I skipped blogging for a while because I got ties up in working on two stores, which I shall briefly but shamelessly promote right here and now before I get back onto the proper subject of thgis blog.
I have been working on putting together blank greetings cards based on my African photos taken in The Gambia and Cote d'Ivoire. You may find these at http://www.Zazzle.com/Goodmanster. I also worked even more on a different store I have opened, alson o Zazzle.com, but devoted to cards, mugs, etc. based on some of my thousands of flower photos. You may find these floral photos and gifts at http://www.Zazzle.com/Florabunda. When you see the sheer number of products I have put together -- close to 600 on the Florabunda site -- you can see that I have been quite busy.
But back to our main subject, being a substitute teacher. Tomorrow is the first day of the school year. About ten days ago I took a wonderful full day course on classroom management. It provided details about how to deal with specific situations, and how to get a class directed to their classwork instead of just fooling around.
Interestingly, at this daylong session I met a teacher from a nearby school where I have never substituted, who called me up this afternoon and asked if I could substitute for her this Wednesday. I said I would be very happy to. We've both had the same instruction together, so she knows more or less how I am going to try to conduct her classes.
The most valuable lesson learned during thius instructional session: don't get engaged in discussions or arguments with students who don't want to do the work. Simply tell them what is expected of them, and then when they complain ("This is BORING !"), respond, "I understand. But it is still necessary for you to turn to page X of the book and get started on the classwork."
I need to praqctice the techniques we were shown. I'll let you know more about them and my experiences in trying to make them work.
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