Teachers-Maternity Leave Planning
So I've totally been procrastinating getting my plans done. A friend of mine just freaked me out by telling me that friends of ours, who just had a baby, went 2 weeks early.
I've mostly been putting them off b/c I don't even know where to start. I know what they will be doing during my time off, but I don't know how to even structure the plans. I work at a small school and all the women that are there are a lot older than me and had babies a long time ago, so I don't have any resources there.
Oh, by the way, I teach high school English at an Alternative school, and will mostly likely get someone who isn't certified to teach English even though she's capable...it's so hard finding someone willing and able to teach in an Alternative setting...who has the patience to work with these kids.
Re: Teachers-Maternity Leave Planning
I didn't have a lot to do over the summer, so I did my lesson plans then. My sub and I have met with each other twice so she can get a feel for the school, my class policies/procedures, and ask me questions. Starting next week she and I will co-teach, and then I'm out (assuming I make it that far). I gave her the plans, but told her I don't care how she adjusts them so long as the major stuff I said would be accomplished on the scope and sequence (quarterly overview) that I gave my dept. chair gets done.
I would say think general/big (i.e. what unit do you want to leave), and then work your way down to the more specific stuff. Good luck and I hope they find a suitable long term sub!
I don't have to leave plans for my sub. Since I am going to be out for no less than 6 months they have hired a long-term sub who is a certified teacher and will do his own thing until I decide to come back.
I am going to be meeting with him at the beginning of the year though to go over some of my procedures in case I decide to go back to work in April.
I agree with checking your contract because I also only have to leave 2 weeks for of plans for my sub. Also, for my plans I just outlined the chapters that I want covered and what resources I use to cover those. I also showed the sub my folders where I keep all tests, worksheets, note sheets, etc and told them they can use whatever they want. I am pretty flexible though and my sub is a person that retired from my department last year (I also teach at a high school).
The one thing that is nice if you have the opportunity is to meet with your sub and talk face to face with them. That will give you and them some confidence about what specifics you want accomplished. I pretty much said here are the topics you HAVE to cover and here are the resourcs I use to do that but if you would rather use something else feel free.