Redheaded Jill

When I was a kid the schools had a list of people they could call to fill in when a teacher was absent. It was something handled by the office and secretaries. Usually it consisted of retired teachers who oftentimes retired from the very school they substituted for.

The year that I got my emergency sub license our school district started using an agency.

This agency hires teachers and then they send out the job assignments on an app, allowing the hired teachers to pick and choose assignments from their phone. Our agency covers several districts so I could choose to work in a more rural setting or in a major city.

If there are issues the school contacts the agency and the agency contacts the school. They pretty much mediate for you. It’s not a bad thing, but sometimes it’s better to streamline the process. Like, I have contact with a couple of teachers who will ask me specifically to take their classes. If it aligns with my schedule the school secretary can log in and give me the assignments without it going through the app/agency.

The hard thing as an introvert is getting calls at all hours of the morning asking you to take assignments. You have to get comfortable saying, “No” real quick. You can also block out times on the app where you aren’t able to work and that is wonderful. Then they don’t call you. There are settings on the app where you can say, “Don’t call me.” or “Reach out via text.” Every year they seem to add more features.

The downside of them using an agency is that there’s more competition for the jobs. They also require you to do training through the agency (though I escaped that because I’d already worked for the school and they know me, so the agency waived that requirement for me).