Today there was a sub when I came to work with the students. The teacher had warned me the night before, but nothing could have prepared me for what happened.
To begin--the pleasant surprise. In my second class, there is a girl who rarely takes our work seriously. Today, however, she shined.
It was a relatively simple warm-up called One to Five Jump. The facilitator shouts out a number between one and five. The students and facilitator then call back the number while moving to a different level. One is as close to the ground as you can get comfortably. Five is jumping up in the air. Two through four are in between. Once done in English a few times, students who know other languages are invited to teach the rest of the class to count from one to five in that language and then lead, calling out numbers between one and five in their language. It can be really exciting for students who speak Spanish to feel like they are teaching everyone else.
The first time I called out one, she was the first and only student to move and call out the number. I immediately complemented her and pointed the other students to her as a model of how to do the activity. For the rest of the class, she continued to perform well, and continued to be the first students to accomplish the goals of the activity. I complimented her periodically and congratulated her again at the end of class.
It was a remarkable change. It was just what I needed to see after the first class fiasco.
It was the perfect storm. The students next door were testing. We were too noisy. I gave the students a chance to go outside since they'd been trying to keep it down. As I gathered the students together in a small grassy area, a few of the boys were still dawdling around a table. I was in the process of bringing everyone together when all at once a boy started climbing up on top of the railing and another teacher walked by with her class. She yelled at the student to get down, asked who I was, then proceeded to chew me out for not watching him do something dangerous, being too noisy as other students tested, and basically being irresponsible...in front of my students. It was totally inappropriate and completely humiliating.
With all my authority undermined, I simply told the students that due to their behavior we were going back inside and we were done with drama for the day. In shaping student behavior, it is what happens during and immediately following behavior that has the greatest impact. I did not let what happened get me angry. I did not react emotionally. Once inside, I calmly told the students that I was a guest in their school. I was not paid to be there. At any time, if someone complained, I could be asked to not come back and that would be the end of my time with them. They were completely silent.
A short time later, I saw the principal walk into the classroom. I had seen her a few times before during the semester, so I knew immediately who she was. I sat at the desk in the back of the room and about had a heart attack when she came up and asked who I was. She wasn't there for me, but to check on a student that had been sent to the office earlier that day. I told her what happened, and she was furious that a teacher would do that in front of students.
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