What sucks about being a teacher who gets sick is all the planning that goes into missing a day of school. You have to leave detailed sub notes (mine are often 3+ pages long). You have to cover things like classroom rules, students that need special allowances, helpful students, as well as your plan for the day, how to execute it, and what to do if something goes wrong.
Getting a capable teacher in your subject area to sub for you is an extreme rarity. Many times, especially in smaller districts, substitutes are members of the community with little to no teaching experience (which makes sense because subs often tiny sums of money for their troubles). Which means you often have to find a way to make something work in a different way than you would have taught it. Often, you have to put a pin in things, such as student presentations, and get them started on something they can do independently. Unfortunately, having a sub does not always mean showing a video.
So, I'm home sick today. I've been in bed all day, sleeping mostly, though I've been able to watch one movie.
I did log in to my work email briefly to send good luck messages to my students who are taking their AP Literature exam tomorrow. While I was checking my email, I noticed an email from a case manager regarding one of my most difficult students.
This student is a freshman. He has an emotional-behavioral disorder, and has trouble controlling his anger. He's a neat kid, all things considered, and smart, but he's hell for subs. He and I get along fine now, but we've had our problems, and we've had numerous talks about treating subs with respect. His parents and case manager and our school administrators and I have held more meetings than I can count on my fingers.
Anyway, his case manager emailed me today saying this student was having a bit of an episode, and so, when my sub asked students to hand write a paragraph (I made the directions very clear on this because of the rampant cheating Melissa and I have been seeing), he knew he wasn't going to be able to because his frustration would have made his handwriting illegible. When this student tried to hand the printed copy to the sub, the sub refused to take it, saying it had to be hand-written. Obviously, the sub was merely doing his job and following the directions I'd laid out for him. And of course it would be impossible to plan for every scenario in my sub notes. In any case, this student controlled himself and reported to his case manager instead of heading into a tailspin, which is huge for him.
So, I wanted to email him to tell him how proud I was of him:
Hi Student,
I wanted you to know that it's okay that you typed your paragraph. I also very much appreciate you treating the substitute with respect. When subs are in a classroom for a day, it's difficult for them to know all the specific situations surrounding each student and each allowance I grant them.
I'm really proud of you for doing the right thing.
See you tomorrow!
Ms. R
These tiny acts of kindness can make a difference for students, especially students like this one, whose acts of self-control often get overlooked by his negative behaviors. And it was so easy. Sometimes it's easier to get caught up in all the negative things that happen in my day and forget how easy it is to focus on the positive and make a difference for even just one student.
I wake up every day telling myself I'm going to try to focus on the positives, but sometimes it takes one tiny thing to make me roll my eyes and forget my day's goal. I used to keep a notebook of positive things that happened so I could look back on it when I needed a pick-me-up, but I wasn't good at updating it, so I eventually stopped.
I'm hoping this blog can serve as a place where I can log these positives and remember why I became a teacher in the first place.
PS - someone sure is happy I'm home for the day:
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