I’m in the middle of a long-term substitute teaching job — six out of seven weeks, and it’s reminding me about all the little irritants that come with teaching. I’m not talking discipline. I’ve had discipline problems in the past, and there are none in the five classes I have in this current job. I’m
Some thoughts from the front lines of teaching — You may have heard of Channel One News, the daily TV broadcast that is seen in by about 5 million students in upper elementary schools, middle schools and high schools across the country. It appears in many of the schools where I’ve taught on dedicated television
This week I started a nine-day job as a high school social studies teacher. It’s bringing back all the memories of my student-teaching days, like the administrative problems I had. Normally as a substitute, I teach one, maybe two days and leave a report on everything that happened. Now I have to deal with the
We’ve started the fourth quarter of the school year, so one would expect all the seniors would have plans. Early this week I was talking to a senior I had first worked with in middle school, and unfortunately he doesn’t know what he’s going to do after graduation. Some kids just seem to be clueless
Being a substitute teacher has given me the chance to see how others teach. One of my favorite memories was escorting a special-needs student to his dance class. He was taking dance as an enrichment and they were working him into one of their routines. Of course, he really stood out in a room full
I’ve been doing a lot of substitute teaching lately, which has led to some reflection. Everyone is in favor of a quality education for all our children, but what exactly does that mean? It means a deaf child gets a sign-language interpreter, a child with a seizure disorder has an aide, and a child confined
Today I got another reminder of how high school has changed since I was a student. This morning some students came into my classroom selling the school’s news magazine. I had a couple extra dollars, so I bought one. The cover story is “Let’s Talk About Sex.” Other major articles are “Being Gay in High
One benefit of substitute teaching is I can follow students throughout their academic careers. I saw a young lady with anger-management issues successfully complete high school. Students I first met as fifth graders are now finishing eighth grade. It’s a very rewarding feeling. On the other hand… I especially remember one young man I worked
I had a busy day teaching Language Arts yesterday, which triggered my favorite teaching memory. Several years ago, I was helping out in a middle school science class. The students were doing an experiment in teams, writing their findings in notebooks. Toward the end of the period, there was a mad dash to finish and
When I substitute teach, I always have backup plans — books and topics we can talk about if we run out of material. One of my favorites used to be The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees (MJF Books, 1993). It contains an entry on obscene gestures entitled “When did it first become