Substitute Teacher Tips

1. Make sure that each student's name is clearly visible to you. (A Packet for Substitute Teachers)  Pass out paper and have students write their own names large. Ideally, name should be attached to front of each student's desk with masking tape. Alternative suggestion: holding a seating chart, walk around to each student, ask each student his or her name, and write each name on the seating chart.

Smart students are always raising their hands. Don't take hands. When asking a question, name the student first and then ask the question. If name isn't visible, adopt a name from clothing: "Blue Shirt," "White Blouse," etc.

Here is how one teacher handles the question of whom to call on. "When I go into a classroom for the first time I always carry popsicle sticks with me. When I am looking over the attendance before the students arrive, I write their names on the sticks, and then when I have to call on someone to do something I can just pick a stick out of a cup and call a name. It gets their attention much quicker." Popsicle sticks are available from Wal-Mart and from craft stores.

2. Ask a lot of questions about the subject at hand (A Packet for Substitute Teachers)(classroom work) and call on individual students by name before asking a question. Let students who don't know the answer know that they have a lot to learn - "You got that one wrong. You have a lot to learn, don't you. Now is the time for learning. You'd better take advantage of it."

Another technique is to have a series of random questions ready: Blue Shirt, what does DNA stand for? Pink Blouse, who was the fourth president of the United States? Purple Shirt, what was the year of the Declaration of Independence? Black Shirt, who is Henry Kissinger? Yellow Sweater, what is a genome? etc.

If Blue Shirt doesn't know the answer, you can see if someone else does and have a short discussion of the answer before moving on to the next question.

This technique 1) shows students up for lacking knowledge and 2) shows them that you have much to teach them. If you are successful, they will see that they will be missing out on a lot of interesting information if they don't pay attention and get down to work.

3. When a class is disorderly, you want to put the students at a disadvantage. (A Packet for Substitute Teachers) I envision this scenario: you find a paragraph to dictate, make sure students have paper and pencil, and you dictate the paragraph. Then you collect the papers. While the students watch, you slowly look through the set of papers, making occasional comments about the poor spelling, handwriting, punctuation, etc. (naming no names - just commenting on the poor quality of the product). Don't compliment anybody. Then you tell them what a lot they have to learn, etc.

4.Use a time filler. (A Packet for Substitute Teachers) If the classroom work doesn't provide enough material for questions, cut out an article from a newspaper or a magazine on a science topic or on politics and read it aloud to the class and then ask some hard questions. You don't smile or act encouraging in any way - on the contrary, you are seriously disturbed by the students' ineptitude and ignorance.

5. If the class is unmanageable: (A Packet for Substitute Teachers) sit at a student desk at the back of the classroom and wait. You might even take notes. The students wonder what you have in mind and begin to settle down.

6. Enlisting peer pressure can be effective. (A Packet for Substitute Teachers) One teacher uses this technique: "If class behavior is poor, I ask the class, 'What grade are you in?' I write the grade number on the board. I say that their current behavior or attention is not good enough for the grade level that they are in. I erase the grade level and write in a lower grade level. I say that the grade level written on the board can be changed when their behavior warrants it. For really good behavior an even above-grade-level number can be written. If behavior is satisfactory, I erase the lower grade number and write in the current one. Afterwards, if behavior problems occur, orderly students calm down the disruptive ones, especially if I move to the 'grade spot' on the board."

7.  Talk to individual students before talking to the class.  (Substitute Teaching Tricks of the Trade)  There is always one student who wanders into class long before anyone else does. Speaking with this student is the best insurance a Teacher can get, and it is free for the taking. The two minutes that you spend speaking to this student can forewarn you of any problems that need to be dealt with. This student may tell of in-class rivalries between two students that often turn violent when there is a Substitute Teacher present. Or he may tell of one trick that students repeatedly play on Substitutes. The early Student may tell of an Assembly during third period that nobody has told you about, or how Joshua has epileptic seizures, but that the students know how to deal with the seizure.

8.  Never let them see you sweat. (Substitute Teaching Tricks of the Trade) Sweating can take on many forms: stuttering, looking off in the distance, when asked a tough question, staring, twitching, frantically searching for a piece of chalk, or the most blatant form of sweating - responding "I don't know" to a question asked by a student. Sweating is the sign of a person who has no control of the situation. If you show signs of this, students will see it and use it to their advantage.

9.  Don't smile until you are in control. (Substitute Teaching Tricks of the Trade) Smiling can often be mistaken by students as "sweating". Avoid this confusion by not smiling until the students are doing what they should be doing, and you are in control of the class room.

10.  Ask students, "What do you think?" when you do not know. (Substitute Teaching Tricks of the Trade) This not only allows you to get away with not knowing the material, but encourages the students towards finding the answer on their own. Students are quick to "test" Substitute Teachers to see if they are qualified to teach the class room subject. The best response to the students' challenge is to ask, "What do you think?". If they persist, instruct the student to "Look  for the answer in the book", or "Go on to the next question."

11.  Be professional. (Substitute Teaching Tricks of the Trade)  The students expect a Substitute Teacher to be professional. This means dressing, talking, and acting professionally. This rules out dressing in blue jeans and ripped tee-shirt, smoking, and cursing.

12.  Follow school rules. (Substitute Teaching Tricks of the Trade) Different schools have different rules. It is your duty to know the different rules of each school. Know if eating in class is O.K.; if student smoking on campus is allowed; learn the location where the class goes in case of a fire drill (for every class you teach).

13.  Be flexible. (Substitute Teaching Tricks of the Trade) Being a Substitute Teacher and being flexible are one and the same. You must be willing to teach a Boy's P.E. Class, even though the Gatekeeper called you in to substitute for an Advanced Trigonometry Class. You must be flexible when your lunch break is cancelled because they need a stand-in security person for the noon-hour square dance contest that the Agriculture Department is sponsoring. If the Sub is not flexible, the school may have a hard time effectively utilizing the talents of this Substitute Teacher.

14.  Don't wake a sleeping student.  (Substitute Teaching Tricks of the Trade)  A sleeping student is a blessing. Let this student sleep. There is a reason this student is sleeping, and chances are good that this reason has very little to do with you, so don't take a sleeping student personally. Waking this student will stop the flow of the class, and assuming you are successful in waking this student, the same student will learn very little, and may cause havoc in the class room. Consider a sleeping student a blessing, and let the student sleep.

15.  There are no kids in your class, only students.  (Substitute Teaching Tricks of the Trade)  The students in your class will be what ever you want them to be. If you call them "kids", they will act like kids. If you call them "Students", they will act much more mature.

16.  Walk around the classroom. (Substitute Teaching Tricks of the Trade)  You are the Captain of this Ship. Know what goes on aboard your ship. Be aware of any actions that may call for your intervention. Walking around class reminds students whose ship it is. Also, it will allow you to speak to the students, for both control and social purposes.

17.  Leave a note to the regular teacher.  (Substitute Teaching Tricks of the Trade)  Write a short one or two paragraph description of each class's progress, and let the absent Teacher know who was misbehaving. Tell the absent Teacher anything else that they should know: if anyone dropped out of class, if anything was broken, or how the hamster died.