Deanie Wimmer subs at school for a day


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WEST VALLEY CITY — The reputation of substitute teachers is the same today as it was when you were in school.

"Their teacher isn't here, so they can do anything they want," fifth grader Ashley Tafoya said.

Armed with that warning, I took the daunting assignment of becoming a substitute teacher for the third and fifth grades at Granger Elementary.

One thousand students attend this school, and they speak 30 different languages. Educators often lament that if more people spent time in schools, they would better understand the struggles teachers face. I took them up on that invitation.

"Good morning, class!"

My day started with pleasantries, introductions and the Pledge of Allegiance. To my surprise — and relief — the first thing on the agenda was picture day.

Then we got down to business. Students had no problem telling me, a day with a sub is usually a wasted day.

"It feels like we have to do extra to help the teacher teach us, instead of the other way around," fifth grader Xhaiden Godfrey said.

Fifth grade math and the properties of association are taught differently today than they were when I was in school, as any parent who's tried helping with homework will attest.

While the class moved to computer lab, I gave third graders a spelling test and helped them with assisted reading. Aside from waking up the same student three times, everything went smoothly.

Teachers feel pride and ownership in their classes, so they weren't eager to hand over their classes to me, even for a day.

"I very rarely miss," teacher Lynette White said. "I try not to. It is a hard thing to turn that over."

Third grade teacher Amanda Overbye added, "I was impressed that you wanted to come in and do it. I think it takes a lot of guts."

Lunch was controlled chaos as hundreds of hungry kids got pizza, salad and chocolate milk. I ate with the students and was disarmed by how readily they shared their lives with me.

Teachers say knowing these kids and their situations is what helps them be better teachers. That is part of the reason teachers now do home visits instead of traditional parent-teacher conferences.

"They teach you how to teach math, but you can't anticipate everyday life," Overbye said.

After lunch and more class time, the final bell rang. We gave high fives and said good-bye.

I had learned a lot about the energy required for managing a class of 29 students. However, the biggest lesson of the day came after class, during a conversation with principal Amber Clayton.

"Our biggest challenge is there's not a lot of people on those lists anymore who are willing to be subs," she said.

On any given day, 15 percent of the school's classes may need a substitute. When one can't be found, the administration disperses students into other classes in that grade.

The more serious problem is finding and keeping teachers in general. Clayton lost 15 teachers — one-third of her teaching staff — last year. Twelve of them transferred to less challenging schools.

"There were many who said, 'I don't want to work in a school with this much pressure on it,'" Clayton said.

The pressure she's referring to is the state report cards given to schools. This year, Granger got a D. As a turnaround school, teachers and adminstrators are under the microscope.

Teachers get discouraged, she said.

"We work too hard to give everything we've got to the kids to have someone tell you you're failing."

To address the difficulty of finding teachers, the State Board of Education recently passed a rule that allows anyone hired by the district to get a teacher's license.

Educators at Granger don't understand why the state isn't more interested in keeping the teachers they already have.

"Instead of finding new ways to entice new folks to come into education, I wish they would invest in the people who are already here," Clayton said.

To find out the grade students gave me for my day of substitute teaching, watch the story.

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