You wake up feeling like you’ve been hit by a bus, but you seriously contemplate dragging yourself into work anyway because it’s going to require more effort to write sub plans than to just show up.
Let me take away some of that stress and guilt: STAY HOME.
Focus on getting well rather than writing plans, because
—News flash — :
The kids don’t actually learn anything when you’re gone. Even if you planned to be out for a conference and you secured an experienced Spanish-speaking sub (like me) well in advance.
Nada. Zip. Zilch.
What actually happens with a sub
- Students open your carefully crafted assignment in Google Classroom and only read step one. They don’t scroll down. They don’t read closely.
- Most Google Translate your directions and the entire activity, write their answers in English, translate that back, and copy and paste it over.
- If the assignment you left requires research, they just Google, copy and paste the first thing that comes up without reading.
- Then they spend the rest of the period on their phones, playing video games, making Tik-Toks and taking pictures.
NO LEARNING HAPPENS WHEN THERE IS A SUB.
I had my own classroom for 12 years before I moved and took up subbing while transferring my credential. Now being on the other side, I am kicking myself for all those times I spent hours upon hours writing amazing sub plans to keep my kids engaged. How optimistically naive I was!
So what should you do?
Sub plans that work
You have to leave something. Here’s what actually works:
- Señor Wooly. If you don’t have an account, get one now. Be sure to get your kids up and running on the site and introduce them to the magic within the first two weeks of school so when you are out unexpectedly, they will be excited to spend the period with these wacky videos and activities. Real learning will actually occur, even if it doesn’t perfectly align with where your scope and sequence wants you to be. The only directions you have to leave: “complete nuggets X – Y for song Z.” Sub plans are written in under 10 minutes and you can go back to bed.
- Projects: If you know you’ll be out and you can backwards design so that your kids can have a work day on a project that is due when you get back – perfect. They will work the whole period as long as you have gone over the details with them beforehand.
- Movies with guided questions: This takes a little advanced planning, but it’s a great thing to knock out over the summer or to assign a TA if you’re lucky enough to have one. And once they are written, you can reuse them and they can sit in the office as emergency plans. They can be cultural travel videos or even a Disney movie in the target language with easy target-language questions. Want students to review the basics? “Is Ariel blonde or red-headed?” “Does she like to sing or play sports?” Nothing hard, but something you can go over the next day and that will keep them focused.
Things that don’t work:
- Book work – they don’t care and they know it’s busy work you probably won’t look at because you’re a good teacher who never actually uses the book.
- Packets – They copy each other.
- Online quizzes – They cheat. NON-STOP.
So save yourself the time and (tend to your) headache. Focus on getting well as fast as you can so those kids can actually start learning again!
