted to sit next to me in the classroom. So it happened. So deal with the crying.
Greg:Try to be diplomatic, one thing that I personally wouldn't do. You can do it if you want. If that's who you are and you say I'm just going to tell them to get over it and move on. Well, it's not what they need to hear at the moment, but if that's who you are, that's who you are, I try to be as diplomatic as possible. So, first thing is crying. Next thing rhymes with it it's lying.
Greg:Now, all kids are going to stretch the truth. All kids are worried about getting in trouble and, let's face it, adults are the same way. If you get caught doing something wrong, you may not lie, but you are definitely going to stretch the truth to the point that you are trying to get out of something. Well, if you call up a student here's what I normally do, normally in high school I can say this and it works. I can say all right, you will get in less trouble with me if you tell the truth. And remember, I've got some resources I can use to determine whether you're lying to me or not. Maybe I actually just saw what you did. Maybe I've got students in here that they're going to tell me what you did. So you'll get in less trouble with me by telling the truth than lying Now, that's true. If they didn't tell the truth, than lying Now, that's true. If they didn't tell the truth, well, I'll say, okay, what should we do about it now? And I'll let them assign their own punishment If they lie to me. Well then I get to assign the punishment and it's going to be I'll say it like this serious enough to be a learning lesson. It's worse with first grade. It's worse as you progress down the ladder. Maybe fifth grade I can talk some of them into telling me the truth. First grade, I'm not sure I could, because they're still in the mode Just like home. I got to cover up for what I just did. So I don't get in trouble.
Greg:I will and I have not very often, but I will share notes with the teacher. They know and I start with this the students know that I would rather share good notes about the things they did well and good, not bad notes, unless I absolutely have to, unless they force me to. I had third grade last week, and I told them. I said you know, you're one of my favorite classes. I don't think you're quite as sharp today, behavior-wise, as you were the last time, though, so I said here's what I'm going to do.
Greg:I picked two of the students. I said here's what I'm going to do. The students I said here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to let these students write notes for me to leave for the regular teacher, and if I agree with them, I will sign my name. I want them to be honest. They said they would, and it's funny, when they were putting it together, at the end of the day, they actually asked me Mr Collins, can I be specific and call out students by name? And I said no, I don't want to get into that, because your teacher might think that it was worse than I actually thought it was. So be general. And they did. They said at times they got too noisy. At times some of the students were trying to hide the fact that they were on tabs playing a sports game or something like that while they were doing their work. They would do it like in between questions, but still not what they were supposed to be doing. So they did a good job.
Greg:So you've got crying and lying and let's now say maybe I'll just call it neediness. Now, I don't mean that financially. I mean first graders, more so than any other. They need everything. They want you to help them with everything. When I walk in, they are asking me questions. From the time I get in the door they're lined up, they have their hands, so they're doing it properly, and all the way to my desk it's to the point where I also this is related to that, but it's not Now I try to address every need in there.
Greg:If I don't know, I'll tell them. I don't know, but I might find out for them. If it's something, I won't tell them. I'm Googling it. But if something, I feel like I can help their knowledge if I Google something, not on a test question, of course, but just something we can learn together, like who was the 18th president, things like that. That maybe the question just came up in class. It did, by the way, I had one gentleman in a class that was very good with presidents. So first graders will ask you for a lot of things. Be prepared to help them a lot.
Greg:You know how I love to share stories. I can't share as many stories with them and I've said this about elementary school in general. Every hand in the place goes up when you share a story because they've got a similar story and if we share them all, I had one student third grade student this week said Mr Collins, we probably should get back to what we're doing and we were sharing stories and we were having such a good time and we did in fact get back to what we were doing and I'm glad she pointed that out. First graders, you'll have more of that and I'll say it like this I enjoyed first grade. I've got in fact it's kind of funny this coming week I start with it's more of a teacher coverage thing, it's teacher appreciation week. So I think my first day it's all at the same school. I will have done two weeks at the same elementary school because I love it that much, love the students that much, love the teachers. A lot of teachers that know me, maybe through my wife because they knew her as a teacher, or they knew me through sports programs because maybe they're the age that my kids were. They're now in their 30s and they're teaching and I love this school. And this week I'm teaching a coverage day while various different teachers go to teacher appreciation at different times, and I've got two days of first grade and I got that day of kindergarten and I've got one day open for now.
Greg:But last week was the first week that I subbed every single day for a little while. It wasn't by choice, it's just that I didn't find my. You know what I really like to do. So if any of you from that school are listening, you know who I'm talking about. Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity and I'll say it in a weird way Thanks for being absent. I hope you're getting better if you were sick, but thanks for posting your job so I could pick it up. I'm getting more now asking me to. I had one teacher. The office asked me to sub Monday and I said, well, I'm actually already subbing here, so that's a good feeling when they get used to seeing you there so much that they want you in the building.
Greg:I love it so much when I purposely walk in the cafeteria at the beginning of lunch for my class and the end of lunch for my class a few minutes extra, because I know there's going to be another grade in there. And I love it when I walk in and some of them are waving at me and they want to talk to me. They try to wave me over. We get to talk a little bit socially, and some of them are my granddaughter's friends. I'll talk to them. So first graders are different. I love to teach their class. So first graders are different. I love to teach their class. It's just kind of a different challenge and one that I'm going to continue to work on and get better and better. Who knows, maybe next week I've got an idea for the episode next week Maybe after I teach kindergarten I'm going to have to talk about that too.
Greg:I'll close quickly with one last thing that I almost forgot to mention. In fact, I'll be honest, I just edited the whole show and forgot that I hadn't mentioned this, but you will find more every grade in elementary school. Sometimes in all the levels, they will snitch on each other. I'm not going to use that word in front of first graders, but it intensifies with first graders all day long. Maybe every 15 minutes some student will say so-and-so, just did this to me, so be prepared how you're going to deal with that. And I tell them well, just do your best to make things better, do your best to make things better. Since I didn't see them do that, I can't really punish them for anything. No-transcript.
