Subbing in middle school

1 How a middle school day works

A middle school sub day is not one long day with one class. It is five, six or seven short days with different classes, back to back. Each period has its own group, its own mood and often its own seating chart. Between them is passing time, a few minutes when the halls fill up and the next class arrives.

Before the first bell, read the plan with the bell schedule next to it. Write down when each period starts and ends, which period is the planning period, when lunch is, and whether you have a duty such as hall, lunch or bus. Check for anything that changes the day, like an assembly schedule or an advisory period.

• Find the seating chart for every period and put them in order.
• Find the work for every period and stack it in order, labeled with the period.
• Write the day's work on the board in a form every period can use.
• Find the attendance system or paper, and ask the office how to submit it.
• Learn the name and room of a teacher nearby who can help.

The planning period is yours to prepare the afternoon, make copies if the school allows it, and sort finished work. Some schools ask subs to cover another class during that time. If they do, you will hear from the office, and it is part of the job.

2 Passing time and the start of each period

The first two minutes of each period set the next forty. Stand at the door during passing time, where you can see the hall and the room at once. Many schools ask every teacher to do this, and it lets you greet students as they come in.

Have the bell ringer, the short task students start the moment they sit down, on the board before the bell. Students who walk into a room with something to do usually do it. Students who walk into a room with nothing on the board start their own conversations.

What to sayGood morning. I'm Mr. Patel, and I'm your teacher today. Please sit in your seat on the seating chart. The work is on the board. Start the first question while I take attendance.

Then take attendance from the seating chart. Call names or check seats quietly while students work. Taking attendance from the chart, every period, is how you learn names and how you find out quickly who is in the wrong seat.

3 Seating charts

The seating chart is the most useful thing a middle school teacher can leave. It tells you names, it shows who sits near whom for a reason, and it is the quickest way to make a new room feel ordered. Students know their seats. Some will try to sit somewhere else because you don't.

Say early and calmly that everyone sits in their seat on the chart. Don't argue about it. If a student says the chart is old, ask them to sit in their chart seat for now and say you will note it for the teacher. Most students move without a fuss once they see you are reading names from the chart.

• If there is no seating chart, make one. Pass a sheet around and ask each student to write their first name where they are sitting. You now have a chart and a list.
• Draw a quick grid of the desks for each period and fill it in as you take attendance.
• Leave every chart you make for the teacher, labeled with the period.

A seating chart maker lets you print a blank grid for each period before the day starts, if the plan didn't include charts. Keep only first names on anything you make, and leave it with the teacher's papers at the end of the day.

4 Phones

Every middle school has a rule about phones, and they differ a great deal. Some schools keep phones in lockers or pouches all day. Some allow them at lunch only. Some leave the rule to each teacher. The one rule for you as a sub is this: follow the school's phone rule. If you don't know what it is, ask the office in the morning before the first bell.

Once you know the rule, state it at the start of every period in one sentence, the same way each time. Then follow it calmly. Most students will put their phones away when the rule is said plainly and nobody makes it a contest.

What to sayThe school's rule is that phones are away during class, so please put yours away now. Thank you.

• Don't take a phone from a student's hand unless the school's policy tells subs to collect phones and says how.
• If a student won't follow the rule, note the name and the period for the teacher, or call the office if the school's policy says to.
• Don't let a phone problem become the whole period. Say the rule once, note what happened and move on.
• If a student needs to call home, send them to the office with a pass.

5 “Our teacher lets us”

At some point in the day, a student will tell you their teacher lets them listen to music, work with a friend, sit on the floor, leave early for lunch or skip the bell ringer. Sometimes it is true. Often it isn't. You usually can't tell, and the plan won't say.

You don't need to know. A calm, steady answer works in either case. Say that today you are following the plan, and that you will write it down for the teacher. That takes the argument out of it, because nobody is calling anyone a liar.

What to sayThanks for telling me. Today I'm following the plan your teacher left, so we'll do it this way. I'll write it in my note so your teacher can tell me for next time.

Then actually write it in your note. If the teacher does allow it, they can tell you for next time. If a request is about safety, such as leaving the room alone, the answer is the school's rule, not what students say. Send students out only with a pass and only the way the plan or the office allows.

6 The same lesson five times

Many middle school teachers teach one subject to several classes, so you may give the same lesson to every period. That can be a help: by third period you know where the instructions are unclear and where the work runs short. Use what you learn from each period to run the next one better.

1. After first period, fix anything on the board that confused students.
2. Note how long the work took and whether you need the extra task for early finishers.
3. Keep each period's papers in a separate pile, labeled with the period, so nothing gets mixed up.
4. Write a line about each period in your note while it is fresh.

Have something ready for the last ten minutes of each period. Middle schoolers finish at very different speeds. A short reading passage, a review question or a writing prompt on the board means early finishers have work while the rest finish. The reading passages and math worksheets both work as quick extra tasks.

If you are building a day yourself because the plan is missing, the middle school ELA sub plan and the middle school math sub plan give you one clear assignment per period with a bell ringer and an extra task, ready to print.

7 Endings and the note

End each period on time and on your terms. Keep students working until a minute or two before the bell, then ask them to turn in work and put the room back. Don't let the class line up at the door. Many schools want students in their seats until the bell rings, and a crowded doorway is where problems start.

At the end of the day, write a short note for the teacher. Write one or two lines per period: what got done, what didn't, who was helpful and anything the teacher should know. Use first names only. Put serious matters in front of the office the same day rather than only in the note.

• Each period's work is in its own labeled pile.
• Each period's attendance is submitted the way the school asked.
• The seating charts I used or made are with the teacher's papers.
• My note has a line for every period.
• The room is back the way I found it.

If a period went badly, let it go when the bell rings. The next class didn't see it, and they deserve a fresh start. Take a breath during passing time, look at what you would change, and greet the next group at the door the same way you greeted the first. Middle schoolers notice an adult who stays steady from period to period.

Middle school is the level many subs avoid, so a substitute who handles it well often gets asked back. Keep track of the schools and teachers where it went well, and what you would do differently next time.