[Riverman94610]

When I sub,I often find it tempting to think that all I have to do is review the names on the roll sheet to know what kind of class I am going to get.Yet this technique is not foolproof.I had a Senior Civics class last year full of newly arrived Asian immigrants who were the rudest most obnoxious class I had all year while a US History class full of Miguel Rioses and Kennitra Washingtons were stellar both behavior and academic wise.
Yet I must say that the best chance of getting a well behaved and self directed class will be one full of Chens,Chans and Zhous.

[allmendream]

When I subbed I figured the class conduct had more to do with what the class was used to with their regular teacher than the ethnic makeup of the class. If their regular teacher had them under control and eager to learn they were controlled and eager to learn, if their regular teacher allowed them to be disrespectful and out of control, they tried to be disrespectful and out of control (notice I said tried, I never had to send a kid to the office, but I never let them get away with anything).

My least favorite thing to hear was “You are Cool!” and I would tell them that “I am not here to be cool. I am here to teach you. ‘Cool’ means I let you goof off and you didn't learn anything; I'll never see most of you ever again but I want you to learn.”

My other comment that made an impression was “No disparaging language allowed” which I would write upon the board whenever I heard it, I would often have to DEFINE ‘disparaging language’ as speech meant to make people feel bad about themselves. I smiled when a girl told her friend, “NO DISPARAGING LANGUAGE! You are trying to make me feel bad about myself!”.

Subbing was a lot of fun!