If you ask most teachers why they go in to school when they’re sick, they’ll tell you that it’s easier to go in sick than to make sub plans. Sub plans are those things that teachers create in the hopes that kids will never notice that there is a completely different human being in front of them because the sub is doing everything the teacher would normally do.  I hate to break it to them but….

So yes, tonight I finished my sub plans for the one day that I will be gone.  I started them two days ago so that I would have time to really think them through.  First, they have to follow my ELO’s (essential learning outcomes).  Then I need to make sure they have access to my online curriculum WITHOUT giving them my school name and password.  Then I need to find things in the curriculum that my sub can follow with limited time for preparation.  After all, it may have taken me 3 days to create them but my poor sub will have maybe a couple of hours to go over it, if they’re lucky.

I have to include where things are, which students may need extra help, duty and lunch schedules.  Which just reminded me that I forgot to add my morning duty to my plans.  Anyway, there are things that I just do during the day that I don’t even think about and I have to create these plans as though I’ve never been in the room before.  It’s difficult.

I can’t think of another professional who has to prepare for a substitute like teachers do.  Could you imagine an engineer writing out his work plans for the guy who’s going to step in and do his work tomorrow?  Obviously, this guys work can wait until he gets back.  However, our work or clientele comes in the form of 5-11 year olds and it’s difficult to say, oh, sorry, you’ll just have to do without me for a day.

For me, this one was not so bad because it was planned.  I have some other professional obligations that require me to be gone on occasion so at least I have time to create these plans.  It’s when a teacher suddenly becomes ill that it’s a problem.  The temperature is the big thing, although I have been known to take Tylenol to keep the fever down just to make it through school.  Flu is a definite stay home kind of thing, but your basic cold – nah, we just suck it up and go in, out bookbags filled with tissues, antihistamines and cough syrup, as we spend the day washing our hands with every sneeze,

Before I began teaching music full time, I was a substitute teacher, K-12 whatever they needed.  One day I was subbing for elementary P.E. and the next I was doing high school French or biochemistry.  If a teacher left good sub plans, I could teach just about anything.  But if the plans were bad, the day was torture.  I learned a lot from those days, mainly that great sub plans were essential if you wanted someone to come back when you needed them!  Probably why I tend to spend so much time doing my sub plans now.

Even if your sub plans are great and you’ve remembered everything to hopefully make it a great day, despite the fact that you are gone, the one element you have to consider are the students.  It’s an unwritten rule that the minute a class sees that their teacher is gone, the students are going to try getting away with anything and everything.  As a sub, I was known as the Queen of Demerits.  I’m pretty sure I gave out more in those two years than I have since.  It was necessary to survive.  Unfortunately you can’t always be the nice guy when you’re a sub, usually because the students won’t let you.  Come to think of it, I can’t always be the nice guy now.  Hmmm….

Anyway the sub plans are finished and now I can focus on the trip ahead, which also needs planning, much like the lesson plans.  However, this one is for adults, so maybe the behavior won’t be too bad…. : )