What skills do substitute teachers have?

Top skills found in substitute teachers:

• Accountability: Being personally responsible for a whole classroom of children can quickly help you reach a new level of accountability. Substitutes, if nothing else, must be punctual and mindful all day long.

• Adaptability: Each day brings new challenges that you must quickly adapt to while working in a new setting with different age groups in various subjects. The many interruptions will force you to become more adaptable and flexible.

• Public speaking: Speaking aloud each day to a class of new students takes moxie. This role will boost your comfort and confidence while improving your ability to project, articulate, and engage with an audience.

• Problem-solving: Whether a student gets hurt on the playground, you're missing some materials needed to complete a task, or the pencil sharpener suddenly stops working, substitutes are presented with many "fires" throughout the day that they must put out.

• Time management: Each day, a new list of activities to accomplish throughout a brief and divided period. While you instruct students and manage the classroom, you must pay close attention to the school schedule and get your students where they need to be in an organized fashion.

• Instructing: As you advance in any position, you will be presented with opportunities to train and mentor more junior workers. Substitute teaching exposes you to various effective instructional strategies and ways to differentiate instruction to best suit people who learn in different capacities.

• Networking: Working as a substitute is not a full-time steady job. You're called when needed. This is where networking becomes important. A less spoken skill in this role is interacting with other teachers and school administrators while on assignment.

• Creativity: Subs are generally provided with lesson plans and materials, but there's always room to add creativity in the classroom. To keep everyone engaged and on task, it's important to look for fun and creative ways to engage your students.

• Mediation: Anyone who has ever worked an office job can tell you that sometimes it's not much different from being back in the playground. Having strong mediation skills is as important when dealing with a classroom of 6th grades as it is navigating a heated project planning meeting.