Well, my worries of not having enough to do were unnecessary. Since August 31st, I've only had a day and a half off! Whether teachers were sick, had a death in the family, sick kids at home, district training, field trips or plain just needed to take a few days off, I've been there to cover them.
Things I've learned so far...
Bring a book to read - all teachers have a prep period and I've begun to realize that many have two periods without classes... Thus, I get a lot of reading in. I would blog more during my free time, but I can only stand typing on my phone for so long :)
Get ready quickly - I've been called as early as 5:55 and as late as 6:30 when I'm required to be at the school at 7:30. The closest school takes me about 7 minutes to get to while the farthest takes me 20 minutes to get to. The best days are when I'm told the day before where I'm needed so I know I need to wake up and get ready
It's ok to arrive early - sometimes, sub plans are harder to find than usual (thank you to the department head for calling the teacher and printing the notes off for me!) and other times, you were told to go to the wrong school. Case in point: I arrived at the closer of the two high schools a little before 7:30, only to be told that I had been told wrong... the teacher I was supposed to be subbing for was at the other high school (15 minute drive away). I was ready by the time school started, but luckily, the teacher had a prep period for the first hour!
Be prepared for anything - some classrooms are quite exotic. I've been a biology teacher twice now. Both classrooms had live animals in cages, jarred specimens in glass cabinets, stuffed heads on the wall and bones everywhere. One even had greenery draped from the ceiling. Yup, that was interesting!
I'm sure I'm forgetting other lessons that I've learned so stayed tuned in for more thoughts from the "Sub Files!"
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