Welcome back to the substitute teacher’s corner! As we talked about before, when you get the call, you need to be ready to go. When I get the call to fill in and substitute, I keep a ready bag that I can just grab on my way out the door. So let’s talk about what’s in the ‘ready’ bag.
The Ready Bag
I like to keep a couple of picture books for the lower grades, usually something that fits the season. For example, if I’m going to be teaching a kindergarten class in October, I might have The Halloween Kittens in my bag or Spookley: The Square Pumpkin. These are both wonderful stories that engage the kids and they enjoy the artwork inside.
For the older kids, I have Disney Fairies: The Trouble with Tink and a couple of The Magic Tree House books. Many of the teachers at the school where I teach have ongoing books available in the classroom, but for second and third graders, rather than me reading to them, I’ll set them up in a circle to read to each other.
These reading plans are always contingent on the teacher’s lesson plans of course.
The Workbooks
I also keep some workbooks in my ready bag, workbooks with sheets for the various grades that I can go and copy. If the teacher has had time to prepare for the absence, I usually don’t need these, but occasionally I’ve had to fly in to take a teacher’s place where she’s had no prep time and I hate the idea of a movie just to keep the kids occupied.
That being said – I also have a couple of discs of The Magic School Bus in my bag that can be played on the computer and projected on the wall. You can get VHS tapes too, if your schools use VHS.
Games
Finally, I have logic problem games that I like to play if the kids are older (usually 3rd and 4th grade) where I show them how to draw the logic problem out and we can work through it together.
I also keep Kleenex, hand sanitizer, a stop watch (if we’re going to play a timed game) and a bottle of Advil. The last is pure defense against the class that is difficult or the day that is difficult. Nothing worse than trying to teach or be supportive when your head is pounding.
While these are just a few things I like to have on hand, they’ve been useful more times than I can count. What do you keep in your ready bag?