My First Day Teaching Experience as a Substitute Teacher

When I graduated from college, I thought it was fun but I was wrong, I felt nervous waiting for my first job. I asked myself many times a day, "What if I cannot get a job?" I was so eager to have my first job in teaching. But the moment I was asked to go for an emergency substitute, I began to panic. First, because I wasn't prepared yet to teach and second because it was so sudden that I didn't plan my activities yet. The principal just told me to report to the said school and teach the kids. It was an emergency substitute job that I was hired for. The teacher got seriously ill and I was the first teacher on the list waiting to get hired. Although I wanted to land a job as soon as possible, this sudden turn of events made me nervous. I didn't have a lesson plan and I was not prepared to teach that same day.

The problem of most substitute teachers is unpreparedness for the teaching job. If it were a regular class it would have been easier but just going into the classroom and facing the children without any preparation makes one really nervous.

When I reported to school, I found out that there were four grades with only two teachers. So it means that each teacher must handle two grades at a time. This is called a combination class. This is applied in the remote areas here in the Philippines where there are but a few enrollees. My class was grade 1 and grade 2. The room is just right for 50 pupils. I have 24 grade 1 pupils and 26 grade 2 pupils. This situation made me more in a tough situation. How could I teach two classes in one room, I told myself. It was my first teaching job and I was perplexed. I didn't know how to start.

I took the record and checked the attendance while trying to sort out things in my mind. I was so confused but thankfully, the small children were all behaved as they stared at me. They were perhaps wondering why a new teacher was there. I made a mistake, in my confusion; I didn't introduce myself until I heard one pupil asked her seat mate, "What's the name of our new teacher?" I felt embarrassed for that matter. When I finished checking the attendance, I looked around and introduced my name. They all whispered to one another until I told them to listen because we were going to start the lesson. But here comes another problem, I didn't know how to start. Whom will I teach first and what was their lesson? We didn't confer with the other teacher because everything was so sudden so I was hanging into the air and confused about everything.

In order not to create confusion in the classroom, I told them to get a piece of paper and write down what they did the previous day. That at least made them busy while I sorted out things. I borrowed the notebooks of one of the pupils and scanned the pages to find out the lesson the past days. After the children finished writing, I collected the papers and told them to get their books. I let the grade 1 pupils read their books silently while I attended to the grade 2 class. I gave the grade 2 class some exercises to do. After that I explained the grade 1 lesson and let them copy some notes. By the time I finished the day, I was too tired. But I told myself it would be better the next day.

Substitute teachers are often hard up with the first day of class because often times the teacher isn't prepared for the job. Everything is so sudden that there is no preparation at all. This should be a lesson to new graduate teachers, so that they should always be prepared for whatever situation they are going to face.