Six Lessons Learned from Working as a Substitute Teacher

Post date: Aug 28, 2016 10:56:54 PM

Six Lessons Learned from Working as a Substitute Teacher: a blog post for August 28, 2016

After graduating with a teaching license, and a Master’s Degree from Iowa State, I was eager to begin my teaching career as a High School or College English teacher. However, there was a glut of Education graduates and every job opening got several hundred applications. So, I began my teaching career by working as an adjunct for several colleges and subbing for a few days a week. I learned six important lessons: Be prepared, be flexible, Be smarter than the students, Be calm, Be human, and Be humble.

I subbed a couple of days a week in two school districts: one rural and one in my hometown in Marshalltown. While I spent most of my time at the high school and two middle schools, I also spent half a dozen days in the country schools as well.

Be prepared

Subbing is a real challenge: you need to be prepared. Walking into a new classroom—and sometimes a new school--and not knowing if you will find complete lesson plans, with the textbooks and worksheets, a DVD to show with discussion questions or activity, or simply see a vague phrase on a calendar (math/chapter 2) led me to develop a series of short activities that I could pull out and do with little preparation. I had a “sub bag” packed with granola bars, paper and pencils, a couple of sample worksheets, a notebook with notes for each school’s daily schedule and contact information.

An experience from student teaching taught me the value of being prepared when I was given the last minute task of showing a movie to a group of students that I had not seen before. The students and I were grossed out by the movie, which turned out to be about the evils of chewing tobacco, and featured lots of graphic photos of people with mouth cancer. Later, one of the students said, that movie should have come with airsick bags! I learned that day to NEVER show a movie that you have not already viewed, and used to prepare a list of discussion questions or designed an activity to follow up on main points.

Be flexible

During my subbing career, I did it all: I subbed for classes in my subject areas, as well as math, art, gym class, and even a Russian class! (All I had to do for the Russian class was accompany my students to the High School’s Telecommunications classroom, where we used two-way audio/video TV to communicate with the Russian teacher, at another school). I found a whistle and had my tracksuit ready, should I have to sub for gym classes again. I learned to be flexible because you never knew where you would be needed the next day.

I subbed for elementary classes in the Country School and loved reading stories to the children, who would gather around me, and hold my hand while going out to recess. The school’s principal warned me that we didn’t take the little ones out on the playground on really windy days, however, because they might blow right over!

I also subbed at the middle school and high school level, where I knew a handful of teachers, and it was always fun to sub for them because I got to actually teach something or do an activity based on the previous day's instruction. Otherwise, I showed a lot of movies, and these were on the old fashioned reel to reel movie projectors. I once had a student whisper to me, “Miss Post – turn the projector around. You’re pointing at the back of the classroom!”

So, each morning, if the phone rang by 6:30, I could expect to hear the voice of a secretary or principal, asking if I were available and letting me know where I was needed. “Cherie—can you handle the 8th-grade math class today? Or, we also need someone in the art room.“

Be smarter than the students

I learned early on not to write my full name on the chalkboard: I once had a group of middle school boys break into song with the Four Seasons’ classic, “Cherie—Cherie Baby! Won’t you come out tonight?” I had been to this same class several times over the course of the preceding week: there was a bad outbreak of flu, as I recall. I remember thinking that their parents must really like the Golden Oldies radio station.

Be calm

I also learned that it was important to stay calm and professional. As a sub, I had to be ready for fire drills, sick kids, bullies, arguments between students, and other crises, small and big alike. Staying calm was essential.

My son was apprehensive the day that I was going to be at his middle school, and in one of his classrooms, and as we drove to school together, said, “Mom—don’t be the cool sub today!” Another day, I subbed at the high school in the cafeteria for a study hall; my daughter ignored me at first, and then came up and asked for money for a snack.

Be human

I learned a lesson about diversity and empathy when I subbed at the Sac and Fox Meskwaki Reservation settlement school near Tama, Iowa. I was one of a handful of white people in the school, and as I entered the cafeteria the first day, I felt a hundred plus sets of eyes on me. I realized that I was “the other,” the minority. Students showed their respect by looking down, not making eye contact. Fortunately, I had already worked with some Meskwaki adults in my classes at the college and understood their traditions.

Meskwaki children got one hour of lessons in their culture, language, and history each day: for that hour, I would go to a lounge and read or prepare for the rest of the day. I subbed a handful of times, was treated with courtesy and found the experience both challenging and humbling. In spite of cultural differences, it reminded me of all we share as humans.

Be humble

Finally, I learned it was better to admit that you didn’t know it all, especially in Math class. I also learned that there was no real job security: when they needed you, you could work almost every day. Getting to know a variety of school administrators and working so many positions made me feel that I was gaining traction in my job search; however, I had more than one principal tell me very sincerely that they appreciated me as a sub, but I would not get hired at their school, because then they would have to find another good sub!

Even after I got a full-time teaching job at Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, and moved to Cedar Falls, I would sometimes get an early morning phone call asking if I could sub that day back in Marshalltown or Green Mountain. I would politely say that my subbing days were over and try to think of someone else they could call. However, I am convinced that I am a better teacher for having served as a sub!

Last updated August 28, 2016