How to Prepare Lessons for a High School Substitute Teacher

A high school teacher who fails to plan, even for a substitute, might as well plan to fail. It's important to leave lesson plans that a substitute teacher can find and follow. Even if you have to be absent in an emergency, you need to leave lessons for you high school classes.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Keep the names of your students in a file on your desk. If you have a seating chart for each class, keep it in this file as well. Put a copy of your current lesson plans in this folder. Remember to switch out the lesson plans each week.

2. Store the books and ancillary materials you use for your classes near your desk. Keep bookmarks in the textbooks to indicate what chapters and lessons you are teaching in your classes.

3. Post the rules of your classroom in an obvious area. High school students may try to get by without following the rules when they have a substitute teacher. If the substitute knows the classroom rules, the students are less likely to try to pull tricks on her.

4. Create ongoing projects that your high school students can work on in case you are absent. If you assign a major project each quarter or semester, your students could use the day of your absence as a day to work on that assignment. Put the objectives and directions for the assignment in the folder you created in Step 1.

5. Make sure one of your colleagues in your department know where you keep your lesson plans and textbooks. You can offer to return the favor whenever they needs a substitute teacher in their classrooms.