How to Help a Substitute Feel Welcome in Your School
My favorite schools help me feel like a professional. They are welcoming schools that provide me with tools and knowledge. A good school fosters your success.
- It is useful to have a folder with disciplinary forms, lockdown and drill procedures, phone numbers, extensions and dialing instructions to offices.
- Name badges, or a badge that identifies you as a substitute teacher or aide allow other staff to greet you and offer guidance and support.
- Having the principal, vice principal or other designated administrator stop in shows students they are expected to respect, and lets the substitute know they are in a supportive environment.
- Inform your substitute teachers who does the scheduling and how to update availability, and if an emergency arrives how they can call-in.
- Greeting the substitute in halls is friendly and sets a tone. Unfortunately, I have been in schools where I walk down the school and no one looks me in the eye.
- Provide substitutes with your school calendar. This allows subs to prepare for vacation times or attend school concerts and sporting events.
- Let substitutes know where job postings for the district are posted.
- Where is the lounge? Where can I put my lunch? Is there a coffee pot?
- What do you expect of substitutes during prep hours?
- Is there a staff bathroom near the classroom? Do we get a break? In a grade school that I frequent I get two breaks and a lunch. I love my days there as I pace myself and get a breather.
- If you are the teacher leaving notes, please let us know what disciplinary tools you use in the classroom and the time students shift subjects, rooms or go to specials.
- When leaving notes let us know which staff we can turn to in a pinch, and ask them to pop their head in during the course of the day.
Originally published at The Dailies February 4, 2008
