RISD: how to be a good sub [in progress]

[to be corrected and updated as I think of stuff]

These are my own peculiar opinions and, as always, Your Mileage May Vary. I do not claim any special insight or talent but most of my sub assignments were scheduled ahead of time by referral and by teachers who had used my services before. This may or may not be indicative of some success at the job.

Getting the job

Calendar management is critical for subs. Similar to contract workers, we have to both work and find the next day of work. Both paper calendars and electronic calendars are fine, but you must always have it with you. Teachers will stop you in the parking lot, hallway, lounge, etc and ask if you have such-and-such date open. These are your customers. Your ability to know your availability right then and there is crucial to collecting jobs.

I did my calendar in Google Calendar, and cut/pasted straight from Subfinder into the calendar entry.

If you have a choice, Subfinder online is preferable to Subfinder by phone. You can see multiple entries and it offers you the jobs instead of slamming it into your schedule with "you will substitute for..." and forcing you to cancel something you can't (or won't) take. This is particularly important for folks that sub in more than one district.

A note about "save the dates". Subfinder has no way for a sub to hold a date open for a teacher who has not put in an assignment. If a teacher does not put in the assignment soon, one of several things things can happen, and most of them are Bad:

1. Subfinder will continue to call for that slot and say "you will substitute for..." and fill the slot. Teacher is unhappy with sub for not saving the date.
2. Sub marks date unavailable in an (unsuccessful) attempt to hold it open for teacher. Teacher cannot enter assignment for that date since it is unavailable. Teacher is unhappy with sub.
3. Sub either remembers the date or marks in the calendar as a "possible"; declines further assignments for that date. This can go right in exactly one way and wrong in so many ways; I won't go into them here.
4. Sub doesn't remember it's a possible and takes another assignment. Teacher is unhappy with sub weeks later when s/he finally tries to put in the assignment. Note: this usually happens immediately before the assignment. Like the day before.
5. Teacher decides s/he doesn't need the assignment but doesn't tell the sub, who keeps declining assignments for that day. Sub is unhappy and/or doesn't get work (and doesn't get paid) for that day.

Having an oral agreement about an unposted assignment is a Bad Idea. Get the assignment in. I found best results by saying something like: "I do have that day open now. Please put the assignment in as soon as you can; Subfinder doesn't have a way to let subs hold any particular date open." It's true, and it's important. Interestingly, it does allow teachers to offer a job to a sub ("you have been requested for...") on a particular date. The converse would be useful.

If you are getting a day off or working in another ISD, mark that day unavailable in Subfinder ASAP. This will prevent you from overbooking. If you think you have the day off, check Subfinder first to make sure you really do...

Preparing for the job

Know where each school school is. If I had not been to a school before I visited the location the previous night.

Know when the school opens. Do not believe the hours given in Subfinder.
There is at least one school (Westwood, IIRC) that the wrong time for assignments. Reporting at that wrong time would mean kids would be in a classroom with no teacher... I reported this oversight in 2009. No, they didn't change it or at least not by the time I turned in my badge.

Check the job in Subfinder the night before. Sometimes weird things happen in Subfinder and you won't know unless you look at it.

Have your sub gear.

1. Your badge. I taped my Subfinder and Oracle ID numbers on the back since many sign-ins require both.
2. Your calendar
3. Pencil, pencil, notebook for you to use.
4. A pencil sharpener. The pencil sharpener situation in RISD is dreadful. You simply cannot count on there being a functional sharpener in the classroom. It's ridiculous.
5. Pencils and pens for students to borrow, if you are so inclined. Be aware you will not get most of them back, at least not in usable condition. I picked up pens/pencils I found in the hallway and used those as loaners.
6. a water bottle. You will often be unable to get to a fountain.
7. lunch, preferably one that needs no preparation or utensils as you cannot count on there being anything available. A sandwich in an insulated bag is nearly perfect.
8. your phone, on vibrate. Teachers will call you directly for assignments.
9. business cards with your phone and email on it. These can be very cheap, and are easy to hand to a teacher who wants you for a job. You can put your Subfinder ID on it.
10. headache medicine of choice :-)
11. clipboard (optional but useful). Holds all the various sheets of paper together. Also, tape front office and SRO phone numbers on the back as you will need them and they will probably not be posted anywhere.
12. timer - I've used standalones and an app on my phone. Really useful. Students will accept the timer's notification that time is up.
13. I carry earplugs because the fire drills at JJP are so frequent and the alarms so painfully, ear-distortingly loud. It's terrible. Kids are walking around with their hands over their ears. Having earplugs allows me to keep hands free and completely focused on student safety instead of OH MY GOD MY EARS ARE DYING. I have walked on the tarmac behind an idling 747 in the Middle East before, all engines spun up before takeoff, and it wasn't as loud as JJP fire alarms. You can hear them driving by on Coit with your windows rolled up. I swear alarms that loud have got to be an OSHA workplace violation.

Doing the job

Show up as early as you can, as soon as the doors open. This will allow you to find the classroom, find someone to unlock the door (you usually won't have a key), and look over the assignment.

When you get to the classroom there are several things to do. Most require time and are easier without students underfoot so this is another reason to arrive early.

1. Find the lesson plan. This is job one upon arrival. Get your paws on the lesson plan. Usually it is on top of a stack of paper on the teacher's desk but might be in a Sub Folder if a school uses that procedure. It might be face down, under things, or in unusual format. Worst case scenario: there isn't one. Start talking to nearby teachers; maybe they have it or know something about it. Pray the teacher makes a flyby right before class starts with the lesson plan. 2nd-worst case scenario: lesson plan exists, but is a line or two scrawled on yellow legal pad paper and says something like "the kids know what they should be doing." (both of these situations are Giant Red Flags and in my experience happen more often in coachs' classrooms for some reason).
2. Look over the lesson plan. Read it all the way through. How many different classes are there with different plans? What are they working on and when is it due?
3. Post info on the board: including your name (they will ask), the date (they will ask), and maybe even what time the period ends (they will ask), the assignments/activities (they will ask) and when they are due (they will ask). Having this info on the board acts as a prompt when you tell the class what is going to happen. Some will also refer back to the board later if they forget.
4. Find the emergency information about evacuations, green/red sheets, etc. I have been in two lockdowns in RISD and in both cases the mandatory green/red sheets and other emergency info were not visible in the classroom. I improvised both and left this info for the teacher.
5. Find the phone and see if it works and is charged. Put it on the charger.
6. Find any A/V gear you need, including the remote and test it. You will likely have to figure out various input/output switches, remotes, and other stuff. Queue the media you need. Trying to figure out how to start a film while a class erupts in chaos is a special kind of hell; better to get it figured out before 1st period.
7. Look at the boards, walls, and doors for additional information the teacher may have left. Classroom-specific rules are often posted.
8. Find the stapler, pencil sharpener, paper clips, hole punch, extra notebook paper, etc. The kids will ask you where these things are even though they are in the classroom each day and this is your first time there.
9. Make sure you have attendance sheets. If they are not present (check the sub folder, too) you will have to get them from an admin person in the front office. Another reason to be early.
10. If you have time, do the assignment before the kids get there. This helps spot errors, problems, confusing terms, etc, before the kids see it. It will help you help the kids. It actually does many other subtle and useful things but I will leave this for the sub to figure out. Try it. I think this is the most important non-classroom-management thing I did. It's a point of distinction between teaching and babysitting.

Classroom Management

This is actually the most important thing. Teaching kids can be like herding cats on the best of days. Throw in a few thugs or several unfocused kids and it can get messy in a hurry. I have had many, many teachers tell me subbing was the worst job they ever had and would never, ever do it again.

Here is my general approach to classroom management:

1. Try to be mindful that most kids are doing ok and it's 10% of the kids that disrupt and take 90% of your attention on bad days.
2. Make it clear the idea is for the class to follow the teacher's lesson plan; the sub and the classroom will work together to make it happen.
3. Interact with students based on the behavior they present. Leave expectations and biases (including expecations based on past experience with the student) at the door.
4. Respect the students. Show respect and concern and most will reciprocate.
5. Be tough but fair. Have high expectations together with compassion and flexibility.
6. Use "proximity" in subtle-to-less-subtle ways
7. Identify disruptive students as soon as possible and learn their names. This overlaps a good bit with with the thug problem I've been discussing, but thugs are only the most disruptive in a set of disruptive students.

Pre-emptive strike

The disruptive kids will usually out themselves even before class starts. Knowing their names is the only real leverage you have with the wildest kids because they think there may be repercussions. The hardest cases don't even mind the possibility of getting in trouble. But here's a field guide to spotting disruptive kids.

• Running in the room before class
• pushing, hitting, or tripping kids before class
• yelling in the hallway or classroom. Not talking about normal "kids are loud and laughing in the hallway stuff", I mean yelling at the top of the lungs, yelling at people in different parts of the school or other end of the hallway.
• being ecstatic that there is a sub. Running up and down the hallway telling everyone "we got a sub! we got a sub!"
• having no school materials at all. No pencil, nothing.
• being tardy, particularly tardy in a group that comes in together
• You may find fashion choices that correlate closely with disruptive behavior but I will leave those as an exercise for the sub. Fashion changes so swiftly that anything I say here might be outdated from semester to semester.

What to do with this information

The trick is to A) remember who is who, and B) figure out their names.

The process I finally ended up with is writing a short clothes-based description down on the attendance and pairing it up with the students name as I figured it out. So a kid with wild behaviors wearing Rangers shirt and shorts might get an entry like this:

Rngrs/shorts -

which would later be expanded to something like

Rngrs/shorts - Charles

and erased off the attendance later before turning it in.

Some methods for learning the student's name:

• their friends will use it, usually loudly. Sometimes in an unwittingly useful manner like "Ooooh Charles, you always late to class!" as Charles comes through the door late.
• written on their folder, in the unlikely event they brought one


• written on their clothes, necklaces, bracelets, shoes
  
• written on their ID, in the unlikely event they have one on and it is arranged so you can see it when passing
• written on their assignment, in the unlikely event they write their name on it
• written on their folder, in the unlikely even they brought one
• written on seating chart, in the unlikely event 1) it is correct; and 2) the disruptive student is sitting where they are supposed to. Disruptive students are the main reason for implementation of a seating chart, and they are by nature the most likely to violate the seating arrangement if the teacher isn't there to enforce it. The well-behaved kids will keep their assigned seat no matter what; they are, after all, well-behaved. Sometimes you can look for the missing kid in the chart and pair that up with the seat of someone who is absent or where a seat is not indicated to have student there

Using the student's name in an offhand, natural manner during guidance/correction results in stares of disbelief from the kid and about a 50% chance of reduction in disruption. Often they will ask "how you know my name?".

The teacher lets us

Students commonly report that "the teacher lets us" do some particular thing which either 1) sounds unlikely; or 2) is expressly against school policy.

Sometimes you can tell you're getting played by a conniver. Other times you can tell the teacher really does make some kind of exception (e.g. ipods after turning in test on Fridays).

My approach to this matter is twofold: deny the request as it is against school policy and the teacher has left no guidance to make an exception) and indicate to the kids you are sympathetic to their legitimate loss, if any.

So I say something like this: "I understand you are usually allowed to [do whatever activity in question]. Because your regular teacher is not here I will make a judgement call and not allow it. " {mass groans and complaints}

"HOWEVER, I will note for your teacher that I disallowed it today in case s/he wants to have a make-up for this loss."

This makes it more clear to the kids that I want them to get their special dispensation when the teacher returns. And it short-circuits the problem if the kids are (shall we say) presenting inaccurate information.

some final thoughts about subbing

Pick your battles, both in the classroom and when accepting jobs. You don't have to take every job. There are about a dozen teachers' classrooms and two entire schools in RISD I wouldn't return to. If I wanted to be a minimum security prison guard I would have been one. (Actually, I did apply to teach prisoners in an actual prison but there was a guard posted in each room to handle the wilder students.)

It is almost never helpful to give a student an answer, as much as they say they want it. It is immensely helpful to help them learn how to figure it out themselves. Teach a man to fish, as they say.

As crappy as subbing can be there are moments of glory, of joy, of near-spiritual satisfaction. Being there when it goes "click" in a kid's head is amazing. It's like watching your own kid take first steps, or say the first sentence. Listening to young people have real differences of opinion and working them out appropriately. Watching kids be brave and take academic chances. Failing and starting again. Having kids say "you ought to be a real teacher."