Students Need to Know You Care

Letting Students Know You Care

Teaching can be a frustrating business. Time is always limited, and much effort can be spent on classroom management, which takes away from instruction time. The challenge of any teacher is to manage the classroom, engaging the students and using time efficiently, among other things. As a substitute, generally not much is expected by many administrators or teachers. If you can manage to get through the day without incident, that is considered an accomplishment. However, is that all there really is to substitute teaching, glorified babysitting?

Even though a substitute teacher is there for a day, he or she can still communicate that they care about the student's learning. While you must be in alignment with the teacher's lesson plans, you can also do activities that are fun and engaging and include technology if it is available. You can help students struggling with their work. You can encourage cooperative learning and peer teaching. Students can tell that you care by the way you look at them, talk to them and the tone in your voice. Do not forget to let the students know that, even if you are there for a day, you still care. You never know, you may have an opportunity to come back....