Hello, my name is Marielys, and I am a freshman in high school. I hope to become a lawyer. Today, I want to talk about the impact of having lots of substitutes on my classroom learning environment.
I want to talk about substitutes because for the first few months of school, I had a lot of substitutes for two of my classes. We would keep switching and switching, and it was like starting a new class every single time with no connection between what we had studied the day before and what we were studying today. Having substitutes also made learning harder because many of them would just say, “here, have this work,” but not be able to help us out because they were there just to watch us and make sure we were doing the work. One of my substitutes would just read during the class period and tell us to be silent.
In Spanish class, we usually had four or five substitutes every single week. It would be a different substitute almost every day. Some would stay for more than one day, but not for very long. Some of my substitutes did not even speak Spanish – some of them were English teachers, and some were math teachers. They would just give us work and tell us to do it. I can speak Spanish, so it was not a big deal, but my friends could not. I would see them asking for help but the substitutes would not know the answer, so my friends had to rely on me. But we had to be quiet in class, so I could not really help them either. We spent the last two months only learning the ABCs, but at the end, my friends were still struggling to say the letters.
We also had substitutes in English class. Our main substitute tried to help us understand what we were going to do in class, but it was tough. He would give us work and tell us that he would help us if we needed help. But when we asked for help, he would just say, “the answer is A,” or “the answer is C,” instead of explaining the answer to us so we could understand it ourselves. I wanted help figuring out how to answer the question, not just know the answer.
This experience impacted me because English is not my best subject, and I wanted help to understand the material better. Since our substitute did not really know what the material was either, I struggled to keep my grade up to an average level. I was on my own and that was very difficult. What would have helped me in that moment was having a substitute who was an English teacher or who had taught an English class before.
Now, we have a more permanent English teacher. They understand the material and they know how to help us out. Many of my permanent teachers are just as supportive, like my biology teacher. I was struggling a little bit in biology at the beginning of the year while I was transitioning to high school, and my biology teacher saw that. She knew that I knew the subject matter but I was not as good at writing it down, so she would be there to work through the problems with me. Having teachers who understand the material and help me understand the process instead of just giving me the answer has really helped me out with the school year.
Of course, teachers have reasons for being absent. But I think that when schools have substitutes, those substitutes should be people who are fit for a given class so they can teach what they know. If not, students will struggle and their grades will go down, because they do not understand what they are doing and substitutes might not, either.
Thank you for your time.
