What Substitutes Need On The Job

Today, as a substitute teacher, not an "intervention specialist," I had a wonderful day. The classes went well, I only had to write up two kids in five periods, and time passed quickly. What made this especially surprising and welcome was the fact that almost without exception the students were all ninth graders. Ninth graders are extremely immature and are most likely to misbehave.

What made the day a great one was primarily the organization and preparation of the teacher I subbed for. Not only had he left clear instructions, but there were a series of pages, one per class, that had small photos and names of the students. The students take advantage of the fact that a substitute does not know their identity. If the substitute doesn't know the name of any given student, he or she has a much more difficulty time holding any student accountable for bad behavior.

Without identification, a sub cannot leave a note for the regular teacher about who has misbehaved -- or, for that matter, about who did really well and contributed to the class. Without identification, a sub's reprimands, instructions and orders are less likely to stick. Without identification for a write-up slip, a student cannot be written up unless the sub returns the following day, speaks with the regular teacher, and identifies the misbehaving student. The name has to be on the write-up slip along with the student's grade level (ninth grade, tenth grade, etc.), the date, the time of the student's misbehavior and the substitute's signature.

Because of the picture sheets the teacher had left for me, I was able to call several students by name when they were beginning to get out of hand -- chasing each other, taking each other's belongings, etc -- and make them return to their regular seats.

To be most effective, a substitute needs, among other things, a way of identifying each student (rarely supplied), write-up slips, and work to be passed out to the students that must be completed during the class period and turned back in to the substitute BY THE END OF THE PERIOD. The amount of work must be sufficient to occupy the students for most of the period. You would be surprised to know that most teachers leave so little classwork that students can complete it in 10 to 15 minutes. The students normally don't even start their classwork until the last fifteen minutes of the period. They spend most of the class time talking, texting on their phones, and misbehaving.

The idea that a substitute teacher might actually teach doesn't match the actualities of the situation. If a substitute tries to teach, the students normally won't listen. There may be a small group of students who are serious enough to want to learn something, but these are far and few between. In fact, a substitute teacher is more a babysitter than a teacher.

It isn't possible to make student do classwork. A substutute teacher cannot force any student to do anything other than, perhaps, to sit down or stop hitting his or her peers. All the substitute can do is to urge students to do their classwork, write them up if they misbehave, or send them to the Vice-Principal's office.

When a student is written up, what normally happens is that the substitute phones the main office to send someone from Security to the classroom. The Security representative then takes the student and the substitute's write-up slip to a Vice-Principal, and leaves the student and the slip there. If too many students are sitting outside the Vice-Principal's office, they are sometimes told to return to their classroom. Otherwise, the Vice-Principal has a chat with them and decises what, if any, disciplinary action needs to be taken. Sometimes this is just a talking to, sometimes a suspension.

I started this blog entry by saying that today I had a relatively good day. What made it better than usual was the simple fact that their regular teacher had left a way for me to identify the students, and thus they knew that they were accountable for their actions.