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The ATA’s SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS’ CONFERENCE will take place on Oct. 22 and 23.
Online registration is available at https://cutt.ly/2021STC.
Deadline: Oct. 15.
Teachers share memorable moments from their “subbing” experiences.
Those aren’t your knuckles!
I was subbing in a kindergarten class and the teacher was observing the kids for an assessment. We were playing a game to see if they knew their body parts and when I asked, “Where are your knuckles?” one little guy grabbed his chest ... he got mixed up between knuckles and nipples! The teacher and I got the giggles after that. You never know what you will get in kindergarten!
– Tara Kwasney
Unforgettable at any age
As a retired teacher and substitute too, I always hear “Did you teach my mom or dad?” Also “My mom says you taught her.” One day subbing in Grade 1, a student looked at my face and the wrinkles and said, “Wow, are you ever old!” Will never forget that.
– Erika Foley
Minor aches and pains
When in a kindergarten class, I took the children to the gym, and one little tyke says to me, “Miss, I cannot run today. I got a bum knee.”
I looked at him and said incredulously, “You are four, and you’ve got a BUM KNEE???” Little ones are adorable.
– Kimerica Stephanie, Parr Ottogalli
According to my calculations …
Silent reading time in Grade 1. One little guy was looking at a book about machines. He raised his hand and I went over to see what was up. “What’s this one?” “Oh, that’s a great big machine called the Large Hadron Collider! Pretty cool, huh?” “But what does it do?” “Um.......”
Never thought I’d be asked to explain theoretical physics in a whisper voice to a six year old!
– Caitlin Elizabeth
Sub on the battlefield
When I was teaching junior high in my late 20s, I had a Grade 7 student ask me if I was alive for any of the wars … she was talking about orld
wars one and two.
– Shari Harris-Doetzel
Baby bump
I was hugely pregnant (around 34 weeks) subbing in a Grade 1 class. I was talking to one of the kids about the baby and another little boy overheard and said, “You’re having a baby!? That’s why you look like [points in horror] THAT?”
– Cassie Lesyk
Halloween switcheroo
One Halloween, a fellow teacher and I decided to switch classes. We were similar heights and weights and wore costumes that totally hid our identities. Or so we thought!
We refused to speak and gleefully anticipated the students’ reactions. They displayed their great powers of observation. My class observed that their mystery teacher wasn’t me because my neck wasn’t that wrinkled. My colleague’s class clued in that I was not their regular teacher because her feet were not nearly that large.
Kids can be so cruel! LOL
– Terry J. Riter
