Hey everyone! I'm going to have a sub take over my classes in May until the end of the year. I have emailed my principal expressing my interest in meeting with him to discuss who my sub will be and what he/she will be responsible for, but we had an unfortunate tragedy at our school that he is currently dealing with, so I may not meet with him for another week or so. I know it may vary based on school/district, but for those of you who have left your classes to a sub for any type of leave, what suggestions do you have for me? When I leave the sub plans, do I have to detail out every day for the next four weeks, or can I just make a list of things they need to teach before the end of the year? Obviously I'll be asking my P these questions when I meet with him, but I thought I would get some advice and answers from those of you who have been there already! Thanks!
When I filled in as a long term sub for a maternity leave, the teacher left me about 2 weeks of plans. After that, I planned the lessons - she had a curriculum pacing guide to help me know what I needed to cover.
I would definitely leave at least a week of plans and a detailed day by day plan of how you run your classroom. However, you do not need to leave everything usually. The sub can usually plan, grade, etc---everything a teacher can do. But this can vary by district.
Since I'm in a middle school, we have several teachers who teach each subject and we have to stay together in our planning. The other math teacher would just share plans with the sub.
I did a maternity leave and a medical leave. For the maternity leave, the teacher left me a list of things that needed to be covered, a list of the materials that she had available, her schedule, and a "to do" list of other kinds of things . . . yearbook deadlines, etc. That's it. For the medical leave I had the lesson plan book with everything that had been taught up to that year and the standards that needed to be taught. I was certified for that grade and subject, so I was very comfortable with the subject. I had to be more specific with my long-term substitute because his degree was in law enforcement, not education. He needed more help with pacing and instruction.
This makes sense. I was worried I may have to plan every day until the end of the year! I already have the curriculum pacing guide and can easily plan for the first two weeks.
I'm also middle school, but the two other LA teachers I work with are known for planning the day before. They're wonderful teachers, but are not good about sharing resources and information with me (this is my first year at this school, and one of the LA teachers is my mentor teacher).
Thanks, Ima. I guess once I figure out who the sub is and what their qualifications are, I'll be able to figure out exactly how detailed I need to be with my plans.
In my district, the rule of thumb is to leave detailed plans for two weeks. By that time, the sub should see the pattern and be able to pace things accordingly. I'm a bit controlling, though, and would probably leave plans for the entire time. That's just me, though!
I hear ya!! I am having a very hard time knowing that the sub will be finishing off the year - preparing the kids for their final, giving them their final, doing 4th quarter grades and semester grades, grading the projects I have planned for the end of the year...it's a bit nerve-wracking!
When I went on maternity leave, I was leaving some tough courses to teach: Precalculus and Calculus. So I left VERY detailed suggestions-- what I would plan to cover on which day, where I would test, copies of last year's tests for the same time period-- as much as I could. In my school, we cover for each other. So my classes were covered by 5 of my coworkers-- an extra class in addition to a full teaching schedule. (They were paid for the extra class, of course, but I wanted to make it as easy as possible.) Both times, I returned to find all my classes within a day or so of where I wanted them to be.
I have been a long-term sub, and did no planning - the other "regular" teachers at that grade level did all the planning. I graded, etc., but the coordinator put all grades in the computer. As a regular classroom teacher, I have been one of the "other" teachers who have provided all planning materials for the sub when my co-worker went on maternity leave. Last spring I took an extended leave when I lost my mom to cancer. I'm probably not normal, but I still provided all plans and, while my sub was fantastic (she had my co-workers class for maternity leave the year before), and actually taught and graded things, I put all grades in the computer. I just didn't feel that I could face the kiddos every day during that time of emotional strain.
I'm currently a long term sub in 7th grade Math for a teacher who left on maternity leave. I took over in March and will be there for the rest of the school year. Before I took over, I met with her and also came to observe her during school to see how she did things as far as daily routines. As far as planning went, she had planned on doing lesson plans for the rest of the year. However, I guess she didn't get to it because I started planning after my first day. Luckily she left right in the middle of state testing, so it was an easy week. Planning now is pretty easy though. There is another teacher in the school who I plan everything with. We usually use the same worksheets and homework, but we teach things differently.
Thanks for the information. Was it your idea to observe her before taking over her class, or is this something that was required or suggested by the teacher?
Thanks! Yep, first one! I've got seven more weeks left! I'm excited, but a little apprehensive about the whole delivery part...
I will be ending a 12 week LTS assignment at the end of this week. Although my situation was unusual (teacher had the baby early and I had a day's worth of usable lesson plans), I think it would be very helpful for your sub to understand your system of how you do things in your classroom, not just what and when to teach. Since I am a special ed LTS, for instance, I need to do progress monitoring every week which sucks, but the teacher had a very good system laid out and I was able to quickly understand what she did and adopt it as my own. If I had to create my own way of monitoring from scratch, it would have taken me soooo much longer! Also coming from the special ed side, I'm not sure if you have any inclusion students that you need to contribute some special ed paperwork for, but if you do, please clue in the sub! For my current position, there is a lot of paperwork that needs to be copied to several different people that I am still feeling my way through. A checklist would have been so nice...
Thanks for the tip, ciounoi. I do have a few inclusion students, so I will make a note to give the sub a heads up on that! Thanks!!
It was my idea. I'm the kind of person who hates surprises and always wants to be prepared, so it just helped me see the day to day routine of how things operate. It was especially important for me because before this, the only teaching experience I had was student teaching.
