Subbing

Comments this week about me being a substitute:

"Well, you don't have a full time job, do you?"

"It's a lot easier being a substitute, isn't it?"

"At least you don't have to go to work if you don't want to."

Here are some facts that I think everyone out there needs to remember:

1. I am a professional and take my job seriously.

2. I substitute because I love teaching and don't yet have my forever classroom.

3. I am not salaried. I get paid for the days I do work and not for any of the days I don't. I have to work every day that I am able to work because I have bills to pay just like everyone else.

4. Teaching in any capacity is hard work when you take your job seriously. I am not there to babysit the kids in a classroom. I want them to be learning the whole time I am there. In fact, if the regular teacher can leave plans where I can actually teach, it makes it easier for the students to see me as a real teacher and then my job won't be as hard. Every day I enter a different classroom and have to learn about the students I am teaching in a very short amount of time. Sometimes, I am lucky enough to be in a class I have been in another time, and then I don't have to work so hard to learn about the students. However, when I don't have plans and materials that actually allow me to teach, I have to work that much harder to get the students to see me as a teacher and not a babysitter.

5. As I said before, I don't have the luxury of not going to work if I just don't feel like working that day. I have bills to pay. I don't get paid for holidays, summer/winter/spring breaks, or the days I can't work due to illness or lack of sub jobs. I need money just like everyone else. It is very hard to get by on substitute pay.

My hope is that teachers will respect teachers whether they are regular classroom teachers or substitute teachers. It's bad enough that we aren't always respected by the students we teach or their parents, or even by our administrators at times. Why do we have to disrespect our peers just because they have decided to stay in the teaching field whether they have their own class or not?