It's one of my favourite parts of the job: I'm really my own boss, and I make myself work harder if I don't do the job right, because then I have to do it again with another teacher's kids and I don't get invited back. It's a nice feedback loop, actually. Unfortunately it's too late to do much about the situation that caused you not to be invited back once the teacher has returned to the carnage, but what can you do?
First, look for your instant feedback. What are your students doing? Do the "right" kids like you and seem to be working? Are the "button-pushers" complaining about you? You're probably doing your job just fine. Teachers actually expect certain names to find their way into the sub note. Tell them what you did to deal with those kids instead of just saying "Johnny Migrainebestower was in fine form today, flinging dry erase markers at the board to see if he could get them to hit just right to make a mark when uncapped." Please tell me you dealt with that issue on the spot! "Johnny was attempting to throw dry erase markers. I removed the markers and moved him to the isolation desk to work, then had a hallway conversation before I sent him next door to work."
No, those feedback loops are available immediately when the kids who want to work can work and those who don't want to work aren't disrupting anything else. That's a nice status quo for the room. If you can get those other kids to turn in *something* (really, anything) you're leagues ahead.
Another good longer-term feedback loop is your return-request rate (RRR). I keep a job log that's rather ridiculous, but effective. It gives me a very good snapshot of what I'm doing and how my averages are moving in terms of the health of my "business" subbing. I look at the year in total, and the last thirty days for "growth."
Over the first 30 days of the year, my RRR was 26%. It's not stellar, but the first thirty days of the school year are always a bit dicey because nobody is necessarily sure you're still subbing. Heck, if you're good, maybe you went and got a classroom of your own. It happens! Our district specifically forbids using the District email system to ask for work, so I make sure to stop in and say hi to teachers I know and love working for at the start of the year, just to let them know that I'm around.
The next thirty days will end at the end of this week. This one is much more telling. My RRR has moved to 63%. That represents 19 days of work from 8 teachers. All are good, rarely take days off, and plan well when they do take them. That's a HUGE jump and a nice bit of relaxation for me. 5 of those days are with kids who I will spend 12 days of their school year with for this teacher, and am working on six for another with them.
By using my feedback loops to get better, looking critically at what worked to get my good kids able to work and my disruptors to be less-disruptive, I was able to move the pendulum of my business MUCH further to the favourable and much faster than I ever dreamed.
When the semester ends, I'll have another 30 day mark to look at, and I expect that it will show a movement much closer to 80% RRR. To me, that's actually ideal. It keeps you available to other teachers and at the last minute if an office manager needs to scramble to fill. It lets you get into other rooms once in awhile, but 4 out of 5 of your work days are spent with kids you know, love, enjoy and are building trusting educational relationships with. That's a winning combo.
Now, my challenge to you: What feedback loops are most useful to you? Are they personal observation or external observation? Do you seek out principals and other colleagues to observe you?
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