I just started substitute teaching about a month ago and didn’t have a whole lot of classroom experience before this. I’m employed through Kelly but I prefer staying in a particular county that’s frequently on the news for being generally unsafe. Typically I don’t have any issues with behavior and understand they’ll be a little crazy with the sub (because who isn’t) but I get the dirtiest looks from the neighboring teachers for “letting them do whatever.” They are all sitting at their seats with their work open. I do not get paid enough to sit down with every single student to make sure their work is completed and correct when I’m seeing 90 different kids every single day and there’s only an hour of class time. If they want to do the work then they will, and if they don’t then their grade reflects their effort. And that’s even assuming the busy work will get graded. The only sub plans I’ve gotten since I started were just “slideshow in google classroom. No phones.” Like why am I even here? I feel like a glorified nannycam. Not to mention every single person in the building walks through a metal detector and goes through bag checks in the morning. These kids LOVE when I sub because I treat them like people and don’t make a big deal about phones or seat hopping or doing work out of order. I let them eat in class. I let them listen to music. And guess what! No fights and no disrespect. No one gets sent to the office. I’m so tired of teachers in this district treating the kids like they’re rabid animals that need to be tamed or something. It’s like they would rather be running a prison. They’re kids and I get flack for letting them act like kids. Not mad at the profession, just the culture.

Edit to clarify: the children of this district have MUCH bigger problems to worry about than a stupid word search barely even related to the unit which is why I specified the type of area. I’m not about to drag the principal into a class of kids not doing anything wrong. For most of the kids their time at school is probably the most predictable and structured time they have so I’m not about to make that time miserable for everyone involved. I don’t want to go to work just to yell at a bunch of teens who get yelled at by every other adult in the building. Sue me.