The EASIEST & FASTEST Sub Plans

I originally posted this as part of my post on Ways to use online games in the classroom but it is so good that I had to expand on it. See my original post here.

We’ve all been there. Your alarm goes off at 5 am and you know you just can’t. Your nose is running, your head is pounding and it takes all of your energy just to keep your eyelids open. You feel awful and you know there is NO way you can make it through the day, so you call out. Just when you think it can’t get worse, you remember… you have to write sub plans…. And they have to be well planned out for students do to independently because you know you won’t get a sub that speaks the language. So you’ll have to come up with something not in your current curriculum plan because the sub won’t be able to provide comprehensible input. Now you’ve spent over an hour coming up with sub plans and activities, instead of resting.

After several sick days spent like this, I knew I needed something simpler that I could prepare in advance. One morning, I woke up feeling so awful I could barely see to type my plans. I found an old vocab list of numbers in French that I knew I had a Gimkit already made for and sent it to my co-worker to make copies. Within 10 minutes I was back in bed. This was a sick day game-changer. I decided from then on I would use sick days as a way to give added repetitions of vocabulary.

Not only could I use games on sick days as review, but I could also use the games as a way to teach some of the required vocabulary that I don’t always have time to give needed repetitions.

Making plans in this way I was able to check several boxes

• Simple plans so I could spend more time resting - check!

• A fun activity my students would be willing to do with a sub - check!

• Review vocabulary to keep my students learning rather than doing busy-work - check!

• Teach required vocabulary - check!

How I prepared for my next sick day

When I was back at school and feeling better I took a prep and prepared for my next sick day.

• I typed up several vocab lists. I made lists that would help them to review words and phrases from our previous units and I also made some lists of vocab I didn’t always have time for but I wanted them exposed to by the end of level 1.

• I photocopied the vocab lists and put them in my subfolder. I made enough copies for the class and wrote some instructions for the sub to hand out the vocab cheat sheets as a reference for students to use while playing the game. I made one set of copies that could be reused for multiple classes and each year.

• I made Gimkit or Blooket sets for each vocab list. The sets are prepared so I can quickly make an assignment and post it to my LMS in just a couple of minutes when I need to take a sick day.

• I made a sub plan template. The template has my schedule and information that does not change like class lists, important phone numbers, etc. When I need to take a sick day I can use that template to quickly type just the instructions for each class and save me so much time.

On my next sick day I will only need to add which list for the sub to distribute, post a Gimkit assignment on Canvas and go back to bed!

For more sub plan ideas check out this post.

I hope this post helps ease the burden of creating sub plans next time you’re sick.

To help you even more I have put together a PDF with vocab lists and links to my Gimkit sets, get the download when you sign up for our email list!

Check out our other recent posts!