I have another substituting experience. One that I hope won't come back to get me fired.
Let me start off by saying that the night before I started subbing, I looked up substituting helps and ideas as I had a panic attack over why I was even doing this in the first place. I came across a blog of an educator who told a story about her first year as a teacher. Her class was a little less disciplined than she would have liked and she didn't have a good handle on the class. She goes on to explain that one time when she had a substitute she was notified by the administration that her students had duct taped a kid to a chair and had posted it on social media. She hoped that no one else has an experience like this. By comparison, my next story isn't quite that bad but still...
So my experience is a middle school experience. At the middle school they are not allowed to have their phones out. I support this rule but the kids know that they can push these boundaries and have their phones on their desk (but not necessarily in use) because I am an intruder in their little lives. So unless I want to lecture and embarrass more than half the class, I just let this go.
I like to bring music to the classes I teach. I do this through the Amazon streaming service and find clean versions of the popular radio songs. Some kids grumble about this type of music so I use some passive aggressive techniques and then they get over it. So this one day I had the music out and the kids are working on an assignment (that lasted them 15 minutes, by the way. FIFTEEN. MINUTES. With no other assignment for the rest of the hour).
There is one girl, who I will call "Tiny Dancer" who is just loving the music. LOVING IT. She will not be confined to her seat. It holds no value for her. She NEEDS to be moving to the song. Apparently this girl is new and the other kids are being super nice to her but I am not sure they knew what to do with her.
I said, "Tiny Dancer, I love that you like the music but you need to finish your assignment. I promise it won't take long."
Tiny Dancer: I know but I just can't. (And she is just swinging her hips and moving and closing her eyes and everything.)
"Well I might have to turn it off until you get the assignment done."
Tiny Dancer: Okay. I'll try to work.
I walk around to another student in the room and then the song changes.
I turn back around after a minute and...
Oh. my. gosh. Tiny dancer is not in her seat or near her area at all. She is in front of the speaker dancing like she is at the club.
And to make matters worse... half the students have their phones out and are streaming this to social media. I cannot even get to the speaker to turn it off without being in the picture.
I am not sure what to do. I have to say something, thus having my voice as evidence on the video and I can't just walk out... Or can I? I'm not sure. But I had to tell the class to put their phones away and that my little speaker is retiring for the day.
So far, I have not been notified that I cannot sub at this school. Perhaps it is because this school has a hard time getting subs so maybe they don't care or maybe they don't know about it, I'm not sure.
I can't help but feel great compassion for the first year teacher and wonder if me finding that blog was meant to be a premonition for this day. I hope this never happens again but I feel more confidence in the fact that at least 2 of us teachers (and likely many more) have been caught not really educating the youth of this generation.
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