Flexibility in the Classroom

A substitute teacher never knows how the day will go when that 6:30 a.m. call comes in! Even if it is a class in which you have subbed before, you never know how it will go. Recently, I subbed in a 2nd grade classroom. The teacher was very well organized with her detailed note to me, and the books/papers all stacked up on the desk. Things were easy to find in the room. Students had their jobs to do that helped to keep the classroom running smoothly. Nevertheless, I had to make adjustments in the schedule.

The morning meeting went over the time by 5 minutes, and I still had not read their chapter book aloud. In an effort to still read to the students, I told them that if they were well behaved, I would read to them during the afternoon snack time. I put the book on the chalkboard as a reminder of this challenge. They were indeed fairly well behaved, and I read to them later in the day. The students were accustomed to just talking quietly at snack time, but they remained attentive instead during the reading.

During the first math period, the students were to work on their math journals. Many were not finished when the time came to leave for their special class. I told them they could finish the journals after library, during the second math period. Following the math lesson, the students were to complete a packet for their math test. Most of the class did not finish before the next period was to begin, so I told them to leave the test in their "offices", and there would be time to complete this later. This can snowball into pushing more and more things ahead, but that day, this worked. The students had indoor recess an hour later. Some chose to finish their test during this time, although they did not have to do this. The rest of the students completed it during the period following recess. In this period, the students were to do a handwriting page. Plenty of time was allotted for this, so I could see that this is where the students who needed to finish could take the 5-10 minutes needed and still complete their handwriting page.

The students worked very well with these changes. In many areas of our lives, we need to be flexible in our schedules. These students are off to a good start in learning to handle flexibility.