Notes of a Substitute

Notes of a Substitute:

     Being a day-to-day substitute can be one of the hardest jobs in the educational field. Substitutes come into a classroom that they most likely have never been to, managing students they have never met before, working with a schedule they are not used to, and attempting to teach material the permanent classroom teacher has left in his/her lesson plans. Some people would look at a substitute's job and say that they have the easiest job on the planet, but when you have to manage around 25 young people you have never met before and gain their respect as an authority figure all while teaching them material they will need for a future test or quiz, that can make the job extremely difficult. 
     Substituting is a job where you must have three important characteristics. These would be: flexibility, patience and confidence. 
      As a substitute, you need to be able to go with whatever the regular classroom teacher wants done during the time that you are there. This means that time management is a major factor. Substitutes need to figure out the students' needs and their learning styles (if not given by the regular teacher), as well as how to keep the flow of the class going (i.e. Does the flow need to be faster for a more gifted class? Does the flow need to be slower for a class that needs more support?) 
      Along with flexibility, substitutes need to have patience throughout their assignments. They need to show patience to go with the flow of the day and the class they are substituting for that day. As a substitute, losing your cool and breaking down is not an option. Taking a deep breath and retaining focus on what needs done requires patience and understanding to get through the day with a sane mind. If you try to control everything to the point where you are losing your mind when a student steps out of your control by a hair, then maybe it's time to step back and regain focus on what is important in that particular moment. 
      There will be times where the regular teacher does not leave absolute specific plans on what to do and how to do it. In these moments, having confidence in your abilities and capability to manage a classroom are key to having a successful substitute assignment. There were days where I would have barely anything to go by other than topics that the regular teacher wanted covered that day. A good substitute uses his/her confidence to know that the regular teacher trusts in the substitute to use his/her knowledge of instruction to teach the students' in that teacher's class. As substitutes, we are trusted to know how to teach the students effectively so that when the regular teacher returns, they can pick up where the substitute left off the day before. 
      Yes, there are many issues and problems that substitutes have during their assignments and yes, the job is extremely difficult. However, there are so many things that make the job worth while, especially for a teacher that is just beginning their career. 
      I am in my third year as a substitute after graduating from The Pennsylvania State University with a Pre-K through Fourth Grade education certificate and degree. In the three years that I have been substituting, I have seen easily over 50 different classrooms, five different districts with different policies, nine different grade levels (k-8), and 15 different styles of teaching in multiple subjects. Having the opportunity to witness multiple teaching styles and classroom decor choices, and classroom management techniques gives me a fully-rounded post-grad education on how to handle different types of classes and how to handle different situations that could arise during the school day.  Overall, being a substitute is a really cool, amazing and rewarding job. I just hope one day that I can use all of the knowledge I've gained from these different classrooms in my own classroom one day.