One of the things I did when I decided to substitute teach was to make a substitute go-to bag. I read a ton of advice from other substitutes for ideas of what should be included. One item is a whistle. The idea is that when you have recess duty, teachers in many schools have whistles to call the students to line up when recess is over. Instead of using someone else's whistle - double gross in the time of Covid, the recommendation is to have your own. They are cheap, so I bought one.
By the end of my last guest teaching experience in a middle school, my voice was a bit raw and after trying to get the students' attention at the end of the last period class of the day, I realized I should let my whistle do the work next time. At home, I took the whistle off of the lanyard it came with and added it to my ID lanyard, so it was at hand when needed.
On Friday, I was a guest teacher for a 6th grade Science class. Again, by the end of the day my voice was tired and the students getting restless the last couple minutes of class. I needed their attention, so that I could dismiss them in an orderly fashion. After one failed attempt to get their attention using my voice, I was like okay, let's see what a whistle can do. MAGIC. One toot and I had 31 pairs of eyes on me. One student was like, "What she has a whistle?!" "Yes, yes, I do and thank you for giving me your attention.... I need everyone to pack their materials, recycle any unwanted papers, stand behind pushed in chairs. Once I'm ready, I'll dismiss you."
Victory!
2 comments:
Oh, and I am also tickled to share that this group of kids had a several subs all week long. While dismissing 5th period, one student stopped to tell me that I was a great sub. Totally made my day!
Whistle power sounds fun!
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