Substitute Sanity Savers
Ways for Substitute Teachers to Keep Students Busy
You are subbing for a class that just can't seem to settle down and get its work done. When the students finally start their classwork, one of them pipes up to inform you that they did the same pages yesterday when the last sub was here. Now what? The solution is simple. Never walk into a classroom without a bag filled with substitute sanity savers.
Reading Works
The first thing that should go into your magic bag is a high interest book for the grade you will be substituting for. For instance, first and second graders are enthralled by Junie B. Jones. Be prepared with extension activities related to the book. When students begin to grow restless, pass the extension activities around and ask them to work on them while you continue to read. Don't worry about preparing an elaborate lesson. Extension activities for the book can be something as simple as asking students to draw a tooth fairy while you are reading about Junie's loose tooth and her experience with the tooth fairy.
Staying in the Lines
The next essential item to go into your substitute sanity saver bag is a coloring sheet or activity page and several boxes of crayons. As you select activity pages, avoid mindless drills. Story prompts, crossword, Sudoku, or word search puzzles and matching activities will be much more popular. While coloring sheets make more sense for lower grades, you can always jokingly offer the chance to do them to higher grades, as well. After all, almost everyone enjoys a trip down memory lane. Coloring and activity pages are essential for those times when the teacher underestimated the length of a lesson and you need a fifteen minute filler.
Mind Games
Round out your bag of tricks for older grades with a book of mind puzzles, such as one minute detective mysteries. A book of corny riddles is the ideal choice for lower grades. Have the students write their own riddles as an extension activity.
Finally, no substitute's bag of tricks is complete without some sort of reward system. You may want to use a wipe off chart to keep track of good behavior. Avoid candy and toys because the students may get into trouble if they take these types of rewards to other classes. Stickers, pencils and small certificates are ideal rewards. Catching students being good is so much more enjoyable for you and your students than having you spend the entire day correcting bad behavior.
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