Knocking something down when you didn't mean to

Much as I feel reasonably competent in the classroom, there are some times that, as a student teacher, you're bound to do or say something which, in hindsight, doesn't work out very well. It's not thoughtlessness, it's just an accident- lack of context, no foreknowledge of potential consequences. (Sort of like my student who knocked over the Empire State Building- see below- she didn't mean to.)

To make a very long story short, Ms. Lee had to be out a bit last week. As a consequence, I did some minor supervision of the class on my own (with the principal's knowledge) and I worked with a few substitute teachers. I wound up taking some flack for several decisions I didn't make, from both parents and other teachers, which is fine- I am perfectly willing to take one for the team. But I did mention a few things to Ms. Lee in passing, not to lay blame but just to say, if anyone comes to you with this, here is some context.

In particular, one of the substitutes did something that I thought was a bit unprofessional. Ms. Lee seemed to agree, and said she'd mention it to the person in the front office who manages the substitutes. Case closed, right? No- I heard about it the next day from both the sub (who confronted me angrily in our classroom) AND the person who schedules the subs. At this point, I got a bit defensive. My intention was not to get anyone in trouble, and this is supposed to be about the kids. I felt attacked for exercising what I thought was my best judgment, and Ms. Lee didn't disagree.

Working with substitutes can be very fraught. They are "responsible for the class" in a legal sense, but the ones I've worked with have, to a greater or lesser degree, been willing to let me take the lead in what actually gets taught on a given day, so that they are in effect my "assistant for the day." This suits me fine and I would imagine takes some of the pressure off of them.

But as student-teachers, we are not supposed to be taking responsibility or making decisions. We are also insulated from the avenues of responsibility and accountability to a fair extent; everything we do is filtered through our cooperating teacher. Should the sub "get in trouble," really? I don't know; it's not my decision. This is what I told the sub: I couldn't personally get you in trouble even if I wanted to, which I didn't.

I think I will chalk this one up to no good deed going unpunished, and hope that it ends there.