Success

It never ceases to amaze me how many people have trouble spelling the word "success", so I decided to make that today's verbal meditation topic. I had a girl ask me that for the umpteenth time today, so it's on my mind...

What do I do that makes me successful (or not successful) as a substitute teacher?

I think that for the most part, I am pretty successful. I am pretty good with most kids (even some of the most difficult ones). Aside from the initial whining I get when they realize it's not a "free day", I hardly ever get many complaints from the kids I teach, and I've had many say that they think I'm the best sub they've ever had (which is always nice to hear). Kids usually listen to me, follow my directions, and even the toughest ones usually respond to my interventions. About the only ones I've ever had any trouble with are kids with very serious emotional and behavioral issues, or kids in SPED that don't respond well to strangers (which I don't take personally).

I almost always finish whatever lesson plan is left for me, if there is one (you would not believe how many teachers leave minimal or no lesson plans). If anything, I usually make the kids do more work than they're accustomed to, rather than less (I usually make them do their homework in class if at all possible, so that way, no one finishes "early"). I probably don't do things the same way the regular teacher would, but I figure if they cared so much, they'd leave better instructions instead of "have students read Chapter 5" or "go over the math". Yeah.

Teachers rarely if ever leave any useful information about their expectations for behavior, existing class rules, kids who need watching, or important school policies. (It's such a blessing when they do.) Since the rules are different for every classroom and every single school, I can't ever assume I will know what they are. Generally when I walk in to a "blank slate" environment (a room or a building where there is no visible sign of what the expectations are), I have to impose "my" version of the way things are. This is the hardest aspect of subbing I think. Invariably no one is happy. These are the times when I get the most complaints. I have a feeling that "my way" is a bit stricter in some ways, and a bit more lenient in others than how other people do things. One of the toughest calls you have to make as a sub is interpreting these highly ambiguous situations. My way of interpreting them is to assume that it won't hurt the kids to lose a few privileges in return for my own sanity.

Probably the worst times I've ever had as a sub were situations where I was given minimal information. Things that you really need to know (in order to be successful) is who the kids are, what they should be working on, and what their daily routine is like. These three things prevent so much heartache and lost instructional time, and yet only 1% of teachers leave this kind of information in their sub plans. You almost never see seating charts or even a class list. Half the time, there is no information about the daily routines or the teacher's behavior expectations. About a third of the time there is no lesson plan, or a lesson plan that's so minimal that it might as well have been omitted entirely.

In spite of some of these kinds of things, you can still be very successful, or at least as successful as it humanly possible in whatever situation you land in as a sub. I feel like most of the success I've had as a sub thus far come from the fact that I relate well to most kids, and don't let them push me anywhere I don't want to go. Even if some days have been less than optimal in my opinion, I'm sure that I did the best I could, given what I had to work with (almost nothing but my instincts). I think I've gotten better at it, just from having more experiences with more kinds of situations (good and bad). Although I still feel slightly nervous every time I enter a new building, it wears off fast once I realize that the same set of moves works with nearly anybody. As a sub you can be successful in a wide range of settings as long as you are able to be calm, patient, respectful, and fair no matter what happens.