Sunday, November 18, 2012

Sub plans!

I was out for half a day on Thursday because my daughter ended up with a fever at school.  She also had to stay home on Friday but, due to a very generous babysitter, I didn't have to stay home.

I thought we were in the clear until late this afternoon when my son was complaining that he felt hot. I thought he was fine but he found a thermometer (that shockingly worked!) and took his temperature. Darnit.

So thus began my quest to write up sub plans for tomorrow.

Several things are working in my favor:
1.  I have all of my major copies done, so I don't need class sets of anything. Or worse, to have to scramble to come up with an activity and then ask someone to copy it for me. That's the pits.

2.  It's a short week and therefore somewhat more relaxed. We have Weds - Fri off for Thanksgiving.

3.  There's a special program at school tomorrow and Tuesday to address bullying that several of my kids are attending. This is good because two of the most annoying challenging boys in my General Algebra 1 class won't be there.

Still, there was a lot to put together.
1.  I have a feeling that my precalc kids are going to have some issues with the homework I assigned on Friday. They're not very good at applying what they know to new situations.  If I don't show them problems exactly like what's on their homework, they struggle.  So annoying. Luckily, I have a copy of our book at home. I wrote up a video (using Explain Everything) of me talking through several of the problems and posted it to Schoology.
Time spent: 1 hour

2.  My Honors Algebra 1 kids took a test on Friday over linear equations and I'd intended to start working through solving inequalities with them. I'm going to have the sub pass out their notes (a basic outline), have the kids work through it, then give them their assignment. The only work I needed to do for this class was to write up the answers for the notes so the kids can see what they should have done to solve/graph.  (With instructions for the sub not to give it to them for at least 15 minutes.... we'll see if that happens!)
Time spent: 10 minutes

3.  I'm so up in the air with my General Algebra 1 class. They had a slope/slope-intercept form review on Friday and I'd intended to go over it tomorrow and quiz on Tuesday. So now with me being out tomorrow (along with 4 out of my 15 students for the aforementioned program) I don't know that I want to do that. I'll probably just play it by ear when I get there Tuesday. I'll have a quiz ready just in case but have another problem set ready, too.  I wrote up answers for the review for the sub to give out so interested students can check their work.  They'll be working on what could be a fun activity: to graph a set of lines and created a Stained Glass Window.  They like coloring, so it should be ok.
Time spent: 15 minutes

4.  I typed up my actual sub plans. I'm sure I forgot something. I had to look up the room change for my 3rd period class (due to a kid on crutches) and also included a list of the kids that will be missing because of the program.
Time spent: 15 minutes

5.  I tweeted my neighbor at school to ask if he'd print stuff out for me and he readily agreed (good thing, because he owes me big!! :) ). So then I emailed him a link to my sub plans (I put it on a gdoc so I can edit until tomorrow morning if necessary) and attached the notes and answer docs.  I also gave him directions on how to find my seating charts... they're somewhat buried in a filing tub sitting next to my desk.
Time spent: 15 minutes

So, if you add it up, that's almost 2 hours of prep work just to get ready to not be at school tomorrow. Wowzers.


1 comment:

Tina Cardone said...

Thanks for sharing, I'm adding this to the DITLife tumblr - this message is just as important as what we do on 'regular' days.