Substitute teaching offers a rewarding opportunity for part-time teachers, career changers, and pre-retirees to make a difference in the classroom. Whether daily or long-term, substitute teachers provide an essential safety net for regular teachers to maintain continuity in their classes while they’re away on planned or unexpected absences.

Despite similar job titles, daily and long-term substitute teaching jobs present teachers with distinct responsibilities, rewards, and challenges. This article goes into detail about these differences to help new educators and career changers choose the right substitute teaching job for their needs in the coming school years.

What is a Daily Substitute?

A daily or short-term substitute covers a teacher’s classes for a short-term absence. This could be for an afternoon, a day, a few days, or many days spread out over the school year. Their job as a disciplinarian is to keep the classroom under control according to the teacher’s instructions. They should also be experienced in relaying instructions and controlling the flow of assignments, usually with the help of the teacher’s lesson plan.

Daily substitutes often move between schools and even classroom subjects, sometimes within the same day. They need to stay flexible to provide students with a seamless experience between instructors until their teacher returns. For regular teachers, daily substitutes are the safety net that protects the rhythm of their school year against the gaps caused by unexpected absences.

What is a Long-Term Substitute?

Long-term substitutes provide a similar function as short-term substitutes, but by prolonging the role, the responsibilities change. Instead of filling in for a teacher for a day, long-term substitutes stand in for the teacher for a longer period, sometimes for an entire semester. As a result, long-term substitute teaching has many of the responsibilities of regular teaching jobs, despite lacking the perks of longevity, such as job security and predictable scheduling.

The number of long-term substitute teachers is not widely known but is likely far less than the number of short-term substitutes, which number as many as 444,530 per year, according to the most recent data from BLS. As long-term substitutes are called to support classrooms for longer periods, they become responsible not only for translating the teacher’s lessons but also for creating new ones, essentially taking over the responsibilities of full-time teaching. This often leads long-term subbing to become a stepping stone to full-time teaching positions, which may explain the low reporting numbers.

Who is a Good Fit for Each Position?

Daily and long-term substitute teaching positions come with different responsibilities and require different skills. The positions also serve different purposes, depending on the teacher’s long-term goals. When choosing between them, teachers should consider these 3 key factors:

1. Personality Requirements

Short-term substitutes fill in for teachers as guests in their classroom. They usually don’t create lesson plans or enforce significant disciplinary action. Their job is to organize classrooms to be productive at very short notice and manage the sometimes chaotic transition between instructors with their classroom management skills.

Oppositely, long-term substituting teaching requires a sense of structure and consistency. These substitutes form bonds with students and lessons as if they are the regular teacher, and this requires consistent communication. If the teacher is gone long enough, the substitute may create new lesson plans, enforce disciplinary rules, and change how the classroom is run. This role is better suited to teachers who want to stay in one place for longer, form a relationship with a class, and gain experience similar to regular teaching.

2. Pay Benefits

Short-term substitutes often receive a lower rate of pay, without a benefits package. Depending on the days they are called in, their income can change drastically, so this role is better suited to teachers who are flexible, lack the time needed for a long-term commitment, or have another source of income.

However, long-term substitutes often receive higher pay and in some districts even qualify for health and retirement benefits. Long-term teaching more often leads to permanent teaching positions at the same schools, as staff and administrators observe the teacher’s strengths.

3. Rewards Differences

Daily and long-term substitutes are rewarded very differently. As a short-term sub, teachers often encounter less respect from their classes, a problem that can worsen when combined with their inconsistent schedule and lack of influence over their lessons. Put another way, if the first day of substitute teaching is the hardest, then daily subs experience it more often!

The tradeoff is that daily substitutes can be very flexible, trying out different grade levels, subjects, and schools without stressing over long-term planning or discipline issues. This makes daily substitute teaching more ideal for educators who need part-time income or who want to test the waters before committing to long-term roles.

Long-term substitutes by contrast usually have a higher workload than daily substitutes, managing lesson planning, discipline, grading, parent conferences, and other long-term duties. In many cases, long-term substitutes work harder even than regular teachers since they have nearly equivalent expectations yet don’t have the same authority as the teacher who began the school year.

The emotional tradeoff is that long-term substitutes usually form stronger relationships with their classes compared to daily subs, giving them more control over the direction of the lessons and more valuable experience to translate to regular teaching.

Summary: Short-term vs Long-term Substitute Teaching

To choose between the two roles, both new educators and career changers can consider this brief summary of the responsibilities:

Consult Educational Resources to Find Substitute Positions Near You

Both daily and long-term substitute teaching positions present opportunities to returning educators, career changers, and brand new teachers to learn valuable classroom skills, earn part-time income, and potentially transition to a full-time teaching position. Depending on your goals, the outcomes of these jobs will differ, but both are essential safety nets for any school system with rewarding opportunities for the right teacher.

At Zen Educate, our goal is to provide teachers with resources to help them choose the career that fits their goals, and excel in their choice. Visit our site and sign up for free to find new teaching roles and resources near you.