A Difficult Job
I genuinely understand why there aren’t many substitute teachers anymore. As a student who has had subs before, student’s are so disrespectful to them because they think they can. When students have subs they assume it’s a free day, they don’t have to listen because it’s not their normal teacher. They push the subs over and talk back so much even I sit there with my jaw dropped. Student’s think it’s funny to be disrespectful but it’s not. If work is given 85% of the students blow it off because for some reason they believe they don’t have to. The only time I have had a sub that wasn’t in a bad mood was the ones that let us do whatever because the students were happy. A lot of the time kids will ask to go to the restroom and leave for much longer than they should. If students were more respectful I believe we would have more subs.
— Elvie Tec2775, Northern California
At my high school, I feel like we tend to take our substitutes for granted, treating them like stand-ins that should follow our rules, forgetting any kind of order we once kept with the original teachers. I believe that a substitute who stands their ground, establishes their status, and still acknowledges how the students must be feeling with the teacher absent is an effective one. I wish more students treated our substitutes with more respect, this would create a lasting norm of behavior within the classroom, substitute or not.
— Nina, Miami FL
I only dreamt a few times about being a teacher, but NEVER a substitute. It would be even worse. Seeing people talk over you all the time is literally like a nightmare. I couldn’t even imagine how invisible they must feel. People kick dirt on substitutes just because they aren’t there for long and it makes me feel horrible. Everytime a substitute wants to say something, I just look at them and they’re always just staring at the people who keep talking. Worst thing about it is that they don’t even notice until someone points it out to them. I notice that when a teacher lectures a class about how to treat a sub, like those “never in my 25 years of teaching have I seen a note so horrible!” people just shake it off. They act guilty for a moment, but in reality they don’t care at all, and it’s actually a serious issue. Substitutes are people too. They have a limit just like everybody else.
— Ana, J.R. Masterman in Philadelphia, PA
Dealing With Sub Shortages
Being a teacher is a very exhausting job so when you’re doing your normal teaching job and then add on work from having …….
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/09/learning/student-writing-prompts.html