Substitute info sheet (free printable)

About this sheet

A substitute can follow a lesson plan and still lose the morning to questions the plan never answers: where the attendance goes, how students leave the room, who is in the next room. This sheet is the standing page that answers them. The top holds the essentials, such as your room, your neighbor and the office. The schedule grid is for a typical day, and the routines section is three short boxes in your own words. It deliberately has no place for private student information. Health and safety needs belong in the folder your school approves, and the page says so.

How to use it

1. Print one copy and fill it in by hand in pencil: your room, your neighbor teacher and the office extension.
2. Write the schedule for a typical day, then the three routines a substitute most needs: attendance, leaving the room and dismissal.
3. Slip it at the front of your sub folder with the lesson plans, and update it each term when the schedule changes.

Five ideas for class

1. Read it as if you had never been in your room. Anything you would have to ask is something to write on the page.
2. Name a reliable neighbor teacher and give your substitute permission to knock. A substitute who knows who to ask rarely needs to.
3. Keep one copy at the front desk as well, so the office can hand it to a substitute who has not been in your room before.
4. Add a line for the quirks only you know, such as the door that sticks or the projector that needs the second button.
5. Review it with your class before a planned absence and ask them what a visitor would need to know. They notice the routines you stopped seeing.

Related

• Daily schedule cards
• Weekly class schedule
• Hall pass signs