Posts Tagged “substitute”

The Learning Community

When I was working toward my teaching degree, building a learning community was one of the new big buzz phrases. There were lots of activities and strategies out there to help you turn your classroom into a community of learners. As a student teacher I diligently tried some with varying results. I did have a wonderful student teaching experience, and felt as though by the end of my time, the class had become closer and more cooperative with one another for the most part. There were still those few misfits, who just couldn’t quite be fully accepted. I felt badly about that, but my supervising teacher told me I had done a great job and she was happy.

I was a substitute teacher for the next semester and I noticed a big difference in the rooms where I taught. It was a great learning experience for me, both what I should or could do and what I would never do(leave a sub with NO PLANS). I had big ideas and plans. However, when my first position was as a reading teacher, not a classroom teacher, I had to rethink a few of those. Instead of a classroom of 25 learners, I had small changing groups of 4 to 7. I got lucky though, one of my first groups that year was a group of misfit 5th grade boys; “Jason”, “Terrence”, “Kirk”, “Derek” and “Casey”. Their classroom teacher, Mr. R. (no relation), asked if I would take this group for the year. Each of these boys had a specific reading difficulty and Mr. R. stated he would like them to have the whole 45 minute period. If I would take this group for the whole period, he would handle the other three groups. As a new teacher, I was willing to try anything.

In the beginning it was rough. Their abilities were varied, their challenges different, and their motivation nonexistent. We struggled together, that group of misfits and I, for the first quarter. They were given assignments, which were completed sporadically. EXCEPT for “Kirk”, a nice, quiet redheaded boy who would rather be outside playing any sport than sitting in my room reading. He had every assignment completed to the best of his ability. I started building him up as a leader and a reader. The others followed, but still, the assignments were hit and miss. Exasperated one day, I had a meeting with them. This they were interested in, anything but talk about the assignment they didn’t have completed.

I explained my dilemma and asked “Kirk”, if he felt it was fair they depended on him for all the work. Then I asked them if they thought it was fair. They all agreed, sincerely, that it really wasn’t fair. So together they decided the next person to show up without their assignment would get a detention – this was their decision, not mine – no assignment = detention, no questions asked. I had my detention slips ready, figuring at least one would need to be filled out. Everyone had their assignment. I told them they surprised me! Explained I had the form right there, and I LOVED that they proved me wrong! I was so proud of this group. That whole week and not one missing assignment!!! I was on cloud nine, this community stuff was great!

On Monday, it happened though, one of the boys didn’t have their assignment. To my surprise, it was “Kirk”, the steady eddy of the group, the leader. Oh how I didn’t want to give him a detention, but that was the group’s rule. I didn’t have to say a word to “Kirk”, he knew, he was already beating himself up. As I started to fill out the form I hear “Casey” say, “Ya know that’s really not fair.” “Derek” and “Jason” pipe in, “Yeah, Mrs. R, that’s not fair, Kirk shouldn’t get a detention.”

“But that’s the consequence you came up with guys, that’s what you agreed on. Kirk hasn’t said a word, he knew walking in here this was the consequence and he is accepting it.”
“Terrence” says, “He should get a pass this one time. We all dumped on him and had him do the work; it’s only fair he gets to dump on us, least once. I say we take a vote. If we make the rules, we can vote on how to use’em, right?” The other boys agreed with “Terrence”.
“Kirk” still hasn’t said a word, he is sitting wide-eyed watching and listening to the others stand up for him in complete disbelief. They called for a vote. I voted he get the detention (I had to – I didn’t want to – but I felt I had to) the rest voted he didn’t, so he didn’t. After the vote, “Kirk” says, “Thanks guys, you didn’t have to do that, but I’m really glad you did.” I was never so proud of a group of misfits in my life, but even more important, they were proud of themselves. I know they learned much more in that group than the plots and themes of the books we read. Mr. R. told me he also saw a huge difference in his classroom after that. The boys who would try hard NOT to be seen were now standing up and participating. At our last meeting I told them they were my favorite group of all time, and I had learned much from watching them work.

In the 9 years I have been teaching, I have had many groups, some make better “communities” than others, but none has touched my heart like that group of boys. They graduated this year, all of them. “Kirk” was a star on the football team. When I run into them, they always stop and speak and ask me how it’s going and if they are still my favorite group. The answer….. Always……. “Yes”!

What Every Parent Should Know #2

There are many things parents should know before sending their kids off to school.

#2. Creativity Works Both Ways.

Most parents try hard to cultivate creativity in their children, as do teachers. I am often amazed at how creative some students can be if given an opportunity to explore something. Each year with my 4th graders during our “whole group” days I do a writing activity with them that allows them to fracture a fairytale. Some of their stories and illustrations really should be published I think, they never cease to amaze me. But on occasion creativity can also work against you. Here is a little story about a fellow teacher and friend of mine Mrs. D.

This past school year Mrs. D. had a challenging class. She knew at the beginning the year that 3 of her students had some interesting behavior issues and often caused disturbances in the classroom. But, when it was revealed that 2 other students, new to the district, who were placed in her room also, had behavior issues, life in Mrs. D’s 2nd grade classroom got very interesting. In fact a substitute teacher left her a note after spending one day with her class telling Mrs. D. if she had to teach in this classroom on a daily basis she would probably be drinking her lunch. That same substitute teacher told the principal that Mrs. D. deserved combat pay.

On this particular day, she had 3 of the 5 spinning. One of them, “Tim”, had been under his desk and torn up his work more than once that day. She informed him because he didn’t have his work completed he would be staying in at recess to complete it. This sent him under his desk again. She ignored this behavior until she noticed him playing with the case to his eyeglasses, so she took that away from him and placed it on her desk. Later in the day, she also took away his glasses and put them in the case – as you can tell neither his day nor hers had improved.

The next morning he arrived in a much better mood and things were going well, until he needed his glasses. Mrs. D. opened the case on her desk to give them to him and noticed a little drawing on the inside of the case. Inspecting this more closely she realized “Tim” had drawn a picture of a hand “flippin’ the bird” then drawn an arrow pointing to the words “Mrs. D.” She looked up at “Tim” and before she could say a word he very calmly said, “Weeeellllllll, I was mad at you yesterday.”

She shared this story with me later in the day, and showed me the actual “artwork”. Mrs. D. said she really did appreciate his creativity on a certain level since he hadn’t literally expressed this during class which would have caused a major disruption, but she had to contact his parents about it anyway. Let’s just say his parents didn’t quite have the same feeling about Tim’s creativity.