By Dani Woodland
The Jordan School District lowered the bar for substitute teachers last week. Because of a shortage of substitutes they now accept applicants with mere two-year degrees, instead of requiring a bachelor?s degree to teach.
In Provo School District, however, anyone who has graduated from high school can teach school for a few days ? even at a high school.
Patty Eliason is 19, and has substitute taught everything from kindergarten to high school classes.
?It?s kind of funny because people tell me that I have a really young face and I look younger than I am,? Eliason said. ?I?m only 19, so I seem like one of them.?
Provo finds its subs through Kelly Services, a national service that has a database of about 350 individuals in the Provo area who are willing to teach. About 100 of those subs are from BYU.
?It?s the greatest job for a college student,? said Eliason, an English education major from Las Vegas. ?You pick when you work, and you always have a prep time where you can do homework.?
Substitute teachers can work as much or as little as they want. The wage in Provo School District is $43 a day, which a representative from Kelly Services said is about a third or a fourth of what a real teacher makes.
Lori Barry, the hiring supervisor for Kelly Services, said the college students who teach high school have the advantage of having the material pretty fresh in their minds. The Jordan School District tried out these younger substitutes and came to a different conclusion.
?They were just out there to make a day?s pay,? said JanNeil Allen, the substitute coordinator for the district. ?They were not really encouraged to be involved and do what they needed to do. In high schools, they were just one of the kids. They were just being buddies and friends to the kids.?
Eliason said she found it difficult to make her separation from the students clear.
?I thought that when you walked in, automatically it would be like you?re the teacher and I need to pay attention to you,? she said.
To establish that authority, she said you have to follow the rules of the class as well as your own.
?You can?t slide on them,? Eliason said. ?You can?t let one kid do something and not let another do the same thing.?
Substitute teachers learn classroom management, among other things, in a Kelly Services orientation. They learn how to avoid power struggles and how to keep the class under control.
The first time Eliason taught, it was in a third grade class.
?I called my mom on the way over there and was like, ?Oh Mom, I?m nervous,?? Eliason said. ?But every time I go back I get less and less nervous.?