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I hope you were taught some skills to maintain discipline and handle students in your training.
As a mother, I can tell you that at that age you must pick your battles. Let the small stuff go.
If I were you I would have a strict standard of expecting excellence, but at the same time I would be respectful of the children's differences and maintain a good sense of humor. If you respect them, they will respect you.
I wasn't really taught a lot of classroom management skills, and to be honest, I don't really know what respect looks like to a young child. I was taught that teachers with good classroom management stop problems before they start and deal with non-compliant students before the behavior spreads to the rest of the class. Young children have a bad habit of following each other. If student A sees student B misbehave and does not see student B receive immediate consequences, then student A will probably copy student B, and students C,D,E,F,G, etc. will copy the first two students, and, before anything can really be done, the whole class will be out of control. I'm much more concerned with keeping order and trying to keep the kids safe; that's "respect" to me. I think often the young children think that authority figures are being "mean" when they are just trying to do their jobs.
I really hate it when people do not take posts at face value, and look up the previous posts.
People change.
Most K-12 teachers are not the sharpest tools in the shed. Some are smart. Most are average.
High school and middle school students generally loook at substitute teachers as a "day off".
Deal with it.
Although I would still feel like I did not do my job properly, at this point if the kids just took a "day off" with me in the room, I think I would be okay with it, but they deliberately cause disruptions and chaos when I'm in the room. Not only do they refuse to obey me, but they do everything in their power to show me that theyhave the power to do the exact opposite of what I request. It's like they have something personal against me, but I'm not even at the schools long enough to build a reputation, so I don't see how they could have a good reason to hate me so much.
Although I would still feel like I did not do my job properly, at this point if the kids just took a "day off" with me in the room, I think I would be okay with it, but they deliberately cause disruptions and chaos when I'm in the room. Not only do they refuse to obey me, but they do everything in their power to show me that theyhave the power to do the exact opposite of what I request. It's like they have something personal against me, but I'm not even at the schools long enough to build a reputation, so I don't see how they could have a good reason to hate me so much.
You might be too rigid.
I went to what was considered to be a pretty good public school and the kids messed with certain teachers and substitutes -- which we almost never had because teachers were expected to show up to work.
I think in a school where teachers' attendance is very poor, kids get substitute after substitute.
I've seen that with the schools here -- teachers have very lenient attendance rules. That leads to problems in the classrooms.
Although I would still feel like I did not do my job properly, at this point if the kids just took a "day off" with me in the room, I think I would be okay with it, but they deliberately cause disruptions and chaos when I'm in the room. Not only do they refuse to obey me, but they do everything in their power to show me that theyhave the power to do the exact opposite of what I request. It's like they have something personal against me, but I'm not even at the schools long enough to build a reputation, so I don't see how they could have a good reason to hate me so much.
I stand by my other posts to you in that you are being too hard on yourself. The kids don't hate you, personally. They are obnoxious little balls of energy that dislike ALL substitutes. I never attended public school, so our substitute teachers were already employees in the school - usually our Principal - who was about 6'1" and carried a wooden paddle. We didn't give her any problems.
I ask my kids why they are doing something obnoxious and the answer I've been given is "It's in our job description." I'm old enough (or maybe too tired or too brain-fried) to not get stressed out about much of it.
I stand by my other posts to you in that you are being too hard on yourself. The kids don't hate you, personally. They are obnoxious little balls of energy that dislike ALL substitutes. I never attended public school, so our substitute teachers were already employees in the school - usually our Principal - who was about 6'1" and carried a wooden paddle. We didn't give her any problems.
I ask my kids why they are doing something obnoxious and the answer I've been given is "It's in our job description." I'm old enough (or maybe too tired or too brain-fried) to not get stressed out about much of it.
Stop beating yourself up.
This exactly what they told me in the front office when I described in tears the kind of day I had with the kids. Maybe I am being too hard on myself. They told me to let it go and not worry about it. The issue for me, though, is I feel like I've done something incorrectly to cause them to behave that way, and I'm sure that chaos wasn't pleasing to the principal who checked on that class several times that day and found me apparently "not doing enough." This does get frustrating.
In light of the other posts, though, I think I will start taking someone's advice, actually try to "be a person," and not let what I perceive as failure consume my life. I guess I'll start by throwing myself into a hobby or two not so closely related to Education. I think I'll start looking for things I can do in the community that feel more like my niche and try to focus on those things. Perhaps, I do need to "get out there" more often.
In this thread and your other one you have been told MANY times that it's not your fault. It's ingrained in most children to be as obnoxious as possible. I think the only reasons parents don't kill their own children is because they have records of them at the courthouse. ;-) I know it's hard to understand, especially when you see so many other people effectively "manage" a classroom. There are no *magic* answers unless you plan on sedating your whole classroom. You are going to drive yourself bonkers worrying about it constantly though. Either go back in and keep trying OR find something that involves working with older people. Either way, you can't take everything personally. The world is not perfect and it never will be. We can only do the best we can with the information and skills we have at the time we make any decisions.
I think the only reasons parents don't kill their own children is because they have records of them at the courthouse. ;-).
Lol...I think I get it. They're mean to everyone. It's just in their "job description." I need to stop seeing the outbursts and tantrums as unusual.
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