Everyone is feeling the impact of staff vacancies right now. Every morning at Lincoln School, several people are making sacrifices to “get through the day.” SPED classes are feeling it. Additionally, students aren’t receiving necessary intervention (both academic and behaviorally), and oftentimes even PE is “improvised” at a moment’s notice. These are just a few of the many sacrifices occurring every day, and it certainly impacts each and every one of YOU; and it no doubt prevents us from accomplishing our goal of providing a quality education for all. I’m going to be honest by letting you know this storm will be here for quite some time.
So, what can be done?
There are certainly things out of our control. We know that. It will pass, but not anytime soon. But, there are things that are completely within our control, and each of us has the ability to do something about it. Below is a list of things YOU can do… in an effort to support the overall cause I mentioned above, during this storm.
1.) Build a relationship with subs.
Requesting a sub in advance helps, but it doesn’t end there. Right now, about 80% of the time we don’t get one, and our site is responsible for going above and beyond, making daily sacrifices. Substitute teachers have a lot of options out there, including other districts, and we want them to choose Lincoln EVERY TIME. Connect with them after they have subbed in your class. See what went well, and what didn’t. Ask them for feedback. Ask for a phone number so you can reach out to them for future plans. Every teacher would want to know that their students still received a quality education when they are not able to be there. (And, when our site support staff, including Impact, PE, and principal cannot always guarantee that at a moment’s notice that morning, we are forced to strategize.)
2.) Sub lesson plans matter. REALLY, they do.
No substitute wants to return to a class that has minimal to no lesson plans. (Who would?) Simply relying on a partner teacher or your generic emergency lesson plan doesn’t go well, and it has long-lasting effects when we are trying to ask substitute teachers to return. (Disclaimer: Everyone should have sent Rita Batalla an emergency lesson plan by now. After all, genuine emergencies do come up, when it is literally impossible to prepare a lesson, and I get that.)
3.) Key elements of an EFFECTIVE lesson plan that can make or break the day for a guest teacher: (Trust me on this one!)
-Seating chart
-Your weekly duties listed
-Information about strategies used for specific students; ESPECIALLY behavioral strategies.
-Have resources readily available and in an obvious location where they can find them.
4.) MOST IMPORTANTLY: Plan ahead.
Every single person that has been out for an extended amount of time due to an emergency or illness didn’t think they would be out that long. A few of you plan ahead for that, and the overall support staff we have in place at school GREATLY APPRECIATES THAT. 🙂 Oftentimes we are faced with staff being out longer than they planned, and even your own colleagues are faced with the dilemma of planning for those situations.
As I said, our Lincoln Ship will be navigating this storm for quite some time. There are parts of the storm we can control by doing “a little extra.” Those small efforts help minimize the impacts of that storm. We all appreciate your collective help in minimizing those challenges as best you can. If you have any successes that have worked for you during a vacancy, please share in the comments below.
I completely agree, we all can do a bit more to support our peers, friends, and colleagues. Just a bit can help make the school run smoother for our kiddos everyday.
And YOU, Melody, have done an amazing job and securing subs 100% of the time. Thank YOU! 🙂
When I am planning for a sub, I try to keep as many routines as possible the same as when I am there. This may take a little longer to write up in a sub plan, but it goes a long way in helping the sub and the students. The students already know and are comfortable with the routines, so they can rely on consistency to get through, even if I am not there. I also save all of my sub plans so I can just make a copy and adjust what needs to be changed. This saves time from needing to start from scratch each time you have a sub.
Excellent advice, Jessica! Sub plans can take time to create, but you have developed a habit that minimizes time and maximizes quality education for students. I like it!
Building a relationship with your subs is VERY important! You never know if they never want to come back or will actually stay to be one of your team members … 😉
In addition everything that’s listed, I’d like to add that keeping the lessons as clear as possible with examples and screenshots would be immensely helpful to subs (don’t forget to enable those hyperlinks!). Our curriculum can be quite daunting to someone who has not taught it before. Often, subs don’t have enough time from the moment they begin the day to sit down and digest the TEs.
Lastly, I like to have one-on-one conversations with certain students to remind them that they’re capable of and are expected to follow our pillars of character. A little bribery – I mean, positive reinforcement – to the whole class tends to help as well.
So true! Even expert educators can have a challenging time with the curriculum, so those screenshots make a HUGE difference! No problem on my end with a little bribery… “positive reinforcement,” of course! 🙂