Sub Plans? Not as Useless as You May Think

Substitute teachers often get a bad rap. Often students don't respect a sub's authority, and the subs just end up attempting to keep the students' behavior under control. It's either that or the sub pops in a movie and waits it out. I think we often think of being just a product of the sub and how he or she wants to run the classroom. However, maybe we should be looking at what the substitute teachers are working with.

Sub plans, as Jonathan Bush and Lea Zuldema explain in "Professional Writing in the Classroom", are "much more than a generic list of traits. It is also a representation of what we want to accomplish in our teaching, a depiction of our expectations". It's important to look at sub plans as this sort of idea, rather than just a space-filler. Substitute days don't have to just be fluff. Your kids don't have to watch a movie. They can benefit from days like these. The same article by Bush and Zuldema lay out a list of things that good sub plans might include:

• Detailed lesson plans
• Descriptions of classroom routines and policies
• Class copies of any handouts
• Seating charts
• "What to do if" instructions with possible classroom issues/scenarios and appropriate responses

I thought this was a great list of things to include in a sub plan because it outlines a few things many of us may not think of. I personally would've never thought of a "what to do if" list, so that's a strategy that really stuck with me. I've often been told that as a teacher, one of our biggest jobs is to steal from other teachers. As I come across articles like "Professional Writing in the Classroom" that include lists like the one above, I start to bank these ideas. It's been a crucial part of my growth as a teacher. Little tips for teaching are going to be my savior, I just know it!

Speaking of little tips, the aforementioned article made me think of a pointer I was once given. My current mentor teacher explained to me that she has a box full of "Emergency Sub Plans". While above, I discussed the ideal sub plan, it's important to recognize that stuff happens! I know teachers seem like miracle workers, but we are not perfect! ;-) There are going to be days where we're deathly ill and can't get out of bed, we have emergency family issues -- You know, the unavoidable. On days like this, it's understandable to not have the most detailed sub plan...Which is why it's a great idea to have those "Emergency Sub Plans" (ESPs). My mentor teacher keeps a box full of the things, and if she's not able to put together a great sub plan, she can give the sub instructions to look in that box. There are about three ESPs, including the directions and enough handouts for the entire class. Once my mentor uses one of these packets of ESPs, she replenishes it when she gets back.

These ESPs are something that I probably would've never thought of, but now that I have that tip (and the tips from Bush & Zemelman's  article) banked in my mind, I'm just one step further in my journey to be a teacher.