October 22, 2024 • 19 mins
What happens when a seemingly ordinary day in the classroom turns into a lesson in responsibility and maturity for everyone involved? As I recount an unexpected incident from my experience as a substitute teacher, you'll uncover the critical moments that tested both my role and the students' readiness for high school. One poor decision led to a student getting injured, and with the sudden turn of events, I was left to reevaluate my approach to ensuring a safe and respectful environment. Listen as I share the emotional impact and the tough conversations that followed.
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Episode Transcript
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Greg (00:01):
Greg Collins.
Substitute Teachers Lounge,episode 270.
It is October 22, 2024.
A little somber today.
The episode is going to beabout one of my worst
experiences in the classroom,the worst experience in the
(00:21):
classroom that happened to merelatively recently.
I almost came home that verynight and recorded, but I
changed my mind because I'm oneof those that feels like when
you're still emotional aboutsomething, it's probably not the
best time.
So I took a while to thinkabout it.
(00:43):
But today we're going to.
I mean, my day had goneperfectly for six hours and 55
minutes.
It's those five minutes whereone student just made the bad
decision to do something wrongthat resulted in another
student's injury, and ithappened on my watch.
(01:05):
Substitute Teacher's Loud.
All right, we're going to talkabout several different parts of
this situation.
We're going to talk aboutseveral different parts of this
situation.
We're going to talk about whathappened.
(01:28):
We're going to talk about was Iresponsible?
We're going to talk about whatchanges, if any, I'll do in the
future to try to keep it fromhappening again.
We're going to talk about theaftermath, right after it
(01:48):
happened.
This happened to happen ifthat's a proper use of words in
the middle of a day in which myvery next period was the
planning period.
So, in a way, that kind of madeit worse, because I had to let
that stew in my mind for an hour, although had I been with
(02:09):
students right after it happened, that might've been worse,
because I might not have beenthe type of substitute teacher
that would have been proper forthem at that moment.
In fact, the later classes hadheard about it and I'll tell you
(02:32):
.
I guess it's going to make moresense if I just start from the
beginning.
Okay, I had subbed for thisclass more than once and, as I
said, it was a good day.
I always tell the teacher atthe end of the day.
You know, I'll leave a note forthem to tell them who I thought
(02:55):
my favorite class of was today.
Ironically, maybe I'm doingthis in a manner in which I
shouldn't, but a lot of timeswhen I hear a class is the worst
class of the day from the otherstudents, well then I kind of
go out of my way to try and makethem the best.
And that's what happened here.
I chose a class that may nothave been the best, but they
(03:20):
were my favorite because I couldtell they had potential to be
bad when they came in and theyactually by far improved more
than anybody, in fact, evenoutside of their misbehavior.
I didn't have any misbehavior,but their misbehavior people
thought they would misbehaveReputation that's the word I was
(03:42):
looking for.
Would misbehave Reputationthat's the word I was looking
for their misbehavior reputation.
They immediately got down towork so they had more room to
grow than anybody else, and theydid so.
They were my favorite class ofthe day.
Before that, right after this,was a day in which I was taking
(04:02):
all students to the library andthe librarian was working with
them, and when we came back toclass he dismissed us five
minutes before the end of thebell so that the students could
come back and get their stufftogether.
So we got back to the classroomwith maybe three minutes left.
Now what I could have done issaid sit down and be quiet for
three minutes.
(04:23):
Well, I'm not like that.
I'm going to let them talk totheir friends for three minutes.
I mean, it was only threeminutes.
In that three minutes, onestudent decided apparently now a
(04:50):
cap or something hard enoughthat it hit another student,
made that student's cheek bleedI think there was a combination
of marker color and I think,blood on the face, water in
(05:10):
their eyes.
They were trying their best notto cry, but I could tell there
was an injury.
I had that student go to thenurse immediately.
I made everybody sit down andthen I lectured them a little
bit from the standpoint at thatmoment, at that moment in time
of how can you let yourself getso out of control that you let
(05:33):
this happen in the three minutes.
And I was like how can you letyourself get so out of control
that you let this happen in thethree minutes.
And I told them that's whyteachers want you to sit in your
desk until the very last minuteof class, because you guys
can't control yourself for threeminutes.
Now I've also told them andthis is true.
(05:56):
I said now I'm not speaking toeverybody.
In fact I told every class this.
After that, even though most ofthem did not fall into this
situation, I said listen, guys,I teach at every.
This was in eighth grade.
I teach at every eighth grade.
In the county there's severaleighth grade what is there like
five, I think and I said you'vegot more, more immature students
(06:20):
than the other eighth grade andit's something you really need
to work on.
You're going to high schoolnext year.
You're going to a good highschool, the school that I teach
at most often, and I knowthey've got great students there
they always have, and I talkedto them a little bit about that.
I wouldn't let them go until Iheard from the nurse and in fact
(06:46):
what happened was the nursecalled down to the room.
I told them I didn't witness itand they told them to stay in
their seats and basically whatwe did at that point since I
didn't see it and none of thestudents were going to admit it
or, at least at that moment,tell on their friends Well, we
(07:09):
closed the class down, made themstay there for about 30 minutes
, I would say, in fact, I wouldsay at least 30 minutes, so that
the principals could come downand interview everyone.
You know this is going to soundso corny.
I, for whatever reason I saw anold advertisement I probably
saw it on a Facebook page whereit was talking about the Waltons
(07:31):
, the old country series thatwas very popular in the 70s.
It was based on the time aroundthe Great Depression and how
poor everybody was.
The family was so close and Itold somebody later.
I said boy, it sure makes methink what in the world happened
to families or to kids.
(07:52):
I know, if I was a kid at thistime and I did this, I might
have done something stupid asthis, but I would have felt so
guilty about that person'sinjury I would have admitted it,
I would apologize, I would takewhatever punishment I deserved
(08:17):
when I got home, through boththe school and the home and I
don't know.
That's just my aside to this.
So I lectured them.
It wasn't harsh, but I toldthem.
I said listen, guys, every oneof you is getting interviewed.
I had a student in my mindabout that.
(08:38):
I thought, maybe who did it?
Obviously I couldn't just saythey did it.
I talked to the students aboutcircumstantial evidence.
You know the the best it's whenyou don't see a crime but
there's evidence that leads youto a person.
The example I've heard that'sgiven most often in a crime
(09:00):
scene is if they find a glove ata crime scene and then they're
interviewing a suspect in theirhome and they see the same
opposite glove there, but justone glove.
Well, that's pretty strongcircumstantial evidence.
I felt like I had enoughcircumstantial evidence for this
kid to think that they did it.
(09:22):
One of the pieces was when theywere in the library.
This student that I think didit was playing with the cap of a
marker and was making noisewith it.
So I took it away from them butI gave it back to him at the
end of class.
In fact I couldn't help butthink, man, if I just kept it,
maybe this wouldn't havehappened, but anyway, so that's
(09:44):
one reason that led me there.
I noticed that the principalswere interviewing students, two
by two, basically, and I noticedwhen one student came back in
and sat down, he sat down nextto the student that I suspected,
and that student leaned over tohim and I'm sure he was one.
(10:06):
I shouldn't say sure, I'm notsure.
How could I be sure?
I'm guessing that he wasprobably wanting to know what
did you tell him?
But the student that had justcome back in was looking right
at me and he knew that if hesaid something that I would see
them talking.
I told them later.
(10:27):
I said listen, don't talk aboutthis.
In fact, when it was all over,even the principal said I know
it's tough, but you are notallowed to talk about this when
you leave the room for the restof the day.
Okay, now, I'm glad I didn'trecord the episode that very
evening when it happened,because I wouldn't have thought
about this.
(10:47):
A couple of things I want to sayabout the whoever threw the
marker.
I won't even call him thesuspect, but whoever threw the
marker bad judgment on thatstudent's part.
Did he mean to hurt the otherstudent?
No, in fact I'll even say itthis way had it happened in
class and I did see it and allthat happened was that student
(11:11):
threw the marker, would I havereprimanded him?
Of course I would have.
Would I have reprimanded himmore sharply if it hit somebody?
I probably would have.
I mean, the thing that thatstudent did wrong was to throw
the marker.
The result was the injury.
I mean it could have hit thewall.
(11:31):
It just happened to hit anotherstudent.
I mean it could have hit thewall.
It just happened to hit anotherstudent, this student also.
If it's the person that I'msuspecting, they probably didn't
do any work the time I wasthere, no matter how many times
I came back to their desk.
I will also say that thatstudent spent the most time with
(11:56):
the principals.
Don't know if they concludedthat it was that person.
I also spoke to the injuredperson.
After we finally let the classgo, I went down the hallway to
use the restroom, came back andshe was in there and she looked
up at me and smiled and said Icame back to get my stuff.
Her face was cleaned up.
(12:19):
I'm not sure how much injury.
I couldn't tell how much, howbad the injury was.
To be honest, I didn't even seea scratch at that moment, but
I'm sure at best there's goingto be bruising and that kind of
thing.
She was so friendly I almost Ifelt it was one of my kids.
I would have hugged her.
I felt like she just needed ahug, but I decided against that
(12:43):
because you just never know.
And while my lunch was right.
After that, and eventually thislast student that was
interviewed came back in and ifthat student was the culprit,
they were very friendly, theyspoke to me and they left the
rest of the day.
(13:04):
The very next class I had onestudent one student that's just
spouts off at everything cameback in and said hey, I heard
somebody got their eye put outin the other period.
Well, obviously that didn'thappen.
So that just tells you that.
In the matter of what wouldthat have been?
Not even an hour.
Probably that's the storythat's going around.
(13:26):
And I told him listen.
I said I don't get in a badmood often, but I'm in a bad
mood today because somebody gothurt and it was while I was in
the room and I don't feel verygood about it and I just wanted
them to know.
I told both periods Bothperiods already knew they
expected me to maybe be a little.
(13:46):
I wouldn't characterize myselfas upset, in fact I joked around
with them just like I alwaysdid.
I said something wrong and oneof them said around with them
just like I always did.
I said something wrong and oneof them said something like I do
, very sarcastic, and Isarcastically said shut up, I
wish I hadn't.
But they knew I was saying itcomically, so they rolled their
(14:11):
eyes and then they looked up andlaughed.
That's the what of whathappened.
I talked to the kids that had tostay over in that period about
various different things andjust, you see, you got to be
honest in life.
If for no other reason, toprotect yourself.
You know, who knows that ifeverybody took up for this
(14:34):
guilty student and didn't tellthe truth about what they saw,
well, who knows if they comeback later and think you did it.
I'm not saying that I like infact I joke that I don't like
snitches but when you're beingasked a question directly, you
need to answer it honestly.
Now, with all that said, thatwas probably my most miserable
(14:56):
day.
I won't go back to that schoolfor a while.
I don't go to it very often.
Anyway, I've got weird reasonswhy I'll blame a little bit on
the parking.
I'm not crazy about the parkingsituation.
That's not fair to that school.
But you know I've got sevenother schools I can go to, some
(15:17):
of which, most of which, if theyneed me, will text me in
advance.
I don't actually, I have toseek it out.
I sought out this class Teacherhad to be with somebody or had
an appointment, and in fact Iknow she did, because the
students told me that she wasvisiting her mother.
And I said well, I know thisteacher.
I always liked this teacherwhen she was at the other school
(15:40):
, didn't even realize she was atthis school.
Now I'm going to go sub for her.
I kind of like to at least makean appearance or two in every
school.
Well, I did so.
What would I do differently?
First of all, was it my fault?
Well, no and yes, did I throwthe marker?
(16:00):
No, should I have been able tosee what happened?
Probably I was havingconversations with other
students closer to the door.
Maybe even some of you say itwasn't your fault.
I will tell the students oftenand I guess leaning back in the
chairs is when I say it mostoften I will tell them don't
(16:22):
lean back in your chairs,because if you get hurt, if you
bang your head on the wall, ifyou bang your head on the floor,
if you twist your ankle on theway down, well that's my fault.
I should have told you to putyour chair down.
So to that degree I will acceptfault here.
(16:43):
It happened on my watch.
So since I personally, I don'tthink the school blames me.
I blame myself because thereare some things that I could
have done.
Here's what I'm going to do inthe future.
There are plenty of teachersout there not the majority, this
is the minority but plenty ofteachers out there that make
their students stay in theirchair until the bell rings.
(17:08):
I know some teachers I've met.
They won't even let them leavewhen the bell rings until they
say okay, kids, look around,make sure everything's picked up
.
He'll wait a few minutes andthen he'll say all right, you
all can leave.
That's probably the main thingthat I'll change.
I'll I will tell students fromnow on stay in your chairs.
(17:33):
I might even use this as anexample.
I said you know, when I let aclass not stay in their chairs
at the end of class, an injuryhappened.
For that reason, I don't wantthat to happen again.
It was an accidental injury.
Even though it happened becausea student made a bad decision,
I am still going to start makingstudents not congregate, not
(17:58):
move from their chairs until thebell rings.
That could have prevented this.
I hope it prevents it in thefuture and that's the main thing
I'm going to change.
I hope this never happens toyou.
I hope it never happens to meagain.
I'm going to try to keep itfrom happening to me again,
(18:19):
because it is a miserablefeeling.
There is a student in that roomthat left the room in a more
hurt condition than they walkedin.
Sometimes that can happen withwords too.
It doesn't just happen to besomething physical.
But we as substitute teachersneed to do our best.
(18:42):
Those kids, we have those kidsin our possession for an hour
each day, and we should putwhatever measures we can in
effect to keep bad stuff fromhappening again.
Greg Collins.
Substitute Teachers Lounge,episode 270.
It is October 22, 2024.
A little somber today.
The episode is going to beabout one of my worst
experiences in the classroom,the worst experience in the
(00:21):
classroom that happened to merelatively recently.
I almost came home that verynight and recorded, but I
changed my mind because I'm oneof those that feels like when
you're still emotional aboutsomething, it's probably not the
best time.
So I took a while to thinkabout it.
(00:43):
But today we're going to.
I mean, my day had goneperfectly for six hours and 55
minutes.
It's those five minutes whereone student just made the bad
decision to do something wrongthat resulted in another
student's injury, and ithappened on my watch.
(01:05):
Substitute Teacher's Loud.
All right, we're going to talkabout several different parts of
this situation.
We're going to talk aboutseveral different parts of this
situation.
We're going to talk about whathappened.
(01:28):
We're going to talk about was Iresponsible?
We're going to talk about whatchanges, if any, I'll do in the
future to try to keep it fromhappening again.
We're going to talk about theaftermath, right after it
(01:48):
happened.
This happened to happen ifthat's a proper use of words in
the middle of a day in which myvery next period was the
planning period.
So, in a way, that kind of madeit worse, because I had to let
that stew in my mind for an hour, although had I been with
(02:09):
students right after it happened, that might've been worse,
because I might not have beenthe type of substitute teacher
that would have been proper forthem at that moment.
In fact, the later classes hadheard about it and I'll tell you
(02:32):
.
I guess it's going to make moresense if I just start from the
beginning.
Okay, I had subbed for thisclass more than once and, as I
said, it was a good day.
I always tell the teacher atthe end of the day.
You know, I'll leave a note forthem to tell them who I thought
(02:55):
my favorite class of was today.
Ironically, maybe I'm doingthis in a manner in which I
shouldn't, but a lot of timeswhen I hear a class is the worst
class of the day from the otherstudents, well then I kind of
go out of my way to try and makethem the best.
And that's what happened here.
I chose a class that may nothave been the best, but they
(03:20):
were my favorite because I couldtell they had potential to be
bad when they came in and theyactually by far improved more
than anybody, in fact, evenoutside of their misbehavior.
I didn't have any misbehavior,but their misbehavior people
thought they would misbehaveReputation that's the word I was
(03:42):
looking for.
Would misbehave Reputationthat's the word I was looking
for their misbehavior reputation.
They immediately got down towork so they had more room to
grow than anybody else, and theydid so.
They were my favorite class ofthe day.
Before that, right after this,was a day in which I was taking
(04:02):
all students to the library andthe librarian was working with
them, and when we came back toclass he dismissed us five
minutes before the end of thebell so that the students could
come back and get their stufftogether.
So we got back to the classroomwith maybe three minutes left.
Now what I could have done issaid sit down and be quiet for
three minutes.
(04:23):
Well, I'm not like that.
I'm going to let them talk totheir friends for three minutes.
I mean, it was only threeminutes.
In that three minutes, onestudent decided apparently now a
(04:50):
cap or something hard enoughthat it hit another student,
made that student's cheek bleedI think there was a combination
of marker color and I think,blood on the face, water in
(05:10):
their eyes.
They were trying their best notto cry, but I could tell there
was an injury.
I had that student go to thenurse immediately.
I made everybody sit down andthen I lectured them a little
bit from the standpoint at thatmoment, at that moment in time
of how can you let yourself getso out of control that you let
(05:33):
this happen in the three minutes.
And I was like how can you letyourself get so out of control
that you let this happen in thethree minutes.
And I told them that's whyteachers want you to sit in your
desk until the very last minuteof class, because you guys
can't control yourself for threeminutes.
Now I've also told them andthis is true.
(05:56):
I said now I'm not speaking toeverybody.
In fact I told every class this.
After that, even though most ofthem did not fall into this
situation, I said listen, guys,I teach at every.
This was in eighth grade.
I teach at every eighth grade.
In the county there's severaleighth grade what is there like
five, I think and I said you'vegot more, more immature students
(06:20):
than the other eighth grade andit's something you really need
to work on.
You're going to high schoolnext year.
You're going to a good highschool, the school that I teach
at most often, and I knowthey've got great students there
they always have, and I talkedto them a little bit about that.
I wouldn't let them go until Iheard from the nurse and in fact
(06:46):
what happened was the nursecalled down to the room.
I told them I didn't witness itand they told them to stay in
their seats and basically whatwe did at that point since I
didn't see it and none of thestudents were going to admit it
or, at least at that moment,tell on their friends Well, we
(07:09):
closed the class down, made themstay there for about 30 minutes
, I would say, in fact, I wouldsay at least 30 minutes, so that
the principals could come downand interview everyone.
You know this is going to soundso corny.
I, for whatever reason I saw anold advertisement I probably
saw it on a Facebook page whereit was talking about the Waltons
(07:31):
, the old country series thatwas very popular in the 70s.
It was based on the time aroundthe Great Depression and how
poor everybody was.
The family was so close and Itold somebody later.
I said boy, it sure makes methink what in the world happened
to families or to kids.
(07:52):
I know, if I was a kid at thistime and I did this, I might
have done something stupid asthis, but I would have felt so
guilty about that person'sinjury I would have admitted it,
I would apologize, I would takewhatever punishment I deserved
(08:17):
when I got home, through boththe school and the home and I
don't know.
That's just my aside to this.
So I lectured them.
It wasn't harsh, but I toldthem.
I said listen, guys, every oneof you is getting interviewed.
I had a student in my mindabout that.
(08:38):
I thought, maybe who did it?
Obviously I couldn't just saythey did it.
I talked to the students aboutcircumstantial evidence.
You know the the best it's whenyou don't see a crime but
there's evidence that leads youto a person.
The example I've heard that'sgiven most often in a crime
(09:00):
scene is if they find a glove ata crime scene and then they're
interviewing a suspect in theirhome and they see the same
opposite glove there, but justone glove.
Well, that's pretty strongcircumstantial evidence.
I felt like I had enoughcircumstantial evidence for this
kid to think that they did it.
(09:22):
One of the pieces was when theywere in the library.
This student that I think didit was playing with the cap of a
marker and was making noisewith it.
So I took it away from them butI gave it back to him at the
end of class.
In fact I couldn't help butthink, man, if I just kept it,
maybe this wouldn't havehappened, but anyway, so that's
(09:44):
one reason that led me there.
I noticed that the principalswere interviewing students, two
by two, basically, and I noticedwhen one student came back in
and sat down, he sat down nextto the student that I suspected,
and that student leaned over tohim and I'm sure he was one.
(10:06):
I shouldn't say sure, I'm notsure.
How could I be sure?
I'm guessing that he wasprobably wanting to know what
did you tell him?
But the student that had justcome back in was looking right
at me and he knew that if hesaid something that I would see
them talking.
I told them later.
(10:27):
I said listen, don't talk aboutthis.
In fact, when it was all over,even the principal said I know
it's tough, but you are notallowed to talk about this when
you leave the room for the restof the day.
Okay, now, I'm glad I didn'trecord the episode that very
evening when it happened,because I wouldn't have thought
about this.
(10:47):
A couple of things I want to sayabout the whoever threw the
marker.
I won't even call him thesuspect, but whoever threw the
marker bad judgment on thatstudent's part.
Did he mean to hurt the otherstudent?
No, in fact I'll even say itthis way had it happened in
class and I did see it and allthat happened was that student
(11:11):
threw the marker, would I havereprimanded him?
Of course I would have.
Would I have reprimanded himmore sharply if it hit somebody?
I probably would have.
I mean, the thing that thatstudent did wrong was to throw
the marker.
The result was the injury.
I mean it could have hit thewall.
(11:31):
It just happened to hit anotherstudent.
I mean it could have hit thewall.
It just happened to hit anotherstudent, this student also.
If it's the person that I'msuspecting, they probably didn't
do any work the time I wasthere, no matter how many times
I came back to their desk.
I will also say that thatstudent spent the most time with
(11:56):
the principals.
Don't know if they concludedthat it was that person.
I also spoke to the injuredperson.
After we finally let the classgo, I went down the hallway to
use the restroom, came back andshe was in there and she looked
up at me and smiled and said Icame back to get my stuff.
Her face was cleaned up.
(12:19):
I'm not sure how much injury.
I couldn't tell how much, howbad the injury was.
To be honest, I didn't even seea scratch at that moment, but
I'm sure at best there's goingto be bruising and that kind of
thing.
She was so friendly I almost Ifelt it was one of my kids.
I would have hugged her.
I felt like she just needed ahug, but I decided against that
(12:43):
because you just never know.
And while my lunch was right.
After that, and eventually thislast student that was
interviewed came back in and ifthat student was the culprit,
they were very friendly, theyspoke to me and they left the
rest of the day.
(13:04):
The very next class I had onestudent one student that's just
spouts off at everything cameback in and said hey, I heard
somebody got their eye put outin the other period.
Well, obviously that didn'thappen.
So that just tells you that.
In the matter of what wouldthat have been?
Not even an hour.
Probably that's the storythat's going around.
(13:26):
And I told him listen.
I said I don't get in a badmood often, but I'm in a bad
mood today because somebody gothurt and it was while I was in
the room and I don't feel verygood about it and I just wanted
them to know.
I told both periods Bothperiods already knew they
expected me to maybe be a little.
(13:46):
I wouldn't characterize myselfas upset, in fact I joked around
with them just like I alwaysdid.
I said something wrong and oneof them said around with them
just like I always did.
I said something wrong and oneof them said something like I do
, very sarcastic, and Isarcastically said shut up, I
wish I hadn't.
But they knew I was saying itcomically, so they rolled their
(14:11):
eyes and then they looked up andlaughed.
That's the what of whathappened.
I talked to the kids that had tostay over in that period about
various different things andjust, you see, you got to be
honest in life.
If for no other reason, toprotect yourself.
You know, who knows that ifeverybody took up for this
(14:34):
guilty student and didn't tellthe truth about what they saw,
well, who knows if they comeback later and think you did it.
I'm not saying that I like infact I joke that I don't like
snitches but when you're beingasked a question directly, you
need to answer it honestly.
Now, with all that said, thatwas probably my most miserable
(14:56):
day.
I won't go back to that schoolfor a while.
I don't go to it very often.
Anyway, I've got weird reasonswhy I'll blame a little bit on
the parking.
I'm not crazy about the parkingsituation.
That's not fair to that school.
But you know I've got sevenother schools I can go to, some
(15:17):
of which, most of which, if theyneed me, will text me in
advance.
I don't actually, I have toseek it out.
I sought out this class Teacherhad to be with somebody or had
an appointment, and in fact Iknow she did, because the
students told me that she wasvisiting her mother.
And I said well, I know thisteacher.
I always liked this teacherwhen she was at the other school
(15:40):
, didn't even realize she was atthis school.
Now I'm going to go sub for her.
I kind of like to at least makean appearance or two in every
school.
Well, I did so.
What would I do differently?
First of all, was it my fault?
Well, no and yes, did I throwthe marker?
(16:00):
No, should I have been able tosee what happened?
Probably I was havingconversations with other
students closer to the door.
Maybe even some of you say itwasn't your fault.
I will tell the students oftenand I guess leaning back in the
chairs is when I say it mostoften I will tell them don't
(16:22):
lean back in your chairs,because if you get hurt, if you
bang your head on the wall, ifyou bang your head on the floor,
if you twist your ankle on theway down, well that's my fault.
I should have told you to putyour chair down.
So to that degree I will acceptfault here.
(16:43):
It happened on my watch.
So since I personally, I don'tthink the school blames me.
I blame myself because thereare some things that I could
have done.
Here's what I'm going to do inthe future.
There are plenty of teachersout there not the majority, this
is the minority but plenty ofteachers out there that make
their students stay in theirchair until the bell rings.
(17:08):
I know some teachers I've met.
They won't even let them leavewhen the bell rings until they
say okay, kids, look around,make sure everything's picked up
.
He'll wait a few minutes andthen he'll say all right, you
all can leave.
That's probably the main thingthat I'll change.
I'll I will tell students fromnow on stay in your chairs.
(17:33):
I might even use this as anexample.
I said you know, when I let aclass not stay in their chairs
at the end of class, an injuryhappened.
For that reason, I don't wantthat to happen again.
It was an accidental injury.
Even though it happened becausea student made a bad decision,
I am still going to start makingstudents not congregate, not
(17:58):
move from their chairs until thebell rings.
That could have prevented this.
I hope it prevents it in thefuture and that's the main thing
I'm going to change.
I hope this never happens toyou.
I hope it never happens to meagain.
I'm going to try to keep itfrom happening to me again,
(18:19):
because it is a miserablefeeling.
There is a student in that roomthat left the room in a more
hurt condition than they walkedin.
Sometimes that can happen withwords too.
It doesn't just happen to besomething physical.
But we as substitute teachersneed to do our best.
(18:42):
Those kids, we have those kidsin our possession for an hour
each day, and we should putwhatever measures we can in
effect to keep bad stuff fromhappening again.
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