Touch a Life: Substitute Teach

Subbed at another undisclosed location today. All classes were real good; one was very "energetic,"  and pretty much kept me on my toes the whole period.

One little girl I had to say something about her attitude as class was beginning. She was just being mouthy and attitudy (that's my new term for being aggressively combative for no apparent reason -- to me as a sub).

Anyway, things settled down, more or less, with a lot of sparring and interacting and finally getting their attention and apparently respect. A little humor, a little patience, some of you know what I'm talking about.

After the bell rang, this little girl, [whom I had been in class with before but could not remember where or when (sounds like a song?)] says to me, "You're the best sub I've ever had...even though I had a bad attitude earlier. Sorry about that."

I related to her about a substitute experience I had had earlier when I had less experience (about 30 years ago) and students were playing cards, throwing paper airplanes out the window and I had completely lost control. She said, "That's when you write them up and...I'm having to learn about that now...as a parent."

"As a parent?" I wondered and she proceeded to show me a picture of her two-month-old son.

We are in a strange and wonderful age today, and what an opportunity to reach out.  I was remembering a saying I read somewhere-an ad to recruit subs. it said. "Touch a life: substitute teach." I'm really beginning to believe that!

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