Substitute Your Way to a Real Job

Follow these tips from principals, teachers, and human resource directors to make the most of your substitute teaching experience and use it to get your first job.

Socialization of Novice Teachers

Guided by new structuralism theory, this study examined the context of novice teacher socialization, identified the frequency and substance of interactions between novice teachers and their mentors and other colleagues, and reported on novices’ evaluation of the support that they received. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with district human resource directors and teacher association presidents, as well as surveys of novice teachers in six districts in Michigan and five districts in Indiana. Findings suggest that researchers should examine the informal social structure within schools, which can mediate formal induction policy, and that administrators should institute a network approach to socializing novice teachers.

An Investigation of the Impact on Higher Education of the Family & Medical Leave Act of 1993

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires businesses with 50 or more employees to grant eligible workers, with the exception of their top management, up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period for the birth and first-year care of a child; adoption or foster placement of a child in the employee's home; the care of a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition; or the serious health condition of the employee. 1 Higher education administrators collectively groaned when colleges and universities learned that their institutions were indeed covered by the FMLA. Up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave are allowed for eligible employees, those who have worked for the employer for at least 12 months and for at least 1,250 hours during that period. This project surveyed human resource directors at selected two-year and four-year higher education institutions in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana to see what effect the FMLA produced in it first four years. Many instructors and staff members have indicated a lack of awareness regarding the FMLA. Apparently, most college and university employees did not believe that a 12-week leave was available to them. Perhaps the extremely liberal time off already enjoyed by higher education rendered an understanding of the FMLA unnecessary. The results of this study provided a much different portrait according to human resource directors surveyed. By means of this study personnel specialists suggested that information regarding the FMLA had been widely disseminated and that employees throughout the institutions were well acquainted with the Act. This study sought to investigate various issues regarding the FMLA as well as the degree of awareness possessed by the higher education community.