We’ve all had those days when we walked into unfamiliar situations: the first day in a new school, that first middle school dance, a job at a new company. If we were lucky, some caring individual came alongside us to help us get our footing.

Your substitute teachers face similar situations nearly every day — an unfamiliar building, locked doors, technology that they haven’t been trained how to use. Not only are these frustrating and demoralizing for substitutes, but can make it difficult for a professional to be effective.

Share What To Expect With Substitutes

Running an effective substitute program starts by taking concrete steps to show substitutes what to expect and how to be successful. But what might those steps look like? Mostly, they’re common sense — maybe that’s what makes them easy to overlook.

In some combination of in-person training, resources and materials, and on-demand, online courses, consider these best practices:

1. Help substitutes find their way around. A welcome kit that includes a map of the school, its grounds, where to park, where to enter and exit for the school day, a bell schedule, and an ID badge can help a substitute feel confident about getting started.
2. Give substitutes confidence to interact with students. Go over the school’s culture and the code of conduct that students are expected to follow. Make sure substitutes understand what actions to take in situations that may arise in the classroom.
3. Provide well-developed lesson plans. Substitutes want to work with students — they’re educators, after all. Lesson plans prepare them to step in and continue instruction, rather than trying to figure out how to best utilize (or pass) class time.
4. Train substitutes on classroom tech. Increasingly high-tech classrooms can be powerful aids to learning, but substitutes need to know how to use the technology to run the class. Some districts conduct training for substitutes within a model classroom, so they get hands-on experience with where things are and how to operate the technology.

Gains For Your District

Equipping substitutes with knowledge and skills for success clearly takes a bit of effort — so how does it strengthen your district? Here are three reasons to invest time to do this well.

Prevents lost instruction time

You want substitutes to fill the gap while the teacher is out, ensuring continuous learning. Any time a substitute spends figuring out processes or technology is time not spent working with students.

Supports effective classroom management

What’s the most demanding part of a substitute’s job? The need to build rapport and connect with a classroom of students they don’t know, quickly. If a substitute spends the first five minutes trying to figure out the electronic board or find the lesson plan, classroom management becomes that much harder.

Promotes school safety

Imagine a situation where a substitute needs to act to ensure student safety — do they have adequate knowledge of fire exits, emergency drills and other safety procedures? Do they know if certain doors are locked at certain times of the day? They need to know what procedures to follow to move swiftly.

Training like this helps everyone come out ahead: your substitutes, your students and your district as a whole. And because having this information — or not — can make or break someone’s day, it’ll also make your schools that much more appealing to substitutes as you seek to draw more highly qualified educators into your district. Show substitutes what to expect and how to be successful in your district and you may see your fill rates greatly improve.