A whole new world (and school year)

I finally moved and settled down in the suburbs of Illinois (Anyone from the Naperville, Warrenville, Wheaton area?).  I just wanted to say that moving can be exhausting!!  However, I am excited to start fresh in my life in a new city, meet up with old and new friends in Chicago, and finding a new teaching career here.  I do admit it is frustrating that the state of Illinois doesn't recognize my 4th/5th grade endorsement.  I've always wondered why only 47 states do and Illinois unfortunately had to be the remaining 3 that didn't.

Since the new school year has just began, I wish I was able to talk about the first days of school...and then I realized I've never really experienced "my first day of school" as an educator!  As a sub, I really don't get my feet wet in the classrooms until a few days or weeks later.  Now I'm trying to substitute in the Illinois school districts as I'm looking for a full-time job.

So, this post is for all the people who are still looking for teaching jobs (like me), newly graduated students, and substitutes!  If you are like me and are registered as a substitute in multiple school districts, it may become a little hectic of making sure you are getting paid for every job.

Quick Sub Tip: If you're a sub and want to try and work everyday, I found the best way to get jobs was to apply for multiple school districts. You are on more phone call lists and websites to look for jobs because there are a lot of substitutes out there! In school districts in Columbus, Ohio, we had over 23,000 substitute teachers!  On the days, I didn't have a sub job scheduled, I was fighting against so many people.

Here is a freebie I created and used for the past school year when I received sub jobs.  It's easy to fill out and I like to add the teacher's name under the "Grade" column especially if I am in the school's building a lot.  I always keep my district's pay dates sheet in my sub binder as a reference so I can quickly look for the next pay date and jot it down on my sub compensation sheet.  Then once I have received the money from the respecting school district, I simply put a checkmark on the last column "Received".  If you have any questions about my substitute teaching compensation sheet, let me know! I hope this is helpful for all of the substitute teachers out there and keep you more organized on your sub jobs and planning.