“The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.” ~ Kahlil Gibran
Substitute teachers step in when full-time teachers need to be away from the classroom and their job is to adapt quickly, providing students with the leadership and instruction they need. The ongoing shortage of substitute teachers has made life challenging for assistant superintendents and school leaders, and highlights the importance of providing substitute teacher resources that make substitutes’ jobs easier.
At Alludo, we partner with school districts around the country, and one of the things we have done is to help them create substitute teacher onboarding programs with activities and professional development tracks in our content catalog. We’ve created this list of 10 substitute teacher resources and included a substitute lesson plan template to help you support substitute teachers in your district.
The best and most effective substitute teachers prepare for their first day in a new classroom to minimize disruption and help students learn. Here are some steps that subs can take to get up to speed:
Preparing for a substitute teaching assignment doesn’t need to take hours, but experienced substitutes often have a bag of tricks that they know they can use when they need to.
Teachers and administrators should provide resources to help substitute teachers do their jobs. Here are 10 essential teaching resources (excluding lesson plans, which we’ll cover in the next section) that we believe are essential.
Your substitute teacher welcome packet should include a map of the school with important locations marked. Some examples include the classrooms where they’ll be teaching, the teacher lounge, restrooms, cafeteria, library, gym, playground, nurse’s office, and emergency exits.
Every substitute teacher should receive a complete breakdown of school safety procedures, including details of what to do during a drill or lockdown. Substitutes need to know about all emergency protocols. The breakdown should include where to find classroom keys and specific instructions about what to do during a lockdown.
Every student is unique and some present more of a challenge to teachers than others. Teachers can help substitutes by providing their insights about student behavior and advice about how to manage students who may need extra support and attention.
Substitute teachers need to be informed ahead of time about any special student accommodations, including IEPs. They should never be caught by surprise by behavior or requirements for a student with neurological differences or learning disabilities.
On a related note, substitute teachers should also be advised of any health concerns for students in their classes, including allergies, diabetes, asthma, and any other medical condition that might require the teacher’s attention.
When a new substitute teacher arrives, they should be given the names of the school principal and vice principals, custodian, and other relevant staff who may be resources for them. Many schools also create a buddy system that partners substitute teachers with permanent teachers they can go to if they have questions.
It’s common for substitute teachers to be asked to take on additional responsibilities such as monitoring the cafeteria during lunch or monitoring recess. Substitutes should be informed of these responsibilities either before or when they arrive to make sure they’re not taken by surprise.
While we believe it’s helpful for substitutes to come with some games and activities, schools can help out by providing them with game suggestions and resources. Some popular options include Hangman, Bingo, or Heads-Up.
Administrators and staff can encourage substitute teachers to use the school library as a resource when they need assistance. Librarians are knowledgeable about what items are available and may even be able to make suggestions.
You can set substitute teachers up for success by providing a system for new teacher onboarding and professional development. Providing substitute teachers with professional learning opportunities may encourage them to become permanent teachers—something that’s essential given the ongoing teacher shortage.
With the help of Alludo’s professional learning platform, the resources above — and many more — can be made readily available to substitute teachers well before they even enter the classroom. You can create a substitute teacher resources section that can be managed, updated, and easily accessible in just a few minutes.
To make sure that substitute teachers in your district have everything they need to connect with students and do their jobs well, we suggest putting together a binder that includes many of the resources we’ve listed above. In addition to these items, we also recommend encouraging teachers to create substitute lesson plans for when they have a planned absence.
Here are the things we suggest including in your substitute teacher binders:
Having these items all in one place provides substitutes with a catch-all resource that they can use if they have questions.
In most cases, a substitute lesson plan should be a simplified lesson plan that a new sub can review and understand quickly. It should have these characteristics:
As a rule, it’s best to avoid introducing a new topic or concept, since that puts a lot of weight on substitute teachers. Here’s a template that teachers can use to create easy-to-use substitute lesson plans.
| Grade: | Subject: | Date: |
| Topic: | ||
| Lesson Focus and Goals: | ||
| Materials Needed: | ||
| Learning Objectives: | ||
| Activity/Lesson 1: | ||
| Activity/Lesson 2: | ||
| Activity/Lesson 3: | ||
| Assessment/Feedback: | ||
We suggest highlighting important elements of the lesson plan and providing additional details wherever they are needed. Teachers may want to include different types of learning activities to hold students’ attention. For example, a substitute lesson plan might include watching a video, reading, and completing an art activity related to the topic.
While many teachers take the time to prepare substitute lesson plans, it’s not always possible. When that happens, substitutes may need some guidance. Here are our suggestions:
If there is no lesson plan, substitute teachers should leave the permanent teacher some information about what they did and what their experience was like.
At Alludo, we specialize in creating dynamic online learning environments that may be used for substitute teacher onboarding and professional development. Our content catalog includes many topics that are useful to substitute teachers, including instructional tools, resources, and activities related to classroom management.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that implementing effective substitute teacher onboarding can lead to new teacher hiring. That’s what happened at the Yucaipa Calimesa JUSD, which began using our system for substitute teacher onboarding and watched onboarding evolve into an onramp for hiring new teachers and building capacity.
Substitute teachers are most effective when they are provided with the resources, support, and guidance they need to adapt quickly to new classrooms and connect with students. The 10 resources we’ve listed here, together with our substitute lesson plan template, will help your district build a reliable network of experienced and effective substitute teachers.
Do you want substitute teacher onboarding to be part of your district’s recipe for student success? Alludo can help! Click here to get your free trial of our learning platform, Madagascar, with our content catalog preloaded for you to review.