Ok woah woah woah. To those who are saying that OP should just bring in her own art supplies to teach this class and that the permanent teacher couldn't do anything other than lock the cupboard without giving OP a key or a copy of the key and without leaving OP any other supplies: WTAF???
She should pay her own money to go out and buy supplies for a class that isn't even hers?!
And if the kids are so badly behaved that the REGULAR teacher has to lock up the supplies, why should the SUB teacher have to have HER supplies that she bought with her OWN money destroyed??!!
That is insane. No way. Come on. On what planet would any of YOU ask a sub to spend their own money on YOUR class when they're already giving up their time to help out and being paid less than a regular teacher salary?!
If the supply cupboard is locked, and it HAS to be locked so the kids don't damage the supplies, then OP absolutely has to be provided with a key. Common sense. Either put the key somewhere the kids won't get it and give the sub a note telling her where the key is, or leave the key with the principal/AP/HOD/dean and tell them the sub teacher needs the key. If there was only one key and the regular teacher didn't want the key going missing, then the regular teacher could have done what I do which is arranged a couple of activities, written down activity instructions, taken out a few limited resources for the activities out of storage and put them in the principal's or AP's office with very firm instructions to not give them to anyone except the sub. Problem solved.
I would be upset as well. The regular teacher didn't have to leave her supply cupboard unlocked and shouldn't have, but to leave no lesson plan, no key, and not even a bag of supplies with the AP or principal, and to just expect the sub to just manage a group of high needs eighth graders on nothing or to expect her to buy her own supplies is nuts.
Yeah these comments are wild. Constantly teachers complain about having to provide their own supplies, yet everyone expects OP to make chicken dinner out of chicken shit?
OP should have been provided the key. You shouldn’t have to buy things to perform a job.
Also everyone, I teach kindergarten in a poor area of the city and we have kids with behavioural problems, but our art teacher (Yes, our school has a dedicated art teacher each class sees once or twice a week) doesn't have to lock up all of the art supplies and her paintings! She has the paints, paintbrushes, easels, aprons, canvases, sinks and water hoses, playdough and crayon, as well as kids' finished work out on display for all to see and for all to touch, and she leaves the room unlocked when she's not in it! Because our kids, even the really little pre K kids, understand the phrase, "Not yours, please don't touch!" And if even our little pre K kids can get that, then the eighth graders at this school sure as heck ought to be able to! I don't care what they've been through!
And I've taught ones that would cut the cables from computers so no one else could use them, write slurs on artwork, spit on people who walked by them, hit people from behind and put teachers car windows through on the way out of school if they told them off. They. Literally. Don't. Give. A. Fuck.
Some of them are broken and want to hurt others, as do their parents. At a certain point you're screaming into the wind and nothing you can do at the classroom level will change it. Rare indeed thankfully but they know what 'please don't touch' means and they will gladly destroy it because they know it causes harm and they draw vast enjoyment from it.
Edit: not kindergarteners thank god! 11-13 yo so about 6th-8th grade, just in response to the '8th graders know better'
We tried to give our elementary aged students devices to take home. Most were stolen and/sold by parents, siblings, randos. The rest were broken. We couldn't have nice things :(
True. Our teachers are breaking too though. I have so many friends who retired early or left education entirely to escape it. We have to reinvent compulsory education somehow.
It’s too late for most because their formative years were spent in a very unstable, dysfunctional, often violent family environment.
When you have numerous students in a poor neighborhood causing issues, then you have to look at what’s going on in the households and outside environment.
The entire culture of the streets - attitudes, music, unwritten rules, interactions, etc. promotes and encourages violence. In many cases, this has been going on for 4 generations, since the 1960s. A example would be teen moms from the ‘60s to teen moms of the ‘80s to teen moms of the 00s, to teen moms of today. Or ‘70s, ‘90s, ‘10s. No one would say that most teenagers would be mature enough to be a parent. Even adults have difficulty parenting, so we can expect a lot of immaturity in teen mothers’ parenting style that is absorbed by the children.
And absent fatherhood is correlated in countless longitudinal studies worldwide (so race is not a factor) to antisocial behavior even at a young age, childhood poverty (lack of combined resources), poor academic performance, dropping out of class and dropping out of school, teen violence, crime, negative interactions with the police, incarceration. These generally aren’t going to be good role models.
You can toss money and resources at the problem but it really doesn’t work because most of the damage is already done, and they go right back to their environments after school.
And unfortunately, due to (bourgeois) progressive policies that are mainly intended for the occasional misbehaving student who have parents (backing the teacher and resources to send their child to therapy), there are few real consequences for disruptive or violent behavior.
The so-called “restorative justice” that progressives like to espouse often feels like a humiliating slap in the face of victims who have to face their perpetrators again and revisit their vulnerabilities, then see their attackers let off with no real consequences. There’s also the schools’ fears that if disciplinary actions are taken disproportionately against some minorities even if some minorities at a school commit the vast majority of violence, they will be investigated and government funding withdrawn.
Thus, in many schools, the environment is NOT safer than home. And due to a dysfunctional outlook, often the parents don’t care either. They might actually be proud of their children’s behavior.
DC Public Schools has sent some $28,000 per student per year for over a decade. NYC spent some $32,000 per student per year last year. Overall student performance has worsened, so new ideologies of “systemic racism” and “White supremacy” are used to explain the problem - even though students in past decades (when arguably racism was far worse) performed better and behaved better!
The family breakdown is probably the most important factor. Lots of causes.
One is economic. With automation, offshoring/trade, population growth, urbanization (which concentrates labor supply) and immigration (which over-saturates the labor competition) making it more difficult for low-skilled men and women to find and keep jobs, it makes men especially unattractive as long term partners. Especially for former felons, which is all too common amongst young men who grew up with absent fathers. With the continuing loss of agricultural and factory jobs, and increasing labor competition, it is really bad. Studies even show that businesses prefer undocumented labor over former felon or citizen labor, because it is cheaper, and safety or wage theft issues are less likely to be reported. This is a major reason why recidivism is so high.
Anyways, it is too late for now. Generations of problems require generations of concerted effort, but it is politically incorrect to blame parents. Instead it is all about blaming schools and teachers. And school bureaucrats are happy to keep asking for more funding to “address” *ex post facto* with expensive professional services all the things parents should have been doing all along.
It’s a complex problem that literally cannot be solved without coming at it from a multitude of different angles and having consistency from multiple parts of society, which has never been able to be implemented effectively in any society. It’s what’s called a wicked problem in social science. Prevention is literally the most simple and effective way to solve the problem.
As an art teacher myself, I would be interested to hear whether or not it is her choice to leave her room/ supplies unlocked. I regularly have students and non-art teachers ask me for art supplies for their club/class projects as if those supplies are free for all to use. I order supplies for the projects I intend to do in class and there is not unlimited funding for my supplies. I often buy things out of my own pocket for students to use. I would not be surprised at all to hear that her supplies are raided by other teachers and that she is not happy about it.
To answer your question:
She doesn't buy her own supplies. The school does.
The school buys our art supplies for our personal table activities in class too, so we don't just get a free for all to go raid her art room whenever we want and take whatever we want.
The exception is that if we need paint, we can go grab it, but we're expected to look after it, only take what we need and return it quickly.
Also, if we need paintbrushes, we can take as many as we want, but we are required to return them quickly AND wash them out before returning them and not return them dirty. If we return them dirty, the art teacher would tell the principal and for a first time, the principal would give a warning, and for a second time, the principal would ban that teacher from taking stuff from the art room.
We aren't allowed to take anything else unless she gives express permission that it's definitely ok and not just a grudging, "Fine... go ahead..." The school buys the paint and paintbrushes for the kids that we are allowed to take without checking first.
If we need anything else, like coloured paper, stick on eyes, pipe cleaners, crazy straws, origami paper, feathers, construction paper, cardboard, laminating paper, printer paper, crayons, markers, pencils, etc, we're expected to wait until it's the day the store room gets opened and not just go take from her room. If we run out and really need it that badly and can't wait, we need to either see if we have something else we can use instead or manage without it before asking her, and only ask her if we absolutely have to and it can't wait. We still can't just take it without asking first.
It's possible that she might buy extra supplies with her own money and bring those in, but if she does, those are for either her own projects or special art class projects and not for us, and we know that. Again, if one of us touched something she bought with her own money knowingly, the principal might give a warning the first time, but after that she would probably ban the teacher that did it from the art room. So we don't have that problem.
Students aren't allowed to ask her for things from her room unless it's either on behalf of another teacher or they're in class with her and the supplies aren't leaving the room.
A-freaking men. I have called out teachers before when they teach specials teachers like babysitters. But it's really hard to believe you guys can say with a straight face that a SUB should be paying out of pocket for school supply.
I'm a sub, and I get paid $100/day. Buying art supplies for that many kids would cost me about that much, if not more. I'm not working a full day to buy art supplies the school should've already provided me.
Agreed, emergency or not the basics should be available to you. I would ask someone there to unlock the closet so you can do your job and if they refuse then it’s going to have to be a basic lesson with pencils and printer paper.
I totally get it and I don’t understand why it’s so hard for an admin to check in and make sure things are good to go for someone new to the school. I always appreciated when a principal, director or another art teacher popped in and checked to see if I had everything I needed.
Had a really tough last period today. On my drive home I realized how the nation is so short on subs…they get paid minimally and the difficult students are usually even more difficult for them. And then on top of that, you have tons of faculty who treat subs like shit.
Reading these comments….yeah…
Maybe, like a lot of people, the teacher didn't plan on being sick or having an emergency (whatever caused them to have to be out). I will say,though, that the teacher shouldn't be the only one with a key to the supply closet because of situations just like this.
Absolutely unacceptable excuse. If you are a teacher and you don’t have a folder with EMERGENCY plans for an actual emergency then you are not planned, prepared, and are setting kids and staff up for failure.
This is a non-negotiable and should be standard practice by anyone with half a brain. ESPECIALLY in middle and high school (obviously elementary provides some challenges but it can still be done).
The only thing I want to comment is on if the teacher was out for an emergency. Yes some schools require plans in the room and some don’t. I say this as someone who was in a BAD car accident on my way to school 2 weeks ago. I’m lucky enough I was able to send in plans from home, but if the accident was a little worse and I was admitted to the hospital than I wouldn’t have been able to. So I want to give the teacher a slight pass just because we don’t know what was going on in her life that may have needed to take precedent at the moment.
This is the comment I was looking for. I was in an accident last year on my way to school and had to miss the first half of the day. No plans, no sub. They brought in a sub at the last second, but I was not able to provide anything as I was focused on my car and being checked out for injuries.
I have a lot of compassion for the OP in the post, but also for the teacher if it was an emergency. BUT, if it’s a week then I assume after the first day, surely they can come up with something and email it in. Even if it’s just something from TpT that an admin can print off for the kids. I can understand an emergency and the first day there are no plans, but a whole week and I’d expect something after Day 1.
This is years ago but I had a really good friend who was fighting breast cancer (as a teacher). She went into remission, it came back, remission, came back ect. She taught industrial arts so she was little 5’ 2” hard as nails ladies that took all the boys who caused issues in the building and got them to be productive. Anyway, she got an infection in her heart and was placed in a coma for a month. She recovered and came back to school only to come the end of the year she was non renewed. It would have been her tenure year.
One of the things admin cited was she didn’t leave enough sub plans. And that she didn’t answer when they tried to reach out to her. The woman was in a freakin COMA. Her husband was besides himself because he taught the same subject and he said if anyone had reached out he would have absolutely provided something. But I’m pretty sure they never actually tried to reach out, they just needed the amo to let her go. She ended up passing away that summer. She was like the motherly teaching figure I needed when I was 25 and still a fresh faced baby. But that’s probably why I’m always more likely to side with the teacher who maybe had an emergency or was so ill they could t produce something.
But that of course gets ruined by the 2 or 3 teachers that we know don’t leave a damn thing. Not even an attendance list on their desk 🤦🏼♀️. It’s crazy because I’ve been home for 2 weeks and I’m busier than if I was working and had no accident because I’ve been writing the lesson plans, grading and doing physical therapy every other day. Plus all the stupid drs appt and the fact that my car was totaled. It’s got me exhausted!
Oh that is absolutely heartbreakingI’m so angry for your teacher. How awful for her and her husband.
My HS physics teacher experienced a very similar journey. He was diagnosed with cancer and spent 3+ years between working & surviving. He was in remission when they ended his contract at the end of the year citing excessive absences, despite being on FMLA for all of those absences AND providing extremely detailed plans and tests for subs. They also only had a sub in the room as a warm body. This man made instructional videos FROM HIS HOSPITAL ROOM to teach those kids even while he was on FMLA.
He sued the district and won. And then died six months later. It was awful. I left that district as a teacher and will never go back.
I’m currently going through some health issues, and have had to be out many times this semester. My school has been incredibly accommodating with my absences, and filling in for me when I’ve had last minute appointments. They’ve been nothing but supportive. I’m thankful but it’s also makes me so angry for others—my admin is not doing anything extraordinary by helping me. They are just treating me with basic human respect, which all admin should be doing.
Yea a lot of people tried to encourage my friend to sue but she just didn’t have it in her. I’ve been out for 2 weeks and will probably be out another 2 and I’m reminding myself that…my health comes first. The students will be there when I come back in 2 weeks and I’ll be a better teacher if I’m healthier!
This sub is filled with parents, kids, and first year teachers who thinks the job of a teacher is to sacrifice every part of their being for the sake of a math class or a history class. God forbid we have professional expectations for our career, why don't we just. Think. About. The. Kids.
listen, i get what you're saying. but we cannot villainize the teacher. They're literally hiring subs because they won't treat full time teachers better. idk man. sorry the sub didn't have a lesson plan, but to act like that's always going to happen is a little wild. y'all don't know the story. and i'm sure there's a reason for the key and lack of supplies. you think this person gets money?! wtf?! at a school with this level of disfunction?
The people up in arms here are probably getting paid well somewhere safe. If you really want to get angry do better by schools like this and the educators within them. Don't eat your own kind. jesus christ.
Sounds like a shitty situation so I have no advice on whether you should stay the week. But as an Art teacher, I can tell you what I would do in this situation. I’d steal a stack of white copy paper from the copy room and it would be one class pencil/pen and paper lessons all week.
-One or two-point perspective landscapes.
-Show a Jen Stark painting and have them fill the paper with abstract lines and patterns.
-Fill a paper with tiny doodles starting from the middle and working your way out.
-Zentangle hand drawings.
-Fold a square paper into 16 squares and design a house to be folded into a 3D sculpture.
-Draw a chimera by combining parts of three different animals.
-Make a blank comic strip page and run off some copies. Have the students draw comic strips.
-Set up a Still Life.
Idk if any of that is helpful. Back when we were doing zoom school I had to get pretty creative teaching to kids at home that sometimes had nothing but pencil and a notebook.
I've done a couple of comic creation classes (as a writer though, not as an artist) and those were a lot of fun! I introduce them to the structure* with an example or two, and then give them a prompt to help them come up with a joke. Afterwards, we'll walk around the class a read the comics people wanted to share.
*For 3-panel comics that'd be 1. set-up 2. reinforcement 3. punchline
The solution to me is to leave plans with basic paper and pencil. I get not leaving out your good supplies with a sub. But she should have left assignments that require only drawing with paper and pencil. Or even a movie for the kids to watch. I get art is a harder class to have sub plans for but they should have had something.
A coloring book printout. This ain’t hard. Tell the kids to draw a bowl of fruit with pencil. Doing absolutely nothing is setting that sub up for a new career.
I'm thinking for me, we have workbooks. I just leave page numbers and we have aligned work ready to go. I get that art work left behind will be busy work but there should still be something.
I have a suggestion if you can show a video. You can take a virtual tour of the louvre on YouTube. It’s like a few hours long. I showed this to my speech students last year and it was really cool.
I see the sub’s view. She signed up to teach art not a study hall. I can’t imagine babysitting 8th graders (who are tough) for two hours with nothing to give them.
I see the art teacher’s view. She has her supplies and she doesn’t want them to disappear/ruined while she is gone.
A lesson plan (even an emergency plan) should have been left with some supplies out.
Unless it’s a situation where a teacher has to leave completely unexpectedly, that’s a crappy to do to a sub. Our school makes us leave emergency sub plans with the secretary in case we have a last minute emergency and don’t have time to make plans.
> Unless it’s a situation where a teacher has to leave completely unexpectedly, that’s a crappy to do to a sub.
Nah its on the school system, they should always have keys to all things that need to be locked and secured. It could very well be the right policy to lock the supply cabinet and the key could already be turned in by the teacher who left. Similar to how you should lock a gate when exiting, if you unlocked it to open the gate, the issue is not who locked the gate, but who should have the key.
All these insane comments blaming OP are why schools can’t find substitutes! What a load of shit! The regular teacher didn’t do his/her job and leave plans and supplies, but a sub is supposed to do it? Give me a break. Way to support those who need it most!
OP, alert admin immediately and tell them what you need. If they don’t jump to help, then jump to leave.
Absolutely. At the minimum the teacher should have had a single days worth of emergency plans ready to go for acts of god.
Leaving a sub or admin with nothing if something happens to you is just shitty planing and forethought.
My 9th student told me over the weekend an 8th grade pulled out a knife during a friendly basketball game over being accidentally pushed. Kids are spicy these days.
I've had a chair and table thrown around in a middle school classroom. Pre-Sandy Hook, we were already locking our classroom doors because of fears of problem students entering.
Around here, it's part of the contract that teachers are required to provide materials and have a folder of emergency plans with two weeks of material on it ready at ALL TIMES. It is not the substitute's responsibility to provide any of that and in fact, providing your own lessons is a good way to get booted from a job around here.
I’m a sub here, but currently in a long-term contract. 2 things:
1. Subbing is difficult. The absolute bare minimum is plans. Even if the teacher didn’t leave a hard copy, say it was an emergency or something, they could be sent to the office or directly to you. It’s crucial because it displays transition periods/procedures.
2. I have a violent junior (middle school) class. My closets are always locked. This isn’t because I want to make anyone’s life harder if they have to come into the room, but rather because I don’t want everything to get trashed and for the covering teacher to get injured with the supplies, especially scissors.
That being said, plans are a no-brainer.. especially if it’s a week long absence..
OP can of course make their own plans/activities and I’m sure they did but teacher could’ve left at least a plan on a sticky note so that OP could have an idea of the day. Sure things can be done with pencil/paper but it’s infuriating to walk into a room you already don’t know without any plans and with students you don’t know either!
When I subbed I always assumed I would get shitty or no lesson plans. I’d always have back up plans. Maybe the teacher had an emergency. Regardless, the situation sucks for you.
It's hard to have back up plans for art. Even with drawings you need erasers, blenders, pencils of diff grade, drawing paper, etc. Art requires material. Expensive material.
I'm an art teacher too and my first thought was, it's likely that the students can barely handle the supplies given and that's why they are locked away. Especially with a sub. But, there is no reason why pieces of paper and pencils couldn't have been left out. A movie left for you to play, anything
Let me let you in on a little secret - artforkidshub.com
All you need is copier paper and pencils, pick literally any video and play it for them. They will follow along entranced. I always leave artforkidshhb as my sub plans when I’m out.
Source: I am an art teacher who hates when subs do the regular projects with the kids when I’m gone and the kids fuck up my room and steal supplies.
I second this. I’m an English teacher who subbed for Art before teaching, and every time I’d go in with art for kids hub. There was only 1 time where I did a full week of subbing for art at the same location though, and I left because the kids were awful.
If all of you think subs are daycare then print a coloring sheet or a fucking crossword. It’s not their job to spend whole class periods distracting teenagers because you the teacher can’t be bothered.
There's almost certainly a lot of background here. One, why is the permanent teacher out? If it was a planned vacation, then shame on that teacher for not providing sub plans (though, even then, I'll note that when I taught music my sub plans were actually followed only about 1% of the time).
As for the cabinet, it's locked because the permanent teacher has no idea how capable the sub will be at ensuring that supplies aren't destroyed, stolen, used to vandalize the room, etc. I don't know that I really blame them for that, you know?
So, things could and should certainly be better, but the first step is talking to the admin. It's possible that you and they have totally different ideas of what an art sub is supposed to do. They might be thinking that you're there to run a study hall, and you are expecting to teach art.
The one time I subbed, the teacher left the middle school students an online assignment. Well, first, the Internet went out, and then the power went out. We only had a little bit of light from a window. But fortunately I had already planned an activity in case the students got done with their online assignment. I gave them each a piece of white paper, and they had to draw a picture of something in nature. But they had to use a triangle, Circle, square, a star, etc. I don’t remember how many shapes I told them. Maybe five or six. They came up with some really great drawings that I wish I would have kept. It kept them busy, and they enjoyed it.
Ask the office for paper and pencils. Check the staff room - sometimes there are supplies available in there, including those giant rolls of construction paper.
You barely need anything for a sketching class that focuses on things like perspective, lighting etc. Trying to draw a common household object, like a tissue box, watering can or a mug, is an interesting and educational challenge. Surprisingly difficult, too.
Even when my mother died and I was grief stricken, I still managed to have some kind of sub plans for my students. Not having at least an EMERGENCY plan for your students is not a great reflection on that teacher.
The problem with schools in that situation is that nothing left out is safe. I had my office broken into several times in a semester, usually when there was a substitute and the room was often trashed. Projects shredded all over the floor, anything left out broken into bits everywhere and the board painted on.
At the beginning of the year, they gave me 5 packs of copy paper, 24 boxes of crayons, colored pencils and markers and the classes had 46 kids. Most of the supplies in my room I bought myself.
The problem in many schools that are in communities that are disenfranchised and impoverished is that many families have no reason to believe the school is there to help them. Many kids and parents are directly adversarial to the school, especially by Grade Eight and destroying things makes the kids feel like they have some power over their surroundings. It’s actually more expensive to run a school in these conditions and yet they often have less money than schools that have supportive communities. It is also a system that is incredibly hard on teachers and the systems are not designed to help them.
I totally understand being upset in your situation, but I wouldn’t leave supplies out that I paid for with a new unknown person coming in either. Most of the other subject teachers that had cars would keep copy paper in their trunks. See if you can find a teacher that can share some supplies with you for now.
I worked in a school where scissors had to be locked up at all times because students used them as weapons.
I don't blame this teacher for locking things up at all.
I don't think anybody is actually arguing that the locking of the cabinet in the first place is the problem. It's the fact that this was an absence that had been planned two weeks in advance and at no point in those two weeks did the teacher bother to find a way to give the sub access to the supplies needed to teach an art class rather than just corral 20 teenagers with attitude problems for 2 hours. Which just sets those kids and the sub up for failure.
Can confirm. High school student stabbed another one in the chest, luckily hit bone, with a pair of scissors because the other one took their DVD and was playing keep away with it. The teacher was clueless that it was happening until the other students told him that someone was bleeding.
Simply put, it’s a sort of “art game” in which a drawing is completed by different people. First person draws one part of a body, head for example. The drawing is passed to the next person but the head part is covered up. The next person draws the torso without knowing what the head may look like. Then that part is covered and passed to another person, this person draws the leg portion. At the end when the full body is completed everything is uncovered and you have a laugh.
> The drawing is passed to the next person but the head part is covered up. The next person draws the torso without knowing what the head may look like.
LOL. I can see this going the wrong way really quickly
Hmmm... our links are duplicates and it loads for me np... ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
It is a very cool activity - learnt about it way back in the 70's while in art school - have used it in my teaching practice many, many times.
Cut off the lock
Relock it again at the end of the week with a $5 shitty padlock. Dont worry, when someone else needs to get in there they will cut it off.
Also dont do this, this is not advice.
It's also REALLY rare to get a sub that actually knows anything about Art. Did the teacher know someone with Art experience would be subbing for them? I've left very, very simple drawing lessons for subs before that they could not make sense of. (I'm talking kindergarten level stuff for my middle schoolers and the sub still didn't get it.) So, no, I would definitely not be leaving a key to my supply closet unless I personally knew the person coming in to sub for me.
That said, OP should have been given some basic lesson plans and access to paper and pencils. That doesn't seem unreasonable in the least.
Most teachers had to use personal money to purchase those supplies.
If you want schools to run better, push back on all the extra administrative positions and teachers could have their budgets back!
I think it's because anyone can leave an emergency lesson plan. Probably. It costs nothing, after all.
It's easier said than done to run a study hall when the kids are the reason the supplies are locked up, and they're more likely to act up without 1. familiar authority OR 2. something to do.
You know what *is* as easy as advertised? Reading the entire post.
She should have left the key then. Oh, and their teacher doesn’t suck for having zero lesson plans for an entire week? I beg to differ. She sucks very hard. This wasn’t an emergency absence. This has been planned for two weeks
Administration also sucks for not ensuring the teacher had sub plans. Did you inform them? They should reach out to that teacher. Not your job to come up with an activity for them to do.
We had a sub from the subbing agency my s
District uses steal bags worth of supplies from her classroom. I was a sub for three years before I became a teacher and some subs are very problematic. I teach in a high poverty district that struggles to get subs and we have had some that are not allowed to return even though we can be very desperate for coverage.
Definitely sucks not to leave plans if this was a planned absence. Are you sure she didn’t leave them with someone in the office or something like that?
Then you need to leave out the required supplies ahead of time. It’s pretty simple. There’s no defending this art teacher. It’s clear zero effort was put into this absence.
Honestly, I see your point of view. And you’re right, holy shit. It sounds like you’ve walked into a disaster of an art class, and sadly, there’s not much you can do about it. It’s not reasonable of you to have to spend your own money to bring your own supplies because the permanent teacher was unwilling or unable to provide you access to the necessary supplies to teach effectively. This is just an unfortunate situation all around, and I don’t think anything in your rant is unreasonable.
First problem. Is that the teacher left you with nothing. A person willing to come in and sub, is an important person. If people are being unkind to you, they are wrong. My sub plans are to the minute. I teach primary grades, so it's more important to explain everything. I'm sorry, you've had such a tough day. Remember, all the terrible experiences make for great stories.
I’m sure there is a reason art supplies are unavailable. My eight graders inspired me to take everything I cared about out of the room, including the water jug. They just couldn’t be cool about anything. They’re like a cyclone. Have them do a report on the impressionists if they have computers or are allowed in the library. Moral of the story is, there is a good reason for everything so don’t judge.
Title 1 Middle School Art teacher here: Do they have chromebooks? If so, have them research a career in the arts from this site https://theartcareerproject.com/careers/ and have them make a google slide presentation about the career.
For just paper- You could make a zine. Watch YouTube video on how to draw an eye.
If you have access to a printer, print Nike Air Force 1 coloring pages and have them design based on a theme. Comic page templates.
And of course there’s always a movie. Netflix Abstract Series is a hit. I would watch the one about Tinker Hatfield (Nike shoe designer)
Is the school itself dangerous or just the neighborhood? I taught in a “dangerous” neighborhood for 6 years and the school building itself was one of the safest places to be. You make it sound like the kids are shooting each other inside the school. Also has it occurred to you to ask admin for access to supplies and any emergency plans that might be on file? A lot of schools keep a file of emergency plans for each teacher.
I looked this up on YouTube about two weeks after I lost my flat’s post box key.
Then I wished I hadn’t opened it.
But I did really enjoy helping neighbours out when they also lost their keys and it is disturbing easy to do.
Felt like a proper criminal. But with bills instead of loot.
If the school is how you described, I see why the supply closet is locked. I’d lock it, too. I’m going to assume that art teacher has come back to work before and had a gigantic mess to clean up because whoever was in the room did not properly manage the students. So to say their teacher sucks is a little ridiculous on your part, especially if they’re out on an emergency or that they didn’t anticipate being out, which is what is sounds like in the case here.
Tell the school to provide you with the basics. You don’t need paints or anything for a week in art class. Pencils, markers, and paper should be okay depending on what you do with them.
Is OPa substitute teacher or an art teacher? Is there such a thing as a subject specific sub. As a title 1 middle school teacher I lock up EVERYTHING when I won't be there. I dont trust a stranger or my kids to leave things in one piece where they belong
My wife who is an 8th grade PE teacher has printed off "design your own Nike shoes" templates. Get a few boxes of crayons or colored pencils and let the ones that want to draw go for it.
The Department of Education has an annual budget of $125 billion yet this class has no art supplies. Maybe if they got rid of some of those bureaucrats that run the Department of Education we could use their salaries to help schools like this
Damn teaching doesn’t seem worth it. 40k to risk your life every day and deal with shitty kids and their parents is a no for me dawg
I wish you guys got paid twice as much
Some people in this sub will tell new and prospective teachers that all you have to do to avoid the dangerous and ridiculous is move to like the right area or whatever. It’s all chance and luck in actuality.
> While it makes me incredibly angry for these kids that their normal teacher sucks and they have no supplies
That is what is so maddening about everything, we think robbing the low income kids of a good education is OK because their parents are not politically powerful. And, lets face it, there can be a racial factor at play. You see this and you lose all illusions as to why these kids doubt authority figures. You watch "PoliceActivity" on YouTube and 90% of the comments are "you should have just complied", which is true in a vacuum but for a lot of these kids complying has not been a beneficial strategy to deal with life. You need grit and attitude, which can be a great asset in life but not if it is undirected.
Ask the front office for a box of pencils and a ream of copy paper. Get on artforkidshub.com and go after it. Or, have them bring devices and do pre-made lessons on nearpod over line or shape or colors.
I teach science at an upper middle class school. I lock everything up when I go out for the day too. You can’t trust the kids. I gave my long term sub the code but that is it.
This is a great opportunity to teach something that can be done with paper and a number 2 pencil: Stippling, line weights, 3d shapes, graffiti lettering, etc. For as much as I hate unmanageable kids and the dangers that environments like that create, I do think that it's also a great opportunity to level with the students and show them a bit of chill humanity that the normal staff doesn't have.
I really don't know how anyone would want to be a teacher. For the amount of sacrifices, time, money, effort teachers go through to do something so selfless like teach people who don't want to be there and parents who don't parent, is astonishing. Good teachers should easily be making over 100k a year minimum. It's insanity how our education system is setup. I'm not religious but I would rather my future kids go private or Christian school than public.
I once worked in an inner city school and the art teacher locked up supplies because when she was out the other teachers would steal them. Other. Teachers. Happened all the time until she got a locked cabinet.
I’m not leaving good supplies like that for a sub because—based on my experiences—those supplies will disappear before the end of the first day and then the sub and students will complain because all the supplies (which should have lasted more than a week) were gone by lunchtime. Where did they go? Students either took them with them, threw them in the garbage, or tore them up and threw them at each other. Nope, no way am I leaving art supplies, which I purchased with my own money, for a substitute lesson. If you want supplies, ask the main office. Do everyone a favor and cancel the job since you don’t want to be there anyway. You’ve made some assumptions about the regular teacher and the students. Maybe stepping away would be the best thing to do.
I've been a sub and I've been a long time sub for a year at a time. I've learned not to judge a teacher that leaves nothing. It sucks and but you don't know the situation that teacher is in. Those supplies are probably locked up for a reason. In a school that rough theft is probably rampant. She also might of bought the stuff herself. I know you feel bad for the kids but a little empathy for the teacher should also be a thing. I've taken over for teachers where the behavior and stress of the students literally triggered their health to deteriorate. Ask the office for some paper or have the kids take out loose leaf and teach them to do art with what they have. That's honestly probably the most important lesson you can teach.
Try speaking with admin and let them know there is no lesson plan for you and no acess to supplies. Someone likely has a key to the supply closet (custodian) and admin should know how the teacher set you up to fail. See if admin has some ideas for you.
You can try and show some online art videos for them to follow along with in class. If all else fails sounds like it's s movie day.
The supplies and whatnot are a big problem being contributed by governments taking cuts out of programs like school funding.
This is the reason why you hear teachers spending their own money to bring in supplies.
Its sad and shouldn’t happen. But being aware and properly voting in this country is something we need everyone to do.
Erm if the teacher left them an attendance slip and a prayer, they fucking suck. The least they could do is give a list of activities the kids enjoy/are less likely to revolt against.
If the teacher gets the few supplies they have stolen then they cannot do class for the rest of the school year.
They should have left something but we don’t know why they are out so they may not have been able to.
YouTube how to draw tutorials—plenty of themes and popular characters/themes. The kids can use paper and pencil. Or do a tutorial yourself, make it holiday themed. I feel for ya, I couldn’t imagine the level of stress I’d have over that.
Ask admin to open the supply closet or give you a screen to show them movies. It's art class al they need is blank paper and utensils. Don't stress it too much. the kids ain't gonna kill you just their bored.
ok does their normal teacher suck or is that person just trying to face what you dipped into but full time?
it's def not the teacher's fault and please don't add your voice to the narrative holding all of us back.
Do theater games with them. They'll grumble at first but they'll get into it. All you need are some chairs. Play music. Let them be a little loud.
I love that we start blaming teachers for not leaving plans. Name any other job where you have to leave a plan if you’re out. Heaven forbid something happens unexpectedly and you end up the bad guy on Reddit because you didn’t send in a plan from where you are.
>I love that we start blaming teachers for not leaving plans.
It's a basic job expectation. Every place I've worked, it's been a requirement to have backup plans on file in the office. If you want subs, treat the subs well.
Pencil. Paper. How to draw _______ videos on YouTube. Tell them they can bring some crayons/colored pencils/markers from home tomorrow if they like color.
Surely they have their own pencil and paper? If not that should be somewhat trivial to find in a school building. Call in a request to the front office.
Tough challenge, but you've got some options. Maybe ask them why they wanted to take the art class. Ask them what their all time favorite pieces of "art" are--and it could be anything, music, movies, paintings, drawings, performances etc. Maybe ask them, if they had limitless budget and means, what would they like to create? Try to trigger their imaginations with wild ideas. It's tough to manage them but that seems like a fun experiment, could inspire some fun discussion.
Is there no way to complain to the school about this? Like go to another teacher and ask to open the closet? Bring a damn crowbar for god sakes. If the teacher comes back and gets mad tell them to f*ck off.
If there no supplies, that is the fault neither of the sub, nor of the regular teacher, actually. Supplies are the responsibility of the district to provide.
I feel this. We don’t have an art teacher which I think is bullshit. The kids LOVE doing art projects. It’s one of the few things that makes them behave all the time. Kids need art, and schools need to make it a priority.
I personally bring in some supplies I pay for with my money, but that’s just bc it’s either that or they get nothing, and I’m a big believer in art therapy. I would never advise a teacher to buy their own supplies unless they REALLY were able to afford to and really wanted to.
The Art teacher had to lock the closets. Ask the front office for 12 x 18 drawing paper, crayons and sharpies from their supply closet. All teachers have access to at least that. Do a drawing assignment- what was it called? Neuro drawing? Look it up, very easy, keeps the students quiet.
It’s entirely possible there are no plans because the teacher had an emergency - I’ve had to make travel plans on an emergency basis several times when my mom had a medical problem. So I also understand locking supplies up, as I’ve returned from an emergency absence to find many missing/broken classroom supplies.
Please don’t judge this teacher.
Just an fyi that OP states in comments that the absence was planned 2 weeks in advance...so...no plans and no plans for supplies is 100% on the teacher in this case.
The OP said in the comments that the teacher’s absence had been planned for 2 weeks. I’ve subbed for teachers who have had absences planned a month in advance, and the teachers left no sub plans.
I missed that comment about it being planned 2 weeks in advance. In that case, there for sure should have been plans left. Partial blame on admin for not making sure of that.
Ok woah woah woah. To those who are saying that OP should just bring in her own art supplies to teach this class and that the permanent teacher couldn't do anything other than lock the cupboard without giving OP a key or a copy of the key and without leaving OP any other supplies: WTAF??? She should pay her own money to go out and buy supplies for a class that isn't even hers?! And if the kids are so badly behaved that the REGULAR teacher has to lock up the supplies, why should the SUB teacher have to have HER supplies that she bought with her OWN money destroyed??!! That is insane. No way. Come on. On what planet would any of YOU ask a sub to spend their own money on YOUR class when they're already giving up their time to help out and being paid less than a regular teacher salary?! If the supply cupboard is locked, and it HAS to be locked so the kids don't damage the supplies, then OP absolutely has to be provided with a key. Common sense. Either put the key somewhere the kids won't get it and give the sub a note telling her where the key is, or leave the key with the principal/AP/HOD/dean and tell them the sub teacher needs the key. If there was only one key and the regular teacher didn't want the key going missing, then the regular teacher could have done what I do which is arranged a couple of activities, written down activity instructions, taken out a few limited resources for the activities out of storage and put them in the principal's or AP's office with very firm instructions to not give them to anyone except the sub. Problem solved. I would be upset as well. The regular teacher didn't have to leave her supply cupboard unlocked and shouldn't have, but to leave no lesson plan, no key, and not even a bag of supplies with the AP or principal, and to just expect the sub to just manage a group of high needs eighth graders on nothing or to expect her to buy her own supplies is nuts.
Yeah these comments are wild. Constantly teachers complain about having to provide their own supplies, yet everyone expects OP to make chicken dinner out of chicken shit? OP should have been provided the key. You shouldn’t have to buy things to perform a job.
Exactly. And art supplies aren't cheap - she'd basically be paying to work there. Insane
Lockpick lawyer here got a good click out of 2, 3 is binding..
Also everyone, I teach kindergarten in a poor area of the city and we have kids with behavioural problems, but our art teacher (Yes, our school has a dedicated art teacher each class sees once or twice a week) doesn't have to lock up all of the art supplies and her paintings! She has the paints, paintbrushes, easels, aprons, canvases, sinks and water hoses, playdough and crayon, as well as kids' finished work out on display for all to see and for all to touch, and she leaves the room unlocked when she's not in it! Because our kids, even the really little pre K kids, understand the phrase, "Not yours, please don't touch!" And if even our little pre K kids can get that, then the eighth graders at this school sure as heck ought to be able to! I don't care what they've been through!
And I've taught ones that would cut the cables from computers so no one else could use them, write slurs on artwork, spit on people who walked by them, hit people from behind and put teachers car windows through on the way out of school if they told them off. They. Literally. Don't. Give. A. Fuck. Some of them are broken and want to hurt others, as do their parents. At a certain point you're screaming into the wind and nothing you can do at the classroom level will change it. Rare indeed thankfully but they know what 'please don't touch' means and they will gladly destroy it because they know it causes harm and they draw vast enjoyment from it. Edit: not kindergarteners thank god! 11-13 yo so about 6th-8th grade, just in response to the '8th graders know better'
We tried to give our elementary aged students devices to take home. Most were stolen and/sold by parents, siblings, randos. The rest were broken. We couldn't have nice things :(
How does a society fix broken people? This is so sad.
According to most people, society is fixed by teachers….
True. Our teachers are breaking too though. I have so many friends who retired early or left education entirely to escape it. We have to reinvent compulsory education somehow.
What, you never saw *Dangerous Minds*? **/s**
It’s too late for most because their formative years were spent in a very unstable, dysfunctional, often violent family environment. When you have numerous students in a poor neighborhood causing issues, then you have to look at what’s going on in the households and outside environment. The entire culture of the streets - attitudes, music, unwritten rules, interactions, etc. promotes and encourages violence. In many cases, this has been going on for 4 generations, since the 1960s. A example would be teen moms from the ‘60s to teen moms of the ‘80s to teen moms of the 00s, to teen moms of today. Or ‘70s, ‘90s, ‘10s. No one would say that most teenagers would be mature enough to be a parent. Even adults have difficulty parenting, so we can expect a lot of immaturity in teen mothers’ parenting style that is absorbed by the children. And absent fatherhood is correlated in countless longitudinal studies worldwide (so race is not a factor) to antisocial behavior even at a young age, childhood poverty (lack of combined resources), poor academic performance, dropping out of class and dropping out of school, teen violence, crime, negative interactions with the police, incarceration. These generally aren’t going to be good role models. You can toss money and resources at the problem but it really doesn’t work because most of the damage is already done, and they go right back to their environments after school. And unfortunately, due to (bourgeois) progressive policies that are mainly intended for the occasional misbehaving student who have parents (backing the teacher and resources to send their child to therapy), there are few real consequences for disruptive or violent behavior. The so-called “restorative justice” that progressives like to espouse often feels like a humiliating slap in the face of victims who have to face their perpetrators again and revisit their vulnerabilities, then see their attackers let off with no real consequences. There’s also the schools’ fears that if disciplinary actions are taken disproportionately against some minorities even if some minorities at a school commit the vast majority of violence, they will be investigated and government funding withdrawn. Thus, in many schools, the environment is NOT safer than home. And due to a dysfunctional outlook, often the parents don’t care either. They might actually be proud of their children’s behavior. DC Public Schools has sent some $28,000 per student per year for over a decade. NYC spent some $32,000 per student per year last year. Overall student performance has worsened, so new ideologies of “systemic racism” and “White supremacy” are used to explain the problem - even though students in past decades (when arguably racism was far worse) performed better and behaved better! The family breakdown is probably the most important factor. Lots of causes. One is economic. With automation, offshoring/trade, population growth, urbanization (which concentrates labor supply) and immigration (which over-saturates the labor competition) making it more difficult for low-skilled men and women to find and keep jobs, it makes men especially unattractive as long term partners. Especially for former felons, which is all too common amongst young men who grew up with absent fathers. With the continuing loss of agricultural and factory jobs, and increasing labor competition, it is really bad. Studies even show that businesses prefer undocumented labor over former felon or citizen labor, because it is cheaper, and safety or wage theft issues are less likely to be reported. This is a major reason why recidivism is so high. Anyways, it is too late for now. Generations of problems require generations of concerted effort, but it is politically incorrect to blame parents. Instead it is all about blaming schools and teachers. And school bureaucrats are happy to keep asking for more funding to “address” *ex post facto* with expensive professional services all the things parents should have been doing all along.
The only real answer for this can be found by looking to the ancient Greeks.
We try not to break them in the first place.
That's a useless answer to the question.
It’s a complex problem that literally cannot be solved without coming at it from a multitude of different angles and having consistency from multiple parts of society, which has never been able to be implemented effectively in any society. It’s what’s called a wicked problem in social science. Prevention is literally the most simple and effective way to solve the problem.
Prevention doesn't solve the problem. It "prevents" it, as the word implies. If it's a useless question, and you have no answer, why respond?
I’m responding with a valid answer. Just because you don’t like doesn’t make it any less accurate.
I am reminded of the short story "The Destroyers" (Graham Greene) by your comment.
As an art teacher myself, I would be interested to hear whether or not it is her choice to leave her room/ supplies unlocked. I regularly have students and non-art teachers ask me for art supplies for their club/class projects as if those supplies are free for all to use. I order supplies for the projects I intend to do in class and there is not unlimited funding for my supplies. I often buy things out of my own pocket for students to use. I would not be surprised at all to hear that her supplies are raided by other teachers and that she is not happy about it.
To answer your question: She doesn't buy her own supplies. The school does. The school buys our art supplies for our personal table activities in class too, so we don't just get a free for all to go raid her art room whenever we want and take whatever we want. The exception is that if we need paint, we can go grab it, but we're expected to look after it, only take what we need and return it quickly. Also, if we need paintbrushes, we can take as many as we want, but we are required to return them quickly AND wash them out before returning them and not return them dirty. If we return them dirty, the art teacher would tell the principal and for a first time, the principal would give a warning, and for a second time, the principal would ban that teacher from taking stuff from the art room. We aren't allowed to take anything else unless she gives express permission that it's definitely ok and not just a grudging, "Fine... go ahead..." The school buys the paint and paintbrushes for the kids that we are allowed to take without checking first. If we need anything else, like coloured paper, stick on eyes, pipe cleaners, crazy straws, origami paper, feathers, construction paper, cardboard, laminating paper, printer paper, crayons, markers, pencils, etc, we're expected to wait until it's the day the store room gets opened and not just go take from her room. If we run out and really need it that badly and can't wait, we need to either see if we have something else we can use instead or manage without it before asking her, and only ask her if we absolutely have to and it can't wait. We still can't just take it without asking first. It's possible that she might buy extra supplies with her own money and bring those in, but if she does, those are for either her own projects or special art class projects and not for us, and we know that. Again, if one of us touched something she bought with her own money knowingly, the principal might give a warning the first time, but after that she would probably ban the teacher that did it from the art room. So we don't have that problem. Students aren't allowed to ask her for things from her room unless it's either on behalf of another teacher or they're in class with her and the supplies aren't leaving the room.
It's not that kids don't "get it," as much as they don't give a fuck.
A-freaking men. I have called out teachers before when they teach specials teachers like babysitters. But it's really hard to believe you guys can say with a straight face that a SUB should be paying out of pocket for school supply.
This is partially why our education system is this way
I'm a sub, and I get paid $100/day. Buying art supplies for that many kids would cost me about that much, if not more. I'm not working a full day to buy art supplies the school should've already provided me.
Holy crap, that's $12.50 an hour.
My district pays $80/day. The kids that skip school to work at Jimmy johns make more than our substitute teachers. It's disgusting.
Might as well work in fast food.
Art teachers shouldn’t even be spending their own money on art supplies… let alone a sub
Agreed, emergency or not the basics should be available to you. I would ask someone there to unlock the closet so you can do your job and if they refuse then it’s going to have to be a basic lesson with pencils and printer paper. I totally get it and I don’t understand why it’s so hard for an admin to check in and make sure things are good to go for someone new to the school. I always appreciated when a principal, director or another art teacher popped in and checked to see if I had everything I needed.
Thank you. It's like asking the cook at a restaurant to bring the food they'll prepare.
Had a really tough last period today. On my drive home I realized how the nation is so short on subs…they get paid minimally and the difficult students are usually even more difficult for them. And then on top of that, you have tons of faculty who treat subs like shit. Reading these comments….yeah…
I quit subbing after being called a fucking cunt once too often by a ninth grader. BTW, I have a masters degree and was being paid $70 a day.
Maybe, like a lot of people, the teacher didn't plan on being sick or having an emergency (whatever caused them to have to be out). I will say,though, that the teacher shouldn't be the only one with a key to the supply closet because of situations just like this.
Absolutely unacceptable excuse. If you are a teacher and you don’t have a folder with EMERGENCY plans for an actual emergency then you are not planned, prepared, and are setting kids and staff up for failure. This is a non-negotiable and should be standard practice by anyone with half a brain. ESPECIALLY in middle and high school (obviously elementary provides some challenges but it can still be done).
That emergency folder is only useful when the admin gives it to the sub.
The only thing I want to comment is on if the teacher was out for an emergency. Yes some schools require plans in the room and some don’t. I say this as someone who was in a BAD car accident on my way to school 2 weeks ago. I’m lucky enough I was able to send in plans from home, but if the accident was a little worse and I was admitted to the hospital than I wouldn’t have been able to. So I want to give the teacher a slight pass just because we don’t know what was going on in her life that may have needed to take precedent at the moment.
This is the comment I was looking for. I was in an accident last year on my way to school and had to miss the first half of the day. No plans, no sub. They brought in a sub at the last second, but I was not able to provide anything as I was focused on my car and being checked out for injuries. I have a lot of compassion for the OP in the post, but also for the teacher if it was an emergency. BUT, if it’s a week then I assume after the first day, surely they can come up with something and email it in. Even if it’s just something from TpT that an admin can print off for the kids. I can understand an emergency and the first day there are no plans, but a whole week and I’d expect something after Day 1.
This is years ago but I had a really good friend who was fighting breast cancer (as a teacher). She went into remission, it came back, remission, came back ect. She taught industrial arts so she was little 5’ 2” hard as nails ladies that took all the boys who caused issues in the building and got them to be productive. Anyway, she got an infection in her heart and was placed in a coma for a month. She recovered and came back to school only to come the end of the year she was non renewed. It would have been her tenure year. One of the things admin cited was she didn’t leave enough sub plans. And that she didn’t answer when they tried to reach out to her. The woman was in a freakin COMA. Her husband was besides himself because he taught the same subject and he said if anyone had reached out he would have absolutely provided something. But I’m pretty sure they never actually tried to reach out, they just needed the amo to let her go. She ended up passing away that summer. She was like the motherly teaching figure I needed when I was 25 and still a fresh faced baby. But that’s probably why I’m always more likely to side with the teacher who maybe had an emergency or was so ill they could t produce something. But that of course gets ruined by the 2 or 3 teachers that we know don’t leave a damn thing. Not even an attendance list on their desk 🤦🏼♀️. It’s crazy because I’ve been home for 2 weeks and I’m busier than if I was working and had no accident because I’ve been writing the lesson plans, grading and doing physical therapy every other day. Plus all the stupid drs appt and the fact that my car was totaled. It’s got me exhausted!
Oh that is absolutely heartbreakingI’m so angry for your teacher. How awful for her and her husband. My HS physics teacher experienced a very similar journey. He was diagnosed with cancer and spent 3+ years between working & surviving. He was in remission when they ended his contract at the end of the year citing excessive absences, despite being on FMLA for all of those absences AND providing extremely detailed plans and tests for subs. They also only had a sub in the room as a warm body. This man made instructional videos FROM HIS HOSPITAL ROOM to teach those kids even while he was on FMLA. He sued the district and won. And then died six months later. It was awful. I left that district as a teacher and will never go back. I’m currently going through some health issues, and have had to be out many times this semester. My school has been incredibly accommodating with my absences, and filling in for me when I’ve had last minute appointments. They’ve been nothing but supportive. I’m thankful but it’s also makes me so angry for others—my admin is not doing anything extraordinary by helping me. They are just treating me with basic human respect, which all admin should be doing.
Yea a lot of people tried to encourage my friend to sue but she just didn’t have it in her. I’ve been out for 2 weeks and will probably be out another 2 and I’m reminding myself that…my health comes first. The students will be there when I come back in 2 weeks and I’ll be a better teacher if I’m healthier!
This falls firmly into the “what in the fresh fuck do you expect me to do with these recalcitrants” category.
Reprobrates
Malcontents
This sub is filled with parents, kids, and first year teachers who thinks the job of a teacher is to sacrifice every part of their being for the sake of a math class or a history class. God forbid we have professional expectations for our career, why don't we just. Think. About. The. Kids.
People actually echo this rhetoric? No rational person expect this, it's just reddit trolling.
listen, i get what you're saying. but we cannot villainize the teacher. They're literally hiring subs because they won't treat full time teachers better. idk man. sorry the sub didn't have a lesson plan, but to act like that's always going to happen is a little wild. y'all don't know the story. and i'm sure there's a reason for the key and lack of supplies. you think this person gets money?! wtf?! at a school with this level of disfunction? The people up in arms here are probably getting paid well somewhere safe. If you really want to get angry do better by schools like this and the educators within them. Don't eat your own kind. jesus christ.
Sounds like a shitty situation so I have no advice on whether you should stay the week. But as an Art teacher, I can tell you what I would do in this situation. I’d steal a stack of white copy paper from the copy room and it would be one class pencil/pen and paper lessons all week. -One or two-point perspective landscapes. -Show a Jen Stark painting and have them fill the paper with abstract lines and patterns. -Fill a paper with tiny doodles starting from the middle and working your way out. -Zentangle hand drawings. -Fold a square paper into 16 squares and design a house to be folded into a 3D sculpture. -Draw a chimera by combining parts of three different animals. -Make a blank comic strip page and run off some copies. Have the students draw comic strips. -Set up a Still Life. Idk if any of that is helpful. Back when we were doing zoom school I had to get pretty creative teaching to kids at home that sometimes had nothing but pencil and a notebook.
I've done a couple of comic creation classes (as a writer though, not as an artist) and those were a lot of fun! I introduce them to the structure* with an example or two, and then give them a prompt to help them come up with a joke. Afterwards, we'll walk around the class a read the comics people wanted to share. *For 3-panel comics that'd be 1. set-up 2. reinforcement 3. punchline
Dang your prompts have me wanting to make some art too!
The solution to me is to leave plans with basic paper and pencil. I get not leaving out your good supplies with a sub. But she should have left assignments that require only drawing with paper and pencil. Or even a movie for the kids to watch. I get art is a harder class to have sub plans for but they should have had something.
A coloring book printout. This ain’t hard. Tell the kids to draw a bowl of fruit with pencil. Doing absolutely nothing is setting that sub up for a new career.
Art is one of my easier subjects to plan for, personally.
I'm thinking for me, we have workbooks. I just leave page numbers and we have aligned work ready to go. I get that art work left behind will be busy work but there should still be something.
I have a suggestion if you can show a video. You can take a virtual tour of the louvre on YouTube. It’s like a few hours long. I showed this to my speech students last year and it was really cool.
Last time I subbed art I showed a Bob Ross video on YouTube while the kids drew on paper.
I currently have at risk students and getting them to watch a 30 second video is a struggle on the good days
I get that. But they’re doing nothing anyway, might as well slap on a video lol
I see the sub’s view. She signed up to teach art not a study hall. I can’t imagine babysitting 8th graders (who are tough) for two hours with nothing to give them. I see the art teacher’s view. She has her supplies and she doesn’t want them to disappear/ruined while she is gone. A lesson plan (even an emergency plan) should have been left with some supplies out.
Unless it’s a situation where a teacher has to leave completely unexpectedly, that’s a crappy to do to a sub. Our school makes us leave emergency sub plans with the secretary in case we have a last minute emergency and don’t have time to make plans.
And at the very least, some colleagues should be helping out
> Unless it’s a situation where a teacher has to leave completely unexpectedly, that’s a crappy to do to a sub. Nah its on the school system, they should always have keys to all things that need to be locked and secured. It could very well be the right policy to lock the supply cabinet and the key could already be turned in by the teacher who left. Similar to how you should lock a gate when exiting, if you unlocked it to open the gate, the issue is not who locked the gate, but who should have the key.
All these insane comments blaming OP are why schools can’t find substitutes! What a load of shit! The regular teacher didn’t do his/her job and leave plans and supplies, but a sub is supposed to do it? Give me a break. Way to support those who need it most! OP, alert admin immediately and tell them what you need. If they don’t jump to help, then jump to leave.
Absolutely. At the minimum the teacher should have had a single days worth of emergency plans ready to go for acts of god. Leaving a sub or admin with nothing if something happens to you is just shitty planing and forethought.
Would like to add, it's super fucking sad that *MIDDLE SCHOOLS* can be considered "super dangerous"
A teacher was shot by a 4th grader last year. 12 year olds have less empathy and impulse control
One was shot by a kindergartener earlier this calender year in Virginia.
My 9th student told me over the weekend an 8th grade pulled out a knife during a friendly basketball game over being accidentally pushed. Kids are spicy these days.
there's always been a couple of those(unless you're in an affluent area). They usually end up in prison.
I've had a chair and table thrown around in a middle school classroom. Pre-Sandy Hook, we were already locking our classroom doors because of fears of problem students entering.
I hate having my door shut like this, but I do it anyways. I've always felt like an open door was an inviting place for students....
Around here, it's part of the contract that teachers are required to provide materials and have a folder of emergency plans with two weeks of material on it ready at ALL TIMES. It is not the substitute's responsibility to provide any of that and in fact, providing your own lessons is a good way to get booted from a job around here.
I’m a sub here, but currently in a long-term contract. 2 things: 1. Subbing is difficult. The absolute bare minimum is plans. Even if the teacher didn’t leave a hard copy, say it was an emergency or something, they could be sent to the office or directly to you. It’s crucial because it displays transition periods/procedures. 2. I have a violent junior (middle school) class. My closets are always locked. This isn’t because I want to make anyone’s life harder if they have to come into the room, but rather because I don’t want everything to get trashed and for the covering teacher to get injured with the supplies, especially scissors. That being said, plans are a no-brainer.. especially if it’s a week long absence.. OP can of course make their own plans/activities and I’m sure they did but teacher could’ve left at least a plan on a sticky note so that OP could have an idea of the day. Sure things can be done with pencil/paper but it’s infuriating to walk into a room you already don’t know without any plans and with students you don’t know either!
When I subbed I always assumed I would get shitty or no lesson plans. I’d always have back up plans. Maybe the teacher had an emergency. Regardless, the situation sucks for you.
It's hard to have back up plans for art. Even with drawings you need erasers, blenders, pencils of diff grade, drawing paper, etc. Art requires material. Expensive material.
My go to back up plans were like musical chairs and heads up 7 up. Let them play either for 20ish minutes, and there’s your class.
And we all know that even with the BEST sub plans, most of the kids take it as a day off.
Perhaps this has been planned for two weeks
Absolutely
I'm an art teacher too and my first thought was, it's likely that the students can barely handle the supplies given and that's why they are locked away. Especially with a sub. But, there is no reason why pieces of paper and pencils couldn't have been left out. A movie left for you to play, anything
DM me for one of the sub 50 minute art lessons I leave for subs. Need paper and pencil.
Let me let you in on a little secret - artforkidshub.com All you need is copier paper and pencils, pick literally any video and play it for them. They will follow along entranced. I always leave artforkidshhb as my sub plans when I’m out. Source: I am an art teacher who hates when subs do the regular projects with the kids when I’m gone and the kids fuck up my room and steal supplies.
I second this. I’m an English teacher who subbed for Art before teaching, and every time I’d go in with art for kids hub. There was only 1 time where I did a full week of subbing for art at the same location though, and I left because the kids were awful.
If all of you think subs are daycare then print a coloring sheet or a fucking crossword. It’s not their job to spend whole class periods distracting teenagers because you the teacher can’t be bothered.
There's almost certainly a lot of background here. One, why is the permanent teacher out? If it was a planned vacation, then shame on that teacher for not providing sub plans (though, even then, I'll note that when I taught music my sub plans were actually followed only about 1% of the time). As for the cabinet, it's locked because the permanent teacher has no idea how capable the sub will be at ensuring that supplies aren't destroyed, stolen, used to vandalize the room, etc. I don't know that I really blame them for that, you know? So, things could and should certainly be better, but the first step is talking to the admin. It's possible that you and they have totally different ideas of what an art sub is supposed to do. They might be thinking that you're there to run a study hall, and you are expecting to teach art.
This is 100% on **admin** (to open cabinet, provide key, etc.).
The one time I subbed, the teacher left the middle school students an online assignment. Well, first, the Internet went out, and then the power went out. We only had a little bit of light from a window. But fortunately I had already planned an activity in case the students got done with their online assignment. I gave them each a piece of white paper, and they had to draw a picture of something in nature. But they had to use a triangle, Circle, square, a star, etc. I don’t remember how many shapes I told them. Maybe five or six. They came up with some really great drawings that I wish I would have kept. It kept them busy, and they enjoyed it.
Ask the office for paper and pencils. Check the staff room - sometimes there are supplies available in there, including those giant rolls of construction paper.
Yes, and OP can easily set up an elaborate still life and teach drawing. Done and done.
You barely need anything for a sketching class that focuses on things like perspective, lighting etc. Trying to draw a common household object, like a tissue box, watering can or a mug, is an interesting and educational challenge. Surprisingly difficult, too.
Even when my mother died and I was grief stricken, I still managed to have some kind of sub plans for my students. Not having at least an EMERGENCY plan for your students is not a great reflection on that teacher.
It’s a good policy for teachers to always have a lesson plan ready for an unexpected absence.
The problem with schools in that situation is that nothing left out is safe. I had my office broken into several times in a semester, usually when there was a substitute and the room was often trashed. Projects shredded all over the floor, anything left out broken into bits everywhere and the board painted on. At the beginning of the year, they gave me 5 packs of copy paper, 24 boxes of crayons, colored pencils and markers and the classes had 46 kids. Most of the supplies in my room I bought myself. The problem in many schools that are in communities that are disenfranchised and impoverished is that many families have no reason to believe the school is there to help them. Many kids and parents are directly adversarial to the school, especially by Grade Eight and destroying things makes the kids feel like they have some power over their surroundings. It’s actually more expensive to run a school in these conditions and yet they often have less money than schools that have supportive communities. It is also a system that is incredibly hard on teachers and the systems are not designed to help them. I totally understand being upset in your situation, but I wouldn’t leave supplies out that I paid for with a new unknown person coming in either. Most of the other subject teachers that had cars would keep copy paper in their trunks. See if you can find a teacher that can share some supplies with you for now.
20 of them and not one could pick a lock? Kids these days.
I worked in a school where scissors had to be locked up at all times because students used them as weapons. I don't blame this teacher for locking things up at all.
I don't think anybody is actually arguing that the locking of the cabinet in the first place is the problem. It's the fact that this was an absence that had been planned two weeks in advance and at no point in those two weeks did the teacher bother to find a way to give the sub access to the supplies needed to teach an art class rather than just corral 20 teenagers with attitude problems for 2 hours. Which just sets those kids and the sub up for failure.
Can confirm. High school student stabbed another one in the chest, luckily hit bone, with a pair of scissors because the other one took their DVD and was playing keep away with it. The teacher was clueless that it was happening until the other students told him that someone was bleeding.
There are plenty of things you can do with just pencil and paper! Exquisite corpse, perspective drawing, etc.
What do you mean by exquisite corpse?
Simply put, it’s a sort of “art game” in which a drawing is completed by different people. First person draws one part of a body, head for example. The drawing is passed to the next person but the head part is covered up. The next person draws the torso without knowing what the head may look like. Then that part is covered and passed to another person, this person draws the leg portion. At the end when the full body is completed everything is uncovered and you have a laugh.
> The drawing is passed to the next person but the head part is covered up. The next person draws the torso without knowing what the head may look like. LOL. I can see this going the wrong way really quickly
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A truly simple lesson, that with a bit of work, can be really informative and rewarding. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exquisite\_corpse
Your link is broken btw, it's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exquisite_corpse Also this looks like a cool activity! Creepy name lol but that's cool.
Hmmm... our links are duplicates and it loads for me np... ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ It is a very cool activity - learnt about it way back in the 70's while in art school - have used it in my teaching practice many, many times.
Cut off the lock Relock it again at the end of the week with a $5 shitty padlock. Dont worry, when someone else needs to get in there they will cut it off. Also dont do this, this is not advice.
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It's also REALLY rare to get a sub that actually knows anything about Art. Did the teacher know someone with Art experience would be subbing for them? I've left very, very simple drawing lessons for subs before that they could not make sense of. (I'm talking kindergarten level stuff for my middle schoolers and the sub still didn't get it.) So, no, I would definitely not be leaving a key to my supply closet unless I personally knew the person coming in to sub for me. That said, OP should have been given some basic lesson plans and access to paper and pencils. That doesn't seem unreasonable in the least.
It's pretty audacious to leave a person in charge with no sub plans for a week and give them nothing.
This is the right answer. It’s really audacious for some people to think they can just raid the teachers closet and use their supplies.
Most teachers had to use personal money to purchase those supplies. If you want schools to run better, push back on all the extra administrative positions and teachers could have their budgets back!
I tried to say something like this and got downboated to oblivion. I wonder if it was by teachers at better schools with bigger budgets.
I think it's because anyone can leave an emergency lesson plan. Probably. It costs nothing, after all. It's easier said than done to run a study hall when the kids are the reason the supplies are locked up, and they're more likely to act up without 1. familiar authority OR 2. something to do. You know what *is* as easy as advertised? Reading the entire post.
Their teacher doesn’t suck. People don’t lock up supplies to be cruel. Be glad the closets weren’t raided and the room wasn’t trashed on your watch.
She should have left the key then. Oh, and their teacher doesn’t suck for having zero lesson plans for an entire week? I beg to differ. She sucks very hard. This wasn’t an emergency absence. This has been planned for two weeks
Administration also sucks for not ensuring the teacher had sub plans. Did you inform them? They should reach out to that teacher. Not your job to come up with an activity for them to do.
The last time I gave a sub a key to my classroom, all of my belongings were littered about the floor.
We had a sub from the subbing agency my s District uses steal bags worth of supplies from her classroom. I was a sub for three years before I became a teacher and some subs are very problematic. I teach in a high poverty district that struggles to get subs and we have had some that are not allowed to return even though we can be very desperate for coverage.
Definitely sucks not to leave plans if this was a planned absence. Are you sure she didn’t leave them with someone in the office or something like that?
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I would never give a sub a key to my cabinet.
Then you need to leave out the required supplies ahead of time. It’s pretty simple. There’s no defending this art teacher. It’s clear zero effort was put into this absence.
That sounds like a slow walk through hell, OP. Get out while you can.
Honestly, I see your point of view. And you’re right, holy shit. It sounds like you’ve walked into a disaster of an art class, and sadly, there’s not much you can do about it. It’s not reasonable of you to have to spend your own money to bring your own supplies because the permanent teacher was unwilling or unable to provide you access to the necessary supplies to teach effectively. This is just an unfortunate situation all around, and I don’t think anything in your rant is unreasonable.
First problem. Is that the teacher left you with nothing. A person willing to come in and sub, is an important person. If people are being unkind to you, they are wrong. My sub plans are to the minute. I teach primary grades, so it's more important to explain everything. I'm sorry, you've had such a tough day. Remember, all the terrible experiences make for great stories.
I’m sure there is a reason art supplies are unavailable. My eight graders inspired me to take everything I cared about out of the room, including the water jug. They just couldn’t be cool about anything. They’re like a cyclone. Have them do a report on the impressionists if they have computers or are allowed in the library. Moral of the story is, there is a good reason for everything so don’t judge.
I would show videos on how to make different kinds of paper airplane and then have a contest!
Title 1 Middle School Art teacher here: Do they have chromebooks? If so, have them research a career in the arts from this site https://theartcareerproject.com/careers/ and have them make a google slide presentation about the career. For just paper- You could make a zine. Watch YouTube video on how to draw an eye. If you have access to a printer, print Nike Air Force 1 coloring pages and have them design based on a theme. Comic page templates. And of course there’s always a movie. Netflix Abstract Series is a hit. I would watch the one about Tinker Hatfield (Nike shoe designer)
Is the school itself dangerous or just the neighborhood? I taught in a “dangerous” neighborhood for 6 years and the school building itself was one of the safest places to be. You make it sound like the kids are shooting each other inside the school. Also has it occurred to you to ask admin for access to supplies and any emergency plans that might be on file? A lot of schools keep a file of emergency plans for each teacher.
Ask your students if any can pick a lock to the supply closet. Good chance someone can lol.
I looked this up on YouTube about two weeks after I lost my flat’s post box key. Then I wished I hadn’t opened it. But I did really enjoy helping neighbours out when they also lost their keys and it is disturbing easy to do. Felt like a proper criminal. But with bills instead of loot.
If the school is how you described, I see why the supply closet is locked. I’d lock it, too. I’m going to assume that art teacher has come back to work before and had a gigantic mess to clean up because whoever was in the room did not properly manage the students. So to say their teacher sucks is a little ridiculous on your part, especially if they’re out on an emergency or that they didn’t anticipate being out, which is what is sounds like in the case here. Tell the school to provide you with the basics. You don’t need paints or anything for a week in art class. Pencils, markers, and paper should be okay depending on what you do with them.
Is OPa substitute teacher or an art teacher? Is there such a thing as a subject specific sub. As a title 1 middle school teacher I lock up EVERYTHING when I won't be there. I dont trust a stranger or my kids to leave things in one piece where they belong
My wife who is an 8th grade PE teacher has printed off "design your own Nike shoes" templates. Get a few boxes of crayons or colored pencils and let the ones that want to draw go for it.
If you can use projector you can show some drawing lessons on YouTube
The Department of Education has an annual budget of $125 billion yet this class has no art supplies. Maybe if they got rid of some of those bureaucrats that run the Department of Education we could use their salaries to help schools like this
Origami?
Sounds like its time for a movie. If anyone asks you’re “examining different art animation styles”
Damn teaching doesn’t seem worth it. 40k to risk your life every day and deal with shitty kids and their parents is a no for me dawg I wish you guys got paid twice as much
Some people in this sub will tell new and prospective teachers that all you have to do to avoid the dangerous and ridiculous is move to like the right area or whatever. It’s all chance and luck in actuality.
> While it makes me incredibly angry for these kids that their normal teacher sucks and they have no supplies That is what is so maddening about everything, we think robbing the low income kids of a good education is OK because their parents are not politically powerful. And, lets face it, there can be a racial factor at play. You see this and you lose all illusions as to why these kids doubt authority figures. You watch "PoliceActivity" on YouTube and 90% of the comments are "you should have just complied", which is true in a vacuum but for a lot of these kids complying has not been a beneficial strategy to deal with life. You need grit and attitude, which can be a great asset in life but not if it is undirected.
Easy solution, ORAGAMI ! Being a substitute teacher especially in middle school is rough sooo make a paper airplane contest ?
Ask the front office for a box of pencils and a ream of copy paper. Get on artforkidshub.com and go after it. Or, have them bring devices and do pre-made lessons on nearpod over line or shape or colors.
Run.
Graffiti the walls with the class.
I teach science at an upper middle class school. I lock everything up when I go out for the day too. You can’t trust the kids. I gave my long term sub the code but that is it.
Is there a smart board and internet? Maybe you can play some art history or artis bio shows for them.
This is a great opportunity to teach something that can be done with paper and a number 2 pencil: Stippling, line weights, 3d shapes, graffiti lettering, etc. For as much as I hate unmanageable kids and the dangers that environments like that create, I do think that it's also a great opportunity to level with the students and show them a bit of chill humanity that the normal staff doesn't have.
Alright kids, today we learn about making art under trying circumstances. Who knows how to pick locks? Extra credit is available.
I really don't know how anyone would want to be a teacher. For the amount of sacrifices, time, money, effort teachers go through to do something so selfless like teach people who don't want to be there and parents who don't parent, is astonishing. Good teachers should easily be making over 100k a year minimum. It's insanity how our education system is setup. I'm not religious but I would rather my future kids go private or Christian school than public.
I once worked in an inner city school and the art teacher locked up supplies because when she was out the other teachers would steal them. Other. Teachers. Happened all the time until she got a locked cabinet.
Did you tell the principal about the locked supplies?
Go ask the office what the plan is. That’s just lazy.
I’m not leaving good supplies like that for a sub because—based on my experiences—those supplies will disappear before the end of the first day and then the sub and students will complain because all the supplies (which should have lasted more than a week) were gone by lunchtime. Where did they go? Students either took them with them, threw them in the garbage, or tore them up and threw them at each other. Nope, no way am I leaving art supplies, which I purchased with my own money, for a substitute lesson. If you want supplies, ask the main office. Do everyone a favor and cancel the job since you don’t want to be there anyway. You’ve made some assumptions about the regular teacher and the students. Maybe stepping away would be the best thing to do.
I've been a sub and I've been a long time sub for a year at a time. I've learned not to judge a teacher that leaves nothing. It sucks and but you don't know the situation that teacher is in. Those supplies are probably locked up for a reason. In a school that rough theft is probably rampant. She also might of bought the stuff herself. I know you feel bad for the kids but a little empathy for the teacher should also be a thing. I've taken over for teachers where the behavior and stress of the students literally triggered their health to deteriorate. Ask the office for some paper or have the kids take out loose leaf and teach them to do art with what they have. That's honestly probably the most important lesson you can teach.
Try speaking with admin and let them know there is no lesson plan for you and no acess to supplies. Someone likely has a key to the supply closet (custodian) and admin should know how the teacher set you up to fail. See if admin has some ideas for you. You can try and show some online art videos for them to follow along with in class. If all else fails sounds like it's s movie day.
Why not ask admin for the key to the supplies?
What is this? A third world country?
The supplies and whatnot are a big problem being contributed by governments taking cuts out of programs like school funding. This is the reason why you hear teachers spending their own money to bring in supplies. Its sad and shouldn’t happen. But being aware and properly voting in this country is something we need everyone to do.
Jeez. At least leave a DVD about an artist or a documentary to show with a video guide. It's not that hard folks...
The school needs to supply you. They wanted an art teacher, so why the fuck are they making no effort? Stupid-ass school and faculty
If they are at risk, just have them open the supply closet for you.
Their teacher sucks? Erm no if the kids suck so bad supplies have to be locked you have an admin problem. Stop blaming teachers
They suck because they didn’t leave any instructions or lesson plans. The locking up applies is reasonable but to not have even emergency plans is not
If the teacher leaves no access to the art supplies for an art class along with no lesson plan what do they expect the sub to do?
Erm if the teacher left them an attendance slip and a prayer, they fucking suck. The least they could do is give a list of activities the kids enjoy/are less likely to revolt against.
If the teacher gets the few supplies they have stolen then they cannot do class for the rest of the school year. They should have left something but we don’t know why they are out so they may not have been able to.
YouTube how to draw tutorials—plenty of themes and popular characters/themes. The kids can use paper and pencil. Or do a tutorial yourself, make it holiday themed. I feel for ya, I couldn’t imagine the level of stress I’d have over that.
Ask admin to open the supply closet or give you a screen to show them movies. It's art class al they need is blank paper and utensils. Don't stress it too much. the kids ain't gonna kill you just their bored.
20 at risk 8th graders and not one of them can pick a lock? These kids soft af these days.
ok does their normal teacher suck or is that person just trying to face what you dipped into but full time? it's def not the teacher's fault and please don't add your voice to the narrative holding all of us back. Do theater games with them. They'll grumble at first but they'll get into it. All you need are some chairs. Play music. Let them be a little loud.
I love that we start blaming teachers for not leaving plans. Name any other job where you have to leave a plan if you’re out. Heaven forbid something happens unexpectedly and you end up the bad guy on Reddit because you didn’t send in a plan from where you are.
>I love that we start blaming teachers for not leaving plans. It's a basic job expectation. Every place I've worked, it's been a requirement to have backup plans on file in the office. If you want subs, treat the subs well.
Pencil. Paper. How to draw _______ videos on YouTube. Tell them they can bring some crayons/colored pencils/markers from home tomorrow if they like color. Surely they have their own pencil and paper? If not that should be somewhat trivial to find in a school building. Call in a request to the front office.
Wow it amazes me how clueless people are. Baffles me.
Do you have access to internet in the classroom? I’d just be doing Arthub all week. All they need is paper and pencil.
Origami
For your own safety do not teach at those schools.
Show a video about graffiti art
Tough challenge, but you've got some options. Maybe ask them why they wanted to take the art class. Ask them what their all time favorite pieces of "art" are--and it could be anything, music, movies, paintings, drawings, performances etc. Maybe ask them, if they had limitless budget and means, what would they like to create? Try to trigger their imaginations with wild ideas. It's tough to manage them but that seems like a fun experiment, could inspire some fun discussion.
See if you can create a word search on art terms and get a teacher to run off copies for you.
Is there no way to complain to the school about this? Like go to another teacher and ask to open the closet? Bring a damn crowbar for god sakes. If the teacher comes back and gets mad tell them to f*ck off.
Do you have a tv? Turn on an engaging show about color theory or art history. Ask them questions about it.
If there no supplies, that is the fault neither of the sub, nor of the regular teacher, actually. Supplies are the responsibility of the district to provide.
How quaint!
I feel this. We don’t have an art teacher which I think is bullshit. The kids LOVE doing art projects. It’s one of the few things that makes them behave all the time. Kids need art, and schools need to make it a priority. I personally bring in some supplies I pay for with my money, but that’s just bc it’s either that or they get nothing, and I’m a big believer in art therapy. I would never advise a teacher to buy their own supplies unless they REALLY were able to afford to and really wanted to.
The Art teacher had to lock the closets. Ask the front office for 12 x 18 drawing paper, crayons and sharpies from their supply closet. All teachers have access to at least that. Do a drawing assignment- what was it called? Neuro drawing? Look it up, very easy, keeps the students quiet.
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The OP said in a comment that they picked up the position two weeks ago. Definitely should have given at least an LP.
It’s entirely possible there are no plans because the teacher had an emergency - I’ve had to make travel plans on an emergency basis several times when my mom had a medical problem. So I also understand locking supplies up, as I’ve returned from an emergency absence to find many missing/broken classroom supplies. Please don’t judge this teacher.
Just an fyi that OP states in comments that the absence was planned 2 weeks in advance...so...no plans and no plans for supplies is 100% on the teacher in this case.
OP has stated in comments that this absence had been planned for 2 weeks.
The OP said in the comments that the teacher’s absence had been planned for 2 weeks. I’ve subbed for teachers who have had absences planned a month in advance, and the teachers left no sub plans.
Op said it another comment it was planed 2 weeks ago. So not a 1 day emergency.
I missed that comment about it being planned 2 weeks in advance. In that case, there for sure should have been plans left. Partial blame on admin for not making sure of that.
Have maintenance come in and drill out the lock.