Whether you are just starting out or you are a retired teacher figuring out how to be a good substitute teacher takes some time. Here are a few tips to get you started out right or some ways that you can up your substitute teaching game. These tips work whether you are a long term substitute teacher or a day to day substitute.
Substitute Teaching Tips
- Have fun and smile. 😀 Enjoy yourself, teaching is fun and it is also all about mindset. If you start each day in a positive way, the day will go better. Having fun with the students is the best part.
- A quick introduction. 🤝Have a quick way to introduce yourself that gives the impression that you want to give to students.
- Come prepared for no plans. 😎It shouldn’t happen but being prepared for the worst case scenario doesn’t hurt either. Games, appropriate websites and read aloud books can help fill the time if you get done before time. The younger the students the more involved you will have to be.
- Read over plans carefully and talk to other teachers if you have questions. 👥 Most of the time other teachers would be happy to help you. Getting to class a couple minutes before can help make sure you are prepared for students. Teachers like helping but also make sure that you are not taking up too much of their time.
- Have proactive strategies. 👀 Pre teaching students an attention getter at the beginning of class helps you ensure that you have a way to get students’ attention when they get off task. Here is a post more about teaching attention getters.
- Choose your battles wisely. 🛑 You will have a student that won’t want to listen to you. It is not about you, it is about them. When a teacher argues with a student, the teacher never wins. You end up feeling frustrated and whatever needs to be done doesn’t get done. Walk away and check back calmly.
- Get to know people.👋 Ask students questions about themselves and listen. Students can tell if you genuinely care about them. Talk to teachers and make connections. You never know what those connections might bring.
- Familiarize yourself with district expectations. 👩💻 This is a biggie. Teachers love substitutes who can pick up right where they left off. If you can learn district initiatives, computer programs, current websites used in the classroom then it makes it easier for you and the teacher.
- Make life easier for the classroom teacher. 🗂 Collect student work and organize it in an alphabetical list (not every teacher does this but you can never go wrong with leaving with an organized classroom). Most likely the teacher will have a list somewhere that you can use. Even if you don’t check the work, coming back into a classroom with organized piles is a treat.
- Leave the classroom better than you found it. ⚡️ For a teacher coming back into a classroom that does not look like a disaster is so nice. when a teacher has been gone, nothing is nicer than to come back to a room that is orderly.
These are just a few ways of how to be a good substitute teacher. Is there anything that you would add? Let me know in the comments below. ⬇
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