Very weird and inappropriate subject matter for a music class....

[JustEstelle]

It's entirely possible that the sub was showing something that even the regular teacher had not scheduled to be seen.  It was my experience when I taught that sometimes subs would completely circumvent what plans a teacher had left and proceed to "do their own thing," which usually consisted of finding a video and showing it to the class so that they (the sub) wouldn't have to do anything but take roll.  More than once, my well-thought-out plans would get put aside in favor of a movie.     And then I'd have to play catch up with my students when I returned from my absence.

While I understand why the OP went to the principal about this issue, I would have started with the teacher.  It's entirely possible that the teacher didn't even know about the video until after the fact.

[allimac]

I'll second the notion that the absent teacher probably knew nothing about the movie and most likely had left a well thought-out lesson plan for the sub to follow. I've also been the victim of lazy subs who have preferred to show a movie instead of following my lesson plans, which lead to a lot of catching up to do as well as irritation among the students that they weren't going to see the end of the movie.
One of the subs must have been smoking something really bad. I'll have to admit that he tried to follow the lesson plan. When he couldn't operate the CD-player, he began banging it hard with his fists and smashed it to pieces in front of the students. He was fired on the spot.


I had two "memorable" subs from my own school days.
One was a nutcase who just wouldn't shut up. We were working on a major history project and all she had to do was to let us into the classroom so that we could continue to work. She was blabbing on and on about the most irrelevant things - she spent three lessons talking about the bosom of a deceased Swedish queen  .
The other one was also a nutjob. Instead of focusing on the wood shop class he was supposed to lead, he taught us how to break into cars and houses  .

[Goog]

Human development is enough for them at that age, without having real life images shown to them in class in a seemingly.....er...non-educational type of context (my mind is conjuring up a 'Girls Gone Wild' type of thing, although I'm sure that's not what it was).

The only thing that comes to mind in the teacher's defence is if they were showing a video of tribal music and dance, such as African or islander nations, where the dancers are wearing traditional garb. They may not have realised that the class were still too young for it, judging by their reactions.

I think you handled it well as long as you were polite.

That's what I was thinking of, the only context in which this kind of video could be appropriate!  (as opposed to MTV-style). But still, these kids are too immature for even the National Geographic version.

OP here....yes, that was suggested to me to, about the purpose for the video being some kind of dance or music where they show topless people as a norm, like an African tribal dance.  But still, people...consider your audience!  Added to that is that DS is in a multi age classroom, so he has 4th graders in his class too.  Kids that age can't really differentiate between art or culture and seeing 'some woman shake her bosom in front of the camera.'  Also, I asked him what the video was about, and he could tell me nothing about it, not even a general 'different types of dance' or 'tribal music' comment or anything like that, so that also reinforces (to me) that the video was too mature for the kids to even understand the lesson or purpose of the video.

As an aside, we were at one of the Disney waterparks last weekend and were walking in back of some women that were wearing thong (or near thong) swimsuit bottoms.  Let's just say that the thong style was not the best choice for their body types.  Anyway, DS looks at me with an aghast look on his face, with kind of an embarrassed smile and said something like 'ew'.  Yup, in the last week, he got quite the unintentional education in viewing the female form.

[strawbabies]

As an aside, we were at one of the Disney waterparks last weekend and were walking in back of some women that were wearing thong (or near thong) swimsuit bottoms.  

I could've sworn the last time I was at the Disney waterparks that they had a rule about no thong swimsuits. 

[Goog]

As an aside, we were at one of the Disney waterparks last weekend and were walking in back of some women that were wearing thong (or near thong) swimsuit bottoms.  

I could've sworn the last time I was at the Disney waterparks that they had a rule about no thong swimsuits. 

Maybe they did and I didn't notice.  But what we saw were thongs as far a *I* was concerned....not a total string on the back end, but the fabric there wasn't any more than a couple of inches wide.  And a couple of inches doesn't cover ANYONE's rear end well.

[kherbert05]

I once had a sub behave inappropriately in my room. I had no problem with the guardians of one child going straight to the principal. Their reasoning - I was no way responsible for what happened, had no control over what happened, and had no power to correct what happened.

What happened - (I was in a portable other teachers couldn't see what was going on)
1) Their grandson a cool kid recovering from life threatening abuse was targeted and the teacher encouraged the other boys to bully him.
2) Kids forgot their library books were taken back to the room and made to climb in through a window.
3) Teacher through the boy's backpack out the window into mud.

Earlier that week we had
1) One sub leave while kids were at specials and call from down the road to say he was quiting.

2) 2nd sub for that class had the kids in tears critizing their teacher for not leaving plans. Finally one of the kids came to my room in tears. I went into the room with my copy thinking 1st sub had taken the plans when he quit. the plans were on the teacher's desk and the overhead.

3) Incorrigible students were sent to my room by 2nd sub. I ran out of desks. So I stacked the desks against the wall. Divided the class into groups. Got out equipment and had them start building bridges to test by stacking books on them. While doing this I sent multiple SOS messages to the office by e-mail, notes, and hitting the intercom button. I ended up with both classes in my room. I have a letter in my file about how I kept my head during a crisis situation and kept the students learning.

[DannysGirl]

1) Back in 8th grade we did Romeo and Juliette. We watched a movie on it and in one of the scenes Romeo's rear is bare and so is Juliette's top. Our class watched it fine, no problem. Next door the teacher used a clipboard to cover the naughty bits. One time she forgot the scene was coming up and dove for the screen, fell, and missed completely.

     I think I had that teacher as a high school freshman!    While every other 9th grade English teacher showed the "naughty" version of Romeo & Juliet, our teacher showed an edited version.  Those scenes were cut out all together! 

Edited so it makes sense.

[Sharnita]

It's entirely possible that the sub was showing something that even the regular teacher had not scheduled to be seen.  It was my experience when I taught that sometimes subs would completely circumvent what plans a teacher had left and proceed to "do their own thing," which usually consisted of finding a video and showing it to the class so that they (the sub) wouldn't have to do anything but take roll.  More than once, my well-thought-out plans would get put aside in favor of a movie.     And then I'd have to play catch up with my students when I returned from my absence.

While I understand why the OP went to the principal about this issue, I would have started with the teacher.  It's entirely possible that the teacher didn't even know about the video until after the fact.

You aren't kidding!  I've had multiple subs "go rogue" and a few even brought their own movies/handouts. I've come back from a day out and found stuff written on the board that had nothing to do with the lesson plans I wrote.  A few years ago one of my students alerted me to the fact that the sub in the math class two doors down was showing junior high students "The Matrix"

[jenny_islander]

A science teacher in junior high was doing a unit on the effects of domestication, so we watched a video about the behavior of wild boars vs. domestic pigs.  Including close-ups of their mating habits.  That segment was blacked out and fast-forwarded the second time he showed the video.  I'm not going to go into specifics here; let's just say that bizarre ain't the word.   

[whiterose]

It's entirely possible that the sub was showing something that even the regular teacher had not scheduled to be seen.  It was my experience when I taught that sometimes subs would completely circumvent what plans a teacher had left and proceed to "do their own thing," which usually consisted of finding a video and showing it to the class so that they (the sub) wouldn't have to do anything but take roll.  More than once, my well-thought-out plans would get put aside in favor of a movie.     And then I'd have to play catch up with my students when I returned from my absence.

While I understand why the OP went to the principal about this issue, I would have started with the teacher.  It's entirely possible that the teacher didn't even know about the video until after the fact.

You aren't kidding!  I've had multiple subs "go rogue" and a few even brought their own movies/handouts. I've come back from a day out and found stuff written on the board that had nothing to do with the lesson plans I wrote.  A few years ago one of my students alerted me to the fact that the sub in the math class two doors down was showing junior high students "The Matrix"

At one school where I taught, Gladiator was shown in English and History classes to both the middle school students and the high school students!

AFAIK, that is an R-rated movie. My brother described it as a "butcher shop".

[Nurvingiel]

OP, I do think you handled it well. Your son was bothered by it, so your actions were appropriate. The principal looked into it so I'm sure he or she will determine if the nudity was appropriate or not.

It's entirely possible that the sub was showing something that even the regular teacher had not scheduled to be seen.  It was my experience when I taught that sometimes subs would completely circumvent what plans a teacher had left and proceed to "do their own thing," which usually consisted of finding a video and showing it to the class so that they (the sub) wouldn't have to do anything but take roll.  More than once, my well-thought-out plans would get put aside in favor of a movie.     And then I'd have to play catch up with my students when I returned from my absence.

While I understand why the OP went to the principal about this issue, I would have started with the teacher.  It's entirely possible that the teacher didn't even know about the video until after the fact.

You aren't kidding!  I've had multiple subs "go rogue" and a few even brought their own movies/handouts. I've come back from a day out and found stuff written on the board that had nothing to do with the lesson plans I wrote.  A few years ago one of my students alerted me to the fact that the sub in the math class two doors down was showing junior high students "The Matrix"

At one school where I taught, Gladiator was shown in English and History classes to both the middle school students and the high school students!

AFAIK, that is an R-rated movie. My brother described it as a "butcher shop".

What I have a problem with is that Gladiator was shown in a history class! The extent is history in that movie is that Marcus Aurelius and Commodus were real people.

[Aggiesque]

When we had subs in music class, we'd often have movies- usually something like Beethoven (about the musician, not the dog) lol. I think there is a whole series on different composers aimed toward a grade-school audience.

[Celes]

We were told go to watch Amadeus in my elementary school music class and we watched parts of it in class. I was shocked by Mozart's potty mouth. Love the movie as an adult though.

[Nurvingiel]

We were told go to watch Amadeus in my elementary school music class and we watched parts of it in class. I was shocked by Mozart's potty mouth. Love the movie as an adult though.

I love Mozart so much. My brother and I watched Amadeus as teens with our parents. Also, Beethoven Lives Upstairs.

I would like to build a time machine for the sole purpose of travelling back in time to play pool and drink wine with Wolfgang and Constanze. They seem like such fun, genuine, nice people in the history books.

I also really admire Beethoven. But I want to party with Mozart, and Robert and Clara Schumann actually. Next trip in the time machine.

</composerjack>

[Animala]

The test of if was intentional or not is did he turn it off immediately?