OH, the life of a substitute. You roll through the door at 6:30 or 7:00 or whatever time you’re supposed to be there, and you get done at 3 or 3:30 (or 1:50 if I’m really lucky!) according to the hours on the substitute scheduling system. When you walk out those school doors, you don’t have grading or conferences or emails or parents to deal with. The joy! You don’t even have to see those kids again tomorrow or ever again in that configuration. It’s all up to you.
But what do you REALLY have to do? There’s a planning period, right? That’s my time. I can go places. I can do whatever I want. And what about that half-hour before and after school? Do I REALLY have to be there a half-hour after the kids go? After all, I don’t have anything to do.
There are two types of people in play here: Those who want to return to that school and those who do not. I will deal with the first group here. The second will be in a later post.
For those who wish to return to the school, I recommend making life as easy as possible for the time period you were there. The less work the teacher, administrators and secretaries (don’t underestimate these amazing people, by the way) have to do as the result of the absence, the more likely it is that you will be called back. Show up on time and leave on time – don’t do anything halfway. Your lunch should be yours, but be back within the designated time and don’t forget to check out through the office. If you have duty at lunch, I'm sorry.
Grading gets you bonus points, especially if you finish all the grading of a given assignment, so then it doesn’t matter what rubric you used, because it was consistent. If you didn’t finish it and didn’t leave the rubric you used, then you may as well not have done the grading at all. The teacher has to spend time figuring out your rubric, then grading or regrading all the work.
Leaving a note is a must, but be clear and specific. If the kid used offensive language, it’s fine to put it in the note, as long as it’s in quotation marks. It should be, in fact, because the teacher can deal with it directly, in whatever manner he or she chooses, with all the information at hand. “Offensive Language” doesn’t really help them much, as my standards may differ from yours.
Clean the room. Simple, but often overlooked. Does the room look like it did when you walked in? Restore it as much as possible and you’ll be well on your way to an invitation to return. Bonus points for removing pencil from desks and tidying the floor.
Subs who do things like this spend a little bit of time investing in their professional image, and it’s a great way to use the time at the end of the day. Leaving at the official end of your work day and doing the little stuff is a sure way to get invited back.
What do you do that makes you that much more appealing for a requested return?
No comments:
Post a Comment