Mr. P
I just became a substitute teacher. Because I have a passion for kids, I absolutely enjoy my job but of course there are times I am frustrated and want to discipline every kid I come into contact with. For example, last week I had to substitute teach a 2nd grade class and everything was fine and dandy. Matter of fact, we even began the class by dancing. These kids were freaking break dancing! At the end of it, I jumped into a roll and busted out a turning kick following by a 360 tornado kick. LOL. Needless to say, we had an awesome time. Then as the day slowly went on, I would come to learn that these kids were defiant as can be. They would totally disregard any rules I would enforce. There was literally eight boys rolling around wrestling each other on the carpet meanwhile a two kids sought my help with the assigned homework and everyone else was tattle-telling on each other for the stupidest reasons . Some of these things weren’t even worthy to be called conflicts. I came home that day so ready to be off and feeling legitimate heaviness on my back. I then made it a priority to never take jobs with lower grade school kids. They are in the truest sense of the phrase, “a pain in my back.” Haha
Then, there are other days when I get to approach a class who may be experiencing a great deal of apathy. This week I subbed for a 9th grade biology class. The classwork was really simple. Watch a film about Charles Darwin and natural selection and answer three questions about it. Piece of cake. I had five periods with a median of about fifteen students. Most of my jobs by the way, are at ACE Charter Schools. These are basically free public schools whose aim is to prepare students to go to college who are currently in remedial courses. The emphasis is lower socioeconomic backgrounds and at-risk youth. So I show these films and do what I’m told, and surprisingly, of these first five classes this is how many people turn in their work: 4 for the first, 5 for the second, 2 for the third, and 1 for the fourth.... At this point I’m thinking what in the world is going on. I explicitly told them that this is class work and it’s due before the period ends. Why aren’t people turning in their work? I then went on a spiel about education and how you can make much of your life or do nothing with it. I was reminded of an African judge lady giving a spiel that went viral to these kids and I said something similar to them: “It’s easy to be nothing. Who wants to be nothing? That’s right nobody. But it’s gonna take hard work to add value to your life and to make a difference in your community. It begins now, with this assignment right in front of you. Either you approach it with a can-do attitude and know that on the other side of it is a better you, smarter you, stronger you or you can be apathetic like everyone else and just give up. What’s your choice?” (I said more stuff which I don’t remember but I’ll just keep it brief) After the video, I was overjoyed to see that almost three-fourths of the class turned in their assigned work compared to the previous classes. I was just reminded about how the power of life and death are truly in the tongue, and was blessed for God to be able to use me in that moment to encourage these kids.
