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Este mes, él está de maestro en la escuela.

Este mes, él está de maestro en la escuela.
This month, he is filling in as a teacher at the school.
From Lesson 313:Temporary roles (estar de)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Este mes, él está de maestro en la escuela.

Why is está used here instead of es if we are talking about his profession?
While ser is normally used for professions (for example, él es maestro means he is a teacher by trade), using estar de plus a profession implies a temporary situation. Here, it means he is temporarily working as, or filling in as, a teacher just for this month.
Could I say trabaja de maestro instead of está de maestro?
Yes, trabaja de maestro is perfectly natural and means he works as a teacher. However, está de maestro places a slightly stronger emphasis on the temporary, acting nature of the job, which pairs perfectly with the time limit set by este mes.
Why isn't there an article before maestro, like está de un maestro?
In Spanish, you generally drop the indefinite article (un or una) after verbs like ser, trabajar de, or estar de when stating an unmodified profession. You would only use un if you added an adjective, such as está de un maestro excelente.
Does the structure estar de only apply to professions?
It is mostly used for jobs to mean working as a certain profession temporarily, but it also applies to temporary roles or conditions that are not strictly paid jobs. For example, you can say estar de voluntario to mean acting as a volunteer or estar de guardia to mean being on duty or on call.

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