Personal Connections

The last two of my blog posts have been about my experience as a substitute and volunteer. Again I want to share my experience I had this last week. I was a substitute for the third time for the same teacher. You might be thinking wow she I gone a lot. The teacher I help out is also the head of the math department so every time the school has meetings she has to go to them.  I'm not complaining because this allows me to have more experience in the classroom and she continues to give me new challenges every time I sub for her.

In my last blog I talked about how students blamed me for not getting their homework done in class. This made me nervous for the next time I would sub for her because I was not sure how I would handle the situation this time. I wondered to myself if maybe I was too friendly and too nice the last time I was a sub.  When I go to the school to observe and volunteer I try to be very friendly so that students will feel comfortable enough to ask me questions. I tried to do the same as a substitute. Last time I subbed students had a work day during class so I was very lenient as far as students moving around and talking to each other. I heard a lot of side conversations happening but it looked like everyone was working on something. I was also trying to help any student who raised their hand which kept me busy for most of the hour. Clearly they were not actually doing what they were supposed to be doing and they decided to blame me for this.

Now to this week. This time I was teaching one hour and the other four hours were having review days. I had a conversation in the morning with the teacher I was subbing for because she knew I was a little nervous. She gave me some ideas of how to handle each of the classes but left it up to me to decide what I was going to do. I looked over all the material for each hour during her prep first hour. 2nd hour I was teaching a small lesson after students corrected their assignment. I wanted to try something different then just having them write down notes so I decided to use the white board. This teacher wanted me to go through the first example with them and let them try the second on their own for each type of problem. I went through the first problem but made the students tell me what to write down for each step. Then I let them try the second problem. When we went through it I had students come up and write their answer on the board. There was three steps for each problem so I said for each step someone new needs to come up and write it on the board. Students were hesitant but we got through it and I gave them their assignment. Next was 3rd hour who had a review day. I told them the objectives for the day and then had them correct their assignment. Next we went through the 4 question activity she left for them. I answered any questions and then with about 20 minutes left, I gave them their assignment.

Now I got nervous because the next three classes were the ones I had last time when things did not go so well. 4th hour was the easiest hour because they are the smallest class of the day. One of the "excuses" last time from 5th hour was that I did not give them all the information they needed or the objectives of the day. To improve form last time, before I turned anything on or took attendance, I told them everything we would be doing and made sure to point to the board that always says what they would be doing. Then I had them get their assignment out so they could correct it while I took attendance. Once they were finished, instead of just giving them their assignment like last time I decided the best way to get through the hour was to do some of the homework together as a group and then go through the answers. This was something the teacher suggested and said would be okay to do. She suggested that I put two problems on the screen at a time and give them about 5 or more minutes, depending on the problem, to work on them. I could answer any questions during this time and once the time was up or once everyone was ready, I could show them the answer. Not only did this take up time during class but I could make sure everyone got some of the assignment done. I did this for the first seven problems and then handed out the work sheet so they could have the rest of the time to work. They ended up having about 30 minutes to work on it and some of them even got it done. Since this worked out so well I decided to do the same thing 5th hour but handle it a little differently.

5th hour is the largest class of the day and is the class that blamed me last time for not getting their assignment done. I knew I wanted to say something to them so that they knew I had heard what had happen. I didn't want to seem nervous or mad in anyway. I am still learning how to teach so I was using this as a learning experience from the last time. Like 4th hour I made sure not to turn anything on or put anything on the projector. Last time I did not wait for every side conversation to stop because it is very hard to get all 30+ students completely quiet. This time however I made sure everyone was paying attention to what I was about to say. I told them we would first correct their assignment from last night and then we would have an assignment to work on. However I told them that last time I was here people did not work on their assignments and that they had reasons why they didn't do it. I continued to say that this time no one would be moving around and that instead of just giving them their assignment we would be doing the first few problems together. I told them to get their assignments out so they could correct while I took attendance. When they were done someone asked right away if they could move and I knew it was a student who blamed me last time. I said no even though he thought saying pretty please with a cherry on top would change my mind. We did the first eight or nine problems together and I decided to give them the rest of the time to work. I again said we would not be moving around but that they were more then welcome to ask me questions. I went to give a student the answer key because he came in after he took a test. The student who asked to move earlier moved and, loud enough for everyone to hear, I said that we weren't moving around. He tried to argue because they were just working on an assignment to which I replied "yes but the last time I gave you time to work and I let you moved around I got burned for it." The room got quiet and the student gave me a look as if he knew exactly what I was talking about. I heard someone say that I got in trouble last time which I quickly made clear that I did not. I just said that I need to change from what I did last time because clearly people did not get assignments done. The rest of the hour people worked on their assignment and continued to ask me question. I felt very confident in what I had done and how I handled the situation. 6th hour was a lot like 3rd hour and although I had to get students back on track, I did not have any major problems.

I made sure to leave a note for the teacher with what each class did and how the day went. When I got home I made sure to text her how the day went and any information she needed to know. I wondered how I did and hoped that students would not think I was mad at them. When I went later this week to observe I had a student tell me that they like me as a sub which made me feel good. I have never been in a situation like this and I wondered how personal I should be with students. While I want them to get to know me so they feel comfortable asking questions, being there as a volunteer and as a substitute are two completely different situations. I want students to feel open to asking me questions about math but I also want students to feel like they can ask any questions about college or anything else. These students are mostly juniors and seniors. There have already been a few students asking about what college is like as far as teachers and school work. But do I only allow them to ask me those types of questions when I am there to volunteer/observe or is appropriate for them to ask me those questions as a substitute as well? Many people have said I have been handling this situation well but I still struggle sometimes to find a balance.

So like always I end my blog with questions for you. Do you think I handled the situation well this time? What would you have done as a substitute after being blamed for students not getting their work done? Would you have done anything differently? And lastly, how much information do you think you should share with students as their substitute? What about as a volunteer?