Substitute Teachers Lounge
Substitute Teachers Lounge
Look What They've Done to My Planning Period!
Have you ever wondered how the landscape of planning periods for substitute teachers has shifted in recent times? We've got some eye-opening insights for you! Our episode kicks off with a deep-dive into the dramatic change in how planning periods are being utilized, where subs are now frequently tasked with covering additional classes. We discuss the ripple effects of these alterations, drawing from the enlightening dialogues in our rapidly expanding Substitute Teacher's Lounge Facebook group.
I still have the sticker in my studio. It says November 27th 2018. It was when I first started substitute teaching. I remember that day. I walked into the room. It went well for about three periods and then I looked on the planning schedule and it said fourth period was planning. And I'm thinking, what is planning? And then I realized no student showed up, so I was kind of shocked. I was actually gonna have an hour during the day. That was my own time. It was planning period. My own time Flash forward five years later 2023, talking about planning periods and my how times have changed.
Speaker 1:There is so many things we could talk about concerning planning periods. I'll tell you some of the discussions that have come up on our Facebook group. But, needless to say, planning periods are different now than they were before. Greg Collins substitute teacher's lounge. It is September 26th in our area of the last podcast before fall break, 2023. I'll see you in a minute.
Speaker 1:You know you would think maybe that planning periods would never be a topic of discussion for substitute teachers because they don't have anything to do during planning period. Right, the planning period is meant to be for the real I shouldn't use that word not the real teachers, the full time teachers, the ones that actually have a credential job in the classroom. That's when they do their grading, that's when they do their planning, maybe for the next day, and, believe me, one hour is not enough time for them. On the other hand, substitute teachers in the early days of planning periods I knew that was when I got to read the latest book that I've done. Maybe I, caught up on my fantasy football team, got my lineup squared away. That was essentially my planning period. Well, here's how things have changed in our area, and then we'll discuss just general discussions about how planning periods work, which ones you should choose, and I think I know what I want my planning period to be, and you might think right off the bat it's gonna be the last period of the day. Well, that's not always the case, so, but let's talk first of all about how things have changed for me.
Speaker 1:Over the five years I have migrated from doing mainly middle school to now mainly high school, because, just since I'm helping with the volleyball team, it just makes more sense if I try to substitute teach the same school. Sometimes we have practice right afterwards. In fact, we got two games this week on the road that we're gonna have to travel to on a bus. One of them is tonight. The bus is gonna leave at four and by the time I get everything packed up, it just makes more sense to just stay at the school for maybe that 30 minutes of time that I have to kill. But that's why I'm mainly high school now, and high school seems to have more of an issue of doing this for substitute teachers, most likely every time I go into a high school now, and sometimes even middle schools. I can't relate to elementary schools. It might be the same way, but you can probably tell that there are more and more openings for substitute teachers all the time. One of my fellow coaches on the team has applied to be a substitute teacher, so she is going to join the workforce in that regard too, because mainly, I told her she could work every day.
Speaker 1:In our area, the need for substitute teachers is now so strong that most days they will actually post absences in the system without even saying who the teacher is going to be, because they don't know who the teacher is going to be. They just know that they're going to have an absence, it's going to be an absence somewhere, and they'd rather have that substitute teacher hired and ready to go than wait until the last minute when in fact a teacher does post an absence and then they have to fill it. So now, in my school that I work in mainly, it most always just says teachers. Now it doesn't give a name. Now, of course, I'm still having teachers contact me and I will teach for them. But there have been times that even when I do that I get moved. So now here's what is a normal day when I go into a high school substitute teaching.
Speaker 1:Let's say that the planning period for the teacher I'm teaching for is second period. Well, they'll give me a little printout and they'll say you know, you're teaching for Miss Smith. You're teaching Miss Smith's class today. Your planning is second. So during your planning we want you to go cover for Mr Jones, and that is pretty much every day now. So planning periods are no more in our area for substitute teachers. You not only will be teaching your class, your all day class, but on that one hour that you have off you've got to go cover for somebody else.
Speaker 1:Now that sounds bad. I try to think well, should I feel bad about that or not? And then I think all the way back those five years ago when 2018, this is the honest truth the first time I realized I was gonna have an hour of my own during the day you know, get lunch, so it's in addition to the lunch I'm thinking, man, I don't really need this. I'm actually gonna get kind of bored waiting for the students to come back in the classroom. Well, you get used to having that planning period and all of a sudden you kind of get to the point where you really don't want your planning period, but you know they're paying. You don't want your planning period to be taken away, but they're paying you and they have the right to put you where they want to, whether you think they do or not. Now that leads to an interesting conversation that has come up on our Facebook group, also called Substitute Teacher's Lounge, growing every day. In fact. I'm recording this at 4.20 in the afternoon and I've had to add, it was over 20 new members just today, so it's almost getting a little bit overwhelming. I might have to designate some helpers on that group eventually, but anyway, that's where this industry is going, and the discussion that came up was I don't think this is not me talking. This is the poster talking on the Facebook group.
Speaker 1:I don't think schools have a right to take away my planning period. It is built into that day. Should I force the point? Well, it depends. I think it depends on how much leverage you have. You know, there may be a time when I could walk in and say you know, there's seven other schools that want me to substitute Teach 2 that aren't taking my planning period away. I love coming here, but if I know I can have a relaxation time of an hour every day at these schools, that might be what kind of pushes me in that direction. Now that's kind of I guess I would call that selfish on my part, but it's my choice. I could look at it that way and say I'm only gonna go to schools that let me have my planning period. Okay, I'm not gonna do that. It's interesting. I would love to know if any of you have pushed the point and said you don't have the right to take my planning period away from me, because I think that's ridiculous. I think they do have the right on not really the flip side. But another issue let's talk about this is another, probably in planning periods. These are the two main topics that come up. Should the schools have the right to take that hour away from me? And secondly, if the planning periods. If my planning period for a day is the last hour of the day, should I go home? Should I tell anybody I'm going home? Well, I'll tell you how I handle it Now.
Speaker 1:Back when I was, I'm still practicing, but it's not like I have to drive a long distance like I might have done for refereeing. I know one high school that I taught out a lot last year. I would always take the math classes if I could, and even the secretary, the one that scheduled subs she knew I liked math classes, she knew I refereed volleyball and she knew that the math department's planning period was the last period of the day and she had no trouble with me leaving during that. There's also an academy in the area for high school students that there's actually four different high schools two in our county, in our district even, that I sub at, and then two outside that I don't even have the paperwork to sub at, so I'm not subbing there, but they bring their students in to this academy and this academy. The nature of the beast is they get bused there and then taken back to their home school before it's time to leave for the day, which means all the students are gone at two o'clock. So that school, that academy, just the nature of the beast. They not only let the subs go home, they really expect the subs to go home at two o'clock and not have to work through that planning period.
Speaker 1:So those are two situations, but generally speaking, we'll talk a little bit about what planning period of the day is best, and I'll tell you this I used to think it was the last one, I don't anymore. But If your planning period is the last period of the day, should you leave? That's the discussion that comes up. My answer is this what I typically do, especially if I'm in a situation that if I leave an hour early, all I'm gonna do is get home to my couch to watch a ball game an hour earlier. Well, I don't leave in that situation. Now I might work In fact I have been known to. If I wanted to leave, I would walk out and actually stick my head in the office and say, hey, do you need me to go anywhere else before I get out of here? And I don't think they've ever said yes, they've never told me to stop, they just let me go, but more times than not I will stick around and maybe duck out, just maybe 10 minutes before the bell rings for the end of the day, just so I can beat the wave of traffic.
Speaker 1:Other planning periods there are some, and at one time I thought I liked this best, and maybe I still do. I liked the planning period either right before or right after the lunchtime. So in effect, you had an hour and a half to relax and enjoy your lunch in the classroom. You had the half an hour lunch backed up against the hour planning period. You had 90 minutes to enjoy yourself and relax. Okay, that was a fun one. First period of the day.
Speaker 1:My experience with first period of the day although I just had a class this last week that this isn't the case, but it's usually related arts classes that the first period is off. This week I had a science class. In fact I taught it for four days straight and it had first period. Of course I got sent somewhere else to first period, but I think I've gotten to the point now that I like it to be either the next to last or maybe the one o'clock I guess the 12 o'clock hour planning, so that then have one and two o'clock, and the reason that is it just breaks things up. You have a lunch in the middle of two classes and then you have planning in the middle of two classes and in that case, or maybe right before the last period, you didn't have a short day left. You only have two hours left, or you only have one hour left. I think that is my favorite situation, but we're all different. That's just some.
Speaker 1:If you're in a position of leverage and you're bold enough to say, hey, by the way, I've got, don't lie, but say something like I've got to contact my bank, I would like to do it around this time, by chance, is the class you're scheduling before have planning during that time? There's ways to find out when you're planning is, and if you want it to be a certain hour, by all means go for it. I will say this if you know somebody's in the gym all day and you're kind of a gym rat, well, why not, during your planning period, just go to the gym and have the gym teacher bond with the kids? In that way, you don't have to bond with them in the classroom. That's another thing that you could probably do. Probably the last thing I want to talk about is once you're longterm, now that's the most meaningful time for a planning period. Well, guess what? Even if the teacher you're teaching for has left you detailed classroom instructions First longterm job I ever took it was during that very first year.
Speaker 1:I was there for six weeks. I got the luxury of being able to drop by two days before she actually left and she had every day lined out. She had copies to be made and I knew exactly where to find them. But guess what? I had to make those copies Sometimes.
Speaker 1:Here's what I'm really getting ready to say Boy, do you ever need your planning period after you're a full-time teacher? Even though all the plans are done, you still have things to do. You got to grade papers. You have to I don't know clean up a little bit, make sure your attendance is correct, plan some activities, even if you've got the teacher's activities. You know you're probably like me. You want to throw in some fun stuff every now and then to keep the classroom being. I've cleared my thermal purpose to keep it being too boring and you will need that planning period and it will not be enough time.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what I did my first planning period, or my first time I had a long-term role is the school I headed at was actually only five minutes from where I went to church, so I got to where I would. We'd go eat lunch. I would go by the school and work for about an hour on Sunday afternoon, not because I'm required to, but just because I knew that school was going to be so empty. I could get copies made for the whole week during that hour and not have to worry about it the rest of the week. If you wait until the last minute in the morning, if you wait until that planning period, which also a lot of other teachers planning periods, you're not going to get that done. So if you're a full-time teacher, your planning period all of a sudden is golden. So that's it really.
Speaker 1:Planning periods. They have changed so much mainly because substitute teachers typically do not get them anymore. Because the substitute teaching shortage is so great, they got to have you covered for another class during that planning period. That's what happens since I had open first period planning period. First period I covered first. Another substitute teacher had planning in the second period, so they covered that same class second, and on and on and on. So planning periods. We had no idea they would affect us so much. I couldn't believe I got one in 2018 and now I can't believe I get frustrated when they get taken away. But such is life, all right. So enjoy your planning period if you still get them. Enjoy your fall break if you get to take one.
