The Substitute Rant & the Answer

All teachers dread being out sick, but sometimes, there's nothing we can do about it. I'm not sure which is worse, making sub plans to keep up with your curriculum, or returning to find out they weren't implemented by the substitute. I'm out right now for a week due to type A flu. In the past, I have spent hours creating plans for my students to follow. Now, I simply post a Voice Thread on Schoology and teach the lesson myself. I don't care how I look or sound because they know I'm sick. It is the best way I have learned to keep up with my curriculum maps. Allow me to tell a few vignettes that led me to leave sub plans like this.

When I taught in NY, my husband had to have a back surgery. I missed a couple of days, but I left meticulous, step by step plans for the substitute to follow in order to keep my students on track. The district in which I worked required only a high school diploma to substitute teach. When I returned, I found that the substitute told the 12th grade students to bring something else to work on because they were just going to have a study hall those two days. I returned and was furious. I doubt the sub even read my instructions.

Last year, I was out a few days for bereavement. Again, I left explicit plans that would keep my 8th graders on target. When I returned, my students had only completed one day's work. When I asked how on Earth they were so far behind, they said the substitute used to teach them when they were little, so they caught up with her by telling stories. I am the first person to say that building strong relationships with our students is the most important task we have, but a sub who is there for a day or two doesn't need to do that. They need to follow instructions left by the classroom teacher.

I have finally learned how to deal with being absent (without being absent). It keeps my students on pace, keeps them engaged, and leaves the substitute to simply observe the class and make sure they are on task and behaved. I am blessed to work in a 1:1 school (I have one Chromebook for each student in my class). Unless I leave midday because of a sudden onset fever or an emergency, I always make a VoiceThread, Screencast, or YouTube video for my students to follow. This allows me to be in the classroom with them without being there.

I have a group page for my students on Schoology where I post the daily agenda, any notes, and any slides/ pictures/ reading from that day. This ensures that students who are absent are able to catch up and not get behind when they return to school. When I am absent, I post a VoiceThread or video of myself teaching the lesson to them. They simply come into the classroom, get a Chromebook, open up Schoology, put in their headphones, and begin the lesson. I have found this to be a far better way to make sub plans. I simply write a plan for the sub that says:

All classes: Take attendance and have them complete their Schoology lesson.

It's so much easier for everyone, and it guarantees my students stay on task and complete their lessons before I return. I also try to be available throughout the day by email if questions arise. They do not bother me unless they can't figure something out after asking each other. I prefer to run it this way. My students prefer it as well.