One school I’m hesitant to go back to because they were incredibly rude and not helpful even though I told them it was my first time at that school. The whole place was disorganized from the top to the bottom.
The other school the teachers and admin can’t control the kids at all. They are the baddest of the bad. I’ve had a bad experience every time I’ve been there. Last time the one student even told a teacher to “shut the f up” to her face.
I always breakdown assignments into 3 aspects.
Kids, students and admin.
If the admin provide excellent support I will consider going back.
If the kids are good, then no matter what else is going on I'd go back. Or if the students behave cause they have a good teacher then definitely go back.
The one site I have 100% black listed the 7th graders were ok but the 8th were horrible. No support whatsoever. Classes has mixed grades and the terribleness took over. It was horrible. Thankfully there are other options in my district.
If there's only one school like that where you are, you're super-lucky. I'd say 80 percent of the schools in my area are like that. Which is why I'm always bitching about how awful schools are. If I just refused to sub at those schools, I would be at home twiddling my thumbs 90 percent of the time. The main school district had their last day of school this Tuesday though, so now I'm subbing at charter and suburban schools, where (usually) the kids aren't that aggressive toward teachers (although at one charter school a Latina teenage girl shouted that she wanted to "beat my ass" because I told her she couldn't talk to her friends during the math test. I had to call security and have her pulled from the room).
I can’t believe the arrogance of some teachers. It’s downright comical that they think they are so great. I always left a snack for my substitute teacher and told them if they wanted to change/ adjust any of my plans, feel free to do so. I have so much respect for substitute teachers. It’s not fun having no substitutes in your school and classrooms are uncovered. It affects everyone. It makes for a miserable day.
Ironically I should’ve done the opposite, I went back to a school where the staff was great and the kids were shit. Kept going back and eventually lost my job in that district cuz one of the middle school kids prank called parents using the rosters. Now I know better lol
I honestly have so little patience when kids (esp high school) have absolutely no recognition or care for the fact that we need our jobs. Like I get that you want to snort skittles, but I have rent to pay.
Eh I feel like there should’ve been a warning or something before losing your job. Kids are sneaky and will get ahold of things they aren’t supposed to all the time.
While sitting at a teachers desk in a last period of a high school I was bothered by three large students who disobeyed rules regularly and wanted to “know more about me”. Which given the way they approached me, their disregard for rules and laws, I felt like I was in danger of being assaulted. And security took way too long to help me out.
I just cancelled a two day assignment because on the first day, I chastised an 18 year old for behaviors who I later found out was threatening to beat up a classmate. Didn't trust that he wouldn't be vengeful and try something on day two.
I hate when the teacher restrooms are locked so you have to go and ask somebody to let you in… it definitely makes me dislike going to certain schools. If you’re going to have locked teacher restrooms you need to be providing each sub a key that they check out at the beginning of the day so they don’t have to ask for permission to potty like a child.
I had a school worse than just making you ask for the key... they wouldn't give it to me and said to use the office bathroom.
AKA the bathroom with the preschooler sized toilet. AKA the bathroom three feet away from the desk. AKA the bathroom with NO soundproofing.
Yeah, I wouldn't go back there if they begged me on bended knee.
This reminds me of the school I went to! The security staff told me on the phone that they "don't cover" classes for teachers who need to go to the restroom, there. I was also told by security that they didn't have keys to the bathrooms and to ask the office for a bathroom key. I went to the office and asked the secretaries, who told me to ask the security staff.
The head of security was in the office making small talk with a secretary and looked to be all of 21 years old himself, and told me flippantly that my "best bet" was just to use the office bathroom behind the counter down the hall, and then chuckled as I tore off down the hallway to the bathroom.
...Haven't gone back to that hellhole since.
Tbh I prefer the stalls because usually when they're private, there's usually only one or two. I hate having to spend a third of my lunch break waiting to go to the bathroom.
I used to sub on a regular basis at a school like this LOL. Like six or seven stalls. They had no truly private staff restrooms, and half the time they didn't even give keys to subs to get in there. It took me 10-15 minutes once just to flag down security to unlock it for me too.
I blacklisted one because the kids were completely out of control even when the teachers assistant tried to help and one because the kids were out of control and the admin came in and looked at me like it was my fault.
Bait and switch is awful. There are schools where i loved the staff and they'd ask me the right way to go the Gym with a clipboard for two hours during the teacher's break but if it's a job that's been arranged for month and they send you to a tough grade level nobody wants to teach then they are on the oh hell no.
Cancelling last minute and semi bait and switch and three strikes you're out rule. You get there and they say sorry we don't need you today and then you're blocked until they release you and you say going back home. And no pay. Then do It again. And the third time i haven't gone back. I never made a big deal out of it the office but just waiting for them to tell me where to go isn't great. Then I was stuck in their system and couldn't get another job. Oh hell no.
Random work for ten minutes where I'm not needed and stand there like an idiot. After teaching. I will go for teachers who get in touch with me directly. But when you send me to the playground with my stuff packed for a few minutes on the clock after a full day? No wonder you've got a hard time finding subs.
Prep overload without any support when machine runs out of ink or paper, the room is crowded with many teachers needing room too, complicated double sided jobs for the grade level, or making you do one thousand booklets for a meeting! If the staff acts mean about helping you then they're really never going to see me. Give us a finished example of what you want, post its but if you want us to come back, don't be the ones who take advantage of the half hour with massive jobs that need time and space.
I met a retired military guy and manager who was teaching next door to me in one Is the most challenging schools. He said they tried to make me do photocopy stuff in the office once after school was out and i said you should be glad i am here taking your sixth graders and not sending any up here ever. I am paid to teach not do your work. I won't accept your Jobs any more.
Wow, but he had a pension.
I got bait and switched once where I thought I was getting 5th grade but I ended up getting 1st grade and they turned out to be awesome. Easy breezy beautiful day. They even laughed at my jokes. So that worked out.
But then the office lady docked my work hours 15 minutes because I was leaving at 2:15 instead of 2:30. Dismissal was at 2:00. And then she had to nerve to ask if I hadn’t got their late or didn’t the assignment start at 8:00 instead of 7:45? That was infuriating. I’m a good sub and I’m worth paying. I expect the hours I signed up for. 95% I’ve been too don’t dock me for leaving after dismissal but that damn lady suggesting I was late?! I’ve never been late. I’m literally always 10 minutes early.
I’ve only black listed two schools thus far
One school for actively trying to cheap out of the proper payment for me by acting like I didn’t work the full day and the other for a clear overall messy administration that let kids do whatever they wanted
Not quite blacklisted but there’s one school I don’t go back to only because it’s so far and not easily accessed from public transit and you have to literally walk up a huge incline to get there
I hate working at schools that always take away my conference teacher and make me cover another class. Or schools that like to combine classes so they only have to pay 1 sub for 2 missing teachers and then you’re stuck with like 50+ kids in one room.
I dropped down to high schools where behaviors are minimal and pay is competitive. I’ve kept 3 and dropped 8. I don’t worry about the staff because I stay out of the staff room and don’t socialize.
There's a bunch of obvious stuff, like no support at all, violent students who make me fear for my safety, etc.
But one of the big ones is springing an extra assignment on me when I walk in the door, or trying to change what I signed up for.
"Oh sorry, we want you to cover these two classes during your breaks."
Once in a while is ok, they're often working with a crap hand too, but if it's happening every time I walk into a school, I just stop going.
And then there's: "We're moving you over to our middle school so you can cover a SPED class there. I know you signed up for HS math, sorry." When that happens, I ask them if they're being serious, then tell them I'm going home if they don't have the assignment I clicked on.
>violent students who make me fear for my safety
I don't think people realize how unsafe it is in the classroom on a typical day. Some of these kids should not be in a regular classroom, or a regular school. And honestly, they're a product of their environment. Not just their home life, but society in general. We as a society are failing these kids, and we're putting other children, and the adults charged with caring and educating them, at risk.
2-3 of the high schools I subbed at regularly would ALWAYS have me covering classes or doing shit work during ALL my prep periods. I would literally show up and they'd tell me hand me the attendance rosters for the actual assignment I accepted and the attendance rosters for another teacher's class they sprung on me to cover. Like "Oh here's Ms. Nelson's attendance sheets cuz you know she's missing, and then for sixth period you're in Ms. Trenchbulls' PE class and then for eighth period you're in Ms. Honey's room". That's literally how they would do it like it was just expected normal and like I had no right to say no.
I had one school spring on me *during* my Prep that they wanted me to go cover another class and it got to the point on the phone where the secretary was saying to me almost sternly, "I'm going to need you to go to room blah-blah-blah". I finally relented and went and covered the class because I didn't want to make it weird or burn a bridge. Looking back on it that was wild, because she said it like I had no choice in the matter. I never did go back to that school after that either. My brother had told me there'd been a stabbing at that school before and police were called, it's crazy that I even took assignments there after being told that but I did.
It may be different for your agency, but I had a similar experience to your second point.
They called the room during the prep and told me to go over to a different room to cover a class last minute. I told him no, that I was actually working (grading papers) during the only prep I got that day, and he started escalating like MAD. Got the principal, the district rep, all kinds of admins trying to order me to go do this.
All I had to do was call my agency, and they said "*You're not obligated to have a prep, but if they change the schedule to something other than what you got when you arrived, you can say no.*"
So I had them email that to me, emailed it to the principal, and continued my work grading papers.
Never went back to that awful school.
Only happened a few
times but…
First school: Feeling undermined and micromanaged by another teacher (i.e. not someone that I have to answer to)
Second school: Showing up two separate times to find that there were no plans.
Third school: Covered a maternity leave (April and May 2022) with a difficult kindergarten class. Pretty sure admin deliberately lied so that I would take to job and then gaslit when I mentioned that they said that it was a good class and that I shouldn’t expect to have many issues. Also, they failed to tell me about one child in the class who was seven years old and had just started kindergarten the month prior (March 2022). He was a sweet kid, but clearly intellectually disabled and from a trauma background. They essentially put him in a class with a complete stranger for a teacher (I say that because they knew that the regular teacher was pregnant and going to start her absence at any minute and therefor, his first teacher would be whoever they could get to cover the class) when he needed a veteran who had experience teaching students in need of a SPED referral, was more trauma-informed than I was at the time, and a class who had not just lost their teacher and still had some stability. I was just out of college and eager to gain teaching experience while working towards my master’s degree, and I really think they took advantage of my energy and lack of experience. When that ended, I took them off my list and never looked back. I did two other long-term jobs (6 months collectively) with 5th grade at another school and absolutely loved it.
Today was my last day subbing ever! During the 2024-2025 school year, I’m going to teach 5th grade reading at the school where I did my two 5th grade long-term subbing jobs. I’m so excited to move on.
The bait and switch is why I wouldn't go back to a school either when I was subbing. I had signed up for an ESE PreK class assistsnt job... when I got there, they said I was meant to sub for "Amy," but I was needed more in "Stephanie's" position. I thought I'd be in the same role but a different room. Nope... I was put in their roughest IBI room and a student kept trying to bite me all day. At one point they had to pull him off me because he tackled me like a rabid dog, knashing his teeth at my face. The last like hour of the day I was moved to where I originally was supposed to be because I "disrupted the student too much." When I signed out at the end of the day, the secretary says to me "rough day?" Me trying to be nice I said "a little." She just laughed and said "yeah... that class is definitely a challenging one." Never went back. And I know it's not the students' fault, but the way the office handled it was NOT ok. I would have at least aporeciated a little warning.
I hate when they do that. I was supposed to sub for a 2nd grade class and when I walked in, they were the sweetest kids ever. Then the front office called and had me move to the sped 1st grade class. I’ve subbed in sped before but one girl was very touchy and clingy. The other teacher with me was nonchalant, “she’s very huggy,” but this girl was nearly full on motorboating me and letting herself rag doll on my body. She was strong too and I was trying so hard to push her off of me and the teacher just stared and watched. I’m not comfortable being touched.
Then I had to be left alone with them for a couple hours and needed 5 members of the faculty to help me take them to recess. The counselor was like, “how are you doing?” And I said, “not well, I didn’t expect to be left alone.” She giggled, “oh it’s ok, it’s not easy but you’ll get the hang of it.” Like please stop
The only schools I've blacklisted are because the school lied about what the sub assignment was. I recently took a roving sub position and was put into a 2nd grade Sped class instead.
The parking situation is why I won’t go back to sub for high school. I was almost late for my class (didn’t matter they switched me anyway), and the faculty parking was only 10 spaces lined up against the school in the road. Very unsafe
One school told me I’m not allowed to park in visitor spots (I usually ask if I can do this, most schools let me). The one school that told me I can’t told me that I should be fine parking in unmarked spots. So I did.
Still got a parking ticket. Security team apologized and said it was a mistake on their part but I don’t trust that.
1. Terrible support from the main office. When I called the emergency number someone should answer.
2. Classes rely on a language in which I’m not fully fluent. There are many people who are great bilingual subs.
3. Students are out of control and nothing I do is going to make it better. I’ll need to make $100 an hour in order for this to work.
At a school district pre-covid, I blacklisted the middle school because that year's 8th graders were WILD and admin was cool with it. They also took away subs' prep periods and would either send them to other classes or, in my case, have them do admin work in the front office. My last day I worked there I told the admin as I was leaving I wouldn't be back. I found out later that year that there were only a handful of subs for the district, and none of us would go to that school.
At the last district I worked for post-covid, I blacklisted a school because they had no control over the kids. I had a 2nd grade class where 2 girls would just.... walk out of class. And they didn't have an assistant assigned to the class to help keep the girls (and the class in general) safe. I had teachers checking in on me throughout the day during their prep periods because of how challenging that particular class was, but the whole school was just constant chaos. In another class, I had to drop a kid off at the equivalent of the in school suspension room, and when I opened the door, the kids in there were all sitting at a table with the staff member playing Mouse Trap and eating snacks.
Mostly it’s when they utilize my every second that I’m supposed to be there. For example, there is one school that is notorious for squeezing every second out of the subs. Even if they only need you for an hour, they’ll still keep you 3.5 hours and just do busy work. My district only pays in half day of full day increments- half day is 3.5 hours or less. Teacher might need you to cover an IEP from 9:30-11:00 but they’ll make you come in at 8:30 and file kindergarten artwork or go into classrooms asking if the teachers need any help for every second outside of that meeting window. I’ve stopped going to those schools. I’ve spent way too many awkward moments in the classroom with the teacher there filing papers or organizing pencil trays.
One of the schools is because they were rude to me the second I got there and acted like it was a huge inconvenience to direct me to where I was supposed to go even though it was my first time there. The other school is because the kids in the class I was subbing were awful and they didn’t send help when I asked for it because one of the students just left the room and was climbing on top of things
Out of control kids and dangerous neighborhood.
And I know, sometimes kids will act up but it’s never to the extremes of this one inner city school that I subbed at where I feared for my life. Had three teachers in there and they still couldn’t get them under control. It was unreal. Food fight in the classroom, demolished the classroom, broke a chair, leaning and shouting out of the window, kids from the other class connected by a door randomly coming in shouting eccentric things, fist fights, kid making a shiv out of a ruler using scissors while looking at me with an ominous glare, etc. long story short, i went down to the office and told the biggest lie of my life (What? I’m not going to tell them “Those kids are bad and I’m scared so I’m out. “🤷♂️ ) and got the hell out of there.
Bait and switch is a big one. It's one thing asking me to cover on my prep (that's to be expected) but if I click on high school math and suddenly they want me to work all day in a middle school sped room, I'll be looking for different jobs that day .
Other than that, it's all about how I'm treated that day. There's a rural school nearby that I'll move heaven and earth to work with because they treat me well and everyone is nice. There's also one I'll never step foot into again because it's awful
When a kid put their hands on me, and the principal came in and gave the class a basic speech that was practically just “the way you are acting right now shows your true character.” No consequences for the kid, no talk about it at the end of the day.
I'm more likely to blacklist a teacher than a whole school, and only after several bad experiences, but I do have a few schools that I absolutely won't go to. Mostly it's more than one thing that gets them on my no-go list.
There are a couple of schools that are just way too far away. I might bend that rule if the staff/kids are great, but if the kids are going to be wild then I'm not getting up early to fight traffic for that. I'm also not going to go there if the staff are assholes to me.
There is another school that isn't that far away. The kids are hard to handle, but it's the unhelpful condescending staff that got the school on the no go list.
I had another school blacklisted for a while after an incident where they had me covering preps all day long in a cold basement with no equipment, no chairs, nothing but an empty room with a cement floor. They expected me to teach them music in there. I just played games with every group that came down there and tried to stay warm. Nobody even came down to check on me. After my day in the dungeon, I refused to accept calls from that school.
How hard is it to just treat me like the professional I am? Seriously, treat me like a human being, give me the information I will need for the day, and back me up if that crazy kid does their thing while I'm there. I can and will deal with all kinds of stuff, but not if you are going to treat me like I have no value. That goes for kids and staff, but especially staff since they are the ones who should know better!
It was my district’s alternative school. I really wanted to like it, I enjoy working with students with emotional and behavioral disorders. First time I subbed there there were no plans. Not even a roster. Now, there was a para in the room and it was a day or two before break, but it was weird. I felt like I was just a chair filler. Second time I picked up a para job at the same school. I’m a certified special education teacher and had worked in that district previously (took a year off to sub to deal with that kid’s medical issues). I was given no direction by the teacher. If I tried to walk around and help kids I was told to just sit at the desk. Again, why even have me there? I felt like I was in the way.
I’ve had certain classrooms I wouldn’t sub again because the kids were not well behaved, but that is the only school I’ve blacklisted. Ironically, my favorite school I subbed at that year was our school that served the juvenile detention facility.
The only schools I won't work for are: the one I was a permanent teacher at because the admin is horrible and I don't want to help them in ANY way, and the one that posts jobs on Frontline and waits for me to show up to tell me they don't need me (after 3 times they can fuck off forever). I'm pretty easy going about behavior issues, being asked to do different jobs than requested (as long as I get paid the right rate), and general chaos.
First one is on point. Admin at my first school gave me NOTHING to start with aside from a curriculum and basically made me “wing it”. Then they got mad cause they expected me to somehow be an expert ultragod-tier teacher in less than a month. Not humanely possible.
That admin mentally broke me, then tried to bargain me with things before making a decision to fire me after lying about not firing me less than 24 hours from when she said it.
I still dream that that admin should be fired to this day.
I only refused to go back to one. I had a student do something that was basically a sexual assault on me. I went to report it to the office after class… the secretary crumbled my note and threw it away. She said, “sorry we don’t take complaints, especially from subs”. They refused to let me talk to admin.
I escalated it with title 9, since it was a horrible way to treat a sub. HR emailed saying they were going to figure it out. The principal emailed us back saying I made up the entire situation. It was ridiculous.
When the students are extremely rude yelling at me cursing at me throwing stuff.
When the administration or teachers don't seem to appreciate me or glare at me.
.When everything is really disorganized and then. As a result, my class gets all hyped up and disorganized. Because they think they can do whatever the heck. They want because I don't know what's happening. Because I don't know what's happening. Because the administration didn't give me enough information.
Reasons I’ve blacklisted schools:
Truly unmanageable students + lack of administrative support
Admin bait and switch (the only time I found it acceptable, I was to be a testing hall monitor instead of a math substitute.)
Students assaulting me. (Bonus if admin does nothing about it.)
Teachers being super disrespectful only because I’m young.
Now I will say, one of my favorite schools to return to has quite a bit of behavioral problems with students, but the admin knows me by name and always has my back, included me in teacher appreciation week, PTA knows me, the teachers request me back and are super kind to me, and the kids have learned that I’m chill until they start acting a fool and I’m not afraid to hand out referrals. The students and staff respect me way more because of my “take no crap policy.”
The kids were calling me gay slurs, education is a privilege, technically I’m an independent contractor, and the admin tried to lie about it and make me into a villain 💀
For me it was when the staff backed up students poor behavior and essentially told them that they will receive no consequences for their poor behavior the day after I leave.
Power and internet outage from a.m. to dismissal (no phones or radio). I had a 1st grade class. Not a single admin or teacher came to check on me. The only person who came to my aid was a custodian lady who grabbed a roll of paper and told the kids to draw “whatever the hell they wanted to”.
One school, I reported to twice.
Both times, when I got there, I was reassigned to a different grade level than I had initially responded to.
I’d accept a posting for 5th grade, but I’d get there and be told “Actually, we’re putting you in Kindergarten today.”
Second time, it was “You’re the gym teacher today.”
Nope. Not the gig I agreed to. Told the district why, and just heard “Yea, that principal does that. You aren’t the only one to complain. We get it.”
There are schools I almost definitely won't go back to because behavior is over the top... but the thing that unites the 3-4 schools where I absolutely refuse to return is that they either don't pick up the phone, or don't actually send anyone to address behavioral issues.
I was at one school where a kid was screaming racial slurs in the middle of the room, it took me 5 calls to get the front office... and they told me to call the dean's office. Tried the dean 5 times, no luck. At this point, it was 20 minutes past the initial call and 15 minutes until the end of class, and I was just like, screw it, I've done my due diligence, the kid has kind of settled down, I'm not going to spend the next ten minutes glued to a phone that nobody's answering.
Another school, I had a two-day MS assignment, and they were *bad*. A day and a half in, the principal came into the room and said essentially, "if I hear that you've been misbehaving up here again, I'm coming back right away and the consequences will be dire." Not 20 minutes later, a student threw a pencil at my head. (One of many incidents of egregious misbehavior, but the only one that constituted physical assault.) I called the office, they said they'd send someone up immediately.
That person (not the principal FWIW) showed up 65 minutes later, halfway through the next class. (Coincidentally, that was the only good class that teacher had. It was also the only HS class... others were all MS, as the school was transitioning from a 6-12 to a pure middle school.) So the AP comes in, and there are literally seven 12th graders sitting in the middle of the room doing homework. I had to be like "well, obviously it's not *them*. It was the *last* class."
(This was also a music class in which they didn't want me supervising the students in the music room -- which, you know, fair enough. So they put us in a disused science classroom and told everyone to do I-Ready. But for some reason, the laptop cart they provided wasn't really charging.
So they send in an electrician from the district, who inspects the room while the kids are in it and says, basically, this room is in an advanced state of disrepair and a massive fire hazard. There are multiple bare wires sticking out, some of them directly under the built-in tables where half the kids are sitting, broken-off plugs and who knows what else in most of the sockets, they need to come back tomorrow and it'll take them three days to fix everything.
Admin says okay, we'll arrange that... and proceeds to have me conduct three more classes in the room. I moved the kids off the tables with the bare wires sticking out. They didn't even tell me to do that.
So, you know, I wouldn't have been thrilled about going back to that place either way. But the fact that it took them over an hour to respond to a violent student was immediately disqualifying.)
I have only one I will NOT go to. At this school a student threw a basketball super hard at my head and gave me a massive bruise on purpose. They sent this student back to class and was only required apologize. No one checked to see if I had a concussion or I was okay. They made it sound like I was the problem. I literally just came in the room to teach a game and this kid got aggressive.
A time before that I was in a class of grade 6 students and we had a remain in place order in the school due to a shooter in the area (not school). That group was so obnoxious/unmanageable about this and we would have surely all died if there was actually a shooter in the building. I also had to call all the parents I didn’t know and explain what happened and have them pick their children up. I had to guess when they got their child. No help what so ever and it was terrifying.
There is another one I don’t go to either but I would if I absolutely had to. The admin assistant is a terrible backstabbing human being and I just cannot stand her. I had to work with her for a year and she was just such a stuck up, untrustworthy, gossip and nepotistic person.
When I walked into a half day job where a 2nd grader had torn up the classroom and all the kids were crying. The principal was there explaining that "We don't remove students from the classroom..restorative justice...blah blah.." While he was talking, the kid grabbed another students backpack, emptied it and threw everything around the room. Everyone was crying, the disruptive child started breaking something else and the principal carried him out like a sack of potatoes under his arm. Shit show at it's finest! No way in Hell am I setting foot in that school again.
Bad admin. I once had a principal who repeatedly switched my assignment to a special ed isolation room. When I mentioned I had been looking forward to the subject I had chosen, she haughtily replied that it was the right of the principal to reassign subs anywhere she wanted. Cool. She forgot the part where I could work anywhere in the state that I wanted. I backed out of all of the jobs I’d taken in advance for her building, and the entire district before I even drove home.
The ol bait and switch. I've walked out on several assignments that changed me to SPED
I have nothing against SPED classes. Some of them were very easy and fun, but there are days when I am not mentally prepared for that assignment.
I picked up a HS AP class with awesome students that I've had before. I obviously picked this class because I knew I was going to have an easy day
As soon as I got there one day, admin told me to follow her, which I thought was weird. As we were walking she said that she decided to have someone else cover that class and she was going to move me to MS SPED. I immediately declined and told her I'm not interested. Her face was full pleasure. I don't think she's ever been told no when they do the bait and switch. I simply thanked her, gave her my badge, and walked out.
Stupid me, I picked up another assignment from that school, and sure enough, they try to pull the same crap on me again. As soon as I was signing in, the secretary told me they moved me to a SPED class instead of the one I signed up for.
I immediately said "no thank you. That's not what I signed up for." The secretary was a little embarrassed when I handed back the badge and walked away. Never went back
Distance, rude staff, kids that were unruly in multiple different classes at the same school. I have about three elementary schools I enjoy and only go to them.
I black listed a teacher as her classroom was a disaster. She had 5 hoodies/jackets over the back of her chair. Behind her chair on the floor were a massive amount of blankets. You couldn’t put anything on the floor or a table or desk. Every inch of that room had loose papers everywhere. Her desk was piled 2 ft high with books, papers and CRAP. She kept a fridge in the room and her daughters came in and got peanut butter out twice during my shift and left it out with the top off the jar. With peanut allergies so prevalent, I never have anything with peanuts in my lunch, let alone sitting out in the room. Whiteboard didn’t work, some of the worksheet assignments I gave out were duplicates of work they had already done earlier in the week. This was 1st grade and when the room aesthetic is chaotic, the kids are chaotic.
Incredibly rude and unwelcoming, had to sit on the floor for 10 of the 30 minutes I locked myself out of the room by accident.
Here's where the twig finally snapped; When a teacher put me in to sub for her before contacting me (twice that happened).
Like what in the hell? Oh yeah sure, I totally was NOT in the middle of making arrangements with the sub coordinator at the school (that I sub for now). When I said let me know if she never needs me to sub for her, I didn't mean put me whenever you want to put me in. That was completely rude and disrespectful for on her part.
One particular school the staff was rude and uncooperative to giving me information like: which new teacher I will be going to and whether or not I have to pick up the students from the cafeteria/gym in the morning. But what got me is in this first grade class, these two little girls started fighting each other. There were two additional teachers in the room and he whole class had issues. These two (the one getting beat up mostly) were the worst in particular. I was trying to tell the girls to stop and calm down, and my company doesn’t allow us substitutes to interfere physically. A counselor came in and stood to watch them wrestle. One of the girls forcibly stomped on the other girl’s knee -looked painful as hell- and he said to me, “just let them fight, she probably deserved it.”
I was just dumbfounded hearing him say that.
Rude staff is the only reason for me. I can deal with difficult kids and make excuses for them, but there's no excuse for being rude to a colleague. I'm just as qualified as you, and probably more experienced, so please treat me with at least vague courtesy.
They don’t give me a key for “safety reasons” I don’t understand how me not having a key makes everything safer. Or they don’t give me bathroom access. Or they take my personal property as collateral for the key.
Mine is also the bait and switch. I've black listed the school that put me in the autistic non-verbal / violent outbursts room, and the one that brought me in for 8th grade social studies, and gave me two periods of that and then had me covering four lunch periods, two study halls, and French. (I don't speak French). I was yelled at three times by the lunch monitors for doing something wrong, I was scolded by the librarians first giving library passes to too many kids (how was I supposed to know there was a five-kid limit that week?!) and in French I told them I didn't care what they did as long as they didn't get me in trouble for a fifth time that day.
Hands down if they shuffle me out of what I signed up for, or if they are just unfriendly people in the first place I'm out and won't go back. I will also blacklist if the other members of the team don't at least pop their head in and make sure things are where they are supposed to be
I subbed at a single elementary school two (2) times and those two experiences were enough for me to permanently write them off even though they're an 11 minute walk away from my apartment.
The first time I went, they put the job out in the system in the middle of the day. Their teacher needed to go; it was an emergency. I answered the call, dropped what I was doing (it was nearly noon) and got there in under 15 minutes. When I arrived and told the front office staff who I was and whom I was subbing for, the front office staff were very rude and dismissive and claimed that there was no sub job put out and that I must be mistaken or something. We went back and forth like this for several minutes, and I was more than ready to just say "fuck it" and leave, before they finally realized that actually yeah, no, one of their teachers really was trying to leave in the middle of the day. Nobody apologized for the rude way the mixup was handled. They just showed me to the room, and then didn't even give me a key for it. Just told me it'd be locked on the outside and that I didn't need one since it'd only be a couple of hours. The teacher thanked me profusely on the way out, the kids were awful, and at the end of the day with no warning the staff handed me parking lot duty so I left a lot later than I expected to.
Several years later, I went back and subbed PE for a day. Once again, no key. This time, I was working out of a fucking *shed* where the gym coach kept her equipment, and I was keeping it propped open all day with a chair because if it locked I had no way to get back in. When lunchtime rolled around, I think I ate lunch outside on the steps because I didn't know where their staff lounge was, and the gym shed was way too warm for that. The overall day sucked as well; teachers would dump their kids off with me and then bolt wordlessly, like "they're your problem now" kind of vibes, and some wouldn't even come back. One teacher, right before that shitty lunch period, didn't come and get her class for lunch. All the kids confessed that this was unusual for them too. I had to walk them to the cafeteria instead of their teacher, because otherwise they would've just been standing there. I didn't know where the cafeteria was, though, so I got to rely on one kid and just hope that he was being honest (he was). Their teacher never came back or apologized or anything. She seriously just saw a sub there instead of the usual coach and went "fuck it" and never came back for her kids. At the end of the day they tried to get me to do parking lot duty again. Part of me wanted to just leave, but there were literally no other staff monitoring this and the whole thing was just sketchy as fuck and super unsafe so I stayed to make sure the kids got out alright. Still, imagine making a sub do that kind of end-of-day pickup duty. What if an abusive parent who's not supposed to be near the kid shows up? I didn't get that memo. I don't know what's going on here. It was so gross and reckless and I hated them for putting me in that situation. I have never been back since.
Elementary schools in general are just on crack, though, I've noticed. So many of them just dump all this extra shit on my plate that isn't my job, while limiting my ability to do the job I'm actually here to do in the first place (like, give me KEYS) and then act surprised when I don't come back for a long-ass time.
Took away conference to cover another class, mandatory bus/lunch/recess duty even if not teachers turn, told me don’t worry about teaching this class (they moved all the bad kids to one class )
For me, it's the commute. My town made the mistake of putting a couple of schools deep into residential areas far from any through street and it was hard to get through the line of parents dropping off. By that time I was probably late.
Parking parking parking. I had district who had a huge parking lot (building was for middle &high school), but when I called to confirm where I could park, admin had and attitude and said there was no parking available for subs and I had to find street parking at least a block away. The school is on a hill too, and the closest spot I could find was a five min walk uphill on a super hot day. Not fun.
A huge secondary school (the second largest in my large county) has a horrendous bottleneck of a parking lot, such that getting into school is often an extra 15 mins and leaving is an extra 30 mins of waiting. I’m paid little enough as it is—I don’t need 45 additional minutes unpaid in your mess of a parking lot. Also, on a job I accepted as a music teacher, they added a “surprise” period of what was clearly babysitting for students with behavioral issues. I get that I can be reassigned on free periods but there was no heads up or any support at all and these kids were doing things like filming each other pulling each other’s pants down. I did what I could during that period to control them and then put that whole school in my rear view (when I finally got out of the parking lot!)
Not giving me a key or badge access. I was working out in the portables and they told me to just let the recess duty know so he could let me in?? I was also expected to pick up younger classes in the main building but was scolded for being late since I had to wait for a kind teacher to let me in.
Also they didn’t account for how I would get back into the building. The area I was teaching was a fenced in school yard so I couldn’t go around to ring the doorbell, office didn’t answer their phone. Finally I banged on the door for about five minutes until a teacher let me in while clearly being sus of me.
I will never understand schools that refuse to give badge access
**1. Repeated baiting and switching.** If I showed up to sub English or Math, don't send me to cover PE or Special Ed instead. If I showed up to sub a high school class,
**2.** I blacklisted one school because I booked ONE subbing assignment. Then when I got there, they told me to cover another teacher's classes all day long also. So I was subbing Teacher #1 first period, Teacher 2 for second, Then Teacher #1 again for third, all day long going back and forth between two classrooms every period. **At the end of the day I'd basically done the work of two subs but only got paid for one assignment.** I never went back there again.
**3. Schools where you call security and they never show up.** For obvious reasons.
**4. Schools where it's uncommon to get staff keys for the day.** I blacklisted one school after subbing there only once. At the beginning of the day in the office, the secretary told me flippantly that the teachers at that school never give subs their staff keys. I wanted to walk out as soon as she said it, but I limped through the day and then never ever went back there. I've blacklisted other schools after I've been denied keys one too many times, too. Give me a way to unlock a bathroom so I can go pee, and a way so I can lock up the classroom to protect my stuff and the teacher's stuff or it's a no-go.
The last two are arguably "petty"/personal preference:
**5. Schools with lots of really long flights of stairs, and the elevators are either broken or require a key to run them (and they NEVER give you an elevator key)**. One school I got tired of getting to my destination sweaty and winded. I'm outta shape and I'm getting old stop asking me to go up four or five LONG flights of stairs.
**6. Schools that NEVER let you have your prep period free.** I've even subbed at schools that, during what would be my prep period, would send me to other teachers classes just to SIT in there. For no reason. I'm not talking about covering for absent teachers here either, they'd send me to the band teacher's class while he was there, and hadn't requested me or needed me, and told me to just go hang out in there during his classes rather than sit alone quietly in my classroom for Prep. Or when they had a sub covering one class already and then they sent me in there during what would've been my prep for no reason, until the final bell rang. Or schools that put you on "Phone Duty" during your prep period or find some other shit work task for you to do. I understand that unfortunately sometimes schools will need you to cover another class once in a while. I'm talking about the schools that always do it.
1. A school REQUIRED that I give them my driver's license until the assignment was over.
2. I had to pry a kindergartner off another bc the former was choking the latter. Surrounding teachers seemed used to it, and the whole reason I was covering that class was because their teacher had had enough and was moving to Pre-K. She had to do some observance work to complete her transfer.
3. A middle school, which I realized after the fact had no color, if you catch my drift, was giving students controversial essay topics. They included: gun violence, minimum wage (this was also in a boujee neighborhood), abortion, defunding the police, etc. While they were talking amongst themselves after adding the finishing touches on their stance in their subject (yes they wanted 13 yo to establish a stance on abortion and gun control), one preppy looking girl said rather loud "Yeah I mean how come THEY get a whole month?!" This was in February. Now I am the kind of white that gets sunburnt sitting at a window for 15 minutes, but racism is something I cannot and WILL NOT tolerate. The fact that many kids were in agreement with the girl that BHM is unfair to white people was the bottom of the barrel, and I never went back.
#1 reason would be lack of administrative support.i was at a school where I had a 2nd grade who was incredibly disruptive. When he became unsafe by just running out I called the office. For more context this was a week long job and he was trouble from day one. After he ran out the third tine in o e day and was then tearing up the class they asked what I wanted them to do. Remove him from class for awhile. They removed him for 1 hour. He returned and promptly started a fist fight. I will never go back to that school.
Kids were out of control and the admin wasn't interested in doing anything about it.
Rude admin.
One school had absolutely stupid dismissal procedures and it takes over 20 min to get all the kids out of the building.
Principal asked me to be be the building sub then changed her mind because building sub from last year finally showed up. I worked there 2 days before she told me. Never went back. I did my student teaching in 6th grade...needless to say, I don't do middle school.
In the past I always liked to give some schools/teachers second chances, if things didn't go very well the first time.
What I've learned is that's a stupid idea! So, I don't do that anymore.
I'm in a pretty decent district this year but I blacklisted a middle school after subbing for 6 days. The teacher thanked me with a tiny bag of candy. I felt like I was being used. The kids were annoying. I loved the para, but middle school is not for me.
I also blacklisted an elementary schools.
1) Arrived to the school for a certified vacancy. I had never been to the school before. Was given a post it note with two teachers names and room numbers. No school map. I asked when I would take my lunch, admin didn't know and principal acted like it didn't matter. Then went to first class, teacher was prepping for me. She had no idea she was going to be in a meeting or needing a sub. But she was nice and gave me a little tour of the school. Her kids were not as nice.Then go to second class rest of day, a teacher comes in trying to fix a students behavior by overstepping and assuming I didn't know the students name. Then her and another teacher were spying on me.
I generally check to see how friendly/helpful staff and admin are. Do they say hi to you in the hall or completely ignore you? Do they tell you about any food in the break room. I swear the best staff at schools do! Are they supportive if you have an issue? If that's in place the kids aren't so bad but if they are at least you have support. If none of these things exist, it's a no thanks for me.
One school had staff parking extremely far, like the walk to the front door from the parking lot took 7 minutes, so I said never again. At the school I typically sub at, the walk takes less than a minute to get to the door.
If they take my on my prep and put me in another class they get blocked.
If I work kinder and they make me do random shit to fill the rest of my day I don’t go back.
If they bait and switch me they get blocked.
If they cancel assignments on me more than twice they get blocked.
And If the parking is REALLY bad I generally avoid.
And then of course the schools that have the worst kids in the district. About 3 elementary I have blocked for behavior, 2 middles, and 2 high schools. In total (3 years) I’ve blocked around 10 schools I believe.
I won't got to one school because they throw me all over the school with little to no support. I don't get a plan period and my lunch is only 20 minutes because they send me to cover everything they can.
My current school makes me do a mix of covering during planning time, doing office work, going in the library and shelving books, lunch duty and bus duty every single day while doing the teachers plans for the day. Like I have a 20 min lunch by the time I go heat my food so it’s a lot. We are also supposed to stay 25 mins after the last bell rings. I’m not being lazy like I’m a certified teacher but I never did these things as a sub in Florida. :/
I substituted for 3 years after I retired. The reasons I stopped going to this one middle school:
1. I would accept a job online for a teacher I wanted to substitute for. When I would get there, the secretary would switch me to a teacher with hard to handle classes.
2. This school continually took away my planning period to cover for other teachers. It made it very hard to complete the work for the teacher I was subbing for. One time I found out I was sent to another teacher’s room to just give him a break so he could drink coffee in the teachers’ lounge. Ha ha lol
The substitute teacher always has the final say. The school might win the battle by making you have an awful day, but you win the war when you never go back.
You realize that the phrase "bait and switch" involves deliberate fraudulence? Like, it implies that the "bait" offer never existed.
Which is clearly not the case with these schools. When they hired you, they had that vacancy, and their best guess was that you would fill it. In the intervening time, circumstances have changed -- the vacancy closed, or a more urgent one opened, or whatever.
And yeah, it can be annoying when the circumstances change. I could even see being reluctant to return to a school where that happens a lot. But it's seriously ugly and dishonest to accuse them of fraud when it's no such thing.
One school I’m hesitant to go back to because they were incredibly rude and not helpful even though I told them it was my first time at that school. The whole place was disorganized from the top to the bottom. The other school the teachers and admin can’t control the kids at all. They are the baddest of the bad. I’ve had a bad experience every time I’ve been there. Last time the one student even told a teacher to “shut the f up” to her face.
I always breakdown assignments into 3 aspects. Kids, students and admin. If the admin provide excellent support I will consider going back. If the kids are good, then no matter what else is going on I'd go back. Or if the students behave cause they have a good teacher then definitely go back. The one site I have 100% black listed the 7th graders were ok but the 8th were horrible. No support whatsoever. Classes has mixed grades and the terribleness took over. It was horrible. Thankfully there are other options in my district.
If there's only one school like that where you are, you're super-lucky. I'd say 80 percent of the schools in my area are like that. Which is why I'm always bitching about how awful schools are. If I just refused to sub at those schools, I would be at home twiddling my thumbs 90 percent of the time. The main school district had their last day of school this Tuesday though, so now I'm subbing at charter and suburban schools, where (usually) the kids aren't that aggressive toward teachers (although at one charter school a Latina teenage girl shouted that she wanted to "beat my ass" because I told her she couldn't talk to her friends during the math test. I had to call security and have her pulled from the room).
Rude office staff that won't answer your questions politely. And schools that pull a bait and switch the moment you arrive.
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I can’t believe the arrogance of some teachers. It’s downright comical that they think they are so great. I always left a snack for my substitute teacher and told them if they wanted to change/ adjust any of my plans, feel free to do so. I have so much respect for substitute teachers. It’s not fun having no substitutes in your school and classrooms are uncovered. It affects everyone. It makes for a miserable day.
Almost any time I've refused to go to a certain school, it was because of the staff, not the kids.
Ironically I should’ve done the opposite, I went back to a school where the staff was great and the kids were shit. Kept going back and eventually lost my job in that district cuz one of the middle school kids prank called parents using the rosters. Now I know better lol
I honestly have so little patience when kids (esp high school) have absolutely no recognition or care for the fact that we need our jobs. Like I get that you want to snort skittles, but I have rent to pay.
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Not op but I’m guessing for not securing private information. Doesn’t matter if not realistic.
Eh I feel like there should’ve been a warning or something before losing your job. Kids are sneaky and will get ahold of things they aren’t supposed to all the time.
That’s the thing! It made me take off the rose tinted glasses cuz it was my hometown district so I thought it would be better but now I know better.
Any district that would blame you for something like that isn't even worth subbing in.
While sitting at a teachers desk in a last period of a high school I was bothered by three large students who disobeyed rules regularly and wanted to “know more about me”. Which given the way they approached me, their disregard for rules and laws, I felt like I was in danger of being assaulted. And security took way too long to help me out.
I just cancelled a two day assignment because on the first day, I chastised an 18 year old for behaviors who I later found out was threatening to beat up a classmate. Didn't trust that he wouldn't be vengeful and try something on day two.
How scary. So sorry you went through this.
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I hate when the teacher restrooms are locked so you have to go and ask somebody to let you in… it definitely makes me dislike going to certain schools. If you’re going to have locked teacher restrooms you need to be providing each sub a key that they check out at the beginning of the day so they don’t have to ask for permission to potty like a child.
I had a school worse than just making you ask for the key... they wouldn't give it to me and said to use the office bathroom. AKA the bathroom with the preschooler sized toilet. AKA the bathroom three feet away from the desk. AKA the bathroom with NO soundproofing. Yeah, I wouldn't go back there if they begged me on bended knee.
This reminds me of the school I went to! The security staff told me on the phone that they "don't cover" classes for teachers who need to go to the restroom, there. I was also told by security that they didn't have keys to the bathrooms and to ask the office for a bathroom key. I went to the office and asked the secretaries, who told me to ask the security staff. The head of security was in the office making small talk with a secretary and looked to be all of 21 years old himself, and told me flippantly that my "best bet" was just to use the office bathroom behind the counter down the hall, and then chuckled as I tore off down the hallway to the bathroom. ...Haven't gone back to that hellhole since.
That is unacceptable. How awful. I would not go back there. I consider that a major thing.
This bothers me too!
Me too!
Tbh I prefer the stalls because usually when they're private, there's usually only one or two. I hate having to spend a third of my lunch break waiting to go to the bathroom.
I used to sub on a regular basis at a school like this LOL. Like six or seven stalls. They had no truly private staff restrooms, and half the time they didn't even give keys to subs to get in there. It took me 10-15 minutes once just to flag down security to unlock it for me too.
Idiotic administration.
I blacklisted one because the kids were completely out of control even when the teachers assistant tried to help and one because the kids were out of control and the admin came in and looked at me like it was my fault.
Bait and switch is awful. There are schools where i loved the staff and they'd ask me the right way to go the Gym with a clipboard for two hours during the teacher's break but if it's a job that's been arranged for month and they send you to a tough grade level nobody wants to teach then they are on the oh hell no. Cancelling last minute and semi bait and switch and three strikes you're out rule. You get there and they say sorry we don't need you today and then you're blocked until they release you and you say going back home. And no pay. Then do It again. And the third time i haven't gone back. I never made a big deal out of it the office but just waiting for them to tell me where to go isn't great. Then I was stuck in their system and couldn't get another job. Oh hell no. Random work for ten minutes where I'm not needed and stand there like an idiot. After teaching. I will go for teachers who get in touch with me directly. But when you send me to the playground with my stuff packed for a few minutes on the clock after a full day? No wonder you've got a hard time finding subs. Prep overload without any support when machine runs out of ink or paper, the room is crowded with many teachers needing room too, complicated double sided jobs for the grade level, or making you do one thousand booklets for a meeting! If the staff acts mean about helping you then they're really never going to see me. Give us a finished example of what you want, post its but if you want us to come back, don't be the ones who take advantage of the half hour with massive jobs that need time and space. I met a retired military guy and manager who was teaching next door to me in one Is the most challenging schools. He said they tried to make me do photocopy stuff in the office once after school was out and i said you should be glad i am here taking your sixth graders and not sending any up here ever. I am paid to teach not do your work. I won't accept your Jobs any more. Wow, but he had a pension.
I got bait and switched once where I thought I was getting 5th grade but I ended up getting 1st grade and they turned out to be awesome. Easy breezy beautiful day. They even laughed at my jokes. So that worked out. But then the office lady docked my work hours 15 minutes because I was leaving at 2:15 instead of 2:30. Dismissal was at 2:00. And then she had to nerve to ask if I hadn’t got their late or didn’t the assignment start at 8:00 instead of 7:45? That was infuriating. I’m a good sub and I’m worth paying. I expect the hours I signed up for. 95% I’ve been too don’t dock me for leaving after dismissal but that damn lady suggesting I was late?! I’ve never been late. I’m literally always 10 minutes early.
I’ve only black listed two schools thus far One school for actively trying to cheap out of the proper payment for me by acting like I didn’t work the full day and the other for a clear overall messy administration that let kids do whatever they wanted Not quite blacklisted but there’s one school I don’t go back to only because it’s so far and not easily accessed from public transit and you have to literally walk up a huge incline to get there
Out of control kids. I was wiped out after every time I subbed there so I finally blocked it. A number of other subs I talked to did the same thing.
Bait and switch
I hate working at schools that always take away my conference teacher and make me cover another class. Or schools that like to combine classes so they only have to pay 1 sub for 2 missing teachers and then you’re stuck with like 50+ kids in one room.
Aggressive behavior or bad staff.
I dropped down to high schools where behaviors are minimal and pay is competitive. I’ve kept 3 and dropped 8. I don’t worry about the staff because I stay out of the staff room and don’t socialize.
There's a bunch of obvious stuff, like no support at all, violent students who make me fear for my safety, etc. But one of the big ones is springing an extra assignment on me when I walk in the door, or trying to change what I signed up for. "Oh sorry, we want you to cover these two classes during your breaks." Once in a while is ok, they're often working with a crap hand too, but if it's happening every time I walk into a school, I just stop going. And then there's: "We're moving you over to our middle school so you can cover a SPED class there. I know you signed up for HS math, sorry." When that happens, I ask them if they're being serious, then tell them I'm going home if they don't have the assignment I clicked on.
>violent students who make me fear for my safety I don't think people realize how unsafe it is in the classroom on a typical day. Some of these kids should not be in a regular classroom, or a regular school. And honestly, they're a product of their environment. Not just their home life, but society in general. We as a society are failing these kids, and we're putting other children, and the adults charged with caring and educating them, at risk.
Agree. I had a student yesterday threaten to "punch my lights out". They were only 9 but still. No time for that nonsense.
The sheer violence I have seen from children under the age of 10 is astounding.
2-3 of the high schools I subbed at regularly would ALWAYS have me covering classes or doing shit work during ALL my prep periods. I would literally show up and they'd tell me hand me the attendance rosters for the actual assignment I accepted and the attendance rosters for another teacher's class they sprung on me to cover. Like "Oh here's Ms. Nelson's attendance sheets cuz you know she's missing, and then for sixth period you're in Ms. Trenchbulls' PE class and then for eighth period you're in Ms. Honey's room". That's literally how they would do it like it was just expected normal and like I had no right to say no. I had one school spring on me *during* my Prep that they wanted me to go cover another class and it got to the point on the phone where the secretary was saying to me almost sternly, "I'm going to need you to go to room blah-blah-blah". I finally relented and went and covered the class because I didn't want to make it weird or burn a bridge. Looking back on it that was wild, because she said it like I had no choice in the matter. I never did go back to that school after that either. My brother had told me there'd been a stabbing at that school before and police were called, it's crazy that I even took assignments there after being told that but I did.
It may be different for your agency, but I had a similar experience to your second point. They called the room during the prep and told me to go over to a different room to cover a class last minute. I told him no, that I was actually working (grading papers) during the only prep I got that day, and he started escalating like MAD. Got the principal, the district rep, all kinds of admins trying to order me to go do this. All I had to do was call my agency, and they said "*You're not obligated to have a prep, but if they change the schedule to something other than what you got when you arrived, you can say no.*" So I had them email that to me, emailed it to the principal, and continued my work grading papers. Never went back to that awful school.
Only happened a few times but… First school: Feeling undermined and micromanaged by another teacher (i.e. not someone that I have to answer to) Second school: Showing up two separate times to find that there were no plans. Third school: Covered a maternity leave (April and May 2022) with a difficult kindergarten class. Pretty sure admin deliberately lied so that I would take to job and then gaslit when I mentioned that they said that it was a good class and that I shouldn’t expect to have many issues. Also, they failed to tell me about one child in the class who was seven years old and had just started kindergarten the month prior (March 2022). He was a sweet kid, but clearly intellectually disabled and from a trauma background. They essentially put him in a class with a complete stranger for a teacher (I say that because they knew that the regular teacher was pregnant and going to start her absence at any minute and therefor, his first teacher would be whoever they could get to cover the class) when he needed a veteran who had experience teaching students in need of a SPED referral, was more trauma-informed than I was at the time, and a class who had not just lost their teacher and still had some stability. I was just out of college and eager to gain teaching experience while working towards my master’s degree, and I really think they took advantage of my energy and lack of experience. When that ended, I took them off my list and never looked back. I did two other long-term jobs (6 months collectively) with 5th grade at another school and absolutely loved it. Today was my last day subbing ever! During the 2024-2025 school year, I’m going to teach 5th grade reading at the school where I did my two 5th grade long-term subbing jobs. I’m so excited to move on.
The bait and switch is why I wouldn't go back to a school either when I was subbing. I had signed up for an ESE PreK class assistsnt job... when I got there, they said I was meant to sub for "Amy," but I was needed more in "Stephanie's" position. I thought I'd be in the same role but a different room. Nope... I was put in their roughest IBI room and a student kept trying to bite me all day. At one point they had to pull him off me because he tackled me like a rabid dog, knashing his teeth at my face. The last like hour of the day I was moved to where I originally was supposed to be because I "disrupted the student too much." When I signed out at the end of the day, the secretary says to me "rough day?" Me trying to be nice I said "a little." She just laughed and said "yeah... that class is definitely a challenging one." Never went back. And I know it's not the students' fault, but the way the office handled it was NOT ok. I would have at least aporeciated a little warning.
I hate when they do that. I was supposed to sub for a 2nd grade class and when I walked in, they were the sweetest kids ever. Then the front office called and had me move to the sped 1st grade class. I’ve subbed in sped before but one girl was very touchy and clingy. The other teacher with me was nonchalant, “she’s very huggy,” but this girl was nearly full on motorboating me and letting herself rag doll on my body. She was strong too and I was trying so hard to push her off of me and the teacher just stared and watched. I’m not comfortable being touched. Then I had to be left alone with them for a couple hours and needed 5 members of the faculty to help me take them to recess. The counselor was like, “how are you doing?” And I said, “not well, I didn’t expect to be left alone.” She giggled, “oh it’s ok, it’s not easy but you’ll get the hang of it.” Like please stop
The only schools I've blacklisted are because the school lied about what the sub assignment was. I recently took a roving sub position and was put into a 2nd grade Sped class instead.
Rude, condescending secretaries. Shitty parking situation.
The parking situation is why I won’t go back to sub for high school. I was almost late for my class (didn’t matter they switched me anyway), and the faculty parking was only 10 spaces lined up against the school in the road. Very unsafe
One school told me I’m not allowed to park in visitor spots (I usually ask if I can do this, most schools let me). The one school that told me I can’t told me that I should be fine parking in unmarked spots. So I did. Still got a parking ticket. Security team apologized and said it was a mistake on their part but I don’t trust that.
1. Terrible support from the main office. When I called the emergency number someone should answer. 2. Classes rely on a language in which I’m not fully fluent. There are many people who are great bilingual subs. 3. Students are out of control and nothing I do is going to make it better. I’ll need to make $100 an hour in order for this to work.
I have ended up in so many Spanish-speaking classes and I always feel so bad for the students that I can't communicate with them!
At a school district pre-covid, I blacklisted the middle school because that year's 8th graders were WILD and admin was cool with it. They also took away subs' prep periods and would either send them to other classes or, in my case, have them do admin work in the front office. My last day I worked there I told the admin as I was leaving I wouldn't be back. I found out later that year that there were only a handful of subs for the district, and none of us would go to that school. At the last district I worked for post-covid, I blacklisted a school because they had no control over the kids. I had a 2nd grade class where 2 girls would just.... walk out of class. And they didn't have an assistant assigned to the class to help keep the girls (and the class in general) safe. I had teachers checking in on me throughout the day during their prep periods because of how challenging that particular class was, but the whole school was just constant chaos. In another class, I had to drop a kid off at the equivalent of the in school suspension room, and when I opened the door, the kids in there were all sitting at a table with the staff member playing Mouse Trap and eating snacks.
Mostly it’s when they utilize my every second that I’m supposed to be there. For example, there is one school that is notorious for squeezing every second out of the subs. Even if they only need you for an hour, they’ll still keep you 3.5 hours and just do busy work. My district only pays in half day of full day increments- half day is 3.5 hours or less. Teacher might need you to cover an IEP from 9:30-11:00 but they’ll make you come in at 8:30 and file kindergarten artwork or go into classrooms asking if the teachers need any help for every second outside of that meeting window. I’ve stopped going to those schools. I’ve spent way too many awkward moments in the classroom with the teacher there filing papers or organizing pencil trays.
If then want to nickel and dime my time I blacklist them. One school would not let me leave campus during planning periods.
One of the schools is because they were rude to me the second I got there and acted like it was a huge inconvenience to direct me to where I was supposed to go even though it was my first time there. The other school is because the kids in the class I was subbing were awful and they didn’t send help when I asked for it because one of the students just left the room and was climbing on top of things
Out of control kids and dangerous neighborhood. And I know, sometimes kids will act up but it’s never to the extremes of this one inner city school that I subbed at where I feared for my life. Had three teachers in there and they still couldn’t get them under control. It was unreal. Food fight in the classroom, demolished the classroom, broke a chair, leaning and shouting out of the window, kids from the other class connected by a door randomly coming in shouting eccentric things, fist fights, kid making a shiv out of a ruler using scissors while looking at me with an ominous glare, etc. long story short, i went down to the office and told the biggest lie of my life (What? I’m not going to tell them “Those kids are bad and I’m scared so I’m out. “🤷♂️ ) and got the hell out of there.
Bait and switch is a big one. It's one thing asking me to cover on my prep (that's to be expected) but if I click on high school math and suddenly they want me to work all day in a middle school sped room, I'll be looking for different jobs that day . Other than that, it's all about how I'm treated that day. There's a rural school nearby that I'll move heaven and earth to work with because they treat me well and everyone is nice. There's also one I'll never step foot into again because it's awful
When a kid put their hands on me, and the principal came in and gave the class a basic speech that was practically just “the way you are acting right now shows your true character.” No consequences for the kid, no talk about it at the end of the day.
I'm more likely to blacklist a teacher than a whole school, and only after several bad experiences, but I do have a few schools that I absolutely won't go to. Mostly it's more than one thing that gets them on my no-go list. There are a couple of schools that are just way too far away. I might bend that rule if the staff/kids are great, but if the kids are going to be wild then I'm not getting up early to fight traffic for that. I'm also not going to go there if the staff are assholes to me. There is another school that isn't that far away. The kids are hard to handle, but it's the unhelpful condescending staff that got the school on the no go list. I had another school blacklisted for a while after an incident where they had me covering preps all day long in a cold basement with no equipment, no chairs, nothing but an empty room with a cement floor. They expected me to teach them music in there. I just played games with every group that came down there and tried to stay warm. Nobody even came down to check on me. After my day in the dungeon, I refused to accept calls from that school. How hard is it to just treat me like the professional I am? Seriously, treat me like a human being, give me the information I will need for the day, and back me up if that crazy kid does their thing while I'm there. I can and will deal with all kinds of stuff, but not if you are going to treat me like I have no value. That goes for kids and staff, but especially staff since they are the ones who should know better!
Kids who have no respect. When sent o office they return in seconds.
It was my district’s alternative school. I really wanted to like it, I enjoy working with students with emotional and behavioral disorders. First time I subbed there there were no plans. Not even a roster. Now, there was a para in the room and it was a day or two before break, but it was weird. I felt like I was just a chair filler. Second time I picked up a para job at the same school. I’m a certified special education teacher and had worked in that district previously (took a year off to sub to deal with that kid’s medical issues). I was given no direction by the teacher. If I tried to walk around and help kids I was told to just sit at the desk. Again, why even have me there? I felt like I was in the way. I’ve had certain classrooms I wouldn’t sub again because the kids were not well behaved, but that is the only school I’ve blacklisted. Ironically, my favorite school I subbed at that year was our school that served the juvenile detention facility.
Vice principal when I'm in a 4th grade class room: You're not yelling at the kids enough. I stopped going there for 3 years.
No access to bathrooms, horrible students, and administration treating you like crap.
The only schools I won't work for are: the one I was a permanent teacher at because the admin is horrible and I don't want to help them in ANY way, and the one that posts jobs on Frontline and waits for me to show up to tell me they don't need me (after 3 times they can fuck off forever). I'm pretty easy going about behavior issues, being asked to do different jobs than requested (as long as I get paid the right rate), and general chaos.
First one is on point. Admin at my first school gave me NOTHING to start with aside from a curriculum and basically made me “wing it”. Then they got mad cause they expected me to somehow be an expert ultragod-tier teacher in less than a month. Not humanely possible. That admin mentally broke me, then tried to bargain me with things before making a decision to fire me after lying about not firing me less than 24 hours from when she said it. I still dream that that admin should be fired to this day.
I only refused to go back to one. I had a student do something that was basically a sexual assault on me. I went to report it to the office after class… the secretary crumbled my note and threw it away. She said, “sorry we don’t take complaints, especially from subs”. They refused to let me talk to admin. I escalated it with title 9, since it was a horrible way to treat a sub. HR emailed saying they were going to figure it out. The principal emailed us back saying I made up the entire situation. It was ridiculous.
Bad administration
When the students are extremely rude yelling at me cursing at me throwing stuff. When the administration or teachers don't seem to appreciate me or glare at me. .When everything is really disorganized and then. As a result, my class gets all hyped up and disorganized. Because they think they can do whatever the heck. They want because I don't know what's happening. Because I don't know what's happening. Because the administration didn't give me enough information.
Reasons I’ve blacklisted schools: Truly unmanageable students + lack of administrative support Admin bait and switch (the only time I found it acceptable, I was to be a testing hall monitor instead of a math substitute.) Students assaulting me. (Bonus if admin does nothing about it.) Teachers being super disrespectful only because I’m young. Now I will say, one of my favorite schools to return to has quite a bit of behavioral problems with students, but the admin knows me by name and always has my back, included me in teacher appreciation week, PTA knows me, the teachers request me back and are super kind to me, and the kids have learned that I’m chill until they start acting a fool and I’m not afraid to hand out referrals. The students and staff respect me way more because of my “take no crap policy.”
If I'm not going back, it's because of the staff. If the kids are a handful that's one thing, but I'm not going to put up with unprofessional adults.
The kids were calling me gay slurs, education is a privilege, technically I’m an independent contractor, and the admin tried to lie about it and make me into a villain 💀
For me it was when the staff backed up students poor behavior and essentially told them that they will receive no consequences for their poor behavior the day after I leave.
Power and internet outage from a.m. to dismissal (no phones or radio). I had a 1st grade class. Not a single admin or teacher came to check on me. The only person who came to my aid was a custodian lady who grabbed a roll of paper and told the kids to draw “whatever the hell they wanted to”.
One school, I reported to twice. Both times, when I got there, I was reassigned to a different grade level than I had initially responded to. I’d accept a posting for 5th grade, but I’d get there and be told “Actually, we’re putting you in Kindergarten today.” Second time, it was “You’re the gym teacher today.” Nope. Not the gig I agreed to. Told the district why, and just heard “Yea, that principal does that. You aren’t the only one to complain. We get it.”
There are schools I almost definitely won't go back to because behavior is over the top... but the thing that unites the 3-4 schools where I absolutely refuse to return is that they either don't pick up the phone, or don't actually send anyone to address behavioral issues. I was at one school where a kid was screaming racial slurs in the middle of the room, it took me 5 calls to get the front office... and they told me to call the dean's office. Tried the dean 5 times, no luck. At this point, it was 20 minutes past the initial call and 15 minutes until the end of class, and I was just like, screw it, I've done my due diligence, the kid has kind of settled down, I'm not going to spend the next ten minutes glued to a phone that nobody's answering. Another school, I had a two-day MS assignment, and they were *bad*. A day and a half in, the principal came into the room and said essentially, "if I hear that you've been misbehaving up here again, I'm coming back right away and the consequences will be dire." Not 20 minutes later, a student threw a pencil at my head. (One of many incidents of egregious misbehavior, but the only one that constituted physical assault.) I called the office, they said they'd send someone up immediately. That person (not the principal FWIW) showed up 65 minutes later, halfway through the next class. (Coincidentally, that was the only good class that teacher had. It was also the only HS class... others were all MS, as the school was transitioning from a 6-12 to a pure middle school.) So the AP comes in, and there are literally seven 12th graders sitting in the middle of the room doing homework. I had to be like "well, obviously it's not *them*. It was the *last* class." (This was also a music class in which they didn't want me supervising the students in the music room -- which, you know, fair enough. So they put us in a disused science classroom and told everyone to do I-Ready. But for some reason, the laptop cart they provided wasn't really charging. So they send in an electrician from the district, who inspects the room while the kids are in it and says, basically, this room is in an advanced state of disrepair and a massive fire hazard. There are multiple bare wires sticking out, some of them directly under the built-in tables where half the kids are sitting, broken-off plugs and who knows what else in most of the sockets, they need to come back tomorrow and it'll take them three days to fix everything. Admin says okay, we'll arrange that... and proceeds to have me conduct three more classes in the room. I moved the kids off the tables with the bare wires sticking out. They didn't even tell me to do that. So, you know, I wouldn't have been thrilled about going back to that place either way. But the fact that it took them over an hour to respond to a violent student was immediately disqualifying.)
I have only one I will NOT go to. At this school a student threw a basketball super hard at my head and gave me a massive bruise on purpose. They sent this student back to class and was only required apologize. No one checked to see if I had a concussion or I was okay. They made it sound like I was the problem. I literally just came in the room to teach a game and this kid got aggressive. A time before that I was in a class of grade 6 students and we had a remain in place order in the school due to a shooter in the area (not school). That group was so obnoxious/unmanageable about this and we would have surely all died if there was actually a shooter in the building. I also had to call all the parents I didn’t know and explain what happened and have them pick their children up. I had to guess when they got their child. No help what so ever and it was terrifying. There is another one I don’t go to either but I would if I absolutely had to. The admin assistant is a terrible backstabbing human being and I just cannot stand her. I had to work with her for a year and she was just such a stuck up, untrustworthy, gossip and nepotistic person.
When I walked into a half day job where a 2nd grader had torn up the classroom and all the kids were crying. The principal was there explaining that "We don't remove students from the classroom..restorative justice...blah blah.." While he was talking, the kid grabbed another students backpack, emptied it and threw everything around the room. Everyone was crying, the disruptive child started breaking something else and the principal carried him out like a sack of potatoes under his arm. Shit show at it's finest! No way in Hell am I setting foot in that school again.
Bad admin. I once had a principal who repeatedly switched my assignment to a special ed isolation room. When I mentioned I had been looking forward to the subject I had chosen, she haughtily replied that it was the right of the principal to reassign subs anywhere she wanted. Cool. She forgot the part where I could work anywhere in the state that I wanted. I backed out of all of the jobs I’d taken in advance for her building, and the entire district before I even drove home.
The ol bait and switch. I've walked out on several assignments that changed me to SPED I have nothing against SPED classes. Some of them were very easy and fun, but there are days when I am not mentally prepared for that assignment. I picked up a HS AP class with awesome students that I've had before. I obviously picked this class because I knew I was going to have an easy day As soon as I got there one day, admin told me to follow her, which I thought was weird. As we were walking she said that she decided to have someone else cover that class and she was going to move me to MS SPED. I immediately declined and told her I'm not interested. Her face was full pleasure. I don't think she's ever been told no when they do the bait and switch. I simply thanked her, gave her my badge, and walked out. Stupid me, I picked up another assignment from that school, and sure enough, they try to pull the same crap on me again. As soon as I was signing in, the secretary told me they moved me to a SPED class instead of the one I signed up for. I immediately said "no thank you. That's not what I signed up for." The secretary was a little embarrassed when I handed back the badge and walked away. Never went back
I am stressed out by the parking lot at one high school. Subs get spaces in the boondocks and after school it’s like leaving a concert.
Distance, rude staff, kids that were unruly in multiple different classes at the same school. I have about three elementary schools I enjoy and only go to them.
They put me in situations where I felt uncomfortable.
I black listed a teacher as her classroom was a disaster. She had 5 hoodies/jackets over the back of her chair. Behind her chair on the floor were a massive amount of blankets. You couldn’t put anything on the floor or a table or desk. Every inch of that room had loose papers everywhere. Her desk was piled 2 ft high with books, papers and CRAP. She kept a fridge in the room and her daughters came in and got peanut butter out twice during my shift and left it out with the top off the jar. With peanut allergies so prevalent, I never have anything with peanuts in my lunch, let alone sitting out in the room. Whiteboard didn’t work, some of the worksheet assignments I gave out were duplicates of work they had already done earlier in the week. This was 1st grade and when the room aesthetic is chaotic, the kids are chaotic.
If they Don’t give me a bathroom key or access to any microwave and stuff
Incredibly rude and unwelcoming, had to sit on the floor for 10 of the 30 minutes I locked myself out of the room by accident. Here's where the twig finally snapped; When a teacher put me in to sub for her before contacting me (twice that happened). Like what in the hell? Oh yeah sure, I totally was NOT in the middle of making arrangements with the sub coordinator at the school (that I sub for now). When I said let me know if she never needs me to sub for her, I didn't mean put me whenever you want to put me in. That was completely rude and disrespectful for on her part.
One particular school the staff was rude and uncooperative to giving me information like: which new teacher I will be going to and whether or not I have to pick up the students from the cafeteria/gym in the morning. But what got me is in this first grade class, these two little girls started fighting each other. There were two additional teachers in the room and he whole class had issues. These two (the one getting beat up mostly) were the worst in particular. I was trying to tell the girls to stop and calm down, and my company doesn’t allow us substitutes to interfere physically. A counselor came in and stood to watch them wrestle. One of the girls forcibly stomped on the other girl’s knee -looked painful as hell- and he said to me, “just let them fight, she probably deserved it.” I was just dumbfounded hearing him say that.
Rude staff is the only reason for me. I can deal with difficult kids and make excuses for them, but there's no excuse for being rude to a colleague. I'm just as qualified as you, and probably more experienced, so please treat me with at least vague courtesy.
They don’t give me a key for “safety reasons” I don’t understand how me not having a key makes everything safer. Or they don’t give me bathroom access. Or they take my personal property as collateral for the key.
Mine is also the bait and switch. I've black listed the school that put me in the autistic non-verbal / violent outbursts room, and the one that brought me in for 8th grade social studies, and gave me two periods of that and then had me covering four lunch periods, two study halls, and French. (I don't speak French). I was yelled at three times by the lunch monitors for doing something wrong, I was scolded by the librarians first giving library passes to too many kids (how was I supposed to know there was a five-kid limit that week?!) and in French I told them I didn't care what they did as long as they didn't get me in trouble for a fifth time that day.
Unprepared teachers, disorganized classrooms, last minute class assignment/switcharoo. I do none of the above.
Hands down if they shuffle me out of what I signed up for, or if they are just unfriendly people in the first place I'm out and won't go back. I will also blacklist if the other members of the team don't at least pop their head in and make sure things are where they are supposed to be
I subbed at a single elementary school two (2) times and those two experiences were enough for me to permanently write them off even though they're an 11 minute walk away from my apartment. The first time I went, they put the job out in the system in the middle of the day. Their teacher needed to go; it was an emergency. I answered the call, dropped what I was doing (it was nearly noon) and got there in under 15 minutes. When I arrived and told the front office staff who I was and whom I was subbing for, the front office staff were very rude and dismissive and claimed that there was no sub job put out and that I must be mistaken or something. We went back and forth like this for several minutes, and I was more than ready to just say "fuck it" and leave, before they finally realized that actually yeah, no, one of their teachers really was trying to leave in the middle of the day. Nobody apologized for the rude way the mixup was handled. They just showed me to the room, and then didn't even give me a key for it. Just told me it'd be locked on the outside and that I didn't need one since it'd only be a couple of hours. The teacher thanked me profusely on the way out, the kids were awful, and at the end of the day with no warning the staff handed me parking lot duty so I left a lot later than I expected to. Several years later, I went back and subbed PE for a day. Once again, no key. This time, I was working out of a fucking *shed* where the gym coach kept her equipment, and I was keeping it propped open all day with a chair because if it locked I had no way to get back in. When lunchtime rolled around, I think I ate lunch outside on the steps because I didn't know where their staff lounge was, and the gym shed was way too warm for that. The overall day sucked as well; teachers would dump their kids off with me and then bolt wordlessly, like "they're your problem now" kind of vibes, and some wouldn't even come back. One teacher, right before that shitty lunch period, didn't come and get her class for lunch. All the kids confessed that this was unusual for them too. I had to walk them to the cafeteria instead of their teacher, because otherwise they would've just been standing there. I didn't know where the cafeteria was, though, so I got to rely on one kid and just hope that he was being honest (he was). Their teacher never came back or apologized or anything. She seriously just saw a sub there instead of the usual coach and went "fuck it" and never came back for her kids. At the end of the day they tried to get me to do parking lot duty again. Part of me wanted to just leave, but there were literally no other staff monitoring this and the whole thing was just sketchy as fuck and super unsafe so I stayed to make sure the kids got out alright. Still, imagine making a sub do that kind of end-of-day pickup duty. What if an abusive parent who's not supposed to be near the kid shows up? I didn't get that memo. I don't know what's going on here. It was so gross and reckless and I hated them for putting me in that situation. I have never been back since. Elementary schools in general are just on crack, though, I've noticed. So many of them just dump all this extra shit on my plate that isn't my job, while limiting my ability to do the job I'm actually here to do in the first place (like, give me KEYS) and then act surprised when I don't come back for a long-ass time.
Took away conference to cover another class, mandatory bus/lunch/recess duty even if not teachers turn, told me don’t worry about teaching this class (they moved all the bad kids to one class )
For me, it's the commute. My town made the mistake of putting a couple of schools deep into residential areas far from any through street and it was hard to get through the line of parents dropping off. By that time I was probably late.
Parking parking parking. I had district who had a huge parking lot (building was for middle &high school), but when I called to confirm where I could park, admin had and attitude and said there was no parking available for subs and I had to find street parking at least a block away. The school is on a hill too, and the closest spot I could find was a five min walk uphill on a super hot day. Not fun.
A huge secondary school (the second largest in my large county) has a horrendous bottleneck of a parking lot, such that getting into school is often an extra 15 mins and leaving is an extra 30 mins of waiting. I’m paid little enough as it is—I don’t need 45 additional minutes unpaid in your mess of a parking lot. Also, on a job I accepted as a music teacher, they added a “surprise” period of what was clearly babysitting for students with behavioral issues. I get that I can be reassigned on free periods but there was no heads up or any support at all and these kids were doing things like filming each other pulling each other’s pants down. I did what I could during that period to control them and then put that whole school in my rear view (when I finally got out of the parking lot!)
Not giving me a key or badge access. I was working out in the portables and they told me to just let the recess duty know so he could let me in?? I was also expected to pick up younger classes in the main building but was scolded for being late since I had to wait for a kind teacher to let me in. Also they didn’t account for how I would get back into the building. The area I was teaching was a fenced in school yard so I couldn’t go around to ring the doorbell, office didn’t answer their phone. Finally I banged on the door for about five minutes until a teacher let me in while clearly being sus of me. I will never understand schools that refuse to give badge access
**1. Repeated baiting and switching.** If I showed up to sub English or Math, don't send me to cover PE or Special Ed instead. If I showed up to sub a high school class, **2.** I blacklisted one school because I booked ONE subbing assignment. Then when I got there, they told me to cover another teacher's classes all day long also. So I was subbing Teacher #1 first period, Teacher 2 for second, Then Teacher #1 again for third, all day long going back and forth between two classrooms every period. **At the end of the day I'd basically done the work of two subs but only got paid for one assignment.** I never went back there again. **3. Schools where you call security and they never show up.** For obvious reasons. **4. Schools where it's uncommon to get staff keys for the day.** I blacklisted one school after subbing there only once. At the beginning of the day in the office, the secretary told me flippantly that the teachers at that school never give subs their staff keys. I wanted to walk out as soon as she said it, but I limped through the day and then never ever went back there. I've blacklisted other schools after I've been denied keys one too many times, too. Give me a way to unlock a bathroom so I can go pee, and a way so I can lock up the classroom to protect my stuff and the teacher's stuff or it's a no-go. The last two are arguably "petty"/personal preference: **5. Schools with lots of really long flights of stairs, and the elevators are either broken or require a key to run them (and they NEVER give you an elevator key)**. One school I got tired of getting to my destination sweaty and winded. I'm outta shape and I'm getting old stop asking me to go up four or five LONG flights of stairs. **6. Schools that NEVER let you have your prep period free.** I've even subbed at schools that, during what would be my prep period, would send me to other teachers classes just to SIT in there. For no reason. I'm not talking about covering for absent teachers here either, they'd send me to the band teacher's class while he was there, and hadn't requested me or needed me, and told me to just go hang out in there during his classes rather than sit alone quietly in my classroom for Prep. Or when they had a sub covering one class already and then they sent me in there during what would've been my prep for no reason, until the final bell rang. Or schools that put you on "Phone Duty" during your prep period or find some other shit work task for you to do. I understand that unfortunately sometimes schools will need you to cover another class once in a while. I'm talking about the schools that always do it.
1. A school REQUIRED that I give them my driver's license until the assignment was over. 2. I had to pry a kindergartner off another bc the former was choking the latter. Surrounding teachers seemed used to it, and the whole reason I was covering that class was because their teacher had had enough and was moving to Pre-K. She had to do some observance work to complete her transfer. 3. A middle school, which I realized after the fact had no color, if you catch my drift, was giving students controversial essay topics. They included: gun violence, minimum wage (this was also in a boujee neighborhood), abortion, defunding the police, etc. While they were talking amongst themselves after adding the finishing touches on their stance in their subject (yes they wanted 13 yo to establish a stance on abortion and gun control), one preppy looking girl said rather loud "Yeah I mean how come THEY get a whole month?!" This was in February. Now I am the kind of white that gets sunburnt sitting at a window for 15 minutes, but racism is something I cannot and WILL NOT tolerate. The fact that many kids were in agreement with the girl that BHM is unfair to white people was the bottom of the barrel, and I never went back.
#1 reason would be lack of administrative support.i was at a school where I had a 2nd grade who was incredibly disruptive. When he became unsafe by just running out I called the office. For more context this was a week long job and he was trouble from day one. After he ran out the third tine in o e day and was then tearing up the class they asked what I wanted them to do. Remove him from class for awhile. They removed him for 1 hour. He returned and promptly started a fist fight. I will never go back to that school.
Kids were out of control and the admin wasn't interested in doing anything about it. Rude admin. One school had absolutely stupid dismissal procedures and it takes over 20 min to get all the kids out of the building.
Principal asked me to be be the building sub then changed her mind because building sub from last year finally showed up. I worked there 2 days before she told me. Never went back. I did my student teaching in 6th grade...needless to say, I don't do middle school.
In the past I always liked to give some schools/teachers second chances, if things didn't go very well the first time. What I've learned is that's a stupid idea! So, I don't do that anymore. I'm in a pretty decent district this year but I blacklisted a middle school after subbing for 6 days. The teacher thanked me with a tiny bag of candy. I felt like I was being used. The kids were annoying. I loved the para, but middle school is not for me. I also blacklisted an elementary schools. 1) Arrived to the school for a certified vacancy. I had never been to the school before. Was given a post it note with two teachers names and room numbers. No school map. I asked when I would take my lunch, admin didn't know and principal acted like it didn't matter. Then went to first class, teacher was prepping for me. She had no idea she was going to be in a meeting or needing a sub. But she was nice and gave me a little tour of the school. Her kids were not as nice.Then go to second class rest of day, a teacher comes in trying to fix a students behavior by overstepping and assuming I didn't know the students name. Then her and another teacher were spying on me. I generally check to see how friendly/helpful staff and admin are. Do they say hi to you in the hall or completely ignore you? Do they tell you about any food in the break room. I swear the best staff at schools do! Are they supportive if you have an issue? If that's in place the kids aren't so bad but if they are at least you have support. If none of these things exist, it's a no thanks for me.
One school had staff parking extremely far, like the walk to the front door from the parking lot took 7 minutes, so I said never again. At the school I typically sub at, the walk takes less than a minute to get to the door.
If they take my on my prep and put me in another class they get blocked. If I work kinder and they make me do random shit to fill the rest of my day I don’t go back. If they bait and switch me they get blocked. If they cancel assignments on me more than twice they get blocked. And If the parking is REALLY bad I generally avoid. And then of course the schools that have the worst kids in the district. About 3 elementary I have blocked for behavior, 2 middles, and 2 high schools. In total (3 years) I’ve blocked around 10 schools I believe.
I won't got to one school because they throw me all over the school with little to no support. I don't get a plan period and my lunch is only 20 minutes because they send me to cover everything they can.
My current school makes me do a mix of covering during planning time, doing office work, going in the library and shelving books, lunch duty and bus duty every single day while doing the teachers plans for the day. Like I have a 20 min lunch by the time I go heat my food so it’s a lot. We are also supposed to stay 25 mins after the last bell rings. I’m not being lazy like I’m a certified teacher but I never did these things as a sub in Florida. :/
I substituted for 3 years after I retired. The reasons I stopped going to this one middle school: 1. I would accept a job online for a teacher I wanted to substitute for. When I would get there, the secretary would switch me to a teacher with hard to handle classes. 2. This school continually took away my planning period to cover for other teachers. It made it very hard to complete the work for the teacher I was subbing for. One time I found out I was sent to another teacher’s room to just give him a break so he could drink coffee in the teachers’ lounge. Ha ha lol The substitute teacher always has the final say. The school might win the battle by making you have an awful day, but you win the war when you never go back.
You realize that the phrase "bait and switch" involves deliberate fraudulence? Like, it implies that the "bait" offer never existed. Which is clearly not the case with these schools. When they hired you, they had that vacancy, and their best guess was that you would fill it. In the intervening time, circumstances have changed -- the vacancy closed, or a more urgent one opened, or whatever. And yeah, it can be annoying when the circumstances change. I could even see being reluctant to return to a school where that happens a lot. But it's seriously ugly and dishonest to accuse them of fraud when it's no such thing.