Substitute Teachers Lounge
Substitute Teachers Lounge
Does Substitute Teaching Make Sense - Mentally or Financially?
Imagine waiting every morning for a phone call that may or may not come, and when it does, it dictates your day. That’s the unpredictable life of a substitute teacher. I share my experiences, from the initial days of anxiety to earning a solid reputation, and even securing long-term teaching opportunities. However, the lure of flexibility led me to scale back, causing lesser teaching days than I'd prefer. I delve into the less glamorous side of substitute teaching, including the unsuspected costs. So, buckle up for a candid conversation about the realities of juggling different roles, filled with personal stories and useful insights.
This is Greg Collins Substitute Teacher's Lounge. Should you be a substitute teacher? Should you continue being a substitute teacher? Are there mental reasons for your decisions And are there financial reasons to your decisions? Well, guess what? I've got some things to share with you today, because I've been through all of that Man.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you this has been an unusual week for me, and it's not even during the school time, right. I had to make some decisions this week that I'm gonna share with you, and it all comes back to substitute teaching and how that affects my life. I probably shouldn't have used the word mental, but it is mental. It's just that that word gets such a negative connotation anymore. There's so many things that have been going around my head this week between substitute teaching, volleyball, some other things that I want to get into. I will present, before the show is over, how substitute teaching may actually cost you money. Cost you more money than you make. I know you think that is crazy. It is a very unusual situation, but I found myself in it. I'm going to save that for closer to the show, not to be mean or to dangle a carrot, but just in the grand scheme of everything I'm going to share with you today that's happened to me this week, and then we'll move on from there.
Speaker 1:First of all, i talk about volleyball too much on here, probably, but I really enjoy it. I enjoy seeing the look on the players faces, whether I'm talking about an eight-year-old or an 18-year-old when they do something well. Internally, it breaks my heart a little bit when I see their expression when they realized they could have done something better. All that rolled into a package. Remember that right now I'm working with a high school coach who's got several of us working with her trying to put together a volleyball club which is basically some of you across the country call it traveling teams, similar to AAU situations. We're trying to get one started because, since there's not one in our area, that forces the players that want to improve themselves to go to other locations and we want to keep them here. Well, here's what's happened to me this week. We are getting to the point. Now We will begin having meetings about referring high school volleyball.
Speaker 1:I have found I knew this was always the case, but I have found that I enjoy the planning, coaching side of volleyball more than I did the officiating side, and Being able to help organize and get this club started has really meant a lot to me. I jokingly Say it's not a joke, it really happened. But I got to coach my first game this week. It was a group of eight to ten year olds that we call volleyball Volleytots I guess is what we call it because it's that age group who has never Seen a volleyball until they walked in there. So I got to coach them. We won a match, we tied another match. It was so exciting to me and I knew I was getting that feeling inside man. This is a lot more fun than officiating Now. I love club volleyball of officiating. I will do that again in the spring. Now You can see where this is going.
Speaker 1:But I'm thinking do I want to continue officiating volleyball for high school? Because, just by the nature of the beast, you have to be much more formal and, to lack of a better word more of a robot, in that you're not supposed to threaten eyes with coaches, with the parents, with the players, because that can often give an appearance of you favoring that side over another. So You can just tell from this podcast how outgoing I am. I try to be friendly to everybody. Give you an example the other night when I was coaching those kids, i never yelled at them once other than maybe say turn around, because they were looking at their parents. Even when they did something that was less than desirable, i was clapping my hands. I was clapping my hands for everything. I was clapping my hands for the other team and I love doing that. I roll over and over in my head when I've had to officiate volleyball games in which I'd had those students in class. It was a little I didn't want to admit it but it was a little bit difficult for me because I Hate it to call something against them and maybe, if I believe what they told me, they actually thought I was tougher on them.
Speaker 1:All right, this does have to do with substitute teaching, because I came to a conclusion this week that during high school season, which would be August through about November I think it's when the championships are well I sure would rather to be part of a volleyball team than and officiate volleyball team. Well, the person in charge of this club heard me say that and They jokingly mentioned and again, it wasn't really a joke They said well, if you decide to do that, i Would love it. You're such a good scorekeeper. I would love it if you keep the score at our game. She knew I wanted to come to their games anyway. Their high school games were talking about now, and The more I thought about that, the more I thought you know, it's time. Maybe I Can learn some things from watching her coach. And when I told her that I was gonna do that, that I was going to quit high school volleyball officiating and Instead come to all of her games and keep our scorebook, she said I tell you what, greg, since you're gonna do that I'm glad that you're gonna do that You can teach some of my girls how to keep score. Well, why don't you just start coming to practices, help us on the practice floor? She said that because that's what I've been doing for weeks now on this club is helping them on The volleyball floor. So all of a sudden, here I am working more closely With students and they flip side.
Speaker 1:One of the reasons let's go back Specifically to substitute teaching and then I'll put both of these together, even in a financial way. It's very interesting in my situation. Give you a hint before we get there. Remember that I'm 65. Okay, and I retired as an accountant. Okay, now let's talk about specifically So that's a good word. I wonder if I can get that word in the dictionary Specifically talking about substitute teaching. Okay, if you have followed all 216 episodes of this podcast, bless your heart. If you have. I'm gonna guess that there's not that many of you out there, but I know there's a bunch of you that follow it recently.
Speaker 1:You know that right around, guess right before COVID and right after I can't remember exactly how it fell out I had gone from Setting on my couch every morning trying to get a substitute job anywhere to Getting a good reputation and then having schools asking me to work long term, which I Thought at that time was much better because I knew where I was going every day and I could plan for that. And if they wanted to Give me more responsibility, i actually felt a little bit like a teacher. I didn't have the responsibility, but I knew how to operate the things that they operate. So that was fantastic for me, so fantastic. They kept asking me to do it again and again and before I knew it, i had gone through two and a half years of long-term Substitute teaching, many as much as eight or nine weeks at a time. Two and a half years, well, and then it, i guess I got lazy. I quit in the middle of one of the long terms because I wanted to do some traveling with my brother and some more traveling with my Wife, who was recently retired as well, and I did all that.
Speaker 1:Well, i'm here to tell you now that I'm now Back in the other situation. I realized when I counted up How many days I actually substitute it in the school year 22, fall 22 to spring 23 I Did some numbers and realize I had substitute taught less than 30% of those days in my mind was kind of Disappointed in myself. I wanted to do a lot more than that. I had cut back too far. So I'm here to tell you now that I am going back from a few days a week to Four to five days every week. This year I'm going to get back to full-time. I'm going to accept some long-term roles If they make themselves Presentable, because I missed it. I realized Six graders are always my favorite grade to teach and I got to a group of seventh graders. Well, at the end of last year that hadn't met me and I'm thinking you mean it's been a year and a half, almost two years, since I've taught six graders at that school and I'm just thinking I want to get back into it. That is my forte. I could have still refereed volleyball.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna get into the financial side of it now. Okay, i've told you before that, unfortunately. However you want to look at it, let me back up first. Before I do that, let me just make my point, before we move on, that you've got to find your sweet spot. It's taken me forever. I've gone from a day at a time to long-term roles to a day at a time, a few days a week, and now I want to get back to every day, most every week, unless something just comes up where I'm out of town or something like that. I'm really looking forward to getting back to that level. So I sit down with a piece of paper and start at calculating things financially, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, first of all, you've got to decide all this for yourself, because everybody's in a different situation. Do you want to be at a day every now and then? Do you want to get a feel for a specific school? Go to the same school all the time, go to different schools all the time so you can meet more students. That's got to be what you decide. There's so many things and you'll learn this as you go. I'm still learning. I'm into it.
Speaker 1:Almost five years now, still trying to figure out what I want to do most And I think, at least at this point in my life, i know what it is. I want to substitute to each every day, or at least four days a week, and I want to give up officiating high school volleyball so that I can instead work closely, more closely, with a high school volleyball team. That's the decision I made Now here, because that's what I would enjoy more. I'm going to enjoy that more than I'm going to enjoy watching them play and watching their progress more than if I officiated their games financially. Let's talk about that, and I'm going to guess that maybe less than 10% of the people listening to this podcast this applies to, but maybe it will apply to you someday. In fact, most of you it will apply to someday. Here's the financial decision that helped me make that decision. I think I had. I think I had it made in my mind anyway. But here's the deal 2021,.
Speaker 1:I made a lot of money substitute teaching, because that's when a lot of my full-time roles were. I made a lot of money. I say a lot of money. That's all relative, isn't it? I made significant money officiating volleyball. Guess what? I am also 65 years old and I had chosen to go ahead and receive my social security, which I had done for three years. Well, guess what? I got a letter from Social Security office said you owe us some money because you made too much money. Okay, so in effect, if you are getting social security payments, there's a possibility that if you're successful as a substitute teacher, you're successful so first at something else as well, that you're going to have to give some of that social security money back because you're making too much.
Speaker 1:Now think about that and what I had just told you. Let's say that I didn't even want to work more closely with a volleyball team. I've got a decision to make. If I want to substitute teacher, go back to every day of the week And then guess what? I was making even more in the evening than I had that day when I substitute taught. I was making more in the evening referring volleyball. Well, guess what? That's going to kick me into a situation where I would probably owe some money back to Social Security. The standing joke about that is, when you get to that level, you're basically working for free. Because you're working so much, you got to give some of it back to the Social Security office. So that's an interesting little twist, and that also that's the financial side of what I had to decide this week. So that's my story.
Speaker 1:Everybody needs to learn where their wheelhouse is when they're substitute teaching. If you're in it to help the kids and you want to do it as much as possible, bless your hearts. If you can see them in an extracurricular way, too, that's fantastic. That's what I strive for, and I think I've finally gotten myself into a situation just as when I got out of accounting and all of a sudden was doing things I actually love to do. Now I'm getting out of this part of officiating and I'm going to do something with volleyball that I think I'm going to enjoy even more. Okay, so that's exciting for me.
Speaker 1:Bottom line is do you want to be a substitute teacher, and why? Do you want to be a substitute teacher every day, every week or just a few days a week? All that goes into your decision. You've heard me tell you my story now about how I bounced around from a day at a time to long term to a day at a time, and now I would like to go back to full term if the opportunity presents itself, and the part of sports that I love is actually helping the kids rather than blowing a whistle and telling them what they did wrong or maybe right on occasion. I think I'm exactly where I need to be now. You all keep me in your thoughts and I'll keep you in mind, and whatever your desire is as a substitute teacher, it ain't anybody else's decision.
Speaker 1:When I first got into it years ago, somebody actually told me don't ever substitute at a public school. It was a stand you know. If you watch the Better Call Saul series, you remember the line this final season about I had to send my kids to a public school. Public schools are the greatest. I like the private schools too. I only did one day there, but public schools are fine. You got to find your wheelhouse work with the schools so that you can do the classes and the age groups that you want to do. Be honest with them about the trouble you've had. At the same time, let them know that you will strive to help with that trouble and that you're not just a crybaby, you're just crying out for help. Okay, so make your decision. Do you want to be a substitute teacher, and for what reasons do you want to be? and for what reasons, if any, do you want to see those students outside of school? And I guarantee you're going to have a happier life than if you didn't think it through in the first place.
