Are you preparing for a maternity leave? Or are you taking an FMLA for any reason? Last semester, as you may know if you follow me on Instagram, my life kind of turned upside down, and I found myself suddenly in the position of taking both leaves- only a few weeks apart. Yeah, not fun. But I learned some neat tips, ideas, and overall lessons learned that I want to share with you today. The only thing music teachers dread more than preparing for a sub is preparing for a long-term sub, right? Well let’s put your mind at ease with these hacks for creating long-term music sub plans. I’ve organized these tips into two categories: 1, planning advice and 2, sharing your plans and information.
Planning
Teaching in Units
Unless you are lucky enough to have known ahead of time and planned accordingly, the trickiest part of long-term music sub plans is that we can’t assume our long-term sub has a musical background. The best way I’ve found to still create meaningful and engaging music lessons in this case is to have the substitute teach in units.
Less Whole-Group Instruction
To make things easier on you, your long-term substitute, and your students, try to limit traditional direct instruction. Instead, begin lessons with the whole-group warm-ups, instruction, and directions, and then go into centers, group or partner work, or individual projects. Long-term music sub plans work best when the substitute has time to go around the room and “guide from the side,” as they say. Additionally, most music lessons, regardless of who is teaching them, are more successful if there’s time built into the lesson for students to go at their own pace.
Leave Plenty of Early Finisher Activities
The substitute teacher goes through the lesson, the students are working independently for about five minutes when a rushing student goes up and hands them their paper. “I’m done!” We’ve all been there, right? For every lesson I leave for a sub, I also leave an early finisher music activity. That may seem like a lot, but it doesn’t have to be. A word search, coloring sheet, crossword puzzle, or anything else remotely having to do with the lesson is perfectly fine. If your students have devices, maybe you can have links on their Google Classroom to related websites, videos, or apps. This was an option I left for my upper elementary music students.
Sharing Plans and Information
Prepare an Information Folder
If you haven’t yet, you should assemble a folder full of any practical information your guest teacher may need. Things you should include in this folder?
Use a Tech Shortcut
Want to update your plans from home? Or do you like to do everything on your Google Drive? Then use a tech shortcut to ensure anyone can get to your plans and info folder in a pinch. Create a bitly link or QR code, print it out, and tape it to your desk. That way, even if your admin ends up covering a class (been there), they can quickly access what they need.
Take Advantage of Google Apps
In my previous blog post, I shared the newest way I use Google Apps and Slides to my lesson plans. This method was very helpful during my long-term leaves. I was able to add in plans as needed, and subs and admins could see it all immediately.
Sharing is Caring
Once your Google Drive folder is created, I highly suggest granting access not only to your sub, but also to your admin, school secretary, and teammates. If your sub is sick, confused, or not tech-savvy, any of these people will be able to access the plans and guide them accordingly. There should be no need for anyone to contact you during your leave if you’ve laid it all out to multiple people. In addition to sharing the folder, it also helps to number and date your lesson titles. I found that when my admin filled in for my sub when she was sick, she didn’t know which lesson the students were on. I had labelled them “First grade lesson 5” rather than “First grade lesson for 9/7-9/10.” The dates will help your guest teacher, and they’ll also help you ensure you have all the lessons prepared for your leave, not missing any.
Final Thoughts
Preparing for a maternity leave or long-term music sub for any reason can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. If your leave isn’t an emergency, and you know your start and end dates, take a look at how many lessons each grade will need, and start by creating Google docs titled with the dates for each lesson. This way, you can see how many more lessons you have left to create as you plan. And don’t worry if a couple of grades are in the same or very similar units and plans, either. My fourth and fifth graders had identical lessons during my leaves, and no one minded at all. As seriously as we take our jobs, at the end of the day, your students having a couple months of lessons that are different than you would usually prepare will not hurt them. As long as they are learning about music, it will be okay.
Happy teaching!
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