"And, That Is Why I Do This"

[ProfessorGAC]

Had a wonderful substitute moment on Friday. Actually, four. I'm subbing 8th grade science for 4 days at the school 4 blocks from my house. (How convenient is that?)
First, one 8th grade girl asks if I'm going to be there Monday. I say yes. She announces to the class I'm coming back next week. Whole class responds positively.
Second, one boy asks me why I just don't become a permanent teacher. I told him he doesn't understand how retirement works! He understood it was done humorously.
Third and best:
Last period, girl tells me she's not getting this one question. Says she's no good at this. I coach her to the right answer & told her "See, you're better at this than you think."
A few minutes later, she asks for help again. I do the same. She gets it right. This time I said "I told you you were better at this than you think!". Her reply was "Only because you're so good at explaining it."
Finally, I had a boy in 7th hour say "I learned more about science in the last 2 days, than I learned all semester."
I don't need the money. I'm there to help.
These moments were quite validating because this is why I do it.

[secondwind]

1. I loved reading this.... You are a very special person.

j

[pbmus]

2. Bless your wonderful teaching skills...

Everyone does not learn the same way…

[Enter stage left]

3. Thank you for what you do.

My first teacher that was really good was in 4th grade. She taught us about the weather, the different types of clouds and we built weather instruments out of quart milk cartons.

Second great teacher was in 6th grade. He got me very interested in math & science. When he got married and left the school, they brought in a wonderful lady that continued in his footsteps without fail.

In 7th grade I had a math/science teacher that took me to levels I didn't even know about. We lived almost 10 miles from the school, so the buses took the nearest student first and then came back for us. It meant a 45-60 minute delay after school left out. Mr Tuma, who I will worship until the day I die, came to our rescue with an after school science/math club. I had him for 7th & 8th grade. In 7the grade we (along with the woodworking class) built a 6 foot operating slide rule, with all of the lines, numbers and digits too scale. We won 1st prized in the science fair that year for junior high students.

There are others, but I just wanted you to know, the great teachers are never forgotten by their students.

My mother was the very first special education teacher in the state of Utah and retired in 1985 when my dad got sick. My sister taught in SLC and Idaho Falls in elementary, junior high and high school until 2013 when she retired. Both were loved by their students.

Thank you again for what you are doing. If you can change 1 young persons life, you are a hero, if not a saint.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. Thanks

I always loved science & math.
I spent 43 years as a scientist, as evidence!
My wife, who was in special ed encouraged the sub thing, especially in the winter when golf isn't much of an option.
She thought I'd be good at it, and she thought I'd enjoy doing it.
Well, I know for sure she was right about the latter, and moments like Friday make me think she was also correct about the former.

[DeeDeeNY]

9. You clearly have a gift for teaching you never knew you had

And as for your wife - there is no higher calling than that of a special Ed teacher.

[CurtEastPoint]

4. Yes, you are valued and important for this very reason. Those kids will remember and profit from...

knowing you.

[MLAA]

6. Everyone had a great day Friday! The students and their teacher 🙂

This is what teaching and learning should look like.

[calimary]

7. What a great story!

Shit - as I write this, CNN is nonstop on this mass casualty incident after a red SUV plowed through a holiday parade in Waukesha, WI. And the whole Kyle Rittenhouse outrage. And more.

Just a parade of bad news for days and days and days...

And then THIS!

DAYUM I needed to see this. THANK YOU for posting this, and even better, THANK YOU for DOING it, in the first place!!!

Do some more! The kids obviously enjoyed it - and benefited from it, too!

[dhol82]

8. Damn, I wish I had had you as a teacher my entire life!

[Susan Calvin]

10. That's the way I often felt before I retired.

And I would like to do this. But I simply won't go back into those Petri dishes without mask and vaccination mandates. And I won't go back to take the very real chance of being treated like a political football. Even if I'm not treated that way personally, I see a lot of other cases where teachers are. Sorry to be a downer. I probably shouldn't have posted, but I feel very strongly about this and it upsets me.

[ProfessorGAC]

22. No Worries!

Don't regret posting. Your feeling are your feelings.
There are vax mandates for anybody working in a school, or be subject to twice weekly testing, and after 3 months, at the worker's expense.
There are also mask mandates, and there are no exceptions.
Yeah, kids get sloppy & the mask falls below the nose. I look at them, tap my nose, and the mask goes back up. No questions asked.
I did it last year before there were vaccines, and I honestly never felt unsafe. If I had, I simply wouldn't have gone.
If I sub 70 times, I add 3.6% to our income. The money is nothing. So, if I thought it was dangerous, I would have turned everything down.
But, if you're in an area different than mine, I understand your sentiment.

[Susan Calvin]

29. I'm in Texas.

'Nuf said......

[hfojvt]

11. I always figured that teaching has more rewards than just pay

but I have opted to no go that route myself.
I tried back in 2001, but did not get any calls in spite of being registered at 3 school districts.
Retired now myself, but also working two days a week (plus elections, and audit, etc.)

[ProfessorGAC]

24. I Get 8-15 Calls A Week

I rarely do more than 3 in a week, 1 or 2 when the weather is suitable for golf. After all, I'm a retired guy!
I do, however, work in 14 districts grades 6-12, math, science & music. (Except the middle school here, where I'm more flexible because it's so convenient.)
Getting a call is not an issue. Deciding which to take is where the effort comes in.

[GeoWilliam750]

12. Thank you

[WinstonSmith4740]

13. Damn straight.

Just retired myself in June. Had planned to substitute, but let's just say the school district here is screwed up beyond belief. After working for them for 15 years, I called Sub Services to register and was told I had to "fill out an application." I told them you've got to be kidding, I retired 2 days ago after teaching full time for 15 years. Nope. Didn't matter. Had to fill out an applicaztion. So I fook a pass. Ready for the irony? The district is so desperate for subs, they are now hiring high school grads.

Miss the kids terribly...had a number of experiences like you desribed overe the years, and yes, it's why we do it.

Of course, there's always the money, prestige, and respect.

[Susan Calvin]

14. I miss my kids terribly as well.

And you're right about the hoops, and about the lowering of standards for subs. As well as for teachers. If the pandemic has made nothing else pellucidly clear, it's that our main function in society is glorified babysitters. Not that I didn't try to be more than that.

[mountain grammy]

15. Well this was a pleasure to read.

Thank you

[BobTheSubgenius]

16. What a great day!!!

Well done, sir!

On the odd occasion where I'm learning someone up about something, I sometimes get an apologetic, self-deprecating comment or two. What I always say is "No one was born knowing this. At one time, I didn't know it, but I learned it. And so can you."

Your second-last example brought that to mind.

[area51]

17. k&r

[dchill]

18. You may have found your niche!

[FakeNoose]

19. Despite all notions to the contrary

... I believe teenagers respond positively when they are treated with respect.
And a little bit of smiling humor is always good.

[ProfessorGAC]

27. I'd Say You're Correct

Every teacher I ever had that I remember as excellent had a way of switching on humor when needed.
Maybe that's where I absorbed it, since the only teaching I did before was graduate students in a very specific area of science. Nobody is there that doesn't want to be, so encouragement and motivation from me is of minimal importance.
But, I know some 13 or 16 year olds don't want to be in math or science class. So, helping them find something to like about it seems pretty important.

[Hotler]

20. Are you taking science questions from DUer's? I have one about

butter and its softness in relation to the temp outside vs. inside. It might be a viscosity thing.
Thanks

[ProfessorGAC]

25. Elaborate, Please

I did a fair amount of work in oil & fat chemistry. So, I'm quite certain I can help explain it.

[Hotler]

30. I keep some butter in the cupboard so it is spreadable. I keep the house at 72.

I notice that when the house is 72° inside and it's 72° outside the butter is soft. When the house is 72° inside and cooler (less then 65°) outside the butter hardens up, even though the inside of the cupboard is 72°. I stuck a thermometer in the cupboard to verify the temp. The cupboard is on an inside wall not near the outside.
Thanks

[ProfessorGAC]

37. You MUST Be Losing Heat Through That Back Wall

The temperature is 72 when you check it, but may be fluctuating.
Also, if it's colder outside the warmer air would leak out to the colder air by diffusion.
So, the air is regularly exchanging.
That may mean the mole fraction water vapor stays low, allowing small amounts of the 18% water in butter to move into the vapor phase.
Evaporation causes both cooling & is slightly raising the solids content of tbe butter.
Cooling down stiffens up the butter, obviously, and increasing solid content raises what's called the Kraft point.
A small increase in solids content has a large effect on Kraft point.
I'd suggest that somewhere behind that cabinet there's a path letting inside air become outside air.

[Hotler]

43. Thank you. That back wall is just an interior partition wall and I doubt

there is any insulation in it and it might not have much of a top plate. Attic air might be creeping down through that area and radiating cold into the cabinet . Things that make you go hhmmmmm.
Thanks again.

P.S. I went and looked up Kraft point, you guys sure talk funny.

[OldBaldy1701E]

21. Okay, so story time...

Way back when I was in the fifth grade, my parents decided to move us back to their hometown. I was telling my teacher about this. She was a very nice black lady who was a good teacher. She was fine until I mentioned that my parents were thinking about enrolling my brother and myself into a private, Christian school. She proceeded to tell me that this was not a good idea... that we would be seen as 'poor whites' in such a setting and that we would not like this. Of course, I went home and told my parents about this advice. They were not happy about it, but did not pursue the matter, as we were moving away anyway. I was confused about this behavior, as she was only trying to help and she had proven to be a good person and a good teacher. (Of course, the parents did not have an issue with her until this.) We moved and my parents did enroll us in that private school. It was the beginning of our family down fall. The pressure of maintaining that pretentious lifestyle eventually forced my parents to divorce and our lives to crumble. And, the school was a joke. It was there for one reason and one reason only: to give the 'whites' in the area a pretentious and segregated place to go. I will never forget opening my 8th grade text book and seeing the first paragraph of the last chapter... "One day, man will walk on the moon." (This was in 1978. I flipped back to the title page and discovered that the textbook came out in 1956!) As this was happening, I found myself thinking more and more about that sage advice I got from a teacher that was trying to help and be honest about life. She was so correct and I remember her every day as I deal with the pretension and d**k waving that has come to symbolize our nation. I remember that she would have been reviled (and maybe worse) for saying what she said, and yet she was spot on and that advice proved to be very helpful as I aged.

One never knows where real learning might come from. That teacher was a standout because she was honest and helpful. She might have been run out of town had 'the whites' learned about what she said to me. She might have been fired for saying that. But I look on her as one of the most helpful educators that I ever had the pleasure of being a student under. She educated me very well and the one thing that would have possibly ended her career turned out to be one of the best pieces of advice I ever received. Education is learning about everything, not just the 'vanilla' stuff that they spew so that no one gets their fee fees hurt.

[The Jungle 1]

23. Teachers and nurses are heroes.

[onlyadream]

26. You're a natural teacher

Maybe you can find some way to create other teachers like yourself. Maybe a book (self publish) or a PDF and sell on Teachers Pay Teachers. Just some ideas.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

28. Education is key to the way out of the mess the US is in. . . . nt

[CrispyQ]

31. Republicans know that.

"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing." ~Karl Rove

That's why the right has been filling positions on Boards of Education across the country since the 80s, while our side has been running as fast as we can from the word liberal, cuz a two-bit actor poked fun at the word.

[seta1950]

32. I totally believe it

I hated math, when I was a kid except this one year when our teacher was so great , I got an A , unbelievable. A good teacher is priceless , thank you.

[wryter2000]

42. My sister and I both excelled at math

Because of Mr. Dobelstein. He also taught us about football.

[Heartstrings]

33. As the child of two educators I say,

Thank you!

[in2herbs]

34. Can you be cloned?? nt

[yonder]

35. There is much value in your post:

For yourself, your students and us here.

Thanks for the lift.

[geardaddy]

36. You sound like a wonderful, caring teacher!

[ProfessorGAC]

38. I'm A Pretend Teacher

I refer to the full time folks as "real teachers".
But i help where i can.

[Joinfortmill]

39. Awesome

[SWBTATTReg]

40. Thank you for your service, truly. To be a good, effective teacher, takes quite a bit ...

more than some people realize, and not just the degrees, etc. in order to teach effectively. I've taught, but on the industrial side of business, not in a public school or anything like that. Basically my students were either you got the IT assignments right/etc., or you didn't work there in the IT dept./company, a do or die mode, so not a fair comparison at all.

I did have some moments, when years and years later, I had students (at the work environment) come up to me and said that 'Hey, I remember your IT assignments (coding/etc.) while in class!'), so it was nice.

[wryter2000]

41. Sounds like you should be there permanently

Any chance you could volunteer to coach/mentor kids when the usual teacher comes back?

[ProfessorGAC]

44. I Sub In Multiple Districts

So, if one school doesn't need me, a couple others probably do.
I'm very selective. Math, science, music, nothing below 6th grade.
And, I do more days in the winter. In golf friendly months, I sub on rainy days.
So, this one teacher coming back doesn't mean I won't be heeded elsewhere.