Do you ever feel like a school is throwing you to the wolves? A while back, I went into a room with NO warning.. These kids were crazy. At some point almost half of the kids were sent to the office. A couple were dragged out of the room by aides. This is not a behavior classroom.
At lunch I went to the Principal and told him I wanted to leave. I have never done that before! I haven't even considered it! He talked me into staying and told me that he would "Read them the riot act!" after lunch.
He came in and asked them to sit in a circle so they could have a class conference. This took 25 minutes. Not the conference, the CIRCLE! When they finally got settled he began quietly asking them about how they thought their day was going. They complained that I was giving them too much work. (Following the lesson plan here, and leaving out several things already.) They complained that I promised them an extra recess and then took it away. (The teacher left time in for a special recess if they earned it. They didn't!) There was lots of talking and miscellaneous complaints about other students. He listened quietly and then said, if you can believe it, "It sounds like Ms. Day isn't being fair to you. If you can agree to have better behavior this afternoon, you can have that extra recess right now." Then he got up and left, while kids were running out of the door of the classroom and down the hall, passing him, toward the playground.
If I weren't currently attempting to find a job in this district I would have had a string of words for him that I would not print here.
I followed them out to the playground, let them have 10 minutes and then blew the whistle. Do you think they came in? Are you kidding? They just ignored me and another teacher came out, blew her whistle, started
screaming about them being too loud by her classroom and calling all of their parents. They finally relented and came back in.
The teacher had 45 minutes of silent reading time planned for the rest of the day. I figured that was going to be another disaster, but the kids actually got out their books and read pretty quietly until I told them it was time to clean up and go home. It was about 10 minutes before the bell rang, but they immediately tried to start leaving. I had to physically block the door until the bell rang.
I don't plan to EVER return to this school. Or anywhere that this principal is working.
One of my best tips for other substitutes is to map the school you are going to in the morning. Even if you have GPS. Just in case technology fails you, you have at least a general idea of where to go.
