Wednesday, November 2, 2022

A Tale of Two Classes

Having been released from the success seminar, I fell right back in to day-to-day subbing. Monday, I had an eighth grade history class. 

Sadly, we've gone back to the days of having a travelling teacher. These are teachers who do not have classrooms of their own. They go to rooms where the regular teacher has a conference period, and they use the rooms for single periods. 

It makes for a chaotic day for me. 

And, things did not go well. I had wild students. We had a video to watch. They did not watch it. I was glad to see the end of this day. 

Tuesday I had an eighth grade math class. 

And, the day was completely different. The kiddos worked in near silence for the period. I had some of the usual behaviors, but nothing too terrible. It was kind of a boring day for me. 

Why am I linking these two classes? Because they both had the same students. 

Well, not exactly. But so many of the students walked into the math class and said, "Hey, you were my sub yesterday." 

It happens.

It's amazing to me how two classes at the same school with students in common can be so vastly different.

This is why when people ask me which school in the district I prefer, I can't answer. It's because it depends. I can have a bad day followed by a good day, even with the same kiddos. 

Subbing is such a varied job. I think that's why I keep doing it.

25 comments:

  1. It is good to see the bright spots. Some of the stories don't give me much hope for the future generations, but I am sure my parents said the same thing.

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    1. Some days go pretty well. Some classes go pretty well. But if I were to write about the AP Chemistry class I covered on Monday, I wouldn't have much of a hook to hang a blog post on. It would go something like: "I told them what the assignment was. They did it." The end.

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  2. I notice changes in my kids day to day. Sometimes my daughter is super helpful and offering to do work, other days she bites my head off if I dare ask her to exit her room. Maybe it's the same with the students?

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    1. Yes, to a certain extent. If I get the same class multiple days, I can get vastly different behaviors depending on outside factors. In this case, it's more that one teacher keeps his classes under control while the other teacher doesn't.

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  3. This is indeed strange. Was it because one was a history class and the other math?

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  4. I guess it just depends on the subject although math is usually not that interesting.

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    1. I think it's more teacher than subject. I've had crazy math classes and well-behaved history classes.

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  5. All it takes is one or two kids pushing the envelope and a whole class misbehaves, right?

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  6. Some people were born to teach...I am not one of them. Blessings to you.

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  7. I wonder what spark was missing from the group the next day!

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  8. Hormones? Pheromones? We all know the moods teens can have and maybe it's catching in some way? I like jobs with variety, too.

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  9. You are such a brave soul. Have been a sub, and it requires so much thinking on your feet.

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  10. Subbing certainly keeps you on your toes.

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  11. If the regular teacher was a pushover and the other tough, I can see the differences in behavior.

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  12. It looks like it would have been a very exciting video to watch. I watched the first part. It had a lot of action! And blood. What wasn't for 8th graders to like! (eye roll) They certainly couldn't have liked math better! Maybe that teacher wouldn't take a bad report from you as well.

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    1. That's my thinking. But, videos don't work for subs. If he had them watching it on their own computers... I don't know why it works better that way, but I've done both, and it works better that way.

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  13. Blessings to you :) Thanks for sharing.

    Adel | Infinitely Posh.

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  14. When I was teaching “wild” kids, I noticed that they focused in math but paid me no mind in the other subjects. It may because arithmetic was concrete while everything else was abstract.

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