November 19, 2024 • 18 mins
Join meas I recount my whirlwind adventure across third, fourth, and fifth-grade classrooms, topped with the unexpected joy of teaching my granddaughter’s class. Ever wondered which grade might just steal a teacher's heart, or what on earth happens when a scheduling mishap turns into a delightful twist? You're about to find out how these stories unfold and what they reveal about the unpredictable yet rewarding life of a substitute teacher.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Greg Collins.
Substitute Teachers Loungepodcast.
It is the November 19th 2024episode.
Back on September 24th, we dida podcast about substitute
teaching elementary schoolbecause I did third grade for
the first time.
This is sort of part two.
(00:22):
I knew I was going to do it,because now I have also subbed
fourth grade, fifth grade andsped all in elementary school.
You're going to hear mythoughts.
What I want you to do right now, though, is see what you think
my conclusions are going to be.
What's specific to each agegroup?
(00:42):
Which age group did I like best?
Do I even want to go back toelementary school?
We'll find all that out.
Substitute Teacher's Loud.
(01:05):
All right, a couple of things Iactually left out in the opening
that were very unique tosubbing fifth grade.
I actually did the three gradesin order.
I did third grade back onSeptember 24th, I did fourth
grade at a different school backtwo weeks ago, and now I've
(01:25):
done fifth grade and I had aSPED class in there too, at a
different school.
The fifth grade class I didthis past week was at the class
or at the school, I should say.
I started in back on September24th, so it was so cool, first
of all, to see those thirdgraders come up and say, oh,
you're subbing our class againtoday.
And I said, no, I'm in thefifth grade today.
(01:47):
And they talked to me atlunchtime and I said, yeah, I
hadn't looked up the date and Iwas thinking maybe that was
three weeks ago and it wasSeptember 24th.
So they said, oh, no, mrCollins, it was at least a month
ago.
So they were right in thatregard.
The two unique things, both ofwhich had never happened to me
before Now.
(02:08):
The first one is an easy onebecause for the first time ever,
I got to sub one of mygrandchildren.
She is in the fifth grade.
In fact, her birthday was twodays ago.
She's 11 now.
So happy birthday, anna, and Ienjoyed subbing your class.
Happy birthday, anna, and Ienjoyed subbing your class.
And the other thing is myoriginal sub date on the chart
(02:30):
in the system was Thursday.
So they told me how to getthere.
They have these hallways, but Istill had to ask one of the
students which hall how I got tothe green hallway.
So I went down there, walked in.
Somebody was in that room.
He looked up and saw me.
I said how you doing?
And I didn't know if it was ateacher, a janitor or what it
(02:55):
was.
But so I finally said are youmr?
Then I said his name and hesaid yes.
And I said am I supposed to beyour sub today?
And he said well, no, I don'tneed a sub today.
And he said yes.
And I said am I supposed to beyour sub today?
And he said well, no, I don'tneed a sub today.
And I said well, I signed upfor this like over a week ago
and it was for today.
He said I need a sub tomorrowand I said well, first of all,
(03:18):
if it's just a mistake and I cancome back tomorrow, that's okay
, because I only had a half aday scheduled tomorrow.
It ended up working out by theend of the day that that that
would have gone away anyway.
So I'm glad this worked out.
I said I'll cancel that, let'sgo.
He said let's go to the office,figure it out.
So we went to the office.
Sure enough, he hadaccidentally scheduled Thursday
(03:39):
instead of Friday, so I canceledmy half day Friday.
I went on home because this isthe closest school to me.
On a good day it's probablyabout a mile and a half.
On a good day I could havewalked.
It probably wouldn't have, butI could have.
So it's only about a fiveminute drive from my house, so
no big deal.
I just did, took care of someother things and went back on
(04:00):
Friday, had a great day.
So I walk in and what I havefound now now the third grade
class that I talked to you aboutback in September, I assume
it's the same through most ofthe country, through our country
anyway.
I know we've got manyinternational listeners now
being anxious to know how it isin your area.
(04:21):
But third grade and younger,the teacher has the same kids
all day long.
That's a decision maker in andof itself.
Would you rather have the same30 kids all day long or would
you rather have different kidsthroughout the day?
I think I lean towards thesecond.
(04:42):
In fact, when I taught fourthgrade two weeks ago, they you
know they caught me on the wayout and said Mr Collins, can we
put you on our list now?
I said, yes, you can.
I would love to come back, butI really want to stick with
third grade and higher.
And they said all right, weunderstand Fourth and fifth
grade.
When you get to that level ofelementary school, they change
(05:06):
classes and both schools did itthe same way, sort of you start
out with a homeroom of about 30kids and you do a few small
things in the homeroom for ahalf an hour in the fourth grade
when I did it there.
Then that group splits up andthey go to their individual
(05:27):
subject classrooms.
About a third of them stayed inmy room for English, about a
third of them went for socialstudies and the other third went
to math and there's acombination there Like, for
instance, the fifth grade Itaught last week.
The same guy was doing bothsocial studies and I don't know
if it still falls under Englishlanguage arts.
(05:48):
I mean, we were talking aboutconjunctions and prefixes and
suffixes and stuff like that infifth grade.
So, by the way, I hope I don'tforget to do this for the
episodes over.
I asked a question of the fifthgrade students that they gave
me the answer more quickly thanany middle school or high school
class I've ever been in, sohats off to them.
(06:10):
I know some of the fourthgraders are listening to this
podcast because they wanted toknow a lot about it, and I'm
sure the third graders or thefifth graders will, because I
didn't mention it that much Now.
When I got to the fifth gradeit was really the same format as
the fourth, except that myhomeroom started and we did a
(06:31):
few miscellaneous things.
Then, when it came time tochange classes, it's still your
homeroom kids in that firstblock and you do your social
studies type of thing.
We were actually doing some NewEngland type studies and
settlements and all that goodstuff.
So we did that.
(06:52):
Then the next block I have is asecond third of the kids and
then the final third is thethird block of the kids and then
after that we go back tohomeroom.
So I had my first block kidsback together and, just like in
fourth grade, had them for theduration of the day and we
(07:16):
started off by doing a readingfor about 15 minutes, because
after that they were going to goto lunch and recess for an hour
half and half.
And he said you could eitherpick some kids to read for you
or you can read it to themthemselves.
So I asked them and they jumpedat the chance to read.
It was so cute man it was.
(07:38):
I don't know if they want me tocall them cute, but it was so
cool to see them reading infront of the class.
One of the teachers otherteachers came in to one of the
girls had left a necklace in herclass and she brought it back
to her and I could tell she waspretty impressed because here
this student was reading from abook in front of the class.
The kids were quiet and itlooked pretty impressive.
(08:02):
I'll have to say I gave thefifth grade a hard time because
I said listen, you know, theywant to be Gen Z.
They're using the Gen Z words.
They probably said the wordslay more than any Gen Z group
of kids I've ever come incontact with.
And I said you all realize thatby definition, if you look it
(08:24):
up on Google based on your birthyear, you guys are actually
generation alpha, you're thenext generation.
So I got them fired up aboutthat and I asked them I said
what do you think mygeneration's word was?
They guessed that it wasboomers and they'd never guessed
groovy.
I like to bring that one upbecause that's unique enough
(08:46):
that you know nobody really saysgroovy anymore.
They still say cool.
They might still say out ofthis world, that kind of thing
that reminds me to back to thefuture.
But anyway, so that was myfifth grade.
It went great.
I took some jolly ranchers withme.
I made light of the fact when Iwas in the second block, which
(09:07):
is where my granddaughter was,that I said, all right, do you
guys like Jolly Ranchers?
And of course they all said yesand I said well, I said I've
heard that somebody's birthdayis this weekend, so in honor of
that person we're going to handout some Jolly Ranchers.
Well, they all knew it was mygranddaughter and most of them
(09:28):
already knew that I was hergrandfather.
A lot of them were going to herclassmate party tonight.
It was mainly the girls of theclass she was in, but I thought
that was kind of cool and wewent from there.
So here's the way I woulddifferentiate between those
three grades and I'm going totell you my favorites not
(09:49):
favorite student.
Of course I still now I willsay this fifth grade probably
more than any other group, whenthey knew that I was going to
leave notes for the teacher totell him who my favorite class
of the day.
Although I usually don't putfavorite on the sheet, the notes
that I leave him, I usually saythis class was the best class
(10:10):
of the day.
I do that, but I make sure Iemphasize that all the students
behaved.
All of them did their work.
I just thought this class wasthe best class of the day.
I usually do it that way.
So if you're so inclined, theyknow I don't leave very many
negative reviews.
I wouldn't have had to in thefifth grade anyway, and I did
(10:31):
have a co-teacher in there, forI guess it was while I was with
my homeroom, I guess justbecause you're with those kids
for so long.
By the way, here's theconclusions, let me say first of
all, by the way, here's theconclusions.
Let me say first of all myopinion and why I don't really
do long-term anymore.
Even more than a couple of dayskind of freaks me out a little
(10:52):
bit.
Having said that, I'll go aheadand say and it was very, very
close.
So those of you that arelistening, I'm going to say that
I still enjoyed that thirdgrade class the most.
But yet I also enjoy theclasses where I get to see all
(11:15):
the students in the grade beforeit was over.
So I didn't do that in thirdgrade.
So, even though third grade wasmy favorite, my favorite format
is the changing classes,because I get to meet more kids
I get to joke with them aboutanything.
Lunch recess.
My son-in-law father of thegranddaughter that I had in
(11:37):
class, also teaches at thisschool.
We were out on recess at thesame time.
I got one of the basketballsout and we started shooting some
basketballs.
Then a couple of kids came upand wanted to shoot basketball
too, and they would try to getme to do different things that
are popular now, like sillydances, and of course I just did
(11:57):
disco and all that fun stuffhappened.
So I would still put my thirdgrade class at the top now by
and by.
I should have said this at thebeginning.
I'm talking here.
Like you know, I've now taughtthird, fourth and fifth, so I've
got some expertise I can giveyou.
(12:18):
Well, I don't really.
I don't have enough experienceyet, but first impressions are
third grade is my favorite.
Fourth and fifth grade I likebecause they change classes and
you still have that one-third ofthe class.
You have them in the morningand almost the entire afternoon,
but that entire afternoon alsoincludes recess and lunch.
(12:42):
It includes an activity whichcan be music gym.
This particular week it wasclub day.
They were giving new clubs.
They were excited, man, I tried.
One of them is a bakery cluband they were bringing back
fresh bread.
And I'm thinking, man, I wish Ihad gone down there and watched
(13:03):
you.
Maybe I could finagle somebread and take some lessons too.
I wish I had done that becausethat bread really looked good.
And book club, technology club,all kinds of cool stuff Good
for that school.
This is one of the newerschools, if not the newest.
It'll be second after next year, but you can tell it.
(13:23):
If not the newest, be secondafter next year, but you can
tell it.
I told them to feel blessedbecause all your equipment is
still looks new.
You've got the latest, you know, touch screen boards and most
of the schools have that now,but it's just so new looking and
the furniture is new lookingand you can tell the kids are
happy to be there.
(13:44):
We really got to be buddies.
By the end of that class Allthe students were sharing
comments, since I had them forthe entire afternoon.
We had a little time to.
I'll just call it goof offbecause I played them some of my
favorite songs.
I would play them some songs,see if they'd heard of it.
(14:04):
They thought that was fun andthey'd gotten all their work
done anyway, and it was.
You know, we got about 15minutes at the end of class to
get things ready.
I really enjoyed it.
Now I will tell you this andI've told the high school the
high school that I love to go toand the middle schools, which I
(14:24):
haven't been there as much.
I told them guys, I'm reallyliking elementary school.
This might be the beginning ofthe end that I go to high school
and here's what I've caughtmyself doing.
I didn't even know I would cometo that conclusion, but here's
what I've caught myself doing.
(14:46):
This sub alert that I'm using.
That's really fast and gives methe openings immediately.
I have been skipping some ofthe middle school and high
school openings, or I haven'tbeen pouncing on them.
I should say it that way.
I haven't been plucking themoff the schedule as soon as they
(15:06):
show up, because I want to seeif maybe some of these
elementary school classes Nowthe elementary school classes
there's no doubt in my mind nowthat they're the most popular
among substitute teachers in myarea, at least the ones that
subscribe to SubAlert and thingslike that Because if I take the
time to go research a teacher,it only takes me 30 seconds to
(15:30):
go to the school website, seewhat they teach, see if it's in
an area I like, and then maybelook them on Facebook.
I can do all that in 30 seconds.
If I wait 30 seconds on anelementary school job, it's gone
.
Somebody else has taken it.
So from now on I'm going topluck up the elementary school
jobs and try to go there.
So that's what's happened to me, guys.
(15:51):
I believe, even after onlythree classes in elementary
school, that that's mypreference.
Now I really like it.
I like those kids.
They are very receptive.
Fifth grade, as you mightexpect, were much more.
I don't want to just call themolder, because they're older by
(16:12):
definition, but they're muchmore mature than the third
graders were.
You could carry on differentconversations with them.
Oh, let me forget.
I almost forgot.
I told you I didn't want toforget.
I've mentioned this on herebefore but one phrase that I
like to use because it's used alot in my area.
This is a Southern type comment, but we say often you did real
(16:35):
good.
Well, think about it for amoment, because there's two
mistakes in that sentence.
You did real good.
I ask it to middle schoolersall the time.
I ask it to middle schoolersall the time I ask it to high
schoolers all the time, usuallythey take a few seconds to think
about it.
Then they answer me.
This week in this fifth gradeclass, shout out to that first
(16:57):
block, because they were theones that got it.
I wrote it up on the board andI said tell me two things that
are wrong with this.
Hands went up everywhere and Ijust randomly picked what I
thought was the first one andshe said shouldn't real be
really?
And I'm thinking man, youmight've answered that quicker
(17:17):
than any other student in thecounty has.
You're right, real is anadjective, really is an adverb,
and that's where an adverbshould go.
So you did really good.
Is there another mistake inthere?
And this is the one thatusually they don't get.
But another hand went up, notthat many, but I saw another
(17:38):
hand and that student saidshouldn't that be well instead
of good?
You did really well.
And I'm thinking oh my goodness, these fifth grade kids.
I told them you got thoseanswers right significantly
sooner than anybody else.
I asked so, guys, I had a blast.
I am looking for elementaryschool jobs.
(17:59):
I hope you're having the bestof substitute teaching, you know
, I just I was just so excited.
I wanted to get on here andtalk about it.
So I'm not sure how much goodadvice I gave you, but
elementary school I'm going back.
Greg Collins.
Substitute Teachers Loungepodcast.
It is the November 19th 2024episode.
Back on September 24th, we dida podcast about substitute
teaching elementary schoolbecause I did third grade for
the first time.
This is sort of part two.
(00:22):
I knew I was going to do it,because now I have also subbed
fourth grade, fifth grade andsped all in elementary school.
You're going to hear mythoughts.
What I want you to do right now, though, is see what you think
my conclusions are going to be.
What's specific to each agegroup?
(00:42):
Which age group did I like best?
Do I even want to go back toelementary school?
We'll find all that out.
Substitute Teacher's Loud.
(01:05):
All right, a couple of things Iactually left out in the opening
that were very unique tosubbing fifth grade.
I actually did the three gradesin order.
I did third grade back onSeptember 24th, I did fourth
grade at a different school backtwo weeks ago, and now I've
(01:25):
done fifth grade and I had aSPED class in there too, at a
different school.
The fifth grade class I didthis past week was at the class
or at the school, I should say.
I started in back on September24th, so it was so cool, first
of all, to see those thirdgraders come up and say, oh,
you're subbing our class againtoday.
And I said, no, I'm in thefifth grade today.
(01:47):
And they talked to me atlunchtime and I said, yeah, I
hadn't looked up the date and Iwas thinking maybe that was
three weeks ago and it wasSeptember 24th.
So they said, oh, no, mrCollins, it was at least a month
ago.
So they were right in thatregard.
The two unique things, both ofwhich had never happened to me
before Now.
(02:08):
The first one is an easy onebecause for the first time ever,
I got to sub one of mygrandchildren.
She is in the fifth grade.
In fact, her birthday was twodays ago.
She's 11 now.
So happy birthday, anna, and Ienjoyed subbing your class.
Happy birthday, anna, and Ienjoyed subbing your class.
And the other thing is myoriginal sub date on the chart
(02:30):
in the system was Thursday.
So they told me how to getthere.
They have these hallways, but Istill had to ask one of the
students which hall how I got tothe green hallway.
So I went down there, walked in.
Somebody was in that room.
He looked up and saw me.
I said how you doing?
And I didn't know if it was ateacher, a janitor or what it
(02:55):
was.
But so I finally said are youmr?
Then I said his name and hesaid yes.
And I said am I supposed to beyour sub today?
And he said well, no, I don'tneed a sub today.
And he said yes.
And I said am I supposed to beyour sub today?
And he said well, no, I don'tneed a sub today.
And I said well, I signed upfor this like over a week ago
and it was for today.
He said I need a sub tomorrowand I said well, first of all,
(03:18):
if it's just a mistake and I cancome back tomorrow, that's okay
, because I only had a half aday scheduled tomorrow.
It ended up working out by theend of the day that that that
would have gone away anyway.
So I'm glad this worked out.
I said I'll cancel that, let'sgo.
He said let's go to the office,figure it out.
So we went to the office.
Sure enough, he hadaccidentally scheduled Thursday
(03:39):
instead of Friday, so I canceledmy half day Friday.
I went on home because this isthe closest school to me.
On a good day it's probablyabout a mile and a half.
On a good day I could havewalked.
It probably wouldn't have, butI could have.
So it's only about a fiveminute drive from my house, so
no big deal.
I just did, took care of someother things and went back on
(04:00):
Friday, had a great day.
So I walk in and what I havefound now now the third grade
class that I talked to you aboutback in September, I assume
it's the same through most ofthe country, through our country
anyway.
I know we've got manyinternational listeners now
being anxious to know how it isin your area.
(04:21):
But third grade and younger,the teacher has the same kids
all day long.
That's a decision maker in andof itself.
Would you rather have the same30 kids all day long or would
you rather have different kidsthroughout the day?
I think I lean towards thesecond.
(04:42):
In fact, when I taught fourthgrade two weeks ago, they you
know they caught me on the wayout and said Mr Collins, can we
put you on our list now?
I said, yes, you can.
I would love to come back, butI really want to stick with
third grade and higher.
And they said all right, weunderstand Fourth and fifth
grade.
When you get to that level ofelementary school, they change
(05:06):
classes and both schools did itthe same way, sort of you start
out with a homeroom of about 30kids and you do a few small
things in the homeroom for ahalf an hour in the fourth grade
when I did it there.
Then that group splits up andthey go to their individual
(05:27):
subject classrooms.
About a third of them stayed inmy room for English, about a
third of them went for socialstudies and the other third went
to math and there's acombination there Like, for
instance, the fifth grade Itaught last week.
The same guy was doing bothsocial studies and I don't know
if it still falls under Englishlanguage arts.
(05:48):
I mean, we were talking aboutconjunctions and prefixes and
suffixes and stuff like that infifth grade.
So, by the way, I hope I don'tforget to do this for the
episodes over.
I asked a question of the fifthgrade students that they gave
me the answer more quickly thanany middle school or high school
class I've ever been in, sohats off to them.
(06:10):
I know some of the fourthgraders are listening to this
podcast because they wanted toknow a lot about it, and I'm
sure the third graders or thefifth graders will, because I
didn't mention it that much Now.
When I got to the fifth gradeit was really the same format as
the fourth, except that myhomeroom started and we did a
(06:31):
few miscellaneous things.
Then, when it came time tochange classes, it's still your
homeroom kids in that firstblock and you do your social
studies type of thing.
We were actually doing some NewEngland type studies and
settlements and all that goodstuff.
So we did that.
(06:52):
Then the next block I have is asecond third of the kids and
then the final third is thethird block of the kids and then
after that we go back tohomeroom.
So I had my first block kidsback together and, just like in
fourth grade, had them for theduration of the day and we
(07:16):
started off by doing a readingfor about 15 minutes, because
after that they were going to goto lunch and recess for an hour
half and half.
And he said you could eitherpick some kids to read for you
or you can read it to themthemselves.
So I asked them and they jumpedat the chance to read.
It was so cute man it was.
(07:38):
I don't know if they want me tocall them cute, but it was so
cool to see them reading infront of the class.
One of the teachers otherteachers came in to one of the
girls had left a necklace in herclass and she brought it back
to her and I could tell she waspretty impressed because here
this student was reading from abook in front of the class.
The kids were quiet and itlooked pretty impressive.
(08:02):
I'll have to say I gave thefifth grade a hard time because
I said listen, you know, theywant to be Gen Z.
They're using the Gen Z words.
They probably said the wordslay more than any Gen Z group
of kids I've ever come incontact with.
And I said you all realize thatby definition, if you look it
(08:24):
up on Google based on your birthyear, you guys are actually
generation alpha, you're thenext generation.
So I got them fired up aboutthat and I asked them I said
what do you think mygeneration's word was?
They guessed that it wasboomers and they'd never guessed
groovy.
I like to bring that one upbecause that's unique enough
(08:46):
that you know nobody really saysgroovy anymore.
They still say cool.
They might still say out ofthis world, that kind of thing
that reminds me to back to thefuture.
But anyway, so that was myfifth grade.
It went great.
I took some jolly ranchers withme.
I made light of the fact when Iwas in the second block, which
(09:07):
is where my granddaughter was,that I said, all right, do you
guys like Jolly Ranchers?
And of course they all said yesand I said well, I said I've
heard that somebody's birthdayis this weekend, so in honor of
that person we're going to handout some Jolly Ranchers.
Well, they all knew it was mygranddaughter and most of them
(09:28):
already knew that I was hergrandfather.
A lot of them were going to herclassmate party tonight.
It was mainly the girls of theclass she was in, but I thought
that was kind of cool and wewent from there.
So here's the way I woulddifferentiate between those
three grades and I'm going totell you my favorites not
(09:49):
favorite student.
Of course I still now I willsay this fifth grade probably
more than any other group, whenthey knew that I was going to
leave notes for the teacher totell him who my favorite class
of the day.
Although I usually don't putfavorite on the sheet, the notes
that I leave him, I usually saythis class was the best class
(10:10):
of the day.
I do that, but I make sure Iemphasize that all the students
behaved.
All of them did their work.
I just thought this class wasthe best class of the day.
I usually do it that way.
So if you're so inclined, theyknow I don't leave very many
negative reviews.
I wouldn't have had to in thefifth grade anyway, and I did
(10:31):
have a co-teacher in there, forI guess it was while I was with
my homeroom, I guess justbecause you're with those kids
for so long.
By the way, here's theconclusions, let me say first of
all, by the way, here's theconclusions.
Let me say first of all myopinion and why I don't really
do long-term anymore.
Even more than a couple of dayskind of freaks me out a little
(10:52):
bit.
Having said that, I'll go aheadand say and it was very, very
close.
So those of you that arelistening, I'm going to say that
I still enjoyed that thirdgrade class the most.
But yet I also enjoy theclasses where I get to see all
(11:15):
the students in the grade beforeit was over.
So I didn't do that in thirdgrade.
So, even though third grade wasmy favorite, my favorite format
is the changing classes,because I get to meet more kids
I get to joke with them aboutanything.
Lunch recess.
My son-in-law father of thegranddaughter that I had in
(11:37):
class, also teaches at thisschool.
We were out on recess at thesame time.
I got one of the basketballsout and we started shooting some
basketballs.
Then a couple of kids came upand wanted to shoot basketball
too, and they would try to getme to do different things that
are popular now, like sillydances, and of course I just did
(11:57):
disco and all that fun stuffhappened.
So I would still put my thirdgrade class at the top now by
and by.
I should have said this at thebeginning.
I'm talking here.
Like you know, I've now taughtthird, fourth and fifth, so I've
got some expertise I can giveyou.
(12:18):
Well, I don't really.
I don't have enough experienceyet, but first impressions are
third grade is my favorite.
Fourth and fifth grade I likebecause they change classes and
you still have that one-third ofthe class.
You have them in the morningand almost the entire afternoon,
but that entire afternoon alsoincludes recess and lunch.
(12:42):
It includes an activity whichcan be music gym.
This particular week it wasclub day.
They were giving new clubs.
They were excited, man, I tried.
One of them is a bakery cluband they were bringing back
fresh bread.
And I'm thinking, man, I wish Ihad gone down there and watched
(13:03):
you.
Maybe I could finagle somebread and take some lessons too.
I wish I had done that becausethat bread really looked good.
And book club, technology club,all kinds of cool stuff Good
for that school.
This is one of the newerschools, if not the newest.
It'll be second after next year, but you can tell it.
(13:23):
If not the newest, be secondafter next year, but you can
tell it.
I told them to feel blessedbecause all your equipment is
still looks new.
You've got the latest, you know, touch screen boards and most
of the schools have that now,but it's just so new looking and
the furniture is new lookingand you can tell the kids are
happy to be there.
(13:44):
We really got to be buddies.
By the end of that class Allthe students were sharing
comments, since I had them forthe entire afternoon.
We had a little time to.
I'll just call it goof offbecause I played them some of my
favorite songs.
I would play them some songs,see if they'd heard of it.
(14:04):
They thought that was fun andthey'd gotten all their work
done anyway, and it was.
You know, we got about 15minutes at the end of class to
get things ready.
I really enjoyed it.
Now I will tell you this andI've told the high school the
high school that I love to go toand the middle schools, which I
(14:24):
haven't been there as much.
I told them guys, I'm reallyliking elementary school.
This might be the beginning ofthe end that I go to high school
and here's what I've caughtmyself doing.
I didn't even know I would cometo that conclusion, but here's
what I've caught myself doing.
(14:46):
This sub alert that I'm using.
That's really fast and gives methe openings immediately.
I have been skipping some ofthe middle school and high
school openings, or I haven'tbeen pouncing on them.
I should say it that way.
I haven't been plucking themoff the schedule as soon as they
(15:06):
show up, because I want to seeif maybe some of these
elementary school classes Nowthe elementary school classes
there's no doubt in my mind nowthat they're the most popular
among substitute teachers in myarea, at least the ones that
subscribe to SubAlert and thingslike that Because if I take the
time to go research a teacher,it only takes me 30 seconds to
(15:30):
go to the school website, seewhat they teach, see if it's in
an area I like, and then maybelook them on Facebook.
I can do all that in 30 seconds.
If I wait 30 seconds on anelementary school job, it's gone
.
Somebody else has taken it.
So from now on I'm going topluck up the elementary school
jobs and try to go there.
So that's what's happened to me, guys.
(15:51):
I believe, even after onlythree classes in elementary
school, that that's mypreference.
Now I really like it.
I like those kids.
They are very receptive.
Fifth grade, as you mightexpect, were much more.
I don't want to just call themolder, because they're older by
(16:12):
definition, but they're muchmore mature than the third
graders were.
You could carry on differentconversations with them.
Oh, let me forget.
I almost forgot.
I told you I didn't want toforget.
I've mentioned this on herebefore but one phrase that I
like to use because it's used alot in my area.
This is a Southern type comment, but we say often you did real
(16:35):
good.
Well, think about it for amoment, because there's two
mistakes in that sentence.
You did real good.
I ask it to middle schoolersall the time.
I ask it to middle schoolersall the time I ask it to high
schoolers all the time, usuallythey take a few seconds to think
about it.
Then they answer me.
This week in this fifth gradeclass, shout out to that first
(16:57):
block, because they were theones that got it.
I wrote it up on the board andI said tell me two things that
are wrong with this.
Hands went up everywhere and Ijust randomly picked what I
thought was the first one andshe said shouldn't real be
really?
And I'm thinking man, youmight've answered that quicker
(17:17):
than any other student in thecounty has.
You're right, real is anadjective, really is an adverb,
and that's where an adverbshould go.
So you did really good.
Is there another mistake inthere?
And this is the one thatusually they don't get.
But another hand went up, notthat many, but I saw another
(17:38):
hand and that student saidshouldn't that be well instead
of good?
You did really well.
And I'm thinking oh my goodness, these fifth grade kids.
I told them you got thoseanswers right significantly
sooner than anybody else.
I asked so, guys, I had a blast.
I am looking for elementaryschool jobs.
(17:59):
I hope you're having the bestof substitute teaching, you know
, I just I was just so excited.
I wanted to get on here andtalk about it.
So I'm not sure how much goodadvice I gave you, but
elementary school I'm going back.
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