Substitute teachers...a few questions
 

Hey all,
Everyone's telling me that substitute teaching is a good start in the workplace, especially for graduates with no teaching licence.
Anyone know the details of this kind of job?
How exactly does it go?
Do they call you the same instant they need a teacher or a few days in advance?
Does it mean that you can't be working in another job while being a substitute teacher 'cause they might need you any moment? Or what?
Can you choose which grades you want to teach?
Do they give you the curriculum and teaching methods or do you have to create your own?
Do you have to be prepared everytime "in case" they call you?
What exactly do you do in the classroom? is your role exactly as the absent teacher? How many days minimum/maximum do you teach in a month? How many days are you allowed?

Is this job worth it? do they give good pay? Is it reliable? Should I take this kind of a job instead of a low paying full time job?

Any cons/pros?

Thanks in advance for any help.

All of these things vary widely on the school district.

Most larger school districts have automated systems in place to alert substitutes to job opportunities. When I was a substitute educational aide the district I worked for used an automated phone system. They assigned you a pin number and then the autodialer would call every morning there was a job opportunity. To sign up, you entered your pin. Some districts now use websites to accomplish the same thing this automatic phone system did: you get online, look up the site, look at the jobs needing coverage, and select which one you will cover.

You can work other jobs and be a substitute teacher. There is a huge amount of flexibility. You can choose to work or not to work.

Depending on the size of the district there may be more than 1 grade available to teach, but essentially you are a glorified babysitter. The lesson plans are usually already in place, and you are expected to be little more than a placeholder (unless you are a long-term substitute, which does not happen often). Your role is NOT exactly the same as the absent teacher. Like I said--you are basically a placeholder, keeping the class going, until the regular teacher comes back. Rarely is any lesson planning on your part involved.

In most districts you can teach for as many days as you are available.

Because of the on-call factor involved in the job, pay is usually quite good for the hours/effort involved. In Oregon the standard is $142.28 per day.

The downside is--there is no work in summer and you can't always count on it. A lot of teachers have favorite subs already in place. I would say to substitute teach while looking for permanent employment, or substitute teach on your days off. Or else you can sign up for several school districts (if you live in that kind of area) and hope you can cobble together enough work between all of them to make it worthwhile.

But generally, yes, it is a good job and pays well. I'm going back to being a substitute aide this fall.

Holy crap! That's the highest I've ever heard. When I subbed in the Seattle School District, I got about $110 on a good day. In a suburban school district just outside of Seattle, I got $120 or so. Here in Pennsylvania, I hear they're paying less than $100.

Anyway, Owl answered all of the important questions. The key is WHERE you are located... what state, what district(s), and what their rules are. It really is a very well-paying and flexible job, if you qualify for the position (depends on the state; some take anyone with a college degree, others require basic proficiency tests, etc). I had an "emergency substitute" certificate for a few months while waiting for my real teaching certificate to arrive... my understanding was that just about anyone could get one of those (emergency ones).

Best part is that you can pick and choose the days you want to work... especially handy if you just need some money to get by, while looking for other jobs or working on a side project. The hours are quite short, though very early (usually 7am, if not earlier). The downside is that you don't get much respect from the kids or other teachers, unless you stay in one school/area for a long time and establish a reputation and "clientele" of teachers who will call on you repeatedly. It's hard to bond with the kids, which is one of my favorite parts of teaching... you have to have a very firm sense of authority, and be ready to enforce it on the troublemakers right from the start.

That said, I got my teaching certificate 5 years ago, and I'm going to renew it for another five years this month (even though I taught for less than 2 years with it). I plan to use it as a back-up if I ever find myself without a job... for example, it will be very handy to substitute teach when I'm writing my dissertation in the next few years, especially if ktspktsp is in graduate school at the same time and I need to support both of us. I think it's a very good thing to have when you're in between things.

My two cents: there's usually a lesson plan waiting for you, unless there isn't, or it's two lines scrawled on the board. In those cases, video is your friend. After you've done it awhile, though, you'll come up with a few gap activities you can use if the teacher's plan is insufficient. For grades 3 and under, I used to have the students write and illustrate get-well letters to the teacher. You can adjust the lesson by age-group, and it's always a winner.

On the other hand, sometimes the lesson plan they leave for you can be very detailed. I've executed plans scheduled to the five-minute and fifteen-minute interval during the day. Thus it's best to get there as early as possible to familiarize yourself with the plan.

Generally you can work the days you want -- though the more often you're available, the more often you're called. Most areas have an automated system that calls subs at random, yet there will be schools -- often the more desirable ones -- where most of the subwork is arranged between the teacher (or sometimes the school secretary) and trusted, known subs. How do you get to be a known sub? By getting your first assignment, doing well, and being called back -- or simply by chatting up other teachers for work in the break room. Of course some schools, the tougher ones, constantly are looking for new sub blood and you can get assignments there easily through the automated system.

In my area, the automated system lets you choose the grades you want to teach; though the wider the range you accept, the more than you will teach. I would accept a wide variety of grades at first to find out which you like best. I concentrated in the lower grades, yet found that I liked high school better than I thought I would. Didn't ever care for middle school, though.

High school and middle school are good in one sense, because you get the teacher's daily prep period as a chill-out time in the middle of the day, along with lunch. In the primary grades, you're "on" all day, and may even have yard duty at recess if it was your teacher's turn.

Kindergarten is intense, but in some ways the easiest, because in this area you teach only half the day and simply work as an aide the other half. And you may have aides or volunteers who work with you for most of the morning.

Reliability and pay depend on area. In this area, short-term subs make around $110 a day -- but the cost of living is very high, so it's not that desirable a job. Long-term subs -- those who take a job for several weeks to several months, generally while the teacher is on medical leave -- get more, but they usually want somebody with a credential, because lesson-planning is then part of the job.

Reliability -- like I said, the poorer districts and schools are always hungry. If you've got some of those around, you'll get lots of calls. But of course the classes are tougher. To get the most work, register with multiple districts. We have two robot systems in this county: one covers most of the districts at one end of the county, and the other handles just the one monster district that takes up the whole other end of the county. The monster district needs people every single day, though it's a fifteen-mile drive.

In my area, before you can sub with any particular district you have to sign up at the county office of education, get fingerprinted, etc. I've found that the folks at the county office can tell you which districts are the hungriest for subs, and what your prospects might be.

If you haven't supervised kids before, I'd at least crack a book on classroom management to give you an idea on what's what. Yes, the sub doesn't get as much respect, but it is possible to stay on top of things without being too much "the mean sub."

If you think you're interested, I'd go ahead and try it. I no longer sub, but the job really clicks with some people and might inform your future career plans. It's a fairly unique opportunity to test out a career path while getting paid for it.

Thanks, onesnowyowl, Abaya, and Rodney!
Great advice.

Wow, I have some friends who sub up here in Massachusetts and I think they get somewhere around $70 a day.