May 23, 2026 · 17 min · 9 segments
Send us Fan Mail Here's what I wish teachers would do to make substitute teachers lives easier.
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I did, for some reason, eight years ago when I first started substitute teaching, it seemed like I got some disorganized teaching plans, and that made it even worse.
But maybe that was really my inexperience, and once I had some experience, I understood them better.
[laughs] That sounded bad, didn't it? I have to make sure that I'm not just thinking like I think, but I think like what the listener's gonna think.
I know you all do a great job of putting your lesson plans together, but remember, when we come in there, we may read something and it doesn't make sense to us, even though when you wrote it down, it made total sense to you.
So I would just caution you to try to think back, teachers, to when you were either a sub or a student teacher, and you were trying your hardest to do exactly what the teacher wanted you to do.
And the more, I don't know, simplistic's not the right word, but the more we did, more, more you, more the teacher could do to outline exactly what you needed to do, the better off it was.
For instance, if I'm looking at a lesson plan and it says, "Go to this program," well, if I've never used the program, that might be more difficult than it needs to be.
Try to make sure that everything the substitute teacher needs, they're gonna have.
The great thing [laughs] about subbing elementary school, in a way, they're really more helpful than the higher grades because they want to be more helpful.
You know, the mo- most helpful students right now in middle school this past year were the ones that were in elementary school the year before, and they were used to helping.
I did, for some reason, eight years ago when I first started substitute teaching, it seemed like I got some disorganized teaching plans, and that made it even worse.
But maybe that was really my inexperience, and once I had some experience, I understood them better.
[laughs] That sounded bad, didn't it? I have to make sure that I'm not just thinking like I think, but I think like what the listener's gonna think.
I know you all do a great job of putting your lesson plans together, but remember, when we come in there, we may read something and it doesn't make sense to us, even though when you wrote it down, it made total sense to you.
So I would just caution you to try to think back, teachers, to when you were either a sub or a student teacher, and you were trying your hardest to do exactly what the teacher wanted you to do.
And the more, I don't know, simplistic's not the right word, but the more we did, more, more you, more the teacher could do to outline exactly what you needed to do, the better off it was.
For instance, if I'm looking at a lesson plan and it says, "Go to this program," well, if I've never used the program, that might be more difficult than it needs to be.
Try to make sure that everything the substitute teacher needs, they're gonna have.
The great thing [laughs] about subbing elementary school, in a way, they're really more helpful than the higher grades because they want to be more helpful.
You know, the mo- most helpful students right now in middle school this past year were the ones that were in elementary school the year before, and they were used to helping.
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