Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We are into November.
Substitute Teachers Lounge.
This is Greg Collins.
It is November 5th, electionDay 2024.
I'm recording this early so Idon't know who the president is,
but I'm sure we all will soonafter we listen to this.
(00:21):
So today we're going to talkabout the harshest words I've
ever heard in the classroom.
Some of them were said bystudents.
Some of them were said byteachers and administrators.
Some of them were said by me.
Substitute teachers loud.
Listen to Teachers Loud.
(00:41):
All right, all right.
(01:07):
What this is not going to be isa podcast completely concerning
words, vulgar words thatshouldn't be used in the
classroom.
I'll talk about that a littlebit.
We'll call that the elephant inthe room, so I want to get that
out of the way early.
But, to be honest, the reasonI'm recording this is because of
other harsh words I've had andI've used, and I've heard others
use in the classroom.
Now I'm not going to sit hereand tell you guys that you
(01:28):
shouldn't do it.
You're grown up enough to knowwhether that's the case or not.
Before I do all that, let mejust say that Instagram I'm
still doing Instagram reels inthe off week and I tell you what
I am having so much fun doingthat Every class I go to.
(01:48):
Now the students know that I'mthe Instagram substitute teacher
, some of whom I haven't eventaught before, but for some
reason they know that my biggestone so far is still the one
called I'm the best sub, andthat one's had 62,000 downloads
(02:09):
or listens.
I guess I should say viewsthat's the word views, listens
or views and you know there'ssome Billie Eilish music playing
in the background.
So, billie Eilish, if youpicked it up and I got all those
views because some of yourlisteners listen to it, I surely
appreciate you for that.
Most of them usually get about1,000 views in the first week
(02:32):
and they level out at about2,000.
But I'm having fun with thatand it seems like the students
enjoy it and they even want toaggravate me by playing it in
front of me while we're in theclassroom.
But that's all I'll say aboutthat.
There are a couple of reasonsin my area.
Let me go back a little bit andI'm jumping all over the place,
(02:55):
but I'd say that's what Iusually do on most podcasts.
But I guess I remember a coachback when I was in I guess it
would have been about seventh oreighth grade a basketball coach
that would cuss at the playersin the locker room.
I hate to say I considered thatthe norm back then.
(03:18):
But he used words like I'm notgoing to use the words because
then I have to reclassify thispodcast but he was saying stuff
like it's time you all get theball out of your A.
Okay, you all can fill in the A.
It's time you know.
He was just using all kinds ofwords like that.
(03:39):
I don't think he ever used thehardcore like F words and stuff
like that, but it you know, hereI am 66 years old.
I would have been what?
13 then and as much as I forget, I remember that.
Isn't that crazy.
In our area right now, a coachhas decided to resign.
(04:01):
We live in a different world.
Guys decided to resign we livein a different world, guys
because he was caught by aplayer cussing at them intensely
I'll say it that way In thelocker room.
That video went viral and Idon't think they fired him.
I think he chose to step downafter it surfaced.
(04:21):
Coaches didn't have to worryabout that in the past and it
opens up the whole argument.
Can coaches use words thatteachers shouldn't use in the
classroom?
I remember this too.
I was in a high school classand the teacher this was a
full-time teacher finally gotperturbed at one student to the
(04:43):
point that he just finally saidI don't give a D what you do.
So he was at his wit's end andhe obviously used that word to
get the attention of the class.
Everybody sets up straightafter that and I've always said
that.
Vulgar words and all thatsubject to interpretation.
(05:05):
I'm going to say one more thingabout it.
It affects different people indifferent ways.
I have seen on the SubstituteTeachers Lounge Facebook group
all the time the subject of badlanguage in class comes up and
some of them would say, oh, ourschool has a policy about that.
(05:25):
And I said, well, the policyreally doesn't mean anything
unless they choose to putspecific words that can't be
said in the policy becauseyou're going to interpret it
differently than me.
For instance, I was once at aschool where I said listen, I've
got a student that says thisword a lot in class.
(05:48):
I know it's just part of hislanguage.
I said it kind of offends me alittle bit.
What should I do?
I sent it to the principal andthe vice principal.
Neither one of them respondedto me I guess they were just
hoping it would go awayresponded to me I guess they
were just hoping it would goaway.
And this is a group ofadministrators that would
(06:08):
respond to me about everything.
So we've got all that rolled upinto a package.
So usually what I do when I hearwords like that and again, that
wasn't really the reason forthis podcast but if I hear words
like that, I will tell them.
Listen, I can't tell you how totalk when you're outside of
school or just in general, butI'd really rather you just keep
(06:32):
it at the table out of myearshot, because I don't really
like language like that.
And then I'll go on to tellthem.
Usually, from my experience,people that use those kinds of
words are doing it to try tostrengthen an otherwise weak
argument.
Try to strengthen an otherwiseweak argument.
My position really isn't thatstrong.
Maybe if I throw in some badwords then it will be
(06:57):
strengthened.
Saw a comedian on the lastcruise we took.
He was a shock comedian and theother comedian was so good it
was.
Obviously he'd worked on hismaterial.
Obviously he'd worked on hismaterial.
The other one got half of hislaughs just by using words that
were so bad and directed atpeople that it made you so
(07:18):
uncomfortable.
A lot of people laughed aboutit.
Oh yeah, this guy is cool, hecan talk like this, all right,
so enough of that.
You can deal with that the wayyou want to.
Harsh words come in all forms.
I don't like hurtful things.
I don't like when maybe onestudent says to the other what
(07:40):
has happened to make you so fat?
That's a hurtful phrase.
And then they'll just say I wasjoking.
No, you weren't.
You said that to draw attentionto yourself and to make that
person feel bad.
Those are harsh words.
Anytime I see one studentgiving another student a hard
(08:02):
time about something related tothat, related to physical
appearance, related to maybethey're just envious of that
student and are trying to makethem look worse.
Well, I will call the studentout.
I normally don't call them outin front of people, but I'll
call them up to my desk and saylisten, that was hurtful.
(08:25):
I think you should apologize.
I can get middle schoolers toapologize.
I won't do that to highschoolers because they're going
to just be setting their waysand maybe turn even more
negative.
If I try to get them to do that, I'll try to get the student to
apologize and we'll move onfrom there.
(08:46):
Those are hurtful To me.
You can say words.
In fact we had thisconversation in class this week.
I told the guys I was going totalk about them, so they're
listening.
I remember having a conversationin one class.
One of them said Mr Collins,have you ever been in a fight?
You know the way I answered.
(09:07):
I said well, I'll tell you what.
I don't think I have, but if Ihave, my memory has blocked it
from my mind and I went aheadand told them.
I thought at that point in myin my school life that I was
clever enough that I coulddefend myself with my words
better than I could my fist.
Now maybe I said something sobad to somebody that they wanted
(09:30):
to punch me.
I might have had to live withthat, but I was clever enough
that if they did something to meI could come up with some kind
of phrase to put them in theirplace.
Not something I'm proud of, butthat was my response to them
and of course they laughed alittle bit.
They probably knew that I'dnever been in a fight.
They could just tell by talkingto me, because I don't get upset
(09:54):
Probably the worst I ever sayand I'm going to guess I've
substitute taught for sevenyears I'm going to say I have
said the phrase shut maybe sixtimes in seven years.
Every time.
Every time, I will eventuallyapologize to that class and say
(10:19):
listen, that was too harsh.
Let me tell you, though, whilewe got to this point, you all
take advantage of me because I'mnice, because I won't be too
loud at you.
I won't write you up, I won'tdo this, I won't do that.
When it comes to the pointwhere I have to say shut up, it
(10:40):
really grabs their attention.
So I tell them do not put me inthat situation again, because I
hate it and feel bad about itinstantly.
Those are two harsh words that,when you put them together, it
just changes the complexity ofyour class.
The last time I did it, Iremember a student telling me
(11:02):
later how often do you get mad?
I've never seen you mad before,and I said well, to be honest,
I wouldn't even classify that asbeing mad.
I just needed to get thatstudent's attention and it did.
Okay, there are.
This past week, guys, I wrotesome things down about some
(11:25):
students and then I said I'llgive you a chance to change my
mind and they did so.
Unfortunately, I had written itdown on the teacher's notes for
the class, so I actually took apair of scissors and cut that
part out.
Now she's going to wonder why Icut that out and I'm going to
let the students tell them ifthey want to.
(11:47):
I don't care, but that'ssomething that was harsh that I
did.
I have heard conversations inhallways that were really bad.
Obviously a student was veryupset with a teacher and I heard
them using F-words and allkinds of things in the hallway.
And I heard them using F wordsand all kinds of things in the
(12:08):
hallway close to the end ofschool one day, to the point
that every exit to the schoolhad a teacher in that watching
for any type of I guessreciprocal type arrangement.
But they did get the studentcalmed down.
I don't never heard whathappened, but you're going to
hear harsh words of either ofseveral different types.
(12:31):
Let's word it that way you gotto decide now.
Don't decide then what you'regoing to do, because you'll
probably do the wrong thing.
When I decide in the spur ofthe moment how to react to a
negative situation, a lot oftimes I react more negatively
than I want it to.
If I make up my mind today, allright, if this ever happens in
(12:53):
my classroom, here's what I'mgoing to do about it.
Well then, that gives you kindof a head start.
All right, I'll do this.
If there's vulgar language,I'll do this.
If somebody is beingdisrespectful to another student
, I'll do this.
If somebody's beendisrespectful to me, and I'm not
even sure I will stop sayingthis, but I have told stories.
(13:15):
I haven't told this.
I haven't done this in probablytwo years, but I have told a
student before.
I have told a student before.
If you act this way your wholelife, you're going to struggle
making friends.
You're going to struggle makingsales perhaps in your life.
If you can't be better thanthis, be more respectful than
(13:40):
this to other people, I'll tellthem stories about classmates
that I've had at one time thatwere very popular but because
they later treated people rudely, their later life didn't turn
out the way they hoped to.
You know, I've heard it saidthis was actually at a youth
(14:03):
meeting and, to be honest,actually at a youth meeting and,
to be honest, I can't rememberif this youth meeting was
religious related or schoolrelated, but the thought holds
true, the people our studentsare trying so hard to impress
and be popular with whilethey're in high school.
Most of them won't even knowthose people after they get out
(14:25):
of high school.
So all this time, this fouryears in high school, you try to
impress as many people byacting tough, by acting cool.
They're gone after high school.
You might I'll say it like thisyou might be working for
somebody who you used to makefun of.
(14:46):
How's that going to do for you?
Well, you know, the person youused to make fun of has probably
forgotten about it or wants toget over it anyway, and you can
go that way.
So there's all kinds of harshthings that can happen.
I've talked about my profession, my accounting profession.
I didn't like it.
I ran into a lot of people thatwere more harsh with their
(15:08):
words than I ever chose to be.
I was actually told at one timethat they thought I would be a
more effective manager if I usedharsher words and vulgar words
and things like that.
So, if you want to know, thatnever affected me and even while
I say this, everybody'sdifferent.
I've said some things, Iguarantee you, that are harsher
(15:31):
than what you've said.
You've said some things ormaybe used some words that I
would never use.
We've got to decide asindividuals, when harsh things
happen in the classroom, whatare we going to do about it.
It's our job as teachers tomake our decision now as to how
(15:52):
we're going to handle it.
I will tell you I am doinganother.
By the time you're listening tothis it's over.
I'm doing another day ofelementary school.
I'm kind of looking forward tothat.
I don't want to use the phraseburnt out, but I can tell I like
high school much better thanmiddle school.
(16:13):
Now it used to be just theopposite.
I enjoyed my first day ofelementary school so much I had
two days.
The second day was a specialsituation, not normal, not
normal, so I won't even includethat in my analysis.
But I am looking so forward toteaching this fourth grade class
(16:33):
and if it goes as well as thethird grade class, man, I might
have a new favorite school levelto teach at.
I mean, it's so funny.
I've been asked.
I don't know how they even gotmy name.
We have in our county what'scalled a kindergarten academy.
(16:54):
Most of the kindergartenstudents all go to the same
school, regardless of what areathey live in.
It's a couple.
There's a couple exceptions tothat, but I just said you know
I'm really not ready tosubstitute teenage and
kindergarten.
I don't think I'm ready forthat.
So you know you've got to makeall these decisions yourself.
(17:14):
When you hear something harshin the classroom, what are you
going to do about it?
Decide today.