‘Subs’ Briefed on Sinking or Swimming

Like a battlefield commander gearing up new troops for an assault, Ruth Hardy on Wednesday was facing the recruits.

In this case, the “recruits” were 35 potential substitute teachers for Orange County elementary schools. The subs, as they are universally called, are sent into action when regular teachers are sick.

It’s a difficult job, Hardy was telling the subs at her seminar. But it can be handled with aplomb if subs know some basic survival skills, she added.

“Every substitute needs a bag of tricks,” she said. She then proceeded to teach some of the tricks of the trade to the men and women, who like students themselves, sat at desks and took notes.

The scene was a 6-hour seminar on substitute teaching sponsored by the Orange County Department of Education and held at the department’s headquarters in Costa Mesa.

Hardy, an Anaheim resident who has been a substitute teacher for 13 years, interspersed the lecture with humor. For example, while discussing class lesson plans that the regular teacher is supposed to have available, Hardy dryly noted that “sometimes, you will have trouble understanding the lesson plan”: A slide flashed on the screen showing a drawing of a nonplused sub looking at a document marked “lesson plan.” The writing was in Chinese.

In such a case, said Hardy, find some regular teacher who can help interpret the lesson plan. It’s important, she said, for the sub to try to keep the regular teacher’s class moving on schedule, just as the regular teacher had planned.

“My No. 1 rule is that I want to do what the (regular) teacher does,” said Hardy.

Hardy made it clear that keeping discipline is the substitute teacher’s most constant problem. Students love to see how far they can go with the strange, temporary teacher, she noted.

What do you do when insurrection surfaces? Hardy had several suggestions:

- If the misbehavior is very bad, stop everything and have the whole class write individual “letters of apology,” she said. Such letters are left for the regular teacher. Hardy said she simply tells the students the format of the letter, but not what to put in it. “The funny thing is that some of the kids then make the letter a total confession; they tell you everything they did wrong that day,” she said.

- If the misbehavior is of a lesser degree, have the students write individual letters about what constitutes “good manners in the classroom.” (“What if a student refuses?” asked one sub. Replied Hardy: “Tell him, fine, you’ll sit with him in the class until school’s over and then you’ll take him home to his parents.”)

- Be eager to reward good behavior, she said. She added, “My trick was a big red and white parachute--a real parachute that I carried to my classes. I’d tell the kids, ‘If you’re good, you can play games outdoors with the parachute. They loved it.’ ”

During a break in the seminar, Hardy explained her philosophy of discipline. “It’s a way of getting the children into self-discipline,” she said. “You don’t want to come in and be the policeman. If they’re self-disciplined, then the teacher’s job is a joy.”

Their Guile and Cunning

Hardy spoke knowingly of the guile and cunning of some students. For instance, she warned the subs to check assignments that were turned in to make sure that nicely handwritten nonsense wasn’t turned in as a joke.

But Hardy, the mother of three children, made it clear that she loves youngsters and thoroughly enjoys substitute teaching.

“My job’s challenging, and I love it,” she said. “It could be teaching kindergarten one day, or sixth grade the next. It’s exciting.”

She added that she wants to encourage more potential substitute teachers to enter the field because the pool of such teachers is small in Orange County. “It varies from (school) district to district,” she said. “Some districts have a shortage of subs, and others don’t.” Overall, however, she said the county has relatively few subs for the 28 school districts that rely on these part-time teachers.

Part-Time Work

Reasons for the low number of substitutes, she said, include the fact that many men and women can’t afford to rely on such part-time work only. Also, she said, “the pay is relatively low and subs don’t get any (fringe) benefits.” Still, she said, the job is one that appeals to many people, herself included.

Just before lunch break Wednesday, Hardy gave the 35 subs in her seminar a tip about a book some students might be reading this summer.

“It’s a cute book about how kids plot against substitute teachers,” said Hardy. “It’s title is, ‘Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub.’ It’s very funny. But you subs should know about it.

“After all, we have enough problems without a book being published telling kids all the things they can do.”