Boost your essential substitute teacher communication skills.

communication skills for substitute teachers

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Each time you walk into a classroom, it’s important to use effective substitute teacher communication skills. The better you are at delivering clear classroom expectations, lesson plans, and praise, the more successful you’ll be in building rapport with your students and improving their outcomes.

Kelly Education wants all of our substitute teachers, paraeducators, tutors, and support staff to be the best communicators possible! We provide our employees a with a free, non-mandatory professional development course called Communications Essentials to take these skills to the next level.

In this article, we’ll provide some high-level takeaways from the webinar but encourage employees to watch the entire webinar for real world examples that bring these tips to life. You can register for the recording on our myKelly.com career advice page under events.

Effective communications skills for educators include:

Understanding the components of communication
Auditing your own strengths and weaknesses
Being aware of common communication challenges that exist in education
Having some “go to“ strategies to apply when there are challenges

Four key components of communication:

Method of communication: Words, pictures, sounds, and tone can all convey information.

Something to interchange or impart: What message is the communicator working to convey to the recipient.

Communicator: Has the responsibility to convey their message and ensure that it’s understood by their audience.

Recipient: The recipient’s interpretation and understanding of the message indicate whether communication was successful.

Common communication tips for substitute teachers.

Excellent communication skills can help a substitute teacher make the leap from good to great. Sometimes, when things go wrong, it’s all too easy to slip into a negative narrative. Resist that temptation!

Here are a few examples of how you can stay in a positive mindset:

Speak positively about the role or about students.
Know school or district policies so you can articulate and enforce them clearly.
Stick to professional, pleasant, friendly, and appropriate conversation topics.
Celebrate students for doing the right thing.

Own your professional communication patterns.

Gaining awareness of your strengths and weaknesses in communication can be the first step toward improvement.

Here are a few tips for improving your substitute teacher communication skills:

Be aware of your communication style and make adjustments where necessary.
Pay attention to your tone and body language.
Don’t be afraid to apologize if you communicated an idea poorly.
Speak with a positive tone.
When meeting someone new, smile and introduce yourself.
Be a team player—jump in and help when you notice something needs to be done.
Keep conversations professional and focused on work-related topics.
Ask questions if you’re unsure of what to do.

Special communication considerations for substitute teachers.

No matter how positively and professionally you communicate with your coworkers and students, you may not always be met with the same courtesy.

When interactions do not go as expected:

When another staff member is expressing frustration, keeping a positive attitude can help set a great tone for the day.

Staffing changes for some students with special needs can create challenges, do not take anything personally.

If a staff member or student does not speak respectfully to you, respond with respect and kindness anyway.

Be flexible and accommodating whenever possible.

Avoid this type of communication with students:

Never touch students.

Do not stare or glare at students to make them uncomfortable.

Do not neglect or dismiss student needs.

Be sure to provide adequate personal space.

Never use intimidation tactics.

Don’t comment on a student’s physical appearance.

Don’t discuss your personal life.

In general, avoid oversharing personal details, such as relationships, political views, religion, race, sexual orientation, and personal opinions on current events.

Substitute teacher communication skills to navigate difficult behaviors.

If you encounter difficult behaviors while working in a school, use the moment as an opportunity to improve the tone in the classroom. Taking a moment to make small adjustments can go a long way in de-escalating tough classroom situations.

Take a moment for self-evaluation.
Consider your tone of voice, how you’re communicating, your volume, and whether you’re unintentionally escalating the issue.
Using positive language. For example, “Thank you so much for stopping your conversation and getting back to work” versus “I told you to stop talking.”
Speak in a calm tone and use positive facial expressions to help restore positive teacher-student communication.

Watch our entire Communications Essentials webinar.

Want to go deeper into substitute teacher communication skills? Our employees can register to watch the entire webinar —just look for the course under events on our website. The webinar takes under an hour to complete. You’ll enjoy more in-depth explanations of real-world examples of how to positively communicate with your students as a guest teacher.

Grow as a Kelly Education substitute teacher.

When you work with Kelly Education, you’ll get training before you ever enter the classroom. We also provide free professional development webinars and an extensive library of articles that address many aspects of substitute teaching. Check out these selections:

Considering working in schools as a substitute teacher, tutor, or paraeducator? Fill out our brief interest form. One of our recruiters will be in touch with you to share more about the requirements and process to begin making a difference in the lives of children.