Why I Stopped Punishing My Class For Their Behavior with Subs
We've all been there: you had to be gone for a day and now you walk into your classroom, cautiously approaching your desk where IT sits. Maybe it won't be there because there was nothing to say , your mind imagines. But it is. Full of writing that fills the front, the back and goes sideways up the margin. It's THE NOTE FROM THE SUB . (Cue horror music and flashes of lightning.) Inwardly you hope it's all good. It just has a lot to say about how fantastic your class was: helpful, well-behaved, on-task and courteous; how the sub is begging to come back anytime; how they called your principal and just had to say how awesome your class was. But this fantasy ends as you begin to read. They were awful. They played around. One talked back. Three were off task. It goes on and on and on. Your core body temperature rises. The crease between your eyebrows deepens. Another gray hair springs forth. How could they...