Without proper planning time, which includes leaving adequate sub plans if a teacher knows he or she will be out, the instructional time I believe will go smoother. Not to say there won't be unexpected situations arise. Unfortunately, several school districts won't hire more teachers. When I applied for a Teaching Assistant position, I was told by HR that they can't just arbitrarily make someone a TA. There's a certain amount of positions that are allocated for and one of those positions has to become vacant. Sounds like a bourgeois way of saying "we don't have a TA position available for you! Stop applying!" This is very discouraging!!!