Substitute Teacher Rant
Alright, so here’s the deal: I’m in high school, and I have to say, I had one of the most frustrating experiences with a substitute teacher recently. Seriously, I can’t wrap my head around how she even got to be a substitute in the first place. She might even rival our regular teacher in terms of cluelessness—and that’s saying something since our regular teacher is notorious for being strict and not particularly well-liked.
So, for context, my school implemented a new policy this year stating that phones must be off during class time. Despite this rule, students still seem to find ways around it. To help with this transition, we were provided Chromebooks just before the semester began.
Last month, during Chemistry class, we had a substitute who was unlike any we’d had before. Our assignment involved using a website called “Gizmos,” which we’ve used plenty of times in the past. However, here’s where things started to go horribly wrong: the instructions she received didn’t specify that Gizmos was an online platform—it just mentioned something vague about a module in our Canvas course that was labeled “Gizmos.” But when we checked, the activity wasn’t even assigned to our class.
The substitute didn’t believe us at all. She thought Gizmos was just a PDF file of questions we were supposed to download—completely missing the point that Gizmos is a website where we have to access interactive activities. It was so bewildering that we tried explaining to her, but she kept insisting on her version, repeating back to us what the instructions said instead of listening to our input.
I eventually lost my cool, which I worried might land me in trouble, especially since she kept threatening to report students for “not following instructions.” We were trying to explain that the teacher had simply failed to assign the Gizmos activity. About 40 minutes into our class, someone finally mentioned that we should actually search for the Gizmos activity on the website itself. By that time, we only had 10 minutes left to complete the assignment, thanks to the mix-up.
The next day, our regular teacher was back and immediately called us out for our behavior towards the substitute. She claimed the instructions were perfectly clear, which, in my opinion, they definitely were not. It felt incredibly frustrating to hear her say that all the other classes managed just fine, and that somehow we were the “problematic” class. She implied that our entire class just doesn’t pay attention or follow directions, which is rich coming from her.
Honestly, it’s hard to believe someone like her is even teaching in the first place. This whole experience with both the substitute and our regular teacher was incredibly frustrating. I know some might judge me for venting about this, but sometimes you just have to speak out when things are this ridiculous. We seriously need to find better substitutes because honestly, what a mess.
Wow, it sounds like you had a seriously frustrating experience! It’s definitely tough when both the substitute and the regular teacher aren’t on the same page, especially with something as crucial as instructions for an assignment. It’s understandable that you’d feel angry when you know the situation was mishandled and you were trying to explain that to someone who just wouldn’t listen.
Communication is key in teaching, and it’s really disappointing when it breaks down like that. It’s not fair that you and your classmates had to deal with incorrect information and then get called out for it. Hopefully, the school can improve its training for substitutes or at least have a better system for making sure everyone is on the same wavelength. It’s important for students to feel supported, especially when trying to learn. Thanks for sharing your experience—it’s always good to vent and find some solidarity in similar struggles!