Substitute Teachers Lounge
Substitute Teachers Lounge
Substitute Teacher Year-End Things You're Considering That You Shouldn't Be
The countdown to summer vacation has begun, with only two weeks of school remaining. As substitute teachers prepare to wrap up another academic year, the temptation to make certain end-of-year decisions looms large – but not all of these choices serve your long-term interests as an educator.
Greg Collins. Substitute Teachers Lounge. It is May 13th 2025. The year is almost over and you're considering doing some things that you shouldn't be. I want to tell you what those are right now. Substitute Teachers Lounge. All right, guys, we just got two more weeks to school. In fact, if you want to see how crazy I am, I just posted a video to both Instagram, under Substitute Teacher's Lounge account, or YouTube, under Substitute Teacher's Lounge account. It's called school is out in 10 more sleep, so I would love for you to watch that and see how crazy I can be. Maybe this is why the kids love me, because I'm crazy around them too.
Speaker 1:But today, as we enter into the last two weeks, I know that you're thinking about doing certain things, or maybe discontinuing certain things, and I'm going to tell you today what you shouldn't do. Now I've got these in sort of an order and I want to do, in my opinion. Some of you won't agree with me, but in my opinion, I'm going to list the most important one first, because it affects your pocketbook, so to speak. List the most important one first because it affects your pocketbook, so to speak, in good and bad ways. So I'm going to tell you this, as you know, as you've listened to this podcast all along, I am a big believer in subalert. I'm going to tell you what you shouldn't do about it here in just a moment. If you buy it for a year, it only averages to $4.99 a month. That's $5 a month, and if you think about it, you're going to make that back in what I personally get $135 a day here. So divide that out and you know an hour maybe it's less than an hour when you're already going to make enough money to pay for your monthly subscription. Let me tell you what happened this week, and it's happened before too.
Speaker 1:There is a school that I like to substitute at a lot, and my son-in-law works there, and one of the teachers in fifth grade posted an absence. It was actually while I was at the school, and I grabbed it because SubAlert told me. Now, subalert refreshes its information every 60 seconds, but what that means then is if the teacher entered an absent right before SubAlert was getting ready to refresh. Well, you see that practically immediately I saw it, I accepted it because I love this teacher's class he immediately went to my son-in-law's office and say hey, I think I messed it. I accepted it because I love this teacher's class. He immediately went to my son-in-law's office and say hey, I think I messed up. Your father-in-law accepted this job so quickly. I'm not sure if I did something wrong or if I assigned it to him without his permission, or whatever it was Turns out it was just because I accepted it within five seconds and I had the job. Now, here's what you shouldn't do. And, by the way, I just went and got myself a drink of water because my throat was getting dry and I calculated you actually make enough money in 15 minutes of a daily job to pay for SubAlert for one month. So to me that's a no-brainer.
Speaker 1:But some of you are considering canceling your subalert subscription for two to three months during the summer, because you know what's the point. Why should I pay $15 for the summer when there's no school in the summer? Well, here's why you shouldn't do that. Here's why I don't do that Because teachers will pick up on various different assignments in which they have to go for training, maybe in September, maybe in October, but they may find out about it in June. Well, guess what? They may if the school allows them to go ahead and post an absence in June, so that they know that it's covered. So you're going to get a September job, perhaps pop up in June, and if you've canceled your subscription for June, well, you're not going to see it. You're going to miss out on a job that you never even knew existed because it's not going to show up for you. So that's the first important thing I want to tell you Do not cancel that sub-alert subscription.
Speaker 1:If you use something else, don't cancel it, even if you just use Frontline, who also has alerts. Don't turn it off. Don't say, oh, I don't want to get notifications during the summer. That's ridiculous, because you don't want to miss out on an opportunity, this next one. I'm just going to use the old cliche don't burn bridges. You know right now that you've been subbing an entire school year and there's some things that you didn't like. There's a lot of things that you liked. Probably. There's some things you didn't like. In fact, there's some things that you didn't like so much that it's just eating you up inside and you're thinking man, I just want this school year to be over. And you may actually be tempted to go up to a teacher, to a principal, and say, listen, mister, here's what's wrong with this school right now and you think in your mind you're doing the right thing. Well, you probably very likely have just gotten yourself crossed off of their list for next year. So don't burn bridges.
Speaker 1:Don't make people mad at the school just because you didn't get your way. Don't make the people mad at the school just because they asked you to work during your planning period. I mean, what does a substitute teacher need a planning period for anyway? Don't get mad at someone because they rolled their eyes when you made a comment to a student. Don't get mad at someone because you're substituting, often for a teacher that never has lesson plans or never has them in the way you would like to see them.
Speaker 1:Everybody's different, in fact. Do just the opposite before you would like to see them. Everybody's different, In fact. Do just the opposite before you leave. Build the bridges. Don't be artificial about it. Don't just walk into every teacher in the school and say, oh, I've had the best time this year. Please look for me next year. Well, you can do some of that, but kind of do it on the side, do it as part of another conversation. But don't burn those bridges, because those bridges go between schools and if you make one school mad. They're going to hear about you in the other schools. They might find out that you subbed a lot in one school and you're not anymore and they might ask why. And the other school, if you have put them in a bad light, they will tell the truth about what you said and then you'll have to rebuild that bridge. So don't burn bridges.
Speaker 1:I'll even share one related story that just happened to pop into my mind, because I've done a lot of fifth grade here lately and and I know the school that they're going into and this, in my opinion, is an absolute excellent bunch of fifth graders, to the point that I think they will help elevate the middle school when they go into the sixth grade there. And I'm going to tell them since I do have a teaching job arranged for another day at that middle school, I'm going to tell him when I walk in. I'm friendly enough with the principal, I can tell him this. I'm going to tell him you've got a great bunch of sixth graders coming in here next year and I look forward to subbing that group a lot because I've run into them in the fifth grade and they are excellent. I've run into them in the fifth grade and they are excellent.
Speaker 1:Now, with all that in mind, here's a story one of the fifth graders told me, because there are some, there's issues at every school. There's some things at the school that make me uncomfortable, and I had that happened to come up in conversation during recess because one fifth grade student, I said are you excited to go to middle school next year? And I told him flat out. I said are you excited to go to middle school next year? And I told him flat out. I said you guys are a really great group of students and I actually think that when you get to middle school you're going to improve them a little bit.
Speaker 1:And one of them actually told me this story. They said on their field trip day, when all the fifth graders got to go to the middle school to see the sixth grade, that they were going to be in the sixth grade rooms and the teachers and all that good stuff. And they walked in and this student told me they said you know, mr Collins, I bet you're right, because one of the classrooms they took us into, the teacher had to tell one student to stop doing something he was doing and he didn't. And he said the teacher had to tell one student to stop doing something he was doing and he didn't. And he said the teacher. And they told me the teacher never did follow up with him and let him just keep on doing it. And they said I was really surprised because I thought the teachers would, you know, enforce the punishment with the students more than they do. Well, man, this fifth grader and you know it's so funny because these group of fifth graders rarely ever need to be punished and they are used to behaving the way they should.
Speaker 1:You know, a lot of it sometimes ends up being I was going to say semantics, that's the wrong word Demographics. There we go. Sometimes it's just demographics, because you just get a bumper crop some years where students are. They're so patient, they listen to you all the time, they do typical things that you would expect out of an 11-year-old, but they're really good kids and I'm glad I was associated with them. So think about that. Pump them up. Don't just leave them, don't even say goodbye, say I'll look forward to seeing you guys next year. Don't think you have to make the rounds and make everybody sad. Tell them about how much you're looking forward to them having a good summer and you seeing them next year. The next thing and you're going to think this is the craziest thing ever Well, in my opinion, especially in elementary school, but it happened in middle school and high school too.
Speaker 1:You've got some artistic kids in the class and sometimes they will want to draw a picture of you. Well, I never throw away any of that stuff. I'll organize it, I'll clip it, I'll put the teacher's name on it, I'll put down there what grade it was and what year, because you know another few years and I'll forget about it. And it is amazing how much those kids love to look at that in future years. I probably made a mistake, because I have one kid that drew a picture of me. That's in the third grade. Their sibling was in the fifth grade and I showed the picture to their sibling because I liked it, but they laughed about it and you never know how siblings are going to give each other a hard time. So I probably shouldn't have shown them that picture. Keep your pictures.
Speaker 1:There was one that a really, really good artistic student drew for me in the sixth grade six years ago. That student's graduating this year. That student has had some tough times and one day when I was in there I said you know I want to show you something. And I sat down next to the student and I said look at this. And it was that picture that it embarrassed a bit first, but said you drew this for me six years ago. Look how good that is. And it brought a smile to their face and you never know how keeping things like that can lift them up a little bit and motivate them. So I would encourage you, don't throw away that stuff, man. Hang on to it. You might want to show them that in the future. You might want to show them that I don't know just when they're feeling down the same year. Just hang on to it. They were proud of it, especially the elementary school students. They were proud of drawing that picture when they drew it. I love the ones I've gotten One of them, you know one of them I actually did as an assignment because I had the same class four days in a row and we always had a little 10 to 15 minute get acquainted session at the beginning of class.
Speaker 1:So I just said draw something. Draw me if you want to. You can make me a villain or a superhero. And one of them drew a picture that said Mr Collins, super sub, and had me dressed up as Superman with a cape in the back. I can't wait till that. What was that? Third grade? I can't wait till they get to be like a freshman and I can show it to them. I said I hung on to that picture all the time. Now I joke around with them that I blew it up and put it on my mantle. They know I'm just joking about that, but that's what I really love to do. The last thing I would tell you not to do and I guess this is a biggie, this might actually be the biggest one Don't forget to fill out your paperwork for next year.
Speaker 1:We've already gotten ours and turned it in and have been given our emergency certification. That's what they call it in this area, when you're not actively teaching anymore, when you're retired. We got our emergency certification. We are already ready for August of 2025, another new school year. I can't wait.
Speaker 1:I told one of the kids this year you know I'm 67. You all know that. And I said man, you know you're getting ready to go into the sixth grade. Do you realize, when you're a freshman, that I'm going to be 70? And I hope I'm still subbing your class and they said 70? Ew. And I'm thinking, man, is that the way they look at that age? I hope I'm not in for a rude awakening when I get to that part. But make sure you fill out your paperwork.
Speaker 1:With ours it was as simple as signing our name and they will do a background check and all that kind of thing. We have to pay for the background check. You got to do that every year. The sad thing is, I'm in three or four different organizations and they all need a background check and they seem like they all have a different company doing it. So why they think they need to do that, I don't know. But all right, so you've heard all my reasons. You're tempted to do some things. Don't do them. Keep things going, keep things positive, and we've got two weeks to go. No-transcript.
