Note: The purpose of this blog is to serve as a course exercise for EDM 510 for creating blogs. Please post if you are on my team.

A Day in the Life of a Substitute Teacher

4:30

I wake up and check SubFinder for an assignment if I haven't already gotten one the previous day.

5:30

I continue to check SubFinder for the reasons mentioned above.

6:00

I start getting ready for the day at the school where I'm assigned. I usually don't have a lesson plan of my own, even if it's my subject, so I like to get to the school early in order to figure out a way to present the material, if that's required. I also need to leave sufficient time to find schools with which I'm not already familiar.

7:00

I arrive at the school, sign in, find the room, and start my daily set of tasks. I arrive in the room, scan for a sub folder with a lesson plan, and, if I find one, start setting things up. If I don't find anything, I go to the front office or bug another teacher until I get something, or, on rare occassions, I make up something--this almost never works.  Later, I look for the seating chart or at least a roster. If I don't find one, I go to attendence and ask for a list of students in the class.

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Highlight:


I once taught at a middle school for eight days; the regular teacher was on extended sick leave, and I was really hoping I would get the position. I tried to make a good impression on the principal, but it was chaos. I had to get up at around 4:00 just to make it to the school, because, at the time, I didn't have a running vehicle. I gave up on trying to plan lessons, and even the principal suggested I just review things with them. The class never really settled down enough to even let me do that, though. I thought that since there teacher was out for so long and they knew I was licensed in the same subject, they would settle down and listen to what I had to say. Needless to say, I was wrong. Every day the retract teacher gave almost everyone a referral. I was really upset by how well the students behaved for him and how badly they behaved with me, and very few students actually paid attention to what I tried to teach them. To make matters worse, my co-teacher had another class she needed to attend to, so she mostly left me with worksheets. No one ever took the time to explain to me what I was expected to do. Apparently, I was supposed to know all of that already. It was really difficult, and I blame myself for not helping the students make progress, and I think it reflects poorly upon me as a teacher. My lesson plans and activities fell apart everyday, because, no matter how prepared I thought I was, I was never prepared enough. If the students didn't understand something, chaos ensued, period, and I could never explain things clearly enough.

I have to keep in mind, though, that a failed teaching experience doesn't necessarily mean that I've failed as a teacher. This was a tough school, and, even though a majority of the class ignored me, a few students actually listened to what I had to say. That kind of made all of the struggles worth it, although I'm pretty sure my principal wasn't thrilled to walk in and see me teaching ten students while the other thirty basically did whatever they wanted. Well, I did try.

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7:20

Students begin filing in. A few gleefully shout, "we've got a substitute!" I know what comes next if I'm not on top of everything.

If it's highschool, I can usually buy time by having the assignment set out and within reach, but if it's middle school, the assignment better be on their desks. Otherwise, there will be quite a few students talking, fighting, or engaging in other off-task behavior. This absolutely drives me nuts!

Next is the hard part. If the teacher did not leave a seating chart in the sub folder, and most of them don't for whatever reason,  I have to waste instruction time calling roll. What happens when I call roll? A few students (highschool) or a few dozen students (middle school) talk loudly, carry on, and generally try to distract me from my task.

I'm terrible with names, so, while I'm calling roll if there's no seating chart, I usually jot down significant facial features, hair color, hair styles, accessories, etc. so that I can sort of keep the names straight. It's pretty important to get a bluff in on these kids. Taking the roll like this helps me compensate for not having a seating chart and also helps me when I need to warn a student or write a referral. It also makes actually learning the students' names easier. My little name trick doesn't always work, though, and can get very confusing in the school settings where students are likely to wear the same hairstyle and manner of dress.

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Highlight:

Sometimes the name thing goes without a hitch, and the students are impressed at how quickly I "learn" their names. The students are usually surprised and shout, "how do you know my name?"  Making sure that a dozen or so students know that they are not anonymous is usually enough to scare the whole class into being quiet, at least for a while, anyway!

Highlight:

One time a group of smart students used my own trick against me by switching bows, glasses, hats, etc. so that I wouldn't be able to identify them! I was impressed by how quickly they caught on, but, once the students figured out that they were anonymous again, they gave me a very hard time.  That was not cool.

I did learn, though, that getting a stone silent classroom at most schools on a sub day is probably not reality, and writing students up for small offenses sometimes just makes them bitter. It's better to follow  the classroom teacher's discipline recommendations, again, if they leave any notes on that at all. They usually don't, and, if the students decide to use the classroom as their personal playground because the teacher is away, I have to find my own ways of dealing with it, and sometimes even the front office seems too busy to help.

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Highlight:

Most times, though, the principals and administration are very helpful. There's at least one school that severely punished misbehaving students on my behalf. I love that school; I wish I could work there permanently. Other schools have been very dilligent with discipline and made it very clear that misbehaving with me will not be tollerated.

Unfortunately, though, I've still had people who seem to take the "kids will be kids" mentality and did not respond to my complaints with as much enthusiasm. It's possibly understandable, though, some students have emotional disturbance issues, brain trauma, and all sorts of home drama, and, I don't really know anything about that, because I really am an outsider. I trust administration to handle the issues, explain what needs to be explained, and punish who needs to be punished. What measures are taken on the children who try to disrupt my class are none of my concern; I just don't want them to continue to cause trouble, at least not while I'm there.

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Another approach I sometimes use in middle school is to have students start working immediately so that I can take roll while they are working and we don't lose class time. This is effective to an extent, but there are honestly some students who simply do not seem to believe that the teacher left this work for them. Do they think that I typed it up myself during breakfast? I'm not really sure. Whatever the case may be, those that seem to believe today is actually a free day begin to surface. The noise level in the room rises, and I keep my eyes and ears open for the trouble makers.

I might spot anything from a group of students "working together" to figure out simple addition and subtraction problems to a young couple rough housing and calling each other names under the pretence of "tutoring." I laugh inside sometimes at the silliness of all of this, but then I remind myself that they are directly challenging my authority, no matter how cute they are while they do it, and I quietly make my way over to their desks and start taking notes aloud, "throwing paper, calling female student 'sugar lips', pretending to hit female student, etc." Usually, I get their attention. The students try to argue. I give them my spiel about maybe erasing the evidence if they are good for the rest of the class period. The class kind of quiets down, and things return to normal, until another set of lovable class clowns emerges or the first set inevitably refuses to take me very seriously. It's as if they believe I become deaf when my back is turned to them.

8:20

If this is high school, things are usually calm and will remain so for the rest of the class period, unless I failed to gain control, and that does happen sometimes, especially when the teacher teaches a subject I'm absolutely not familiar with and neglects to leave a roster and I have to resort to a sign-in sheet and hope I don't get "Bugs Bunny" and "Barbie" on my roll.

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Highlight:

One time recently, I was assigned to a high school art class. Oragami was the topic being studied that day, and the classroom teacher wanted me to lend a hand with folding lessons. This would have been no problem had I been given enough time to prepare, but I was only given about a fifteen minute preview, and, then, I was kind of left to my own devices. Not to mention that I did not know any of the students' names, because this teacher requested I use a sign-in sheet; it was complete chaos, as you can probably imagine, and, since I wasn't feeling very well that day, I let it continue.


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On the other hand, if I'm dealing with middle school, we usually have lots of class changes, which excites and, for some reason, apparently confuses the students. I'm wondering if the girl with the bow really thinks she has English class three times today just because there is a sub in the room? Um, young lady, where are you supposed to be?  

What's your name?
Um, may I see the roll?
No, go to class.

I always have visitors. Usually, it's during class when so-and-so's sister, wife, brother, cousin, etc., decides to drop in and thinks I will not notice. I really don't like being considered that dumb; I did go to college, and it's not that hard to spot someone who didn't answer roll call and isn't doing any work.

Scene: an unidentified student walks into the classroom several minutes after the bell rings.
Um, I'm late...
You need a pass from the office.

Scene: An off-task student is chatting it up with friends. I interrupt.

Why aren't you doing any work?
I'm not even in this class...oops, I mean....
Then, get out!
But my name's on the roll!
What's your name?
Billy Kid Robinson...
There is no Billy on here.
Other students chuckle.
Bye
Bye

For some reason the middle school students think they can get away with much more as the day wears on. Word spreads that they have a substitute teacher, and the chaos really starts to ensue with budding class clowns trying more and more tricks. The best tactic, though, is to be patient with the students, make sure the activities for that day are ready to go, and don't be afraid to call for back-up. By lunch time, though, things usually get a bit crazy.

11:00-12:30

Middle School

Lunch time rolls around, and I lead the students, or they lead me if I'm not familiar with the school, to the cafeteria. There, I unsuccessfully try to keep an eye on the class as they get their lunch; everyone sort of blends in with everyone else, though. Then, I sit down and eat my lunch with the students; we sometimes chat about various topics.

Back in the classroom, the students are rowdier than ever. Sometimes, I don't regain control for a little while. Other times, I never regain control; as soon as I put a stop to one instance of misbehavior, another starts. It's really embarrassing to have other teachers come in and complain to me about the noise level, and I hate it when anyone, especially a kid, sends the message that I don't know how to manage a class.

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Highlight

My worst substitute teaching moment was at a certain middle school. The students thought it would be fun to raid the teacher's refrigerator and spread the food all over the floors! Those juvenile deliquents! The worst part is I gave them permission; I didn't clearly hear what one of the students asked me, so I just said, "yes." What a mistake! Well, the room another sub was covering got it much worse than I did, though. I guess the kids thought it was all in fun, but that was really just mean. I dread going back to that school now, although I think I've gotten much better at spotting and stopping misbehavior, whether the students like it or not.

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High School

I usually don't need to supervise students in the cafeteria. This is my time to rest, eat the lunch I brought, and get ready for the final class.

1:00

Middle School

Yes! It is finally over! One more hour, and then I'm free! This is usually my worst class, though, especially if I haven't watched carefully for shinanigans, like tearing out pages in class workbooks, making paper airplanes out of  a class set of worksheets, throwing away reproducable worksheets, stealing the agenda for today, stealing the roll, etc., throughout the day.

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Highlight

At a certain school, I would always run out of worksheets for the students at the end of the day, because the students from the previous classes would not follow directions. If the worksheet was not to be written on, I would get it back with writing on it, and, sometimes, the students who wrote on the worksheets didn't even bother to turn the work in to me; they would just leave it on their desks as if it was going to magically transfer to the homework box.
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High School

If I've gotten control of the class, everything is pretty calm at this point; if I have not, I'm effectively dealing with chaos and wondering if these young people really know that they are in high school.

2:15

Some students are dismissed to ride the bus; I'm stuck with more would-be class clowns for about ten minutes, or, sometimes non-bus riders just follow the bus riders out. How on earth am I supposed to know the difference? It's not like I'm given a list or anything.

Well, that's what it's like, from my perspective, to be a substitute teacher. Subbing isn't necessarily a bad job, but substitute teachers are highly under appreciated, in my opinion. I'm a licensed teacher, too, but I very rarely get to teach anything. This would be okay, but the break in routine really seems to mess with the classroom dynamic, and it gives the students the impression that I'm not the professional that I am. Maybe the students blame me for the boring day and take out their frustration on me. Then again, maybe they just think that the day won't count and the work isn't important. Sadly, they're kind of right; some teachers don't grade the work the students get on sub days, and I think the students might know this. Wow, it makes my job a bit easier if (a.) the students understand that I'm a professional with a degree, (b.) the students understand that I'm a tutor and want to help them learn, (c.) misbehavior will not be taken lightly just because there is a guest in the teacher's desk, and (d.) I'm still not just there to "collect a paycheck" or "take up space" (although it sometimes feels like it with the kind of treatment I sometimes receive) and am in the classroom that day to serve as a valuable resource in any way that I can. I think if teachers and students kept that in mind, my day would go much more smoothly. It would be much easier to navigate the classroom if I had real lesson plans and was called in a few days in advance to collaborate with the teacher on something.

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Highlight

I actually did get the chance to do this once or twice, and it wasn't at the best of schools, but everything turned out well. I was given access to the teacher's Smart Board, which substitute teachers usually are not, and I was given a real lesson plan with activities in advance so that I could plan out what I wanted to do with the students. A little attitude and preparation go a long way! That sub day everything went very well. The students participated in the guided activities with candy rewards for answering questions correctly, and we did the worksheets together. I was more than happy to explain if students had questions. It was a pretty good day, although I can't say I didn't have some off-task behavior.  I like it when the teachers I work for take me seriously and let me get involved in lesson planning / presentation--it makes me seem more authentic, and I think the students like it, too.
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So, what do you think would make my job easier / more productive? How do you as a teacher deal with your subs? How might you deal with your subs after reading about my job? What do you, parents, think should be done for your children on the days the regular teacher is absent? What non-academically disruptive activities would you, former K-12 students, have enjoyed and participated in on sub days?