This is not a post inspired by an inspirational article or a substitute research report but I wanted to throw out a few ideas about subs that I would like to see your reaction. I was talking with a non-TFA teacher from another city the other day and we were discussing our feelings on how we still do not feel as if we are able to take a day off. Not that we NEED a day off, but if a situation were to arise (like being sick) that we could take off and that the ship would still be running.
I have visions of my students just sitting there in class, fist bumping themselves, celebrating that I am not there. Although, I understand where they are coming from I would rather them be productive and look at a "day when the teacher's out" as not a carnival that during which they ignore their assignments but as a day that they can learn something.
Here are my thoughts. It would put substitute teachers out of a few part time jobs. But what if we spent that money on a full-time substitute teacher. The school would have a teacher whose permanent job would be to teach random classes. They would be a resource teacher, a leadership teacher, etc. They would have a room that students would go to when their teacher was out and they would have lessons from them. They could teach them valuable things such as balancing a checkbook, how to write a resume, make themselves safe on the internet, etc. The teacher could give grades to students, just to keep them in line during class.
This is just a thought that I had and thought that it would be fun to discuss. So no more sick days worried if the kids have lit your desk on fire, no more stacks of half done sub-work assignments. Yes, this does mean they wouldn't be working on MATH in a math class or READING in english but they would be learning something and not wasting their time.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Nick,
Thank you for raising this topic! I have a few friends who are substitute teachers outside of Baltimore and, generally speaking, they find it to be a pretty sweet gig. They keep the kids generally in line, but don't have to worry about assignment completion or anything. In turn, the kids love it. And, from our perspective, that's a day of lost instruction AND any previously built up steam is lost.
In addition to your idea, I wonder what it would be like if, instead of teachers having to craft sub-plans that may or may not be followed, what if the subs themselves crafted lesson plans that they could teach? Especially at the middle and high school levels, this could be an interesting idea. As you said, teach students to balance a check book. Or choose a favorite short story and teach kids about the theme.
Such changes would take the burden off teachers and would increase the likelihood of kids learning something.
This is actually a very interesting topic that you raise. This is an interesting case for substitute teachers, but i have found that we employ long term subs at our school and it seems to be a little bit of an issue at our school. I wonder how you would train substitute teachers and what qualifications they should have in order to be a long term substitute.
I think the lesson ideas that you brought up are definitely good alternatives to them attempting to take on the subject matter of a class that the substitute might not understand.
I also want to raise the idea of New York City's substitute policy in which substitutes cannot sub for more than a certain number of days without certification.. Do you think that this brings up a sort of increase in accountability for quality of our substitute teachers and their dedication to the craft of teaching?
Post a Comment