Substitute Teaching for fcps

[Anonymous]

I been laid off from my job back in April (doge) , and thinking about doing some Substitute Teaching, how does it work? I know my pay will go down, but need more money.

[Anonymous]

Show up - they’ll pretty much take any warm body.

[Anonymous]

Go to restaurants. More money, flexibility, and the feed you.
I make $40 an hour without even trying in DC. This is not a high end place.
My co-worker makes $50 an hour easily, because she runs faster and needs money.
I've worked in school and just helped a teacher friend to get into restaurant business. School is brutal.

[Anonymous]

Far better options, taking your life in your hands entering a classroom these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I been laid off from my job back in April (doge) , and thinking about doing some Substitute Teaching, how does it work? I know my pay will go down, but need more money.

Once you get hired, there's an app that teachers use to list substitute jobs. You can look at all the jobs or filter by schools, grade level, subject matter. If you see a job you want, you accept it. Then show up to work the job. There are jobs for the full day but there are also jobs for partial day. If you want to work in that classroom again, you can leave your contact info and the teacher may reach out to you if he/she needs a sub again. Once I started subbing, I started getting call backs. By the middle of the school year, more than half the jobs I accepted were from teachers reaching out to me for scheduled absences.

You need to work 10 days a year in order to stay active. If you want, there are vacancies every day that you can accept. However, they may not be close to home so you might have to drive quite a distance.

The last couple of years, they have had bonus incentives - hopefully they do it again this year but they haven't announced any yet. There were several "High Volume Fridays" (usually before a holiday) where you would get an extra $80 for taking a teacher assignment and $50 for taking an assistant position. As long as you worked 3 hours, it counted as a day. I worked a couple of Friday afternoons - only 3 hours - and made $140 for 3 hours of work ($20 per hour as the teacher and $80 bonus.). $47 an hour isn't too bad. Then if you worked 50 jobs in a year, you'd get an additional $200. 100 jobs = $300 plus the $200 for a total of $500. 150 jobs = $400 plus the $300 and the $200 for a total of $900.

I've been lucky and have not been reassigned to a different job than the one I signed up for. I've heard that happens alot - you show up to do Job A and the front office puts you somewhere else. I've had a couple of really rough days and I make sure I never go back to that classroom again. For the most part, I've enjoyed subbing and am looking forward to the school year starting again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I been laid off from my job back in April (doge) , and thinking about doing some Substitute Teaching, how does it work? I know my pay will go down, but need more money.

Once you get hired, there's an app that teachers use to list substitute jobs. You can look at all the jobs or filter by schools, grade level, subject matter. If you see a job you want, you accept it. Then show up to work the job. There are jobs for the full day but there are also jobs for partial day. If you want to work in that classroom again, you can leave your contact info and the teacher may reach out to you if he/she needs a sub again. Once I started subbing, I started getting call backs. By the middle of the school year, more than half the jobs I accepted were from teachers reaching out to me for scheduled absences.

You need to work 10 days a year in order to stay active. If you want, there are vacancies every day that you can accept. However, they may not be close to home so you might have to drive quite a distance.

The last couple of years, they have had bonus incentives - hopefully they do it again this year but they haven't announced any yet. There were several "High Volume Fridays" (usually before a holiday) where you would get an extra $80 for taking a teacher assignment and $50 for taking an assistant position. As long as you worked 3 hours, it counted as a day. I worked a couple of Friday afternoons - only 3 hours - and made $140 for 3 hours of work ($20 per hour as the teacher and $80 bonus.). $47 an hour isn't too bad. Then if you worked 50 jobs in a year, you'd get an additional $200. 100 jobs = $300 plus the $200 for a total of $500. 150 jobs = $400 plus the $300 and the $200 for a total of $900.

I've been lucky and have not been reassigned to a different job than the one I signed up for. I've heard that happens alot - you show up to do Job A and the front office puts you somewhere else. I've had a couple of really rough days and I make sure I never go back to that classroom again. For the most part, I've enjoyed subbing and am looking forward to the school year starting again.

This is a great summary. I subbed for a couple years in FCPS before I went back to teaching FT. It takes a long time to get through the hiring process so I would get started ASAP.

You will figure out quickly which schools and grade levels you prefer. There are some schools you'll never want to set foot in again and that's completely within your rights.

Personally, I would not accept a long term sub job for at least my first year subbing and after that only under very specific circumstances. They don't pay enough and you will be expected to shoulder a ton of work, often with little support. Any long term sub job that's been open all year is a big red flag.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for being willing to sub. You might want to start out with instructional assistant jobs if you have not been in schools recently. After you apply online and are hired, and report for your first job, be sure to ask in the front office when you arrive how to get assistance if you need it. Usually, teachers in the room next to you are happy to help. Remember that praise goes a long way with kids, and thank them for positive behavior all day. Leave a note detailing how the day went for the teacher.

[Anonymous]

If you sub for high school, it's glorified babysitting because teachers put all the work on Schoology.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I been laid off from my job back in April (doge) , and thinking about doing some Substitute Teaching, how does it work? I know my pay will go down, but need more money.

Once you get hired, there's an app that teachers use to list substitute jobs. You can look at all the jobs or filter by schools, grade level, subject matter. If you see a job you want, you accept it. Then show up to work the job. There are jobs for the full day but there are also jobs for partial day. If you want to work in that classroom again, you can leave your contact info and the teacher may reach out to you if he/she needs a sub again. Once I started subbing, I started getting call backs. By the middle of the school year, more than half the jobs I accepted were from teachers reaching out to me for scheduled absences.

You need to work 10 days a year in order to stay active. If you want, there are vacancies every day that you can accept. However, they may not be close to home so you might have to drive quite a distance.

The last couple of years, they have had bonus incentives - hopefully they do it again this year but they haven't announced any yet. There were several "High Volume Fridays" (usually before a holiday) where you would get an extra $80 for taking a teacher assignment and $50 for taking an assistant position. As long as you worked 3 hours, it counted as a day. I worked a couple of Friday afternoons - only 3 hours - and made $140 for 3 hours of work ($20 per hour as the teacher and $80 bonus.). $47 an hour isn't too bad. Then if you worked 50 jobs in a year, you'd get an additional $200. 100 jobs = $300 plus the $200 for a total of $500. 150 jobs = $400 plus the $300 and the $200 for a total of $900.

I've been lucky and have not been reassigned to a different job than the one I signed up for. I've heard that happens alot - you show up to do Job A and the front office puts you somewhere else. I've had a couple of really rough days and I make sure I never go back to that classroom again. For the most part, I've enjoyed subbing and am looking forward to the school year starting again.

This is a great summary. I subbed for a couple years in FCPS before I went back to teaching FT. It takes a long time to get through the hiring process so I would get started ASAP.

You will figure out quickly which schools and grade levels you prefer. There are some schools you'll never want to set foot in again and that's completely within your rights.

Personally, I would not accept a long term sub job for at least my first year subbing and after that only under very specific circumstances. They don't pay enough and you will be expected to shoulder a ton of work, often with little support. Any long term sub job that's been open all year is a big red flag.

+1
I learned this the hard way and it almost stopped me from every subbing again. What a terrible experience. Now I only do short-term/daily assignments.
DP

[Anonymous]

The hiring process is one step short of naming your first baby after FCPS. Too much trouble, not worth the effort!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The hiring process is one step short of naming your first baby after FCPS. Too much trouble, not worth the effort!

So is the ten-day requirement per year. I think they're desperate enough that they couldn't possibly hold people to that, especially after going to all the trouble to do background checks, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The hiring process is one step short of naming your first baby after FCPS. Too much trouble, not worth the effort!

So is the ten-day requirement per year. I think they're desperate enough that they couldn't possibly hold people to that, especially after going to all the trouble to do background checks, etc.

It’s not ten days, it’s ten jobs. As long as a job is 3 hours long, it counts. I sub almost exclusively for half day jobs and I have no trouble hitting ten days well before thanksgiving. I especially like half day Friday jobs that have the $80 bonus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you sub for high school, it's glorified babysitting because teachers put all the work on Schoology.

+1, so boring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The hiring process is one step short of naming your first baby after FCPS. Too much trouble, not worth the effort!

So is the ten-day requirement per year. I think they're desperate enough that they couldn't possibly hold people to that, especially after going to all the trouble to do background checks, etc.

They didn't hold me to it the first year I was a sub. I got hired right before winter break and worked one job. I then had a medical emergency that prevented me from working until almost May. At that point, I didn't want to walk into a school at the end of the school year. I never called the sub office to explain my situation. I was still able to work the next school year and worked over 50 jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you sub for high school, it's glorified babysitting because teachers put all the work on Schoology.

I’d say that’s true for middle school as well. For elementary, it’s normally a variety of different worksheets with a couple of read alouds. If you’re thinking you’re going to “teach”, then keep your expectations very low.