Subbing in the DR

Today my host teacher was out sick so I taught all of the classes on my own! Normally that is not a big deal to me at all, I started subbing in Michigan over 2 years ago, and subbed all the time during my student teaching. Here school is so different, and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to exactly carry out the plans my teacher wanted because I didn’t have the right tools. Luckily she emailed me last night saying she might be out and left instructions for the day so that I was prepared with alternate ideas before I got to school.

Just Kidding 🙂 ….most of the time at least.

Almost all of the classed were supposed to do something that involved the projector – which I have no way to connect my computer to. I asked around the school but was unable to find a good solution, so I came up with other plans. Instead of watching documentaries we discussed study guides and I had a chance to talk with students to get to know them a little better. the 9th graders worked diligently all hour on their World History study guides. Almost all of the the 8th graders claimed to have finished ALL of the study guides for their classes, but I think they just said that because they wanted to chat. One of the boys just kept wandering around blowing bubbles, where he got bubbles I have no idea. We were supposed to play a geography game by projecting a map of South America onto the board, so I had to come up with something else. First, I tried to draw the continent on the board so that they could name the countries, but it turns out I can’t draw. So I found a worksheet in the desk (I hope it was okay to use!) and had the students use that to label the countries and geographic features. This worked well, but it wasn’t as fun as the game would have been.

It was kind of funny that I subbed today, because my teacher and I just talked about how subbing works yesterday. She said that if a teacher is absent, an aide from an elementary classroom will come fill in, but that they don’t really teach. Later, one of the other student teachers and I talked about this and compared it to subbing in Michigan. To be a substitute teacher in Michigan all you need is 90 credit hours of college education (in any degree/major), pass a background check, attend a 2 hour training, do some easy online training modules and then sign up for sub jobs! You don’t need any experience in teaching, and there is no interview. We couldn’t imagine if they did subbing like that here. I’m not sure any of the non-teacher subs would make it through their first day!

Overall, I survived my first day of subbing in the DR! I have always felt that flexibility is an essential part of being a teacher, and it definitely came into play today.

Teaching 8th Grade Geography and My First University Coordinator Observation

Tuesdays are shorter days in my classroom because we only have students for 3 of the 7 class periods. It gives plenty of time for things such as lesson planning and grading. Today I taught the U.S. History class as we continued learning about U.S. Imperialism. I also taught the 8th grade Geography class for the very first time. My CMU professor came to observe my teaching for this lesson.

In geography the students are currently giving presentations on the different countries in the Americas. I interrupted their presentations today with a lesson on the geography of Michigan. I showed them how to use a KWL chart and we reviewed the 5 themes of geography while learning about the state I live in. They seemed very interested in the lesson, and had some wonderful questions, which made me very happy! I love it when students get involved with a lesson because they are genuinely curious about the topic. The students were very well behaved as well. They had so many questions that the lesson went right up until the bell rang, even though I had a few more things that we could have done in class. Both my coordinating teacher and my CMU professor both liked the lesson and provided some very helpful feedback.

 

I have noticed that I teach much differently here than I did back in Michigan, and I think there are a couple of reasons for it. Typically, I stand and move around the room more while lecturing, but here I feel like I am a little more tied to the desk because of the set up of the desk/computer/projector. Since I taught in my Michigan classroom for a much longer period of time, I felt more like the class was mine and I created almost everything on my own. Being here for a shorter amount of time makes me feel like the classroom will never become “mine.” I am okay with this because I expected things to be different, but I had gotten used to being the only teacher in the classroom and using my own materials. I guess I just felt more in control and prepared for my classes in Michigan.