When You Have to Be Absent

Preparing for the Substitute Teacher

By Karen Zauber, NEA

What happens when you have to be absent from school? Are you prepared for the substitute teacher? Get ready now -- before you have to make that call or send that e-mail.

Here are some steps you can take today:

1. Create a Substitute Teacher Folder. Help your substitute teachers do a better job by making sure everything they need is marked and handy.

S.O.S.— Save Our Substitutes
Information on preparing the file folder. (Michigan Education Association)

Create a Substitute Information File
An information sheet with data to leave for your substitute. (North Carolina Association of Educators)

2. Write lesson plans and provide resources for the substitute teacher.

Practical Tips from Works4Me 
Information for the substitute on lesson plans, seating charts, student cooperation, and little extras.

3. Read articles about the substitute teaching experience and what everyone expects from the substitute teacher.

A Substitute Talks About Abusive Language
K-12 substitute teacher Doug Provencio shares insights & tools for handling abusive language.

No Substitute for Quality 
Information on preparing substitute teachers. (ASCD Educational Leadership 2000)

OnWEAC Helps Substitute Teachers Get a Job
An article about how Wisconsin's Professional Development Academy is helping substitute teachers get jobs. (Wisconsin Education Association 2002)

To Substitute, or Not to Substitute?
An article on new teachers' classroom experience as substitute teachers. (NEA Tomorrow's Teachers 2001).

4. Read a book about quality substitute teachers.

Standing in Your Shoes
Read this excerpt from a checklist book for classroom and substitute teachers. (NEA Professional Library 2003)

5. Take a course or tell your substitute teachers about available courses.

Substitute Teacher Training
Online training for prospective substitute teachers offered by the Wisconsin Education Association Council's (WEAC's) Professional Development Academy. It fulfills the Wisconsin requirement for a training course that non-certified substitute teachers must take, but it is available to anyone in any state. 

Organize your materials now. Being prepared for the substitute teacher will help you feel better when you have to be absent. It will help the substitute teacher accomplish your educational goals. And it will help students and staff have a more productive time.

Related Content

» Substitute Educators -- NEA Web area for substitute educators includes information on membership, research, and resources.

» Substitute Educator Resources -- Links to seven types of resources on substitute teaching: articles, books, courses, lesson ideas & tips, handbook, research, and NEA Web content.

About the Author
Karen Zauber taught elementary school in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and Denver, Colorado. She has worked for the National Education Association for 12 years.

Updated August 2007.