Dear Substitutes, Every Moment Counts by: Gabi David

A lot of times students walk into a class with a substitute teacher and see an opportunity to play on their phones and chat with their friends. Students take advantage of this free period and tell their temporary teachers they “haven’t learned this yet”, or “It’ll just take five minutes”. Teachers have the whole year to get to know their students and create bonds with them, while substitutes see them for such a short period of time. Substitute teachers can take five to ten minutes at the beginning of the class to get to know their students and introduce themselves. Even keeping a smile the whole class can help students have the motivation to complete their objective for the day!

                Diane Van Dyke, a substitute teacher in Loudoun County likes spending her classes having individual, and graded assignments due at the end of the class. “With a sub, group projects and open-ended activities with no grade or due date can be very hard for less motivated students to complete. This also leads to more disruption by those less motivated students.” She also finds that smiling and finding something positive to say about the student’s work is very effective in helping students to be respectful and productive. A positive attitude at the beginning of class can create a full block of cooperativeness.

                This year, I had the sweetest substitute teacher and she was able to help each individual student with their assignment. She spent the full class answering questions and constantly checking in on their students to make sure they had all the resources they needed in order to receive full credit on their work. During the last twenty minutes or so of the block, she went over to each individual student and asked them how they felt about their work and asked if they were satisfied or if they needed to meet with the teacher for full understanding. If a student was hesitant about the content, she wrote a note to our teacher telling them who needed extra help. Substitutes like these, make it easier for us to ask for help, and be satisfied with material even if our teacher isn’t up teaching the lesson.

                Substitutes with a smile on their faces and willingness to help their students succeed are the ones that leave their students with the satisfaction of feeling sure of themselves at the end of the day. Every minute counts!Dear Substitutes, every minute counts!