I returned to school today to a class frustrated with the substitute. You know how your students are; they will tell you like it is! Truth is, they didn't like him/her. Not that the sub was strict or anything, but more along the lines that s/he didn't go through the routine like I had written out.
"S/he told us today was going to be different." That's what they were told. As a teacher and former substitute, I know you can't always recreate every little detail of the classroom teacher. As long as you stick to the basic routine, things should be fine. No. Not this one. Things that I wanted gone over weren't gone over like I asked them to be in my three-plus pages of detailed notes. Even with my substitute helper (a student who is there to help the sub with the nuances and details of our daily routine), things were mixed up. Students were left on their own to do things without explanation. Parts of the routine were skipped totally. And it's not that my students were bad, they just had a hard time adjusting to the person in charge.
I have students who rely on our routine as a comfort. Any change in the routine without explanation can cause meltdowns. These two struggled all day. Work that was assigned had to be retaught and gone over again when I returned. I basically lost a day of teaching. You all know how frustrating that can be, especially if you teach under a district timeline, like I do. The good thing is I was able to get my students back on track and get the skills covered, understood, and applied.
Thing is, this person used to be a teacher. What....?
What about you? Have you ever had a substitute you weren't pleased with?
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