A Substitute Teacher How-To

Walk into class ready to take on another day with your seventh graders. See a substitute standing where your Mentor Teacher should be. Turn around and run – don’t walk – back to your car and leave. Just kidding, don’t do that. But you’ll want to.  
Take a deep breath and mentally prepare yourself for yet another terrible substitute teacher that the students do not respect. He will see you walk up, interact with the students, and try to maintain your MT’s regular classroom management strategies. You will immediately see the look of relief in his eyes as he thinks to himself: Nice, I’ll just get to take this hour off and let her lead the class. He’ll ask: “So, you’re, like here all the time and know what’s going on right?”  
Sob internally.  
You never have liked substitutes, even when you were in school. You felt like the entire day was wasted and liked having the structure of your regular teacher. 
Looking back, you won’t even remember what the lesson was that day. What is that saying people always say? – super cliché, teachers always have it painted on a canvas in their classrooms… Oh yeah: “At the end of the day, people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.”  
Well, sub, would you like to know how you made me feel? (Hint: The answer is no.) 
The bell will ring at 3:10 pm. You will calmly walk as fast as possible to your car. Drive enough blocks so that you no longer see students from your school walking on the sidewalk or being driven home. Once feel like you’ve put enough distance between you and your school, let it all out, girl.  
When you’re a teacher, you will appreciate subs more than you’ll ever know. But for now, it’s okay to wish they never existed and teachers were never allowed to take days off. 

My Struggle With Substitutes

At this point in my pre-student teaching I am actually starting to feel pretty good about my experience thus far! I just finished up teaching my week-long unit, and I finally feel like I am establishing relationships with students and they are seeing me as a co-teacher instead of just someone that comes in to help.

Besides teaching my unit, I have had several opportunities to take over as the main teacher for the class. There have been several times when the class has had substitutes that I will take over for the class because I know the classroom, students and expectations. I think it’s really beneficial for the students to have someone there that can maintain the sense of structure they are used to with their regular teacher.

HOWEVER…..

Substitute teachers REALLY frustrate me. I’m not sure what the process is for becoming a substitute teacher, but from the examples I’ve seen, I can’t imagine that it too difficult of a process. Most of the time, when substitutes see me walk into the classroom and see the students interact with me, they immediately think they get the hour off and that I will take over the class for them.

Seriously. I’ve had some of them say “So, you’re usually here right? And you’re going to take over the class, right?”

Uhhhh…..okay?????????????

Something I really struggle with during these days is classroom management with my kids. By the time I get to the classroom, the damage is usually already done and students are already walking all over the substitute, switching seats, pretending not to speak English, etc. One strategy I’ve learned to use is to maintain the classroom management techniques the students are used to. My MT has implemented several of them such as a quiet signal, warnings, etc.

Dave Foley’s article “6 Classroom Management Tips Every Teacher Can Use” offers several other tips for classroom management such as taking charge of the classroom by waiting “start teaching until all eyes are on you and everyone is in their seat” (Foley). However, one tip he includes that would not work for my classroom is to allow students to sit in their own seats. My MT and I have created a strategic seating chart that we feel is best conducive to their learning. Allowing students to choose their own seats would throw the flow of our classroom off and cause a lot of unnecessary disruptions.

Another thing I struggle with is the content of lessons that substitutes are intended to teach. It is really difficult for me to sit back and watch a substitute teach content that we have been working with for several days and have the students not be as engaged with it as I have seen them be during other class periods because the substitute do not know the students and do not know how to engage them.

If students are working on assignments, I try to always have them work in pairs as this is how they complete assignments with their regular teacher and tend to do well with collaboration. Students in my classroom thrive on being able to talk and share their opinions, so I try to incorporate that into their independent work as much as possible by sitting down and having discussions with them and their partner about the assignments. Another thing I try to incorporate is movement, which is listed as one of the 7 ways to engage students in Stacy Hurst's "Seven Ways to Increase Student Engagement in the Classroom."

While the substitute teachers cause a lot of unwarranted stress and anxiety in my pre-student teaching experience, I feel like it has given me opportunities to expand my classroom management, create stronger relationships with students, and taught me to prepare for anything. 

Articles cited:

http://www.nea.org/tools/51721.htm

http://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/seven-ways-to-increase-student-engagement-in-the-classroom

Ms. Brill's First KATE Conference!!!

WOW, I can't believe I got to attend my first KATE Conference last week. I am so grateful I had that opportunity - especially because I was able to attend sessions with my classmates. It was so comforting to have all the pre-service English education candidates with me at the conference to go through that new experience together. 

The sessions I attended at the KATE conference were amazing. One that was particularly helpful for me was the session for pre-service teachers. I loved that I was able to share my fears with other classmates and have discussions on how we can combat these fears. The presenter kept telling us that we are teachers, and we are warriors. I love that, and I think I’m going to make that my new phrase from now on.

I couldn’t help but feel like a proud mom when I attended the sessions my classmates lead. They all carried themselves so well and were able to keep the session on task. I admired them so much for their courage in standing up in front of teachers that have had their own classrooms for years and having the confidence to know that their ideas were valuable.

I have so much respect for the “real” teachers that attended these sessions and offered their input. It was so helpful to have people with experience in the session. I met several of them at the social at Public, and I think that is so valuable to me as a pre-service teacher. I could tell they cared about my success and wanted to get to know me.

My favorite memory from the conference was definitely when a teacher in USD 259 commented during one of the sessions that she had confidence in all the future teachers she saw at the conference. Overall, when I left the conference, I felt like my inspiration for teaching had been reignited. I am so excited to attend the KATE conference again after I have a class of my own and can bring my own advice through my successes and failures to pre-service teachers!

We are teachers, and we are warriors!

If I Could Write a Letter to Me

Dear Future Ms. 

          I hope this letter finds you happy and healthy in your life and in your teaching career! What has teaching been like now that you have been in the classroom for a few years? If you were to look back at where I am right now in my college experience, what is the biggest piece of advice you would give me?

So far in my education classes I have learned a lot about reading strategies, accommodating for diverse learners, and other strategies for improving my teaching. Something I hope I see this year and in my student teaching experience is more feedback from my peers in my education classes, my instructors, and my Mentor Teacher.

Classrooms, teachers, and students are always changing, so I think it’s important to include what I have observed in schools over the past couple years so you will be able to compare it to what you are experiencing in your classroom now.

Observing in the middle schools and high schools has been really beneficial to get real-world experience – at least I’m hoping so. I am interested to look back on my student teaching experience and see how helpful it was to my actual real-world teaching. The Mentor Teacher I am paired with has a lot of great ideas that I would like to implement into my classroom. I can tell that he wants to go beyond just teaching the bare minimum. I hope to one day have student teachers and inspire them as much as my Mentor Teacher has inspired me.

Education majors also have a unique experience in being a student that observes students. We are learning along with the students we observe but in different ways. Social media has a huge influence on students in the classroom now. It has an influence on their language, their writing process, and so much more. I am interested to see how social media will change and affect students when I am a teacher.

I have several predictions and goals for myself and my career in teaching. I predict that I will be teaching in a middle school somewhere in Kansas. One goal I have is that I will still have as much love for teaching as I did in college. One way I can achieve this is by staying up-to-date with new strategies and techniques in the classroom to make mine more interesting. Another goal I have is to make a difference in students’ lives. Every student has one teacher that made their middle school or high school years more special, and I hope to be that teacher for at least a few of my students.

Just as I have asked for advice to my future self as a teacher, I also have some advice for the future teacher in me as well. My advice is that even the most accomplished teachers have their off-days and mess up sometimes. No one has perfect lesson plans every single day of the year. Even college professors aren’t perfect. I also believe teaching and learning should go both ways between myself and my students. I need to be learning from my students just as often as I should be teaching I hope when I read this letter in a few years, a few of my predictions have come true and I have accomplished at least some of my goals.

Until then,

Ms. Brill

Homework: sometimes helpful but mostly it just sucks

Homework. Students hate doing it, teacher hates grading it, students don’t do it, teacher gets frustrated at students for not doing it – and then the whole cycle starts over again when the teacher assigns the next night’s homework. If we know how the cycle will go, why do we as teachers continue to repeat it?

One reason homework is assigned is to see if students are comprehending the content of that day’s lesson. This is quite counterproductive when you actually think about it. If the students are not comprehending it, they either don’t do their homework and get points taken off, or they do it, get it wrong, and still get points taken off. Teachers are often rushed through explaining the homework at the end of the class period while students are packing up their things and thinking about everything but listening to the teacher explain some assignment they will (maybe) complete hours later. In such cases, homework is not a reliable account of comprehension.

Another reason of assigning homework is to keep students accountable for contributing to the class. In my MT’s class, the homework is often used the next day as bellwork. For example, students will write Daily Oral Language sentences as homework and bring them the next day for the whole class to correct together. However, when students don’t complete or bring the homework to school, it affects the entire class.

I will often ask students where their homework is and why they do not have it with them. Many students will answer that they left their homework at mom’s, dad’s, grandma’s, etc., but did not the other parent/guardian was the one that drove them to school. This is obviously a consequence of students that come from divorced or single parents. In Robert J. Marzano and Debra J. Pickering’s article “The Case For and Against Homework”, they state that homework is often particularly harmful to “economically disadvantaged students, who are unintentionally penalized because their environments often make it almost impossible to complete assignments at home” (Marzano and Pickering).

While teachers are not purposely penalizing students at an economic disadvantage and others whose home situations cause them to be at a disadvantage, it is crucial that teachers take all students and all home situations into consideration when planning homework assignments. One quote from Marzano and Pickering’s article which I found particularly intriguing was that “teachers are not well trained in how to assign homework” (Marzano and Pickering). Looking back on my Curriculum and Instruction courses, I can’t remember a time where we explicitly went over strategies on how to assign homework. Is there even a way to teach teachers how to effectively do this?

Marzano and Pickering do suggest several strategies for assigning homework, keeping in mind those students that would struggle with completing homework in their home environments. One thing they suggest is to have the child “show or explain their written work or other products completed at school to their parents and get their reactions” (Marzano and Pickering). I love the idea of having parents included in the learning process without forcing them to be experts on the subjects. 

Articles cited: 

Marzano, Robert J., and Debra J. Pickering. "The Case For and Against Homework." Educational Leadership 64.6: 74-79. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Web. 25 Sept. 2015. <http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar07/vol64/num06/The-Case-For-and-Against-Homework.aspx>.

Partner Work, Schmartner Work

Having students work as partners or in groups always has the best intentions; you believe, as the teacher, that allowing students to work with a partner they choose on an assignment will make them more engaged in the work. My MT has been assigning partner work quite often at the end of the class period. The students are usually asked to work on that night’s homework with their partner and finish whatever they did not finish in class at home.

While at observations the other day, the teacher had assigned the homework and given them the last 15 minutes to work on it. I was walking around the room checking in on each pair of students when I stopped at a pair with one student – let’s call him Michael* – that spent the entire 30 minutes of instruction time drawing in his notebook and giving somewhat correct answers when the teacher gave comprehension checks throughout the lesson to see if the students were understanding the content.

Then, it happened. As I was standing right next to Michael, he said these words to his partner, Aaron*: “Hey, you just fill out the sheet of paper, and I’ll keep drawing.” OMG. I went up to them and told Michael he would not be allowed to put his name on the paper if he was not willing to do the work, and therefor he would not get the points. He responded by saying, “Nah, Aaron’s my boy. You’ll let me put my name on the paper, right Aaron?” OMGx2. Aaron had no choice but to say yes to this and agree to take on all the work while his peer continued to draw in his notebook.

Michael did end up setting his drawing aside a few times and helping Aaron finish the assignment. However, it’s still obvious that Michael has come to learn that if he just picks a partner he knows will do the work for him, he can still earn participation points by doing whatever he wants.

How can I engage ALL students and know that they are all putting forth the same effort as their peers? I came across on article by Timothy Quinn titled “G-R-O-U-P W-O-R-K Doesn’t Spell Collaboration.” Quinn states in his article that “Simply putting kids around a table and telling them to work together does not teach them collaboration skills” (Quinn). Have students ever actually been taught collaboration skills? What does that even look like? How can I be part of the process of students’ collaboration with their peers during group work/partner work instead of sitting at my desk checking my email?

Suzie Boss’ article “Focus on Collaboration to Kick off New School Year” lists several tips for teaching collaboration. Many of these include hosting discussions about teamwork, leadership, and accountability. One that really stood out to me was to “ask guest speakers and parents to talk about how they collaborate in their work or when they get involved in community issues” (Boss). I love the idea of bringing in real world examples of partner/group work to teach students that collaboration is a life skill. Teachers that assign group work can often come across as lazy, but if teachers take the time to teach students how to get the most of their group work, it can be really beneficial to both teachers and students.

*Names of students have been changed.

Articles mentioned: (In chronological order)

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/12/01/kappan_quinn.html

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/collaboration-new-school-year-pbl-suzie-boss

Goals for 2015-2016

If I had to sum up my first week of senior year at Wichita State in one word, it would be “overwhelming.’ Between classes, work, and observations in the school district for Pre-Student Teaching, I consider myself very lucky to be able to sneak a power nap into my day. Even so, I love the school I am observing in this year and that I am already making connections with students. I have come away with two main goals so far (I am positive there will be many others as the year goes on) after my first week of observations.

Something I have observed at the school I’m at is the sense of community the school has. This was further reinforced with the introductions of “houses”, similar to the ones in the Harry Potter series. The school was split up into four different houses, and students sixth-eighth grade were placed in the different houses. When the houses were announced to the students, they gathered at an assembly and taught their houses their “house chants” and were able to cheer for other classes that were also placed in their house. Students spent the next few days of school meeting with other students and teachers in their houses. They were all given lanyards with their houses colors on them so that when they walk down the hall they connect with their fellow house members – no matter what grade they were in or what class they taught. My Mentor Teacher (MT) even gave me a lanyard with our house colors, which made me feel really connected to the school and to the students.

This is a school-wide program that has been put into place that the administrations, teachers, and students have all had to buy into. I am really looking forward to observing how this is implemented throughout the school year and seeing how teachers/administration keep students interested in the houses all year and not just the first week. I would also like to take away some ideas I can incorporate into my classroom or even bring to my school that would build the school as a community.

One goal I have made for myself this year is to make connections and network with professionals in the school district I am observing in. I was lucky enough to be placed in the same school I observed during Core II. My MT was so helpful last semester, and he makes it clear that he wants me to succeed, improve, and leave Student Teaching as a better teacher than when I came in at the beginning of the year. I hope to become more acquainted with other faculty members such as the administration and the other teachers on my MT’s team. There are two other teacher candidates that are in Pre-Student Teaching at the school I am at. One of them is next door to my class and the other is across the hall. I would also like to make connections with those students and have more people I can vent to or go to with any issues I am having throughout the year that are right next door or across the hall.

It is hard to believe that my three years at Wichita State have already flown by and I can officially call myself a senior. I remember looking up to the seniors I knew and being envious of them for having their lives all figured out. Little did I know, the seniors were just as scared as I was as a freshman (and probably had their lives figured out a little better than I did - but not by much.) I am sure this year will fly by just as fast as the last three have, but I am looking forward to making every minute of it count in and outside of the classroom!