I was asked to take a half day middle school job my second year of teaching. The job started at 11:30 am and only required me to teach 3 periods. I was told upon arrival that one of the classes was a difficult class. After all the time I had been subbing, I knew I had to take the warning seriously and go in to this room with my tough exterior and let the students know I meant business. As they filed into the room one by one, they were sizing me up, I could see it in their eyes... I was fresh ...
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"Ms. C? Can I use my phone to...?"

"If I see your phone, I have to take it."

"Why?"

"Because I do not work for (insert school name here). I work for (insert name) School District. District policy mandates that if I see your cell phone I have to take it from you and give it to the office, where you can pick it up after school with your student ID. If you do not have your ID, your parent or guardian will have to come get it for you."

"So... then... I can't go on my phone?"

"Not if you would like to ...
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One thing I come across daily are the students who don't listen or pay attention while I'm talking. There are some days where I can give directions until I'm blue in the face and there will still be kids who ask, "wait... what do I do?" I have found over the years, that nine times out of ten, these are the kids that are in la-la-land. These are the kids who are staring into space, or reading a book under the table, or even doing work for another class. 

Let me tell you a story. I had a student...
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Sometimes, as a sub, you'll have parents or administrators or even aides or other teachers come into the classroom and observe you. One time I was in a middle school classroom and I had a student who was being disrespectful. I was in the middle of telling the student that if they were not going to be nice, they were not going to be staying in that classroom and that they would be headed to the office, when a woman walked in. I did not stop what I was doing and as the student argued with me, I...
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I love my job, and I love my students, but sometimes kids really do say the darnedest things!  This is the story of the first time a student called me something offensive and I think it's only fitting that it be the first story I share with you today. So I was a first year Substitute and I had taken a job in a middle school Science classroom. This was maybe half way through the school year. I was sitting up in the front of the classroom, giving directions. One student looks directly at me and...
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