Title: The Myth of Substitute Teaching as an Entry Into a Full-time Teaching Position | HuffPost
Headings: The Myth of Substitute Teaching as an Entry Into a Full-time Teaching Position
The Myth of Substitute Teaching as an Entry Into a Full-time Teaching Position
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Content: Assigning work for the day came next and unless the students were informed fully well the day prior by their teacher that they would have to complete this assignment and hand it in, the class was lost for the day. Whether urban, suburban or rural, around 50% of the students would disregard assignments and talk amongst friends, ask to go to the bathroom (for extended periods of time) or gather attention to themselves. The latter typically resulted in some sort of discipline problem. Administrators would pull students out but referrals were sometimes found to have been not implemented or in the garbage, as occurred at two middle schools in the same urban district. To call for a hall-monitor to come to get a student became an exercise in futility, as hall-monitors are seemingly untrained in classroom management and have no immediacy to help you out, for you are the substitute and there are more important things to deal with, in many observed cases socializing with other hall-monitors. If an administrator entered the room to take a student out or speak to the students, they would pay attention while he/she made remarks about respect and doing work and sitting quietly but moments after they left it all started up again. This is less the fault of administrators and more the fault of years of disrespect for substitute teachers as well as a lack of parental training in respect for adults. On more than one occasion, an administrator would not look at the referrals that were sent for students who refused to do work, refused to sit quietly or were disrespectful and insubordinate. Pulling the student out was the only solution. Unless the student committed a violent act, it was virtually assured the student would be back in classes the next day, a bad mix if there was a substitute the next day.