I truly believe in experience. Experience creates confidence in a given situation and there are alot of situations in the classroom over any period of time. I’ve been subbing for over three years now and am forty-eight years old. I have alot of life experience, not all of it was good. I make mistakes in the classroom that I learn from each time I teach. Sure you have to use common sense, but you have to have experience in the everyday running of the classroom too. Among other things you have to know how to deal with multiple personality types and sometimes more than one at a time, know in general or specific what not to do or say to the kids, the parents, the other teachers, the administrators and other school personnel. You have to be an expert in dealing with people while knowing and enforcing the rules of the school, the parents, your own rules, the states’s rules and whoever else’s rules there are. The list of what you have to know and be good at goes on and on, but you learn these things over time through experience, education and the continuous re-educating of yourself.

As a sub I have to become a third grade teacher one day, a twelfth grade teacher the next day, and a sixth grade teacher the day after that. My mindset for who I am dealing with changes every day not to mention what I need to know to deal with the k-12 curriculum over a two or three week period. I top all that off with teaching at four or five different school districts all with their own school conduct codes, different set of teachers, parents, kids, administrators and other subs etc.

I like being a sub for now, but I don’t like that I’ll work every day at half to a third of the pay of the teacher I’m subbing for. I receive no benefits, no vacation pay, no medical, dental, optical etc. and no pay spread over summer vacation or other fringe benefits, unless I do it myself. However, I work over summer because I can’t afford to take it off yet. Also, I get to go to bed at night sometimes wondering if I’ll get a call to work in the morning if not already scheduled to work or wondering if the the class is going to be good, a pain or somewhere in between. I get no paid sick days or personal days that I can take either. But I will handle and be responsible for any problems that arise in the classroom, in the hall or on the playground if applicable that day. I will fill out the same paper work for discipline problems and will even write the lesson plans for the day if there are none. I’ll deal with the parents, the principal and other teachers and take their praise or their criticism. All of these things are experiences that I am glad for because it makes me prepared to do the job regardless that I am abused by the school’s compensation policies for the subs that they can’t do without each day. I also get to complete my Act 48 credits required by teachers in PA to complete every five years or you can’t work more than 90 days as a sub per year. The techers get discounted courses if not paid by the school and they get to take courses that only take a weekend. I have to find time and money to do mine through a college over a three to four month period.

Also, as a sub, as I have been finding out over the past couple of years, I may get called for an interview for a job opening, but won’t get the job. I’ve learned from other subs, teachers and administrators that most districts don’t hire their subs because they don’t want to lose their pool of subs available from year to year. To make it harder on subs, I’ve also heard of districts selling their jobs to the highest bidder, or hiring relatives or hiring friends for the open jobs. It’s not always a good situation to find a job within your own school district or one not far from home. I’m still looking.

On the plus side I get to work with kids that in general treat me well and enable me to enjoy my day while I help and teach them. I also get on the job training for what I hope to do full time in only one classroom and one grade level per year someday. To be good at something you usually have to go through alot of crap sprinkled with some goodness.

I guess I don’t genderally qualify …

I did have a middleschool class from hell early on and I was that substitute that ended up having to ask for help from “team teachers.” Everything I tried failed. Even getting the principal in the classroom failed and probably made things worse. I learned from that experience and adapted my methods in dealing with that agegroup.

I have also had experiences following lesson plans. Sometimes the teacher leaves plenty of work, but often times, the students breeze through the work and a sub is left hanging out in the cold twiddling their thumbs. In my school district, a sub is typically not expected to teach a class, but simply follow the lesson plan provided by the teacher. Usually that means telling the students what pages to read and which packets/questions to complete. I found its helpful if the teacher leaves a copy of their expectations for the class – Stay in assigned seat, no talking, no gum chewing… etc.

Two of the best subbing experiences I had was when I subbed for 3rd grade and 2nd grade. The 3rd grade class staged a revolt which took me less than 30 seconds to get under control and stopped. ( I used the in-class discipline system – then when the teacher returned from her workshop and saw the change, she inquired to me what happened… I told her exactly what happened.) The 2nd grade class’ teacher ended up going home sick and I filled in for 3 days while she recovered with nothing but the lesson plan typed on paper, no handouts xeroxed or anything available but what was in the classroom. The lesson plan was written in shorthand with limited instruction on how to complete what was expected. So I rolled with the punches. I taught science and other things on the lesson plan which I disciphered, I maintained order and discipline, I learned how to interact with wiggly 2nd graders and basically grew as a sub.

So, please don’t discount someone as a sub simply because they’re young.