I have been debating for the past three hours on whether I should even Blog about this...and you can obviously see what my final decision is. Okay, here is the scenario...
Overall, I have a fairly decent group of students this year...no real major problems to report. However, the reports I receive from substitute teachers who have my students is a completely different story! Apparently, my students were so awful on December 18th, 2008, that the substitute wrote me a note saying, "I will never sub for your class again!" Now some would look at the date and think, "Come on, December 18th? What do you expect? The kids were just acting out because they know Christmas Break begins the next day." Well, I cannot accept that! (sorry if you were one of the ones thinking the above)
As you probably know, I stayed home from work on Monday and Tuesday of this week to regain strength from my sickly weekend. Then today the kids had off school while I had the privilege of attending a Teacher's Institute. So I will not be seeing the kids until tomorrow. At the Institute today, my co-worker from across the hall filled me in on how "awful" my students were for the substitute yesterday. They were so bad, my co-worker had to go in and help out.
I decided to Blog about this because I am asking for your suggestion of what would be an effective punishment for my students. I know, I know, I'm the teacher...I should already have an effective classroom management plan in place. Afterall, you have to pass Classroom Management 101 before earning your BA degree, right?? (For those of you who are my teacher friends, I'm sure you just got a great laugh out of that one.) Well, I do have an effective classroom management plan in place...and it seems to work rather well...FOR ME...not for the substitute. I know I could chalk it up to the fact that kids will be kids when they have a substitute teacher...and be thankful that they don't treat me like that on a regular basis...but I refuse to just accept that. I have higher standards for my kids...and I believe they can achieve.
So if you have any suggestions on something you feel might be an effective punishment for my darlings at school tomorrow, please feel free to leave a comment (or e-mail me at lcolbert@sd163.com). I have a thought or two in my mind, but I am going to continue to pray about it tonight and tomorrow morning, as well as read suggestions you might have. If you have no suggestions but your heart still goes out to me, I would really love your prayers!! Thanks guys!
2 comments:
The first thing I thought of as I was reading this was.. hmmm.. maybe Lori has a thicker skin than the other teachers!
I have no formal training in teaching, but I'm not sure how effective "class punishments" are. When I think back to my own school days, it did very little for *me*. Usually trouble was started by a couple of kids, and everyone else just went along. When everyone got punished, the instigating kids just sniggered - delighted at the fact that they got everyone in trouble. See what I mean? I'm not sure if you know who the rotten apples are, but it might be worth working on them, instead of tipping the whole cart out. Just my opinion. I'd be interested to know what you did and how it worked out!
Interesting thought that Bipin has! (I hadn't thought if it that way, but it's certainly worth considering). I prayed for you last night and again today... God's word says, "if ye lack wisdom, just ask...", and so I have prayed and asked God to grant you His wisdom in how to handle this situation. I, too, will be interested in knowing what the end result is/was =)
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