Substitute!

I have been sick for the past three days.  The first two days I went to work thinking I could make it through the day only to discover that my body had other ideas. :-/  My doctor convinced me to take the third day off.

Having a substitute is never fun.  Our plans for substitutes must be much more detailed then we need personally and we must remember to include important details that we just know - things like Joey must finish the quiz the class took yesterday or don't let Kimmy get discouraged, she needs her confidence built up, and remember to take the class to the assembly, etc... 

Another challenge with having a substitute is that we never know if the concept has been taught as we want it taught and did the students really understand the concept.  Regardless of how qualified a substitute is we often find ourselves repeating the lesson or going over it briefly so that we can move on confident that our students know the material.

A flipped classroom offers an additional challenge that I hadn't thought of before.

1. This is a new idea for substitutes too and they don't necessarily understand how to manage it.
2. What do you tell the substitute to assign for homework?  I regularly change what I was planning for homework based on my assessment of how well the students have learned the concept.  Are they ready for the next instructional video or do we need another day of practice?

Last night I ran into a number of students at the football game.  Though I still felt horrible I dragged myself there since it was senior recognition night and my son is a senior.  Anyway, a few of my students told me that they just went over their homework, played Sumdog and Heads up 7-up during class.  WHAT???!!!  That is not what I had planned.  According to my students the substitute said my plans had "go over homework" listed twice and that was it.  Knowing I was sick, and giving the substitute the benefit of the doubt I told my students I must have made an error in my plans.  As soon as I got home I checked the plans I had written, the substitute must have misunderstood because I very clearly explained what the students were to do.  Maybe the concept of the students working on problems while the teacher walks around the classroom, facilitating is foreign to most subs.  Maybe they've gotten used to following a lesson spelled out in a teacher's manual or watching a movie with the class.  So now I will obviously need to spend some time on Monday figuring out where my students are and doing my best to catch them up.