*Update* I'm teaching at a high school all day tomorrow.

[ScottyB]

Update:


The day went okay. I had prep for the first 90 minutes of school, so I ended up sitting around and pacing the room. I then had academic center (aka study hall). The kids were very rowdy and snotty to me (they were freshman).

I toughened up for my second class in which I taught Earth Science. But I had to break up an arm wrestling match which then turned into a thumb wrestling match (as the kids were pushing boundaries).

During my third (and last) class of the day, I ran out of my caffeine buzz and was upset from the first two periods; I decided enough was enough and wrote a few rules on the board before class started. The kids were very quiet and did all their work. Some ugly fat girl with braces was sneering at me the entire hour, though (apparently she didn't like my more strict teaching style I adopted for that class). She started to pass a note around to her friends (which I suspect was about me) trying to be as covert as semi-retarded freshman can be. So I pretended to look away and waited until the note came back to her at which time I took the liberty of yelling at her.

It was fairly crappy until I put my foot down, then I actually started to like the job. I also got to spend a lot of time talking with old teachers (which got me on a few preferred sub lists). One of my old teachers suggested sneering back next time. All-in-all it turned out to be pretty fun.

 

[eldorado99]

I remember when I was in high school I once had a sub who started the class with "Alright, I don't want to teach, and you don't want to learn, so lets just sit here until we can all go home." And thats exactly what we did, funny how that kind of thing can fly in high school, and that our taxes pay for it.

 

[Toonces]

I was a sub for three years, three months per year (April-June) between when I finished university and summer jobs started. My area was fairly rural so they were desperate for anyone edumacated.

Don't be strict unless you absolutely have to. I only lost control of a class once - Grade 7's - and needed to send a few to the principal's office for a fight that broke out. Most of the other teachers knew how bad that class was; each substitute was endlessly pittied during the lunch hour if you had that class.

I'm not sure how old you are, but for me since I was only (and still am) in my early 20's it was pretty easy to just relax and have fun with the students. They respect someone who offers them resepect. Yelling and strict rules sometimes work, but only if they've been accustomed to it by their previous teacher - and that's only for up to grades 7-8-9; afterwards it won't do any good.

Also, you're a substitute. No one, not even administration thinks you're anything but a warm body in the class. They don't expect you to offer new material, heck, they're happy if the students at least attempt to do the work their assigned to keep them busy. Half the time I'd just get them to work on their assignments but if they didn't want to, eh, don't stress yourself out or think you have to assume personal responsibility that every student has every question finished.

Let them ask questions. Let them explore what you have to offer as a new person. Kids like to hear from people that are still young enough to relate about life in older grades or in university/college. More than once I've spent an entire period just answering questions from Gr.12's about what university is like; how to prepare, dorms, etc... That's something I think they'll find far more valuable than 20 more calculations of "plot the vector on a cartesian plane"

But, alas, it's only my personal experience and it might not be a style that you're comfortable with - or that achieves the best results. Although they can be whiney, self-absorbed, beligerant brats at times... I don't know where I was going with that train of thought