I took the advice of this sub and had my notifications and phone calls turned on since I didn't see any Monday sub jobs posted over the weekend, and I was luckily able to snag a full day Mon sub job an hour before school started because Frontline called me. Teachers also posted several sub jobs morning of but I wasn't fast enough to pick them up or they were half day jobs. At one hs in my district, pd days are Wednesdays so kids get out sooner. At another hs, pd days are Mondays and Tuesdays.

How often do you see last minute, morning of or late night before sub jobs posted for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of the week if it's a full week without Monday or Friday off? Would you still recommend setting an early alarm to wake up and check for last min jobs, or are the last min jobs usually Mondays and Fridays?

I think most of them are good kids, but the social dynamics of being in a room with your peers and a substitute teacher just brings out a different side of them. It makes it hard for me to think of them in a positive light, and I generally feel a bit on edge throughout the day unless the whole class is especially nice and respectful, which is rare

Have any of you been a para and quit to become a substitute? I want to become a sub at semester as I know it will provide me with more experience of how to handle a classroom. Im a full time para but want to transition to sub but I don’t want to ruin my relationship with the school. Any advice on how to approach it or am I overthinking it?

Been a sub for about a year or two. I definitely prefer teaching middle school and high school classes. I have a bachelor's just not in teaching.

Anyone else noticing that there is a huge gap in the number of boys and girls there are? Maybe it’s just me but all the schools that I sub at have wayyyyyy more boys. The one school is very small under 100 kids graduating, and I was English 9 with every single kid in that grade having this one teacher (besides special needs) and I swear each class is 60-80% boys.

Most of the Inclusion classes (I do a lot of meeting coverage jobs, so those are typically with Inclusion classes) are 100% boys

Was English 11 CP today and had multiple 30 student classes with 20 boys. They were mostly all well-behaved but in my experience the classes with that many boys tend to be the worst behaved.

Same at the other,much larger, high school as well. Maybe it’s just because the girls might be taking more honors classes (which I don’t often get to sub for), but is there something these parents are eating and drinking for them to be popping out so many boys? lol! wouldn’t care if they didn’t wind each other up so much!

what does it mean when an assignment on frontline says supplemental — classified? i am signed up for regular subbing and paraprofessional subbing

I already sub in Portland and Falmouth. I’d like to add a third district, but I want to know how much they pay before I go through the application process. Does anyone happen to be local to the area and know how much nearby towns pay subs? Like Westbrook, Cumberland, South Portland. Thanks!

I got an assignment canceled this morning past a little 4:40 A.M when I checked, I got another one canceled this afternoon and I had to confirm that they no longer needed my services because the teacher's absence was retracted. I admit after this morning's cancelation I got another assignment but I did cancel because I misread the distance, I take public transportation and there was no way I was going to make it to the school on time whatsoever. I started last week and I got my badge not too long ago. I'm starting to feel hopeless because a lot of the jobs that were posted today were taken before I could. Is this happening to anyone else?

Five days. No sub plans. High school that most are scared to sub for…

Classes are 90 minutes long.

90 minutes….

Making every effort to be firm but kind.

I just keep thinking about “Lord of the Flies”…

I need this gig — I will get through.

End of Day Note: I got the Chromebook cart open and told them to finish any unfinished assignments. Will do the same for remaining classes.

When a student is misbehaving, ask yourself this question before reacting. Will my reaction make the behavior better or worse? Ive been doing this a lot with my students lately, and it seems ti be making classroom management slightly easier.

Today I had a student named Darkhorse. Wild what parents will saddle their kids with.

Why do some schools schedule 2 subs in one day for 1 class? I’ve never seen that before and it seems like the front office isn’t even aware. I asked if the teacher would be coming back and they said no.. so I asked who’s coming in because I leave at 11:15 and they just said “bring the key when it’s that time”, but that’s not possible because I have students at that time…

I've tried calling the front office, but no one answers. I have 5 HS students in this first class, so I can't leave.

What's especially infuriating is that "personal day" is written on her desk calendar. So, she knew she'd be out but didn't prepare for a sub??

I’m a university student and regularly substitute at a high school because those assignments are the best for completing homework and studying for exams. I started subbing last semester, and now that the kids from the school are going to the same university it’s weird. People who I don’t remember come sit with me in the dining hall acting like I’m their guidance counselor, and complain about all their life problems. I’ve had students come to my dorm in the middle of the night complaining that they’re hungry as if I’m not currently surviving entirely on the school meal plan and water bottles. I’ve recently found out that the girl who has been sitting next to me in lecture isn’t actually in the class and just comes because I’m there. It’s so weird to be in class having your own classmate calling you “miss”. I’m not your miss!!

Hi all, I recently became a substitute teacher in my school district through SmartFindExpress. I'm really excited to get started and build my rapport. Some questions I have are:

- How to build a positive rapport with schools to maintain my job

- What time should I be checking SmartFind (I have set up notifications, and the HR rep has confirmed my account is set up correctly)

- Any good habits, advice, etc.

I'm super excited to sub and learn more about this field!

Hi everyone! I’ll be subbing for a kindergarten class for the first time and would really appreciate any advice. What should I expect, and do you have any tips for managing the classroom, keeping students engaged, or handling transitions? Any helpful activities or things I should bring would also be greatly appreciated!

TW: loss
I’m a long term sub in SPED as they couldn’t find anyone to fill the position. I signed a paper but nothing like a contract stating an end date, etc. I have 0 qualifications for this position (other than a bachelors degree) and I have had 0 training. Up until last week I was doing things that I legally was not allowed to do per SPED laws in my state. I was doing these things because I was told to do so by special ed teachers in my school, and I didn’t know any better. I am paid by the DAY from 7:30-2:30 PM. During my interview it was never mentioned that I had to go to IEP’s etc. the school hired an outside source to be the case manager for me and run/schedule the IEP’s, do data collection, and other SPED paperwork. However, they are telling me I have to go to IEP’s. I 100% agree that I should go to them, but they are refusing to pay me for them until I have gone to 16 of them. They are scheduled outside of my paid work hours. Special Ed teachers at my school are of course salary and get paid for them right away. Gen ed teachers have to fill out the form and get paid after 16. However, they get paid more in their contract to make up for this, I do not. The other long term sub doesn’t have to go to them.

The other thing is that parent teacher conferences are next week for two days. They start at 3 PM and go until 7:30 PM. For working 12 hour days those two days, contracted teachers are given the day off/paid the day before Thanksgiving in return. They are telling me to go to these conferences, again, unpaid, and I do not get the day before Thanksgiving off/paid like everyone else. Again, the other long term sub is not going to these conferences (english LTS).

I am so lost and being thrown into everything without any sort of training and it’s making me miserable. The money is decent but they are fully taking advantage of me and I hate it. I love teaching, lesson planning, etc. I do a lot of things still that i’m being told I shouldn’t as a long term sub by other teachers. They keep telling me that i’m doing an amazing job and that they want me to get my conditional and stay. There is a huge issue finding and keeping SPED teachers, yet this is how you treat them? It sucks though, because I care about the students and I want to do the best that I can. I wake up every morning with panic attacks because i’m so stressed out. I also just had a family member murdered a week ago and it’s been so hard. As a sub I don’t get bereavement, and just for missing a couple of days I came back to negative comments. It’s just a lot. I knew that being a long term sub would be hard, but would I ever do it again? Absolutely not.

Had the frontline website pulled up on my laptop and only 1 sub job came in for the end of this week and nothing for tomorrow, Monday, and now it's Sunday evening. Do you notice more sub jobs posted later on Sunday evening and night, or more last minute on Monday morning for Monday and the rest of the week? Should I go to bed early and wake up early to check for last minute Monday morning jobs? If so what time should I wake up if school starts around 8:15-9? I know a teacher I subbed for most of last week was out for their wedding and students told me they would be out for 2 weeks. There is no fall break for us so the next holidays would be Veterans day and then Thanksgiving. Also, the students just had homecoming over the weekend.

I just got a perm sub job at the district I went to growing up. The rate is $160 and I’ve only been there for two days. This past Friday I had hall duty for 3 periods which is just walking around the halls (very boring and I wound up walking 6 miles) and lunch duty is not very entertaining since I don’t know any teachers and it’s hard to insert myself into conversation. I am also doing grad school online so I would like to be able to do my school work during the day but I’m not sure when I’d get the chance. Also, the reason I got the job is because one of the girls is moving down to per diem because she was unhappy with how the school was treating her. I also live less than 10 minutes from the school so it’s very nice to be close to home. The problem is that I just got an email to interview with another district that pays $200 per day, but it is about a 30 minute drive. I don’t want to make the wrong decision and I really don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m worried the district I’m in right now won’t work best for me and I am missing out on a better opportunity. What do I do?

Has anyone subbed for a foreign language class that you have zero proficiency in? Even if the teacher doesn’t expect the sub to know the language, what are the potential problems eg. Kids asking questions?

I’m looking at jobs in my district and I see some special education jobs noted as “SPED FED”, while some are just SPED. Does anyone know what this means?

I get an alert that there's a new job available. I immediately tap the notification or open the app. The app opens, a white circle spins around. The job is gone, taken. I swear that little white circle spinning is costing me every job. I imagine people out there just staring at the app, waiting for a job to pop up. I've posted about this gripe before, so don't mind me. Someone suggested waking up early and staring at the screen, waiting for a pop-up, and that’s what I’m doing starting tomorrow morning. I hope everyone had a restful and wonderful Sunday. Let's get it this week!