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Peabody TeachFor teachers and grown-ups

High school sub plans: shop and culinary

One shop or culinary plan for every period of a high school day, written for a sub with no shop or culinary background: five minutes to settle, then “Plan a project on paper” with paper, a pencil and a ruler, a backup if it runs short, and the last five minutes. Four things a sub never does in this room are on the plan, and the timetable runs 7 periods of 50 minutes.

Checked October 31, 2026. Written for a sub with no specialist skill: everything works on paper, with no equipment. Print it, or save it as a PDF from the generator.

Make the whole day at high school ▸

The lesson, every period

Shop or culinary: plan a project on paper

  1. First 5 minutes, settle. Say who you are and that you're covering shop or culinary today. Meet the class at the door and seat them away from the machines, benches or stoves. Say it plainly: today is a non-lab day, the work is on paper, and the lab stays closed. Take attendance from the seating chart.
  2. The main part, about 35 minutes. Plan a project on paper: Shop: students draw something they would like to build (a box, a shelf, a birdhouse) from the front, the side and the top, with measurements, then list the materials and the steps in order. Culinary: students take a recipe from the textbook, scale it to feed twice as many, and write the steps in order with how long each takes. You need: paper, a pencil and a ruler.
  3. If it runs short, the room changes or the class needs something calmer: A job sketch: Students write half a page on a job that uses this class's skills: what a day looks like, what training it takes, and what they would want to ask someone who does it. You need: paper.
  4. Last 5 minutes: Pencils and rulers back, the seating area tidy, and the work collected with the period written on top. The lab stays exactly as you found it.
Never, as a sub in this room
  • No tools, machines, stoves, ovens, knives or chemicals, not even to finish a project or to clean up.
  • Don't let students into the shop floor, the kitchen side of the room or the storeroom, even to fetch their own work.
  • No cooking, no tasting and no handing out food.
  • If anyone is hurt, or something smells of burning or gas, call the office at once.

Subbing high school

High school runs like middle school, a period at a time, with older students who will test whether the plan is real. Say the plan, the task and when it is due in the first two minutes, and hold to it calmly. Many will work alone if the task is clear.

  • Write the task and what is due by the end of the period on the board before the bell.
  • Phones follow the school's own rule; ask the office what it is before first period.
  • If a class says the teacher lets them, follow the plan and leave it for the teacher to decide.

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