Last updated on September 5th, 2023 at 04:00 pm
A snapshot of substitute teaching
If you’ve never had the privilege of watching eighteen Kindergarteners skipping, stumbling and pirouetting into the room while you’re on the phone with tech support and a mother and child are approaching you, maybe you can go skydiving attached to a beginner instructor named Eddie for a similar rush in adrenaline.
Finally a voice chimed on the other end of the line. “Hello, Saltwater County Schools tech support. What is your name?”
The mother/child pair had been standing in front of me now for at least ten seconds. I hung up the phone on presumably the only person who could help me implement the tech-involved lesson plans left for me and smiled at the parent.
“Hi….” I began.
The parent started a feeble attempt at wriggling her child off of her.
“This is Kate. It’s her first day here. We just moved from Philly,” she explained.
“Oh, okay, awesome!
…I’m just the substitute.”
The parent waved toward the door where other parents had been dropping off their children. “Oh, yeah, they told me.”
What is substitute teaching really like?
It’s hard, not going to lie.
Ever wonder why you grew up hearing exactly zero people sharing their career aspirations to be a substitute teacher?
Substitute teaching is like being cast in a high-stakes musical in which you are tasked with locating and learning the script and choreography while performing. And the audience gets to decide your fate, Colloseum-style.
Substitute teaching is like that recurring nightmare (or is it just me?) when you go back to high school to pass that one last class but have no clue what your schedule is or where to go.
Subbing is full of surprises, some of them catastrophic and some of them utterly sweet. Each school and grade level and class is different. I’ve had a wide scope of experiences. My day as a substitute can be influenced by factors like the lessons plans left behind by the teacher, the students and class itself, and the school. In addition the unknowns of each day, the lack of controllable elements makes the job difficult and one that few line up to do. But when I’ve had good days, those are days are really good. And that, along with the pure flexibility of this job, keeps me at it.
Since I opened this article with a more chaotic example of subbing, here’s a short report of a great– dare I say, relaxing– day of guest teaching:
I was covering a second-grade class at Wildfern Elementary for half a day. I came in around 11:30, and the teacher had the students gathered and seated on an expansive oval carpet. She explained that I could continue reading another chapter perched on the rocking chair while the students listened. She pointed out the location of the rest of the day’s lesson plans and hopped out the door.
“You’ll love them!” she whispered as the door creaked shut.
I sat on that wooden teacher throne with twenty pairs of eyes looking up at me, waiting quietly for their story.
They sat mesmerized as I flattened the page’s dog ear and started reading about a pig named Wilbur.
My system of note-taking for substitute teaching
Most weeks, like rolling a dice and landing in vastly different board game worlds, I experience a range of subbing outcomes. I like to take notes on schools and teachers to remind myself which classrooms I’d be willing to return to and which I won’t touch with a ten-foot pole. Here is an example of such record-keeping:
Sandy Shore Elementary– Ms. Winston
This was my first time at Sandy Shore. The teacher was there in the morning when I arrived and told it that I’d have a good day. And I did.
Cypress Banks Elementary– Ms. Timmons
This was my first time subbing for 5th grade. It was 3 classes rotating. I believe they were gifted. They were so well-behaved, leading me to surmise that 5th grade was a breeze! (Little did I know…) I was barely there for 2 minutes in the morning looking over plans before the patrols arrived. Ms. Timmons was on campus for a meeting and was so nice when she popped by the room. She offered me a water bottle from her mini fridge.
Ocean View Elementary– Ms. Stuztenberger
The next day, I plunged into 5th again, this time at Ocean View. It was not the same angelic experience. Her homeroom was very talkative and in general it took a lot of work to diffuse the bedlam. The two other classes who rotated in were sweet. We conducted table discussions on electricity and watched “Bill Nye the Science Guy.”
My overall assessment of being a part-time teacher nomad
So I’m here to state the obvious: Subbing is a uniquely challenging mixed bag, but it’s not the worst.
This gig is tough, but it’s also one of the most flexible positions you can dream up.
What if you could use a time of substitute teaching as a bridge? A connector between things in the past and a brighter future? A little insurance plan propping up a risky jump to a dream?
I’m keeping it real here, and I’m not trying to pretend substitute teaching is simple or happy or well recognized by society.
But for me, subbing is strategic and punctuated with small joys.
