Substitute Teachers Learn Things Too

Kelly called me on Monday night to ask if I would be willing to substitute teach for him on Tuesday. Since this is the only reason I signed up to be a sub, I said yes. Although, I'm sure it came out sounding something like "uuuuhhhhss", after all, it was 11:45 p.m.

I've been really excited to sub for Kelly. His choir programs are amazing, he has good taste in music, he has a musical theatre class, and the thought of being back in front of a high school choir just sounded great.

Tuesday morning came very early, but that was okay, the adrenaline carried me through. I started the day with Belles Voix, his women's choir, and things seemed to be going well. I give voice lessons to several of the students at West Jordan, and it felt good to have them run into the choir room just to make sure that the substitute really was me. And one of my girls is in Belles Voix, so I went into it feeling like I had someone in my corner.

Concert Choir was something else altogether. I have 8 current students and 1 former student in concert choir, the choir president is one of my students, and everything should have worked out fine. But see, I forgot that respect from high school students isn't given just because their teacher asked you to come. Respect can only be earned, and quite frankly, one class period is not enough time for a sub to earn that. In other words, Concert Choir turned out exactly how I should have expected it to, but not as well as I hoped. Teenage boys sitting on the back row will talk more than any teenage girl on a phone. At least by the end of the class we were kind of in sync, and we managed to make some great improvement on a very difficult piece. The class period ended with me asking them, "Are you proud of yourselves? You should be. That was a really hard song."

The last class I taught was Spotlight Players. The kids are working on musical theatre presentations and audition pieces for their class show. This meant that my lesson plan for this class involved bringing the kids up one at a time, playing their song, listening to them sing, giving a little bit of individual instruction, and starting over with the next student. Sound like voice lessons? Felt like them, except I had about 4 minutes per student instead of 30.

It was a fun day, in spite of the "high school students must do everything in their power to make substitute teachers crazy" rule. Will I go again? Yes, if Kelly calls me.

The biggest lesson I learned? I don't miss it. I was worried that I might. I gave up my high school choir position years ago to raise my family, and I haven't had a chance to be back and see what I had lost. And after 14 1/2 years, it's easy to forget that it was a struggle. I did have the respect of my students, and things weren't as difficult on a daily basis as they were yesterday, but no. I don't miss it.

p.s. one more thing....

It won't matter that I said, "Kelly is a better pianist than me. He's amazingly talented. Do you know how lucky you are?" What the kids will remember is that I also said, "He may be more talented than me, but I'm taller."