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We Love Our Substitute Teachers

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The Substitute Shortage

Throughout the pandemic, our education system has faced enormous challenges, from ensuring student safety to managing learning entirely remotely. As we entered into the 2021-2022 school year in the US, our schools faced another, equally difficult challenge- the declining quality and quantity of substitute teachers. The AASA, the School Superintendents Association, recently shared insights into why the substitute shortage has surfaced and techniques schools are using to address it. They reported that “the common thread among school districts dealing successfully with the substitute teacher shortage is training. This training provides substitutes with the information and skills they need to be successful in the classroom.” After reading this, we asked ourselves if there was a way Instructure could help.

Free Instructure Resources

In response to this challenge, we formed a committee of passionate volunteers from across our Customer Experience department and they created a new free Canvas Network Course, Canvas Substitute Resources. This course has three sections, each packed full of guides, tips, tricks, and other great resources to get substitutes prepared and ready for managing their classes. These sections are aligned to your role within your institution and include:

  • Substitute Resources: this section is geared for substitute teachers and will take you through a guided overview of how students and teachers use Canvas as a learning space on the daily.
  • Teacher Resources: this section is geared for teachers looking to set up an emergency sub plan module in their Canvas courses. A one-pager will guide you through considerations for preparing your online classroom for a substitute.
  • Administrator Resources: this section provides administrators with a one-pager for operationalizing substitutes plans, monitoring, and promoting engagement.

We hope these resources are helpful as you continue to manage the substitute shortage we are seeing throughout the country. This course is free and available on Canvas Network and contains resources that are available in Commons. We also know there is a lot more to do at such a critical time in education and we welcome ideas for how we can continue to help. Do not hesitate to reach out to me at melissa@instructure.com with ideas and feedback. 

And to all the substitute teachers- A huge thank you. We love and appreciate you.

Keep learning,

Melissa

About the Author

Chief Academic Officer

As Instructure’s Chief Academic Officer, Melissa is a champion for crucial customer-focused topics like data usage and privacy—and it’s her personal mission to drive innovation in our customer experience and enable customers to leverage our solutions in engaging and effective learning environments. Melissa has spent 20 years in educational technology working for a number of technology suppliers and educational institutions, as well as teaching leadership courses on managing technology for educational change. She has a master’s degree in educational policy from Teachers College, Columbia University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

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