A substitute teacher is the temp worker of the education world — a fill-in instructor who covers a class when the regular teacher is absent. In North America and India this is the standard term, while the UK and Australia say 'supply teacher.' In student culture, the arrival of a sub is practically a national holiday: everyone suddenly forgets the rules, chaos erupts, and productivity drops to zero. The substitute teacher has become a cultural archetype — someone who has to win over a room of strangers every single day with zero context.
When the substitute teacher wrote her name on the board, the back row immediately started planning exactly how much they could get away with.
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(North America, India, Ireland) A supply teacher.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
See all Regional & Other slang on Slangora.