Time spent with a substitute teacher
Once in a while the teacher may tend to get sick. The question is whether students are doing the work they should be, during that class time. Some students may find it difficult to take up their own responsibility for their learning while the teacher is out. Picture is from public domain.
Once in a while the teacher may tend to get sick. The question is whether students are doing the work they should be, during that class time. Some students may find it difficult to take up their own responsibility for their learning while the teacher is out. Picture is from public domain.
by Yealin Lee, staff reporter
Every once in a blue moon, a teacher might catch a cold, have to attend a meeting, or deal with personal issues. During these times students spend their class time with a ‘substitute teacher’. But whether or not students are actually learning during this time is the big question.
Students may tend to ‘slack off’ when their ‘official teacher’ isn’t keeping a keen eye on them.
“When we have a sub, I usually talk with my friends unless they left us work to do and it counts towards my grade,” junior Binnah Cha said.
Principal Mrs.Schneider enforces a rule that if students know that they will be having a substitute, they are to bring a reading material into the class with them.
“We read our independent reading books if our teacher is absent,” sixth grader Maria Arniotis said.
Some teachers may even take the time to leave work for the students to make productive use of the classroom time.
“I expect my students to be respectful to the teacher who will be in charge and use the time wisely. If I’m substituting a class I usually bring a stack of books so that they can read independently,” social studies teacher Ms. Fong said.
But in many cases, students abuse and take advantage of this situation to avoid doing work and sit with their friends to chat. And although some students can take this time to relax and work on their own pace, it is still important for the class to operate as usual.
“Normally, I read unless we have a project or assignment in that class, but i don’t work as efficiently as when our actual teacher for that class is there, I think this is because we’re not used to the sub and also because they don’t have as much authority,” eighth grader Kerlin Pyun said.
Some students say that they don’t think of the class as an actual “class time” because the substitute doesn’t really teach them anything.
“When we have a substitute, it’s very different because when we have our actual teacher we get a real lesson, but when we get a different teacher, they don’t really give us a lesson so we just read our book,” sixth grader Julia Ragoussis said.
During these precious classroom times, students may not be exactly getting whhttp://wjpsnews.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.phpat they should be getting. Although some students still continue their previous days work or read an independent book, not all the students are taking the action and responsibility for their own learning.