They say nothing can help you understand another person better than "walking in their shoes" and this is the adventure I embarked upon this month -- becoming a substitute teacher in the Denver Public Schools! Besides loving kids, loving teaching, and helping my neighborhood by responding to our much-discussed nationwide shortage of substitute teachers, I decided to substitute a few days a month in order to see what it was really like to be a teacher in today's urban schools and so far, I've gotten quite an education!

So this week's tip will share some insights I've learned going through the process of becoming a substitute teacher and actually teaching in two elementary schools this month:

Is There Really a Substitute Shortage?

Everything we've been reading over the past year has pointed out that our seasoned teachers are ready to retire, we don't have enough qualified teachers to take their place and there is a dearth of substitutes. Well, let me tell you that this is no longer true -- at least in Denver. When I went in for substitute orientation, the room was packed with people from all walks of life -- from airline employees, travel agents, real estate agents, software engineers, teachers who had let their licenses lapse, and more -- all people who had been laid off from work and who looked at substituting as a way to earn money while they looked for a new job. The Denver Public Schools pays $116.00 per day -- or $14.50 per hour. This is more than most other jobs pay that a person can get on short notice and without any future commitment. And, because of the high unemployment in Denver, the number of applications for substitutes has grown so quickly that it took the Denver Public Schools more than 4 months to process my application. When checking around other school districts that surround Denver, I found they have so many substitutes that they are not accepting any more applications for this year. Perhaps this is not true across the country but I believe that the "shortage" of substitutes has been mitigated since 9-11 and our current economic slump. Jeanne Hayes told me that QED is in the process of completing a new report that addresses this issue of substitute trends and it will provide a more in-depth look at this phenomenon.

Ethnicity in the Urban Schools

As we know, poor urban schools are primed to receive a majority of the new federal funding and another thing we know is that urban schools have the highest percentage of ethnic students. From a marketing point of view, this issue was really brought home when I took attendance of the classes I taught this month. Chavela, Kavanna, Perza, Kacjae, Denita, Tanisha, Dalante, Daezia, Sinamen, and Tay'J:onna were some of the kids in my 3rd Grade class. No more Dick, Jane and Harry. It got me wondering how many of our educational materials use names like these and how much of our promotional literature addresses this issue. We pay some attention to addressing ethnic issues (such as making sure our photographs reflect Asians, Native Americans, African Americans, and Mexicans) but do our products and marketing messages reflect these other realities? Something to think about going forward.

What Are Kids Being Taught?

This topic is a slippery slope since my answer will be based on only a few days of experience in the 1st and 3rd grades -- and in only two elementary schools -- but in reviewing the day's schedule of activities, I can tell you that a great majority of time is being spent on the 3 R's -- Reading, Writing and Math. It's back to basics -- or, more likely, forward to improving test results. In one class, we spent a half hour doing "test prep" -- although I wasn't sure how the materials I used would help a student pass the CSAP. So far, there doesn't seem to be much time set aside for art, music, history, geography, or current events.

One of the things that most impressed me was the "regimen" I had to learn from each of the teachers. Both of them had their day planned in 15 minute increments. In fact, I had to bring a timer to school so I could keep up the pace. At the end of the day, I was exhausted from the stress of keeping everything on schedule. A teacher's (and by extension, the children's) day is packed with activities. There is little time for spontaneity or trying something new. And when you think about it, there's probably a good reason for this. How does a teacher teach reading to 20-25 seven-year-olds at the same time? The way these schools approached it (using completely different reading programs), is to break the kids up into 3-4 groups. While the teacher works with one group, the rest of the kids sit at their desks and do "desk work" -- completing fill-in-the-blank reproducible worksheets. Every 15 minutes, the groups rotate.

These real-life classroom stories have major implications for how we develop and market educational material.

In Conclusion

Walking in someone's shoes is not always easy. It makes us change our perceptions, our assumptions, and sometimes, long-held beliefs. Personally, I always knew teachers had one of the hardest jobs in the world and, for our future, one of the most important. But the images of Laura Bush sitting on a small chair, surrounded by kids listening to her reading a book, is a far cry from the reality of the classroom today.

But I must admit, even though it wasn't on my "schedule of things to do", I snuck in 15 minutes to do just that! "I know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" has long been my favorite children's song -- and as I performed it in from of my captive audience, their faces lit up, they smiled, and they sang along with me. It made my day!

While I only have time to substitute 3-4 days a month, by the end of this school year, I should have a pretty good idea of what's happening in K-8 urban schools in Denver and I'll keep you posted! Meanwhile, a personal thanks to an i-Tips subscriber and friend, Mike Hopkins, VP of Marketing for Glencoe/McGraw Hill, who upon hearing I was using his science book "The Air Around You" to teach weather to middle school students, kindly sent me a care package (teacher's guide and video) so I would be even more prepared than I hoped!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
This article was written by Carol Ann Waugh, President of Xcellent Marketing, a marketing and new business development firm specializing in the educational and library market. Xcellent Marketing offers a variety of marketing services to help publishers increase their revenues and profits from identifying new markets, providing critiques of web sites and marketing communications such as direct mail, catalogs, advertisements, etc. as well as developing effective traditional as well as Internet-based marketing plans. Carol can be reached at (303) 388-5215 or at cwaugh@xcellentmarketing.com.