Substitute Teaching Tips and Strategies

Guest Teachers' Best Practices in Elementary Schools

Apr 28, 2009

Even the most complete set of lesson plans won't cover every minute of the day. Packing a bag of teaching tools is a great way to ensure all students stay engaged.

For starters, pack four or five of your favorite picture books and remember to cover the widest age range possible. Tuck ideas for writing prompts or artistic responses in the book jackets so you have something on hand to assign after the reading. Copy directions on transparency and use the classroom's overhead if you're able to, otherwise, plan on using the whiteboard. Don't forget when you're done that children love to share their writing or art work with classmates and make time to do this.

Books, Brain Teasers, DVDs in the Sub Toolkit

For those times when you have only five minutes to spare, pack one or two books of poetry. Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends [Harper Collins, 1974] or Jack Prelutsky's The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders [Greenwillow Books, 2002] make great impromptu read alouds and will grab students' attention. For older grades, grab a book of short stories, like Kendall Haven's Marvels of Science [Libraries Unlimited, 1994]. Books like these, filled with quick vignettes, are perfect for filling a few empty minutes.

Brain teasers are another great way to keep minds occupied. The Teacher's Corner and RHL School are just two websites that offer them for free. Pick five to ten of varying difficulty to cover all age groups and make sets of 30 copies each. Spending a few dollars at your local discount store may also be worth it. Pick up a few sets of flash cards for Around the World games. Children love this and teachers will appreciate the extra facts practice their students receive.

Don't forget the fun stuff either. Throw in a DVD, the Air Bud series is a great choice for its age-appeal and appropriateness, or a few of your favorite tunes. Joke books and candy are always a hit and so are magic tricks if you can learn a few. Be creative and pack anything that will get students engaged and focused on you.

Rewards and consequences should be a part of your toolkit and a good sub will be proactive about both. Praise students as soon as possible to set an expectation of good behavior for the day and have a list of goals handy with which to challenge a class. These goals can be saying "good morning" to the teacher on the way back from P.E. or working silently for 30 minutes. Either way celebrate at the end with a piece of candy from your toolkit or 10 minutes of free time.

Spend a few minutes at the beginning of the day going over exactly what behavior is expected and do not hesitate to use classroom or school-wide consequences. Get to school early to go over the procedures for inappropriate behavior, but if nothing is said about discipline, make sure to create your own reasonable consequences and explain them clearly at the beginning of the day.

Substitute teaching is challenging but in the hands of a capable guest teacher, it can become a break from routine that students look forward to. Success, though, means being willing to go the extra mile. Taking the time to prepare a teacher toolkit filled with engaging activities can mean the difference between a day filled with headaches and an enjoyable experience with students who will look forward to your return.

The copyright of the article Substitute Teaching Tips and Strategies in Teacher Tips/Training is owned by Jason O'Hare. Permission to republish Substitute Teaching Tips and Strategies in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.