Let me begin by saying that it takes a very patient person to be a substitute teacher. Without this quality, bad things would happen. For instance, when I was subbing for the 4th grade this week, the kids told me some very disturbing news. They said that their last sub got so angry that he was shouting swear words at them. One brave girl, told the principal. The principal promptly fired the mean sub and all the children lived happily ever after (remember this was told to me by the 4th grader). I was disappointed, but not surprised to hear that one of my colleagues lost it in front of the class. It is definitely hard to keep your cool in many situations that come up as a sub, but the minute you cross the line and start swearing at a class, you will never recover.
I told the class that I was sorry they had to go through that experience and that I would show them complete respect all day long. Now, this was the class that drove the other sub over the line, so I was expecting a hard day. The kids were overly chatty and at times psycho, so I ended up having to write seven kids' names down for the teacher, who I later found out gave those students recess detention for the entire next week. But, never once did I lose my temper. What is the secret, you might ask. Whenever I start to get stressed out, I take a step back and take in a deep breath and breathe out all my troubles, telling myself that I just need to get to the end of the day and it will all be over. Most days are great, but every once and awhile, I get a bad class, so I am on my guard to not lose it and be the next teacher to get fired for swearing at the class.
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