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Starting over every day: Life as a substitute teacher
There are 7.3 million teachers in America -- among them are countless substitute teachers who haven't always been portrayed in the best light, but what subs do in their day-to-day work life is a lot more than most of us realize.
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We've all been thinking a lot about teachers in the wake of the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
The holidays are a time we give them gifts, our way of saying thanks for looking out for our children each day-- sometimes, as we now know -- at great risk.
There are 7.3 million teachers in this country according to census data. Among them are countless substitute teachers who haven't always been portrayed in the best light in films and on TV. But what these real life subs do in their day-to-day work life is a lot more than most of us realize.
Laurel Benedict and Tyler Parsons are perfect examples. Benedict is a former full time teacher now substituting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Parsons was a sub until this summer, when he got hired on full time by his small district outside San Antonio, Texas.
"I'm in a district where I have random calls, so I go from high school calculus to second grade elementary school," says Benedict. "You have to have quite a bit of patience, love for children, and flexibility."
Both Parsons and Bendict had to take on outside work to supplement their incomes from substitute teaching. In Parsons' district, substitutes earn about $80 a day so he took on a second job as a valet.
But Parsons says the hardest part of subbing is that there's little continuity, "you start over every single day, feeling that community can be difficult."
When it comes to feeling secure, being in a new environment every day can make things difficult. Benedict relies on school maps, emergency protocols, and district-wide drills to prepare herself.
Parsons adds that in an emergency, he remembers that there are others around to help, "you're not alone," he says.
I listened to your Sunday, December 22, 2012, program on substitute teachers. I caught it at about 9:30 P. M.
Your guests from Minnesota and Texas made some very valid points. However, as a former substitute teacher at high schools and some elementary schools in Santa Clara County, California, in 1991-2009, I encountered some very negative incidents that show that your guests are whitewashing the substitute teacher situation. Perhaps these matters do not occur in Minnesota and Texas, but they certainly occur in California.
We had many very hostile and defiant students in Gilroy, California, and that was from Day One even though I explained what we would do. This was an English class that I tried to teach for one quarter or half a semester, and they refused to accept me as a teacher and argued that they did not have to use the assigned textbook. They did not do any work and I assigned F's, but the school administration converted the F's to incompletes.
In the Fremont Union High School District, whose district offices are in Sunnyvale, California, some of the teachers and administrators lied about my performance and that of some other substitutes. These other substitutes and I also received lies in other districts in Santa Clara County. For example, one foreign language teacher at the Fremont District's Lynbrook High School made several lies about me, such as how one male student ran out of the room, yet I was very near the only door and nobody ran past me. Also, the assistant principal at this district's Fremont High School claimed that I did not control the class, but her own English teacher for whom I was a substitute did not make clear instructions and the department chairman brought in some working papers for the students fifteen minutes after the class began. That chairman had no idea what the lesson plan was.
The Cupertino Union School District in Santa Clara County also has problems. I made some minor mistakes, but they fired me, anyway, although such mistakes do not justify dismissal as a first response. For example, I did inadvertently take too much of a snack that was provided for faculty and staff, which was poor judgment on my part, but that did not justify dismissal. In fact, one boy tried to break my glasses, and I did not return to that classroom after the first day even though I had been given a three-day assignment.
Also, in the Cupertino District, a middle school history teacher and a 5th grade teacher were jealous of my history expertise, although that is my specialty. I am very strong in United States history. Moreover, another middle school teacher who taught United States history told me that he could not care less about new books on the subject that are published. For a teacher not to care about new publications in his or her own field is absolutely inexcusable and unprofessional. Professionals are obligated to share information with each other in their own fields, and a teacher is in both the education field and in the field that he or she teaches.
One argument that I heard at several schools was that playing cards was a crime. However, according to California Penal Code Section 330 and the California Supreme Court's Pittman Decision of 1967, playing cards when there is no goal of winning anything (money, cookies, etc.) is not a crime at all. Otherwise, according to this law, it is a misdemeanor.
