Ten Facts About Substitute Teaching

Fact #1: The pay is lousy and you won't get benefits.

While full-time teachers are now getting better and better pay, and districts are offering more and more benefits to stay competitive, substitute teachers make an impressive lousy amount to do what is, essentially, glorified babysitting.  Because substitutes are not considered full-time employees, even when they work 40 hours a week, they are offered no benefits, such as insurance (which is often sorely needed come flu season, given that subs will be exposed to every strain of, well, everything that goes around).

It might be entirely possible for someone to live off of substitute teaching, but I've yet to see it done, as subs generally make approximately one third of their full-time teaching counterpart's salary.

Fact #2: The hours are great.

If you're in need of a job where you can take off as many days as you want without any threat of losing your job, regardless of whether your time off is a day or three months, welcome to the wonderful world of substitute teaching.  Tardiness really isn't a problem, either. As long as you arrive before school actually starts, you're unlikely to encounter any criticism.

The typical school day for a secondary teacher involves 6 hours of teaching coupled with 2 hours of conference time/lunch. This often translates to long breaks in the day, being able to leave early or take a trip back home to sleep for a bit before the day actually starts.  If you need a job where you'll have enough free time in your day to run countless errands, subbing is certainly a great option.

Fact #3: Subbing is a great way to make connections.

Not only will substitute teaching help you determine whether or not teaching is something to do, it will give you an idea of what age groups you do and don't want to work with.  Moreover, you'll get a good idea of the people you'd be working with in particular schools or the feel of a particular district.