substitute teacher in the eighth grade

Ms. Baldwin was at a conference today.  The substitute teacher came in with detailed notes about the agenda for the students.  Basically, the students would be completing their projects for the identity unit.  They had to upload work to their ThingLink and decorate their self-portraits.  From there, they would take a survey about interests they have and possible careers to consider.

The students stayed relatively on task throughout the day.  My job was the same as always--enforce Ms. Baldwin's rules and motivate the students to stay on task while asking questions and offering feedback.  The students got to use a lot of creativity today, and, for the most part, the students responded positively to it and stayed on task.

Only one consideration: yesterday was the presidential election.  I was surprised by how many students had stayed up late to watch the polling.  All of the students seemed to have opinions that they wanted to discuss.  In order to stay on task, the substitute teacher made a policy that the students were not allowed to discuss the elections from last night.  Many students were really upset about this, especially since a few of them had stayed up to watch the polls and wanted to share their thoughts from their experience.

If I were in charge, I would have started the class with a conversation (even if it was five minutes or less) to allow the students to share their thoughts.  At least then, the students could get out their thoughts about the issues that were really relevant to them.  Since this was at the very beginning of the school day, they had not yet had any opportunities to consider and discuss the elections.  I think the majority of the class would have an easier time going about their work after they felt like they were heard about the big issues that mattered to them.  It would even be nice to have them free-write about it.  After all, their identity unit is circulating current events and things about them RIGHT NOW.  This would have made for a great opportunity to discuss their current opinions on the world.

Other than that, the day went pretty smoothly.  I am happy to announce that I am becoming quite familiar with the ipads, and am capable of actually helping students with basic technological tasks (I couldn't do that earlier in the semester, so this is a great leap!)

It would have been nice to have a debriefing time about the elections today, but the day itself DID go well and I felt that I offered valuable supports to the new substitute teacher who was unfamiliar with some of the activities of the day.

SIDE NOTE: Oh my goodness, Trump won...