<p>We should all consider ourselves schooled in How to Ruin a Thread 101 thanks to some of the posters in here.</p>
<p>All in all, this thread has shed some light on the multiple perceptions. You don’t know somebody else’s experience nor do you know how they were effected.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that most adolescents do not like to be singled out in public for ANYTHING and to do so in a classroom setting shows a lack of common sense. The OP has a right to her feelings. The motivation of the individual doing the singling out can only be a matter of speculation. The fact that it was a dumb thing to do is unquestioned.</p>
<p>“The OP has a right to her feelings.”</p>
<p>Of course she does, but to expect the rest of planet to accommodate them is unrealistic. A dumb sub is not that unusual.</p>
<p>The original question was whether the sub’s questions were inappropriate. If they were, the OP has every right to complain and expect it not happen again. If inappropriate, in this particular situation, sweetcupcake can expect to be accommodated. This is not an unreasonable expectation, if the behavior is inappropriate. It doesn’t matter if the sub doesn’t know better. </p>
<p>sweetcupcake: This is not just in your head. It was inappropriate. Thank you for posting.</p>
<h1>214 sseamom</h1>
<p>I emphatically agree.</p>
<p>I’m not sure that politely asking someone a question is truly inappropriate, although as I said earlier, sweetcupcake could have equally politely inquired as to the reason for the question. The answer to the unasked question would help clarify if the question was inappropriate. Ultimately, inappropriate is very hard to quanitfy in absolute terms. Just because something bothers us doesn’t mean it is inappropriate. And there is no right to never be offended in life.</p>
<p>If nothing else is accomplished, going through experiences like this and thinking about them afterwards is helpful for the next time it happens. I occasionally get asked questions that I feel are inappropriate, like “how much did you pay for your house?” (I live in CA afterall, lol) and “what were your D’s SAT scores?” </p>
<p>The first time I was asked those questions, I was taken off-guard, and answered honestly because I didn’t know what else to say at that moment. It bugged me later that I did this, because I don’t consider that information anyone else’s business.</p>
<p>Now I answer with, “why do you want to know?” That usually gets them to both check their manners and explain their motives. I will usually hear back something like, “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to pry but I’d love to buy a house in this area, or I’d love for my S to get into your D’s college.” Then I give them the range of sales prices in my area, or tell them that D’s scores were in the published range of accepted students.</p>
<p>Some people have bad manners, but they are harmless. We need to prepare for them.</p>
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<p>I don’t know where you got the idea the sub was asking a question politely. It was very apparent from the OP’s posts that the sub’s manner WASN’T POLITE. </p>
<p>Singling out certain students, asking them questions on what may be a sensitive topic to some in an insistent manner*, and especially putting the OP on the spot with the political questions isn’t polite in my or most well-adjusted people’s books…especially when one has a captive audience as the sub did with OP and her classmates. </p>
<p>Also, while it wasn’t covered very much in this discussion, the sub also added insult to injury via backhanded insults when asking further questions completely irrelevant to the lesson plan the regular teacher left for OP’s class as shown from Post1:</p>
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<p>I don’t know about you, but that’s an exceedingly odd way of demonstrating one’s politeness. </p>
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<li>“Where are YOU from?”</li>
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<p>I’m still trying to understand why where one is from is a sensitive topic. The sub probably didn’t understand that either.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that if the sub had asked OP which brand of toothpaste she uses, it would not have been a problem. That is a pretty personal question that no one seems to care much about.</p>
<p>About the tone, how many of you have teenagers that think you are yelling at them when you ask them something? I had one. No matter how quiet my voice was she thought I was yelling at her. Teens sometimes hear things different than adults.</p>
<p>The other thing that is bothering me here is the comments about subs as I am one. First of all, depending on your school district, many subs are not teacher certified. They do not get all this training that Cobrat is going on about. In our state, you have to have a four year degree and it can be in anything. Comments that subs are dumb is plainly wrong. Some subs are awful- agreed and that is true about any employee. Also subs do not get any training. I would like to see some of you walk into a class cold and teach a roomful of kids ( and yes, I often teach). Sometimes the teachers don’t leave very good plans, sometimes they leave great plans. I have shown up before and not even had a list of the students. And by the way, the pay is not good. There is a lot of flexibility and that is one reason I do it. I also do it because I enjoy the kids.</p>
<p>How did this thread morph from a sub’s questions- to arrests, profiling, assumptions about how kids are related in a family, and some of the wilder arcs, including community college or campus protest/ROTC-whatever? </p>
<p>Yes, there is prejudice in this country. And, yes, there are goons who assume the worst about others and their circumstances. IS the one true solution really to ignore ethnicity (which for many, is a rich aspect of their lives?) Should there be some magical glasses we wear that makes everyone appear the same? Does anyone really think that, if we never ask ethnicity again, somehow the country will straighten itself out on issues of inequality, segregation and all the other problems that still exist?</p>
<p>Anyone notice the otherizing going on in this very thread? How easy it is to play “us and them?” “We who understand vs you who do not.” “We who don’t see shadows and you who overreact?”</p>
<p>Where is the beacon of reasonableness to guide us through this?</p>
<p>And, Cobrat, YOU do not know any better than the rest of us how the teacher conveyed the question. OP said, emphasis on YOU. Each of us can interpret what that meant. </p>
<p>I am fine, how are YOU? Does that deserve an OMG reaction?</p>
<p>Maybe we just shouldn’t ask anything or interact at all? Isolate, in order not to pry? OR, should we be putting people together, learning about each other, in order to find how we relate, in order to appreciate each other?</p>
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<p>On the flipside, I’ve encountered/known of several instances of oblivious supervisors and older adults who never thought they were yelling or behaving in a rude, aggressive, belligerent manner. </p>
<p>Even after getting strongly counseled/fired from jobs, threatened/expelled from educational institutions, and/or being escorted out/arrested by cops for “Disturbing the peace”. </p>
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<p>FYI, I’ve tutored groups of kids and young adults while acting as a voluntary SAT tutor or in various academic subjects during my late HS/college years. </p>
<p>I’ve also subbed for a friend’s community college class where he left on such short notice I ended up drawing up a lesson plan and teaching it to two one hour sections of 50-70+ students ranging in ages from traditional aged freshmen to students in their 40s. </p>
<p>I just went in, took attendance as required by the public community college system, and went straight into the lesson where it was a lecture with some class participation/Q & A. </p>
<p>One thing I kept in mind was that they were tuition-paying students and/or taxpayers who didn’t want their class time wasted with idle chit-chat…especially on matters completely irrelevant from the lesson which was supposed to be covered on that day.<br>
Most of them agreed and appreciated that judging by the positive feedback I received from the students, friend, and department chair.</p>
<p>Is your way the right way, cobrat? You aware of the Japanese studies about the effectiveness of interweaving lessons and down time, in the classroom?</p>
<p>This is not about your experiences, as a sub, at a cc.</p>
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<p>Neither one of these scenarios is even remotely the same as being a sub in a typical American high school.</p>
<p>I was a substitute teacher for a short while before being hired for my first teaching job. It can be REALLY challenging. It was so long ago, however, that I certainly wouldn’t put my experience up to anyone tackling that job today.</p>
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<p>For that class and set of students, yes. There was too much material to cover and I could tell they wanted to make most of their class time. </p>
<p>That doesn’t mean that it’s fine for me to deliver a dense, dry, boring lecture, either. If anything, planning out the lesson plan so I could make it interesting, weave in references from modern life, and encourage student-driven interactive participation made it much easier and more enjoyable for both me as the sub lecturer and the class. </p>
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<p>If you can send me links or titles to those studies, I’d like to read them. </p>
<p>However, that’s ironic considering nearly every Japanese international student I’ve met has mentioned his/her educational experiences from elementary school till college was mostly a “sit down, shut up, and listen to the teacher/Professor/lecturer lecture practically non-stop for an hour or more.” Only exceptions were those who attended International/American high schools in Japan. </p>
<p>Moreover, students were strongly rebuked for trying to ask questions or participate during the class as they were viewed by most teachers/educational admins…especially older generation ones as disruptive and “undermining of their educational authority”.</p>
<p>But this digresses.</p>
<p>College classes and SAT classes are very different from run of the mill high school classes. Not every high school kid is there to learn. Granted AP classes are also different but they are still high school kids.</p>
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<p>Not every college student is there to learn, either. While most in both sections of my friend’s class I subbed for were highly motivated, there are many other cases I’ve heard about where they’re not motivated or sometimes even disruptive as what you’d find in many high schools. </p>
<p>This seemed to have been a case in the local community college system in the past judging by my being informed that if I had any issues with disruptive/violent students, I had the option to call in campus security to have them escorted out if needed. </p>
<p>Fortunately, that wasn’t necessary with the classes I subbed for.</p>
<p>^^^So what you’re saying is, however, you have NO experience subbing in a “typical” high school environment.</p>
<p>^ ^
I don’t know…but there seems to be an underlying assumption among some supporters of the sub’s “good intentions” that high school students are so immature, incapable, and so easily distracted that even 40 minutes of half-hearted sustained attention is “too much” for them or they can’t trust what they see or hear…even when what they’ve experience is well known even among commenters who agree with the OP’s perspective. </p>
<p>[sarcasm]
Thus, they need teachers…especially subs to act as one would at a cocktail party among friends for most/all of that time period. Going straight into the lesson plan after a brief 1 minute or less introduction is “too much” for such “poor darlings”. <em>sob</em> [/sarcasm]</p>
<p>Ironic considering when assessing the OP and classmates with the sub…it’s the sub who comes up exceedingly short in the areas of professionalism, good judgment, maturity, and basic common sense. </p>
<p>Quite damning considering he’s older and presumably has many more years of education behind him. In short, Stan Lee’s “With greater power comes greater responsibility” is extremely applicable regarding the sub and his actions. </p>
<p>I’m also willing to give high school students like OP and her classmates much more credit than some here are willing to give them.</p>