Challenge of a kindergarten substitute

Teaching is one thing, but being a substitute teacher is a completely different story.  If you are ever given the opportunity or challenge of being a kindergarten substitute, I feel for you.

Today, in my internship class, the instructor was a substitute and boy, did she have her work cut out for her. I spent the entire day laughing at the students as they corrected every move made by the substitute. I believe that she couldn’t even breathe right without one of them saying something. Don’t get me wrong, the children were not mean or rude, they were simply used to their routine and regular teacher.  It is actually a compliment to their teacher to know that they enjoy her style of teaching so much that they believed anything different was incorrect.

One example of the substitute’s “error” occurred as we were doing calendar on the board and comparing one to one with two children’s names. The substitute began writing the addition problem in conjunction with the number of letters in certain names, and as she was adding them up, the students started yelling, “No, Mrs. Owens, you’re doing that wrong. You have to do one to one and draw the minions.”  The look on Mrs. Owens’ face was priceless, as she thought she was doing fine. As we continued working on more calendar items, a pattern quickly developed in which it became obvious that the substitute didn’t stand a chance. After everything she did, the students’ would respond with “No, you’re not doing that right. You have to do it this way.” Thank goodness, Mrs. Owens, the substitute took it all in with a grain of salt and kept a good sense of humor with the critiques she was receiving. Today, the class was student taught by kindergartener’s, which was interesting and great to see them explain and understand what had previously been taught to them. The kids were so accustomed to a routine that they did not want to try anything new or change how things were supposed to go. They had something to say about everything, and the substitute let them chime in, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

My favorite aspect of young children is how they seem to have no filter and simply say what is on their minds. I learned one important step today to take with me into my teaching career, which is that I will be sure not to change routines in my classroom without warning the children. Never a boring day when children are involved!!