The job wasn't hard, I was doing a half day for an elective teacher at a middle school and they were having their monthly DARE-type speaker come in and do his lesson so all I really had to do was take attendance and babysit. The guy was...sort of a bizarre individual, but generally friendly and, you know, he was doing all the work. Hooray, right?
By the end of the day it took everything I had to stop myself from bashing my head against the wall in frustration, this guy has NO business in this program if they want it to have any lasting impact on the students. I know they're trained to follow the pre-written lesson plan verbatim, but this was absolutely absurd. In the 3 periods I saw I watched him read to the students from the crappy workbook, completely mangle basic health facts (he refused to believe me when I told him testosterone is a hormone), and blindly plow through OBVIOUS teaching moments. These students would flat out hand him these golden shining moments of personal revelation that he could have seized and made a relevant point about the dangers of substance abuse. He had so many opportunities to help these kids find meaning in what he was saying, but instead he let them play with the ridiculously corny props he brought in and spent 30 minutes letting them play with the drunk goggles. Cool.
I'm just a sub, these classrooms aren't mine and I am in no position to modify things, but situations like that just make my blood pressure shoot through the roof. THIS is why students think anti-drug programs are a waste of time, THIS is why the message never sinks in, THIS is why we have 7th graders smoking pot together instead of doing their damn math homework. If we're not even going to bother trying to make these things worthwhile then why even have them? If the speaker is an uptight do-gooder who is 100% incapable of sincerity then why on Earth WOULD students listen to him? I grew up with a drug phobia because Sesame Street convinced me they were bad news and even I thought my DARE officer was a dweeb. Ugh.
To blow off I came home and snuggled with captain Max:
Also...wedding pictures will be uploaded as soon as I get the cd. They are AMAZING! Get excited!
Love and Kisses,
Dana
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That must be incredibly infuriating. But I can't help wonder why we give subs so little credit and ability to teach? I mean there are people like you that have genuine teaching ability and knowledge. Why shouldn't you at least have the ability to speak up in class or follow through with teaching moments? Why are subs just treated like lazy untrustworthy babysitters?
ReplyDeleteI LOVE kitty snuggle time!!!
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