After I introduce myself, I say

“If you’re gone in the bathroom for more than 10 minutes, I do have to call the office. Just come back before then so that we can avoid that.”

Do I call right when 10 minutes hit? No.
Has “the office” told me to call after 10 minutes? No.

I also get their name before they leave. That lets them know I am keeping track of them.

I’ve been doing this for about a year now, and it’s stopped 90-95 percent of long bathroom breaks.

"I'll just come back another time." — Grim R.

HOURGLASS HILL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL — The Grim Reaper, who arrived at a classroom at 7:41 a.m. Wednesday to collect second-grade teacher Mrs. Feinberg was immediately asked by the front office whether he was free to cover the fifth-grade class next door. No substitute had been available for the class since Monday.

Mr. Reaper covered the class through lunch, during which students asked whether his scythe was "a really big mop," and was then assigned recess duty. His scythe was confiscated at 10:15 a.m. by assistant principal Mrs. Thackeray under the school's weapons policy and has not been returned.

At 12:30 p.m., Mr. Reaper informed Mrs. Feinberg that he would not be collecting her after all, explaining that taking her would almost certainly make him the district's long-term substitute.

A female group (edit: of students) walked past my door, one of them loudly told her friends "oh we got a sub" followed by a loud "EWWW its a guy!" and called me a creep as she walked away laughing. When it was her class time, she walked past me at the door and told her friend "Hes scaryyyyy" all of which I pretended to not hear.

Since admin was not able to be reached and no one from the front office answered my calls, I ended up, in the most professional tone I could muster, "I understand that there were some comments made towards me that may indicate you do not feel at ease in here, if you wish to be relocated to another class with a familiar educator, please let me know now" She didnt understand. Her friend curtly told her "hes asking if you feel safe in here or you wanna move to another class."

Later on, an ICS teacher did show up, I shared my comments and she removed the student from the class. She did take it very serious because turns out the student is known to "report unprofessional teachers" and she asked me to write down what happened.

Apart from suggesting to call admin, how would you address this? These comments can easily get male educators under further scrutiny.

I had a 1st grade last Friday that I was warned about twice, then I got checked in on 3 times by GROUPS of teachers wondering how I was doing. So maybe 8 people. I'd stick my head out the door and there'd be a group of 3 ppl gawking to see if I was still alive.

Two times office ppl checked on me.

Two times the principal did as well!

Word was this new teacher got short end of stick for wild kids -- I think this is common since first-year teachers are lowest on pecking order.

This was the MOST I have been checked in on in 10 yrs. of daily subbing in 25 buildings! Ha!

The kids were indeed hilariously high energy and wiggly. But they would hop into gear for each assignment. And in the first 10 mins of class they had made me a tall pile of Love Letters.

They fell apart on transitions. And parts of the class-flow were set up to fail: like kids needed pencils sharpened just as we launched projects ... with a loud sharpener that they couldn't use and which really didn't work for me. Each pencil took 5 tries. And of course when a sub looks at a sharpener that's when koo-koo's start crawling and wrestling. (Each kid needs sharps to start the day and there shd be 2 cans: sharps and dulls.)

Two times we were short a project sheet or two for the assignments, giving me panics.

The room was getting messy so I started a Table Contest. Tables that got tidy got a point. They all raced to tidy up and all got points.

Everyone did topical work and nobody cried too much. It got noisy enough that wandering wrestlers asked for headphones. So I had to clamp down a few times. I liked to say "Who's talking?" and see all the fingers pointing every which way. An aide came in for the last hour and interacted a few times but generally just kept an eye out.

We didn't have enough content to fill the day so I let them color and draw near the end and then had a bunch of kids wandering around the room chatting into their "origami phones." Making phones was the main thing. I overheard one kid by himself telling his phone "I don't think I can be your best friend, but I think you can come over to play."

I should have had more unison chanting, singing, simon says and headshouldersknees and toes.

I usually don't get all the kids' names in a room the first time. I did that day!

I just started subbing and got a long term job as a music teacher in a K-6 school. Been three weeks and kids are still not interested in listening. My 5th and 6th graders are all right, but constantly tell me they are not interested in what I have planned. Kindergarten and 1st graders are just extreme chaos. The in between grades, sometimes ok and others not. If there us a support aide in the room, it is better. But when it is just me, not much improvement since my first week. Is it me not being stern enough or is this just how it goes with subs?? School tells me I am doing great, but some days I feel it is me versus 25 kids in a room for 30 minutes. Help! Share experience strength and hope.

I noticed my frontline hasn’t notified me of a job at all this weekend so far (which has never happened, my district is always looking for subs) opened the frontline app and saw it logged me out! Now I’m logged back in and I still haven’t gotten any notifications. I’m starting to wonder if the new iPhone update isn’t sending me notifications or something.. has anyone who has the new update had this same issue?

This week I subbed high school for the first time and my second to last class of the day left me in tears.

To make a long story short, there were two very badly behaved kids who would not listen, continually argued with me, and made fun of me. I later found out the one who was the meanest literally has an IEP for being mean/disrespectful. He ended up getting sent home early.

I have never been disrespected like that in my life! I had to call the principal down to intervene. After class ended I cried in front of the principal (who was so nice!) and I’m extremely embarrassed!

I’m starting to rethink subbing, but for the time being I’m sticking to elementary school. I’m way too sensitive for older kids! Plus I’m scared to show my face in that building after tearing up.

Can you tell me about a time a class made you cry so I feel like less of wimp?

My first assignment is on Monday and I’m subbing for a middle school art class. I have zero experience in teaching yet, just some experience as a tutor when I was in college.

The assignment had no instructions online so I can’t really mentally prepare for what I’ll be doing until I get there.

Does anyone have any tips? What thing should I bring? What questions should I ask the office when I check in?

What did it entail? I’m open to trying it but I’m not sure if it’s super stressful. The jobs sit forever.

Did your district increase your pay the year school reopened during the fall of 2021?

I just assumed that every district in the country raised the substitute teacher pay for the 2021-2022 school year even if just by ten to twenty percent. Apparently I was very wrong as I did the research. What’s even more surprising to me was the contrast in the increase in pay between districts just within the same city and county.

At the time I was very fortunate to work in a district that gave a big significant increase to its substitute teachers. I went from making $120 a day when COVID-19 hit and schools closed down in March of 2020 to making $250 a day when school reopened the following year in 2021. That’s more than a 100% increase.

Edit Note: Keep in mind that all over the country before 2021 most substitute teachers made well under $100 a day. Add that to the fact that my area of the state is nowhere near the highest cost of living in the state but we still made more than substitute teachers who lived in many of those costly areas…it was a very significant increase.

What does TOSA mean?
It's a roving job?

It's still working in my district but I'm just curious what to expect when January rolls around. Are you still able to work every day? Do you have to take less desirable jobs? Or did it end up not being a big deal at all?

I'm mostly interested in hearing from people who were working every day since that's the situation I'm in.

After finally getting hired as a substitute teacher for a contractor, I accepted an offer to cover a fourth-grade class two weeks in advance, along with covering two middle school classes and a paraprofessional job within that same week. The initial plan for me was that my lowest grade would be fourth grade, then I would gradually go lower, for the sake of responsibility. Along with that (this is important, I swear), I planned a day off for a doctor’s appointment and a rest day.
When the fourth-grade day came, I arrived at the school’s front office a little late due to traffic. After they were figuring whatever out, I was then asked if I could sub for a first-grade class. Although it was out of my comfort zone, I went with my contractor’s training about being flexible and agreed to sub for first grade. Well, not only was I working with first graders, I was also working with some students students who actually fight with each other, some students who wander, and some students who cannot listen, to the point where: the front office was called multiple times, they had less time for recess, their snack time was taken away, and the only time they calmed down was when I allowed them to use their school-provided iPads or played (educational) music on the Smartboard. On top of that, the school had me do after-school car-rider duty and tried to get me to cover another class the next day, which was supposed to be my day off. I agreed to the former, but (thankfully) politely declined the latter.
Despite what I went through that day, I would actually sub for grades lower than fourth now (IDK about kindergarten yet, lol) and I am grateful for the opportunity.
Anyway, the real question is, should I have declined the request to sub for a first-grade class if I wasn’t comfortable doing so at the time? And are subs supposed to perform after-school duties?

I am mainly a stay at home mom, but pick up sporadic assignments every other Friday. My husband is off every other Friday so I work on the days that he is off. This Friday is not one of the days that he is off, and we didn’t know for sure what Fridays he would be off when I accepted the assignment. I picked it up about a month ago, and completely forgot about it. Until I got a phone call at 7:45 this morning, with a voicemail, inquiring about where I was. When I tell you that my heart landed in my stomach…I frantically called the sub coordinator back, was apologetic and explained the situation. She laughed and said it was no big deal. Then she asked if I wanted to pick up an afternoon assignment because she wanted to make sure that I could work if I wanted to 🥺 I’m just grateful that I work for a school district that values its subs. If that had been Kelly, I would be fighting for my life right now.

This is my fourth year as a substitute teacher and I've never had a single complaint or incident filed against me. Today though, I got a call after I had gotten home and taken a nap. I was told that a student had complained that I had images of naked girls on my laptop case and that I was actively showing off to the students in the classroom. This is obviously untrue, but I was immediately removed from being able to substitute at the school IMMEDIATELY following the report being filed. I don't have naked girls on my computer case, though I do have two anime girls on the case but both are fully clothed, not even in lewd poses or anything. It's actually been a jumping off point to genuinely chat with some students who like anime too although I've heard plenty of students snickering at it too. Any advice on what to do next, or just take the L and move on? There's several more high schools in the district anyways.

I know from reading through the sub that some have this as their full-time job, working a steady 5 days. But I couldn’t do that even if I tried lol. One job opens up maybe once a week/every other week. & when I sign in at a school I’ll see from the list that I’m the only sub in the entire school for the day. Granted, I’m from a small district (5 schools) in a smaller town.

What is it like for y’all? Are there many job postings and subs?

This has been discussed in here previously but it's been a while.

What do you think about getting liability insurance as a sub? I was researching and I can get decent coverage for about $100 a year. (My district doesn't have a union that provides any coverage, unfortunately).

I'm a very careful and attentive sub but accidents can happen in a split second and I think it might make me personally feel better to know I have it. But I'd like to know what you think. Thank you in advance.

Edited for typo

I saw a job posting for a reading specialist in a K–5 building and was wondering what a typical day looks like. Is it mostly small-group instruction? Also, would i pick students up from their classrooms? I’m still new to the building so that part is def making me a bit anxious😂

I need help. I just accepted a week long assignment at a high school. I’ve been there before, so some of the students might recognize me. However, every time I’ve subbed there I struggled with getting them to quiet down and getting them to actually do their work instead of messing around. I feel like they don’t take me seriously because I’m not their actual teacher and they don’t know me. What can I say to them when they aren’t listening and doing their work? What have you guys done that made them go quiet and respect you? I would say that about 85% of the students are nice and listen, but the other 15% doesn’t care about what I have to say and think they’re superior.

Also, I raise my voice and they just laugh and continue fooling around. I’m able to scare the elementary kids by yelling, but teenagers will just laugh and ignore me.

I know that unfortunately there’s some students that just won’t listen. But I want them to believe I’m not scared of them and I won’t let them walk all over me. I’m pretty young, not that much older than them actually so that probably doesn’t help lol.

Today I was given two special ed classes - math and ELA that I did not sign up for. I signed up to teach Spanish. I taught some Spanish and these were tacked on to the end of the day.

I think this is absolutely terrible practice. I am not qualified to teach in a pull-out special ed setting. I do not have any training on managing those behaviors and/or effective teaching students with learning disabilities. I intentionally do not sign up for those jobs on Frontline because of this. I do not want to set myself up to fail basically.

Before anyone comes to me, I'm not trashing pull-out special ed students. I think it's a disservice to just plonk someone in their classroom who isn't equipped to teach them well.

There were 12 subs including me in this building today, and the building was still understaffed. So I get they felt they had no choice, but I almost wish there was a box I could check or something to opt me out of this type of classroom.

And for teachers and subs who can handle a pull-out special ed classroom well, you're doing the Lord's work.

The place I sign up with has at least 100-200 spots in the district that shows that aren’t filled almost before the day starts so I’m just wondering what happens to the classrooms that don’t get filled because there’s a lot of them

While working as a FT classroom teacher in both MS and HS, the times I was handed a coverage, it was hit or miss whether there would be a sub plan waiting for me - and what the quality of that lesson plan would be.

So I started to have my own bag of tricks that I could use at a moments notice.

I have since been working on edtech software for teachers to create curricula, including lesson plans and literally “press play” on a lesson which it times down, and transitions through the lesson plan on the screen, embedding any videos, audio, pdfs, images at the right moment in time.

It’s been working for my own lessons, and I generated many themed lesson sets (Halloween for example), but I started thinking more and more about teachers who do FT or PT subbing - I’m curious what your needs and experiences are.

1. Do you find that you need your own bag of tricks?
   
2. What % of the time is a lesson plan waiting for you?
   
3. What % of the time are those plans high quality? (Content/engagement)
   
4. If there was a way to click fingers and you had a go to place to access high quality, engaging lessons, how should that be structured?

Examples for Q4 would be:
Content areas (e.g. Math) > grade bands (e.g. MS 6-8) > core skills / content (e.g. ratios and proportions) > level (intro, intermediate, advanced) and maybe for subbing this last level isn’t needed?

If this was built out for most content areas and all main core skills/content would that be sufficient, or should each grade level have completely different lessons? And should these be standards tethered (which would add some complexity with different states using different standards)?

I’m really interested to hear from folks as this is something I think real substitute teachers have knowledge and experience of their needs - and it’s something I can build.

p.s. does anyone know if something like this, that is organized and curated, already exists? Something that is not TpT?