Professionalism isn't always easy

I'm not the only substitute teacher at the high school, but I definitely am one of the most liked.  I know that sounds like bragging, but it's true.  I think it's mostly because 1) I never freak out on the kids and 2) I've seen Justin Bieber in concert.  But even though I'm the most well liked, I still can't convince the kids to have perfect behavior.  I'm not Jesus.

I really don't mind telling the kids to behave, but sometimes I feel like I run out of ways to convince them to be good.  One day while I was subbing for math and the kids had a lot of work to do.  As a motivator for good behavior, I let them work in partners/groups but only on the condition that they talk ONLY about math.  This was around March Madness time so talking about only math was difficult for many of them.  I walked slowly around the room monitoring the kids and their progress and making myself available to help with problems if they needed it.  There was one set of boys that kept continuously bugging the girls sitting in front of them and had to be reminded again and again to keep working.

Now I have to detour in the story for a minute here to tell you about another substitute teacher, Mrs. Nit.  That's not her real name, I'm not that mean.  She's an older woman who on my first day of subbing "warned" me about another student and how bad he was.  That really irritated me because I would never set a kid up like that, and when I did have him later that day, he was fine.  The students really dislike her because she's not very nice to them and has next to no classroom control.  Once I walked into a class she was subbing and the kids asked me right in front of her why I wasn't their sub.  As flattering as this was, I felt a little bad for Mrs. Nit, but this just shows you how much they dislike her. 

Ok, back to the previous story and the boys who were attempting to win the affections of the girls in front of them by being annoying.  After reminding them a bunch of times to work on their math and threatening to take away their 5 minutes of talk time (something I let kids do if they're good), I said, "Boys, I'm the nicest sub you have and I'm letting you work in groups.  Please, just do your math."  Then one boy sarcastically replied, "I don't know, Mrs. Nit is pretty awesome."  And all of the other kids laughed. 

I lost it.  I tried to hold my laughter in but I just couldn't do it.  Mrs. Nit is so awful and the joke was so funny that I completely broke from my professionalism and started laughing.  The worst part is that the kids totally called me out on it.  They pointed and said, "See!  She knows what's up!"  My response?  "We will not discuss my reaction to the previous comment!  Do your math!"  Then I quickly walked away to avoid continuously laughing and confirming that I too think Mrs. Nit is a terrible substitute teacher.