Welcome to the world of substitute teaching. Some of what you are about to read is not pretty. Some of it is hard and cold, and calculated. Some of it is painfully amusing, at times. But all of it is real, all of it happens, and the methods that we will discuss herein have actually worked in this type of an environment in the public school system. And it is an extremely rewarding job, if you get the right mindset and attitude, 'going in'. Without it, you will not last a single week, let alone the year.This book is not one of those cheerful 'let's make a difference' kind of books.That sort of thinking will not work anywhere I have ever been. This is for you, someone who needs a job, has been offered this one to do, for however long, and wishes to do it as best as it can be done, in the real world. You may like it. You may love it. You may utterly despise it, and all children, when you are done. But one thing is for sure; if you do what is in here, you will survive it, you will get your paycheck, and then you will get to decide the next time that the phone rings if it is 'for you', or someone else.You will have the ability to make an enormous difference in the lives of the students, this is true, but not before you pass all of their many and varied tests. This book will introduce you to the stuff that the school board and the administration themselves, do not tell you about when they are hiring you. They just turn you loose to seek your future in their world and to get it on your own as best as you can. This is not really fair, because you can get caught up in some major political nonsense before you even know what is happening to you. You have to be forewarned about the drama, and the boo games, and the power plays that will surely be presented to you. ou have to know exactly what your response must in any of these situations. You have to be taught how to control a classroom full of students, not a few of whom are actually little monsters.All of the things in here happened, to one substitute or another, and the recommended strategies for dealing with these things have actually all worked in the past for this particular substitute.Published December 2013, revised December 2019