The Emotional Labor of Teaching and Why Sub Plans Are hard

Unpopular opinion: Writing sub plans isn’t hard, it is all the other stuff! 

Every occupation has a protocol for sick days, and professionals are entitled to a certain amount of days off. So what is it about teaching that makes taking a day away from the classroom so difficult? 

The lessons themselves shouldn’t be difficult. It is something you are working on, usually something the students can do self-directed. 

It also isn’t necessarily the papers at the end…you would have most of the student work anyway. 

So what about teaching makes it so difficult to leave that you would be willing to go into the classroom after having a concussion? (join my email list to hear that true story!)

It is the emotional labor involved.

According to Google Dictionary: “the mental activity required to manage or perform the routine tasks necessary for maintaining relationships and ensuring smooth running of a household or process, typically regarded as an unappreciated or unacknowledged burden borne disproportionately by women.”

According to Wikipedia: “Emotional labor is the process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job. More specifically, workers are expected to regulate their personas during interactions with customers, co-workers, clients, and managers”

That describes the classroom perfectly.

It is the set of daily procedures that you know how to do because you do it every day.  It is knowing which student needs a high five when they walk in the door, and which one is going to need a pencil again. It is the way you start class, the way you handle bathroom passes, how you talk to students, get students to go to lunch (do you have to take them? Pick them up? Or do they just run free?)

It is also the institutional knowledge that you hold.  Who are you going to call if you have a question about the upcoming fire drill? What is the extension for the nurse? The guidance counselor who works with your grade? An administrator who would come and give you a bathroom break? 

And if that isn’t enough, there are the accommodations that you are legally required to provide to students to ensure that they have a safe environment that enables them to engage with the class materials. You know which students have a medical issue that requires that they leave the class twice a day, or use a device to monitor blood sugar. You know who needs a dictionary or translation device, and who works best with a bilingual friend. You know who has a behavior plan, and when it is a bad day, where the student can go to calm down. 

You know all of this and more. You know who had a fun weekend, who has a competition that they are nervous about, who has a family going through a divorce, who has a new sibling at home, who might not have gotten enough to eat yesterday, and who is going to be late to class because their mornings are pure chaos. 

This is the emotional labor of the job. 

This is what they didn’t necessarily tell you when you started your education journey. 

This is why sub plans are so hard. 

How could you possibly impart even a fraction of this knowledge to a substitute teacher…especially when you are not feeling well? 

When I was in the classroom, I would leave the sub-pages of notes that described the lesson and the things they needed to know about the class…and I still worried all day that I was gone!

There is a better way!

Next week I will write about the things you MUST have in your sub planner to make your (and your substitute’s) life easier. 

Can’t wait? I have premade Class Procedures and a Contact Information page for you to type, print, and add to your folder. Since life in schools does change, frequently, it is an editable pdf so you can easily edit without writing it all over again!