Is subbing worth it?

Subbing can be valuable experience in terms of getting to know different school cultures. At the high school level it's mostly giving the kids whatever bookwork assignment the teacher left for them and making sure the kids behave and stay where they are supposed to be.

The pay depends on your location, but often isn't great. It's more than staying home, for sure. For my friend whose husband has done it on and off between other jobs, as long as he works three days a week they come out ahead on daycare for their son.

There will not really be typical "sub" jobs over the summer. Possibly sub positions as an aide for an extended school year program if the school has a dedicated special needs program. (Special needs aide position...for which you don't need any cert beyond what you already qualify for without having a teaching cert.)

Edit: Honestly, if your goal is to earn money so your kid can go to daycare, I'd just start looking for a summer job instead to tide you over until the school year starts. Many teachers work at summer camps, bartend, etc. outside the school year. You might be able to squeeze a few subbing days in before the year ends.

I've been subbing for a couple of years now. You aren't going to get summer work as a sub. Regular teachers apply for those positions. Summer school is only a few weeks and generally they'll just mash up classes instead of calling in a sub. The rest of the year is good. It's especially great for new teachers as you'll get a chance to see how experienced teachers set up their classrooms and lesson plans.

I've been subbing for a few months. Some days it's a lot of fun and some days (like today), you will wonder if you have actual demon children.

For me, the good days have outweighed the bad. Once I learned what schools I like and which ones to avoid (took a few weeks), things have been pretty smooth. I've noticed that my available assignments have really tapered off and I don't have high hopes for the summer, although there are a lot of year-round schools here. A few months ago, I could choose between 10+ schools/grades every day but now I have no choice and I'm lucky if a "good" school comes up on one of my free days.

if you dont have your cert yet, do you have your subbing cert? maybe it depends where you live but in my state you need a county sub cert (at a cost of $115) and background check ($$) in order to sub. it took months for all of this to process before i could start working. so if you don't have it, its not worth it.

if you can get started immediately, sure its worth it for a month! i'm so happy i subbed because as an alternate route teacher also, i had no student teaching experience. this way i got some classroom management experience without the pressure of being perfect each day in front of the same kids. my first few days subbing were below-par on my end, but ultimately i gained confidence over time. i can't imagine what it would've been like to have had that first day be my class for the whole year. for that experience alone i think it's worth it.

i doubt there is much sub work over the summer. i'm planning to seek a tutoring job or maybe even waitress for the tip money. is there another job you could do over the summer, like tutor, nanny, etc? tutoring would also give you good teaching experience and probably be more stable than summer subbing, plus with a cert you can charge more, and spend more time home with your kids but still allow them to go to daycare for a few hours to see their friends :)