When there aren't enough subs, part 3: How to make the workday better for substitute teachers
As a teacher, I never knew if I got my sub plans just right. Were they too detailed? Was my font too small to read when there are students flooding in through the door? Were they not enough? I appreciated the occasional note I’d get from a sub, reporting how my students did. But I never found the right way to request that awkward and crucial piece of feedback: as a teacher, setting the stage for a guest in my classroom, how’d I do?
2022, you haven’t wasted a minute.
This school year, as we grapple with the substitute teacher shortage, my instructional coaching role has morphed into on-call sub duties. We wrapped up our fall semester on a genteel, once-a-week sub duty list. January, however catapulted everyone- teachers included- into daily triage of class coverage.
The calm and the chaos have been a case study in how unpredictable a substitute teacher’s day can be. I’ve followed sub plans that range from AP classes, to P.E., to second grade, and I have dragged my way through a handful of sub days with no plans at all. Some days leave me feeling like I was a guest in a family home. Others leave me trying to shake off seven hours of feeling like a hired hand.
How we treat the least of these trickles out and up through the workplace.
Industries hit hard by the pandemic are met with a shortage of workers who have decided the grass is greener where there is better pay and a more reasonable work day. Housekeeping crews, restaurant staff, and nurses are in shorter and shorter supply. Halfway through the school year, school districts are coming to terms with the new normal: substitute teachers are hard to keep too.
As we pull educators to cover for absent colleagues, we are reckoning with the value of adults who are vital to the educational system. District leaders bemoan that higher pay may not be sufficient to recruit substitute teachers. What can be gained when we look squarely at roles that are suddenly hard to fill?
It’s not just the pay, although that is important.
We need to consider the quality of a person’s day when they offer themselves in service to our schools. The small moves made by fellow teachers, office staff, and administrators make a difference. They are just as easy to do as they are easy not to do. Here are the things I’ve seen the best campuses do, plus a few more that I wish I had known when I was planning for my own subs.
For office staff: restroom, fridge, bell schedule (in that order)
Forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but subs work in the same human bodies as everyone else. Every day, they eat and do the other human things. If a sub has never worked on your campus before, they may not know where that is supposed to happen. Show them where the teacher restroom is, and the staff refrigerator.
School offices are notoriously crowded first thing in the morning. Playing tour guide is not always feasible for a busy office staff. But a polite point in the direction of the teacher restrooms is practical and kind. If there’s no time, circle the restroom and the fridge on the campus map. Working with young people all day is bound to have its share of unknowns; where to pee should not be among them.
For teachers on campus: say hello
Be a good neighbor. Just a minute or two in the morning, or during passing period, is all it takes to make a guest teacher feel welcome. Introduce yourself, let them know you’re around if they need anything. It is one of those small gestures that is easy enough not to do- but it makes a difference for the substitute being welcomed.
A teacher’s friendly greeting once kept me from letting students wander unsupervised on a volatile afternoon. Due to a fight during lunch, all teachers received emergency communication from their admin team. For the rest of the day, no students were to be let out of class without an escort. Everyone got the memo except me- and do you know how many high schoolers ask to go to the bathroom when they have a sub? All of them.
The teacher across the hall, an acquaintance who had greeted me that morning, strolled over during the following passing period. “You probably didn’t hear because you’re not on the staff email…” and she proceeded to fill me in about the lockdown. In this situation, the simple “hello” we had exchanged before school opened the door to teacher talk that had a direct impact on student safety.
A friendly greeting- just for the sake of being friendly- makes a difference. At an elementary school, a neighbor teacher was kind enough to introduce herself and see if I had any questions about the plans her colleague had left. Her simple welcome made me feel like I was working in a community of adults, rather than showing up as an independent contractor. It also made me feel more comfortable asking about our start time for recess, which seemed to roll depending on how long the previous class was on the blacktop. How important is recess in an elementary school classroom? Very.
As it turned out, I didn’t need help deciphering the sub plans. But I felt reassured. Knowing that if I needed a quick answer gave me more mental space to focus- joyfully- on my students for the day.
For administrators: do the check-in
Students notice when an administrator drops by to check in.
When admin pops in to say hello, every teenager who pumped their fist in the air and said, “Yesss! We have a sub!” sees that, yes, we do have a sub… and she is not alone. A class of genuinely supportive students also sees that the grownups on campus act like a community. Isn’t that what we want to model for them?
Consider dropping by just to say thank you. I used to worry that checking in on subs might make them feel like they weren’t trusted. But a simple, in-person expression of gratitude isn’t only about the guest in the room. It’s also about the students, who are permanent members of the school family. Most middle and high school students do sit a little straighter when they see an admin walk into class. But the more lasting impact is the message that this day- even if it was unexpected, and even if it is only loosely planned- matters too. And it’s good to say thanks.
For absent teachers: be the referee, even if you’re not there
I mentioned earlier that teenagers all need to use the restroom when they see a sub is in the room. They also get very thirsty. And in middle and high schools, each one has a special seating arrangement they agreed upon with the teacher of record, that happens to be by their best friend, that was tragically not updated on the seating chart. Really, it’s true.
Sample sub plan template in Google Docs. Free to copy and edit.
If you teach in secondary schools, help your guest teacher out:
Make expectations for seating, water breaks, and restroom procedures abundantly clear. Especially if your school is sticking tightly to norms for the sake of contact tracing or student safety.
Last minute absences get the best of us all the time, with little time to leave plans. However, your class procedures are probably the same all year. Stick them at the top of your sub plans and leave them there.
It will save your sub- and your students- from falling into a spiral of negotiations. By including clear expectations for your students, you are providing a referee to maintain expectations in your absence. A sub will start off in better standing with your students if they aren’t having to guess about what they can say yes to.
Make procedures clear and easy to reference so your substitute doesn’t have to be the bad guy. Getting down to the important business of building trust with students is so much more important than guessing at the rules. The ones on this sub plan template are perched right on top.
If your school uses a digital platform for agendas and assignments, I’m a fan of the screenshot. “Tell students to look for their assignment in google classroom” is okay. But “here’s a screenshot of what they see online” is even better.
If you teach in elementary schools, here’s what helps the most:
Include a schedule with what time each activity begins and ends, along with work for early finishers. The good feels of an elementary classroom depend on the regular rhythms students are accustomed to. Their little bodies seem to know exactly what time circle time should transition to free-draw. All the better if that is clearly spelled out for a guest teacher, so she knows it too.
And work for early finishers? In my opinion, there’s no such thing as too much. While a superpower of younger learners is their ability to know their daily schedule by heart, sometimes their kryptonite is being self-directed when they finish ahead of time. The day is immensely easier for guest teachers when there is a clear (and hopefully fun) next-on-the list activity for students who have moved through their assignments with the speed of a Nascar driver.
Lastly, I used to wonder: do students care about that note I wrote them on the board? The short answer is, yes they do. So does their sub.
When teachers leave a note for the class, it’s like a friend introducing two friends to each other. I love beginning a class period by directing students to the note on the whiteboard or in Google Classroom that their teacher has left behind. It creates a comfortable bridge, affirming that the usual adult cares about them even though they are away. It also gives the new adult something sweet to offer students as they begin their time together. I’ll take that start as an alternative to debating bathroom procedures any day.
In the end, the same things that make a day happy and rewarding for anyone, count for a sub too.
Welcome them. Set the stage for them to be comfortable in your school and classroom. Express gratitude; it will make them feel better and it will do the same for you. Treat your sub like a competent professional- and if you’ve got it in you that day, it’s okay to make her feel like a hero. Give guest teachers the chance to rise to the occasion.
