As President of the Birmingham Professional Substitute Teachers Alliance, the challenges are great, but our goals are greater. We coordinated a membership drive in some schools recently, and many subs were afraid to simply stop by and chat with us. Maybe they feared school administrators would reprimand them for standing up for themselves and joining a sub alliance. We are working very closely with the American Federation of Teachers and NSTA because the local chapter of the National Education… Continue

To the many members who are beginning or have recently begun a new school year, I have a suggestion.

Make a point to visit the schools wheren you worked last year or would like to work this year and make a personal contact with as many teachers as you can.

Needless to say you should be sensitive about disturbing classes.

I'm returning to my region as a Substitute Teacher beginning this upcoming school year (2010.)

I credit my earlier experience within the larger (city) school district (7 years as a H.O.S.T.S. Mentor + 1 year as a Fully-fledged Substitute Teacher) as "my experience" in the Training profession. My own father is a retired College professor / Department head with 25 years in the training profession.

I am…

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With this Spring 2010 coming to an end, I must say I've more determined in becoming a teacher than I was before. When I decided to begin college, a year and a half ago, I had the teaching career in mind. Although all the altercations we heard in the beginning of this year about education funds being cut and teachers laid off, kind of scared me. I reconsidered becoming a teacher. By now, I already know that teachers pay is very modest and to my belief, they are…

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I am just completing my first semester of school and my first round of observation as well. It was so interesting to see all of the ideas we learned about in class as far as classroom management, philosophies of education and especially learning strategies put into play in an actual classroom. I've been in more than my share of elementary school classrooms in the past; I volunteer at my son's school, visit his classes and speak with his teachers on a pretty regular basis. But when you suddenly… Continue

Whew! Just finished a full semester of classes, and I'm one step closer to becoming a teacher. I actually learned a lot of helpful things this semester (and not just textbook stuff). This semester I took Intro to Education, Educational Law, and Educational Psychology. I really enjoy psychology and it is one reason that lead me to my future teaching career. I recently did my observations with a first grade class and it was very interesting to try to observe the different learning styles and… Continue

I had an amazing experience with an all girls first grade class. The teacher was amazing and the students were so rejuvinating to be around. They were always excited about what was happening and what they were learning and they seemed to really enjoy their teacher and I can only hope that some day soon I will be the teacher that all the students in the room love to listen to and can't wait to see what they'll be learning next.

I remember when I was in elementary school; my teacher asked us to draw a picture of what we wanted to be when we grew up. I drew a picture of a teacher. Ever since I was a little girl I knew that was what I wanted to become. You can even say it's in my blood since my grandfater and aunts and uncles are teachers too. Now that I have my daughter I believe this is the perfect career to set a…

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I have wanted to be a teacher ever since I was a little girl. I was always playing school with my siblings, and I always had to be the teacher! It has been fun to go and actually be in the classrooms observing the kids and the different teaching styles of the teachers. I am excited to continue in my journey of becoming an amazing teacher!

"Substitute teaching is kind of like a warm up to becoming a teacher." That is a quote a substitute teacher once told me when I asked him why he was a sub, and not an actual teacher. He then explained to me that he was in the process of becoming a teacher, but being a sub would help him and train him in becoming a "real" teacher. I asked him, "how so?" He said that being a sub made him be able to work with kids and got into training on how to use discipline in the every day classroom.… Continue