Okay, I prefer the title part-time teacher nomad. Here I document my adventures, misfortunes and tips on substitute teaching while balancing motherhood and various other life undertakings. Take a look!
Though this blog is now mostly dedicated to chronicling my stories and advice from substitute teaching and motherhood, my roots reach all the way back to classroom teaching. If we pan back...
"Being a long-term substitute is a scam." -Reddit user. The job of a long-term substitute is never easy. These adventurous, and often naive, people can get gobsmacked with an avalanche of classroom...
Right before a teacher packs up his clsasroom for the summer, something glorious happens. (Or-- depending how it's celebrated-- a week of lackluster attempts at fanfare comes and goes.) However a school...
It's possible you've found your way here because you've decided to teach summer school this year. You've taken up a noble quest. You will join the ranks of myriads of other tough...
"Hi! Come on in!" I cheerfully intoned as I swung open the door amidst the sweltering summer heat to a squiggly line of bouncy almost-Kindergarteners. My summer school students were eager to...
When school's finally out for the summer, it's debateable who's more thrilled: the students or the teachers. Summer break in traditional schools can be seen as a restorative stretch of freedom, a...
While I'm a firm believer in giving students consequences for misbehavior, it's much more fun to reward the positive behaviors. Positive behavior can be reinforced in a number of ways as a...
Substitute teaching can be a daunting task, especially if you're new to the profession. I'm a substitute with a few years of full-time teaching and subbing experience under my belt, and I'm...
We all want better education for our kids. But there seems to be a major disconnect between the politicians that get to set the rules for schools, the educators having to enact...
My focus in the past few years has shifted. For so long I was a people-pleasing career builder, grasping to be the perfect teacher. (Can you tell I was a straight A-...
"I know..." she shook her head and mustered a pitying smile at me when I suggested substitute teaching as means for occasional extra income while raising little ones. "I just could not...
"Nice try-- I was born at night, but not last night," I explain coyly to a student trying to pull a fast one on me. How, you ask, are you a substitute...