Classroom Discipline
Six weeks after starting the guest teaching assignment which was the subject of my first column, I quit. Actually, I gave about 10 days notice. Personal situations were part of it, but a bigger part was that long term sub jobs are just plain tough. Or at least, this one was!
In the time I served at that school, I was bruised twice while trying to restrain students or stop fights. Please keep in mind that I was constantly praised for finally getting these particular students under control. I was bruised, but they were behaving better than ever! Truthfully, there were only three students in the class that were really obnoxious, but they were just so wild that they wore on my patience. In the end, I realized I had two choices: let this job continue until I was ineligible to continue (in Michigan, one can sub just 150 days or so each academic year), knowing that most of those days would be very challenging, knowing I would receive no additional pay but would be responsible for lesson planning, grading, and more--everything a "real" teacher does. Or, I could give up the position, allowing enough time for the school to hire a permanent teacher if that was their intent. So, I gave notice, and the school did indeed hire a permanent teacher for the class. So, in quitting, I actually gave the students what they really needed anyway: the sense of stability that only a permanent teacher can provide.
Classroom Discipline
Discipline is one of the hardest issues for guest teachers. Few of us are fortunate enough to be in very "quiet" school districts, where classroom behavior is not a large issue. In my own district, I find that the definition of proper behavior and rules of discipline vary from building to building. And the differences seem to rest largely on the social demographics of the neighborhood. In "tough" neighborhoods, all but the most serious offenses are typically expected to be managed by the classroom teacher; in "better" neighborhoods, there is less tolerance for simple issues like disrespect. For instance, in the Classroom from Hades I referred to earlier, the principal agonized over whether a one-day suspension was appropriate for a student who had violently kicked another child in the spine three times then kicked me in the shin; to me, suspension was entirely called for, while the principal felt the fact that the kicker cried in her office showed he was remorseful. In the end, the suspension did stand, but I did feel that it was done more to appease me than out of belief that the child needed to learn a lesson.
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