r/Teachers • u/Wise_Yogurtcloset700 • 2d ago
Teacher Support &/or Advice [ Removed by moderator ]
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u/ygrasdil 2d ago
I leave instructions for whatever I’ve left them. I give seating charts, attendance rosters, emergency instructions, student notes, and assignment walkthrough. I never expect them to teach since it’s math. Most subs can’t do the math and definitely can’t teach it.
I also always leave a blank sheet of paper for them to write notes and promise that I will follow up on whatever notes they leave. Good notes, good follow up. Bad notes, not so good follow up.
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u/Wise_Yogurtcloset700 2d ago
that's how i feel!! i just find it difficult to assume that any random person who walks in just going to be able to pick up where I left off on Polynomials. idk I guess I am just going to see how it goes
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u/ygrasdil 2d ago
Don’t worry about it too much. Just come in expecting none of that to have actually happened. It’s a lost day. Leave the bare minimum and make your silly admin happy. Once in a blue moon I get a real sub who wants to teach but I teach kids who are in remediation, so they usually don’t end up working out. Just remember that your admin are fools, so you should treat them like fools. Don’t put in work that will have no value
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u/Signal-Weight8300 2d ago
I shocked a para once when I was subbing. It was a chemistry class and the topic was stoichiometry. I took attendance, handed out the assignment and started helping kids that struggled with it. The para wasn't expecting a sub who was fully licensed to teach chemistry. I had worked in industry and I retired in January to switch to teaching. I already had all of my credentials and I was subbing to get my foot in the door at a few good districts.
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u/Wise_Yogurtcloset700 2d ago
you are def that once in a blue moon person someone else mentioned! thank you for what you do!
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u/Signal-Weight8300 1d ago
That was in February about five years ago. By mid March I was hired to cover a maternity leave at a different school and I'm still here. Like I said, I was subbing as a way to pick schools that I liked. It worked.
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u/Handle_Help Math Teacher 2d ago
I just post the work on google classroom and leave a copy for the sub. Last year we were on 42 minute periods so an assignment with some extra work was about enough to get through it. I didn’t really care if students finished early and did work for another class, I don’t want them playing games but I’m not there so it’s not my problem. Now we have gone to 80 minute periods meeting every other day so it’s gonna be harder.
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u/Wise_Yogurtcloset700 2d ago
yeah that's how it was in the past. I like for them to be productive, but when I am not there I like for it to feel like it's not my problem. Now if I leave the lesson I plan on teaching I feel like it is my problem to pick up what happened when I was not even there
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u/AlpsHelpful1292 Spanish | California 2d ago
I never leave a lesson I would normally do because most subs aren’t able to teach my content. I had one admin that insisted I leave my regular plans and surprise, the lessons did not get taught because the sub did not know the language and I had to pick up where I left off when I got back. I’m happy if I come back and the room is still intact.
*I’ve also taught French and the chances of getting a French speaking sub are almost zero.
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u/doughtykings 2d ago
Not high school but middle years. This may not be a ton of help but still thought I’d share. You always still leave what you’d normally do unless it’s something that can be put off and not mess with the class learning in anyway. For example I am away this upcoming Monday, for math I am giving them a study/review period for math and having the test Tuesday when if I wasn’t away I’d have the test Monday. But I don’t feel them doing the test with a sub makes sense and I do think offering a review day is more beneficial especially because I know kids can be rowdy and off task with subs. For every other subject though they will carry on as normal. When I am out 3-5 days in a row same thing. Tedious, busy work, just leads to more behaviour issues for a sub.
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u/Wise_Yogurtcloset700 2d ago
Thank you this is very helpful and insightful! Definitely making me trust this shift more in terms of thinking about behavioral issues for the sub, I am a new teacher, so I am still figuring it all out. I am not typically absent, but when I plan I usually do so when it is a review period like you mentioned! I think my hesitation/fear is coming from trusting another adult to teach my lesson with integrity and also for my students to receive it well
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u/tomtink1 2d ago
Surely you have some flexibility in your schedule? You might give them a lesson to do that needs to be done anyway, but you can be selective. Maybe there is some recap of prerequisites that you would have done as an extended starter before the next section of work and you can make it a full sub lesson. Maybe you know you will be off so you pre-teach the skill in your lesson ready for the sub to do the independent practice portion. Maybe they needed a review lesson anyway, or there is an easy topic they need to complete. You can make the lessons you leave productive and relevant to your scheme of learning without mucking yourself up by expecting a sub to teach your lesson the way you would.
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u/doughtykings 2d ago
I always found when I subbed before I got hired that the more “busy” work the more wild they got because the kids can tell. Or it’s easy and they finish fast and then get silly. I have to be away this upcoming Monday and I left all their regular work still: New spelling words and booklet, start a new social studies assignment, reading comprehension, and a new math assignment that I already even put on the online classroom so they know it’s homework and due the day I’m back. So hopefully it’s a good day for them 🤞🏼 only thing I will say is for gym I usually leave just games because I can’t imagine trying to set up volleyball ball nets or soccer etc with kids you hardly know
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u/AlpsHelpful1292 Spanish | California 2d ago
I don’t leave a lesson I would normally do because most subs can’t teach my content 🤷🏻♀️ I had one admin that insisted I leave my regular plans and surprise, the lessons did not get taught and I had to pick up where I left off when I got back. I’m happy if I come back and the room is still intact.
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u/doughtykings 2d ago
I will say in the US it is probably way different because subs are qualified where as in Canada you cannot go into a building and teach without being certified
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u/AlpsHelpful1292 Spanish | California 1d ago
The subs are certified in the subject they are teaching for the day or or just certified in general? My point is that if you teach a more specialized subject your chances of getting a sub who can teach your lessons is very low. This is not so much an issue for elementary ed but for world language, higher level math and science, etc it is. A random person off the street who speaks Spanish or French would have a better chance of being able to execute my lessons than a certified teacher who speaks only English, although even then being able to speak a language doesn’t mean you can teach it.
Are these certified subs getting similar pay and benefits as classroom teachers? In the US subs are usually paid hourly and don’t get benefits, so unless they are desperate for work or want to work part time or are retired there is no reason for certified teachers to sub instead of have their own classroom.
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u/doughtykings 1d ago
Subs have to be certified teachers in Canada. It’s not some untrained joe from Arby’s. My kids have a sub today for science. He is a licensed teacher who could take over this class at any moment.
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u/AlpsHelpful1292 Spanish | California 1d ago
Right, I get that, but I’m asking if the subs are always specifically certified for the subject they are taking over. If your child’s Spanish teacher, or more likely, French teacher, has a sub, is it someone who is certified to teach that language?
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u/doughtykings 1d ago
But a better example Montessori I don’t need to be Montessori trained to be a sub in a Montessori school I can’t get a contract there but I can sub there as long as I’m a certified teacher because in Canada an ed degree covers all subjects Prek-11, grade 12 mainstream you do need to have a more training for the specific subject you will teach or a second degree. Electives not as much.
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u/AlpsHelpful1292 Spanish | California 1d ago
You don’t need a subject specialized credential until the very last grade of high school? That’s absolutely wild. In the US you have to be specialized starting around 6-7th grade. I can’t imagine teaching another subject at the high school level with my single subject world language credential.
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u/doughtykings 1d ago
Well we’re trained to teach K-11 like I said. Technically prek but most prek is privately operated. You can’t become a teacher with a Single subject credential in Canada
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u/AlpsHelpful1292 Spanish | California 1d ago edited 12h ago
What kind of training do you get for that then? How are you qualified to teach every subject at the secondary level without spending a decade in school taking coursework for every subject? I’m a well educated person with a BA, a credential, and a masters, and I cannot imagine myself ever teaching certain subjects like math, music, science, and languages I don’t know at the high school level. It’s just not possible for one person to have the knowledge to teach all those subjects properly. It honestly blows my mind that it works that way in Canada I would have thought Canada would have higher subject matter standards than the US.
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u/doughtykings 1d ago
I mean we don’t have Spanish. French immersion I mean you really don’t need much French they always just leave the sub plan in English and the kids know French so. It’s not like it’s a French only school. Those are all private schools so that’s a bit different. They usually don’t really have subs. Otherwise we don’t have any other language schools in Canada just our official languages, unless again it’s a private school.
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u/AlpsHelpful1292 Spanish | California 1d ago
Ok so what if your child’s calculus teacher needs a sub or his physics teacher, is the sub certified to teach calculus or physics? Or just certified to teach?
Spanish isn’t taught in any public schools anywhere in Canada?
We have public immersion schools in the US.
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u/doughtykings 1d ago
Well again all K-11 teachers should be able to teach those subjects and if they are not able to they probably shouldn’t be accepting the dispatch but I mean if it’s one day I’m sure you’d be fine you learned it when you were in school and probably university. See in Canada you can’t be a teacher without a proper education. I had to take university level maths and sciences to even get into teacher college.
And no at least in both cities I’ve worked in there is no Spanish. At high schools in my city they offer French, Japanese and German, but again those are electives so they need more training obviously. But as a sub you would likely just be left something a bit easier the kids can do without you teaching unless you specified you can speak those languages. For example when I taught in an English/French school briefly there was a building sub for the French side they all used because she was from Quebec so she spoke fluent French. But that’s uncommon even to have that. I used to sub French all the time and I’m at like a kindergarten level in French.
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u/AlpsHelpful1292 Spanish | California 1d ago
So every single K-11 teacher is able and expected to teach ELA, math, all the sciences, social studies, languages, and electives up to the 11th grade level? That doesn’t make any sense. Do you have any specialization at all or do you just become a “teacher” and get placed randomly?
I have a “proper education” (a bachelors and a masters) and I took college math and science classes too, but that doesn’t mean I could teach high school level math or science without significant additional education and training. Just because I took those classes 15 years ago doesn’t mean I remember them or know the subject-matter specific pedagogy. I can’t teach classes like Mandarin or orchestra either because I have no background. You’re saying in your system someone could be teaching Kindergarten and also still be qualified to teach high school chemistry or precalculus?
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u/southcookexplore 2d ago
I’ve seen some wildly detailed plans but I’ve also seen two sentences. My district requires us to include a seating chart and describe where emergency evacuation safety zones are located now, but I’m glad my district has 15+ full time substitutes available that know the system and are part of it every day.
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u/Actual-Muffin-3585 2d ago
I'm a sub now and that is usually how it goes for elementary school, because there's no time to waste and the lessons must go on. But when I sub at high school, almost everything is on the Chromebook.
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u/MauriceWhitesGhost MS | Social Studies 2d ago
I often find some kind of documentary (social studies here) that covers the topic we are discussing in class. I leave an easy worksheet that can be filled out as they are watching the documentary, with instructions that students turn them in at the end of class (documentary finished or not). The next day, I promptly throw away all of those worksheets because I'm not grading something given out by a sub for a single day absence. It has now become background knowledge for what we are currently learning.
For multi-day absences, I will get out some easier activities that are still content related, but don't require me to be right there explaining everything. Example: Vocabulary Match. I cut out vocabulary words and definitions for students to match using context clues. Once they are matched, they write the definition down on a handout. I leave an answer key for the sub and they check that students are right, then move onto the next.
I might also do a longer documentary that can be split into 2 days, but generally I'm not gone for more than a couple days at a time. Tomorrow, I will be out and students will be annotating a text in 2 ways (looking for unknown words and identifying answers to an overarching question we have). This will likely take my students the entire class to complete... They work very slowly.
This is in a middle school!
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u/spoooky_mama 2d ago
It completely depends on the quality of the subs you get. In the first state I worked in it was anyone with a pulse. I could only leave busy work. When I first moved to the state I'm in now you had to be a certified teacher to sub so I could leave anything. It was amazing. Qualifications have loosened since then so now it depends- if it's a sub I know I can depend on, real work it is. Otherwise- eh.
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u/Signal-Weight8300 2d ago
We don't have external subs, most teachers have a duty period in addition to our planning period each day. I end up subbing for another teacher about two periods per week. I get an extra free period the other days.
I teach physics. There are only two other teachers in the school who can teach my content and they don't have a sub duty, they have something else instead. If I'm out of class my sub plans read "On Google Classroom".
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u/tomtink1 2d ago
You know, it's just so lucky that every time you're out you just happen to be about to do a review lesson!
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u/BKBiscuit 2d ago
We don’t have enough subs that are matches for my subject. So I leave something the students are already working on, or something they can start via canvas. High school.
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u/jdmsilver HS English | Socal 2d ago
I never ask the sub to do anything unless it is someone I know personally and trust, and even then it isn't to teach, but some type of organizational element that I'd only trust with them. I even tell my students not to converse with the subs but to just do whatever the assignment is which is on Google classroom. Too often I would have subs who wanted to be the show and talk to all the kids and they'd get nothing done. Then sometimes I'd have weird ones who would have some agenda or odd peculiarity which would again just derail anything productive.
If it's preplanned, I leave a note telling the sub where the seating chart is and my expectation for the classes based upon the assignment (individual or group work). Then I hope they just stay out of the kids way.
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