Substitute teacher

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
 This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (November 2007)

A substitute teacher is a person who teaches a school class when the regular teacher is unavailable (e.g., because of illness, personal leave, or other reason. While "substitute teacher" is the generally used phrase in the United States, Canada and Ireland, supply teacher is the more common term in the United Kingdom (though the term is also used in Canada), and relief teacher is used in Australia. There are also various other terms which may be used in a particular region (such as teacher on call in the Canadian province of British Columbia).

Contents

[edit] General qualifications

In some regions, the qualifications for substitute teaching may not be as strict as a regular teacher. Some areas require a college degree and the successful completion of competency tests; others require only that the applicant possess a high school diploma or its equivalent; others again insist on possession of full teaching qualifications. Some authorities will allow a substitute teacher without any training in the subject to be taught and who may simply be present so that students can maintain the routine of going to their regularly scheduled class, even if no new material is covered. Some school administrators may not hire full-time teachers unless they have had substitute teaching experience. [1]

[edit] Pay

Rates of pay for substitute teachers vary widely depending on geographic location, length of assignment and teacher qualifications.

In the United States the position's national average is about US$80 per day, with rural districts paying as low as $40 per day and larger, urban districts, paying over $200 per day.[2][3][4]

In the United Kingdom, supply teachers employed by a local education authority or school directly must be paid a daily rate of 1/195 of the annual salary to which they would be entitled were they employed in the position on a full-time basis.[5] Teachers employed through agencies are not subject to this rule, but nevertheless daily rates are generally around UK£100-125.

[edit] Substitute Educator's Day

The United States observes a Substitute Educator's Day, which was instituted by the National Education Association (NEA). The purpose of this day is to highlight the role and importance of the substitute teacher by providing information about, advocating for, and helping to increase appreciation and respect for this unique professional. This day also focuses on the needs of substitutes, which include better wages and health benefits and continual professional development. Substitute Educator's Day is observed on the Friday during American Education Week. Other countries and jurisdictions have similar observances.

[edit] Substitute teachers in fiction

  • A series of movies feature a mercenary posing as a substitute teacher in order to take on criminal elements within the school. The first, The Substitute, starred Tom Berenger. The remaining three starred Treat Williams, and were The Substitute 2: School's Out, The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All, and The Substitute: Failure Is Not an Option.
  • A sequel to Class of 1999, which featured teachers in gang-run schools being replaced by deadly robots, was titled Class of 1999 II: The Substitute.
  • A scene in Catch Me If You Can portrays famed con man Frank Abagnale convincing a class that, rather than being a new student, he is in fact their substitute teacher.
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger portrayed an undercover police officer who disguised himself as a long-term substitute teacher in the movie Kindergarten Cop.
  • Harry Allard and James Marshall wrote a series of children's picture books about Miss Nelson and her alter ego, a strict substitute teacher named Miss Viola Swamp.
  • Mike Thaler and illustrator Jared Lee wrote and illustrated a series of children's picture books titled The Teacher from the Black Lagoon and one of those books is The Substitute Teacher from the Black Lagoon.
  • The character of Steve Barkin, from Kim Possible, is Middleton High School's "permanent substitute teacher", having taught just about every class at some point.
  • In Juanita Havill's book Jamaica and the Substitute Teacher, Jamaica and her classmates have a substitute teacher for the week. Mrs. Duval is warm, encouraging, and fun, and the children are eager to please her. When it's time for the spelling test, Jamaica realizes that she's forgotten to study and copies from a friend. Troubled, she confesses to Mrs. Duval, who reassures her that she doesn't have to be perfect to be special in her class.
  • The character of Ms. Wilder, from The Revenge of the Substitute Teacher, is a terrible, gullible substitute teacher who replaced Mr. Manlin, a strict 5th grade classroom teacher who decided to go away for a while.
  • The character of Mr. Becker from Young Cam Jansen and the Substitute Mystery, is a very forgetful substitute teacher who forgot the note from Ms. Dee, the math assignment she left, and the jacket on his back. When his cell phone and car keys go missing, young Cam Jansen steps in to help solve the mystery and find the lost belongings.
  • The character of Mr. Hiram Wuerst, from The Wacky Substitute, is about a Mr. Magoo of the education world.
  • The character of Miss Huff, from Substitute Teacher Plans, is an elementary teacher who gets fed up with her students after they start swinging from the light fixture and growling like wild animals. So, she calls in a substitute and makes two lists one for her vacation day and the other for the substitute teacher. The lists get inadvertently reveresed and to everyone's delight. As the children and the sub go off to ride a roller coaster, skydive, build a huge sand castle, and so on, the teacher happily settles down to read, write, practice math by paying her bills, etc. The clay, acrylic, collage, and Photoshop illustrations are lively, and Smith supports this fine flight of fancy with diverse, fantastical figures. When Miss Huff returns the following day, she finds a thank-you note from her stand-in. The principal arrives asking for an explanation and is promptly invited to join Miss Huff and her class to take acrobatic flight training.
  • In a second season episode of The Simpsons, Lisa Simpson develops feelings for an unconventional substitute teacher named Mr. Bergstrom (voiced by Dustin Hoffman) in the episode Lisa's Substitute.
  • In a first season episode of Saved By The Bell, Lisa Turtle, Jessie Spano, Kelly Kapowski and the other girls of Bayside High School developed feelings for Ms. Simpson's handsome substitute teacher, Tony Crane (played by Hank Stratton) in the episode The Substitute.
  • The character Peggy Hill from King of the Hill is a substitute Spanish teacher, although her Spanish skills are substandard to say the least.
  • The character of Dorothy Zbornak (played by actress Bea Arthur), from The Golden Girls, is a substitute English teacher, although she takes on many additional odd jobs throughout the series.
  • In No Substitute for Crazy, a The Fairly OddParents episode, a seemingly nice substitute teacher named Ms. Sunshine enters Dimmsdale Elementary School after Denzel Crocker breaks his "failing hand". To avoid having Crocker back Timmy Turner wishes her to be the new regular teacher. In the next day she reveals herself as another fairy hunter and asks the students to call her Miss Doombringer. She reveals she enter schools as a substitute teacher and leaves the suggestion of someone using magic to make her the regular teacher to trick kids with fairy godparents into wishing so. When she became regular teacher at Dimmsdale Elementary she realized somebody there has fairies. She's less insane and more dangerous than Crocker.
  • Jack Black plays unconventional substitute teacher Mr. S (Duey Finn) in School of Rock

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.ericdigests.org/1998-1/warm.htm
  2. ^ Requirements for substitute teachers in the US
  3. ^ http://www.nstasubs.org/FAQs/FAQs.html
  4. ^ http://www.teachinla.com/Research/documents/salarytables/subtable.pdf
  5. ^ Supply teachers Pay, conditions & working time Sept 2006- Aug 2007. National Union of Teachers (2006-05-24). Retrieved on 2006-12-28.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substitute_teacher"
Personal tools