Transform Your School’s Substitute Teaching Experience
Just like everything else, substitute teaching is about to undergo a big change. In Substantial Classrooms: Redesigning the Substitute Teaching Experience, authors Jill Vialet and Amanda von Moos usher in a new era of innovation in substitute teaching. Threaded with concrete and actionable ways to improve the experience of substitute teaching for administrators, students, and the teachers themselves, Substantial Classrooms is a leading voice for innovation and renewal in substitute teaching. Instead of viewing substitute teachers as a placeholder in an educator’s absence, this book encourages readers to view substitute teachers as vital resources that diversify the typical classroom learning experience. While other books look only at making a bad situation bearable, this book re-examines substitute teaching with an eye towards reinventing it as a unique and valuable part of students’ educational experience.
Key themes of Substantial Classrooms include:
- How substitute teaching works today
- Applying human-centered design to create change in legacy systems like substitute teaching
- Concrete and inspiring examples of different models for substitute teaching, for example, reimagining it as paid fieldwork for aspiring teachers.
- In addition to these key themes, every chapter includes stories and techniques from dynamic and innovative educational practitioners.
This must-have guide to substitute teaching can improve schools everywhere and revolutionize the way educators, school and district leaders, colleges, and community partners view the experience of substitute teaching as a lever to positively impact schools.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Dr. Susie Wise 10
Introduction 14
How We Got Here 16
What’s Ahead 18
Building Empathy: Parallel Journeys 20
How Substitute Teaching Works Today 32
Surprising Stats 34
Who Are Substitute Teachers? 36
Requirements to be a Sub 37
The Need for Subs 41
Substitute Teaching as a System 46
Outsourcing 50
The Impact of Uneven Coverage 51
What Happens in the Classroom 53
Why Isn’t Substitute Teaching Receiving More Attention? 55
The Four Defining Characteristics of Substitute Teaching 58
Takeaways 61
Start Where You Are 62
What Matters: Subs Coming Back 64
Language Matters 68
Building Relationships at the School Level 69
Sub Plans, Every Time 71
Build Schoolwide Practices 73
Small Things That Make a Difference 75
Why Focus on it? It Works 78
Building Relationships at the District Level 79
Small Things That Make a Difference 87
Takeaways 89
Design Lab 90
What is Design Thinking? 92
Doing Design Work - Our Basic Cycle 96
Key Mindsets 104
Design Principles 108
Substantial Classrooms: Redesigning the Substitute Teaching Experience 9
Developing an Idea: Steps Along the Way 113
Journey of an Idea: SubPlans 121
Takeaways 126
Opportunities 128
The Heart of the Opportunity: Under-utilized Student Time 129
Why These Ideas 131
Meet the Innovators 132
The Art of the Hack 133
Go Forth and Innovate! 133
Opportunity: Reimagine Substitute Teaching as a Full-Time Fellowship 135
Opportunity: Part-Time Jobs for College Students 140
Opportunity: Community Talent 145
Opportunity: Teacher Pre-Service 151
Opportunity: District Teacher Pipeline 155
Opportunity: After-School Staff 159
Emerging Opportunities 163
Takeaways 167
The Commencement Chapter 168
Resources 172
Design Moves Playbook 173
Getting Ready for a Substitute Teacher: Sample Lesson Plan 188
Resource Guide: Learning About Design Thinking 192
Resource Guide: Research on Substitute Teaching 196
Books Referenced 203
Acknowledgments 204
About the Authors 206
Index 207
