Surprising Facts You Never Knew About Substitute Teachers

Substitute teachers are the same as your regular teachers in every way imaginable, except that their pay model is different. They work on a freelance versus salary basis, and their working conditions are not anything near friendly. 

Substitute teachers perform instructional and classroom management on behalf of teachers in cases where the full-time faculty members are sick or attending to other personal issues. Based on reports on educational matters, according to nstasubs.org,  substitute teachers in the United States earn an average pay between $105 to $190 per day. However, some districts pay way below this average day-to-day due to the many different policies on matters related to education.

Different school management committees and districts in charge of education as well as teacher employment, use different rubrics to specify the qualities that substitute teachers poses before offering them job opportunities. Districts lookout for what they call ‘passion- teachers’ who are substitute teachers that are truly passionate about teaching and are not just looking for a paycheck. These successful substitutes share qualities such as accountability, interpersonal skills, confidence, adaptability, and content mastery – which are key qualities that employers will look for in this fairly competitive space.

An ‘emergency teacher’ as used in some parts of the United States is a common practice that has existed in the country for a long time as a unique and respected profession. There are many surprising facts that many people don’t know about substitute teachers. In this article, we have highlighted some of the key surprising facts you didn’t know about substitute teachers.

Substitute teachers have calendar days in the US and other countries throughout Europe
Every year on the 3rd of November, the United States celebrates its annual substitute educators’ day. Other countries like England, Australia, and India have their own day set aside as well to appreciate and support substitute teachers. These days draw light on the fight for good wages, health benefits, professional development, and promote general awareness about the wonderful work that substitute teachers do.

Substitute teachers are freelancers, their flexibility offers them huge benefits
Emergency teachers are not permanently employed, they have other passions they are chasing in life. They can spend their free time away from teaching to write a book or focus on developing other art that might interest them. Besides juggling many job offers, substitute teachers use their time developing skills that they think can make them earn enough money to support themselves and their families. Many huge benefits come with having more time flexibility such as being able to care for children to save on childcare costs or pick up freelance jobs or even follow a passion project. 

Substitute teachers must have great personal finance skills
The nature of work for most of these teachers does not allow them to have large amounts of cash at a single moment. It calls for prudence and accountability of the highest order to be able to manage the little finances they are left with and the uncertainty that comes with substitute work. Substitute teachers have to improvise and develop personal skills on how to manage their finances, otherwise, it would be fairly difficult for them to survive.

They tend to wake up earlier than the majority of people
As freelancers to the schooling system, substitute teachers need to be up as early as 4:00 am to 5:00 am in the morning in order to win the incoming calls on job offers. This along with many teachers in this profession also doing their own research such as memorizing students’ names in preparation for their classes, means a very early morning indeed.