You don’t give yourself enough credit. Teachers work hard...and we are reminded of this as we prepare to be away from our class. you know what this reference is to-the dreaded sub plans.
Lunch times.
Specials.
Centers.
It all has to be explained and planned for. Every minute of the day accounted for. This can be a daunting task and it’s often joked that being away is more work than just staying put. But not anymore!
As as I prepared to leave for FETC, I had to account for all the minutes in all the days (3 to be exact!) and if you’re like me, I hate giving busy work. I value my students’ time and their talents and I don’t want my time away to be wasted. So I turned to Microsoft Teams and OneNote.
Through OneNote I was able to create an assignment for my kids that picked up right where we left off on Friday. I could embed video and audio directions to accompany the various assignments I crafted around our most recent novel study. The platform is so flexible that if I’m being completely honest I didn’t even finish editing the tasks until Sunday night—long after my sub plans were printed and laid out on Friday. Once the OneNote assignment was complete I attached it in an assignment created on Teams and viola! Flexible, explicit lessons prepared and I saved the best for last....I can check in throughout the day as my students work to leave comments, answer questions, trouble shoot or simply leave small notes of encouragement.
Little did I know that my students would do the same for me!
👗 -K