Much of teaching involves trolling for treasure and part of it is to find the skills of the student before you and make those skills shine.

We teachers also have to troll for information, sleuth around the Internet and the libraries for recent research about topics we are teaching and for subs this sleuthing has to be done very very fast. Often I will get onto the classroom computer to look up background details for a lesson I am teaching, the civil rights movement in the US, what foreign aid Canada provides each year, the history of the making of a film I am to show.  I have also rushed to the library to get books on a topic and I actually enjoy this fast-sleuthing to add to lessons and make them richer if I can.  There is some ego involved too I guess because I want to appear competent because I am competent so I need to sometimes bone up on a few details.

We teachers get to sleuth around in other ways and subs in particular can sleuth around schools and see history of education right before our eyes. We see not only by the construction of the building and its additions and annexes the history of this school but we see in a given classroom its own history. It’s kind of a moving experience in some of he schools, like a ‘if these walls could talk’ journey.  I don’t go out of my way to sleuth just for nothing but when I have to find supplies and have to open cupboards or closets there are revelations about what books were used in this room in the past, what texts have moved through time in this subject and have now been discarded, and files and files of previous teachers and their approaches. Most classrooms are a wealth of academic study and a teacher could spend years just sifting through earlier ways to teach lessons and pick and choose and adapt for today.

We subs are also sleuths to clarify the lesson plan. As I noted there are sometimes things a teacher forgot to tell us and a quick survey of the classroom, a walk around the perimeter so to speak can be enormously revealing. I check out handouts lying around the tables, notices written on the blackboard or whiteboard, posters and recent displays of student work. I check out which books are on display on the shelves, which magazines are ready and accessible and I try to make a quick picture in my mind of not just today’s lessons but what has been going on for the past week, so I can put today’s lesson in context.  If the teacher has left the lesson plans of earlier days I glance back to see what the kids learned recently so I can tie in the learning meaningfully. It’s fun and I feel like a detective too.

 We subs are also detectives or at least observers of the human condition. The student desks with little shoes upside down waiting for today’s arrival, the larger desks with frustrated graffiti written on them, the teacher’s desk with photos of her children or her wedding all tell a story.  Sometimes what the teacher has chosen to post on the wall is also very revealing – bios of the ‘star of the day’ and pictures of the family and background, hobbies and joys of some small child, posters students made about some assignment that show their art skills, their academic rigor, their creativity.  And the teacher’s posted material can also be very touching.  I have read an obituary a teacher delivered at the funeral of a former student. I have noticed the funeral service brochure of a colleague, the funeral service brochure of a loved grandfather.  Why teachers post these things is not explained to me but there they are for public viewing or at least in the teacher’s area that students could also read.  I get to see by a kind of sampling of the scene, what this teacher is like and what she values.  Though we subs often never do come face to face with the teacher we are replacing we get a pretty interesting snapshot of what she is like.

We also can tell how she teaches.  There are so many subtle ways from the way the classroom desks are set up to the way she sets up her own desk, that show us if she has a traditional teaching style or wants a lot of group work, if she surveys the students from behind or if she is off to the side or at the front, all somewhat metaphorical also.  We can see if she has a wide breadth to her organizational plan with a huge desk and tables all aligned near her work area or if she has a tiny work area only.  We see by the notes if she is super-organized with stickies and highlighted pages and markers for all our references that day or if she sets up her day a little more casually. We see her handwriting on the board and for what handwriting can tell a person, can see if her script is large or small, fluid or tight and can imagine her personality.

We see by how the class rules are set up how she organizes the class and I can say for sure that I have been deeply impressed by a few teachers I have never met, just to see how they organize the room. One class in particular was amazingly well set up with posters not just neat but laminated, with mailboxes for each child not just orderly but color coded and laminated. It had slots and containers and colorful clean places labeled, for all supplies and the kids there were as orderly as secure and as well behaved as you might expect when their world was so very secure.  It was as the kids say ‘awesome’.

Sometimes I also guess at the person behind the desk, the person who sets up as part of the routine an inspirational quote for each day, the one who has posters around the room that are of furry fluffy animals or skiing, or trips to other countries.

At the teacher’s desk I often see evidence of a lifestyle too, and I feel like a detective coming in on the scene piecing together evidence to get a picture of the character who is absent. I see the jacket or the knobby sweater draped over the chair, the shoes under the desk, and I notice absently whether this person is casual or dressed up, cozy of formal.   see the pictures of her family on the window, on the wall, or on the desk, the awards some person won who has her last name but is only a teen and I assume is her child and I see the pride.   At one school there were 3 pairs of black shoes under the teacher’s desk.I see the filing cabinet with thank you notes and cheer up messages that are signed by students and colleagues and I see the humorous magnets she has chosen for her work.  I see the themes too, the teacher who  has a lot of notepads and picture frames alluding to loving shoes, the teacher whose possessions are all hockey-team based, the one who loves frogs, the one who loves anything Spanish.  And I feel always kind of warmed to these people not just for what they show of their lives but also that they dare to show it. I admire that they let the kids know who they are too for I think it makes a better role model.

I see the hand sanitizer on some kids’ desks, the juice box recycling area and the painting drying racks and I see that the teacher has prioritized a certain efficiency and even environmentalism with the kids.

And in some classrooms I see humor, even though I am all alone there observing before the bell goes.  In one science  room the teacher has hung models of all the planets at appropriate distances from the big globe at the ceiling that is the sun. But way over here in one corner she has hung one more mobile, also in the sky apparently and it is a flying pig.  I see if the teacher uses a timer on her desk shaped like an apple, and notice the joke urn labeled ‘Remains of Bad Students’.  I see the cartoons the teacher has pasted on the door about excuses for not doing homework, about math being hard or studying being boring. 

I see by how easy it is to find the 3 hole punch and the stapler how easily the students can put together their work. I see by the filing groups for math, science and social studies, by the color coding and location of these files, what the students will likely expect and gravitate to when they enter.  I see by the posters on the wall how passionate this teacher is about the subject. In a senior high English room I notice the wall studded with posters of famous writers, ads for famous plays, movie posters throughout history.  In the math classroom I see poster images of famous mathematicians, laminated posters of common formulas, jokes about math and posters about how a person can use math in life. In the French or Spanish or German classroom I see mundane phrases translated into the other language, objects labeled all around the room, and large travel posers of beautiful scenes where the language is spoken. In one Spanish classroom there was even a beach umbrella above a little café table to set the scene for the elementary students about a culture where the weather is very hot.

Many of these extra touches teachers add come at the teacher’s own expense and I know this from having also been a classroom teacher. There is often a budget for supplies but it is rarely a decorating budget per se.It takes a lot of personal effort to find posters, to approach distributors and embassies or whoever might have material to give. A classroom full of such posters is a classroom of a devoted teacher and the room itself tells me that.

I notice the teacher’s daily habit of telling the date in five different languages and writing it clearly on the whiteboard.  I notice the artistry on the walls of one classroom that has adopted a garden motif and where staff and some students have apparently received funding to permanently paint the grade 6 classroom to look like a garden. I admire the careful detail of the vines and flowers by the heating register and up the wall to the ceiling. The kids love this room.

I notice the  grade 2 room that for some reason has been permanently painted to make a series of cold cement block walls much more appealing. The blocks have been painted into a design of castle walls with arches and walkways and it is stunning.

I see in the music room the way the teacher has put up posters of famous musicals, her CD and video collection of inspiring music and I see in the drama room and in the dance room the specially designed floor, the large mirrors that kids need to learn to perform near.  The room has a magic to it itself. I have in an empty drama room walked around the raised dais platforms and sat thinking of the magic of theatre.

I see in the art room some amazing sketches on the wall, some signed with the teacher’s name. I see the posters about peace and activism.

And when the students do come in, how they act also helps me see the teacher.One time I had the kindergarten kids all sitting in a circle and we were to do little math questions impromptu. I noticed, who could help but, that if  a child got the answer wrong all the other kids chanted “SO close!” to encourage them anyway.  Somebody taught them to do that.

I see how she take attendance and sometimes that tells me a bit about her too. One class had each been assigned a number and when the teacher said Roll Call the kids counted their numbers in order.  It went very fast and then any missing number was an absent child. I just thought that a bit odd though.

I see the very high quality hand puppets the teacher has and this tells me about her teaching style. I have seen hand puppets a lot in the elementary but it is quite endearing to see them also in the junior high. I have also seen costumers in second language and English classrooms, Elizabethan gowns, plastic swords and shields, Roman helmets and dress jackets from the 1950s.  In this I also see a devoted teacher.

In one class I notice as the students do an art project and I circulate, that on the wall the teacher has a picture of herself, smiling, with each student, individually. It is a very cozy happy environment. I notice on theall many thank you notes from the students back to the teacher.

I notice in one elementary classroom for new immigrants a large table with a huge puzzle on it. The students as they finish their work gravitate to the puzzle and add a few pieces, a joint project, a shared goal, and one not dependent on language. This teacher is brilliant.

It’s such an irony. Of course I am there for the kids and I am fascinated by them. Of course I am there for education and the lessons itself hopefully are compelling. Of course I am there for the teacher I am replacing and after my day of trying to help and contribute I can leave in peace.

But some days I leave inspired, inspired by the students, inspired by the material we were teaching and occasionally inspired by a teacher’s room, by her example, and by a person I have never even met.