Episode Transcript
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Greg (00:00):
Greg Collins Substitute
Teachers Lounge.
It is April 15th 2025.
You've got until midnight tofile your taxes, so be aware of
that.
Spent all of last week onspring break doing some things,
but also watching some showsthat I might not have otherwise
had time to watch, and it'sfunny how all of them seem to
(00:23):
point me in the same directionto do another show that I've
never really done before.
We're going to touch on howstudents are treated by other
students.
The shows I watched last weekthat made me think of this were
these First of all, I found whenI was cleaning.
I found an old DVD of old homemovies from my parents from 1972
(00:48):
, when I was age 14, and theytook me and my brother to Disney
World for the first time, so Iwatched that.
I watched a couple of episodesof the Waltons.
Maybe some Andy Griffithwatched all those.
They all seem to be pointing mein the same direction.
I also I'm going to epicuniverse in june, so I wanted to
(01:08):
watch how to train your dragonfrom 2010, because that's one of
the lands there.
I watched that.
And maybe the craziest thing, Iwent and saw the minecraft movie
twice, twice.
Substitute teacher's lounge.
All right, let's start with thelast one I mentioned first.
(01:39):
You might be thinking Greg, whyin the world would you go see
the Minecraft movie twice?
Well, I was vaguely interestedin it.
There's a couple of the middleschools in our area that has the
Minecraft version for schooland they actually get graded at
times especially when substituteteachers there of going in and
building as assigned and findingthings as assigned.
(02:02):
So I knew how popular it wasand we had some painters in our
house and I was just going.
My wife was at the house, so Iwas just going to get away and
go see a movie.
I had a freebie coming anyway,so I figured that's really the
only movie of any interest I'dlike to see and I like goofball
stuff and I like Jack Black.
So I went to see it.
(02:22):
I went there with everybody inthere was probably associated
with a I don't know a secondgrade kid.
There was probably 30 kids inthere that watched it with me,
with their parents, so it wasprobably the largest movie group
I'd seen in a while and Icaught myself laughing through
the whole thing.
I felt kind of silly, butthat's kind of who I am.
(02:43):
I'm a big goofball.
Then our grandkids came over twodays later I guess it was three
days later and we wanted totake them to see a movie and
that was really the only moviethat they showed any interest in
and I said, well, I guess I cansee it again.
And I went back and saw itagain, noticed some things I
hadn't noticed the first timeand that's why I went and saw
(03:04):
the Minecraft movie twice, whichis the most popular movie so
far this year.
So who would have figured it'sabout?
Like Barbie and Super MarioBrothers from last year?
But anyway, the first thing Imentioned was actually the first
thing I did is I was cleaningout and watched old videos of
when I was 14.
And I'm looking at myself andI'm thinking, man, I was such a
(03:27):
geek back then.
Now there was a lot of kidsthat looked like me and I had
friends, so I didn't gofriendless by any means.
One show I forgot to mentionBlack Mirror series.
Now, I don't recommend that toany of the kids out there, but
the Black Mirror series startedto get on Netflix and one of
those episodes I think thesecond episode deals with this
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topic as well but that old videofrom 1972 got me to thinking.
You know, I remember when I wasa little kid like maybe first
grade there was maybe kidsweren't actually picking on me,
but I had the perception theywere for no reason it's just
because I was smaller than them.
By the time I got older I neverpicked on anybody, didn't
(04:12):
qualify, wasn't worthy ofpicking on anybody, but there
were.
I did see student situations.
I don't want to put it in ahigh category like bullying,
it's just more mistreating otherstudents, or maybe the best
thing to say about it is sayingsomething about them in front of
(04:34):
others and embarrassing them.
Now I know from my old video.
It made me remember old thingsthat happened in my school.
I remember some kids that wereaffected very badly about being
verbally insulted, and I knowsome parents had to be called to
school.
All that said, if you go backand listen to all the things I
(04:57):
mentioned in the opening, all ofthose that I watched dealt with
a situation where kids and in acouple of cases, adults, were
mistreated by others andembarrassed by others, and that
can stay with us a lot of times.
So I thought what I would dotoday is talk about what
substitute teachers should do invarious situations and maybe
(05:20):
even make me second guess,something that I've done that I
realize probably embarrassed astudent, although it was their
choice, because they didsomething wrong.
Let's talk about that a littlebit Now.
Let's say this right now I donot qualify to give you any
(05:41):
information.
I am not licensed in any area.
I am just going to tell youwhat I do at school when I see
situations like this and, to behonest, it probably comes up
more.
The trivial part of it comes upmore in elementary school, even
though those kids get moreembarrassed quickly than anybody
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else.
Normally, what I will do when Isee someone say something or
mistreat another studentjokingly, now I try to stay
consistent.
Sometimes they do that withtheir friends, just because
that's what friends do, that'swhat brothers do, but I try to
keep it equal, because if I letone go and not let the other go,
(06:27):
well then that sets out aprecedent I don't want to deal
with.
So, depending on the nature ofthe situation, I will go up to
the kid, I'll say something tothe effect of do you feel good
about yourself right now?
And maybe they might smartlysay yes, and I said so.
(06:48):
You feel good when you've madesomeone else feel bad.
Now, in elementary school.
That's usually the furthest youneed to go, because that will
put them in a situation wherethey realize, man, that wasn't
good, that I did that and Iwouldn't want to be treated that
(07:09):
way.
You know, I've often said, whenI've done lessons for adults
even, that think about somebodythat's mistreated you.
And then I say, well, thinkabout somebody you mistreated.
We don't think about the otherside a lot.
So I would tell that kid allright, I think that it would go
a long way if you looked at that.
(07:29):
I'll just say, lady, if youlooked at the girl that you just
embarrassed and tell themyou're sorry and they'll do it.
And then, to be honest, at thatpoint they usually feel worse
than the person that gotinsulted in the first place.
Now situations in high school.
I'll escalate that a little bit.
(07:50):
I'll start the same way.
I might go up to that person,that student.
My favorite kind of thing to dois to pick up a chair, walk
back to the student, put mychair right next to them and
then I'll sit in it and I won'tsay a thing.
They'll know why I'm there.
I'll start out similarly bysaying are you proud of yourself
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for just doing that?
And normally a high schoolstudent would just be quiet.
And then I'll say did you dothat just because you thought it
would make you popular witheverybody else in the room?
Or for your buddy sitting nextto you, because I don't see
either one of them laughinganymore?
Why did you do that?
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And they'll come up withsomething.
A lot of times they'll even saythat was probably bad of me to
do that, I'm sorry.
They'll a lot of timesapologize before I have a chance
to.
Now some kids to be perfectlyhonest when they're mistreated
that way.
They probably don't want me todo that, they want it to just
pass.
(08:56):
But it makes me feel like, well, the next time they feel like
they're going to insult anotherkid in the class and embarrass
them or say something about themthat isn't true, something
along those lines.
Maybe they'll think about ittwice next time If, for no other
reason, they're going to say Idon't want Mr Collins to come
(09:18):
back here and sit with me andembarrass me again.
So that's kind of the way Ihandle it.
I don't want students to beaffected to the point that they
don't want to come to school,and the more I can as a
substitute teacher just almost.
(09:40):
I mean, I can call myself abystander.
I'm not the regular teacher,I'm a bystander, but I observe
what happened.
I might even say something toyou know.
Walking down the street, forsome reason, an episode of
Seinfeld popped into my mindwhen George saw a mother
mistreating their child in aparking garage and called her
out on it, and then the childwent after George.
(10:02):
He started insulting George.
So of course that was a comedyand it was comical.
The situation was comicalProbably happens from time to
time.
I don't want it to happen on mywatch.
I want everybody to feelcomfortable in the classroom,
whether it's coming from me orit's coming from somebody else.
Now I did that with oneelementary school kid and it
(10:26):
affected him enough that hestarted crying a little bit
about it.
But you know, when I go back tothat school, that kid is the
first one to come up and hug meand say Mr Collins, we're glad
to have you back.
Isn't it funny how, even thoughI disciplined them more than
any other student in thatclassroom, they still take the
(10:48):
time to come up.
Maybe they even remember me forit.
Maybe they're even thankfulthat I did it.
In a weird sort of way it getsthem out of that mode where they
think they have to be mean toother students.
I'll tell you one thing that Ido a lot because it works
usually.
(11:08):
I started doing this in middleschool.
In fact, I'll even say that itprobably works better in that
middle school age range whichwhat would that be About?
12 through 14.
I guess they're 11 when theyfirst start sixth grade.
But you know what I mean.
And I'll say all right, guys,right now we're going to do this
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or I'm going to give you thisprivilege.
I'm going to give you 10minutes of playtime on the
computer because you all work sowell today and your teacher
gave me permission to.
But if you get on websites thatyou're not supposed to be on
and the teachers told me thatyou're not supposed to be on and
I teachers told me that you'renot supposed to be on and I
(11:51):
catch you at it, well, I'm notgoing to take away that
privilege for just you.
I'm going to take away thatprivilege for everybody in the
room.
So if that happens, everybodyin this room is going to lose
their privilege and it's goingto be your fault, and I tell
them that, and a lot of timesthey will still do it and I'll
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catch them at it.
They don't think I'm as smart asI am.
I can't.
I'm not as smart as they arecomputer-wise, but I'm smart
enough to know when they haveother windows and other tabs
open and there's all kinds ofthings.
Now that teachers, if theyleave you that program, you can
track what the students havebeen looking at anyway, and
(12:36):
sometimes I've told them thatyour teacher knows how to track
what you've been on and I wouldjust let your teacher address it
tomorrow.
But at the same time, when I'vedone that and called them out
on it, it did embarrass them.
Maybe it affected them.
I may consider stop doing that.
But if I you know, if they'redoing something they're not
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supposed to do, I have tocorrect it.
But maybe it's best if I justtake the privileges away from
that one student than the wholeclass.
I even remember when I was inhigh school fussing about that
why does the whole class have tostay in and be punished, when
it was only a couple of studentsin the classroom doing it?
And here, as I've gotten older,I'm doing the same thing.
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I remember when I didn't haveany kids and I remember and he
was always proper in doing so.
But my father wouldoccasionally tell me.
He'd usually talk to me aboutit for a while and when he
realized we were not going tocome to the same conclusion, he
would say, greg, it's justbecause I said so and I would
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have to live with that.
And I remember growing up andsaying I am never going to say
because I said so to my kids.
And then of course, I did justlike all of you have, and all
that kind of thing.
So I would encourage you today.
I don't want to say put on ahappy face, that sounds kind of
corny but think about situationsin your classroom that might
(14:07):
affect that student's notmentally, of course, but affect
them, embarrass them and don'tlet that happen or correct the
situation.
When it happens You're going togain a buddy from that student.
They're going to be happy thatyou did that Some of them will
probably wish that you didn'tbut at the same time, be happy
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that you got them out of thatsituation the other student.
Maybe it will help them not tobe that way in the future.
I will say this about my highschool, since they were talking
about it and I got to be carefulabout this because there's the
old standing joke that treatwhen you're in high school,
treat that kid nice becauseyou're probably going to be
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working for him someday.
I never was an athlete.
I never had the popularity of anathlete.
Everyone knew I was smart.
They would occasionally ask mequestions about something and I
would help them with it.
But there are situations wherenow, as I see the way the
popular kids turned out, youknow if you're not careful, you
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think well, my life turned outbetter than them and they didn't
really treat me the way I wishthey should have, but we got to
be careful about that.
That is not a fair way to lookat it.
In fact, I've tried to helpsome of my old buddies in
situations they've been in,regardless of how they treated
me.
You can probably think right nowof a friend you have that at
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one time.
You all I don't want to sayenemies, that's too strong but
maybe you were enemies in thepast and it all worked out.
So just be conscious ofsituations you see in the
classroom.
Maybe you're of the mode thatyou think it's none of your
business, but if I can casuallycorrect a situation and get that
kid to apologize, I'm going todo it situation and get that kid
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to apologize.
I'm going to do it.
I hope you all have a good restof the semester.
I guess we've got what is it?
Eight, seven, eight weeks,something like that.
It'll be here before we know it.
All the spring breaks are overnow, I think, so we've got the
end of the year to look forwardto.