"Do I look stupid to you?"

I was the only teacher to sub for the fourth grade teacher when she was absent on Monday and Tuesday.

For some reason, several students decided to test my patience and held private conversations among themselves as I was teaching. So I had to ask them, "Do I look stupid to you? Do you think that I wouldn't see that some of you are not paying attention?" After hearing my questions, those students immediately changed their behavior and didn't give me any problems for the rest of the day.

Sometimes I am really surprised that students would think that teachers do not pay attention to them. When I was in secondary three, I had a geography teacher who didn't care whether we copied answers straight from the textbook for a test. At that time, I was angry that the school could have such an irresponsible and selfish person to teach yound children. So sfter that when I had teachers who scolded students in my class for not paying attention or not giving their best to reach their full potential, I would pay more respect for them because they cared about us by expecting high standards.

I just hope that the 4th grade students realize that truly caring teachers are those who care enough to make them pay attention in class, while teachers who let students do what they like in class are just irresponsible adults.