Substitute Teachers Lounge
Substitute Teachers Lounge
Substitute Teacher Qualities That Teachers Don't Have
Substitute teaching requires a unique set of skills that differs from traditional teaching. By exploring seven essential qualities, we aim to equip substitute teachers with strategies to adapt quickly, manage classrooms effectively, and engage students instantly.
• Emphasizing adaptability for varying classroom environments
• Discussing classroom management without inherent authority
• The importance of reading classroom dynamics quickly
• Presenting confidently amid uncertainty
• Strategies to engage without prior relationships
• The necessity of improvisation skills for unexpected scenarios
• Building resilience and patience while facing challenges
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Greg Collins. Substitute Teachers Lounge, episode 280 for February 25th 2025. I want to call this a special treat today because, even though I have mentioned thoughts that were posted on our Substitute Teachers Lounge Facebook group page, well, today the show is going to be entirely about one of those posts. You know that substitute teachers need to have certain qualities that maybe teachers don't so much need, and that's what we're going to talk about today. One of the reasons I like this post so much is that the poster posted anonymously. They didn't want any credit for this. Most of the time when somebody posts anonymously, it's to say something bad about something and they don't want to identify themselves Not the case in this situation. So, without further ado, we'll talk about these abilities that substitute teachers need to have. There's a lucky seven of them. I don't want to plagiarize, so I'm going to read them verbatim at first, and then I'll make my comments after each one.
Greg:Substitute teachers loud, all right, guys, man, oh man. That Kentucky weather. I tell you what I've got a four-day job coming up in the third grade beginning In fact, it's already begun by the time you listen to this, but this week I've got four days of third grade and I'm a little nervous about it, in that I wouldn't normally be, but this past week in Kentucky we've had major flooding, we've had snow. That, in my area, kept us from going to class four days, which means then that I'm going to be coming into this class kind of dry. I know that the I actually know the teacher I'm substitute teaching for. I've known him for years, but it's going to be a little bit different because he wasn't at class last week either, or at least he didn't see his students last week. So probably I'm going to be covering what he wanted to cover last week instead of what he had hoped I could cover this week. So a little bit anxiety there, but everything will be all right. I'm glad you're tuned into this episode.
Greg:I'm going to read verbatim what I said in the opening, and there's seven points and I want to make sure we get to all of them. So I am going to read the opening and then I will read point one and then I will comment a little bit. Just from my experience, I agree with all of them, so it's certainly not going to be to disagree with them, but I like them a lot, and that's exactly what happened here. You know, I'm not sure how many people read them. We're well over 4,000 members, in fact. I'm looking at it right now. We've got 4,600 members on this Facebook group page for Substitute Teachers Lounge and I'm sure most of them have seen this and a lot of them have read it. You know, a lot of times you page through things. This one caught a lot of people's attention, so here we go. The opening is this A substitute teacher needs many of the same qualities as a regular teacher, but because they step into different classrooms with little preparation, they also need some unique skills that full-time teachers might not rely on as much.
Greg:Here are a few key ones. Number one adaptability and quick thinking. Regular teachers have a set routine and long-term lesson plans. Substitutes, on the other hand, must quickly adapt to new classrooms, different grade levels and unexpected situations. With little time to prepare, they often need to adjust lessons on the fly based on student behavior, available materials and missing lesson plans. All right, so that's the quote.
Greg:Now, I couldn't agree with this more, because I don't know if I've ever been to a class where you didn't have to just adjust things at least a little bit. You had to adjust them at least a little bit because of things that come up in the classroom. Students bring things up. You don't want to just cut them off. They like to share stories. You have to be careful with that in elementary school or to get too out of hand. Maybe let them share one story every 20 minutes or something like that. But I love this. You're going to go into a lot of rooms where you have to adapt because of the students. In fact, I've always said first period is the learning period. You're seeing how the lesson plan goes over and if it's the same all day, you're going to adapt to the next periods because of what didn't go well in the first period or even how the student composition is a little bit different in that second period. So that's a great point.
Greg:Number two, and I quote classroom management without authority. Full-time teachers establish long-term relationships and classroom expectations over time. Substitutes have to gain control quickly without that built-in authority. They need to earn students' respect fast, often by balancing friendliness with firmness. I'm so glad this poster said that at the end. This is after the quote. Of course I'm talking on my own now. I'm going to repeat that last part. They need to earn students' respect fast, often by balancing friendliness with firmness. That is so true. You can't just go in there and yell all the time and expect them to be responsive to you or participate properly. You have to have both that firmness and friendliness. Be firm when you need to, but be friendly, help them out, walk around and say you know, maybe if their project, especially elementary school, if they're supposed to draw something, make nice comments to them so that they stay motivated. All right, number three, reading the room instantly. I like this one Quote a substitute must assess the mood and dynamics of a class within minutes. They need to recognize potential troublemakers, shy students or underlying tensions without prior knowledge of student personalities. Unquote. Boy, is that ever true? You know this.
Greg:Every different class that you have, every day, you've got a different use, that word composition again. There's different types of students in there. You're going to have some, just by default, that are more intelligent than others. You're going to have some that are shyer, as she said, than others. You're going to have some that love to participate, over and over and over. You have some that don't want to participate at all. How do you deal with that? How can you make things fun so that everyone will want to participate? So you do have to read your room. You're going to do it. You got to be careful. You don't want to just assume when students walk in, definitely by appearance. How are you going to assume anything just by looking at them? You have to kind of get to know them and know how to handle yourself after that, all right.
Greg:Number four, I quote confidence in uncertainty. Regular teachers know their subject matter and students well. Substitutes often walk in blind, sometimes teaching unfamiliar subjects or following vague instructions. They must confidently present material, even when they're learning it at the same time. Man, that is true, I'm terrible at history, I am good at math and you can tell I teach those two topics. In fact, as much as I like science, there's part of it that I have trouble getting a grasp of and I don't mind asking for help. One of my long-term jobs was teaching a science class and I just told the head of department you know, these valence electrons are killing me and I don't know if I'm giving them the proper guidance that they need. And the head of the department said well, why don't, why don't we set up a little zoom meeting between the two classes? And it just so happened that the head of the department was teaching the same type of class at the same time no-transcript you have.
Greg:You're going to be uncertain about things. You're not as confident about certain things. There are certain subjects that I don't know at all and you still have to teach them by the guidelines. Now the teacher will be as helpful as they can, but they're not always up to snuff. They don't always get to leave the details. You know, and what I've noticed too, a lot of notes you get from teachers. They're writing them down. They're writing them down in a way that makes sense to them. They don't realize that when a new person comes in and reads that, well, maybe it doesn't exactly click in my brain the way that you know it in your brain. So I've run across that too. So you definitely have to have confidence in uncertainty.
Greg:Number five, I quote ability to engage with no relationship history. Full-time teachers build relationships over months or years. Substitutes have to create instant rapport to keep students engaged, even if they only see them for one day. Storytelling, humor and enthusiasm. Help substitutes make lessons interesting without prior connections. Boy, oh boy, unquote. I love that last phrase. Again, that's who I am. Storytelling, humor and enthusiasm that describes me to a T Help substitute teachers make lessons interesting. Without prior connections you got to connect with those kids, always have a funny story to start the class with. You know, even if you make one up, the more personal you make it sound, the better you're going to connect with those students. Now again, I've run across that in elementary school. The more stories I share, the more stories they want to share. But a little humor, a little storytelling, a little enthusiasm goes a long way for substitute teachers.
Greg:Number six, quote strong improvisation skills. If there's no lesson plan, no materials or technology issues, a substitute has to think on their feet and come up with meaningful activities quickly. They often need backup activities, games or discussion topics in case they finish earlier or run into problems. Unquote. I have run into that constantly. If you've never been in a situation where there's no materials or something goes wrong, well, bless your heart, you've been blessed. It's coming. Believe me, it's coming and you'll need to. You know I've had episodes before where I always I refer to them as back pocket issues or back pocket preparation, because stuff that you, figuratively speaking, keep in your back pocket to pull out in case there's extra time. I used to say I don't say that so much anymore, but I used to say I almost like it when there's time left over in either elementary school or middle school because it gives me time to try some things that I would like to do to help bond with those students. So those strong improvisational skills. Number seven, the last one, quote resilience and patience.
Greg:Substitutes phase students who might test them, simply because they're not the regular teacher. Handling defiance, disengagement or indifference without taking it personally is crucial, amen. They often lack the support system of a regular teacher, meaning they need to be self-sufficient in handling challenges. Boy, that is so true, you know. It actually makes me feel a little funny when I'll walk into Substitute Teach and everybody's saying yay, we got a substitute. Well, I'm happy that they said yay, but they're not really saying yay because of me. They're really saying yay because they think it's going to be an easy day.
Greg:The regular teacher's not here, so you have to keep them on task. You have to be patient. There was a post this week about a comment that was made about a teacher that was uncalled for, it was unethical and she reported it and I've never been put in that situation and I hate it that she was. But there's things that are going to come up, even if it's just students who have had a bad day, who are currently in the middle of a bad situation with their home life. They can't turn that off when they come to school. So you might be faced with something and you're going to have to be patient about it. You're going to eventually encounter defiance, disengagement and indifference, just like this person said, and you can't take it personally. If you take it personally, that's going to be rougher on you than it is on the student. So that was a very, very good point.
Greg:The poster closes by saying would you say you've had to lean on any of these more than expected while subbing. Well, as I glance back at all seven, I have encountered what the poster is talking about in all seven. This is excellent. I would love you to join our Substitute Teachers and Islands Facebook group. Like I said, we're over 4,600 people now. By the way, by the end of the year we're going to go over 100,000 downloads. Now, I'm not Joe Rogan and I know that he gets that much every time, but I am so excited that you've thought it important enough to download these episodes. Thank you to the poster. I'll make sure when this podcast episode is made public on Tuesday that I'll post so that the original poster knows that they were given credit. Of course I wouldn't give them my credit by name anyway without their permission, but it's just so nice that they posted this anonymously. They didn't want the credit and I hope those comments today will help you in your substitute teaching this week.
