Teacher Thoughts: Sub Problems

Last time, I talked about what it's like to be a sick teacher.  For this post, I thought I'd delve a bit deeper into why having a substitute is so much of a problem.

One of the biggest issues in my school district is a severe lack of substitute teachers.  (I am finding out that this is not just an issue in my school district, but it is a problem in many schools in Central PA.)  We use an online system for acquiring our subs.  Openings are listed online, but subs can also be called by phone if jobs are not picked up.

There a few problems with this system:

• Sometimes the jobs do not show up for subs for various reasons
• The school district no longer hires subs directly.  They are hired by the company that runs the system.  These substitutes may not even know where my school district is or live anywhere near it.
• It's easier to not take jobs because there's no live person you feel like you are disappointing.  (When I first started teaching as a substitute, I loved the online system for this reason.  Even when calls are made, it is an automated system.  It's much easier to reject a machine than a real person calling from the school.)

We have quite a few retired teachers from our district who return to sub all of the time.  Due to restrictions, though, they are only allowed to accumulate a certain number of days/hours or it can affect their retirement.

The district has collected data, and we have actually been asked to do our best to avoid missing Fridays because we are highly likely NOT to get a substitute on a Friday.

If we don't have a substitute to cover our absences, my school has a couple of things--none of which are pleasant for anyone.

1. Cancel a special area class (i.e. art, library, music, phys ed, technology) and have that teacher cover the teacher's class for the day.  This means that any teacher whose students were scheduled for that class will not have their planning time.
2. Cancel Title 1 Reading support and have the reading specialist cover for the day (which we are technically not allowed to do).
3. Have a different teacher cover the class each period.  This works by other teachers having to give up their planning time to teach a class for a period.  I have planning time 2nd period, so when this happens, I would go during second period and teach who knows what and who knows what grade.

Of these options, #1 is the most preferred, but we shouldn't have to do this!  A teacher who is out sick shouldn't have to worry or feel bad that someone else might lose their precious planning time to cover his/her class!

IF you are fortunate enough to get a substitute any sort of things can go wrong.

I admit.  I'm a control freak.  I write detailed plans that explain what and how to do things in my classroom so that everything will run smoothly.  All a person needs to do is follow these plans.

Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen.

One of our retired substitutes has been subbing with us for awhile.  When I was teaching first grade, she refused to allow my students to work in their learning centers because she didn't like the "chaos."  A few weeks ago, I was at a professional development conference.  I was out for two days, and I got a text from a teacher on my team the second day.  The sub from Thursday had done ALL of the work I had planned for reading for Thursday AND Friday.  The worst part of it was that she assigned part of the work as homework.  Luckily, the sub for the next day was one I could trust, and we just had the students read for their reading period.

I can't tell you how many times I've come back from an absence--planned or otherwise--to a disaster.  Stuff that should have been done that wasn't.  Stuff that was done that shouldn't have been.  It's not that hard to follow a person's plans.

Subs will inevitably get things done faster than you because they don't know the students or the nuances you add into your lessons.  For my sixth graders, the simple solution is to let them read quietly.  In fact, I usually write in my plans that if they have extra time they should let the kids read!

It's not rocket science.

Teacher Thoughts: What it's Like to Be a Sick Teacher

I came across a pin on Pinterest the other day that really hits the nail on the head.  The pin linked to a blog post about teachers being sick.  Needless to say, I was inspired and decided to share my own thoughts on this matter here on Teacher Thoughts.

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First of all, to clarify for any non-teachers here, teachers are required to write lesson plans about what you will be teaching for each class each day of the week.  Some teachers write very lengthy plans and others are able to communicate what they will be teaching in a condensed manner.  (I am a condensed manner teacher).  BUT when a sub is coming to my classroom, I want to be as detailed as possible.

My first problem is that I am a control freak.  I like things to be done the way I want them done and not how a substitute teacher thinks I want them done.  So I write step-by-step plans to describe to the substitute not only what he/she should be doing but what the students will be doing, as well.

I think this should go without saying, but this takes a lot of time.

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The second issue comes up when you have a lesson (or lessons) planned that only you can teach.  I'm not saying that substitutes are not competent educators (although, some are not).  What I am saying is that there are lessons that I just can't explain to someone else.  For example, I have been attending some professional development conferences recently, and I'm learning new methods for teaching in reading and writing.  I am just trying out some of these things, and I don't have the time required to try to type up a plan explaining it to someone else when I attended a 6 hour conference to learn it myself.

Last year, my principal decided to have us all make up a folder with emergency sub plans to be kept in our mailboxes in the office.  Basically, this is for times when you need to miss work and were not planning to.  Almost every absence I have is a planned one.  My absences are almost always for professional development.  I rarely need/use sick days....mostly for the reasons I've already stated.  These plans are basically only to be used in the event that your sub can't figure out what to do, OR that you would prefer the sub follows those plans instead of trying to follow yours.

Most of the time, if I end up calling off sick and wasn't planning on it (like in October when I woke up and couldn't talk.....), I grab my phone, mentally recall my plans, and email detailed instructions to one of my fellow sixth grade teachers to print out and give to the sub.

Truthfully, this is also about leaving your "kids" in the hands of someone that you probably don't know!  I don't like not knowing what will happen in my classroom while I'm gone, but sometimes, it's just that hard to get out of bed and go.  My school has a severe substitute shortage, and you never know if you'll actually get a sub to fill your absence.

And that, my friends, will be in the next installment of Teacher Thoughts....sub problems!

Dinner Time Tuesday 2/26

Welcome to Dinner Time Tuesday!  Thanks to those of you who linked up last week!  The link-up is growing slowly, but surely! :)  If you're a new reader, come link up and share what you had for dinner today!  Just follow your host (me!), grab the button, link back to my post, and share a picture or a pic and a recipe of what you had for dinner!  The link-up is open until Sunday night.

Today for dinner, I had half of a Marianna's Italian Sub with a side of tortilla chips and salsa.

 

Marianna's is a local food company.  They do fundraisers with their hoagies and pizzas.  We always order their Italian Hoagies because they're SO good!  (And yes, "hoagie" is the Pennsylvania word for sub.)

 

Normally, I would've had some kind of potato chips with this, but we didn't have any.  I'm not sure why we didn't get any the last time we went grocery shopping.  Anyway, I'm not good at eating just one thing.  For most things, I really need to have some sort of side.  Is anyone else like this?  Just sitting down to eat this hoagie without anything else wasn't as appealing to me as having it with a side.

 

I'm just glad my appetite is better today.  :)

 

What did you have for dinner today?