Day One of Subbing

This month, two school districts and a charter school hired me as a substitute teacher. Yesterday was my first subbing experience.

My assignment was a 7^th grade social science class. I’ve heard people say that Jr. High students are the most challenging age to work with. I would agree with this statement in a lot of ways, but I think the true challenge, is understanding life at this age. Children are developing in various ways in their early teens, which makes them a very unique age group. For example, you may have a class with a spectrum of mature adult-like students all the way to the opposite with students that are still childlike. Personally, I wasn’t fazed at the thought of being in a Jr. High classroom for a day. In fact, I was feeling quite excited about getting into the classroom again.

With it being my first day of subbing, I didn’t know what I was going to have or not have when I got there. I’ve heard there are times a sub walks in a classroom and the teacher has not provided a lesson plan for the day. I was not expecting this and knew God would set me us for success. As I anticipated, the teacher had left a schedule with assignments for each period. My only disappointment was that most of the “work” was independent learning which does not work well for 50 minutes of class time. I believe this type of set-up encourages a lack of student-teacher engagement and therefore creates room for chaos and behavioral issues. I did the best I could with what I was given and incorporated student conversation into the lessons as much as possible.

For the most part, I had a lot of fun yesterday! There was only one class period that was at a level 10 on the scale of rowdiness. I ended up calling another staff member in, towards the end for some needed “authoritarian influence.” One of the first things she asked me was who the “problem children” were. I said it was more of the entire class since there were many pods of rowdy kids.  She then asked if I had a seating chart. I told her that the teacher did not provide this for me, which I noticed from the start of the morning. Mrs. Vegas told the class to raise their hands if they were not in their right seat. About half of the class raised their hands. Then, she told everyone to go to their correct seating assignment. Almost 80% of the students got up. I immediately thought, “There’s the problem right there.” She stayed in the class for the last 5 minutes of class time, which I appreciated, and apologized that I went through that experience. I happened to see her in the hall as I was leaving for the day. Mrs. Vegas told me to ask for her contact information from the front desk the next time I was at the school. She said I could call her anytime I need in the future. Wow! That was greatly appreciated. I let her know I really did enjoy the day and thanked her for her help. I guess I have a new weapon in my arsenal when I go back to West Fresno Middle School, her name is Mrs. Vegas! Not going to be my first rodeo from here on out.

I really am excited about being able to work as a substitute teacher. I’m looking forward to more stories and experiences in the classroom that are going to make me an even better instructor and leader. I’ve learned to be flexible and as organized as possible so I think this is going to keep me at a good advantage as I go from classroom to classroom this year. I firmly believe that the success of a teacher is based on communication. I am learning this as I tutor and now am a substitute teacher. One of my goals for this year is to glean as much wisdom and experience I can through both tutoring and substitute teaching to better prepare me for the day I have my permanent classroom. I believe this experience is going to give me ideas on how to run a classroom as well as a passion for teaching.