Zooming In on Substitute Teaching with Debbie Hattery

Debbie Hattery, a substitute teacher in Massachusetts, shared her journey from working in higher education policy to becoming a substitute teacher. She emphasized the importance of starting as a substitute para to understand classroom dynamics and recommended arriving early to prepare. Debbie highlighted the need for detailed sub plans, including student names and classroom routines, and suggested using a sub bag with essential items. She also discussed her role as a sub coordinator, focusing on improving the sub community through training, communication, and support. Debbie stressed the value of subbing for personal and professional growth. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Welcome to the Teacher Ads Podcast. I'm your host, Melissa Milner, a teacher who is painfully curious and very easily inspired. This podcast is ever-changing, and I hope with each season you find episodes that speak to you in your work as an educator. This is the seventh season of the Teacher Ads. And it's exciting to see the growth in how many educators are listening. Episodes are released every other week. If you enjoy the Teacher Ads, please rate it on Apple Podcasts and leave a review. It helps the podcast reach more educators. I'm happy to share that the career mentorship program Major Choice is now sponsoring the Teacher Ads Podcast. I'm thrilled about the partnership. You can learn more about becoming a mentor at majorchoice.com slash mentor. Thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Thank you for having me. My name is Debbie Hattery. I currently work as a sub in a district, a school district in Massachusetts, and I have four kids, two of whom are still in college, two are out of college. I grew up in the Midwest in Iowa. And my husband and I moved out here after we got married and went to grad school out here, and we have settled here ever since. That was uh 1997. Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

All right. So since we're back there, okay, let's talk about substitutes. Everything substitutes. Right. Tips, tricks, so on. But first, I'd love to know did you I don't think you started out with your career as a substitute. What did you start out doing? How did you end up with the substituting and and also, you know, trying to help substitutes?

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Oh my goodness. Okay. We have a lot to unpack. This is great. Yes. So my career started out of college working for a college national honor society. So I moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where the society was based. I worked with all of the mid-Atlantic colleges. So I had an amazing opportunity to get on college campuses as a college graduate. Our College National Honor Society focused on service and leadership as well as outstanding academic success. So I really became interested in higher ed. My dad was an education professor his whole career. He focused on education psychology. So I was his guinea pig even as a kid. So I was exposed to education at a higher level and also where he focused on teaching teachers how to teach and the sort of psychology behind a lot of that. So on my dad's side, I had a great, great exposure to it. My mom was a special ed teacher. And then a couple of my sister-in-laws are also teachers. So I've been exposed to the education world since I grew up, but I went in the direction of higher education. So after working for uh this college National Honor Society, I went back and got my master's in higher education, administration, planning, and social policy here in the Boston area. And through that, I really became interested in policy. And I got a job working for what was then the Board of Higher Education, which became the Department of Higher Education. And that was really a majority of my career. Wow. Yeah. So I was, I just was really interested in policy at the state level, interacting with the federal level, um, and then how that impacted in Massachusetts, the state uh universities and the uh community colleges. So that was the population I worked with. More on a fiscal side and an administrative side, not so much on their academic policy side.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

So you weren't teaching college, like you weren't a professor.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

I did. I was an adjunct professor, but teaching um higher education policy.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

So just that back to that policy admin meant. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

And I guess actually, yeah, while I was working for the state, and then also, um, like I said, I taught at the college level, but just really specifically in higher ed policy.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

So I my background was really first it was working with college students, then it was working with people at state government. Um, I worked under four governors, uh, Solucci Swift, Romney, and then Deval Patrick. And worked adjacent to Charlie Baker when he was secretary of AF. But so I worked at that level on a policy side, and then also teaching at the college level and also Christian education. So I taught some adults um in another field too. But I had never worked with students until COVID hit, and that's really where the trajectory for me changed.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

So we can go tell us about that. Yeah, yeah. That's interesting because it's so adult, adult, adult, dead, and policy and admin and what happens.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Yeah. So I mentioned I have four kids.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

So COVID hit, and I had um one, my oldest son was a freshman in college, he had to come home, and my other three were in uh middle school and high school. So we obviously, like everyone else around the country, we had a big change in um in what we could do in terms of careers and families. And so at that point, I was home with all four kids. My husband was working from home. Um I had, I had, you know, I was at home with uh time on my hands because I had left sort of what I was doing right before that. And the uh superintendent in our district, once we started uh school back up in the fall after COVID hit in March, I've got all the kids home. We start school back up in the fall. We still have the kids home most of the time. It's sort of hybrid learning in our district. Right. Um, and once that gets off the ground, our superintendent is calling desperately for subs to help out in the district. And again, like I just mentioned, I had been at a place where I wasn't currently working and I had just left a job when COVID hit. And so I thought, well, shoot, this is a great time. I can get out and do some, I can help in the district. So that's really where it started. A couple of months into early 2021, I started subbing at one of our middle schools and just jumped right in with a hybrid situation, kind of got the feel of it, um, saw that I could be helpful in the community, and I've been doing it. This is my sixth academic year substitute teaching. Yeah, you got hooked. I did get hooked.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Yeah. Who would have thought, too? It's amazing. So I know about your extensive substitute teaching, and it seems interesting because did you did you find it hard to go down into like elementary, into those younger kids, or because you had your own kids, it made it easier? Because I know you were adult, adult, adult. And yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

That is such a good question. Um, I'll I'll tell you one area that I have never subbed first. So, like I said, I had so by the time I started subbing in the early spring of 2021, my oldest son had gone back to college. They had opened that up, and my three remaining students were at the public um high school in my town. So my three kids said, Mom, we love that you're doing this, but please do not sub in the high school because that's where we all are. I said, That's great. I know the middle school because I used to on my days off, I would volunteer in the office at this particular middle school. So I knew the building and I thought, well, that's I know the faculty and staff there, I know the building. I think that's probably the first best place for me to try to help. So, like I said, that was the start of my subbing career. Um, I subbed initially as a para, and I did that intentionally because I wanted to understand the dynamic in the classroom as an observer. And I would highly recommend if anybody is thinking about subbing, to try to take paraprofessional jobs first, because it is a great way to get a sense of the culture of the building that you're in, and also just be a sponge with what the teachers are doing and just learn from the teachers.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

So that's a great, that's actually a really good point. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

And I tell you what, that has served me so well. Long story short, I guess if you look at the next six years, I focused mostly on the middle school, and then I started branching out into the elementary schools. I tried the one first that my four kids had gone through locally. So I again I knew the building, I knew the teachers, tried to get a couple of paraprofessional jobs to absorb, continue to absorb classroom management techniques from the teachers. And as I built up confidence, I started going to all of the different elementary schools. In our town, we have five elementary schools, so I made the rounds there over the course of the next couple of years. Also tried the other middle school in our town. So um I just I kept wanting to challenge myself even more as I grew more confident in my skills in the classroom. Obviously, I went pretty quickly from paraprofessional jobs to teacher jobs because you know there are a lot of teacher jobs that need to be filled when teachers are absent or they have meetings or professional development. So um I stepped into that at the five elementary schools, and like I said, also the two middle schools, and just kept trying to challenge myself more. I kept taking more subjobs over the years. There was one week where I thought I'd challenge myself and work in all seven buildings seven days in a row. So I did that. I just kind of had these personal benchmarks I wanted to hit as a professional, stepping into a different field. I wanted to challenge myself, I wanted to grow. Um, so I just I took a long-term sub job a couple of years into subbing. I did another one, I did another one just to challenge myself to be the actual classroom teacher responsible for everything that goes in the classroom. Because there's also a need for long-term sub positions.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Yeah. Right. Absolutely. Maternity leave and stuff like that. Yeah, exactly. Family leaves, medical leaves, anything. Yeah. So I'm getting a picture here. Uh you're you're helping our listeners get a picture of how you got to this place. But I want to go back. You mentioned, you know, wanting to do parafirst because you were new to substituting, you were new to middle school teaching. So, like, what were the like the hardest things when you first started? Like, like what what were you like? Ooh, you know, I have to work on this. Like, did you have anything like that? Or did it all come kind of naturally to you?

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Okay, I have to be perfectly honest. You know, I have been in um meetings with governors and college presidents. I was more nervous subbing the night before than I ever was giving a presentation to adults. I was so nervous. I had four kids of my own. Why was I so nervous? My husband said, Why are you so nervous? They're second graders when I eventually got into the classroom. I said, It's like uh approaching a boardroom with 18 CEOs sitting around a table. It is, it's it's yeah, it's intimidating. So um, challenges that I noticed right away. Um, gosh, there were a lot. Uh, I needed to figure out how to be friendly but firm. I needed to figure out how to set expectations as soon as the kids walked in. So I was able to do that as a para. Like I said, I think that's a really good strategy for somebody that wants to look into substitute teaching because I could observe the ways that the teachers manage the classroom, the flow of the day, where I could see where, especially if I was a paraprofessional working with um certain students in a classroom, I could see where transitions could be difficult for certain individuals. Just kind of understanding the whole classroom dynamic from an outsider perspective almost as a paraprofessional watching it, and then stepping into it as the actual classroom teacher.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Yeah. And I I I find it interesting that I think a lot of people assume that people who sub, oh well, they were former teachers. But that I don't think there's enough subs with just former teachers at this point. And I think we're trying to get professionals who are in a new part in their life and, you know, people like you that um you were in education, but in a very different capacity. You know, you know, someone who is retired from their accounting job or, you know, whatever, and they're looking to just sub.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

That's such a great point, too, because in my sixth year academically subbing, I've also taken on this role the last few months as a sort of pilot sub-coordinator for the district. So I've gotten to see district-wide what the labor force looks like in terms of the actual subs. And you're exactly right. To be honest, it's not a lot of retired teachers. There are definitely some retired teachers serving in that role, and I commend them for that. They, but a lot of the population of subs is um are professionals like myself, mid-career professionals, people in the gig economy that have that do freelance work, that go from project to project and might have time in between. People that are retirees that don't have an education background, but have a love for students and want to help in their community. We have college kids, some of whom are in a program in their college to become teachers, and some who uh are just wanting to get in the classroom and do some work when they're home from college. We have parents that are home with their kids currently. They've taken a break in their careers, but their kids are in school and they like to serve um, you know, as a substitute teacher when they can. I mean, it's the whole gamut. It's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

Yeah, it really is. I mean, you know, I'll have uh my para will be out and I'll have a sub. I've had a lot of former students come back and sub, which is super fun. Super fun. But yeah, all different ages, all different backgrounds, and and then, you know, I think about you know, teaching comes naturally now, you know, but like if I were like just walking into a room, having done another career, then coming in, like I just I I've been thinking about that as we've been coming up to this recording. I'm like, like, how do you even know where to start? And I that's why your idea about sub as a para first is brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

And there's always almost always para positions available for a newer sub to step into. I did I'm so I told you I'm working as a subcoordinator for the district. So I'm I'm subbing right now. I can give you my the week that I just had because it was kind of crazy. But and then we're gonna talk about subcoordinator. Oh, yes, okay. So one of the um one of the days this past week, I was covering um IEP meetings for different teachers. So I was bouncing around. I had a little bit of time in the morning, and we had a brand new sub coming in, someone that has never subbed before. This gentleman has a career. Um, he he's sort of in between careers right now. Extremely professional, warm, caring gentleman that just wanted to step into this world for a little bit before he starts this new opportunity he has. So, anyway, bless his heart. I mean, he comes into this elementary school where I'm serving, where I am serving this month, and he is assigned a third grade class. And like you said, he's walking into this never having sleep. So I was lucky enough as a as um I had a little extra time in the morning. The principal was excited that we had a new sub coming in. So I went in and worked with him. I showed him how to kind of go through the sub plans, um, understand the transitions, understand I gave him some tips while I was there.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Yeah. But which you're gonna share later.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Yes, I will share those later. But otherwise, he had never been a para before. So he really was stepping into a situation where he he was a he was a very calm individual because as you know, elementary school can get a little chaotic at times, especially with the sub, but he handled it brilliantly. Um so to answer your question, ideally it is great to come in as a paraprofessional and get a sense of the culture of the school, the dynamic in the classrooms. But if you're coming in just cold, you can still get through your day. Your teachers will still leave you good subplans. You'll get the feel for it after a couple of days. But you know, you just have to come in calm, cool, and collected and just go with whatever the day presents you.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

But yes, yeah. And don't show fear.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Yes, they'll eat you up. That is for sure. He he just uh he was he, I could tell he was fearful inside as I would have been on my first day. So you're right. It's just you if you were coming from outside the teaching profession, you have no idea what you're stepping into. So the more prepared you can be going in, the better. Yes, but it is a learning process. And I know for me, it I was telling this gentleman this as well. It took me 10 different times subbing as a teacher to really get a handle on what the most effective ways I could manage the classroom were. So it just takes practice. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Yeah. So let's shift gears a little bit. Okay. We will get back to your subcoordinator because I'm I I want to go to tips first for teachers for leaving sub plans that are helpful and clear. I know when I write subplans, I'm not comfortable like naming names, you know. Like these students are really great with transitions and can help lead a transition. Like I, you know, I'm not comfortable writing down kids' names, but I don't know if that's something that would help. Like, what are things that we could put in subplans for our subs that will aid in the smooth work of the day?

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Yeah, okay. I would start off by saying more is more. So as a sub, I always appreciate the most detail you can provide me. I love subplans that are multiple pages. Um first and foremost, with the subplans with the teachers, chronological order with the time for transitions is a must. I've rarely seen a teacher leave plans that don't have, you know, some chronology in terms of the day. It's helpful though if you give us even the you know, five minute if you show a sub intervals between the transitions, about this class needs about five minutes. You know, this is when you're gonna 855 is when you're gonna start transitioning and lining them up for their special. So details within the chronology, that's really helpful. I will say, and I have talked to a lot of subs, part of my job as a sub coordinator is interviewing active subs. So I'm up to about 25 interviews. Um, I will say that most every sub I've talked to does appreciate if the teacher can leave us a couple of student names that are go-to students, even if it's just the first name. It the subs, you know, either leave the the subs never expose um the student names in the subplans. So that's not a worry for the teacher. But it does help us get a handle on who what students will tell me the absolute truth 99% of the time. Who I can ask a legitimate question that's not on the subplans. And then also it's honestly helpful to know if there are a couple of friends that need redirection more than others, just to support. I um, yeah, it is helpful. Um, it just helps me, it sets my expectations for the dynamic in the class and just also it helps me think about all right, I want to make sure these two students, you know, if they're both if they both need redirection a lot, if they are dysregulated or to get off track, maybe not to have them in the same group if we're assigning groups or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Yeah, it's just helpful. Um so yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

I guess a tip for subs is to keep those sub plans away from students being able to see them. 100%. That's always my concern.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

I understand. That is a quality concern because that would be some teachers will do initials as well, but I understand that concern from a teacher perspective. What I always do, I I tell new subs, um, I have a little toolkit that I a bag basically that I take to every classroom every day, no matter what. I'll get into things that I have in that later. But one of the things is a clipboard. So I I get my sub plans, I put them on the clipboard as soon as I walk in the classroom. That's my clipboard. That is with me at all times. It's not available for students to see ever.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Um I love that.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

So that's not sitting on the desk for kids to see. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

And also, it just helps you not lose your plans. Right as a because there are Million pieces of white paper in a classroom with you know type typing on it. So I just it's so easy to misplace those and you don't okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

So we have we because of me, we've moved into tips for subs, but first, yeah, are there any other tips for teachers?

SPEAKER_00 23:50

I do want to go back to the teachers. So um it is helpful to know friends that go to friends and friends that might need redirection. It's also helpful to know if um a student is um part of the multilanguage learning community, and if that student's English is not great, that's helpful to know too. Um just so we can make sure we're communicating and not expecting that student to respond in a way that's not appropriate to where that student is in terms of his or her um, you know, language learning skills for English. So that's helpful too. Does it help?

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Do you see a difference between when a teacher knows they're gonna be out and preps the class that they're gonna be out? Or when a teacher like wakes up sick and the kids don't know. Do you see a difference of how the day goes? Or as long as you start the day right, it they're fine.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Yeah, I think that's another good question. It it could get off track if the students don't know that the teacher's out, the teacher is sick or has a sick family member that they have to stay home with, and you don't set expectations when you walk in as the sub. So that is not a great combination. But as long as you present yourself as a sub, the moment you walk in the classroom, um, your teacher's not here, they'll they're gonna all ask you, why is my teacher not here? I don't know, your teacher's not here today, and I'm your sub. I'm excited to spend the day with you, and then you start to set your expectations. So that is a question. And there are kids, this is something I think it's important for subs to understand too. All the data seem to show that over the last few years, decades, whatever it is, the stamina for some students has gone down a little bit in terms of their attention span and also the anxiety level. So we as subs have to understand that when we walk in a room, there are some students that will have anxiety seeing a new face, an unfamiliar face. And so we need to work to bring those students in and understand that the day is going to be just fine, even though their teacher's not there, especially for the younger kids. It can there can be anxiety, and that can also play out in the classroom throughout the day with decreased attention spans, less stamina. So we do see this impact. And like you said, if a teacher's unexpectedly absent, there might be a little bit more anxiety, and we as subs have to work even harder to bring the class together in a way that we can have a great day together.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

So if the teacher has told the this the class, you can the teacher can write that in the subs. The class knows I'm gonna be out, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. All right, keep going.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

Okay, more subplants, helpful hints. Please give us work for early finishers. So I'll notice, especially ELA block for elementary school or or honestly, K to eight, really. There'll be an hour to an hour and 15-minute block for something, and there will be students that finish early. And it's great. We know that the default is just pull out your unfinished work folder and work on that, or silent read. But it is nice to have something concrete sometimes for early finishers.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

That's related to what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

That's ideal. Yeah. That is ideal.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

Good point. Good point.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

The the point at which behavior can become an issue is if there isn't um something structured for the kids to be doing, and especially when you hit that tipping point where not just two or three kids that are always early finishers are done and they read quietly, but when you start to get to half the class that's done and they're actually done, they've done the work, and you still have 20 more minutes in this block, it's just really helpful to give us uh work for just some kind of transition work or early finisher work. We have lots of tricks in our bags to help with that extra time. So I'm prepared for that personally, but it's always nice when teachers provide that too.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

Absolutely. Yeah. And again, what you're what you've prepped won't be directly related to what they're learning. Like if they're learning about the Midwest and you there was one assignment and it was a 30-minute assignment, and you're there for an hour. Exactly. Then there could be something else related to the Midwest. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Yeah. And the more you sub, the more you learn ways to fill time. But it is nice, especially because you as teachers don't know if you're getting a veteran sub or a sub on his or her first day. Exactly. So it is, it just more is more, and we we really do appreciate that. And honestly, that's that shows that you value our time, that you value the time of a sub that's willing to come in and teach your class. And the more prepared you leave them as teachers, then you're really setting them up for success. And that is the whole feedback loop. We can get into this later as a sub coordinator, but that's what gets subs wanting to come back to your classroom and to your school, is if they have a good first experience in your classroom with your sub plans and executing them throughout the day.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

So I will be honest with you.

SPEAKER_00 29:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

As a teacher, this is my 34th year of teaching. Yeah. I have spent, I spent a lot of time on detailed lesson plans. And when I come in the next day, and those plans were mostly discarded, or those plans, you know, I mean, it happens sometimes. I know. They didn't feel comfortable with what I left, so they just had, oh, they just had us. No, we didn't do that. We just read. Okay. Yeah. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

And that needs to be communicated to the sub through the district and the building managers, that there is an expectation that you get through the sub's plans, through the sub plans, and that if there's any issue, you know, you're letting a teacher next door know, or you're coming down to the office. If there's something that's truly derailing the teacher's plans, you should be communicating that. Because that's my expectation. My the challenge for me is to execute the sub plans exactly as the teacher wants. Right. The best of my ability, but also being flexible if something happens. I can share a situation with subplans just yesterday that I had in a second grade classroom where I did have to um change things kind of last minute. But ideally, the subs coming in should be told, and that should be part of the expectation. You are there to, you want to keep the classroom moving forward. You don't want, you know, any issues to arise that actually take the classroom back a step. And ideally, you want to advance the curriculum if you can in different places, or at least maintain it and and reinforce it with the kids. Like maybe you're not teaching a math lesson, but you're reinforcing what the teacher just taught yesterday with the um math work that the teachers left you.

SPEAKER_01 30:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

So you want to make sure you're at least maintaining and even advancing the curriculum, but definitely not moving backwards. And to me, as a sub, moving backwards would be not having good classroom management and things getting derailed or not executing the teacher's subplans. Right. So I hear you. Because I know I I took I did a couple of long-term, actually um four long-term sub jobs. So I had to prepare sub plans when I was out. I was out, um, I was teaching in second grade for three and a half months. And my oldest son graduated from college. So I had to prepare subplans. I believe me, I understand how much work they are. A lot in the faculty lounges of the schools, and I hear this makes me sad actually. When I hear teachers say, Oh, you know, I I don't feel great. I probably should go home, but I don't want to have to prepare subplans, so I'm just gonna come in. Yeah, it's a lot. Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. Uh, one other thing I was thinking of before we leave subplans aside. Most teachers do this, but it's helpful if you leave us attention grabbers or just phrases that you say. So we're consistent with the language in the classroom, so they recognize, oh, one, two, three eyes on me, and they say one, two eyes on you, or class, class, class, or your clap, or your doorbell, or whatever it is. So to the teachers that leave that information as well, because then the students say, Oh, this substitute knows the language of this classroom. And my response is I have to freeze, or I put my hands on my shoulders, or whatever. And that helps with that anxiety.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

If the routine can be routine and it can be the way it always is, the anxiety is gonna go down. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

Right, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so those are those are my kind of top five, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Amazing. I'm gonna I'm gonna limit you. Top five tips for subs.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

Okay. All right, let me think. If I I'm gonna limit it to five. My number one uh tip for subs is to set expectations from the moment you see the first student walk in your classroom. And you should be, if you can be in your building, you should be standing outside the door as the students are coming in, greeting them. So that right there, that might be a little bit of anxiety, but they're seeing a smiling face. So this doesn't count as five. This only counts as one, but you're standing outside your classroom, you have a smiling face, you're greeting your students, and you're directing them to whatever the first thing is in the classroom. So you're setting the expectation early on. Another thing I like to do, okay, tips for subs. Well, I always write my name on the smart board or whatever place I have so that the kids have a visual. I I usually write, you know, welcome. My name is Mrs. Hattery. I'm excited to be your teacher today. So they have a so they don't have to keep asking me what's your name. I usually do, I'm Mrs. Hattery, so I try to come up with something fun with my name. I'll for the little ones, I'll say you can call me Mrs. H or Mrs. Hat. So they always remember Mrs. Hat. Even as they since I told you I've been subbing for six years, you know, the little ones in first grade are now in middle school and they still remember Mrs. Hat. So so number one, yeah, being at being outside, greeting them right away, setting expectations, remembering to smile at the kids. I always have to think, just smile and be friendly but firm. So I'm I'm projecting that, I try to project that from the very beginning. So that's kind of one big thing that subs can think about. We even have sample scripts that you can give as a new sub to introduce yourself to the classroom where you're introducing yourself and you're setting expectations from the get-go. As soon as you've got the kids in the class, whether it's they're taking their seats and they're starting in on some morning work or they have a soft start, you're still getting the attention of all the the whole class.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

Um introducing yourself. That's really, really important. And it's maybe not, it's not natural for some subs coming in, especially the new ones. They're trying to figure out, you know, how do I how do I communicate who I am? It's just best to do that right from the get-go.

SPEAKER_01 35:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:13

Okay. Another thing I do, I mentioned.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

So that was the second one was name on the board, getting to know. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Third one.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

This is all rolling in the first um 15 minutes. And just to step back, as a sub, you've come oh, this is another good tip too. Okay. I'm gonna go backwards on this. I'm gonna say, you know what?

SPEAKER_01 35:33

I think you'll have to write a blog post. Oh, I will definitely write to fill in everything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

Yeah. And actually, I have I have a um a sheet that I send out, a one-pager on pro tips for subbing. So I have that. I have a I have a one pager I send out to new subs on how to introduce yourself. I have a one pager on a day of a life, a day of a day in the life of a sub, like a typical day. So subs can get used to all that. But one of the pro tips I do say um is to arrive at least 20 minutes early in the classroom. So this is just sort of these, these are, I guess it's a tip, but you know, you want to get into your building, you want to get to your office, get your badge, sign in, get to your classroom a good 20 minutes early. You want to meet the teachers around you. This is maybe point number two, which is really setting yourself up to succeed. So I kind of jumped ahead to the first moments when you see the students. Right. Stepping back a second, you're understanding where the adult bathrooms are, you know where the teacher's lounge is. If you brought your lunch, you're putting it in there. You want to just it's in my district, the sub-start time technically says 8.10, and the students arrive at 8:15. Yeah. That's not enough time. You're gonna be on your back foot the whole day if you do that. So arrive early, check in, meet, figure out the lay of the land, find the emergency exits. Yes. If anything's next to you, get in that classroom. I like to be in that classroom at least 20 minutes before the kids are supposed to start to come in. So I can get my clipboard, put the subplants on there, get a lay of the LAN, get myself comfortable with the technology and where things are, and then I'm ready and focused. I'm ready for at least the next thing with the kids as they walk in. So arrive early, get yourself acclimated first. Then when the kids come, having that smile, friendly but firm, setting expectations and introducing yourself. So that's how I like to start. Then I would get to what I would always bring with me, and what I still bring with me six years later is a sub bag, basically. So I have my clipboard in there, I have a highlighter, so when I get in the classroom, I'm highlighting the um times that we're transitioning, I'm hiding highlighting anything really important in the sub plan so I can go right to it in real time as I'm teaching. And also in that bag, I have three books that have worked really well for me that I can read to the kids if we have extra time, if we have transition time, or if everybody finishes early, I've always got a good book I can read. I've got, and that's really K to five. I do that for. Not middle school necessarily. It's a different piece. But so book, a book to read. I have, I carry a joke book. I have um mad libs. I just have a bunch of things that I can pull out if we're lined up five minutes too early, or you know, just any just to fill time. And again, going back to that point where you want to be as structured and routined as possible, even if you're introducing things to kids they've never heard before, like jokes from a joke book. Maybe their teacher does different things for transition times, but it still keeps them focused and their behavior in check. Yeah, it just makes it easier.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

Another tip learn the kids' names as quickly as possible. Now, this is something I forgot to tell you um as a teacher, and I would really, really, really want the other teachers to hear this. Understanding again that we're gonna keep these subplans confidential. It is so helpful if you give us a sheet at the back of our subplans with the list of all the students' names. And it would be even better if you could give us the um seating chart. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:19

And nicknames, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

Oh yeah. The seating chart, that's so funny. Um, I'll tell you a funny story about that later. The seating chart, usually with elementary school, is okay because a lot of times they some of them still have their little name things that they put at the beginning of the year on there. But uh as a sub, again, this goes to going in early. But one of my tips is I want to get those kids' names to memory as quick as possible. So I have the attendance sheet, but that has to go down to the office. So that is that is something that the teachers will give me, but then all of a sudden those names are gone.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:55

At 8:35, they're already down at the office. So having the names as part of the sub plans on the teacher side, and then for me as a sub, the faster I can learn those names, the the more control I have in the classroom. Because as opposed to saying, you know, hey, uh, you and the blue shirt, you know, you need to be doing this with redirecting, I can say, oh, I love how, you know, the positive reinforcement side, I can say, Oh, I love how John and Kate and um Jenny are focused on doing their work. And then if I do have to redirect a student, I know that student's name too. And they respond much better when you're calling them by name.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 40:37

So as a sub, try to get those names down as soon as you can. I'll walk the room, I'll figure out where the kids are seated, I'll, you know, just try to remember everybody's names. If I have a name list, that's even better. I can start to associate faces with names as soon as they're answered. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:55

Great point.

SPEAKER_00 40:56

Yeah, and then I guess I would um close with just be flexible as a sub. Understand that the building managers are managing absences, sometimes planned, sometimes last minute. You signed up on your system, whether that's uh frontline or Red Rover, different districts use different systems. You know, you pulled a fourth grade teaching job, and things have shifted since you pulled that. You walk in the morning of you're early because you want to be prepared, and the building principal or assistant principal says, um, we've had, you know, uh we we have a situation where we have more of a need for you to teach in this class, or we need you to float between these five classes, and we're gonna have a tutor cover this class. So things do happen last minute where there are just more absences than they anticipated.

SPEAKER_01 41:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:55

Or something happens and you just need to be flexible. As a sub, you should communicate with your building principal if you aren't comfortable doing something. Like let's say you're brand new, and this just happened at a school a couple of weeks ago I was working with brand new sub. She just wanted to be a paraeducator for the first 10 times. So she was only picking paraeducator jobs. She picked a paraeducator job at a school where last minute they had a couple of teacher absences, and they slid her in there, and she just was really uncomfortable in that situation. So when I debriefed with her, she made it through. It was it was a tough day. A paraeducator actually helped her out a lot in the classroom, which kudos to that person. Yeah. Yeah. But I said, you have to be flexible on the one hand as a sub, but you also have to communicate with your building managers. If you are not comfortable in a certain position, you've got to let them know so that they can plan ahead. Because some, you know, some subs only want to work with the older kids and they don't want to be, they're not physically able to be with the kindergartners or first graders, and vice versa. So you just as a sub, you also really need to communicate with your building managers.

SPEAKER_01 43:10

So these are amazing. I do, I mean, it's optional, you don't have to, but I would love um a blog post from you at any point. It does have to be when the episode comes out, but at up at some point. Oh, I'd love to with all these tips for teachers and tips for subs. Yeah. Before we move on, like what's like a typical week for you as a sub?

SPEAKER_00 43:33

Oh, I love that question. And again, there isn't even a typical day, much less a typical week if you're subbing as much as I do. If you're trying to sub multiple times per week, every day's different and every week's different. So let me just share with you this actual week. So today we're recording. I've got five days that I just subbed in an elementary school. It was the same elementary school. And I thought Monday morning I was going in as a classroom teacher, and things changed as they do, and you have to be flexible, absolutely. So I got a text from the principal about 40 minutes before school started. Um, hey, we have our gym teachers out last minute. Her son is sick. Can you teach gym? And I have done that before. It's not my favorite. I said, okay, great. I'm gonna change my outfit and throw my sneakers on. So I taught eight gym classes on that Monday. This is a bigger school. So eight gym classes K to five, trying to get my head around how to change the teaching methods between the kindergartners and the fifth graders. I in this particular school, I had never been the gym teacher. So trying to figure out where all the equipment was and how to work the microphone and figuring out okay, the basketballs are all deflated, and that was part of the plan. Where's the pump? So trying to figure out this. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:04

You I had it's good you get there early, my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

I did, but I did not get there early enough. I would have had to be there like an hour before. So, you know, you just roll with it. Um, I came up with some fun class games and I made it work. Well, then the next morning, I thought I was also coming in as a classroom teacher, and the principal texted me again and said, Can you please take Jim again? I said, Of course, I'd be happy to help. Um, I said, I think I said I had seen the schedule for the week and I Said to her, uh, new day, new faces, because it was all different classes. Yes. So that so this time I said, Can you please tell me where the pump is? I need these basketballs inflated because it is March Madness, and I think I can get the fifth and fourth grade graders excited about March Madness if you have access to basketball. So got the pump, figured out the mic on day two, managed to get through, got home from school the second day and collapsed. I was so tired. I think I had 10,000 steps each day. I was exhausted. The next day I came in, this is Wednesday, they had a bunch of IEP meetings. And you know, those can go 30 minutes to 90 minutes or more. So I taught, I jumped into four different classes. I think it was second, third, fourth, and fifth. And the teacher had left me two hours worth of plans. Most of the time the teacher gets back within an hour and a half, but so that was just jumping around, putting different hats on, you know, from second grade to fifth grade is a big jump. So doing that, that was Wednesday. Thursday, I thought I was coming in as I forget, a classroom teacher, but the librarian suddenly had to be out, was out all day. Yep. But this these plans were amazing. The librarian had a medical issue and had to be out suddenly, but managed to get me great plans. So I had to figure out the check-in-check-out system, which wasn't too bad. Right. And also had to teach uh MCAS prep for the older kids and and all kinds of book borrowing and understanding all of that. So that was a very busy day, but I had really good plans uh and figured it all out. And then Friday, which I thought I was gonna be the librarian again because she was gonna be out. Well, she ended up coming in, but then this one of the second grade teachers was out with a stomach bug last minute. So I taught second grade all day Friday. So that is a typical week, which is I didn't plan for one of those days, but I'm comfortable enough that the gym that the uh principal knows she can move me around as needed. Absolutely. And every day was different. There you go. That's a tip, that was a quote, typical week for me.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

I feel that is typical. I feel, you know, that is what subbing looks like these days is you know, the the administration that morning is having to figure out who we're putting where. We have these many people out, you know, meetings or whatever. Yeah, yeah. But I think just we need to get to this last piece, which what is what are you doing? What do you mean, subcoordinator? How did you even get into that? Okay, um, why are you doing it? How are you doing it? Supports and so on. And then before I forget, can you please give are you willing to share um those sheets that you have?

SPEAKER_00 48:29

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 48:30

So how can they read? How can people reach you for that?

SPEAKER_00 48:33

Could I send them to you?

SPEAKER_01 48:35

Or I could put them up as a blog post if you wanted.

SPEAKER_00 48:39

We can do that.

SPEAKER_01 48:40

Okay. There you go. So it will be available on the teacher as.com. All right, so fantastic. So give give me as long as you want on that whole supervisor piece. Okay. It's fascinating to me.

SPEAKER_00 48:56

Yeah. Well, uh, I shared with you earlier that this is my sixth academic year subbing. So the first year obviously was still during the transition in COVID from online learning, hybrid learning to back to where everybody was in the same classroom all the time. So I was just observing, I was trying to be a sponge the first two years, I'd say, really just understanding all the different buildings. By by year two, I think I had been in all five of my district's elementary schools and two middle schools. So understanding what I liked, what I what where I knew I needed to work more to develop um my skills there. But I also saw going into year three ways that the district and the building managers, the teachers and the subs could work better together. Just areas where we could be doing a better job uh with our subs and building our sub-community and just with the dialogue between all those parties.

SPEAKER_01 50:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:03

So other just I started to look into what other districts were doing in the state, and there were definitely some districts that had people in the sub-coordinator role, but we didn't have that in our district. And I I wanted to see if I could use at this point, now over five years experience. Now we're talking just this past December. I wanted to use the five years experience I had working K-8, every building, long-term sub, short-term sub, every special, every classroom, every grade, almost every classroom in all the buildings. So I could take that perspective as a sub who wasn't a trained teacher, and try to accomplish, I guess, three or four main goals. So a couple of years before that, I started reaching out to HR in our community in the central office, and I said, here is what I'm seeing. Here are some things I think the district could do just to incentivize subs to build the community. And I gave them some tips about just what my perspective was and how they could translate that from an HR side with subs. So these did a few things, but what I've noticed is that the sub community is a large population of people. I think in my district right now we have I think it's almost 180 active subs, but active subs on any given day is a sliver of that. And so also looking at why do we have such a big population of subs, but some are only working once or twice and not ever coming back to the district, or they're choosing to work in other districts, or they're just they don't like subbing. What's the disconnect here? Why is there I just was trying to get my finger on why why is this not seemingly working? They're they're just you know hogs in the wheel. I could see that. So I started talking with HR about three years into it. I gave them ideas for sample sub plans for the buildings to use, just you know, ways to communicate with the subs that would be better. So I started to do that, and then just this past December, I was meeting again with HR. I'd been talking with the superintendent for the last couple of years about what I was experiencing, and we decided to launch a pilot program where I would step in as the subcoordinator for the districts for the district from January to June. And the way we structured it was I would just focus on elementary, I would focus on the five elementary schools in my district. I'd spend a month in each elementary school, and over the course of that month, I would uh look at all the different populations that work in the system, the central office, the building manager being the principal, vice principals, the teachers and the subs, and the factoring and the students. Obviously, that's who everyone's trying to serve anyway. But how do we best serve the students in amongst those different disparate areas? How do we bring them more together? So I started off. Um I did listing sessions with all five building principals and assistant principals to hear what the successful things that they were noticing with the subs in their buildings and what the challenges were. So I'm getting from the principals, you know, areas where we can grow and improve. I did, I think I mentioned earlier, listing sessions with up to I think 25 different active subs in the district, K to 12, so I could get the high school and middle school perspective too. But just getting, like we talked about, just understanding what the challenges for them are and why do they work a couple of times and you know, not work again or only work a few times here and there? How so how could we get the sub? How could we look at the sub community from all these different populations? How could we recruit quality subs? How could we train these subs? And how could we retain these subs and get them to work more in the buildings? Yes and just build that incentivize them in all different kinds of ways. So that's been like the goal, and then working with these different entities and then taking a building at a time after a month and stepping in as a building sub and filling all the needs that these schools have on any given day, whether it's unfilled positions, last-minute vacancies, IEP meeting coverage, whatever it is, and also in that building training the new subs that come in. So they've shadowed me in each of the last three buildings I've been, so I can model to them what subbing looks like um as they step in.

SPEAKER_01 54:50

That's so the shadowing, I think, is yeah, so great.

SPEAKER_00 54:55

That's what several of the uh subs asked for. In fact, we did a big sub-survey. We had a phenomenal response. We had a couple open-ended questions at the end just to take the temperature of the sub-population. And they were really good at letting us know why they are doing it and why they love it, but also areas that we can improve on in the building, in the classroom, and district-wide. And so what we heard from them was there's no real onboarding in terms of training a sub. So they walk in. Yeah correct. Yeah. So, what can we do in terms of classroom management and smartboard training? Those were the two big ones. So next week I'm doing a big smart board training for any subs that are interested.

SPEAKER_01 55:38

This is great.

SPEAKER_00 55:39

I know, I'm excited. I've learned the hard way because I never had sub training uh smartboard training.

SPEAKER_01 55:44

Right.

SPEAKER_00 55:44

And the expectation of most students these days is that you are pretty literate with the smart board. Whether the teacher takes her his or her laptop and leaves Google Classroom plans, or if you just have a smart board and that's all you have, you can still work.

SPEAKER_01 55:59

You can do whiteboard, you can get onto the internet with a smartboard.

SPEAKER_00 56:01

Yeah, yeah. Two huge things. That's actually what I'm teaching, just the basics.

SPEAKER_01 56:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:07

And then classroom management. Um, I've introduced a couple of online courses for classroom management. I've taken those myself. So I've I've taken them and I I think they're great tools. One is a free program, it's called Sub School, and anybody can do it. It's a part of our Red Rover sub-assignment system in my district, but it'll just, it's a one, the first one, subschool is just a one-hour start-to-finish online course you can take that just helps you understand the big picture of subbing. The other one is a fee course. It's$39. It's through, it's called Sub Skills. It's through an organization called Steady S-T-E-D-I. And that's a six to eight hour course on classroom management, human behavior. It's phenomenal. Wow. Even six years into subbing, I've learned a lot of$39.

SPEAKER_01 56:56

I mean, that's not bad. That's not bad. I know.

SPEAKER_00 56:58

It's$39, it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 57:00

So well, definitely send me that info so I can put it on the web episode page. Yeah, that sounds interesting.

SPEAKER_00 57:05

Yeah. So so again, just the the four big picture goals recruiting. So I've done um one open house at the library in our town. I'm doing another open house. The first open house we had it was we had a terrific turnout of mid-career professionals, folks that are getting ready to retire that want to give up. Exactly. And the why is not financial for 99% of people that sub. It can't be because it's not it's not good money. It's not competitive K in terms of other areas, but there's so much you can get out of it. You can grow so much as a lifelong learner, as a professional. It's just such a great opportunity. If you're able to do that, because not everybody can take a position in their career where you can do it one day a week if you're working in the gig economy or you have a part-time job, but it's again the people competitive. So your why really has to be that you really want to make a difference and give back in your community for a short or long period of time if you can. Right.

SPEAKER_01 58:05

Yeah. I had a quick question. Um are subs usually trained by districts on CPR allergies, health issues that students might have, you know, because we have a health folder that we leave for the sub. Like, are they trained on what to even to look at that, to understand the allergies, uh, epipens, and also like the Alice drill and fire drills. Are they trained on that?

SPEAKER_00 58:34

That's those are great questions. First, I'll go to the macro level. Every state is different.

SPEAKER_01 58:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 58:40

So some states require that training. Some states require you to take an online course. Some states will only hire you if you have a bachelor's degree. In Massachusetts, our state allows, you know, you can hire anybody with a high school diploma. So you can have a high school diploma or a PhD. Anywhere in between, you can work in in Massachusetts and our state. Every district is different in terms of what they do for training. Some districts require training, some don't. My district does not require training on the classroom management side, but though they do require in my district for a sub to be trained on how to administer an EpiPen. So your first day or one of your first days, you're supposed to go to the nurse and learn how to use an EpiPin. Because most classrooms and this is something good that subs need to understand. Most classrooms have a student with an allergy. That's just how it is. So you are going to be dealing with allergies. You do need to understand from the teacher's sub plans. Again, the reason why you need to get there early. Yeah you've got to read through the teacher's red folder, whatever color it is, that tells you these are the allergies, these are the different issues that we have with food or whatever. However, we however in the classroom they protect during snack or lunch. You need to understand all that. You are you do need to be trained on an EpiPen. Also, in my district, in the separate folder are the Alice Drill fire drill plans. You know, it's hard when you come in as a sub, you just want to get through the day. You aren't necessarily getting there so early, and the building might not be open early enough for you to understand the evacuation routes. And, you know, where would I go in my classroom if there were an Alice drill? So I've got to be completely honest. We're trained on the EpiPins, but I've been caught in fire drills before. And you just have to rely on the teachers around you. You you grab the backpack, you know where the exit is. You know, hopefully you figured that out. I think that would be something great that we could do in my district is even just new subs once a year, meeting with police and fire at one of the buildings just to show you this is what we do.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:51

Yeah. And also there's maps in each classroom. Yes. Yep. So, you know, look for the map that's that shows the evacuation of where to go. That's helpful because it's a nice quick visual that you can just go, oh, okay, I see where we're going. We're going to the upper, you know, the upper parking lot or we're going wherever. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:08

But it's a lot. Again, there is so much that a new sub has to take in, especially if you're willing to try other buildings. Yeah. You're a different part of a building. I mean, you really, there's so much you have to take in. So just being prepared as much as you can as a sub on all these levels. Yes. Not to mention executing this the teacher's homstog plans.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:30

It is unbelievable. This was amazing, Debbie. I can't say I just, I mean, I've never done an episode on substituting. And I we were talking and I thought this really needs to be an episode. So I really appreciate you being open to doing this and sharing your expertise. And I just love that you're like ready to go with resources for people who are listening. I think that's great. If you send me everything, I will get everything. It'll either be on a blog post for the episode or the episode itself at that episode page. So uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:04

Fantastic. And I just I guess I would leave your listeners with just the idea that subbing is a wonderful thing that if you're able to do that at some point in your life and you're in a different career, I just highly recommend it. It's just oh, just seeing the students learn and advance and getting to interact with them is amazing. And also being exposed to the amazing teachers in the different buildings. I have learned so much from the teachers.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:33

That's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:33

They are incredible. And you just don't, you don't get that sense until you're actually in the classroom, either as a parent or you're in a teacher's classroom and seeing what he or she has accomplished in there. So highly recommend it at any point in a career if a person's able to do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:49

It's it is, it's refreshing if you've never been in a classroom doing that. It is a refreshing job. Yeah, I like that word. It's it's unique. Yeah, no, every day is different. That is certainly true. So that's pretty cool. All right. So thank you so much and uh have a great day. All right, thank you. Take care. For my blog, transcripts of this episode, and links to any resources mentioned, visit my website at www.theteachure.com. You can reach me on Twitter and Instagram at Melissa B. Milner, and I hope you check out the Teacher Us Facebook page for episode updates. This podcast is sponsored by the career mentorship program Major Choice. You can learn more about becoming a mentor at majorchoice.comslash mentor. Thanks for listening, and that's a wrap.