Things I Had to Learn the Hard Way

There is no substitute handbook that you get upon graduating from your teacher preparation program. In fact, no one really talks about what substituting will be like at all. The general assumption is that you will go through school, complete your student teaching, receive your teaching license and be hired as a teacher in the months to follow. While I knew it would be a tough road after graduation and it was somewhat understood that it might take some time to find a job, no one talked about the interim. There are few if any teaching jobs available each year where I live. In Corvallis especially, you need a few years of experience to even be considered for a teaching job. Thus, you still need work while you're waiting out the job market and along comes subbing. One would imagine that subbing would be fairly straightforward. You get the plans from the teacher and carry them out. How hard can it be to follow directions?

Well, I often find myself in a school that's new to me, with a variety of grade levels, and no less than 28 students to keep track of. What I have learned from subbing the last year and a half is that there are two things I absolutely have to get out of the way as soon as I enter a classroom.

1. If I have a chance to talk with the teacher that I will be subbing for, there is one questions that I always ask: How do you get the attention of the class? Each teacher has their own attention getting technique (clapping, a phrase that the class repeats, flipping off the lights, ringing chimes, etc.). If you know their technique you will have a much easier time with classroom management. Unfortunately, I have yet to substitute for a teacher that includes this information in their notes/plans. If I don't have a chance to ask the teacher, I seek out someone that is in the classroom on a regular basis to ask or I look for a responsible student and ask them.

2. Introduce myself and my rules to the students. There are two things that I clarify with any age group right away:

• I have plans from the teacher that I will try to follow but there is no possible way for everything to go the way that it usually does. So, I ask that the students be flexible and understanding when things don't go exactly the way that they do with their classroom teacher. If I forget to mention this, I will have students interrupting me all day saying, "That's not how we do it."
• My rules are the same as their teacher's rules (usually to be respectful, responsible, and safe). Regardless of any existing rules, I always emphasize how important it is for students to let me know if they need to leave the classroom for any reason. As a substitute teacher there is nothing scarier than having a student disappear on you. Before I started explaining this at the beginning of the day, I would have students walk out of the room when my back was turned. It's important for students to know why and so depending on the age I give different analogies. Any variation of: Imagine that you were watching a little brother or sister or babysitting and you lost the child that you were watching. Kids can usually relate to this easily and they have a much better understanding of why they need to check in with me before they go anywhere. 

Mostly, I just wanted to share some things that I had to learn the hard way in hopes that someone else can read this and be able to use these ideas before they run into a problem.