So after a day at home the teacher returns to their classroom to dig out… I know, again, for most professions this is normal.  You return to your office and have to the fight the fires that popped up while you were gone.  The difference that I see is you usually have time… I don’t.  I come in and there is usually a disaster… the plans were not followed, and I have notes and emails from parents about things that I wasn’t around for… oh and the class arrives and I have to go back to teaching, dealing with this stuff as time permits.  This means putting it off until around lunch, and not eating so that I have 30 minutes to hopefully figure out what I need to do.  The other piece is that I now have to grade every bit of busy work that I handed out along with reteaching everything since all the sub did was hand out the paper and say “turn it in when you are done… no talking.”

Parents wonder why if there is a substitute the class watches videos… its because you never know what kind of sub you are going to get.  You might have an excellent retired teacher who comes in and complains that you didn’t have enough for them to do (The one the kids groan over when you say they are coming back). You might have some guy who has just enough college to get the job and sits in your class telling jokes the entire day (They really liked the substitute, SO you run -don’t walk- to the office and request that they NEVER return to the building).  They run the gamut and you never know who (or what) is going to take over for you.

When I ran the computer lab my plans were simple-  the kids practiced their touch typing for 50 minutes.  Why?  because I knew the program worked, I knew every student knew how to access it, and I never knew if my substitute knew the difference between a computer and a toaster.  Back in the classroom, I just try to make sure that we have built enough rituals into our day that the routine will carry us through even the most incompetent substitute.  Somedays it works and some days…