This is in response to a question posted in my forums by GaryRHess:
I would like to hear about your first day as a teacher. If someone were to become one, what should they expect their first day on the job.
The title of this post sounds like a good name for a movie. Oh, wait. Nevermind. But truly, that’s what I am. I am a substitute teacher. I’m the person who the students are happy to see because their own teacher isn’t there and then they do their best to walk all over me. Doesn’t work anymore, but they try.
I say anymore because I was a new substitute at one point. I was also a student teacher. I also have a normally mild personality. That’s a “deadly” thing to have as a new teacher or sub at a school. Students will take every advantage they can. Those sitcoms about new teachers and subs? They’re all true! Well, mostly.
“I have a condition that requires me to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes.”
“Um. Ok. Go ahead.”
That was me at the beginning. I feel for every trick I used to pull when I was a kid. Why? Because I was scared they were telling the truth. I didn’t know the ways of verifying the information. As for standing in front of the class and teaching, well, here’s the situation on the first day:
You’ve spent hours working on that first lesson plan. You’re tried to make everything perfectly ready for that moment when you stand in front of the class to give this lesson. Because you’ve been taught in the “old school” ways, most of your lesson is lecture. You’ll be giving a speech basically. And you’re scared to death of the looks of those students. You make it to school and your knees are knocking as you stand behind the podium1. You’re wishing you would have taken that job selling vacations2. Your mouth opens and you make the mistake of looking the students in the eyes. Their mouths are wide open as they stare at you. You think it’s because they think you’re stupid when actually it’s because it’s 8:00 in the morning and they are still half asleep. You get through the lesson and start thinking about every one of the one-hundred-and-thirty-seven items you missed in your lecture. As the students file out of the room you hear the snickering and swear it’s about you. You also hear, “That was stupid. Does that guy even know what he’s talking about?”3 And then it’s all over and the people who are supposed to help you feel better about your mistakes do their job and you learn what you did wrong.
That’s the first day. Now let’s fast forward to a few weeks later:
You walk in the class with your head held high and your lesson plan ready4. The students walk in the class and notice there’s work already ready for them to do on the board5. They whine, a little, but mostly because they’re joking with you. They’re used to this. They sit down and start doing their work. After a few minutes, you have them share the work they’ve done with the class and then you have them pull out the projects they’ve been working on all week, get into their groups, and start working on the projects again. Instead of lecturing, you walk around and give guidance where it’s needed. You also give out praise when they’re doing things right. And sometimes you ask the students who “get” the assignment to help those in their group who do not.
Why the change?
Because you’ve earned their trust. It’s not a respect thing. It never was. They respect anyone they trust. You’ve proven you know what you’re talking about. You also prove you know how to provide assignments that are not only fun but that also connect to their real lives because then you’ll never hear, “Why do we have to learn this? We’ll never use it?”
That was the way my student teaching went. Feel free to look at my teaching portfolio to see the projects I had them do. Oh, and as for the other situation, here’s how it goes now:
“Mr. White, may I go to the bathroom?6”
“Go ahead. However, tomorrow, make sure you use the bathroom before coming to my class.”
“I will Mr. White. I hate missing out on the group work. It’s fun. I promise I’ll be right back.”
One other thing I must say, to truly earn the trust of a student, you have to get to know them. I don’t mean hang out with them at Wal-Mart. But do have discussions with them. Have them write journals. Read those journals. Know your students7.
- Because we all know that if that podium wasn’t there you’d be scared to death. [«]
- Because maybe you would have managed a few Disney cruises at your employee discount and would have been facing young children in a fun environment. [«]
- Because, of course, you haven’t earned respect yet since people were making animal noises when you were looking at your notes, so you’re only known as “that guy.” [«]
- It only took about an hour this time. [«]
- Out here we call that “bell work” but I believe that is a universal term. [«]
- She gave up on the condition thing because she knows I know better. [«]
- You’ll notice if you read my teaching portfolio that I say that often. [«]
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By Gary R. Hess on Aug 3, 2008 |
Another great post. Pretty interesting stuff.
A few things:
1. I hated doing journals in school, and just about every English class did it. Man was it annoying. Even more annoying though was when we were required to have planners and write out all our assignments, check them off, and have our teachers review them everyday…. EH
2. I never heard of the bathroom one. Usually it was kids saying something about us getting a free day or something similar. I remember once in elementary school we were having a spelling test and someone raised their hand, right after the sub said the word to spell, and asked how to spell it…. she did of course.
3. So people hang out at Wal-Mart there too eh? That’s how it was when I lived in Kansas. It was that, the gas station or cruising. I don’t think many people cruise anymore though, no one is willing to spend that much money doing it.
Most recent blog post from Gary R. Hess: 8/8/08 Weekend Movie Openings
By Saphrym on Aug 3, 2008 |
@Gary R. Hess:
1. The old style journals weren’t very fun. I agree. But when they are things like “Share a joke you heard recently” or “What character in the book we read yesterday would you like to be or feel is most like you?” then it starts getting interesting.
2. Yeah. That still happens nowadays too. I haven’t fallen for that one though. Thank goodness.
3. Cruising will be gone as long as gas stays above a buck a gallon. But this is a small town. It’s Wal-Mart or, well, Wal-Mart. At least that’s where I see most students. In another town I lived in it was Wal-Mart or the car wash. The car wash was where all the cool kids hung out. So I hung out in the parking lot of Wal-Mart.
By Gary R. Hess on Aug 4, 2008 |
@Saphrym in the town I grew up in (well, actually I grew up on a small farm, so the closest town) there wasn’t a Wal-Mart. Only 2,000 people in total. There, the only hangout was the gas station (and that really wasn’t even a hangout until I was a senior, before that people just cruised). To hang out at Wal-Mart you had to drive about 11 miles to get there.
I only cruised a couple times, I hated it. Usually we would just hang out at someones house and watch tv/play games.
By Saphrym on Aug 4, 2008 |
@Gary R. Hess: Before I was forcefully removed to Louisiana, we lived in Bibb City, Columbus, GA. Tiny place. Only hangouts were the little park and the candy shop.