Friday, October 10, 2008

What I Actually Like About Being a Sub

Enough with the negative, already. I am determined to focus on the positives of being a substitute teacher. While I would much, much, much, much, much, much, much rather be a full-time teacher with my own classroom and students and so forth, there are a few perks to being a sub. Here are a few I have thought of:

1. I'm like a celebrity. I can't go to Walmart or the local library without some kid waving excitedly and yelling "Hey, Miss Sub!" or pointing and whispering "I know her! She was my teacher." (This can be a curse, too, especially when I'm not dressed in my teacher clothes, but rather my working-as-a-groundskeeper-pulling-weeds-and-shoveling-mulch clothes. But we're focusing on the positive, here.)

2. I get to watch the kids grow up. In the mind of a regular classroom teacher, students stay the same age forever--whatever age they were when they left their class. But I get to keep on teaching the same kids year after year, even when they change schools. That's cool.

3. Sometimes kids call me the Candy Lady, because I occasionally pass out candy to well-behaved classes.

4. Sometimes kids remember my actual name.

Hmm... That's not much, but I'll try to think of more. I have to. It's a matter of self-preservation.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can find more reasons to dislike subbing than to like being a sub, but there are a few upsides:

1) I don't have work to take home.
2) If I have a bad class for one day, they're not my class to deal with all year.
3) During prep times, I can often write or check e-mail instead of prepping.
4) There's always a new day.

Emily said...

Hi, I am new to subbing. I have my first assignment next week so I'm kind of nervous, not knowing what to expect. Any advice for someone just starting out? Hm that could be a good blog post too... Well, I am glad to have found your blog.

Boffa said...

5) I can stack myself with more jobs after I leave since I don't have any homework (tutoring, freelance reporting for newspapers)

Although I'd like to have my own class to make more money--one income source. One big headache.

Check out my subbing struggles at:

http://boffasworld.blogspot.com/2011/03/more-pre-k.html