re: Anyone ever done any substitute teaching?

Part of the time I was in College I had a side gig as a handyman at an exclusive private school in Atlanta....building simple cabinets, painting, glazing lots and lots and lots of windows. I got to be pretty friendly with the high school science teacher and he knew I was an engineering student and an electrician so he asked me to do some "lecturing" for him when he was busy doing other things or needed to get out of school for an hour or so. I enjoyed it. The first few times was kind of tough but I did some simple electrical stuff in front of the kids and they were very curious about it so I would make simple electronic circuits and do one about once a week for them and they seemed to look forward to it.

I did some actual substituting at DODEA schools overseas....I think most civilians who have worked on a US base over seas winds up doing some if they have kids in the school. That was actually fun but mostly because I already knew the kids, the schools were small and if they stepped out of line their parents would know before they got home LOL. I mostly read to elementary school aged kids but middle school and high school kids we would mostly just shoot the shite about something loosely related to whatever they were supposed to be studying but usually about something they were going to be talking about anyway. It was fun. It would be FAR different in a normal school though...military families and kids are just different.

I've substituted a few times. Private school. Typically, you are just babysitting the class with some basic busy work. As long as you control the class, you'll be considered an excellent sub. If you control the class, get some basic busy work done and the kids really like you, you'll be considered outstanding.

I spent most of the days just talking to the kids, telling stories of my life adventures, sharing bits of wisdom and telling jokes.

All the things you think kids should be taught (apart from typical schoolin'), the teacher doesn't have the time to do. Tell them the things they need to know, like just how lucky they are to be Americans. Talk about saving and investing, compound interest, being entrepreneurs etcetera. These are simple little seeds you can plant in their mushy brains that they may never ever be exposed to.

It is very fulfilling, especially if you like to talk and be the center of attention.