Kirsten 0:09
This is the social studies teacher podcast, a show for busy elementary teachers looking for fun and engaging ways to easily add social studies into their classroom schedule without feeling overwhelmed or pressed for time. I'm curious to know the southern teach an educator and mom who is passionate about all things, social studies, I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement. So let's dive in together.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the social studies teacher podcast. So we're at the end of the year, and I know that you're trucking along with some days left, and you might have a couple of weeks, you might have three weeks, four weeks, but school is coming to an end, I thought this would be a good topic to kind of talk about seven easy ways to prep for a substitute teacher. So you can save this for later when you're starting the new school year, or just maybe you have a couple days you're taking off before the end of the year. Hopefully, this episode helps you with some easy ways to get ready for sub, where you're not like spending hours and hours of time getting ready especially because time is precious time is of the essence here. And plus is the end of the year. And we want to really prioritize ourselves. So you don't want to spend too much time prepping, being able to prepare for a substitute teacher if you're not feeling good. Or if you need a mental health day overall is important. Even if it's at the end of the year, beginning of the year, middle of the year, end of year, it doesn't matter, it's important to take those days off if you need it. The last thing we need when we're not feeling so good or there's a family emergency is to have to scramble to get everything together. You don't want the day to be a wasted day of learning for your students. And you just don't want them to go buck wild and scare off the substitutes in general. So here are some tips to get ready for a sub. These suggestions are not only easy to prep, but it's also easy on yourself, your students and teachers on your team. So tip number one is to have procedures listed in advance. It helps to have a list of common procedures and how the procedures work in your classroom. This can range from restroom breaks, transitioning to a new activity, morning meeting, morning time what students do if they need to use the restroom, and any other emergency procedures needed. Try to think of as many as you can, but don't overwhelm yourself in trying to explain it. Try to think of the most important procedures and then add what you can later on. Tip number two is to have a master schedule, it's important to have a master schedule of everything that students will go through. It doesn't have to be exactly how many minutes are in a mini lesson, just a general timeframe will do so maybe like eight o'clock to nine o'clock is morning meeting time or is reading time. Keep it basic in general so that it is flexible for the sub. Some ideas would be to list the times of your morning meeting announcements, each of the subjects that you teach lunch recess specials and then when of course dismissal happens. Tip number three is to be consistent with students schedules in advance. While not everything is predictable. It does help to keep things pretty consistent in your classroom in general so that students know what to expect. That way if you do have to leave in a moment's notice, they won't be completely blindsided by what comes next, they will already have a pretty good idea of how the schedule goes. This makes it easy on your sub and on your students. Tip number four, find extra filler activities. While it's usually frowned upon to have filler activities during a regular school day, it is important to have something extra for students just in case they get done with something the substitute teacher assigns earlier than expected. This can be something printable, like a fun coloring activity or WebQuest activity. It can be also an online digital activity that students can complete. Make sure the substitute teacher and students know how to access these links, or are able to make copies of the activities themselves. Tip number five, put everything in a designated tub in advance. Have a sub tub or sub folder with master copies as well as copies already made for at least a couple of extra days. Make sure students know where the sub tub is even better. Make sure teachers on your team and admin know where the designated tub is as well. Some schools like to have a school wide sub tub or sub folder that any substitute teacher would be aware of. If they taught at that specific school. This can be really helpful to do as a team or as a school. Tip number six is to prep students when possible. If you know, you're going to be out for a day or for a week, try to notify students in advance, you don't have to tell them exactly why you're going to be out but it does help to have them be prepared. It's also a great time to talk to them about expectations of behavior, and making sure that they're on track to have a good day with the sub. The last tip I have for you is to assign classroom helpers. If you have really responsible and knowledgeable students who are good helpers, they may be a good candidate for being good helpers for the substitute. You can always list their names in the sub notes or sub plants. This is a really great way to give these students some autonomy, responsibility and help move things along with the sub and the students more smoothly. I have several resources that are easy to prep and are perfect for sub plans, you can utilize the printable version, or you can assign through your platform of choice with a digital version, some that I have for you our Color by Number reading task cards, this bundle is great for the whole year, it's a great review of comprehension skills, and it's seasonal. I have all months of the year in this bundle. I also have the internet web quests that are for upper elementary, I know I've gotten a lot of reviews and a variety of WebQuest because they're like, oh yeah, we use it with my sub and it was great, super easy to assign. So definitely check those out as well. Then I also have a writing response menu in prompts. So this is related to different genres of writing, such as research, opinion, informative, and also narrative. And it's also seasonal can be used throughout the year and the bundle is really good for any time of year. So I'll make sure to link those in the description. But you can also check my blog post that is connected with this episode if you want to learn a little bit more about even more resources I have. Alright, that's the end of this episode is short and sweet. Hopefully you enjoyed it. And hopefully you can think about what you can do. Utilizing these tips next time you need a sub at a moment's notice. Have a great rest of your week. Thanks for listening to the social studies teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, hit that subscribe button and leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I can't wait for you to join me in the next episode. For more teacher tips and strategies
