The Substitute Teacher

Being a substitute teacher is a bittersweet job. You hear so many complaints and have to give the students a long list of tasks that the teacher sent to be done, which when handed out the kids groan and moan about. On the other hand, you get to make some extra bucks for just sitting there making sure they do (or at least try to do) what they are supposed to. Sometimes I say that it is the same as babysitting, without the diaper changing or the bottle. At other times it feels like you are a prison warden without the weapons or the bars to protect you. Not that the students are violent or anything like that. It’s just that sometimes the anxiety level gets out of control and everyone wants to speak at the same time and louder than the next person.

When the students do not know you, it is better because they do not know if you are lenient or strict and most of the time I wear my mean look. So I have been told that the first impression I give off is being the meanest and strictest teacher on the face of the Earth. The problem is when they realize that that is just a first impression.

When I was a young student, there were some teachers that were real substitute teachers. They were able to go into a classroom and teacher whatever the subject was. I always thought that they were the smartest people alive for they knew so much. Mind you, I went to an American school then.  

Brazilians schools are a bit different. Schools hire temporary teachers for those subjects where the official teacher is on leave or sick, but they do not have a teacher who is just a sub, in which case whoever has time available takes over the class for that period. However, I believe that the substitute teacher in the States knows beforehand what he will teacher, therefore has an opportunity to prepare for the class. Perhaps this has changed and also I am not stating this to be a general truth. I speak from my experience.

Where I work, we have been asked to prepare exercises to be used by the substitute teachers for each grade based on what you have planned for that year. This is not a bad idea. However, sometimes you have to go into a class that you know nothing about the subject, like Physics, Math, or a foreign language. In these cases students sometimes have doubts and there is nothing you can do but take a note and leave it for the teacher to answer when he or she comes back to work. It is both frustrating for the students and for the sub.

In public schools here in Brazil, the students just stay around in the playground when the teacher is absent. They do not have enough teachers hanging around to be able to substitute. I believe that students sometimes appreciate the fact that they have a free class, meaning leisure time class, nothing to do whatsoever. But then again, not being taught is prejudicial to a student’s future.

Nonetheless, I think that this must also be aggravating after a couple of days, grant it, the first time you appreciate the time off, but after a couple of days you start to wonder what is going to happen to your studies. You need to go to school; there is no teacher to teach you; you go to the playground and fool around; what’s the use? Hanging around at home or at the mall is certainly much more fun. But you have to go to school because there is a specific number of school days one has to attend.

All I can say is that being a substitute teacher is no fun.

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(Written: April 11, 2013)
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