Lessons For Those, "Oh No! I Need a Sub!" Days

Oh No!  During the night, the cat clawed your washing machine hose and  water sprayed your laundry room until you turned the water valve to Off and duck taped the holes. Your 7-year old daughter chose that moment to throw up last night's beef stew in her bed, and you feel like that tin monkey playing cymbals is marching through your head.

After leaving an EMERGENCY! message for the plumber, bathing your daughter and tucking her into your bed, and then tossing her soiled sheets into the bathtub, at 5:45 AM you crawl to the phone to call in sick. The very, very last task you can bear to consider-even if you wanted to- is to create Sub Plans that will keep your students engaged and on-task with  only a blip  in their learning.

Thankfully, you don't need to worry because here are two packets with lessons and activities that are specific to secondary English classrooms and are easily adaptable to core programs of study that showcase Reading Comprehension, Writing, Grammar and Vocabulary.  With minimum tweaks, you can slip them into your Substitute Folder and also tie them to your pre-planned agenda as you sigh, "Phew! That was simple."

As a firm believer of the Rule of Three, I plan every class period around this triune teaching concept because it focuses on students' attention spans- a factor important to any lesson, but absolutely crucial if a substitute is to avoid classroom chaos.

By including these two packets in your Substitute Folder ahead of time, and keeping plenty of copies of the student handouts available, all you need to do is leave notes for the substitute to follow.

A terrific aspect of these lessons is that you can easily incorporate them into your plans throughout the school year because the concepts they strengthen benefit from continual reinforcement.  This way, if you have students work on the activities with you leading them, when you are absent, they will be familiar with the requirements, offering a smooth transition for the sub.  More importantly, students will not feel that these are "just sub plans," and therefore, "not important".

Suggested Schedule - the class times are for a 55-minute period. 80 minute block times are in the parentheses
1. Warm-up - 15 minutes (25)
2. Main Activity - 30 minutes (45)
3. Sharing/Closure -10 minutes  (10) 

1. Warm-Up

You should introduce the Just Say "NO!" to Dull Writing activities into your plans as soon as possible by handing out the Taboo Words and Phrases List (p.3) and 15 Days to Lose the Taboos (p.5), Whenever you want students to revise their writing instead of writing something new during Warm-Up time, have them choose one exercise to complete, following them in chronological order, using their writings-from warm-ups to full-length essays.  This way, they will be familiar with the activities and can select the next exercise(s) on the list the  day(s) you are absent,

Mark which Teacher Notes directions that you want the sub to follow.
 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Just-Say-NO-to-Dull-Writing-1555338 (FREE)

2. Main Activity Nonfiction Analysis: Reading and Writing Activity

Like with the Just Say "NO!" to Dull Writing packet, you can use this lesson as many times as you like throughout the year.  Just copy and hand out pages 4-5 when you want to introduce it, and instruct student to always have these papers in their class folders. 

Have stacks of pages 6-8 on hand in a location where the substitute can easily find them.  In your Substitute Folder, keep a complete copy of this packet. On the cover page, leave a note as to where the page 6-8 handouts can be found. On the Teacher Notes pages (2-3) highlight /specify which Lesson Option(s) you want the students to follow (see Bullet points 4 &5). 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Comprehension-Activity-Nonfiction-Reading-and-Writing-Analysis-706269 (FREE)

3. Sharing/Closure 
The sub should select students to share a Warm-up revision or a summary of the article they read for the main activity. After that, he/she should collect students' work according to your directions.

With these sub plans and all of the others in this valuable blog hop, you will never stress about any day that you cannot be in your classroom-planned or when fate sends you tumbling into the Emergency Zone.

Thank you Pamela Kranz http://desktoplearningadventures.blogspot.com/ and Darlene Anne Curran http://meatballsinthemiddle.blogspot.com/ for  creating this awesome blog hop. Colleagues, as Pam and Darlene say on the image, "Need sub plans?  We've got you covered".


Enjoy a Teach It Now Day- Especially on  a Sub Day.

For more program-specific lessons and activities that will keep students learning on a sub day or any day, check out the Custom Categories in my store https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Connie


An InLinkz Link-up

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An InLinkz Link-up

Teachers, Parents and Students - for a No-Bummer Summer, Try This Bucket List

Twas the Night Before Summer Vacation

Twas the night school ended, and in all the houses

Not a child was stirring-all alarm clocks were doused.

The backpacks were stored in the closets ‘till Fall

While children slept soundly - no reason to stall.

Moms and Dads tossed in their sheet-rumpled beds

While visions of chaos caromed through their heads.

Facing weeks with no schedules, nor essays to write,

Joey and Jane would probably just sleep, eat and fight.

When from their computers there rose such a clatter,

Parents clicked on the Net to tune into the chatter.

Facebook pages, Twitter and Pinterest flowed

With kudos for a Bucket List they just had to download.

The URL they copied, then they clicked on the link

Hoping for ideas so their worries would shrink.

When what to their grateful eyes did appear, but

A Summer Bucket List with awesome choices to cheer.

The thirteen suggestions would spawn stimulation,

Chasing away boredom which breeds during vacations.

Their kids’ minds and bodies would be active and aware

Even without homework and school lessons to bear.

“We must call the Timms, the Taylors and Turners!

We can’t let this wonder crouch on any back burners.”

Dads grabbed their Smartphones, their fears now abated,

While Moms sent emails and social statuses they’d updated.

As the sun rose announcing a school-free June day,

Refrigerators, world-wide, this List did display.

Not summer assignments, Oh no, not this list,

But propositions to tempt, to engage-not resist.

I offer this Summer Bucket List on TpT for free

To parents, to children, to teachers - what glee!

When asked in the Fall, “What did you do this summer?”

‘Cause of the List, no kid'll reply, “Mine was a bummer.”

(I adapted the format for this from Clement Moore’s Twas the Night Before Christmas.)

Every summer, parents worry about how to insure that their children will not morph into the Abominable App Creature.

Every summer, kids become bored with sleeping until noon, lounging around and texting their BFFs, and crave some mental and physical stimulation-those not taking classes, working or attending various camps, that is. No, they don’t want summer assignments heaped on them, but they do want to think, to be inspired, to go places and to see people. And they want these experiences to be fun.

Over the years, I have been a teacher, a parent and a child. In all three roles, I endured the same anxiety, concerns and lethargy as summer rolled from one steamy day into the next. I remember all too well tossing around my parents’ bed while my mother ironed the family’s 100% cotton clothes. Bored to tears, I chose to irritate her with my howls of, “I have nothing to do!” And it wasn’t even the end of June, yet!

Although my two children are now grown and I no longer have to deal with the Summer Doldrums, I do have two granddaughters - ages 8 and 11- who visit me often, so I always need ideas to make our time together fun. And although I have retired from teaching, I will never turn my back on learning- no matter the season.

That’s why I created A Summer Bucket List. This FREE product offers young people from 6-16 opportunities to think, to sing, to write, to be physically active, to read, to use basic math skills, to experiment, to get involved in their communities and much more, but without the constrictions and restrictions of school. They choose, they do and they have fun. Check it out and maybe tape it to the fridge…just don’t tell your children that they will be practicing comprehension, computing, critical thinking and writing skills that they associate with school. Leave that to their teachers next fall.

Download this Free list of activities from 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Printables-A-Summer-Bucket-List-253658

Have a relaxing, restful and rejuvenating summer. You all deserve it!

ELA Teachers- Yes, I took a May vacation, but I am back at least once a week with musings, ideas and lessons on everything teaching from my side of the desk. Come on back-often.

Happy Summer,

TEACH IT WRITE - BUILD POWERFUL ACADEMIC HOMES