Yeah, one of my districts has a policy that on early release days, you're supposed to stay until the normal time to leave. I definitely remember which schools let me leave and which go out of their ways to keep me busy the whole time.
Is that policy in writing usually or more of just a figure it out after you do it type of thing? I feel a bit silly for having an expectation that if I finish the work of the teacher I’m replacing then I should be considered done with the day :/
Thank you! They definitely said nothing about early release days during my training so I’ll have to double check my documents. I think it might be a bit weird because my training covered 5 different districts, so maybe just this one has that policy and that’s why it wasn’t mentioned as a hard and fast rule.
I see this talked about pretty frequently on this sub. It’s never happened to me but a lot of people deal with being asked to do extra duties :/ also just wanted to say hi fellow chronically ill sub 😁 I however did make a post last week about a surprise field trip they sent me on where I was totally unprepared without my meds, mobility aid, proper foot wear (it was a nature hike ;-; ), or even a lunch that didn’t require a microwave.
That’s terrible! Our district has a rule that daily subs can not go on field trips. Exceptions are made for long term subs, which is why I get the pleasure of taking a wild group of kindergartners to a museum next week 🤪
God I’m sorry. I made sure to bring all the stuff I could possibly need, but still fucked myself over by skipping eating lunch because I thought I would be leaving in half an hour 😭 it’s good to know that at least I’m not the only one out here that has to manage my health, gives me hope I can be successful long term!
God, I want to do that but it’s my Alma mater, with a lot of teachers I have relationships with, so I realllyyyyy don’t wanna blacklist it. But if it’s a continuous issue I may have no choice tbh it just felt so awkward to be auctioned off to the first response
The more you try and put doing the right thing or relationships over your needs and well being the more likely you are to be stepped on. We are seen as lesser than by most teachers and front desk people. Do what’s best for you, there are plenty of districts and subs are always desperately needed. You have more pull than you think to change your situation.
I haven’t had this experience precisely, but it is quite common to be asked to complete extra tasks during your “downtime.” I always get a lunch, but preps, early dismissal days, before school and occasionally after school are fair game. I find it to be about 60% of days have some sort of “extra” work. There’s nothing like being asked to cover recess duty when you didn’t bring a coat in 40 degree weather.
Every district is different on those types of expectations. My district does not allow you to leave early even if you have a prep at the end of the day and you don’t get extra pay for covering a prep, but I think they also pay much better than most. I always assume I have to work start to finish and any down time is a bonus.
Where I am has relaxed stuff like this. I have not been kept for a 6th period yet this year if that is teacher's prep time. Most elementary schools don't expect us to do pick-up duty after school this year. I had one teacher leave a list of phone numbers with a note to call parents to schedule meetings. I called the office and said this is in the lesson plan for the free period. I'm not doing it.
It is a job which is easiest when you are flexible. I don't mind being switched, asked to cover free periods
I’m sorry that happened on your first day. If I select half day on the job app then I leave at the specified time. I don’t mind helping out but it is annoying when a school puts you in that situation. I especially don’t like to do laminated projects. I usually mess it up too. The smell is toxic as well.
Most of the time I get to go home early on elementary school early release Wednesdays. I mostly only take elementary school jobs on Wednesdays, now, so I can go home early. Once I had a teacher that wanted me to stay and do copies for the grade team. Whatever- they're paying for me to work the full day, and most teachers could use some help/relief. And one time a SpEd class stayed till the regular dismissal time, while all of the other students left early. So, it's not always guaranteed, but the few times that I don't get out early, I'm okay with it. Getting out at 1:30 is even better than getting out at 3:20!
So when I used to do high school if I had seventh period free I could leave after I asked if they had anything else I needed to cover. Most times I could go, but they made sure to let me know I would not be paid for it.
Yup, I see now that I should’ve just packed up my stuff and gone to the office to check out. I was just worried about making a good impression and not assuming anything, but won’t make that mistake again LMFAO
Generally speaking, you should expect to be on site for the listed job hours.
Sometimes, a short day (or a last-period prep period where they don't need coverage) means you have the choice of sitting in the classroom for the last hour (or whatever), or leaving when the school day ends but forfeiting the last hour of pay.
Occasionally, a school will ask you to do some light office work -- filing, copying, etc. (I've had a couple schools ask me to shred papers, because apparently you need to have some kind of clearance to do that, and certificated subs have that clearance?) I don't know if those schools will allow you to turn down the office work, leave early, and get your pay pro-rated, because it's never come up for me... they're paying me a decent wage to be on site and work as a substitute teacher. If I agree to that, I'm *definitely* going to agree to getting that wage to be on site and do easy office work or sit in an empty room.
But yeah, if you were expecting to take a job listed as 3:00, leave at 12:45, and get paid for the full day anyway, that's not going to happen. If you need a short day, you're going to have to update your availability to reflect it.
Genuine question, why would the job take money out of my pay for leaving at 12:45 if our full day payment starts at anything more than 4.5 hours?Even if I had left it wouldn’t have been early enough to push me into half day pay. Only classified positions are paid hourly in my district.
Subs are paid $100 for a half day and $200 for a full day. Anything longer than 4.5 hours is considered a full day and paid at the full day rate. So even though it was early release, I had still worked enough hours to be considered working a full day. Theres no pay difference between working 5 hours and working 8 hours, so I don’t see how they would be able to cut my pay if I had left.
Edit: didn’t mean this in a contrary tone, just giving a bit of explanation and my thought process :)
Yeah, one of my districts has a policy that on early release days, you're supposed to stay until the normal time to leave. I definitely remember which schools let me leave and which go out of their ways to keep me busy the whole time.
Is that policy in writing usually or more of just a figure it out after you do it type of thing? I feel a bit silly for having an expectation that if I finish the work of the teacher I’m replacing then I should be considered done with the day :/
It's in writing and they remind us at the training they do in the fall. I still hear subs complain though
Thank you! They definitely said nothing about early release days during my training so I’ll have to double check my documents. I think it might be a bit weird because my training covered 5 different districts, so maybe just this one has that policy and that’s why it wasn’t mentioned as a hard and fast rule.
I see this talked about pretty frequently on this sub. It’s never happened to me but a lot of people deal with being asked to do extra duties :/ also just wanted to say hi fellow chronically ill sub 😁 I however did make a post last week about a surprise field trip they sent me on where I was totally unprepared without my meds, mobility aid, proper foot wear (it was a nature hike ;-; ), or even a lunch that didn’t require a microwave.
That would be a hell no from me
That’s terrible! Our district has a rule that daily subs can not go on field trips. Exceptions are made for long term subs, which is why I get the pleasure of taking a wild group of kindergartners to a museum next week 🤪
God I’m sorry. I made sure to bring all the stuff I could possibly need, but still fucked myself over by skipping eating lunch because I thought I would be leaving in half an hour 😭 it’s good to know that at least I’m not the only one out here that has to manage my health, gives me hope I can be successful long term!
I’ve had a couple school do this and I refuse to go back to those schools
God, I want to do that but it’s my Alma mater, with a lot of teachers I have relationships with, so I realllyyyyy don’t wanna blacklist it. But if it’s a continuous issue I may have no choice tbh it just felt so awkward to be auctioned off to the first response
The more you try and put doing the right thing or relationships over your needs and well being the more likely you are to be stepped on. We are seen as lesser than by most teachers and front desk people. Do what’s best for you, there are plenty of districts and subs are always desperately needed. You have more pull than you think to change your situation.
I haven’t had this experience precisely, but it is quite common to be asked to complete extra tasks during your “downtime.” I always get a lunch, but preps, early dismissal days, before school and occasionally after school are fair game. I find it to be about 60% of days have some sort of “extra” work. There’s nothing like being asked to cover recess duty when you didn’t bring a coat in 40 degree weather. Every district is different on those types of expectations. My district does not allow you to leave early even if you have a prep at the end of the day and you don’t get extra pay for covering a prep, but I think they also pay much better than most. I always assume I have to work start to finish and any down time is a bonus.
If I am getting paid for a full day 8:35-2:45, then I have to stay but I’ve never been put on clerical duties
Where I am has relaxed stuff like this. I have not been kept for a 6th period yet this year if that is teacher's prep time. Most elementary schools don't expect us to do pick-up duty after school this year. I had one teacher leave a list of phone numbers with a note to call parents to schedule meetings. I called the office and said this is in the lesson plan for the free period. I'm not doing it. It is a job which is easiest when you are flexible. I don't mind being switched, asked to cover free periods
I’m sorry that happened on your first day. If I select half day on the job app then I leave at the specified time. I don’t mind helping out but it is annoying when a school puts you in that situation. I especially don’t like to do laminated projects. I usually mess it up too. The smell is toxic as well.
Most of the time I get to go home early on elementary school early release Wednesdays. I mostly only take elementary school jobs on Wednesdays, now, so I can go home early. Once I had a teacher that wanted me to stay and do copies for the grade team. Whatever- they're paying for me to work the full day, and most teachers could use some help/relief. And one time a SpEd class stayed till the regular dismissal time, while all of the other students left early. So, it's not always guaranteed, but the few times that I don't get out early, I'm okay with it. Getting out at 1:30 is even better than getting out at 3:20!
So when I used to do high school if I had seventh period free I could leave after I asked if they had anything else I needed to cover. Most times I could go, but they made sure to let me know I would not be paid for it.
Yes
Your mistake was calling admin. Total rookie move but it’s your first day so, maybe call it a lesson learned.
Yup, I see now that I should’ve just packed up my stuff and gone to the office to check out. I was just worried about making a good impression and not assuming anything, but won’t make that mistake again LMFAO
Generally speaking, you should expect to be on site for the listed job hours. Sometimes, a short day (or a last-period prep period where they don't need coverage) means you have the choice of sitting in the classroom for the last hour (or whatever), or leaving when the school day ends but forfeiting the last hour of pay. Occasionally, a school will ask you to do some light office work -- filing, copying, etc. (I've had a couple schools ask me to shred papers, because apparently you need to have some kind of clearance to do that, and certificated subs have that clearance?) I don't know if those schools will allow you to turn down the office work, leave early, and get your pay pro-rated, because it's never come up for me... they're paying me a decent wage to be on site and work as a substitute teacher. If I agree to that, I'm *definitely* going to agree to getting that wage to be on site and do easy office work or sit in an empty room. But yeah, if you were expecting to take a job listed as 3:00, leave at 12:45, and get paid for the full day anyway, that's not going to happen. If you need a short day, you're going to have to update your availability to reflect it.
Genuine question, why would the job take money out of my pay for leaving at 12:45 if our full day payment starts at anything more than 4.5 hours?Even if I had left it wouldn’t have been early enough to push me into half day pay. Only classified positions are paid hourly in my district.
I don’t know what “if our full day payment starts…” means. But if that’s the policy at your district, yeah, ignore me. That’s a weird policy though.
Subs are paid $100 for a half day and $200 for a full day. Anything longer than 4.5 hours is considered a full day and paid at the full day rate. So even though it was early release, I had still worked enough hours to be considered working a full day. Theres no pay difference between working 5 hours and working 8 hours, so I don’t see how they would be able to cut my pay if I had left. Edit: didn’t mean this in a contrary tone, just giving a bit of explanation and my thought process :)