11/8

Today there was a substitute teacher in Mrs. Turners class. The class usually is horribly out of hand and Mrs. Turner said if we wanted to teach a lesson we could when she was gone. We went in prepared to take lead when we noticed something was off. I was shocked. Every student was at their desk, they were paying attention and studying. The sub was in the front of the room leading a lesson while the para was grading papers. I went up to the sub and had to tell her she had amazing classroom management skills. I found out that she used to teach special education and was just subbing for something to do. She said that they were going to play some bingo, but to get the squares to cover up letters they had to behave well and answer questions. She had also brought a bag of candy that she was giving out if they won the bingo. We took control and let her have a break. We led the bingo, took note of the words and checked that the students were all participating. It went very well and they seemed like different kids to me all together.

I learned that some people are just naturally good teachers. This substitute was calm, organized and had tools that the normal teacher did not seem to posses. I also learned that my classmates were amazing. In the program we rarely get to see each other teach. Seeing them go up and take control was great, I really enjoy seeing others in front of the room, especially my friends.

I noticed that there is rarely any talk about transitioning. In Dr. Reeds course we have talked so much on how important it is to start teaching life/job skills in the middle grades. Mrs. Turners students are more than capable to enter the job force when they are older, many I believe could go to college and beyond. If we could just convince the teachers to realize we are not just teaching for them to pass the class, but for them to pass at life it would be amazing. In the Raymonds room book we had an assignment related to thinking up careers for students with disabilities. It got me thinking about how much these students could already be learning towards making their dream career come true.