Post by Keith on May 23, 2007 17:50:16 GMT -8
The world of substitute teaching is a pretty challenging world. At the same time, it challenges you mentally, physically, and spiritually. I should know that myself since I worked as a substitute teacher while attend college courses a night. I had worked for the school board in one of the counties in Florida. It was a pretty difficult challenge on my part. But I learned that the people I work for are a bunch of idiots. I could tell that most of the people on the school board haven't stepped into a classroom before let alone stepped inside an actual classroom for a very long time.
Salary wise, I made about ten dollars an hour. Though it's a very low payscale, paraprofessionals get paid a bit lower. And paraprofessionals have a much tougher challenge than substitutes do from what I had witnessed. Despite the low pay, for a college student, it's pretty good money. However, when I worked as a subsitute from early 2003 until 2004, it was ten dollars an hour. Depending on how early you come in, you usually work for up to about 7-9 hours. Unfortunately, you don't get overtime pay and the daily pay cuts off at seventy-five dollars. For each half-hour to an hour you stay after, you do not get paid anymore.
Substitute teaching is not a job to take if you want to get rich quick. Also, it's a job that requires a lot of patience and discipline. They recently increased the hourly pay to about $11+ an hour. In my personal opinion, it's not enough for subsittute teachers. Most of the classes I substituted in were special-ed classes. At the orientation I went to before getting processed into the school board database, the people giving the orientation said that they needed more people to substitute in special-ed classes.
Of course they're the ones that need more reaching out too. But there's not enough incentives. Especially from what I have seen substituting in special-ed classes. I elected myself to do average, advanced, and special-ed classes because that it would get me more calls to substitute. Most of the unruly and possibly violent students I have came across happened to be placed in special-ed classes. The most prone to committing serious crimes were placed in self-contained special-ed classes. The stress and potential danger level is a major turn-off to most substitutes. Though the paras have it much harder because they're with those students the most.
The students tend to respect the paras far less than the actual teachers. In turn, they tend to respect substitutes far less than they do with the paras. For a substitute teacher, substituting in a self-contained room is often difficult. But you have at least one or two paras that will help out. However, it still makes the job difficult.
I had an experience with one class around 2004 where the teacher and the para were both out. I've subsituted as a para a few times and it wasn't a pleasant experience. Substitute paras have a much lower pay than substitute teachers last I worked for the school board. Instead of seventy-five a day, they make about fifty a day.
From my personal experience as a substitute, I feel that the paygrade needs to be a few dollars higher. In order to get more substitute teachers motivated in substituting, there should be a higher paygrade and more bonuses. If far less substitutes elect to substitute in special-education classes, it's going to cause more problems in the long run. To get people motivated, you must add incentives. It's the same in the workplace and in the military. I'm not talking bad of special-ed classes in general. I've had some good experiences. But the bad experiences were very bad. It gets very bad if the special-ed class is in a school in a very bad neighborhood.
There are benefits of subsitute teaching, though:
- If you enjoy challenges, substitute teaching is definitely something you should look into.
- You get to observe how different schools operate. This is good if you're going into teaching and see what school you want to teach at. Plus it gives you good experience and credentials.
- If you're going into other fields such as political science, take some time and take up substitute teaching as a part-time job. Experience in a job in substitute teaching will definitely carry a lot of weight on your part.
- You get to pass on knowledge and wisdom to other generations on a mass scale instead of focusing on just one school.
I think the current minimum requirements of being a substitute is at least thirty college credit hours. In Florida, if you're looking for a part-time job, this is the path to go. They're desperately looking for full-time teachers, substitute teachers, and paras. Be forewarned, these are jobs that require a huge amount of patience. If you have anger problems and prone to snapping, don't apply. In the county I taught in, the payscale is the same under the SEMS network. However, schools that are not under SEMS tend to pay higher.
I must stress if you lack the patience, do not apply. It'll only make things bad for you in the long run.
www.helium.com/tm/222674/world-substitute-teaching-pretty
Salary wise, I made about ten dollars an hour. Though it's a very low payscale, paraprofessionals get paid a bit lower. And paraprofessionals have a much tougher challenge than substitutes do from what I had witnessed. Despite the low pay, for a college student, it's pretty good money. However, when I worked as a subsitute from early 2003 until 2004, it was ten dollars an hour. Depending on how early you come in, you usually work for up to about 7-9 hours. Unfortunately, you don't get overtime pay and the daily pay cuts off at seventy-five dollars. For each half-hour to an hour you stay after, you do not get paid anymore.
Substitute teaching is not a job to take if you want to get rich quick. Also, it's a job that requires a lot of patience and discipline. They recently increased the hourly pay to about $11+ an hour. In my personal opinion, it's not enough for subsittute teachers. Most of the classes I substituted in were special-ed classes. At the orientation I went to before getting processed into the school board database, the people giving the orientation said that they needed more people to substitute in special-ed classes.
Of course they're the ones that need more reaching out too. But there's not enough incentives. Especially from what I have seen substituting in special-ed classes. I elected myself to do average, advanced, and special-ed classes because that it would get me more calls to substitute. Most of the unruly and possibly violent students I have came across happened to be placed in special-ed classes. The most prone to committing serious crimes were placed in self-contained special-ed classes. The stress and potential danger level is a major turn-off to most substitutes. Though the paras have it much harder because they're with those students the most.
The students tend to respect the paras far less than the actual teachers. In turn, they tend to respect substitutes far less than they do with the paras. For a substitute teacher, substituting in a self-contained room is often difficult. But you have at least one or two paras that will help out. However, it still makes the job difficult.
I had an experience with one class around 2004 where the teacher and the para were both out. I've subsituted as a para a few times and it wasn't a pleasant experience. Substitute paras have a much lower pay than substitute teachers last I worked for the school board. Instead of seventy-five a day, they make about fifty a day.
From my personal experience as a substitute, I feel that the paygrade needs to be a few dollars higher. In order to get more substitute teachers motivated in substituting, there should be a higher paygrade and more bonuses. If far less substitutes elect to substitute in special-education classes, it's going to cause more problems in the long run. To get people motivated, you must add incentives. It's the same in the workplace and in the military. I'm not talking bad of special-ed classes in general. I've had some good experiences. But the bad experiences were very bad. It gets very bad if the special-ed class is in a school in a very bad neighborhood.
There are benefits of subsitute teaching, though:
- If you enjoy challenges, substitute teaching is definitely something you should look into.
- You get to observe how different schools operate. This is good if you're going into teaching and see what school you want to teach at. Plus it gives you good experience and credentials.
- If you're going into other fields such as political science, take some time and take up substitute teaching as a part-time job. Experience in a job in substitute teaching will definitely carry a lot of weight on your part.
- You get to pass on knowledge and wisdom to other generations on a mass scale instead of focusing on just one school.
I think the current minimum requirements of being a substitute is at least thirty college credit hours. In Florida, if you're looking for a part-time job, this is the path to go. They're desperately looking for full-time teachers, substitute teachers, and paras. Be forewarned, these are jobs that require a huge amount of patience. If you have anger problems and prone to snapping, don't apply. In the county I taught in, the payscale is the same under the SEMS network. However, schools that are not under SEMS tend to pay higher.
I must stress if you lack the patience, do not apply. It'll only make things bad for you in the long run.
www.helium.com/tm/222674/world-substitute-teaching-pretty