Substantial Classrooms

More about the book

In today's educational landscape, the focus has shifted towards student voice, project-based learning, individualized instruction, and mastery, moving away from the previous standards-based approach. This evolution intensifies the need to rethink substitute teaching. The book offers valuable insights and practical suggestions for transforming substitute teaching into a meaningful component of students' educational experiences and a beneficial asset for schools. It introduces process improvement, utilizing a data-driven perspective to tackle challenges in substitute teaching, and incorporates design thinking principles to foster experimentation suited to the daily demands of the role. Subsequent chapters explore various strategies for enhancing substitute teaching, including engaging college students as substitutes, addressing the sub-to-teacher pipeline, and creating specialized substitute pools (e.g., art, poetry, financial literacy). Each chapter features stories and examples that illustrate these opportunities, highlighting the perspectives of school leaders, district officials, colleges, and community partners, along with actionable suggestions for initiating and experimenting with these ideas.