Substitute teaching is a unique and difficult job. Although the classroom can be unpredictable, there are some things you can do to increase the likelihood of it being a good day.
- Arrive 20 minutes early. Arriving early to your substitute teaching job will allow time to review the lesson plan and gather the necessary items you will need.
- Assemble a SubPack. A SubPack is a bag of resources that you can take with you to each substitute teaching job. The items that should be included in a SubPack might include: filler activities in case the lesson plan doesn’t take the whole time, a basic first aid kit, medical gloves, tickets to hand out to those students who are on task, etc.
- Greet the students at the door and direct them to a starter activity. Show the students that you are a professional by greeting them at the door and directing them to a starter activity. A starter activity is an activity that each student can work on individually for about five minutes. You might have them write about their weekend, tell you about their best friend, or maybe the permanent teacher already has a starter activity planned. It is very important to get students on task immediately.
- Follow the lesson plan. Follow the lesson plan. Follow the lesson plan. Did I mention to follow the lesson plan?
- Spend the class period walking around the classroom and rewarding appropriate behavior. The best way to increase appropriate, on-task behavior is to reward it with a smile, nod, ticket, or even leaving a list of students who were behaving appropriately for the permanent teacher. Believe it or not, research has proven this to be one of the most effective classroom management strategies.
- Have fill-in activities available for students who finish early. A student who is on-task is less likely to behave inappropriately. Have some fun activities available for students who finish early.
- Leave the room the same as you found it. Make sure to clean up the materials you used. However, resist the temptation to leave the room cleaner than you found it. What seems like chaos to you is organized chaos for a permanent teacher and you will not want to cause frustrations by rearranging his/her materials.
- Write a substitute teacher report for the permanent teacher. Leave as detailed a report as possible of what went on during the day. The permanent teacher would love to know any details you can leave.
By implementing these few, simple strategies, you are increasing the likelihood of having a successful substitute teaching day.