Substitute Teachers

You could not pay me enough money to become a substitute teacher. They have the a terrible job. The pay is lousy, the kids give them no respect and they often have little to actually do during the day - they act as babysitters in most cases.

That being said, they also cheese me off something fierce. I took the day off yesterday and, as usual, crafted specific plans for my students. It is generally accepted in the teaching profession that a day off is more work than a day at work. You have to provide students with work that is curricularly appropriate, provides individual accountability for student progress and keeps them busy for the entire period. This way, even your being absent does not significantly impact student progress. Also, students with a free period are students who lose all self control, and that is a heinous crime to commit against an innocent substitute.

So, I spent time putting together quality plans and duly faxed them to the school yesterday morning. Now, my plans did not require much effort on the part of the substitute and did provide students with sufficient responsibility to fill the period.

Imagine my annoyance when I returned this morning to find that my plans had not been delivered, as written, to the students. Now, at first thought, this would not seem much of a problem...after all, it was just substitute work. Well, teachers actually rely on subs to deliver the lessons as planned and use this confidence to reschedule the remainder of the week's lessons. I arrived today to find that students had not done the reading that I had assigned and were therefore incapable of engaging in the activity that I had planned that used the reading. Then, the substitute decided to continue with a movie I was showing 2 classes. I had planned on continuing the movie today and found myself scrambling to pull together the curriculum I had crafted for the post-film classperiod. Basically, my day was one large balll of stress.

Sometimes the situation is even more aggravating. I have come back from sick days to find my desk rearranged, my various piles of papers "reorganized," soda bottles and snack food wrappers littering the lab area... I generally can't find one thing in its correct location and have to take a prep period to recreate my usual level of structured chaos.

More gripes:
Substitutes sometimes have god complexes and and are utterly dismayed when teenagers do not listen to their every word with reverence. This leads to power struggles betweeen sub and students and that never ends well...

They don't know individual kids (which is to be expected), but try to implicate specific students in the notes that they leave you about the day's events. They are inevitably wrong, but I have to at least follow up on their reports and may wind up embarrassing the falsely-named kid.

Substitutes can be far too wishy-washy and let the kids run wild. This produces building-wide impacts with which I have to deal the next day.
End Gripes

Of course, there are no perfect substitute teachers, just as there are no perfect full-time teachers. And, ultimately, the price is small to pay for the knowledge that your classes are at least being monitored while you are gone. But, just once I would like to return to a classroom that appears as it normally does and students who are actually prepared for the new day's lessons.

Hey, a gal can dream, can't she?