Questions about substitute teaching

Here's my answers to some of the things people always seem to wonder about in regards to substitute teaching. I get these questions a lot, so I figured I'd just start posting them on the internet, hoping they might be useful to somebody.

1. How did you get your start doing substitute teacher work?

Sure you can just walking into any school's HR office and fill out an application, but in the world of school employment, it really helps to "know somebody" if you want to get hired. Back in 2006, I was working part-time at a high school, and I had a professor in college that knew I needed more money in my life, so she passed my info along to someone in HR. They gave me a call and told me to come in for an interview. Apparently they decided that they liked what they heard because the rest is history. I'm still working for that district today, but also sub for another as well.

2. What career moves did you make to get to your current position?

I had prior experience working with kids and knew that I enjoyed it, so I started taking educator courses, knowing that I wanted to eventually work on a master's degree. Basically I just continued aligning my employment opportunities where I'd be working mainly with kids or teens most of the time so I'd have plenty of references to use for later. Non-profits are a good way to do this informally.

After focusing on the job end of things, I focused on the education side of things and went through the rigors of a formal teacher training program. Since I wasn't able to find a full-time job after I obtained my Master's Degree, I decided to use subbing as an opportunity to broaden my exposure to the entire educational spectrum and gain some skills in other areas (like Special Education) that I was never trained in.

The good thing about that is I discovered that I like middle school far more than I had suspected. It also gives me a chance to see a lot of things I would never have seen as a regular classroom teacher. Subbing is also a good way to make a potential school or district aware of your existence and abilities.

3. Do you need a particular educational background to be a sub?

To be a sub, I think it's more helpful to have a lot of experience working with kids than a specific educational background. However, I do believe that the whole job is much easier if you have some idea of how teaching actually works--it's a lot harder than it looks. This means you should have taken certain education courses, particularly Classroom Management, and some teaching methods or teaching strategies courses in subject areas you want to sub in (so you'll understand why/how to implement the instruction you're supposed to be doing), and maybe Special Education (if you want to get into that--I highly recommend doing so because SPED is so much fun sometimes).

I live in a state where subs have to have teaching licenses, but I realize a lot of states don't have that requirement. Frankly that's a little scary when you realize that some kids will have a sub not just for a day, but for half a year or more. Even so, I'm reluctant to prescribe that all subs have to have a certain level of formal education (although most states require at least a bachelor's degree, and if you are lacking in this department you will probably have a nagging sense of inferiority because you'll be surrounded by highly educated people all day--and some really smart kids as well). I do feel that to sub at the high school level, you should have at least bachelors degree in a relevant subject for sure, if not outright certification. Those who haven't been in school for awhile can't fully appreciate how much harder the curriculum has gotten in the last 10 years.

But when you really get down to the nitty gritty of what most subbing entails, as a sub, a lot of it really has more to do with your ability to manage/cope with large groups of kids than any specialized academic training... The skills that make you a good sub (for a day) can't necessarily be taught, but if you're there long enough to be a long-term sub, you really need to know how to be a teacher, which is a totally different experience.