When a substitute teacher walks through the doors of the classroom and picks up your lesson plan it may be a foreign language. I can remember countless times a gym teacher or math teach subbed my animal science class. They were afraid to go near the lab never-mind teach in it. So how can we make a substitute teacher feel at ease when assigned to your class for the day?
What was my task?
This week in lab I got to experiment with just that idea. I wrote my lesson plan out and included a ton of details to help guide class through a lesson on the need for fires in the environment.
After developing this plan I had to switch my lesson with a peer and teach their lesson!
How did my lesson go?
I got my lesson on the impact of the animal production in relation to our own lives. We review definitions from the last class and moved on into the how a hobby farm effects our lives. We engaged in conversations about what were good and bad things about the hobby farm.
Gems: Temperature checks of what we agree and disagree with when going over vocabulary. This helped me as a substitute see if the answer was right or wrong if I do not know 100%. I was the most confident I have ever been in this lesson!
Opps: Introducing myself when entering a new class. Just because I am the substitute does not mean my students do not need to connect with me too. I also need to watch how I call on students and rotate between allowing students to answer.
Reflection
Overall I gained respect of a substitute teacher. Coming in and reading/interpreting someone else's plan is hard work especially if you are not a content expert. If I am leaving a plan for a sub I need to be clear and make it simple for someone who has NO background in my content area.
"How do you design lessons that advances the class in content but, is easy for a sub with not content knowledge?"
I am lucky to have 99% of my sub days covered by 2 remarkable women. The first has been subbing for me for 17 years now. She has done some long term pieces for me, so we really know each other's style well. The second is a local sheep producer. She is on my advisory committee and works to teach the students something when she is there - not always on the lesson plan, but always agriculturally based.
ReplyDeleteThere are more important things for a sub than lesson plans. Here is the punch list I work with:
1. Seating chart with a minimum of names - if you have the ability to print pictures to go with student names, sub will really appreciate it.
2. A clear set of rules for: bathroom expectation, cell phones, seating chart use or free choice seating, turn in of work - how to collect, handouts clearly laid out.
3. I use Google Classroom - when I have a sub, I enter my assignments into the Google Classroom and print that page off so the sub can see EXACTLY what I have told my students.
4. I try to moved my unit around so students will have a book assignment or note taking or a video when I am gone - I save labs for me to conduct.
5. Leave an answer key - subs will often grade if there is an answer key, but more importantly they are better able to help the students.
6. Find several really good subs and be nice to them. In our state our subs can have content knowledge - how about a farmer who is waiting for harvest or during the winter.
7. ALWAYS follow up on the concerns of the sub. They are the adult and have no reason to lie to you - students will continuously try to wiggle out of stuff. I try to be creative in my follow up with students. It's just lunch detention or a call home.
I would also like to respond to your oops - I recognize this lesson was as a sub, when you have your own students, have their names written on popsicle sticks or in a random choice app. Using these items help to prevent calling on just a single person.
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