Substitute Chronicles

I've been substitute teaching for about a year and a half now. The first year of course I was feeling out the different schools and age levels. I've found myself more drawn to middle and high school kids.

Having teenagers in high school has been somewhat of a plus, because most of the kids know my kids and are already familiar with me because I'm involved in school things as well as I attend a lot of sporting events.



With that, I've been substituting the past three days for the Home Economics teacher at one of the middle schools here. She left this assignment for them to do called "Getting to Know Yourself". They had to take a paper plate, divide it into 4 sections, and in the middle they had to draw a circle. In each box they had to make a drawing of: a) their favorite food b) favorite book/tv show c) their most valued possession d) something they are good at doing. And in the circle they had to choose three words to describe themselves.

There were some really interesting things about these kids. I learned a lot. For instance many of them said their most valuable possession was their cell phone... SMH. But there were a few who got it and said something that was given to them by a family member who was deceased or something they made themselves in class. I think the one that disturbed me the most was a 7th grade girl who said her most valuable prize possession was a promise ring that her "boyfriend" gave her. I am going to leave that one right there.

There were 2 things that really stood out to me though... One was a lot of the kids used the word "weird" to describe themselves. I made them all change that word to something else such as unique, different, rare, etc.

And the other, so many of our children want to be a professional athlete. There is nothing wrong with this, I have one myself. However, it is up to us as parents to let them know the actual odds of that becoming a reality is extremely slim and they need an alternative plan. You don't go to college to be a professional athlete. You have to major in something. A few expressed interest in the military, but didn't know what they wanted to do while in there. You must also inform your kids that there are two jobs when you go in the military. One is being in the military and serving your country, the other is the actual job (MOS) you have while you are in there. That is what you will do 8 hours a day as if you were a civilian in the real world.

Many of our children are afraid to speak in front of their peers. I have noticed this long before I became a substitute teacher. Those of you who know me, know that my mind is always working. I will just say this, I will be tackling a few of these issues with my Developing YOU Academy within the next 12 months.

I said all of that to say this to my fellow parents, aunts, uncles, grand parents, etc... It is up to us to plant seeds into our children early. We must get them to start thinking early about what they want to do with the rest of their lives, get them thinking about entrepreneurship and preparing them for business. I went around my first period class today and ask all of them what they wanted to do when they got older. There were only 4 out of 31 students who didn't know. But I bet I got them thinking. I plan to do the same with the other 5 periods tomorrow.

Thank you,
The Image Creator
So, come back tomorrow for part 2 of this post!