A Substitute Teacher's Morning

1. Prepare some nourishing and non-spillable food and drink for the day.

Do not include nuts of any kind.

The percentage of children allergic to nuts, is very high and not worth the risk.

Even having a small amount of nuts on your hands could pose a serious health

risk to some children.

2. Arrive at school by 8.00am. There may or may not be alot of preparation, so

it’s good to get a head start, just in case.

3. When arriving at a new school, immediately go to the main office to let them

know you have arrived. Staff may direct you to the Assistant Principal or another

teacher, who will brief you on the teaching resources, locations and your timetable

for the day.

4. Find out when, where and what time your playground duties and any other extra

duties, will be for the day. There is often a slip of paper given to emergency teachers,

with instructions in relation to such duties. You may have playground duty before the

day starts. If so, you will have less time to prepare.

5. Make sure you know where the photocopier is located and if you need a code in

order to use it.

6. Find out where your classroom is and how to find it.

7. Upon arriving in your classroom, open the windows, weather permitting and

locate the class roll.

8. Open up the class roll and place a paper clip on that date’s page.

9. Place a pencil on the roll’s page for the day so that you can quickly

open it up.

10. Make sure you sign your name at the bottom of that day’s column in the

roll, after you have taken the roll during class at the beginning of the day.

11. Locate the teacher’s instruction sheet if there and have a look at the

whiteboard to see if the teacher also wrote down the day’s activities.

12. Read the teacher’s instructions carefully and make sure the

answers are available. If not, write the answers on the relevant

worksheets yourself.

13. Make sure there is a spare worksheet, book or other teaching

materials for all activities, so that you can refer to it during the lesson.

If no spare sheets or books, make an extra photocopy for yourself.

14. If equipment is needed, prepare. If not sure of the location,

ask another teacher.

15. Write the day’s date in the top right corner of the whiteboard.

16, Look for any indication of a merits point system for that class.

17. Look around the room, for Reading group, Classroom Duties and/or

News names for the day or week.

These are usually written on large coloured sheets, located at the front

or sides of the classroom.

18. Leave the classroom for the photocopying room, turning off lights and

fans that have been on in the classroom.

19. Make 2 copies of the teacher’s instruction sheet and 2 copies of the

duty note.

Clip them together. You will want to scribble your notes on the first

copy throughout the day. The second copy is just in case you lose the

first copy. The original is to give back to the class teacher (see Point )

20. Make some photocopies of extra activities for fast finishers, if not

supplied by the teacher. You can find lots of emergency teaching ideas

on this site.

21. Go back to the classroom and organise the roll and activities in

the order of presentation.

22. Place the original instruction sheet in a safe place.

23. If time, go to the staffroom and have a relaxing coffee or tea before

the bell.

Have a great day!

Written by :

Eve Zhu