# Any substitute teachers in the crowd?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-substitute-teachers-in-the-crowd/1032444>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [August 19, 2026, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-substitute-teachers-in-the-crowd/1032444 "2026-08-19T23:12:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2026, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-substitute-teachers-in-the-crowd/1032444/21 "2026-09-26T08:26:03Z")

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> [@XOldiesJock](#):
>
> What are your stories?

I’ve only done temp teaching assistant work for very short periods, but two things stand out:

It was a junior boarding school. I was tasked with listening to young boys read aloud as part of their homework. I got to the point where I could listen to up to six of them at a time, all reading different books at different speeds and fluency and attend to each when they struggled or needed to spell out a word.

If no teacher was available (eg, sick at short notice) I was called in to basically keep the kids quiet while the school organised a qualified substitute teacher. Thus I had the absolute joy of teaching classes of eight year olds basic origami - not on the syllabus, but hey, I like origami and I was just a place-holder. [Jumping frogs](https://origami.me/jumping-frog/) were, naturally, a big hit.

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**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2026, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-substitute-teachers-in-the-crowd/1032444/22 "2026-09-26T13:14:38Z")

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Yesterday I subbed in a Head Start class where few of the kids spoke much English, and the regular assistant was also absent (the substitute paraprofessional was a native Spanish speaker). They kept us on our toes. One crapped his pants, which I didn’t have to take care of. It will be interesting to see where they are later in the year.

Early in the year I was with a pre-kindergarten class where the kids were experiencing their first day of school (Their regular teacher was there as well). There was a four year old who was already reading fairly fluently; he informed me of the sell by date on the carton of milk he had with breakfast. However, he was socially about where you’d expect a kid that age to be. I talked to his teacher yesterday, and she said he’s doing extremely well. I’m looking forward to subbing for her in a couple of weeks.

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