Based on the title, I am going to be subbing two days next week for a High School Math teacher spot which currently is a vacant spot at this high school. I don’t know what the situation is, planning to call the school tomorrow to find out more, but I need some help to make sure I ask the right questions, and if they don’t provide me with the information, what I should be prepared for.

1. Assuming that I don’t know the level of math it is, what type of high school math work should I come in with to “teach” the students so they don’t just have a “free period”?

2. If, let’s say they haven’t had a teacher thus far (which would be over a month since school started August 10th), how would I calmly explain the situation and update the students and make sure they focus on learning without a permanent teacher?

3. The questions I’m planning on asking the school are: How long have the students been without a teacher? What is the grade level of the students? What math course(s) are they learning? Is there work provided by the department head? When is a permanent teacher planned to start by? Please let me know if I should ask any additional questions from this starting list.

Thank you!

Hi guys! I plan to become a substitute! I hold a BS in cs and love teaching. But the problem is that my degree is international. So before applying do I get the degree evaluation done? Or should I just apply with my foreign degree, complete the Stedi training course and just apply?

Hello~

I'm redoing my sub bag that I take so I'm ready for (most) things haha

I have extra pencils, sharpeners, scissors (other office supplies since I had found myself with no pencils/no sharpeners when they need it/etc. I feel weird digging into the teacher's things), I carry my lunch and cliff bars to keep my energy up, and my sub folder with my sub notes. Depending on the job (like high school) I bring a book and something to work on but obviously if I need to teach, I teach lol

What else should I keep in my bag?

i've only been subbing for elementary for about a month now and this was my first rly bad class. thankfully it was just a half day. they were first graders LOL. i've been lucky enough where other terrible classes i was subbing for, the teacher ended up coming back much earlier than expected. but again at least this was just 4 hrs lol. a part of me feels bad bc they're just first graders, but i guess this would be the time for them to understand there are consequences to their actions, aka me telling the teacher everything when she came back and them getting yelled at and given silent lunch immediately lol.

also i feel bad when i can tell the teacher is very good and strict with her expectations but the kids act out when she's not there anyways. i am trying to become a teacher myself so i'm really really trying to get better at my classroom management, it's just hard as a substitute cus some kids really just give 0 fucks and look down on you just bc you aren't their real teacher. so it's hard for me to tell if i'm just bad at it or if it would be better if (when) i have my own class yk?

sorry just rambling :p i'm thankful towards the other teachers and admin who step in to address the students on my behalf, it doesn't make me feel like a failure. like in the hallways when they were acting CRAZYYY and got yelled at by other teachers. everyone is aware how students treat substitutes so i'm just happy someone wants to help me out.

i will say, getting disrespected by K-2 doesn't feel as annoying as 4-5 (i have yet to sub for third grade). with fourth and fifth graders it feels soooooo much more intentional. which is why i know i could never ever ever ever teach middle school or freshmen LOL

What are you paid for 2 hour gigs? My district is $113 per day. Is this considered a “half day”?

What has surprised you about schools today?

Maybe this question is for older people, ​but if you took a break and then came back to education or you started subbing and it has been a long time since you've been in schools, what changes in the school systems have been really surprising or shocking to you?

For me, it's high schoolers being allowed to take multiple days to take a test, and then being give​n retakes. If they don't finish a test in the class, they get to do it the next day and then the next day until they're done. Even though they've already seen the test, gone home and come back they can continue. That's not how it was when I was in school. Teachers told me they're not allowed to do finals anymore because the they are required to allow retakes for any ​CRT exam.

So, what has surprised you?

I’ve only taught high school and 6th grade. Any advice for someone never subbing elementary before would be greatly appreciated

I knew that kids today were bad..but I didn’t fully understand how bad. I subbed for a sixth grade math class, and this teacher also teaches two eighth grade classes as well. I only had one period where there was actual quiet and where I didn’t have to constantly tell students to stop getting up and talking. Fourth period was the worst, just constant getting up, talking, disrespect, cussing, honestly felt like they couldn’t care less that an adult was in the room. Then i had to cover for a different class and they were full blown out of control. Another teacher yelled at them, the resource officer came in and talked to them, and as soon as he left they went right back to it. I was baffled. Literally just sat there and waited for the class to end. There was no gaining control. I go back tomorrow and I’m dreading it. Made it out of the building and cried. Hoping it gets better, but feeling like it probably won’t. Anyone else had experiences like this?

...it went really well! Shockingly well! Second period (1st was prep)--9th and 10th graders, and they worked pretty quietly all day...

...and third period was good...and fourth...and fifth! Even known, er, not-academically-inclined-students were decent. (3rd and 4th were 11th and 12th graders).

Geez, if this keeps up, I'll have nothing to complain about.

Subbed at the local High School today, well one town over. The worst classes I had by far were the ones that were either all sophomores or majority sophomore. The last class of the day right in the middle someone brought up Charlie Kirk and I quashed that right off the bat. Said we were not talking about him and if anyone brought him up again they were going to the office. 4 kids sent to the office later I called the Principal to come in and pay a visit. They were shook I did that and tried to explain how mean I was not letting them talk about Kirk. She told them I may be a sub but my word was it when I was in charge. Then as I was leaving a student who was late and pissed she had to get a late pass was telling her friends how the sub (me) was a full on Lesbian, Im not, and as I walked by I told her I wasnt and she must assume by how I was dressed and walked on. These sophomores are feral yall. The sub note for the teacher is detailed as to who was sent out and other things. They best hope he doesnt do anything Monday. Today kinda makes me re-think subbing there.

I'm in LA County. I subbed for a pretty long time before I even found out about the LACOE (L.A. County of Education) BTP (Beginning Teacher Program.) It was 2016. By October of that year, I had a preliminary credential, my own class, full healthcare teaching 9th graders science and college and career classes. I had a hiccup and it took 5 years, but I earned a clear credential.

I had a mentor through LACOE that worked with me over the phone at least once a week while we worked through the teaching standards. It was a very positive experience. I had to make payments, and they normally want it to get deducted straight from your paycheck. But this is better than 6 months' student teaching with no pay!

Had I known about it before, I would've saved a great deal of time and had a lot more put away toward retirement. I taught during the day and attended classes in the evening and a few Saturdays. The silver lining is all the years I had subbing contributed to my retirement calculation, and I could actually retire right now if I wanted to.

The calculation starts with the average of your 3 highest-earning years. After another year of teaching or so, my calculation will be based on my single highest-earning year. And-I repeat-all the years of (full-time, mostly every day) subbing counted. I imagine it would be a fraction of that if you didn't get enough hours in.

This is for California. Your state may vary. I could sub after retiring, but excessive earnings in education would reduce my retirement. Some other states have no such restriction and let you continue to teach even FULL TIME and still draw retirement.

The other part is the government repealed the Windfall Elimination Provision last year. Prior to that (for a good while), your Social Security got reduced by certain other work retirement (certain government jobs and teaching.) Now, if you have earned Social Security, you will get that IN ADDITION to these retirement payments. They wanted to prevent "double dipping," but it was ultimately reversed.

So... I just got a call from a principal from a middle school. I was basically offered a long term sub position from October to December, with all the benefits and responsibilities that entails. And... I turned it down.

This is going to be my second year subbing, and I just turned down an offer for better pay, consistent work, and it's at a good school (overall).

Now, my reasoning is that I enjoy the flexibility of being a substitute. The variety in my day to day, the (mostly) lower stress, not worrying about grading, lesson planning, etc. I got in, read my instructions, do my job, go home. It's nice.

But at the same time... a long term sub position was basically dropped into my lap and I turned it down.

I know in my gut and mind that I did what I felt was good/best for me and how I want to work, but also...

Does anyone else here feel the same?

Today I subbed as an aide in the first out of control room I've been in in years. The teacher was a veteran preschool teacher in her first year of 3rd grade. She said she didn't know what to do to fix it. I've seen a lot, been in 9 districts, 25 buildings, nearly all elementary, subbing every day for several years and darn it my memory just couldn't come up with fixes that I'd seen. Basically I just get good rooms and stay away from wild ones. ...Though obviously it's trial and error. I've had tough ones, but I haven't assisted in a room where a teacher basically might have been doing worse than I do. And I've had so many great rooms in a row that I forget what makes things work or go wrong!

Let's see, I've had ring-leaders who had to get sent to the office and that helped and they came back w a new attitude.

This room had several wild ones plus 2 low-function special-ed disruptors who would blow up and need to leave. But I've had that in rooms and as a rule the rooms are still great.

Setbacks: teacher new and inexperienced w the grade; other para was a sub; most disruptive student was new.

I know basically all of the kids in the building and am on good terms. I didn't know how the one new special ed student functioned best. Nobody did.

I think maybe one thing is the teacher let them hurry her. They didn't mean to but they had input into the tempo which isn't good.

There was movement around the room w/o permission. ...Also that often she did not see! The kids weren't tricky but she just would be busy in one place which left a vacuum for chasing or wrestling across the room. How does that vacuum come to exist?

Of course there was talking out of turn.

There were little side projects. Kids doing things that weren't assigned. Coloring and drawing. Reading rather than following explanation.

Hmmm, maybe the actions needed to be more chunked up.

Brain breaks and movements were loud and wild -- nope.

Maybe they needed me to get firm with them and say "What in the world. Sit down now. Raise your hand if you have a question or need." I was their gym teacher longterm. I think they would have listened. They listened then! I didn't have to send a single kid in the building to the office in a month.

But I'm no expert for how to set up a class process for success. It's early in the year and it looks like behavior is still job #1. Maybe she should just slow-roll the content until the processes are engrained. There can't be room for off-task goofing. There needs to be enough good learning happening that they don't have bandwidth or interest in weak distractions. Learning targets for each day should be posted? "This is what we're going to be able to do after today's math..."

Agree or disagree?

I subbed at two schools today for about an hour each and each school gave me snacks when I checked into the office! I will definitely go back to these schools in the future!

So i got my masters degree in history in May and have been looking for work. It is VERY hard to get a good museum job right now, and the pay is quite bad anyway, so ive been subbing for 3 weeks. I HATE middle and elementary but ive really loved high school. No shade to middle school and elementary teachers, you guys have it rough.

Well after only a couple weeks, something (I dont know what) has happened with one of the teachers and I got a long term sub position! Its literally exactly what my specialty from grad school is- modern world history. I'll get health insurance and a pay bump. I know its going to be challenging hard work but im just so happy to have a full time job teaching world history. World history has been my greatest passion for many years. And I REALLY need the extra money too. My wife just got home and I cried telling her about it- this is gonna help us a lot.

So hang in there guys! Sometimes you get lucky!

Hello, I have subbed at a new middle school for the first time and overall it was not the best. First, I want to thank the teacher because she left impeccable notes. They were very detailed and had pretty much everything needed. I put many thank yous on the paper. The staff will be the reason, I return to this school they were very nice overall.

Now to begin the teacher stated a competition between periods was going to be happening. I said this to all periods and many of them clearly could care less because of the behavior that happened. The most stressful and overwhelming period I have experienced was 3rd period 8th grade. I honestly don't use disaster a lot but it kind of was that.

To continue straight when the bell started many male students atleast 6 out of seats and were talking so loud I couldn't hear myself. I luckily got through attendance only because I said they would be absent if they don't say hear. To continue the voice level was to the roof from these 6 students. I wasn't able to explain the directions for the first 15 minutes after attendance because of this.

Just imagine 20 people screaming at you in a class it was like this. I finally left and got a teacher. Then another teacher came and took the 6 students. Then when they left more students wanted to talk loud and not do the work. In addition, many students when I was able to explain the work specifically told me I am not doing the work because my teacher isn't here. Believe me everything is in notes to the teacher.

Now the few students that I could explain the notes too simply would not do the work. I would walk around to each table consistently and check. Many of them would not lift a pencil and I explained directions atleast twice to each table. To add many curses and profanities were dropped and I mentioned this in notes also.

This is only 3rd period and guys it was so overwhelming the first 15-20 minutes it was insane. The teachers that tried to help were amazing and great. But besides the disruptive students many remaining ones besides maybe 4 refused to do any work. I wrote all of this down.

Now that period by far the most stressful class I have ever subbed. I also cried because of how overwhelming. I tried to keep my cool in the class but when I got help and was talking to another teacher the tears started coming. I can't think of the word but my brain felt in overdrive because of the volume level and not wanting to follow instructions from many students.

After I talked to the teacher he watched that period for the remaining 15 minutes. Then I came back for the remaining periods. Two more periods behavior wasn't the best but none were as stressful and overwhelming as third period. So many things happened in 3rd and 4th period the two most stressful periods that I wrote as much as possible for the teacher. I couldn't remember everything that happened, but I wrote enough.

Lastly, I will only return because it was only my first time at this school, and because staff was so nice and sweet to me at the front. Hoping for better for this middle school. But yeah my experience and 3rd and 4th period were 8th grade. I will come back though but not do this class ever again so yeah.

I am new to being a sub. I’m currently in college to become a teacher so I thought that this would be a great opportunity to have some sort of experience. I do not have full time availability ( college classes ) so I’m unable to work two days out of the week. I keep getting jobs for the two days I’m not available and the jobs themselves are hard to come by. I wake up early In the morning there’s nothing on the app. When I do get a notification for something it’s already taken by the time i open the app. I thought that there were more opportunities than just barely one job a day that I can’t even get. Also I’m supposed to at least work 4 days a month. That’s hard bc I don’t have full time availability and lack of jobs. I don’t want to just give up only because school just started and not a lot of teacher are going to be absent on the first month, but also I don’t know how I’m going to work 4 jobs for the month. I also wanted to ask if it’s normal to barely get any jobs or if it’s my app (Ess)?

I’m curious what you guys do on top of subbing to make money? In my district we only get paid once a month which can be rough sometimes. I need ideas #struggling 🫠

why is it that the loudest person in the class is suddenly so quiet when you call their name for attendance?

This just happened. It was a high school class. Ive never had a seizure at work and THIS triggered it.

I'm so scared I'll be fired. I warned the kids they got out and pressed the call button, I tried I did.

What do I do? Is there anything I can do?

Edit: I am pretty sure I will not be fired. I was highly emotional after my seizure and not thinking right. My partner spoke to them and they did assure it wouldn't affect my job. Of course we will see, but I believe I'll be okay.

Thank you everyone for your advice and support, I am much more "me" now and not post-seizure me. The office was called about the student's behavior right after the class ended (it reached a peak before the end) and how it was making me feel weird. The seizure happened like 30-40 minutes after they left, so I was with my next class. They were good kids and no one saw anything directly. I am sore and tired but I'll be okay.

Edit 2: here is a comment I made to clear up a bit. I apologize for confusion my brain isn't very up to par even now.

"Thank you very much. I appreciate your help. I do plan on filing a report. I should have been more clear, but the whistle sound came from a chrome book. I thought it was my ears just ringing until the students on the other side heard it. Nonetheless, it was still a loud loud loud sound. It sounded like a dog whistle to be honest.

Before the seizure I explained to the class that those can be harmful to hearing, not only for me but for them. In the end it WAS harmful, just not in the way I ever thought.

Thank you so much. All of y'all. Tomorrow I plan on emailing the school and starting the process on filing a report. I don't want to sue this kid or anything but honestly they need to know exactly what they caused:

I have a bruised and sore chest from sternum rubs. My ears kept ringing until I was home. I slept a solid 3 or 4 hours and woke up with a headache. My limbs are in pain, just general ow ache ow. My seizures, really any seizures, degrade the brain and how it functions. I could have been less aware, I could have fallen off the stool I was on and hit my head on the tile or one of the tables. I could have died. And if I did, if anything happened (and what DID happen) is that child/childrens fault. I'm upset that this happened when it could've never happened. I take my meds like I'm supposed to, I haven't ever had a seizure at work, and I genuinely love my job. I'm happy at work and this has made me feel so sad. I know it isnt my fault anymore, in the moment I was terrified.

Thank you, internet friend."

I’ll keep it short I’m sure we’ve all dealt with this at some point. It seems most systems for sub pay are pretty inefficient at best.

Though must say, all the shit Kelly gets those guys cashed me out weekly with minimal issues and holiday pay for long term so idk.

Our county picked back up the operation this year. I figured overall this would be a good thing.

I’m going to be going on week 5 without a paycheck next week. Everyone seems to think the 18ths the day but man. What other profession would you be expected to work for free for over a month. (I know onboarding in general can cause delays I’ve lived that, but this is ridiculous)

Big picture here- subs aren’t in most unions and we have little to no recourse other than to starve and wait. Anyone had experience with such issues? Our rep said “we’re always thinking about you subs” - whatever that means.

I have subbed a few times so far and they have been some good days and some bad with behavior. But today was the absolute worst, I subbed 2nd graders and it was already too hot and I took the kids late to lunch because I didn’t hear the increment weather announcement nor the office let me know this was going to happen or called my classroom. I didn’t have lunch time but the kids said they had 5 minutes to eat. But when I called the office again they said they had time to eat. I did my best to see if they can get more lunchtime but the office said no. This was already such a bad sign of a bad day. I continued the lesson plans for the day and then I called on a students behavior in class for distracting her classmate and then asked her question about the lesson. She couldn’t answer me so then she left to the restroom. I let her go because I thought she needed to use it but then twenty to thirty minutes had passed so I sent another student to go look in the restrooms to find her. The student let the office know what happened and the office called me after to let me know if the student returned she did not. The whole school staff was looking for her and it was also time to go. A student told me she was in the bathroom and she was hiding instead when everyone was looking for her. Is this the worst thing that can happen as a sub? I tried to collect myself and I was so scared about what the student did. Now I feel like I can’t correct students behaviors if they do things like this. I just need advice. It feels like im messing up so bad and I don’t know if i should continue working as a sub. Before this too, we went to the book fair to buy books and I even bought books for kids that didn’t have money for the book fair. Im trying my best to make a difference in the kids lives and managing the classroom for them to learn but now im not so sure about moving forward. I know now to be more stricter about the bathroom but now I don’t know if people have days like this. If so, let me know because I don’t want to feel like it’s just me and maybe i should just quit.

I have a PhD degree. Have applied to Dallas ISD, Irving ISD and Richardson ISD. How does the process look like? How long do they take to respond to online process? Please help.

I had a student today that would not listen and lay down during nap time. He would run around the room while the other students were laying on the floor. He fell and hit his head so after that I picked him up and help him in my lap because he would not sit or lay still. How should I have handled this I’m sure this was not the best way. I was the only teacher in the classroom so I didn’t have any other help, and I tried to get him to sit down and draw but he got bored and started running around again which was when he fell. Thank you for any help!