Sub Plans for Anyone

Subs can either be your best friend or your worst nightmare.  This year, my subs definitely run the gamut from "amazing and could teach my class all year" to "I never ever want to miss another day" kind of subs.  I've also been the sub in classrooms where you have almost no information about how the teacher runs the room or what kids should be doing, so I am constantly working to make my sub plans super easy to handle for my subs. 

This year, after coming back to a disaster of a classroom and a sub who sent tests home with students and kept quick multiplication pages, I was mortified. One of the girls on the hall suggested I put post-its on each worksheet that would give the sub Cliffs Notes version of what needed to be done with the work.  The only thing was I am plan to be out for two days and I was writing the same things over and over.  It felt like a waste of time.  I liked the idea, but there had to be a better way to do this.  So I came up with these cards.

I am hoping that once I cut these apart and clip them to each set of work, it will make it super easy for my subs.  I am also printing them off on colored paper so it jumps out at the sub.  These won't replace my sub plans, but they will make a cheat sheet for my subs.

Sub Plans

So part of the job of teaching is that inevitably you will be absent. That means sub plans. Inevitably you will also be absent for multiple days. This year I headed to the MSTA State Convention (my third year and it's like Christmas, birthday, and Thanksgiving all rolled into one). That means three days out as I travel several hours and spend two days at convention. As much as I love coming to convention I am terrified of the possibilities of a sub in my room. Let's face it, everything that can go wrong will. My first year I left almost ten pages for sub plans. Did I mention that was just for day 1? I worry. A lot. Plus, I've been a sub. I have been in rooms where they leave a stack of papers and no instructions or they don't leave enough work or there isn't a roster or any number of not great things. Not in my room. I have managed to cut it down to 4 pages or so per day which gives them enough detail that if they are clueless in the classroom it gives some assistance and if they are an experienced teacher they can quickly scan and get the important details.

One of my favorite activities though is leaving a writing prompt where the kids get to guess where I am and what I am doing. This is great for convention since I am gone several days and it gets their imaginations going. Last year I moved, changed jobs, had a boyfriend, went to the beach, took my daughter to the doctor (I am single and I don't have kids haha), and so much more. I was laughing so hard I was crying. I was actually really sad that I didn't get to be there to see it in action during the writing process and it became my inspiration for "My Teacher's Secret Life," a writing prompt about what teachers  do on their weekends. 

This year, I actually forgot to put it in my plans, so before I left I had a few minutes and we did a quick writing that was just basic ideas. The first thing I noticed was my kids wanted to write two sentences and be done. I think I need to do a daily journal to get them used to writing more. They absolutely loved writing about me though. They were dying to know what I was doing. They will be so disappointed to find out I didn't climb mountains, skydive, travel to Paris, cook a Thanksgiving dinner, get married or bring them back souvenirs. Those were just some of the awesome ideas. I think they think I'm a rockstar. My life is way too boring for their high expectations. Haha.