A Day with a Substitute

By: Melissa Cabrales

Thursday, October 7, 2021

Today was an eventful day to say the least. I was surprised to see that my class had a substitute teacher today. The good thing was this is a permanent sub for the school so she knew her way around the classroom and knew all the students' names. She needed my help for some things like showing her where all the teacher's materials were and how certain things were done. Majority of the time, the substitute knew what she was doing and she kept the students hard at work all day. 

I thought it was funny to see how different the student behave just because their teacher wasn't there. The students really tried to get out of doing certain things or explained things the wrong way. That's when I spoke up and said, "Mrs. Cabrales is here and I know what you guys need to be doing and how things are supposed to go." I feel like that's when they knew they wouldn't be able to get away with things that they thought they would be able to. Some students were very chatty and forgot how to raise their hand and just shouted answers out. It took a little bit but the substitute and I were able to settle the students down and get them ready to start working for the day. 

Today I learned how important it is to stick to the schedule the teacher put in place. Students change their attitude when their teacher is away and it's important to not let them walk all over you and get them in order. Classroom management is especially important when the teacher is away. I felt like this was a good lesson to learn as a student teacher to see how different the students behave and how to manage them to get them working.