The Mailbox

Snoopy & Woodstock mailbox
Originally uploaded by lslphoto

Last year, while looking for magazines for my son at our public library, I stumbled upon The Mailbox magazine for teachers. I fell in love with this resource! The Education Center publishes this magazine at five levels (Preschool, Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grades 2-3 and Intermediate. They advertise being the #1 idea magazine for teachers. On this point, they may be right. Every volume I have seen was full of ideas for displays, classroom management, literacy, activities to go along with books, math fun, activity centers, organization tips, etc. The ideas are more appropriate for regular classroom teachers, however, I have adopted many ideas for use with my preschool son, and I think substitutes could glean plenty of ideas from the pages, as well.

The Mailbox also has a website (with free ideas) and a blog. Within the blog, I found a great post with some fresh suggestions to help teachers help their substitutes. Here is an excerpt:

• Come back to an orderly classroom by leaving the substitute a deck of cleanup cards. Write a classroom job on each of several cards that students can do. Ask the substitute to pass them out at the end of the day for a quick and easy cleanup.

• On large individual cards, describe your favorite classroom songs, chants, greetings, games, and time fillers. Keep the cards in a box, or hole-punch the cards and thread them on a metal ring.

Many of the posts in their blog advertise other books or products that they offer for sale, but all that I have read also include sample pages from each level that you can use without making a purchase. Also, many posts are a sharing of experiences and ideas from the readers. Take a look for yourself.

Bag of Tricks

Every teacher (ESPECIALLY substitute ones) needs a Bag of Tricks. As a substitute, your bag of tricks might include a foam ball or small stuffed animal that you toss out to kids for answers during a discussion as a way to keep them interested and engaged. It might include a CD to play a fun movement song to aid in transitioning between activities. For high schoolers you might include logic puzzles or encrypted messages. It may even include something similar to Emily Phillips’ Smiley Face which she uses for classroom management by giving the class (as a whole) a face part for every well-behaved activity, building up to a complete smiley face for an unknown surprise at the end of the day. My Bag certainly has a few of my favorite books (some with an associated puppet or stuffed animal for the lower grades). (I’m hoping that after reading my blog, you have a few blank copies of the End of Day report in there, as well.) For your own protection and use, you may want to toss in some hand sanitizer (keep out of the reach of tiny hands), latex gloves, a whistle (for outside only), the district or school’s emergency procedures, and any specific information you have on that particular school.

These “tricks” are not really tricks at all. Some are ideas and methods to help you manage the classroom more smoothly. Some might be fun activities, notes or certificates to use as rewards for great behavior. Others need to be possible lesson plans (like creative writing prompts or math relays) in case the classroom teacher was out for an emergency and was unable to leave you her desired lesson plans.

But keep in mind that some of your “bag” is figurative – it includes all the sage advice you have garnered from fellow educators (and your mom) about how to deal with children’s needs and behaviors; it includes any reading or professional development you have done; it includes all the resources and network of support to which you have subscribed. In this light, please take a look at Teacher’s Bag of Tricks blog. I have not been able to find an author, but the entries range from links to great resources, to meaningful commentary on articles and ideas to tangible suggestions for use in the classroom. I especially liked the Triple A Treatment post advocating acceptance, approval and affection for classroom management (May 7, 2008) and In Praise (July 22, 2008) about how specific praise can shape how a child thinks of himself, making our every single word important.

I hope this makes you cry....

Because if it does, then your heart is in the right place to be trusted with the hearts of our children.

In all my life, regardless of how many people might have made threats toward me or even chased me all the way home from school, I have never once been in a fight where I hit another person. There are two reasons for this. The first is that I never once thought an issue was important enough to be thrown out of school for fighting. The second is that I could not bear the thought of hitting and hurting another person (even if they were out to get me).

I have always been the person up on the soapbox, trying to protect the underdog, the innocent, the teased, the bullied, even the dismissed. As a teacher, some of my favorite students were not the ones who knew they were smart (and had the attitude to accompany the good grades). One was a class clown on whom most teachers had already given up. Another was a sixteen year old girl who had a son already and had a difficult time passing math class. (I continued to tutor her in subsequent years when she had other teachers, and she graduated, probably surprising herself.) Most of these students were not my same race, they didn't share similar backgrounds or even family structures. At times I am sure they thought I dressed as frumpy as I thought they dressed revealingly. They weren't the smartest or most successful students, and they suffered drawbacks - suspensions (one girl was caught for drugs in school), skipping, failing a test, etc. But I could not give up on them. So many already had. I know it made a difference. I may or may not have been their favorite teacher. I KNOW math was not their favorite subject. However, every day no matter what was going on with them or with me, they knew I cared. They knew I would not tease them or put them down in any way. They could count on me to listen and encourage them. And they listened. They all graduated.

Keep in mind as you enter classroom after classroom that sometimes the slightest comment or smallest gesture can affect a child's self-esteem for a lifetime. Please do not think that because you may only be there for one day that your presence or attitude does not matter. You might be the only person who ever listened to Mary or the first teacher ever to notice that William bullies Sarah every day on the playground. You might be the only teacher to giggle instead of scold when the class clown acts out, and therefore the first to make a connection with him. You cannot know what it will be, but I guarantee you that if you are always kind, listen to all (not just the attentive, attractive, good smelling, behaving ones) children with your heart, keep an open mind, treat them with respect, and never allow student to student teasing, ridiculing and bullying in your presence, you will make an impression and a difference in the lives of many of them.

If you are passionate about caring for children, you might want a tissue....

Communication....

In every aspect of our lives we face admonitions to improve our communication. We are told to communicate more frequently and more effectively. Consider the life of one individual: the thoroughness of communication with their physician could be the difference between effective treatment and bad drug interaction; the timeliness of communication with their mortgage broker could change their credit score or even their living conditions; the effectiveness of communication with their young child could convince him not to get into a car with a stranger (or not); the honesty of communication with their teenage daughter could keep her safe from teen pregnancy or STDs or change her life forever. And so on. Who could argue the importance of communicating to the best of our ability in all relationships at all times?

In the business world, communication breakdown might negatively affect this month’s bottom line, or worse, the continued viability of the company. In education, communication breakdown might cause a child to be mislabeled, affecting his school experience and self-esteem for a lifetime, or cause a problem to go unnoticed which could become unmanageable or unchangeable, or lead to bigger, class-wide problems.

To me, this all seems more like a dissertation on that which is easily apparent and, for the most part, common knowledge, than any revelation or new information at all. Why then, is it so difficult to get teachers not only to recognize the importance of effective communication, but also to practice it? Surely there are myriad answers, many involving time, prioritization of tasks and partially-met goals of perfection. Luckily, it serves us better to look at ways to improve communication, including specific procedures to follow than it does to analyze missed opportunities.

Specifically, every teacher’s best practices should include regular, meaningful two-way communication with parents, other teachers, administration, counselors, etc. Newsletters, class websites, emails, after school meetings, inter-office memos, meetings about curriculum or shared students are our mediums for this communication.

Well what about the substitutes? How do teachers communicate with substitutes and vice versa? Sometimes the teacher calls to request the substitute, but often it is a school administrator or an automated system that notifies the substitute of an opportunity to work. They do not see each other because the substitute is only at the school when the teacher is not. Some may argue that they have no reason to talk. On this point I would contend that without their communication, the learning environment suffers, and therefore, our students suffer, and that being preventable, this is not acceptable.

I think we can agree to a best practice that some teachers and school systems already implement. Our best practice includes not only emergency lesson plans from the teacher, but also seating charts and any general information on the class (and the school) regarding schedule, behavior, etc. As substitutes, we have an important responsibility in the best practice, as well; we need to leave an end of day report for the returning teacher.

This End of Day Report should include (but is not limited to – in this case more information is better) what the class accomplished that day, any problems or obstacles you encountered, specifics on behavior, information on any monies collected, and notes on occurrences that might need follow-up.

See the presentation for more detail on the End of Day Report best practices.

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