The past seven weeks that I've been on maternity leave, I've followed the emails between my sub and one of my student's parents. This student and I didn't have a bad relationship, but he was a great self-distractor and distractor to his friends, so I would work with him a lot on appropriate behavior, etc. When he did well, I let him know, but I think that our "let's work on this" conversations outnumbered the "you did great" conversations and he didn't feel like he was up to the task of managing his own behavior.
Now, back to the emails I've been tracking for seven weeks: My sub has helped this kid and his parent feel success. I've read many emails of thanks from this parent to my sub.
And I'll be honest, my first gut-wrenching emotion is that I'm a lousy teacher and she's better than I am.
But then I realize: I CHOSE A GREAT SUB! I chose a sub that has the energy to do what I physically and emotionally couldn't handle my last weeks of being pregnant. I chose a sub who finds creative ways to motivate students to change their behavior. I chose a wonderful teacher to be with my class of third graders so I wouldn't need to worry about them or their learning while I'm home. She is better than me at certain things because she's a different person with different strengths. And she was just the person that student needed to help change his behavior, not me.
