When you’re not going to be in the classroom due to an emergency or illness, it’s important to have a clear plan of action for the substitute teacher covering your class.
Don’t wait until the last minute – or until you’re at home sick and need to call out – to create the things your sub needs to have a successful day in the classroom.
By having a Substitute Binder with Emergency Plans already in place, you’ll be able to rest easy and take care of the things you need to take care of away from school.
The Best Sub Binder and Emergency Plans
When I needed to be out of the classroom for any reason, my anxiety would rise and I’d actually spend a few minutes debating whether or not I should go in sick or take a sick day because having a sub when I wasn’t prepared for one could spell disaster.
So, I decided to get ahead of the game and create the ultimate Sub Binder.
What Is Included in the Sub Binder?
In the substitute binder, you’ll get:
- Female Binder Covers (4 options)
- Male Binder Covers (3 options)
- Index / Editable Index
- Dear Substitute Letter (written and blank)
- Where to Find It
- Schedule tab with Daily Schedule, Specials, and Pull Out Schedule pages
- Class Rules and Routines (5 pages)
- Class List / Class Info / Classroom Jobs
- Seating Chart (2 editable pages)
- IEPs / 504s with shapshot pages for both, Services Schedule
- Behavior Management with description page, behavior log, and daily behavior tracking sheet to send home with students
- Medical Concerns with medical concerns and allergies pages
- Need a Hand? Ask these students
- Passes (with 6 passes)
- Lunch and Recess Rules
- Dismissal and After School and How We Go Home
- Note to Teacher page for subs to share about their day
- School Info with important people page
- Emergency Info for fire drill, lock down, and severe weather procedures
- Contact Info pages
- Notes to the Sub pages
- Sponge Activities tab
- Extra Lessons tab
- Long Term Sub Stuff
- Class Tour (5 pages) to share pictures and details of your classroom
- Calendar (12 pages) to share important dates
- Parent Info for parent contact and parent volunteers
- Passwords to share teacher logins and student logins
- Assessments (6 pages) to record how classroom assessments work and are given in your class
- Standards and Rubrics tab
- Guided Reading tab
- Reading Block tab
- Daily 5 Tab
- Math tab
- History / Social Studies tabs
- Science tab *All academic tabs come with a page to record how you teach that subject*
- Long Range Plans / Year at a Glance with two 2-page calendars and 2 versions of long range lesson planners (4 pages)
- Other Class News tab
- Duties with pages to record morning and afternoon duties
- Centers with pages to record how reading and math centers function in your classroom
- Student Info with a page to put student pictures, and share classroom birthdays and how they are celebrated in your classroom
- Contact Log with pages to record parent contact
- Parent Conferences with 1 reminder page
- How Things Work with 10 pages to share how Inclusion, Resource, Reading Buddies, Free Choice / Free Time, Technology, and Specials work in your classroom
- Writer’s Workshop tab
- Testing Procedures with 2 pages to share information about state testing
- Procedures to share special classroom procedures, Team procedures, and School procedures
- Grades tab with editable grade book page
- ESL / ELL tab
- Copies tab with a page for keeping track of copies and instructions for making copies
*Please note that the layout, clip art, and titles are not editable. The binder is editable in PowerPoint for you to edit text boxes to input your own information.
Other Things to Include in Your Sub Binder
If you know when you’re going to be out, I also encourage you to include the following things in the Sub Binder for your substitute.
- The current class schedule for that day – especially helpful if your school uses a rotating day schedule.
- A word document that describes who has pull-out services, who is leaving early, who has special services that day, etc.
How to Put the Sub Binder Together
I find that an actual binder works great for storing all of the papers that I want and need to leave for the sub. Some teachers prefer putting things in a folder instead – it’s entirely up to you.
I recommend printing out all of the pages in the Sub Binder download and then assembling the binder using the pages that work for your classroom and school.
What to Include in Your Emergency Sub Plans
For those days when you’re out suddenly with no notice, it’s important to have some Emergency Sub Plans stored in your classroom to help your sub succeed.
In my Emergency Sub Plans, I include:
- A Book Companion Activity and the accompanying book
- Adapted Books (printed in half-size so that there are more on a page and students can just cut and paste)
- Reading A-Z lesson plans and books
- Math books that can be used for counting, experiments, etc.
Remember, your sub emergency plans should be fun! Not only will it be better for your substitute, but your kids will love it too!
Watch me explain it all here in this video –> Watch HERE!
With a Sub Binder and Emergency Lesson Plans prepared ahead of time, you’ll be able to take the time off you need without worrying about your students.
