The Substitute Teacher

On Monday, I went to Westridge Elementary where I thought I would be helping Ms. Gardiner with her second graders. Oh boy, was I wrong!!

Please consider these next few paragraphs a classroom management "What NOT to Do."

Ms. Gardiner was not feeling well that day, so naturally she called in a substitute. I don't think that this substitute had any experience with children, let alone second graders. After yelling at the students for twenty minutes for them to quiet down, she finally started math time. While she was explaining math, she managed to take a little boys paper and rip it up because he "started before she said it was okay." To discipline the children, she made two lists on the board. One was labeled "Keep up the Good Work," and the other was "You can do Better." Her exact words were, "Now you know if you've done something bad, and everyone else in the class knows too." She was awful! She even made a little boy cry because she wrote his name on the naughty list. What was worse is that she told the children there was no redemption, once they were on the naughty list there was nothing they could do to get on the nice list. It was terrible, she was so mean to the children!

Also, when that little boy started crying, she stopped the whole class on focused everyone on it. "Alejandro, WHY are YOU crying?" she snarled to what seemed like the whole class. I feel like this was not only inconsiderate to the student, but it probably also emotionally scarred him as well. Especially because she reprimanded him for crying in front of his friends. Even after the tears, Alejandro stayed on the naughty list for the rest of the time I was there.

Another incident happened when a little boy was called down to the office to be picked up. The sub wouldn't let him go until he told her that he was being checked out for a doctors appointment. I feel like the sub had no right to question this little boy or keep him from going to the office.

What was even weirder is that I told her I was only supposed to be there for an hour, and she timed me. TIMED ME. Every ten minutes she would come over to me and say "You only have this many minutes left here, so..." and then she would walk away and yell at the students some more. I got the feeling she definitely did not want me there for some reason, even though I was there to HELP HER. I was in the middle of helping a student with her math when the teacher announced to the class, "Okay everyone, Miss Young is leaving now, thank you Miss Young!" I was appalled. I finished helping the student and waved goodbye to the class. All of the students called out to me "Don't go Miss Young!! Please Stay!" at which point I received the dirtiest look from the sub.

I think that I have now seen the two sides of teaching. I am really glad that she is not their permanent teacher, and I'm sure that the kids are as well. The procedures the sub used were not effective in keeping the class focused and engaged. I felt like she was enforcing rules that not even the best second graders could have followed. Overall, it was a very different, eye-opening experience for me.