Substitute teacher
Encyclopedia : S : SU : SUB : Substitute teacher
A substitute teacher (known as a supply teacher in Britain and a reliever teacher in Australia and New Zealand) is a person who teaches a class when the regular teacher is unavailable due to illness or other obligation. In some school districts, certain employees do nothing but substitute teach, remaining on call to fill in for any absent teacher of any subject. Some substitutes are people who have retired from regular teaching. This practice is particularly prevalent in large school districts, where some percentage of teachers are consistently likely to be unable to teach on any given day. This practice of "missing a day of work" can be seen as a two-fold situation; First, it creates a void in the educational process of the child because he/she does not have his/her regular teacher to learn from and second, it provides employment for those that need a non-committed job. This is considered an entry level job in teaching, and is poorly paid. In smaller districts, a regular teacher might substitute for a class that does not conflict with their regular teaching schedule.
A substitute teacher may not have any training in the subject to be taught, and may simply be present so that students can maintain the routine of going to their regularly scheduled class, even if no new material is covered. At lower grade levels, however, any person qualified to teach should be able to smoothly transition into the materials in the lesson plan for the day.
Urban legend holds that substitute teachers are frequently the target of practical jokes by the students. In some instances, students will misrepresent the pace, coverage, or usual activities of the class, suggesting that the regular teacher allows them to get away with behavior not normally accepted in school. Another involves switching names with another person during the attendance and usually also for the rest of the class.
A series of movies feature a mercenary posing as a substitute teacher in order to take on criminal elements within the school. The first, The Substitute, starred Tom Berenger. The remaining three starred Treat Williams, and were The Substitute 2: School's Out, The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All, and The Substitute: Failure Is Not an Option. A sequel to Class of 1999, which featured teachers in gang-run schools being replaced by deadly robots, was titled Class of 1999 II: The Substitute. A scene in Catch Me If You Can portrays famed con man Frank Abagnale convincing a class that, rather than being a new student, he is in fact their substitute teacher.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.