Sunday, February 4, 2007
Substitute Teacher
My practicum teacher's wife just had a baby, and he will be out for a week. The sub that has been hired to come in is a retired teacher from Twenhofel. Watching this sub teach was definitely an interesting experience. He is very old school in his teaching methods, and he is the first person to admit that. One minute he would be laughing and joking, the next he would be screaming at the kids to shut up. I felt like he was quite blunt on certain subjects that perhaps were not appropriate for seventh graders. Overall, he did have good classroom management, however, he was a very long winded speaker. The topic they were discussing was supposedly George Washington, yet somehow he spent the whole bell talking about George Foreman! The kids know that he gets off topic very easily and use that to their advantage. The sub did have some good advice to offer me, however, I will be glad when my regular teacher is back!
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4 comments:
Dianne,
I'm glad that were able to observe the substitute - they are always interesting. Hummm - George Foreman. What advice did he offer? I'm interested.
I observed a sub as well, a couple weeks ago. She arrived at about 9:00 (school starts at 8:00). Another teacher covered the class for homeroom, and the reading coordinator covered for DI. For the social studies class, the sub gave the students a small packet that the teacher had left, and let them work on it. Most students were off task for most of the time, and at the end of the class, we collected the packet, and at least half of them were not done.
Eric,
I am curious about how old your subsitute teacher was? Where they a college student, retired teacher or a person with enough general studies credits to be a substitute teacher? Some schools do not have enough bodies in the substitute teacher pool and their needs exceed their means. In my placement, substitute teachers come and go. They usually sub one time and they dislike the enviornment or whatever and they just don't return. The minimum requirement to be a substitute teacher doesnt necessairly always produce the most credible individuals and they view their job as merely having to be a babysitter for students.
A few of the practicum students and I sat in on a team meeting on the issued involved a student who was fifteen years old and reads at a third grade level he is also in the seventh grade. The special educator, math, english and history teacher have run out of options for dealing with this student. Since he cannot participate due to the fact he can barely read he becomes disruptive during class period. I think they were leaning toward passing him through to the next grade level. What is there left to do when a student is placed in the most remedial classes, he is failing his courses, he has a private tutor, and since he is so disruptive he is always being removed from the class period and he misses information. I do not agree with passing the students issues onto another teacher, but should they hold a sixteen year old student in the seventh grade?
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