What's it like being a Substitute Teacher, any advice? Newbie!

Question

I've applied to be a substitute teacher at 3 schools and more for special education. What should I be doing/looking forward to? Any advice? I've applied for all age levels. What should I do if the teacher doesn't leave any assignment for them?

Thanks so much, I'm very excited but nervous too. I've held many jobs but nothing like this. Blessings!

Answer 1

Have activities for each age range prepared in advance - as a supply you will usually find that work is planned, but not always and you are expected to be able to provide work if necessary.

Reinforce behaviour expectations with the class - it is so annoying when supply teachers expect to just send any child out of the class who doesn't instantly do as they are told - children will test supply teachers, so deal with it!

Make sure you mark the work the children have done and leave a note for the class teacher telling them how the day has been, any issues that have arisen, which work the children have done and that you marked it. Some supply teachers that have taken my class recently have taken to talking to the children for so long that the work is not quite finished, so they say they didn't mark it because it was incomplete. That is a real pain, don't do it! Schools are quite likely to black-list poor quality supplies - we do it frequently because a lot of them just don't do the job properly.

Hope this advice helps you, good luck!