After a full year of “TRY”ing it, either I will make a permanent job out of substitute teaching, or I will move on to something else, but this goal has been WELL-COMPLETED. :)

I like it most of the time. Full days are a bit much sometimes. I have really enjoyed all the half days I’ve done—even when it’s two different jobs in one day.

I’m definitely going back next year. I’ve been site-based (only working at my favorite school) this year, but there are 3 or 4 other schools in the district near me, so I’m currently trying to decide whether to stick with the one I’m so familiar with or branch out a bit.

Good luck to anyone who decides to substitute! If I can help you in any way, just ask. 5 years ago

I’ve already written about the job itself, but I think having a long-term assignment really fills out my first-year-as-a-sub resumé nicely.

The teachers were all telling me how much they enjoyed working with me these past weeks and one even invited me to start the 2008-2009 year for her because she is having knee surgery in July and probably won’t be back at work until the 3rd or 4th week of school. I guess I could do that . . . IF my piano teacher could take me on in the afternoons for a little while. 5 years ago

We have been testing this week. I was trained to administer this particular battery of tests when I still worked at the school. In fact, I was one of the few people in the district allowed to enter the data on the national system.

Here’s the thing though: I’m a sub now, so technically, I shouldn’t have access to the national system, but I still know all the passwords and it’s a good thing I do.

There are only two people at the school now who know how to do the data entry. One is on Maternity Leave, and the other is in recovery from heart surgery (yeah – the guy I’m subbing for!) So that leaves them no one to enter scores and there’s a submission deadline for the scores to count.

So now I’m doing another thing substitute teachers are NEVER allowed to do – data entry on this test. Yep. I’m the only one. Do I seem like that makes me feel special?

Of course it does! 5 years ago

The Mesa Public Library has the absolutely BEST book sale!!!

This month, they have been clearing out some of their Children’s Collection. There is a huge rack of quality Children’s Lit on sale for a QUARTER per book!

I casually asked the kids in my 5 groups what kinds of books they like to read. There were all sorts of answers: sharks, dinosaurs, Junie B. Jones, Dr. Seuss, outer space, scary stories, etc.

With my list in hand, I spent a couple hours perusing the shelves of the public library’s sale rack. Not many exact matches, but at least I knew what they were into and what their reading levels were. I picked out about 40 books. That way, every group would get a good selection to choose from.

Over the past week and a half, we have been using their “REAL” books in Reading Intervention. Once they knew that they would get to take home their very own book and keep it forever, they began to take ownership of their reading skills, too! Just what I had in mind.

Today was the day they got to take their books home. I made a book label for each one with their name, announcing their excellent achievement in Reading Intervention. They were so proud of those books! A couple of teachers even came down to the Intervention Room to thank me. They had never seen these particular children so excited about reading.

Satifaction is a good reward. 5 years ago

We are not having intervention until Friday because of State Testing, so I am manning the “holding tank” for the kids who show up late to school and cannot enter their classrooms once each section of the test has started.

The holding tank happens to be in the computer lab and is fun for the kids, but kind of boring for me. There was nothing for me to do this morning, so I’m going to bring books & stuff from home the rest of the week.

Meanwhile, the actual computer teacher is gone to visit her new grandbaby, so I’m subbing for her in the afternoons. Teaching computer skills is pretty fun. Cushy job – I can still do my own stuff while the kids are working on their projects. 5 years ago

I did my regular long-term assignment in the morning for intervention, then went home and got called back in for Kindergarten in the afternoon.

The teacher said they all had Spring Fever and she was sorry, but they would be especially bratty this afternoon. They were angels. We had a great time reading stories, playing with Legos and singing songs.

Plus, I got a bunch of hugs at the end of the day. :) 5 years ago

My little kids have ALL improved in reading by 20 to 30 words per minute since I took over these groups—last week.

Wow! I really am meant to teach. They have been in their classrooms all year and stayed at the remedial level. They have been pulled out for intervention all year but haven’t made enough progress to move back into the mainstream.

The only thing different is me. I am astounded. Maybe I have more than the keys to the school! 5 years ago

After 25 assignments at 15 different schools, I finally had to send a couple of kids to the Dean’s office and file a report. I was studiously trying to avoid doing this. I believe most classroom problems can be handled in the classroom. There is rarely any need to involve the administration. But…

Student A was sitting across from Student B just before the bell rang to begin the 5th period of class. For some reason, B kicked out at A, prompting A to retaliate by punching B in the face, knocking B’s glasses off. It was a pretty solid punch.

I quickly intervened and sent Student A to a neutral corner while I asked Student B if a trip to the nurse’s office was needed. B had rolled up in a ball on the chair and would not respond, although clearly B was breathing and conscious. I then called the Dean’s office.

A monitor came and whisked A away, but not before I had a chance to ask a few questions. I learned that these two had had some brushes before. I told A I believed B had provoked the incident, but that violence is rarely the best option. A needs to learn some temper control.

Eventually the Dean arrived and with the help of an assistant and a wheelchair (because B refused to move or talk), removed B from the classroom. Physical assault carries a mandatory suspension at this particular school.

I later saw Student A in the Dean’s Office when I filed my report, and I mentioned again the need for temper control. A seemed remorseful, but it is hard to tell with 14 yearolds. I did not see B again before school ended for the day.

So I am no longer a Dean’s office virgin. It’s a shame. I was hoping to get through the current term without incident. :( 5 years ago

What Substitute Teacher – even a long-term one – spends their own time writing lesson plans?! Or is expected to take up that responsibility, for that matter.

Me.

Well, only because the faculty at this school know me so well. If I was “Mrs. Sub Off the Street” they wouldn’t think for a second that someone making $10/hour should take books and paperwork home and put together lesson plans.

This morning at “Chat & Chew” (long-standing tradition of potluck breakfast together on payday Fridays), so many teachers came over to welcome me back to the “everyday” staff. They seemed truly happy that I would be joining them for a while.

As I sat at my desk after my shift, sorting through the disheveled papers and books on the shelves around me, I felt so at home – a feeling I’d been missing for a long time before I quit working there a couple years ago.

“Welcome back,” the school itself said to me. :) 5 years ago

The interventionist I subbed for yesterday ended up having to have open heart surgery and won’t be back at work until May, so now I am long-term subbing for him.

This will be great. He (obviously) has not been feeling well all school year, so has been giving himself an easy time of it with the groups. The WHY is understandable, but his little students have not been making very much progress. After all, the point of Intervention is to make yourself increasingly unnecessary. (As is the point in all of teaching, really!)

So I get to step in and catch them up, maybe even get them to surpass their goals. Their last big Benchmark test of the year will be during my last week there, so I definitely have something to prove, which is that their opinion of my championship qualities are justified. 5 years ago

I don’t always post on intervention because it’s just a half-day and the little groups are always the same.

Today, the other interventionists were -complaining- commenting on how the one I was subbing for never sees much progress with his little groups because he just gives them silly stuff to do like stamping papers and counting colors. This is supposed to be READING intervention.

So I took a look at the lessons THEY would be teaching and taught along with them. He had left me some busy work for each group, but the kids actually learned about “magic e’s” and suffixes today.

Then, as always happens, before I left campus, another teacher found me and asked me to sub for her next. 5 years ago

I don’t see any other posts about it, so I guess today was the first time I’ve subbed in 1st grade, except for when I still worked for the school and I took over a class for an afternoon.

That experience was actually a big part of why I started subbing. That class was disruptive for their regular teacher, but they were great for me.

The first graders I had today were angels. They are just a great group of little kids. They took TURNS talking! They stayed on task. They left their classroom spotless.

I did have a few of them try to get out of the room to go to the nurse, but nothing was wrong with any of them, so I didn’t fall for it. One little girl even picked a scab off her arm so she would need a band-aid. Too bad for her, I brought a whole box of them with me. heh heh.

We did the whole gamut of 1st grade curriculum without a hitch. It was a great day. :) 5 years ago

Today I filled in half a day for a K-6 teacher who works in the “Resource Room” of an “Inclusive School.” It was all code to me, but I quickly found out the meaning. Her role is to assist other teachers with their slower students, some of whom have special needs (hence the “inclusive” aspect).

During period one, I assisted two second-graders in the computer lab. That was fun. During period two, I worked with a first-grader who has difficulty reading. We made a little progress. In the third period, I played “Alphabet Bingo” with a group of six “slow” kindergarteners. They were very competitive!

I must admit, it was a nice change from teaching middle school math and English. The elementary school teachers are much more friendly, and the time passed quickly. It’s nice to know I can do this at times, but I still prefer having one lesson to teach five times as opposed to a different lesson every period.

For the next two days I’ll be teaching 6th grade reading at a school I’ve taught at before. I think I’m actually starting to get the hang of this. :) 5 years ago

No. Not the front-of-the-airplane kind.

The I-had-the-same-bunch-of-kids-as-the-first-time-I-ever-subbed kind. And it was raining.

These kids and I truly like each other, but I never get them on a calm day. Or maybe they really are little monsters.

Anyway, we all survived. We played a math game, read a chapter of Bunnicula, and stayed inside for recess :( to play Heads Up Seven Up, which they cheat at.

At the end of the day, since it was a Friday, they were supposed to have Friday Fun Club, but they were too bratty, so I took all their minutes away and read them a book I brought from home instead.

It was the same book, Fortunately, that I had read to the other 3rd graders and it went over really well. I also taught them how to create origami flyers called AstroTubes, which they then proceeded to fly around the room at the end of the day.

Well, it’s not like they were going to sit quietly anyway. ;] 5 years ago

Yesterday I filled in half a day for a 7th grade math teacher. Her classes are held in a mobile unit – a new experience for me. She wasn’t ill. She just needed the morning off to take care of some personal matters, so she had the lesson plans very well organized, very easy to follow. It was the first time I felt like I was not “place holding” in the classroom. I mean, I’ve covered lesson plans before, but yesterday the students really learned something new, and it was practical, too. As much as I do not want to teach fulltime, I must admit that teaching … real teaching, when students are learning …is a rush. 5 years ago

Next week I’ve accepted two middle school assignments, one teaching English and one teaching Math. Those subjects are my specialties. But I need to give elementary school a try soon, too. There are many more assignments available. My objective is to teach 2 to 4 days a week next month. 5 years ago

I’ve been subbing for years, off and on, and now that my youngest is in school I’m doing it again.

I love subbing. 5 years ago

Tomorrow I’ve accepted an assignment to fill in for a middle school math teacher in the far northern part of the school district. Should be interesting. 5 years ago

I had a long, hard day. First of all, the portable classroom I was to teach in today was nearly a quarter mile from the office. Not that I mind the exercise, per se, but it’s a long way to walk to the bathroom.

Then I got to the classroom and found that the two most obnoxious boys in the 3rd grade were in that class. (heavy sigh). Usually, the kids teachers hate are right up my alley. I can almost always connect with them. I had a long, hard day. These two were unconnectable. They just wanted to laugh and talk and make farty sounds with their armpits all day.

The rest of the class was actually pretty good. They all got their work done and earned “Fab Friday” for the last few minutes of the day. Well, I couldn’t get rid of the two (yes, I’ll say it) brats at the end of the day, so I made freetime for the whole class into a structured, albeit fun, activity. Good thing I brought back-up from home!

Instead of them playing at various stations (including the computers) around the classroom, I had them all come sit by me on the floor and I read them a story called, “Fortunately.” It has an airplane trip of sorts in it. After the story, we shared examples of “Fortunately” and “UNfortunately” from our lives. The whole class really got into it and serendipitously forgot that it was taking up all their “Fab Friday” time. heh heh heh.

Anyway, I kept this up until the last 10 minutes. Then I had them make paper airplanes, like in the story, and told them they could even fly them around the classroom for a few minutes!

They were enthralled! It got quite noisy there for a little bit, but when it was time to pack up and clean up, everyone had at it and they were all out the door on time.

So, overall, it was a good day in 3rd grade, but it was a long, hard day, too. 5 years ago

I’ve written a little about my initial outing as a guest teacher on The Blog from Sin City. Suffice to say, I survived the ordeal. I learned a lot about the local educational system and a little about myself. The main thing is: I can do this. And I can probably do it well. I just need more experience and some specific tools to help with classroom management, so I’ve picked up several books from the library to read over the holidays. I’ve subscribed to Substitute Teachers United, where subs can exchange tips, ask questions, or just vent.

Next time out, I want to give elementary school a try. Eventually, I hope to identify a few schools I really like and see if I can concentrate on subbing there. 5 years ago

I’m going back to school myself now…so I won’t have as much free time available to continue substituting as much as I have.
It’s been so much fun I cannot believe I didn’t try this before. Goal completed!!! and I’m sure I’ll do this again. 5 years ago

Just came back from a Christmas party/potluck at the school. The teacher I subbed for two weeks invited me to come. She gets together with other classes and they have an international potluck every Christmas. WOW, it was sooo good.
They kids missed me…and I missed them. They had each written thank you letters for me. So cute!
At the end of my subbing we made tri-dimensional snowflakes, big ones and after they went home on Friday my husband hang them from the ceiling. :)
I’m gonna miss them. 5 years ago

Kindergarten. The day seemed a little longer today, though.
I don’t think I’ve really decided whether I want to do this on a regular basis yet.

I thoroughly enjoy seeing the friends I used to work with. I enjoy being with the kids, and especially love it when I actually get to TEACH them stuff. On the other hand, some days it just feels like work. Maybe it’s because of all the Christmas things I had to put aside to go in today, but I guess this was one of those days.

Plus, I left with a knot in my stomach. A friend who works there, who has been married for 34 years told me her husband moved out on Saturday. I am floored and brokenhearted by this. And another teacher who asked me in September to sub for her whenever her grandma died was gone today because it happened, and I was already scheduled for Kindergarten.

What can I do for them????? 5 years ago

I’m sticking my toe in the water, all the way up to my neck. I’ve accepted an assignment to teach middle school English on Friday, 12/21. It’s the last day of the school year. Now if memory serves me right, this is the kind of situation adolescents love. Let’s hope their regular teacher has a huge holiday homework assignment for me to give them. Ha! 5 years ago

I’ve been subbing this week for 2nd grade. The teacher had jury duty; just found out that she’ll be needed so I’ll get to sub for the next two weeks or so.
I’m having such a great time. These children are so cute, so lively…VERY lively, LOL. I just love it. Next week I get to go on a field trip with them, how fun!
Anyway, I’m so glad I got to do this. And it came at the perfect time; I needed extra spending money this Christmas. I’m so thankful! 5 years ago

Five-year-olds are so cute. They obey and want to please and love cleaning up.

The day went smoothly and I’m invited back for this same teacher in a few weeks. Every time I set foot in that school, someone offers me another day of work! 5 years ago

Oh my. This was an unexpected one. The school secretary called me at 6:30 this morning and woke me up. I told her I had only had about 4 1/2 hours of sleep, so she let me off the hook for the Preschoolers. Thank Goodness. I don’t really want to do preschool.

About 2 hours later, a 2nd grade teacher called and asked if I could come in and cover for her at 11:00 and for the rest of the day. I happily accepted.

The day went great! The kids thought I was the coolest teacher ever and I really got to teach them some core curriculum they would not even have learned if I hadn’t been there. Their science lesson was on weather, but (I suppose because it is 2nd grade) there was not one mention of the ATMOSPHERE in their book. I taught them what the atmosphere IS, what it DOES, and the difference between atmospheric phenomena (WEATHER) and geological phenomena (earthquakes, tidal waves, and volcanoes). They participated and got very excited about learning a 10-letter word! I gave them an exit quiz at the end of the day (just standing at the door as we got ready to leave) and they discussed with me all of the above in great detail. It was great!

The preschool teacher still wants me for tomorrow, but I need to paint the murals for the Christmas Tree Lot, so I’m off the hook again. Whew. 5 years ago

LOL…one more to add to my list of various fun jobs.
I’ve been doing this since the beginning of the school year and I LOVE IT!!
So far, I’ve been called to teach high school Health, Computers (!!), Office procedures, Careers/Keyboarding, Science. Then, they also called me once to teach 3rd grade!! and WOW, that was the best. I had a wonderful time! and I can’t wait to go back.
Hope they keep calling me. 5 years ago

I don’t even know why I was nervous about teaching the bigger kids, especially since about half the class remembered me from doing reading intervention in their 3rd grade classrooms and testing them at Benchmark times since they were in Kindergarten.

They walked in Thursday morning and several said, “Good morning Mrs. B… Are you our sub today?” My affirmative answer was followed by several -oh good!-s and a few -awesome-s.

Later in the day, they were supposed to be doing 2-digit division, but so many of them did not remember the processes that I actually taught the lesson over instead of just giving them the review sheet their teacher had left for them. I was so surprised and pleased that in the middle of this, the hardest part of their day, a child asked, “Can you substitute for us again?” After I told him I would be happy to, anytime their teacher needed to be gone, there came a mixed chorus of, “Good, ‘cuz you’re an awesome teacher!” and “Thank you for showing us these math tricks.”

Whoa!!!! What a blessing! Kids really do want to learn. The key is to find ways to teach that spark their interest and make learning important to THEM. I’m grateful that that is my talent. 5 years ago