Pros
My co-workers at the school I was assigned to as a permanent sub were very supportive and couldn't be more helpful.
Cons
The HR department basically talked me into a job that I was not prepared for at all. I had applied to be a substitute teacher since I had absolutely no classroom experience. My ultimate goal was to become a full time teacher and I had invested money in some classes at FGCU. The woman from HR who contacted me, convinced my I would be fine a pool teacher, which is a permanent, long-term sub. I has serious reservations but she assured me I could do it well. Nothing could have been further from the truth. I was thrown into a crisis situation with no teaching experience. I could barely keep my head above water. The class had already had more than 10 other teachers that year by the time I got there. As a result, most of the kids acted out and it was impossible for me to manage the class full of middle schoolers. I was expected to carry the class until the end of the year and to do an unbelievable amount of test prep since this was middle school English. The kids wanted no part of this, and had already succeeded in eliminated a bunch of other subs they hated. I was no different. I quit the job, since I could not manage the class and the kids weren't learning anything. I felt it would have been to their detriment for me to stay. I left completely burnt out, and broken and I had lost any chance of teaching for the school system as a result. To some extent I feel personally responsibilty, but I also can't believe someone from HR convinced me to take this job, knowing I had no prior experience. I was a warm body with a temporary certificate and a degree in English. I feel like the HR department couldn't have cared less that they chewed me up and spit me out. They just burned through someone who might have been a successful teacher and an asset to the school under different circumstances. Maybe I would have never been able to cut it. Either way HR had no business assigning me to that classroom. To add insult to injury, I had a mentor who rebuked me for taking the job as if I could have somehow known the disaster I was walking into.