Substitute
teaching is a lot of emotional hard work. One cannot take things personally at
all, one must always be mindful of what the teacher wants, and one must always
refrain from judging.
When
I go into a room to substitute teach I can feel the personality and teaching
style of the teacher. The behavior of the children tell me what their routines
are like and the level of chaos the teacher allows to dwell in the room. All
learning takes place with some amount of chaos. In fact many times the more
chaotic learning looks, the more real learning is going on for the younger
children (although it must be within controllable amounts). The notes left by
the teacher often tell my how much time out of hours the teacher spends working
on her classroom. A workaholic teacher (the usual case) has a nice binder or
much updated information for the substitute, however depending on life
circumstances the notes can be non-existent.
I
have learned so much about myself, teaching, and working in spur of the moment
situations, I almost think that every teacher should spend time as a sub. I
also see so many great ideas and activities that I would have missed out on
learning about if I just had my own room. I wish I had time to learn more about
these ideas with the teacher who created them, but alas when I am in, the
teacher is always out.
I
learned that I like to be the boss, and as a sub, that is not always (if ever)
going to happen. I learned that I definitely prefer younger children. I have
learned that I want to be organized as a teacher. One thing that I love about
being a sub is that I get to go home and relax without worrying about planning.
I also learned that I do actually love to plan, and collaborate with other
teachers, and this is missing from substituting.
All
in all, I highly suggest being a substitute teacher for at least a while; there
is so much to learn about how to be a teacher.
