Job Check
Substitute Teachers, Short-Term
Teach students on a short-term basis as a temporary replacement for a regular classroom teacher, typically using the regular teacher's lesson plan.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Enforce school and class rules to maintain order in the classroom.Mostly human for now
- 02Answer students' questions.AI could speed this up a lot
- 03Follow lesson plans designed by absent teachers.AI could speed this up a lot
- 04Take class attendance and maintain attendance records.AI could speed this up a lot
- 05Supervise students during activities outside the classroom, such as recess, lunch, and field trips.Mostly human for now
- 06Teach social skills to students, such as communication, conflict resolution, and etiquette.Mostly human for now
- 07Tutor or assist students individually or in small groups.Mostly human for now
- 08Distribute or collect tests or homework assignments.AI could speed this up a lot
- 09Distribute teaching materials, such as textbooks, workbooks, papers, and pencils, to students.Mostly human for now
- 10Teach a variety of subjects, such as English, mathematics, and social studies.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
Tasks from O*NET® 31.0 (US Department of Labor, CC BY 4.0, changed by us), most important first. “Already use” comes from Anthropic’s data on real work chats with Claude; “could speed up” from task ratings made with GPT-4 in 2023.
Four studies, side by side
None is a forecast of job loss36%of this job’s tasks an AI model could do in half the time, counting tasks that need extra tools as half (rated in 2023).Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock, 2023
Above 75% of jobsin how often and how well AI helped with this job’s work in Microsoft Copilot chats (2024 data).Microsoft Research (Tomlinson et al.), 2025
Above 48% of jobsin how much of this job’s physical work robots have been shown to do, from factories to homes (2026).Anthropic, 2026
Your human edge
The main tasks with no real AI use seen and no big speed-up expected. This is where your skill counts most today.
- Enforce school and class rules to maintain order in the classroom.
- Supervise students during activities outside the classroom, such as recess, lunch, and field trips.
- Teach social skills to students, such as communication, conflict resolution, and etiquette.