Every Student Deserves a Chance

I was substitute teaching today and something happened in my last hour class that upset me. I had just enough papers for all the students but no extras. There was a teacher’s assistant in the room and she wanted to know what they were working on. I offered her the teacher’s copy but she declined. Instead she walked over and took a student’s paper. I thought she would give it right back but she didn’t. After about 10 minutes the student looked at me imploringly. So I took the teacher’s copy over to her and asked if we could trade. She looked at me and said, “[student] never does his work. He just sits there. That’s why I took his paper.” I gave the paper back to the student. Wouldn’t you know, he did the work! I was angry afterwards but it’s not my place to say anything. She had access to the teacher’s copy so why take a student’s? Every student deserves a chance to learn.