Substitute Teaching

Every now and then I like to receive compliments about my teaching because sometimes I think I am doing a good job. I just got done subbing for a school that is in a completely different part of vegas. It was for kindergarten...a grade I do not particularly enjoy. When I walked in, I read a note from the sub from Friday to find the class was hell. I couldn't believed I signed up for two days of it. But it didn't turn out that way. I laid down the law immediately. Kids went to time out, I got right in the face of kids and yelled at them, and by lunch, about half the class had cried at some point that morning. During all of this, I did cover all the instruction I was supposed to. It is actually easy to see the low expectations of students when teachers do not leave enough work. This means they don't expect their students will be able to do a lot. Well, I had a lot of free time because they buckled down and got their work done. Apparently, I made quiet the impression on the librarian who said the class has never been that good in library. Today, my second day, the teacher next door stepped in for a little bit (I'd like to think it was because she wanted to see this handsome young man), and the principal came by as well. I don't really like it when that happens because I always feel I am being judged unfairly because the kids aren't even mine. Anyway, at the end of the day, I returned the keys in the office and the office manager asked if I was on track break (this is a fair question because most subs aren't. They are professional subs. That goes to show how seriously teachers here take their jobs and their 20 sick days a year). I told her I was, and she told me she heard a lot of good things about me and to come back again any time I want. It was just nice to hear. It only goes to show that all kids are capable of adhering to structure. I think teachers forget that they are just kids. If I want them to do something, they WILL do it. If they do something I don't want them to, they receive a consequence. It is not a novel concept. Once kids realize I'm serious, they take me seriously. I don't get what the big problem is with teachers. I know some students are more challenging, but come on, they are still just kids.
I think the fact that I, someone who had zero teaching knowledge and experience, was able to get new teacher of the year last year does not show that I am an awesome teacher. Rather, I think it demonstrates how pitiful our teacher education programs have become because they don't even prepare teachers or make them better.