***LIFESAVER #3: Design The Perfect Bedroom***

It's been awhile since I introduced a new lifesaver.  The start of a new school year is as good a time as any to share one with you.  This one is adapted from Celebrating Every Learner: Activities and Strategies for Creating a Multiple Intelligences Classroom.  


If you recall, my lifesavers are for those times when substitutes do not have lesson plans, or need time to fill when lesson plans run short.  They are intended to be pretty flexible for most classrooms.  They can also work for regular teachers looking for activities, or possibly something extra to include in case their own subs need something else for students to do.


You may not have access to many materials when you are short on lesson plans, so lifesavers should keep it pretty simple.  This one does. 


What you'll need:  a short description to either read or recite to the class, construction paper and art supplies like color pencils and crayons, and paper and pencil.


This assignment can be a drawing, or writing assignment, or both!  If you have construction paper that you can use, or even blank printer paper, let the students do this as practice with visualization.  If you need a longer activity or have no construction paper, you can make this a writing assignment with pencil and paper.  If you need a lot of extra time filled, you can choose both options.


What you'll do:

• Before students begin, tell them to close their eyes and listen to your words.  They will practice visualizing, or creating a picture in their minds.  They will use your words to inspire a drawing of something very special (or a description of something very special).
• Tell students that they took a vacation for a few weeks.  When they returned, they discovered their bedroom had been transformed.  Everything looks totally different!  Everything that they've ever imagined would be in a perfect bedroom now greets them as they open their door.  Someone who knows them very well has painted a picture of something on the ceiling.  What is it?  Why did they paint it?  What does their new bed look like?  What is now on the walls and floor of their perfect bedroom?  What cool new things can they see have been added?  What colors do they see?  What can they smell?  What music can be heard playing?
• Tell them to open their eyes and draw a picture of the perfect bedroom that they saw in their minds.  What would this room be like as they entered?  As they begin to draw or write, you can write a few words on the board that will help them remember what to include (ceiling, walls, floor, bed, new things, colors, smell, music).
• If they are making a drawing, tell them to draw and label the new features on their room.  If they are writing, tell them to write a story or description about finding this new room.  Have them practice using imagery by describing what the room did to all five of their senses.
• Have students share their designs and descriptions with the class.  Ask the class what the things included in the room reveal about the person who visualized it.

As you can see, this simple assignment doesn't require much in terms of printouts and extra materials.  You can do this activity with several grade levels.  With young students, I like to tell them to fold the construction paper in half, then draw a picture on one side and write on the other.  

The students' imaginations carry the assignment, and they may even find it interesting to come up with ideas.  The activity also is not simply "busywork," as it gives students a chance to practice a skill needed for reading comprehension (visualization) and a chance to work creatively.  Give it a try if you ever find yourself in a bind.

Be sure to check out two other lifesavers:  Class Build-a-Story and Reading Analysis.

Time Filler: License Plate Puzzles

Got a few minutes of class time to fill?


Substitute teachers in particular have questions about how to fill a few minutes of class time.  As I always say, a classroom with nothing to do can quickly erupt into chaos.  You'd be surprised how rowdy a class can get just 10 minutes before dismissal, especially.


What I like to do is have a few brainteasers, short stories or puzzles on hand just to occupy students' minds for those few minutes until we transition to something else.  Kids usually like things like that because they can be done orally as a class, and they're fun!


I found these License Plate Puzzles from Brain Candy, and all you have to do is print them out and save them for work in case you ever have the opportunity to use them in class.  You can display your print out on those neat document cameras I love or, if the class doesn't have one, you can just copy the license plates on the board for all to see.


Essentially, these are just rebus puzzles in the form of vanity plates.  See if students can figure out what the message is saying for each one.


If you have a few more minutes to fill, challenge students to create their own vanity plates on paper.  You can even introduce it with a whole story about how they've just gotten their first car and they really want to make a statement with their vanity plates.  Tell them they can only use letters and numbers, and no more than 6-7 spaces to create a message.


Cool way to exercise the brain!


Here is another list of vanity plate messages.  Make sure they're school-appropriate.  ;-)

***LIFESAVER #2: Reading Analysis ***

If you haven't guessed yet, I simply love Scholastic.  They have tons of great resources, some of which are their classroom magazines.  One magazine is called Storyworks, and Scholastic's site has reproducible worksheets for teachers to use with the magazine's features, but these particular sheets can be used for almost anything.  They are especially useful for Lifesaver lessons if you do not have real lesson plans.

Download the Fiction Analysis Sheets         Download the Nonfiction Analysis Sheets

Why This Works:

It's fairly simple for students to do.  The sheets have basic analysis for any piece of fiction or nonfiction.  Questions about character, theme, plot elements, main idea, and other things are good review for students.  It's all presented pretty simply (Storyworks is designed for elementary students), but it's versatile for several grade levels.  Whether it's a picture book read to 3rd graders, or a novel for middle-schoolers, story elements and important facts are essentially the same.

If you discover that you don't have lesson plans, one thing substitute teachers often do is make students read silently.  As I've previously discussed why indefinite, "kill some time while I figure this out" reading has its faults, reading with purpose can be a lot more beneficial to students and subs.  

This Lifesaver is not simply busy work, since it does go through lengths to have students explore reading comprehension.  It takes up a good amount of time, even if students are reading a short text.  It's also versatile.  You can grab a literature textbook or classroom magazine, select a story or article, and have students work on this.  You could also just let them read their independent reading texts, whatever stories they may be reading themselves or what may be in the classroom library, and let them analyze their particular reading.  It's so flexible that it pretty much fit almost anything they could be reading.  It doesn't have specific questions for specific texts; it's broad enough for several different grade levels and classrooms.

A Few Things to Consider:

The only thing you have to think about is how you're going to keep this with you.  There are only a few options.  One is to print 20 or 30 of these and keep them with you at all times.  Of course, if you do that, you should probably only have one set and just tell students to write on their own paper so that you don't have to keep printing it again (even though, inevitably, someone will write on your copy).

You could just keep one copy of the worksheet and, if the need ever calls for it, you could write down the basic outline on the board or overhead and just tell students to follow what you've written on their own paper.  If you're lucky, you may have a document camera (which are the coolest!) to save you some effort.

Depending on the grade and ability levels, you may want to explain, omit or even lengthen some parts of the worksheets.

I hope this helps!  

Again, regular teachers, this may be useful enough for you to use in your real lessons!

Check out Storyworks if you get a chance!

-Veronica

credit to:  Scholastic Storyworks

***LIFESAVER #1: Class Build-a-Story***

OK, I’m not sold on the name either, but I couldn’t think of a better one.  Fortunately, the activity itself is infinitely better than the name.  I got this idea from a gifted elementary class I once subbed.  The teacher assigned the nameless activity, and it was obviously something the class enjoyed doing regularly.  I liked it so much that I made a note about it in my idea-nabbing notebook.  It works well for the particular needs of substitutes needing a Lifesaver, but it can work well for regular teachers for most grade levels (I’d say 1^st-6^th, roughly).

How to Do It:

• Go to the board, or ask a volunteer to write for you.  Divide the board into three sections.  First section:  “Character.”  Second section:  “Setting.”  Third section:  “Problem.”  Depending on the class’ ability, you may have to introduce or review what each of these things mean.
•  For the first section, ask the class to brainstorm characters from anywhere.  Books, TV, film, fairy tales, comics.  They can even name people in the classroom.  Encourage them to be as creative and random as possible.  Call on volunteers sitting quietly with their hands raised, and write down their ideas.  Call on more until you have a good list generated (5-10 ideas would be good for each section).  You may have to get them going with a few examples.
• Do the same with the “Setting” section.   Any place or time period, as random as possible.
• Do the same with the “Problem” section.  Whether mundane or extraordinary, write down ideas for any type of problem.
• Once the class’ list is complete, it will look like this:

Character

Wolverine

Hannah Montana

Willy Wonka

Greg Heffley

Tinkerbell

Setting

In Our Classroom

In a Haunted House

At a Pool Party

In a Forest

On Mars

Problem

                        A Rhinoceros Escapes from the Zoo

                        Someone Stole Something

                        Someone Broke Their Leg

                        Someone Gets Grounded

                        A Dragon Destroys a Town

• Congratulate the class on a wonderful list.  The more random it is, the better.  Perform a random selection process to select one item in each category.  You could call on well-behaved students to choose their favorite for each one; if the list is short, you could ask a student to give you a number less than ten, and then erase an item off the entire list as you count and land on that number; or, choose the items yourself.  No matter how you do it, just pare the list down to one item in each category.

• .     Now your list will look something like this:

                        Character

                        Wolverine

                        Hannah Montana

                        Willy Wonka

                        Greg Heffley

                        Tinkerbell

            Setting

In Our Classroom

In a Haunted House

At a Pool Party

In a Forest

On Mars

Problem

                        A Rhinoceros Escapes from the Zoo

                        Someone Stole Something

                        Someone Broke Their Leg

                        Someone Gets Grounded

                        A Dragon Destroys a Town

• Tell the students to take out a sheet of paper.  They are now to write silently about a story that must involve three story elements remaining on the list.  Encourage them to use their imaginations and think of a way to have the chosen character be in the selected setting encountering that particular problem.  The implausible suddenly becomes an interesting challenge.  The only rules are that they must be silent as they write, the story must be school-appropriate and they have to include the three story elements.  I like to assign that they write to fill a page, but it’s your call.  Many students will want to create such outlandish stories, they won’t even finish within one page.

                       

Why This Works:

1. This fun assignment attracts even the students who don’t particularly enjoy writing.  Notice the beginning of the activity is done as a class, promoting active learning.  Students have a level of “ownership” over their stories because they are the ones who make suggestions about the story elements.   Their brainstorm list is based on their own interests, which means this assignment seems less “restrictive” than most writing prompts.  For instance, though most writing assignments fail with some of the more difficult boys in your class, writing about what happens when Wolverine is at a pool party and a dragon destroys a town is infinitely more inspiring to them.

2.  This activity is also substantive.  Even though the story can contain silly elements, students still get practice writing creatively.  You can also help students focus on using voice for their characters (“think about what Wolverine would say in this situation”), using character traits, describing setting, creating dialogue, etc.  Encourage them to use their imaginations and be as descriptive as possible.  Even though this is a “time-filler” activity, there is no reason why they can’t actually benefit from it.

3.  Writing a creative story requires concentration.  An active, noisy class that writes silently for fifteen or twenty minutes is a blessing for any sub.

4.  Writing assignments are always FTW when you have large chunks of time to fill.  Why?  Because they can almost always be extended!  Nearly any writing assignment affords the opportunity for kids to write silently and then either (1) share their work to the class in a read-aloud, or (2) divide into pairs, read a partner’s work and help them edit it.  Kids are usually pretty eager to share creative stories, especially fun ones, so you’ll probably have many volunteers to read.  Also, editing means you could assign a “final draft” revision.  Voila!  A twenty-minute writing activity could be doubled, or possibly tripled, in length.  (If you have no lesson plans that day, wisely use the time when students are working on their stories to see what you can pull together for their next assignment or activity.)

5.  This gives you the benefit of an interesting “journal prompt” exercise without having to find or keep up with them yourself, or make copies for students.  This is especially helpful if you sub for the same class again, or need this activity with the same group.  Each time you assign it, the stories will be different because their brainstorm list will change.  Their minds are the only limit to creating new stories.  Even if you subbed the same class several times in a year and assigned this each time, there are a million possibilities for their stories.

6.  As stated, this is also flexible for different grades and ability levels.  Remember:  flexibility is golden!  I’d use it for elementary and possibly even middle school, gifted or struggling students, etc.  As long as the students can write sentences on their own, they should be able to handle this activity.  For younger grades, I like to take a piece of construction paper or blank printer paper, fold it in half, and tell them to write on one side and illustrate on the other.  For older grades, they can just write one page.

On the Other Hand…:

1.  When you’re leading the brainstorming process with the class, they may be too noisy.  Be sure to facilitate firmly:  only call on quiet people with their hand raised; ignore everyone else yelling out their ideas.  Students will soon see that the quiet people are the only ones who get their ideas on the board.  Once your louder ones get the picture, call on one of them for their suggestions.  If students are still noisy, remind them that, unless their behavior changes, the fun activity will end and you will put a boring journal prompt to which they must silently respond.

2.  The class may have some ideas on the board that aren’t too familiar with some students.  Say you have a few who don’t know Wolverine, who happens to be the randomly chosen character for their stories.  Try to minimize this during the brainstorming process by making sure each idea is familiar to all students.  If students still aren’t comfortable with the character, encourage them to think about what they know about these unfamiliar characters, even if it’s just a little.  They can also have the assigned character have a minor presence, if they want, and include other characters more familiar to them.

3.  Related to this, a few students may have had their hearts set on a particular character or other element, and be resistant to writing about something else.  Tell them their story can include the other elements the class suggested, but it still must include the other assigned elements.  Maybe you have a stubborn boy in your class who’d rather write about Wolverine than Hannah Montana.  There’s no reason they can’t both make appearances in the story!  Let them know that the assigned elements are what make the activity a fun challenge.  If someone is being particularly bitter about it, just allow them to write their story about whatever they’d like.

4.  Some students may not like to write, even with this assignment.  Even great assignments can fall just below a 100% positive rating.  Just try the best you can to encourage the student to write as much as possible, and keep thinking of ideas.

5.  Some students are too talkative when they’re supposed to be writing silently.  I had this problem in the class that I originally saw this assignment done, even though they were generally a good group.  They were just too excited about their stories to not talk about them!  Again, be firm with the students.  Let them know that we want to hear their great stories after they’re complete and not have it spoiled for us by talking about them.  They only have a certain amount of time to write, and the more they talk, the less time they have to finish writing.

6.  Some students may complain about not having any ideas for their stories.  This happens inevitably when you assign a writing prompt. Certain students will stare at a blank page for hours, if you let them!  Try to give a few random ideas to jumpstart their thinking.  Ask a few questions like, “Now, why is Wolverine at this pool party in the first place?  Why would he be there?”  During brainstorming, a few classes may have trouble getting a list of suggestions on the board.  Again, start them off with a few examples to get them going in each category.  Stick to things you know they recognize and may find interesting so that they can get the hint that this is supposed to be a “fun” activity.

I hope some people find this helpful!  Subs:  this is made with you in mind.  Regular teachers:  it works for your classroom, too!  If I were a regular teacher, I’d copy and paste the instructions in an emergency lesson plan.  You never know when you may need an emergency activity.

There are probably a few ways to adapt this activity further if you put your mind to it (ie, creating a dialogue script in groups, perhaps, and perform them for the class).  If you ever use it in class, let me know how it works out!

-Veronica

Substitute Lifesavers: How to Survive When You Don't Have Lesson Plans

Picture it:

Early one morning, you excitedly enter an elementary school.  You haven’t worked in the last couple of days, and you had become a little concerned about your next paycheck.  Around 6:00 am, you hopefully and groggily checked the substitute assignment system to see if there were any jobs available.  What luck!  A third grade assignment had been placed since you checked the system last night.

You arrive early, greet the secretary with a smile, sign in and head to the classroom.  “Today feels like a good day,” you think to yourself.

You enter the classroom, view a neat space and place your things down near the teacher’s desk.  You look around for the lesson plans.

Ruh roh!

You look everywhere.  On the teacher’s desk.  On the reading group table.  You even trek to the teacher’s box and see if there’s a sub folder there.  Nothing.

You look at the clock in a panic.  Ten minutes until the bell rings.  You realize, with horror, what this means:  what in the world are you going to do with thirty students for the next seven hours?


Suddenly, what appeared to be an auspicious day has quickly descended into the dark pits of your nightmares.

Chances are likely that if you sub long enough, you’ll encounter this scenario.  In some lucky districts, many subs can go for a long time without this occurrence.  In other districts, it’s much more commonplace for a substitute to be left with nothing.

The chances of this increase when you make yourself available for jobs posted at the last minute, when teachers probably didn’t realize until too late they wouldn’t be in to work that morning and, therefore, may not have left any plans.

One very large part of being a substitute is being flexible, and that includes being prepared for these situations.  Resist the urge to panic; there are ways to handle this situation with dignity and grace.  They’re called Lifesavers.

Lifesavers are particularly important to substitutes since we are dependent on whatever plans the teacher has left.  If you don’t have plans, then you’ll have to learn to think on your feet.  A teacher successfully leads a classroom by being prepared and taking control.  Revealing that you are not prepared means you are not in control of the classroom, and it will lead to a stressful day.

Students need to know their substitute teachers are in control.  They smell blood when they hear innocent questions from the sub like, “Well, what were you guys working on yesterday?”  Don’t ask.  You’re the teacher for the day, and if you have no idea what to do, you have to be good at faking it.  Even if you have lesson plans and something runs short, or a plan backfires (like going to the computer lab only to discover a scheduling error:  there’s a class already in there), you have to have something to fall back on quickly. 

I never leave students to their own devices.  You’d be surprised at how five or ten minutes of “nothing to do” can result in disaster.  The time-honored default activity in these situations (otherwise known as “read silently”) has its limitations:  students, especially the young ones, can only read silently for so long.  After about ten minutes, if you’re lucky, they will start to fidget, talk, draw on their desks, bother other students, etc.  Also, some students may not have books.  If you send them to the class library, they can create a mess on the shelves, play near the bookcase, not find a book they want to read, and so on.  In other words, I steer clear of the “silent reading” unless there are only a few minutes to fill, and the students actually want to read.

That begs the question that most substitutes have asked themselves at one time or another:  what do I do?  Well, that’s what I’ll address in this Lifesavers series.

First, however, let’s discuss a few things you can do to mitigate panic in these situations.

8 Things Substitutes Should Do When They Don’t Have Lesson Plans:

1. Always assume you won’t have lesson plans, especially if you’re working a job posted that same morning.  If you assume you will get to work without a plan, you’ll prepare for the worst.  It’s likely you’ll have some sort of lesson or activity when you get there, even if it’s just bare-bones, so you’ll only have to rely on a few things you’ve brought with you, or maybe none at all.  But don’t get too complacent!  When I get lax and leave my extras at home or forget to print some, that’s just the day I’ll need them.  Remember, you can’t really anticipate not being prepared for a job, so always expect to need your backups.
2. Research.  You’re not a full-time teacher, but you can still do research to improve your craft.  Research includes internet searches, professional books, talking to other subs and teachers, etc.  Just by visiting this blog, you’re doing research!  I get a wealth of ideas from books and things I see in classrooms I sub for the day.  I find quick classroom activities, and I take notes in a growing list of things I can use when needed.  My idea notebooks I take to school have a ton of activity ideas in them (most of which will be posted on this blog at some point, lucky you).  Steal ideas!  You may even purchase a few handy things and take them to work everyday, like math flashcards, a few interesting books and magazines, etc.  The tough part is subbing for different grade levels and needing to choose activities that are kind of flexible.  If you only have copies of some worksheets for first-graders, it won’t be useful for the day when you’re subbing for fifth-grade.  That’s why I usually focus on activities and games that can be modified to fit several age groups.  I save time, ink and paper by doing that. 
3. Get to work early.  If you have time to spare, you will know that you have no lesson plans and can start with your backup ideas.  I try to get to work at least fifteen minutes before the class arrives.  Those few moments are precious!  Whenever I don’t see plans when I enter a classroom, the first thing I do is ask a neighboring teacher.  Sometimes, teachers leave their plans with another teacher, or email them at the last minute.  Usually, this is the explanation as to why I don’t have plans.  Other times, the school’s staff will know where the absent teacher keeps emergency lesson plans.  At the very least, 95% of the time, other teachers will be sympathetic towards you and do all they can to help.  They may have an idea of what this class has been working on and get some last-minute plans written up for you, and give you copies of worksheets for the class.
4. Always have a warm-up activity ready for the beginning of class.  No matter what, don’t let students enter the room and not have something to do when they first arrive.  Several jobs I’ve had went sour from the very start because there was no clear activity for the students to begin, and so they stood around, talked, and played with their friends.  Students should not be chatting and wandering around aimlessly for the first five minutes.  Once a class starts off badly, it’s hard to regroup.  Get them seated and focused on an activity, even if they’re just waiting for the morning announcements.  Sometimes, students are so used to routine that they will begin whatever their warm-up usually is without any prompting from you.  Other times, they need to be told to work on.  If you must, write a few math problems, or sentences with grammatical errors to correct, on the board for the warm-up.  While they are working, use any spare minutes to continue planning your backup lesson.  Keep them busy.
5. Learn to extend activities.  This is a skill I acquired on the job, and I think every teacher should be able to do it because it’s so useful, even when you have good plans!  Imagine that each assignment/activity is a soaking-wet sponge.  When you have time to fill, it’s essential to squeeze that sponge enough to so that each and every drop of water is released.  It’s not just for the sake of time; often, students need to approach an assignment from many different ways to strengthen their thinking skills.
6. Learn the schedule for the class.  Whether you have lesson plans or not, you’re still responsible for making sure they get to art class at the right time, arrive punctually for lunch, and other things like that.  This is particularly important when subbing elementary because you usually have to escort them everywhere.  Teachers often have the general schedule posted somewhere in the room, outside their door or on their desk.  If you can’t find it, ask another teacher.  Older students will know most of their schedule, but ask another teacher just to make sure, especially if the school does not use bells.
7.  Use what’s in the classroom.  I rely on whatever is in the classroom before I use my extras so I can save what I have for later, or I may not have to use it at all.  Look around.  You may find some clues as to what the class usually does with the teacher; if you see writing notebooks, or centers, or a word wall and other things, try to implement them into your makeshift lesson.  If you see textbooks around the room (or workbooks, classroom magazines, journals, etc) flip through and see if you can string together an assignment from them.  With textbooks, I like to use the supplemental pages that are generally at the end of the chapter.  (In math books, they are usually practice tests; in science, reading and social studies books, they are typically articles that tie-in to the chapter’s theme, but are not part of the chapter’s main content.)  This is because most teachers ignore those pages, so it’s likely that the class hasn’t already done them.
8. This last one is optional, but I don’t ever tell students when I’m assigning them work their teacher did not assign.  I don’t make them aware that I don’t have any lesson plans, or that I’m giving them something extra (although I guess it would be ok if it was something like a game).  Why?  I suppose it’s a power thing.  Older students may become defiant and ask, “Well, if Mrs. Applebaum didn’t assign it, then why should we have to do it?”  I want to avoid that conversation, so I don’t let it come up.   Whatever extra work I have, I hand it out and assign it with the same adeptness as I would from the teacher’s lesson plans, so students are none the wiser.  Occasionally, if you have a really good class, they may freely let you know that they are actually supposed to work on something specific (they have a spelling test that day, or they’re supposed to keep working on a history project, for example), and then you can adjust what you planned.

My Lifesavers series will give you a full description of each activity, including some helpful tips for executing and modifying it, as well as some potential challenges.  If you know of anymore, tell me about them and I’ll give you full credit!

People call quick classroom activities Lifesavers because it can feel like you’re drowning if you aren’t prepared.  Subbing is tough enough even when you have perfect lesson plans.  Keep a list of Lifesavers in your arsenal to help your unpredictable days run a bit smoother.  

-Veronica