Calling All Teachers

JoMunson

since were in May we can pretty much guarantee we're going to miss SOME of the school year. How are you planning? What are your worries? How did you prepare your kids?
im making a "survival" binder for my sub with details about each student, a scope and sequence for math and reading, and two weeks of plans. She's a veteran teacher so I'm also going to give her free reign to adjust academic stuff if she sees fit. Not behavioral stuff...which leads me too...
the teacher who had he job before me believed a lot of my kids were "bad on purpose". I see them more as having skills deficits that we've been working on all year. I'm worried my sub will focus more on their bad behavior then on helping them develop skills. 
My kids have been prepared since November with activities and baby talk session. They're really excited to be a part of my pregnancy!

kbrands7

I have an older bunch of kiddos (9th/10th grade students) this semester. I'll transfer my scope/sequence, Moodle calendar, power points, quizzes, projects, exams, handouts, readings, rubrics-- basically everything-- to my long term sub via Dropbox like I did for my last sub. I generally leave a day per unit of wiggle room for them to change this up if needed, but this time I'll really only be out for one and a half units at the end of the year. The final is a district-made final exam, so he won't have to do any planning for that. I'll leave essentials for the classroom to run smoothly, but he will get necessary information about students from the online portal where we enter grades and attendance (IEPs, 504 plans, allergies, past scores, etc. are all accessible there and pw protected). The district will provide a login for that teacher for those things. My students know to expect a sub for the remainder of the year. I'll likely have him shadow for one day (assuming I don't go into labor before that) so that he can get a feel for the typical routines and management of the classroom in addition to being able to ask curriculum-related questions.

lalala2004

First of all, I have emergency sub plans for the three weeks before I start maternity leave (first three weeks in April). These are just simple book work (I have 45min blocks of the 5 groups of kids, so obviously different if you're elementary). Things happen, and I want to be ready in case of emergency!

My sub plans will be more detailed, more like what I would do if I were there, but more worksheets than I would normally do. We are wanting the sub to come a day early to ask questions and see how I run things. Hopefully it will be as close to what I would do as possible. I'll detail my positive rewards system, and it's up to them if they want to implement it or not. 

I also fully intend to guilt trip the kids. I'm going to give the sub my e-mail to e-mail me with lessons or concerns. I'm not going to see them again, so I can't threaten, just guilt trip! "You don't want me to worry about you while I have a newborn baby to take care of, do you?" I hope it works >.<

mmemartinez

I'm due at the end of May, technically two days after school is out! DS was early so I'm not sure if I'll make it but I'm really hoping that I can get to the last week + finals because that is they same every year. They have a review packet to work on, studying to do and then the final. Prior to that I'll have to play by ear. I have everything ready and organized electronically so worst case scenario I can find a way for someone to get that to my sub. The job isn't even posted yet so if they're not going to worry, neither am I!

Pomegranate1983

Is the sub able to come in to observe you before you go on maternity leave or meet with you after school to go over helpful strategies that work for the students or certain individuals? She can be introduced if she can be there during the school day and that will help her see how sbhe can interact with the children and what strategies she can use. The students also know they can't pull as much on her since she's seen them before. That is so hard on students to have a different teacher. It unavoidable but any way to ease the transition for them and her would help.

JoMunson

@Pomegranate1983 I'm crazy lucky that my sub used to work at the school and has come in a bunch to lead small math lessons with my students. She worked with them for a month on number talks and then asked if she could be my sub. She's coming in tomorrow to watch me teach and then she's going to take over for the rest of the week while I'm at a training!
were also spending the week before spring break (March 18/27) doing a spring cleaning of the room, talking about expectations, and writing her letters (one thing I want you to know about me kind of stuff).
since I'm due in early May, I told the students that at the end of the year IF I got good reports from the sub I would bring the baby in for them to see. It's crazy to see how motivated they are to do well so they can see the baby.

emma+karen

I posted this on the coverage thread, but I'm really worried about the woman who will be my sub.  She used to have my job (school librarian) and was terrible at it, and she's basically a crazy person.  She retired, but still subs, and my principal hired her to be my sub. 

I am setting up all the substitute login info for the library systems to make sure she basically ONLY has access to check-in/check-out.  I don't want her doing anything crazy.  I'm not due till May 23, and our last day is June 14.  Generally the last two weeks the library is closed for check-out and just getting students to return books they have out is the priority, along with instruction in research and digital literacy, but I doubt any teachers will want to work with her.  I have spent my two years in this job cleaning up her mess, and I'm worried she's going to come back in and wreck all that work in three weeks' time.

Sigh.