Hello friends! My name is Jen and if you don't already know me, I blog over at Teaching in the Tongass. I am just popping in on Michelle's blog to share a tour of my Sub Binder. I have to give a huge thanks to Michelle for letting me crash today!
As the new school year starts back up, I am thinking about time management. Every year, I do things to make sure I am managing my time efficiently. One of them involves writing sub plans for the year. Yes, the year. This isn't a new idea, but for some people, it may be! So, if you want to avoid writing sub plans each time you are out, read on!
Within the first 2 weeks of school, I have my entire substitute binder all ready. I can't really write all of my plans before the year begins, so I wait until I know my class, our ever-changing schedule and any little bits of info that you typically find out after school starts.
This one seems pretty obvious, but keeping your plans in an obvious place can be tricky. I like to keep mine right next to the phone. That way, if the sub has a hard time finding them, they should see them when they reach for the phone to call the office! As you can see, I also label my sub binder spine and front pocket so that anyone can tell what it is.
Just like you may like to keep a transportable class list behind your ID badge (if you don't do this already, you can start now--perfect for fire drills and field trips!), your sub may want an easily accessible class list. Slip a few small copies in the front cover of your binder and you're good to go. Pardon the blurry photo of mine, it's from 2 years ago and a blown-up iPhone photo.
I don't know how much prep time is given to you, but it's enough that I wouldn't want my sub to be twiddling their thumbs wondering what to do. So, I keep a little list ready. Whenever I have a task I know can wait until later (typically, it's filing or cutting), I write it on this list in dry-erase marker.
*On the left you can see my attendance sheet. Normally, attendance is taken online (using PowerSchool). However, sometimes a teacher doesn't leave their computer behind (particularly when you are headed to professional development) or feel comfortable sharing computer login information (sometimes we have confidential things we can't share), so I keep about 10 of these sheets stapled together for an old-school attendance. Mark an "A" for absent and send to the office with a student. Done!
Behind my attendance sheets, I keep copies of this writing activity. It can be done really at any time, so it is a great time-filler and the kids love it!
I keep my favorites in a binder in the classroom library for the kids to read and use for later inspiration. You can download it free by clicking below.
On the first day of school, I take an up-close photo of each student. I use this photo for tons of things (on clothespin line for hanging artwork, student of the week poster, etc.). I am a visual person. If I were a sub, I'd like to be able to reference this list of names throughout the day, particularly when leaving a note about the day. I make the photos big enough to put a page of boys and a page of girls.
Next up in the binder, I keep the actual sub plans. I have a welcome/thank you page that has a few pertinent things, including phone extensions of office, nurse and neighbor teachers.
Immediately after my welcome page, I include my classroom routines, reward system (I have a few), jobs (they stay the same all year) and basic expectations.
This one can be tricky. It may not work all year, but if you're lucky, it might!
Which is why I don't have my binder ready until 2 weeks after the school year starts. I am not sure what reading, writing and math activities my students yet. Here is the gist of what I include:
Reading: Although we use a program (Reading Wonders), I don't ask my sub to teach from it if I'm not going to be gone for more than a couple of days. Instead, I include directions for buddy reading and independent reading journals. Some years I throw in spelling practice directions as well.
Writing: I use a writing workshop model, but when I'm gone for a short amount of time, I don't ask my students to work on their writing (I guess I have control issues). Instead, I use this time to pop in some social studies that we never seem to have time for. For 2nd grade in Juneau, a bit of it is about community workers. Our library has a set of community workers books. The sub reads a book from the tub (I check out about 15 of them at the beginning of the year and keep them just for this) and students fill out response packet page (it has a place for a drawing and a writing prompt "_____'s are important to the community because_____"). I can't find what the books really are called, but they're basically something like this series.
Math: I always teach a few basic math games at the beginning of the year. Our math block is typically an hour, which is enough time to really play a couple of math games and practice some math fluency. That's it!
I keep fire, power outage and lockdown procedures in my binder as well. I wouldn't want my sub to have to go find the special one the building provides that I keep on the exit door, so I keep everything and anything they'll need right in the binder.
