New substitute teachers inevitably make mistakes. Hard to believe mistakes. Here are three instances in my brief career so far which actually happened.
AGE – IT’S ONLY A NUMBER: I actually mistook a student teacher for a 7th grader. Yes, I really did. In my defense, she showed up near the end of my class and sat in the chairs the students use. She was evidently early for the next class, but how was I to know? Plus she looks very young, and masks make it more difficult to guess someone’s age. Many are not aware, but for older people, there are only 4 distinguishable ages
0 – 10 – The babies
11 – 40 – The younger generation
41 – 90 – Middle age
90 + – These people are really, really old
I asked this teacher, with my cheerful voice reserved for students “oh, and what grade are you in?” She misunderstood my question a bit and responded, “I teach the 8th grade”. I sat stunned for about 30 seconds. I have since had the pleasure of a couple of conversations with her. She is literally our future, and she is going to be an incredible teacher.
GENDER – NOT WHAT IT SEEMS: I mistook a boy for a girl. Over several days. Having lunch with the teachers one day, I asked about the girls basketball team. Informed there was not one, I responded, “well Julian (name changed) told me she is on the team. A teacher responded “Tom, Julian is a boy. We have a couple of non-binary students, but Julian is not one of them” All I could say was OMG. And recall all the times I referred to the girls’ basketball team when I talked with this student.
By the way, Julian was maybe my favorite student at this school. My final class of every day was a study hall in a large common room. Very difficult to take attendance because of the noise, students spread out a bit, and I don’t know the names. Each day as I called the names, Julian, this precious little 7th grader, would quietly slide up next to me and whisper “he’s over there in the corner” or “she’s not here”. Such a generous thoughtful gesture, without being asked or prompted. I’ll remember him for quite a while.
EXCUSE ME – DO I KNOW YOU? After school today, I walked to my car about 2 blocks from the school. As I got into the car, I noticed a young boy on the other side of the street. This is not uncommon. Some students walk away from the school and wait for a pick up. I yelled across the street and this was the conversation.
Me – Hey, enjoy your day off tomorrow!!
Him – Um. What? Day off?
Me – Yes, we have tomorrow off – Veterans Day
Him – Oh, um, ok. You have tomorrow off?
Me – Yes. Well ok. See you then
Towards the end of the quick exchange, I was starting to realize he was probably not even a student at the school. I can imagine the conversation when his parents heard about this. “Well, is that all he said? He was just telling you about the holiday? It’s very odd”.
You don’t need to be perfect to be a substitute teacher. You do need to like kids. I cannot imagine doing this if you don’t like kids. You do need to want to contribute to our educational system. And, especially, you need to care. You need to care a lot.