Last updated on February 24th, 2024 at 09:10 pm
I’ve witnessed those hopeful bright eyes in new substitutes– for but a fleeting moment.
Freshly trained, fingerprinted and badged up, the school district releases you to start your good work. You’re going to help children and teachers and the education system in general by filling in some crucial gaps. You arrive to your first assignment, and…
You realize that misbehaviors can quickly overpower a classroom environment.
They can derail the day. They have the ability to jeopardize not only the students’ learning but their safety as well. Plus, you leave feeling defeated. Nothing can quite knock the air out your subbin’ sails like unfettered student misbehavior.
It gets many of us wondering: Can substitute teaching really be a sustainable job through all this?
How to manage behavior as a substitute
STEDI.org, a substitute training organization, reported that the foremost request from subs at their trainings is how to succeed at managing difficult classroom behaviors.
It seems to be the most pressing topic on our minds.
While classroom teachers have the advantage of time on their side– weeks and months dedicated to the long-term cultivation of relationships and rapport– substitutes don’t have this important edge.
As strangers in the classroom, we have a different set of tactics to draw from.
Though the jobs are different, I still find myself inspired by the strategies I learned as a classroom teacher of five years. I understand the nuanced challenges and joys of both regular teaching and filling in.
This guide is my heartfelt assemblage of tips and tricks I’ve learned through almost a combined decade of serving in both roles. Let’s jump in!
Layers of behavior management tools
Each day, each classroom, each situation may be wildly different from the other, so I ready myself with a variety of strategies for handling student behavior.
My years of study and experience with this has lead me to create a system for behavior. As you can see in my chart below, there are several methods I deploy as the first layer. Sometimes that is all that’s needed. I’ve subbed in plenty of rooms simply hanging out at base level.
One could pick and choose the base layer tactics used, or utilize them all at once. Incorporating these gets better with practice. I find these basic methods really carry the team. They set the tone. They prepare you and the students for success. They’re positive and professional. So let’s get better acquainted:
Classroom behavior strategy basics
Modeling and practicing: There are a few key classroom actions that I like to clearly model to the students. I explain in simple terms what I expect, then I act it out. After that, it’s the students’ turn to practice. I find it effective to run through practice rounds until mastery, and then go ham on the celebration when the class achieves that (think enthusiastic cheering). For a more detailed description of how I model certain procedures, take a look at my article on How to Quiet a Class.
Communicating clear expectations: I make my rules clear and simple. Try whittling expectations to a few basics. A basic rule can be broad enough to encompass several scenarios. The rule “Be safe” for example involves not leaning back precariously in one’s chair and not running around with scissors (or in the classroom at all). Millions of other iterations can be stuffed into this blanket safety rule. My go-to decrees tend to revolve around safety and respect.
Follow through: After expectations have been communicated, the next step is to actually keep students accountable. Unless there’s a strange extenuating circumstance, I follow through. This tells students I am fair and to be trusted as the adult in the room.
Learning student names: This is one of my first orders of business in each new class. Secondary subs get a pass on this, because 100+ names to memorize in one day is not realistic. But if I only have one or two classes, I’m learning those kids’ names. It moves mountains for establishing respect and as a way to hold students accountable.
Verbal praise: I use meaningful praise and thanking as a way to let students know I appreciate their behavior. Praise can get out of hand or can be used manipulatively. I prefer not to coo over a student doing the “right thing” in order to make the Johnny sitting next to him feel terrible about not doing the right thing. (I’ll just plainly and respectfully remind Johnny of what he should be doing.) Meaningful praise, given when it’s truly earned, can be effective.
Courtesy: This seems like a no-brainer, but courtesy and pleasantness can take you far. It really helps get you and a class on the right foot. I know as a sub that we get thrown things randomly and some situations we find ourselves in are crazy and unfair, but try your best to compartmentalize whatever chaos has befallen you and tuck it away for a moment when you’re with the kids. There’s no reason they should have to be miserable passengers on your bad-day bus. Being polite, cheerful, friendly and even funny can increase your likeability and, usually, the students’ compliance.
Proximity: Oftentimes I don’t even need to use my words. I just walk up near a student and he can tell I’m watching. She’ll straighten out fast if I come her way. This is why I try to circulate the room often during student work times and especially if they’re using technology.
Watchfulness: This is a skill I’m always working to improve. We can’t perfectly observe each and every student, but we can make a point to watch the group as best we can. A lot of confusion and drama erupts from situations you don’t see. Cut down on the “he said, she said” by being the one who witnessed the entire thing. Watchfulness also helps you keep students responsible for their behavior and increases your fairness because you are keeping everyone accountable. A tip for increasing your alertness: Stay off your cell phone.
Extrinsic motivators for the whole group
For a good 70% of the classes I cover, the baseline behavior strategies work well and achieve my goal of facilitating a safe and generally orderly day.
The rest of the time, I need to diversify my strategy a bit. I’ll start to add in extrinsic motivators for the whole group. My teaching philosophy of yesteryear was pretty much based on developing intrinsic motivation in my students– but subbing is different. Sometimes I need something that packs a bit more of a punch, so to speak, as a stranger in a strange classroom.
If I need something with an extra heft to it, I like to motivate a whole class with earning games. I’ve written about a simple technique in which the class can work toward extra recess or games by earning it in increments. All that’s needed is a display board, like a white board or projector screen, and a way to write.
I’ve also listed my favorite whole-class games, some of which can be ran totally off-the-cuff, and some that require a little preparation. These games are not only motivating and positive behavior reinforcing, but free. And you might just become their favorite sub for it.
Extrinsic motivators for individual students
You could deploy all of these tactics and still need some more intervention for certain students.
Extrinsic rewards for individuals is the last layer, and the last model I try only after the first two levels, because it requires the most effort and is not always necessary. (If I can get away with using only my baseline strategies or those in addition to the whole group motivators, I will.)
You may decide to continue whichever token economy system the teacher had in place and use that for students that seem to need it. If Chloe seems to be only motivated by Banana Bucks, and she is being majorly disruptive or unsafe, then, by golly, I’d probably go with dispersing those Banana Bucks. Test the system and see if works for you and students.
If the teacher doesn’t have a class token economy system in place, you can create your own. There are dozens of possibilities for low-cost or free rewards one can use to motivate individuals. From positive notes to stickers to candy, it’s up to you. Have these items ready in your sub bag to use when necessary.
In this same category, I’ll note that sometimes a situation warrants individual consequences to be given. I’ve written a detailed post about what consequences I give out if necessary. Again, I’d recommend studying the system in place in the classroom and implementing it if it works for you.
How to get students to respect you as a substitute
I struggle with this, and will probably continue to in my subbing journey.
Even as a teacher with experience and a degree in education, I can’t totally avoid disrespect from students. From the conversations I’ve had with other subs, it seems like a universal problem. A major one, at that.
I can’t guarantee any one program or tactic to garner the complete respect of students, but I can make recommendations that increase your odds.
I try to master the base level behavior strategies from my graphic. I hone skills like my watchfulness, follow-through and communication of clear expectations. The less confusion and disorder there is from my end, the less likely I’ll get frazzled and do something against my better judgment.
Though it’s not always a perfectly balanced equation, I give respect to get respect. Each class opens with a courteous but formal introduction of myself to set the tone. I try my best to learn the students’ names. I try to be fair and not dole out consequences randomly or with rage or for the whole group if it’s really meant for individuals.
All that said, you could do everything “right” and still get nastiness in return. Thus, it’s an imperfect equation. All you can do is control your own actions.
A behavior management example while substitute teaching in Kindergarten
I’ll include an example from when I covered a Kindergarten class. The misbehavior wasn’t extreme, but I could see it potentially blowing up into a bigger problem. Here’s how I handled an individual who just seemed to need extra attention and help:
After PE, I brought the students back to the room and handed out a cut and paste assignment the teacher had left. These worksheets translate into substitute gold, because the arduous task of cutting and gluing for the little folk tends to eat up a profuse amount of time. (It also encourages the students to hone their fine motor skills.)
Some handled the work with greater dexterity than others. One girl had surrounded herself in a blowup of paper scraps, as if she was attempting to create a scene from “Frozen” out of tiny flakes of snow. Perhaps she was.
And then I glanced across the room– and like I was witnessing a crime scene at just the wrong moment, I spied a student brutally stabbing an open glue stick with his safety scissors. The congealed mass of what was once Elmer’s did not stand a chance.
I knelt down beside him, carefully extricating said (former) glue stick from his goopy fingers. His assignment lay abandoned on the desk, dismembered into five or six pieces. He did not seem to give a flying school bus about it.
I asked him why he did that to his paper.
Turner* whisked his chair out from under him and stomped a few feet away. An explosion seemed imminent.
“Okay–” I lifted myself from my crouched position by the desks to the other side of the room in search of a tape dispenser, trying to remain calm. “Can you help me put this back together?” I coaxed.
Turner glared.
I held up the tape dispenser and rattled it around persuasively, as if to signal that Scotch tape was indeed a hip and cool and fun life-changing revelation.
“Come on, Turner. I’ll get the tape and YOU get to decide where it goes!” I said cheerfully.
He huffed back to his little chair (they always have the little chairs in Kindergarten), and I dutifully tore segments of Scotch tape for him while he pieced his assignment back together.
I wanted to give Turner some positive attention without doing the work for him. I wanted him to feel a responsibility (even a certain pride) for fixing his work, even if he was the one who destroyed it in the first place.
Turner had calmed down. I thanked him– it was sincere– for his hard work and for making it better. I then helped him start the assignment, or what he could still write around tiny pieces of adhesive plastic. He wasn’t perfectly angelic for the rest of the day, but the crisis had been averted.
*Not his real name
Real classroom management advice for subs
I’m not going to tell you the solutions are always simple. Nor am I going to shrug off behavior concerns with simplistic platitudes like “It’s all about relationships” or “Just be more engaging!”
Some days, behavior management just looks like crisis avoidance.
But I hope most of your subbing days are filled with a sense of calm. Not that the waters will be perfect, but that they’d be swimmable. Enough to try various methods and hone existing abilities.
I hope these behavior management strategies work for you and your students, to get the important basics in order so that more learning and more connection can happen. I’m rooting for you, sub!
