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How To Be an Extraordinary Elementary School Substitute Teacher
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In order to be an extraordinary substitute teacher, one must first understand that students are simply people who need what all people need: to be respected; to be related to personally; to be inspired; to have some fun; and to have something interesting to learn or do!

The extraordinary substitute teacher empowers his or her students, opens up new frontiers to his or her students, bonds with them as people, and relates to them in a personal as well as professional manner. He or she is warm and brings love and enjoyment to his or her job, and thus is loved by his or her students. An extraordinary substitute teacher knows how to be kind, but also firm. He or she knows how to teach, but also to a certain degree how to entertain. An extraordinary substitute has a lively sense of humor, but also a powerful dedication to fulfilling the mandated standards of the school district.

An extraordinary substitute is someone who also brings his or her own personally selected extraordinary lesson plans along with him or her in the event that the permanent full-time teacher has not left lesson plans, or in the event that the students complete any or all of the daily assignments early.

The ability to flexibly adjust one’s own expectation level is also very important for an extraordinary substitute teacher. All students and all classes will behave and achieve at different levels, and an extraordinary substitute teacher does not lose his or her own dedication nor cool when a class has particularly bad behavior or is grossly underachieving. An extraordinary substitute teacher, in such case, will adjust him or herself accordingly and work with the students he or she has been given at their level in order to make as much progress as possible in the limited amount of time that he or she has available with the class.

An extraordinary substitute teacher creates a space of calm, fairness, and cooperation in the classroom, as much as is possible, and teaches his or her students to do the same through conversations, posing questions, and demonstration. An extraordinary substitute can be incredibly loud and powerfully stern whenever necessary and yet also let the class know that he or she is not mad at the students, only that he or she is in charge and demands a certain level of behavior, attention, and effort in the classroom.

An extraordinary substitute uses positive reinforcement to control the classroom. An extraordinary substitute pays attention to and verbally acknowledges those students behaving correctly and does not spend excess time or attention on trying to suppress those students who are behaving incorrectly. The extraordinary substitute teacher realizes that in this way most classes will be moved to compete for the positive attention.

An extraordinary substitute teacher brings diverse cultural music, art, books, and even videos to his or her students for them to experience for the first time if and when time permits. An extraordinary substitute teacher can also reward students not with material objects like candy, cookies, or toys, but with cartoon character impersonations, magic tricks, or even as a last resort stickers!

An extraordinary substitute operates out of integrity. An extraordinary substitute leaves letters to the full-time teachers with details of what was completed and how the day or days went with their class. An extraordinary substitute teacher can also talk to other teachers in the teacher’s lounge and form friendly acquaintances with them and converse on a variety of subjects ranging from educational techniques and policies to politics. An extraordinary substitute teacher can also secure future jobs through establishing authentic relationships with teachers in the teacher’s lounge and office personnel in the office, and simply by being friendly.

An extraordinary substitute teacher can do all of these things, but he or she also realizes that on some days, and with some incredibly difficult classes, to put it mildly, the sh-t is going to hit the fan!

In these cases, an extraordinary substitute teacher will face the “fire” of these often unbelievably difficult experiences with a powerful determination to grow as a teacher and as a human being, naturally becoming on these most challenging of days, an even more extraordinary substitute teacher.

Written by Seth D. King
January 12, 2004