Everywhere. You. Go.

Walmart? Coughing people.

Grocery store? Snot-nosed child wiping boogers on the cart.

Gas station? Woman unceremoniously throwing disgusting used Kleenex on the ground…from whence it proceeds to take flight in the icy breeze, landing wetly on my cheek.

Ahhh. The magic of the season! It’s all around us!

Time to make sure you’ve got those sub plans locked down, because the Red Death will find you. It’s just that time of year. Do yourself (and the secretary in the office) a solid. Take 30 minutes and get your sub materials ready. That way, you can reduce the odds of having to take a phone call while you’re high as balls on NyQuil and codeine, as well as the odds that the secretary will slash your car tires out of spite when you return, weak and pallid, from your plague-bed.

Per the usual, I have thoughts on how to do this efficiently!

*I have addressed this issue before, back when I was still co-teaching in special education. If you would like to see an example of sub plans for secondary CT SPED, check out The Grand Poobah of Sub Folders.

Here’s my current setup as a secondary ELA teacher with a partial-day SPED co-teacher:

1. I have a “Sub Central” station in my classroom, behind my desk. This stays up ALL the time, and I personally use the seating charts and teacher copies every day. By making my sub central the same as my me-central, I ensure that my seating charts and reading materials are up-to-date without having to go out of my way to update the information in two separate locations. Other stuff in my Sub Central:

Bell schedule posters

Current seating charts

Important phone numbers–office, nurse, attendance

Fire and tornado procedures

Photocopies

A stack of pre-printed emergency lessons that would take at least 90 minutes to complete. Short(ish) Story #6—This is what I leave for emergency sub plans. It’s actually part of a MASSIVE bell work pack I use with my juniors. Seriously one of the best, most effective, and well-liked-by-kids resources I have ever created. I don’t know why it isn’t my best seller…?!?

Daily bell work for each class with the current bell work marked by hour. Interview Savvy—This is my seniors’ bell work for the year.

Current reading for each class with the place where we left off marked.

2. I’ve got a DETAILED hour-by-hour schedule breakdown that pretty much anyone could follow. We have THREE different possible bell schedules: traditional 7-period day, odd block day, and even block day. This can be confusing for subs who don’t know the building routine. I have a separate document for EACH schedule; this simplifies things for my sub. Check out my examples here. Now, before you freak out and scream “That’s too much work! I would NEVER do that,” keep in mind that I only have to do MINOR tweaks to these documents each school year now that I’ve got the basic template done. And now YOU can make a copy and customize it for yourself. BOOM! Done.

3. I make sure I always keep essentials on my desk that a sub could use: pens/pencils, blank notebook, passes. That way, they don’t have to hunt for that stuff.

Trust me. Do this. It’ll be a huge load off your mind.

Another quick plug. If you think you might be out for an extended period (days or weeks) and need turnkey ELA lessons that actually, you know, teach something, PLEASE check out my short-story lessons on TpT. I actually do these units myself in December, January, and February; if I have to be out sick, nobody misses a beat. If we have a snow day (or three), we can easily adapt. Added bonus? Every day has a structured plan and my daily prep is pretty much ZERO during a time of year when I’m feeling exhausted and depleted. Added, added bonus? It’s all digital. I make copies in Drive, then put them all into Canvas as Google Cloud assignments, then just unlock them as I go along. Easy-peasy and super flexible since I can skip around as much as I want. And, of course, it’s all SPED-friendly with built-in accommodations such as organizers, chunking, and read-aloud videos.

FREE Short Story Unit: Seasons of Self (3 Weeks!)

“Not An Ordinary Love Story” Short Story Unit (3 Weeks!)

“Black Science Fiction” Short Story Unit (2 Weeks!)

“Contemporary Short Story Unit (2 Weeks!)

Keywords: sub plans, enraged2enaged, E2E, turnkey secondary ELA lessons, fiction, nonfiction, close reading