Six Simple Steps for Organized Emergency Sub Plans

How well organized are your emergency sub plans?  I have to admit that mine were not well organized.  I’d dutifully throw together some worksheets and a generic agenda, but they were no where near complete.  

Thankfully, I never had to use those emergency sub plans.  However, if a sub ever had to use them, it might have been chaos!

Kelsey from Wife Teacher Mommy is here today to share with you six simple steps for organizing your emergency sub plans.  These are some great tips for pulling all those resources together in one place.

Every teacher knows how difficult it is to take a day off. At most jobs, if you’re sick last minute you can just call in sick! However, as a teacher you must have sub plans ready whenever you need to have a day off. That can be enough to make a teacher decide to just go in rather than take time to rest. 

Emergency sub plans can help alleviate that stress when you or your child wakes up sick in the middle of the night. If a family emergency comes up, you know that you’re taken care of! When you have plans already ready, that’s one less thing to worry about and you can just deal with whatever else it is that you need to deal with, and temporarily forget about school.

I would recommend putting together at least a day’s worth, and up to a week, of emergency sub plans ready to go for your class. These can be worksheets or other easy activities that are at grade level for your class and would be easy for a sub to implement last minute.

However, putting them together is just the first step! It’s important to have your emergency sub plans organized. If you leave your sub with a huge stack of papers, that’s likely to be very confusing and lead to a very hectic day for your sub AND your students. Here are some ideas to have your sub plans organized ahead of time, so when you have to take one of those unexpected days off they are completely ready to go. 

#1: Create an Outline of the Sub Plans

Include a basic outline of the plans for the sub. This can simply be a list of everything that is included in the plans.

For example, in my sub plans, I included an outline for each day. The outline includes a morning writing prompt, a list of all the lessons and their topics for the day, and which lesson plan to refer to for each lesson. However, any sort of outline will help keep things organized!

#2: Organize Sub Plans by Subject 

Keep the worksheets for each subject with the lesson plans or directions for that subject. If the order of the lessons matters, then put the subjects in that order. 

#3: Have a Class Set of Each Worksheet Printed

Have a class set for each worksheet printed so it is ready to go in the case of your absence. If you have 30 students in your class, make 30 copies of each worksheet. Then put them together in your sub tub.

#4: Put It All Together

This is putting together your “sub tub”, as many people like to call it! You need a way to physically organize your plans. It can be as simple as a file folder for each subject in a bin or filing cabinet drawer. You could also put them together in binders. An accordion folder could work great because you could use a different tab for each subject. Find a method of organizing the plans that works for you. 

#5: Find a “Spot” for your Emergency Sub Plans and Label It

This is very important! You have put all this work into putting together your sub plans, so you want your sub to be able to easily find them. Put them in a spot that it safe (where they won’t be disturbed) but that will be able to be found easily by your sub. 

#6: Communicate with Team Members

Tell your team members where you have put this so they can also tell your sub where to find them if you are out last minute. You won’t need to worry about your sub not finding them, because you know that your coworkers have your back!

It can be a bit hectic to put together emergency sub plans, but you will definitely be thankful that you did it if/when you need them! The peace of mind alone is worth the time putting them together.

If you’re wondering what to include in your sub plans, check out my post “5 Things your Emergency Sub Plans MUST include” on my blog! This post outlines everything your sub would like included in your sub plans, BEFORE you begin to organize them!

Additionally, if you’re just getting started with your emergency sub plans, you might enjoy my Sub Plan Mini Lesson Freebie! This includes a text questioning mini-lesson and a graphic organizer that students can use while silent reading. It also includes an editable school schedule form and a handy “How Did The Day Go?” Substitute Notes Form, so you can know how the day went while you were away!

Click here to grab your sub plan freebie to get started!

Kelsey Sorenson is a former elementary teacher and substitute teacher turned stay-at-home mom. Kelsey specializes in creating ready-to-go sub plans, integrated units, and seasonal curriculum for her Teachers pay Teachers store. She also writes about her teaching ideas, including fun ways to integrate the arts, on her blog, Wife Teacher Mommy.