I quickly learned just how much organization is key to doing this kind of work. Our very first task was to come up with a schedule for each day within the 10 day cycle. I was helped a little bit here by the classroom teacher on leave because she had obviously been the one to set up the general outline of the day regarding prep periods, gym, library, etc. But this is the finished schedule that we created, posted and shared with families.
We also were required to come up with Long-Range Plans to submit to our school administration in the case of an emergency leave. This was an excellent exercise for me in seeing how the year could play out as a whole – although we did not stick to these plans as though they were written in stone because our learning trajectory changed as we saw how our students were learning. Some things took longer than we thought to get through, and some things we needed to revisit later in the year. We were also thrown a little off course due to being online for a short period of time. Before the classroom teacher returned, I updated these long-range plans for her so that she could see accurately where we had been, and what we had left to cover.
My daybook became my lifeline, and the lifeline for those around me. I adopted a mostly digital approach for this so that my teaching partner could see the plans and make any changes/adjustments/suggestions that they felt necessary. I did print out my day plans and keep them in a binder – mostly just as a back up – but I was so happy to have them digitally. It allows me to store them neatly and I can go back and look at them anytime I need to. It also allowed me to embed links for videos, activities, etc. right into the day plan itself and share it easily with any supplies who might be in the room. Here is an example of what my daybook looked like:
I became a big fan of using Google Drive to store all of my plans, resources, and anything else related to the work I was doing. I just found that it was the easiest way for me to stay organized, and it allowed me to share easily with my teaching partner so that our work could be as collaborative as possible.
I did still have physical binders in the classroom, mostly as a back up in case technology wasn’t working, and also for anyone else who came into the classroom such as administrators, parents or supply teachers, so that they could easily access any pertinent information. I am particularly proud of my Supply Binder – having recently been a supply teacher myself, I knew the kinds of things I always was happy to find in a classroom!
