Substitute Teacher - Between Classes

Since my husband has been subbing in the public school district 2-3 days a week, he is learning some interesting information about teachers. He is learning that most of them are fairly conservative and work very hard to ensure the best for their class. He is also learning that the Administration of the school can make for a pleasant or a horrible experience because they have a lot of power. Sometimes he is treated very well and sometimes he is treated like a child by the principal. The other day, he put the blame back on the principal for not giving him all the information about the end of the school day after she yelled at him in front of staff and his class. He decided not to return to that school as there are many other schools which appreciate him. With the Kelly Organization he is working with, he has more flexibility than I did in 2000 when I subbed. With everything he is noticing about teachers and schools, I am so proud of him and his decision to substitute.

He had toyed with the idea of becoming a teacher and went so far as to get a temporary certificate in social studies. One school he interviewed at several years ago told him that if he got some experience teaching, they would hire him. What does he think now? Well, he admits he is lucky to leave at the end of the day. He doesn’t have to return to the same class each day and face burn out. If there is an administrator, he doesn’t agree with…no problem…he is only there for the day. So, when other teachers ask him in the lunch room “Do you want to be a teacher?” my husband thinks the answer is not so clear anymore. He is not sure. If our business collapses, he might look into teaching but he will be careful with the school and the grade he chooses. His decision to substitute teach has brought us closer as a couple because he understands more what I went through when becoming a teacher in the public school district. Although I instruct college freshman at a University, I am often reminded that some of my students have forgotten all the grammar lessons they had beginning in elementary school. The other day for a midterm, I let them use the grammar book for the testing on grammar. Ironically, only a couple of students did very well with this part…one was a student from Denmark and the other was a native speaker. Everyone else did not do as well as I hoped.

We discussed some of the grammar answers and how even if you are allowed to use the book, one must still know how to search out the answer. So they listened even more carefully to me after receiving their midterm grades. We still have more papers to write and a final to take. I was glad to have my husband there as he repeated the story of his joke in the lunch room with other teachers about all the grammar lessons the teachers taught in public school and how all was forgotten in the freshman composition class. Maybe they remember it again by the senior year!