THURSDAY,DEC.13,2001
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN - 3A
NEWS
Jayhawks serve as emergency substitute teachers
By Lauren Brandenburg
Kansan senior staff writer
Seth Duell spent last semester sitting in class as a University of Kansas student one day and teaching class the next.
Duell, Fayetteville, Ark., senior, substitute taught as one of the Lawrence school district's emergency substitutes. Students who already have experience working with youth can receive an emergency substitute certificate to teach in Kansas once they have at least 60 hours of college credit.
Education classes do not neces
sarily have to be part of those 60 hours, but they are preferred. Martha Gage, director of certification and teacher education for the Kansas Department of Education, said the requirements had been this way at least since the early 1980s, but the number of certificates her office issued had doubled since the 1996-97 school year.
Gage said the certification cost $24 and lasted for one year. The certificate can be renewed for another year for the same amount. The certificate restricts the number of days someone
without a bachelor's degree can substitute to 15 consecutive days in one assignment and 60 days total per semester.
About half of the 300 substitutes for the Lawrence school district are emergency substitutes, said Mary Rodriguez, executive director of human resources for the district.
Many of the district's 143 emergency substitutes meet more than the minimum criteria, Rodriguez said. Ninety one have a bachelor's degree and 14 have a master's degree. Before they are allowed to
enter a classroom, they are given a handbook and required to attend a half-day district orientation.
Substitutes earn $82 for a full day and $41 for a half day.
"The main thing is that we want to provide the best education for students," Rodriguez said. "Teachers have to be gone, and subs fill a critical need."
Duell, who is an English major and has no long-term plans to teach, said substitute teaching was a great experience and one he would recommend, although he said even second graders were
smart enough to try to take advantage of a substitute.
"It's a good opportunity to stretch yourself," he said. "It's good to adapt to all different situations and people."
Allison McCracken, a Shawnee senior studying elementary education, hopes to become certified to be an emergency substitute next semester. McCracken has completed all the requirements for her degree except her student teaching.
"I want to do it for experience," she said. "I'll be in grad school at
Substitute Wages
OLIVIA SARI/KANSAN
Full day — $82
Half day — $41
night and have to work. This will hopefully be a way to get myself in the door so later I can get a job."
There are 143 emergency substitutes for the Lawrence school district.
Contact Brandenburg at 864-4810
Exercise, sleep can prevent illness
Mia Brown, St. Louis, Mo., sophomore, works out on a gliding aerobic machine at Robinson Center. Brown works out every day — finals or not.
By Matt Norton
Kansan staff writer
Local health and fitness officials have a suggestion for students that will help them perform better on finals and stay healthy throughout the holiday break: get sleep and exercise.
Myra Strother, chief of staff at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said that students who crammed all night for exams or writing papers did not necessarily perform better than those who slept at night.
Tim Glassco, third-year law student, said he had difficult exams yesterday and today.
While he had gone for short jogs three times in the last week, the past few days he had done nothing but study.
"I've worked out about half as much as I'd like to." Glassco said. "When I have back-to-back days of tests, it's easier to focus strictly on studying."
Strother said after two to three hours of studying, students start to get groggy and their metabolism slows down.
Exercise can help speed up metabolism, making it easier to study as well as increasing the efficiency of time spent studying, Strother said.
Studying for long periods also leads to sleep deprivation, which can lead to illness, she said.
Headaches, stomach problems, anxiety and depression are all related to mental stress.
and getting some form of exercise allows muscles to relax in a way that helps students sleep better, she said.
Exercise and maintaining a proper diet also can help alleviate colds and other respiratory illnesses that often occur during this time of the school year, Strother said.
"Right after finals, a lot of
people get sick," she said.
"But if people would take better care of themselves during finals, they wouldn't get sick nearly as much."
Matt McGhee, personal training director at Total Fitness, 2339 Iowa St., said the club had a significant dropoff in the number of students working out in the past cou
ple weeks.
He recommended clients get away from the typical health club circuit of machines that focus on one body part at a time, like biceps curls, for example.
"Most newcomers aren't going to have much of a bicep to focus on anyway," he said.
Instead, he said that students could get a good fullbody workout in 45 minutes, and could do it two or three times a week.
He suggested 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise followed by a circuit of exercises that worked multiple muscle groups at the same time.
If pressed for time, a 20 minute walk followed by some pushups and situps could be an alternative to going to a gym, Strother said.
Sabrina Marino, who works in the recreation facilities management office at Robinson Center, said student use of the fitness facilities there decreased some during the day as the semester came to a close, but students also came more often later in the evening.
According to a log report, there was an average drop of 23 people per hour using the Robinson facilities from November to December 2000. So far in December 2001, there has been virtually no drop off.
She said Robinson was open various hours during finals and winter break.
Contact Norton at 864-4810
SQUISHING AWAY STRESS
Jeff Lang, Ellinwood sophomore, drops a textbook onto a pile of twinkies. Twinkies sponsored a Stress Smash in the Kansas Union that included free Twinkies.
JAKE TEITELBAUM/KANSAN