Organizing your Calendar as a Sub

I am going back to subbing for now. I haven't actually been back in the classroom yet this year. I have two more district sub meetings on the books right now and I have already attended one.

I prefer not to get calls in the morning or at night for that matter so I attempt to get my calendar full by watching the websites very closely. To help stay organized, I use my Google calendar to keep track of where I am supposed to be each day. I also block out days I am scheduled on all websites as unavailable so that I am not getting calls for days I am already scheduled.

Here is what I note on my Google Calendar:

• School
• District
• Teacher
• Grade
• Start Time
• Full Day (FD) or Half Day (HD)

Doing this not only keeps me organized by knowing where I am going when, it helps me to know who should be paying me what.

How do you keep yourself organized as a sub?

Yesterday

I am home today with a lot to do. One nice thing about subbing this year is that I have that option.

Yesterday was a good day. I subbed in a first grade classroom. The day was peaceful.

I enjoyed the way the teacher did the jobs. She used craft sticks with children's names on them and drew them each time a student was needed to do anything. I think it ensures that each student gets a job often. It also frees up bulletin board space where a job chart would be.

Long-Term Subbing

I get to do two long-term subs after the new year. One will start in January and is in a three-year old Pre-K classroom two days a week. I will be subbing for other places on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The awesome thing about this position is that I also get to coach cheerleading. I have coached for 5 years but this year I decided not to. It was too difficult to be coaching in the north metro and mostly subbing in the south metro. I have missed coaching so this will be a great fix. So this sub job is like the best of both worlds, I love cheerleaders and three-year olds. I taught 3-year olds for seven years. I have already subbed a little in the class so I am familiar with the students and know all their names already. I have also attended practice a few times and the squad is amazing this year. They are young squad but they are very hard workers and have made so much progress already.

The other is later in the spring. It is for a sixth grade class. I am really looking forward to it. I will be teaching mainly teaching Social Studies and English. I have really enjoyed subbing for sixth grade at one of the local intermediate schools. I think it will be a great adventure. This is partly the reason I have been reading so many young adult books. (Other than the fact that they are enjoyable.) I am also going to re-read Teaching Outside of the Box by LouAnne Johnson, which is a fabulous book. If you have any other suggestions on how to prepare please fill me in.

Tomorrow Is a New Day!

I have to say this is easy for me because I am currently subbing. I subbed for sixth grade today. This is my second time doing that grade level. I enjoyed it more the first time. I tend to do much better with my homeroom class then for classes that switch into my room. I am unsure of the reason. Perhaps it is because I tend to start the day successfully and if I began a new class that way it would be good. I also find that is more challenging to get to know students when you are with them for shorter amounts of time. I will have to ponder this some more...

I also find that I have a very difficult time with students who are constantly telling others what to do or telling me that a student is not following the directions. At the same time, I do believe that students should be able to talk to another student who is bothering them. In fact, I would rather have them work it out then having to involve me if possible. I do tell students to try and work it out. I also tell them to, "Be responsible for yourself." I would be curious to see how others deal with this.

SMART Boards are so cool!

I have been having a blast subbing the last few days in the class I am working in. I am learning so much. I think I mentioned that I get to use the SMART Board in the class I am in.

Yesterday, we did a lesson on adjectives. I wrote two basic sentences and showed what a difference a few details can make in a sentence. We talked about how they can make the picture in your mind so much clearer. Then I had some pictures up and we described them. I found a picture of a double-decker bus on there. We talked about the picture they see when a bus is mentioned and then we added adjectives. Then I did the French flag. I also found pictures of three different houses. (They happened to be the homes of the three little pigs.) We were going to write a sentence about one of the houses so that it was evident which house we were talking about. The SMART Board is so cool because it was a quick and easy lesson to prep for. Any time I have seen it used in a classroom the students are very engaged!

Tomorrow is my last day in the classroom I am in. I will miss the class. They are a sweet bunch of students!

Four Days in a Row

I am so excited I get to be in one place for four days. I get to teach second grade. Today was the first. It went fairly well. I got to use the SMART board a little. I haven't shared my intense desire to have a SMART board yet. They are so wonderful. I am looking forward to getting to use it some more this week.

To Hideout or Not to Hideout

Today is Monday. As a sub, I get those lovely 5am calls. I was pondering shutting the alarm and my ringer off and promptly pulling the covers back over my head. Just then the phone rang. It was timely. I accepted a job to teach 3rd grade. I instantly got up and decided to be the morning person I am. I think the coffee with hazelnut creamer may have helped minutely. I typically like to know where I am going and what I am doing before I go to sleep and most often that is the case. I have had days that I got up, started getting ready and never received a call. I will admit I have had days I have pulled the covers over my head and gone back to sleep but today was not one of them.

I am glad I got up and taught 3rd grade. The morning was wondrous. The students came in and got to work right away. Math went really well. (I will have to write about overcoming my teaching math phobia.) Language Arts went fabulous. They were working on rough drafts. I unfortunately did not get the chance to read any, but I did get to help one student get started. Sometimes getting started can be the most difficult part. Then I got to read part of Squids Will Be Squids by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. The most amazing part of the day was handwriting. They were all extremely focused and very methodically writing. I should have taken a picture. Then came social studies and it just wasn't the same. (Now, you may think that perhaps they were sitting too long. I will tell you that they had P.E. in between handwriting and social studies.)

Of course, I was bummed because I love social studies. I wasn't doing things exactly the same as usual. We had six pages in the textbook to cover and a worksheet to complete. The topic was immigration, schooling, the Great Migration, sports and assimilating. Assimilating wasn't the term used but that was one of the subjects. I did my best to have lively discussion and not just read from the book. I even had them get up and move around a little. It is a little more difficult because it wasn't my classroom and the options are not the same. I could have jigsawed it or found some pictures to look at.

All in all.......I am glad I went. It seems like subbing gets a little easier each time I do it.

HEY, Library Lady..........

Today, I enjoyed the thrill of getting to be a librarian for the day. I have had several people mention to me that I would be good at it. I do love books, which is an interesting comment for a former dyslexic child. I did not have the easiest time learning to read but when I did I read everything I could get my hands on. I loved the library as a child and I think the poor librarian probably knew me better than she wanted to. I know I could do it and do it well. But I am sure I would miss the regular classroom too much.

I had a fabulous day in the library! I got to talk books, re-shelve books, discuss an author visit, talk about the internet and get an idea of what students are reading. A day all about books is a wonderful day indeed!

Here are a few books that the students shared with me:




The only one I have read personally is A Wrinkle in Time. I loved it when I read it. I put Princess Academy and Bella at Midnight on here because they looked good. Follow My Leader was recommended by a 5th grader. He said that it was his second time reading it. Any book a student will read twice is worth reading, in my opinion. The Invention of Hugo Cabret looks interesting. I read a few reviews on Shefari about it. They mentioned that it was thick but a fairly quick and easy read. Freddy and the Ignormus was also recommended by a 5th grader. She described the books as mystery books where all the characters are animals.

I loved my day as a librarian and no one even called me the Library Lady.

Prepping for A Substitute

I got to be in the classroom of a well-prepared teacher today. (If you refer to my Out of Body Exerience?, you will see that I didn't understand much of what was said in the classroom but that is another story.) Her sub folder included a pull-out schedule, a class list, a list of groups, an exit map, a schedule, a list of routines, and a set of emergency sub plans. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had everything I needed and a few things I just might need.

The pull-out schedule is a very nice piece because I have been in classrooms where students come and go. I trust the students. However, I would just feel more comfortable knowing where they are and when to expect them back.

The list of routines was remarkable. The routines included: arrival, end of the day/dismissal, fire and tornado drills, going to and from lunch, Morning Meeting, how to get the student's attention, student responsibilities, and the bathroom/fountain routine. Knowing the classroom routines in a class I am subbing in immensely simplifies my day. I know I will not do everything the same as the teacher but I like to try and keep the day as similar as possible.

The Emergency Sub Plans were great too. They gave several suggestions for what to do for Language Arts and Math. There were several options which can be nice to have because the day doesn't always match the plan. The plan also included the specials schedule.

There is also some student information that would be helpful to be aware of. I know that it is important to be confidential about many things. I will just give you one example. I had a fourth grade student who got a bloody nose at recess. I discovered upon picking up the class up for lunch that she hadn't eaten yet. So I explained that she could stay in the lunch room and eat or bring her lunch back up to the room. As I was explaining this to her I was told that she is probably not understanding me which would explain why she was in tears. She had already been through having to change her clothes in the nurses office. It would have been helpful for me to know that she didn't speak much English. Although, perhaps that is something that is confidential. It is just one particular that would have been helpful to know that day.

Any other suggestions would be great!