Substitute Daily Schedule

What to do when you arrive at school

• Arrive at your assigned school at the time designated on your Absence Management confirmation page or in the automated Aesop phone call.

• Check the assignment for instructions to additional duties such as bus duty, outside recess and dress appropriately.

• Go directly to the main/school office area and sign in with the office staff.  

• You will be issued a visitor badge and you will be expected to wear this badge during your assignment.  

• Secure the key (s) to the teacher’s room and also check the teacher’s mailbox.  Take from it anything pertinent to your teaching day, but leave any personal or US mail.  

• You will receive a packet of materials to help you that day.  School procedures, rules, regulations, schedules, building maps and specific assignment should be included.

• Find out where your teaching day begins and go there.  Introduce yourself to department members or grade level teachers.

• If you have not received the teacher’s lesson plans through Absence Management or in the office and none are in the classroom, talk with the main office staff immediately.  Knowing that this occasionally happens, we encourage substitutes to carry a package of teaching information so they still might make a rewarding and productive day for themselves and students.  

• Obtain a laptop if needed by contacting the office or building technician.

• Obtain answers to other questions from a neighboring teacher or a member of the same department in secondary schools.  

In the Classroom

• Take attendance at the beginning of the day. 

• The information needed to carry on the regular classroom program should be available to you when you arrive at your teaching station.  If adequate lesson plans or specific teacher instructions are at your disposal, we ask that you follow those plans as closely as possible.

• Seek guidance from the principal in any unusual situation.

• Please familiarize yourself with seating charts, special schedules, a list of student helpers and their assignments, recess schedule, bell schedule, bus schedule, special seating for assemblies, fire and civil defense drill information and instructions to follow in case of an accident or student illness.  These are the many responsibilities that may be yours during one day of teaching. 

• A dignified, business-like, sensitive, warm and respectful attitude toward students usually merits the respect a teacher deserves.  

• Discipline:

  • Be calm and unemotional.  Be firm and fair. Explain the reasons for any penalty or punishment.

  • You may deny the student privileges for misbehaving but do not keep them in from recess or from other classes, or keep them after school.

  • Try to handle situations privately.

  • Do not use unusual forms of punishment and do not use physical discipline of any kind.  

  • Do not punish the group for the actions of one.

  • Stay on your feet as much as possible and within close proximity of the students.

  • Do not raise your voice.  

• If there are students who become major discipline problems and/or disrupt the teaching atmosphere to the extent that you cannot carry on your duties, know the procedure to use in contacting an administrator to have the student removed.  Never send a student from the room without first contacting an administrator by phone.

• In all other normal teaching situations, the substitute teacher is expected to handle the routine discipline situations and any other abnormal behavior which is exhibited by students.

• Under no circumstances should any personal laptop or computer be connected to the district network port.  No district computers should be used unless specifically required by the lesson plan. 

• We ask that you limit your personal cell phone usage to non-instructional times.

Lunch

• Each school has at least one refrigerator & microwave if you would like to bring your lunch.  If you prefer to eat in the cafeteria, you may purchase a lunch for $5.00. Substitutes working a full day will have a 30 minute duty free lunch.  

At the End of the Day

• At the end of the assignment, leave a report for the teacher or enter feedback into Absence Management, indicating the work you covered, any homework assigned, any discipline problems encountered, and notations regarding departure from lesson plans.  Please leave the classroom in an orderly fashion. Make sure all windows are closed and the room is locked.

• Any money collected in the classroom for any reason should be turned in to the main office in accordance with building procedures.  

• Check out with the office staff.  Keys must be returned to the office at the end of each day.  Return all packets/forms or materials you received at the beginning of your assignment to the school office at the end of your assignment.  

• If there are any incidents of offensive behavior, including sexual harassment, discrimination, cultural harassment or other incidents of this nature, you must report this to the building principal.  State Law requires that you report any incidents of suspected child abuse. Contact your building principal before doing so if you need assistance. 

School Emergency Procedures

Emergency procedures should be posted in or near each classroom.  Substitutes should review the procedures and use them as a guide in case of emergency.  Every substitute teacher will receive a link to a safety video during the on-boarding process.