What Substitutes Need On The Job

Today, as a substitute teacher, not an "intervention specialist," I had a wonderful day. The classes went well, I only had to write up two kids in five periods, and time passed quickly. What made this especially surprising and welcome was the fact that almost without exception the students were all ninth graders. Ninth graders are extremely immature and are most likely to misbehave.

What made the day a great one was primarily the organization and preparation of the teacher I subbed for. Not only had he left clear instructions, but there were a series of pages, one per class, that had small photos and names of the students. The students take advantage of the fact that a substitute does not know their identity. If the substitute doesn't know the name of any given student, he or she has a much more difficulty time holding any student accountable for bad behavior.

Without identification, a sub cannot leave a note for the regular teacher about who has misbehaved -- or, for that matter, about who did really well and contributed to the class. Without identification, a sub's reprimands, instructions and orders are less likely to stick. Without identification for a write-up slip, a student cannot be written up unless the sub returns the following day, speaks with the regular teacher, and identifies the misbehaving student. The name has to be on the write-up slip along with the student's grade level (ninth grade, tenth grade, etc.), the date, the time of the student's misbehavior and the substitute's signature.

Because of the picture sheets the teacher had left for me, I was able to call several students by name when they were beginning to get out of hand -- chasing each other, taking each other's belongings, etc -- and make them return to their regular seats.

To be most effective, a substitute needs, among other things, a way of identifying each student (rarely supplied), write-up slips, and work to be passed out to the students that must be completed during the class period and turned back in to the substitute BY THE END OF THE PERIOD. The amount of work must be sufficient to occupy the students for most of the period. You would be surprised to know that most teachers leave so little classwork that students can complete it in 10 to 15 minutes. The students normally don't even start their classwork until the last fifteen minutes of the period. They spend most of the class time talking, texting on their phones, and misbehaving.

The idea that a substitute teacher might actually teach doesn't match the actualities of the situation. If a substitute tries to teach, the students normally won't listen. There may be a small group of students who are serious enough to want to learn something, but these are far and few between. In fact, a substitute teacher is more a babysitter than a teacher.

It isn't possible to make student do classwork. A substutute teacher cannot force any student to do anything other than, perhaps, to sit down or stop hitting his or her peers. All the substitute can do is to urge students to do their classwork, write them up if they misbehave, or send them to the Vice-Principal's office.

When a student is written up, what normally happens is that the substitute phones the main office to send someone from Security to the classroom. The Security representative then takes the student and the substitute's write-up slip to a Vice-Principal, and leaves the student and the slip there. If too many students are sitting outside the Vice-Principal's office, they are sometimes told to return to their classroom. Otherwise, the Vice-Principal has a chat with them and decises what, if any, disciplinary action needs to be taken. Sometimes this is just a talking to, sometimes a suspension.

I started this blog entry by saying that today I had a relatively good day. What made it better than usual was the simple fact that their regular teacher had left a way for me to identify the students, and thus they knew that they were accountable for their actions.

Student at the Mall

I have not described the six weeks I spent teaching some special education students just before I had to stop teaching for a while and have a hip replacement operation. I have been shying away from this because aspects of it are too painful both psychologically and physically. During these six weeks my physical condition went downhill rapidly. First I was able to stand up and walk around class with relative ease, though with a lot of pain. Finally I could scarcely get from my car into the school building, and I spent the day in one of the classroom chairs that had wheels. I used to wheel around the room while I taught these kids. And at last I had to call the school one morning and tell them that even on Vicodin the pain had become so great that I could no longer teach until after I had had the operation and had recovered.

One of my students was an African-American young man whom I shall call M, a seriously disturbed student with a terrible anger management problem. He had great difficulty sitting in one place for more than a few minutes. He and I talked and he told me this and a few other things about himself. He had spent time not long before in Juvenile Hall. Sometimes if told to stop talking to other students, he would fly into a rage and kick the chairs. Several times I had to write him up and have him taken to the office.

One of the things he told me a number of times was that he could only learn things if he had a special tutor. Near the end of the six weeks I think he started being tutored after school. I might have tried to do this myself but at that point I was in no physical condition to add more hours to my school day.

Yesterday while I was shopping in a mall not far from home, a young man whom I suddenly recognized as M approached me. He was very friendly, and in the two or three minutes we spoke I asked him if he was being tutored the way he wanted to be. He was not. Furthermore, he had been transferred to another school much closer to his home. He told me he was failing everything. He said this not with pride, not as though he were bragging, but just in a matter-o-fact fashion, as though he was used to total failure and accepted it.

With M.'s has deep psycholoical problems, I can predict terrible things in his future. Sooner or later he will end up in prison, in some psychiatric facility, or dead -- probably shot by police. The system will grind him into little pieces and spit him out because no one seems to be helping him.

He reminds me of a bizarre incident that happened to someone else, another African-American I knew. This fellow, in his early forties, had become so high on drugs that he was found wandering around on the streets at 2 a.m. Eventually that night he had an encounter with the police in which he was shot dead while standing half-naked atop a parked authomobile.

With me, if M. encounters the police, I don't think it will have anything to do with drugs. I think it will have to do with his anger. And the police will not understand that what they have before them is an emotionally-disturbed kid who in many ways is not responsible for his own behavior. They will see him as nothing more than a criminal.

As we stood there in the mall, M. asked if he could have my phone number -- "Or maybe you would want to have mine." As a teacher, I do not know whether or not I am even allowed to become involved in a student's life outside school. I have tried hard not to. Nevertheless, I gave this kid my card with my phone number on it. I don't know if he will ever need to call, but this probably cemented something he felt before I had to stop teaching his class -- that despite his disciplinary and anger problems, I liked and accepted him.

Student Misbehavior # 2

I can't decide if some students really believe substitutes are dumb and don't notice what goes on in the classroom, or whether they just don't care.

What brings this to mind is an experience I had with a Tongan student last week.

I have a special affinity with Polynesian students because I spent a year in Samoa, have been back there several dozen times, and have written about aspects of Polynesian culture. In the case of Tonga, I have visited all three of this nation's island areas -- Tongatapu (the main island), Vava'u, and Ha'apai.

I have had a particular young Tongan lady in several different classes. Last week when I had the same four classes every day for five days she was in one of these classes, too. Like most though not all Tongan and Samoan young people, she has an impressive size. I have exchanged a few words in Tongan with her -- Malo e lelei (hello) -- now and then.

She must surely know that I notice her and know her name.

Last week we had a series of wonderful presentations put on by a local Latino organization. The five lectures discussed issues I know are important to our school's students -- sex, HIV, AIDS, depression, drugs, and alcohol. As these presentations went on during the first three days of the week, I noticed this young Tongan lady -- who speaks good English and understands it very well -- didn't seem interested. She doodled most of the time and didn't participate even once in the class discussions.

Thursday, at the beginning of the class she signed in on the Latino organization's sheet. They get federal funding for this program, so having an accurate count of the people in their audiences as well as information about age and ethnicity, is important to them. Ten minutes into the class she asked for a hall pass to go to the bathroom. I gave it to her. She went off to the bathroom and never reappeared. Did she think I wouldn't notice? Seeing what she was up to, I simply marked her absent.

On Friday she came into the classroom about two minutes before the class started, signed in, and then again departed. She didn't even stay long enough for the class to start. I wrote up a disciplinary report because I felt she was not just being absent (I marked her absent for this class, too) but she was essentially lying to me and the school about being present.

I know the way Polynesian families deal with misbehaving youngsters. Years ago I used to go to court to defend parents who had taken a strap or a belt to their misbehaving children. No, I don't like child abuse. But I thought that if a judge knew about the traditional culture particular parents come from, he could admonish them for their behavior, tell them that beating a child isn't acceptable in this country, and take their traditional culture into consideration when setting a sentence.

I could have called this young lady's parents, but knowing the probable consequences, I didn't.

But did she really think I was so stupid and unobservant that I didn't notice what she was doing ? Or did she think that like many substitutes, who are in one school one day and in another the next, I wouldn't take the trouble to write her up ?