Although we would all prefer being with our students, there are times when we are absent due either to illness, workshops, or meetings. When this happens it shouldn’t be that meaningful learning stops or that students are placed into age-level groupings. To help insure that this doesn’t happen and that the guest teacher is supported in the best way possible, I have developed a packet of materials that are organized in a 3-ring binder. Inside I have an introductory letter to the substitute, lesson plans, suggestions for procedures and management, school procedures for fire drills and the like, and sponge activities that may be used if a lesson is finished early or doesn’t seem to be working.
Some substitute teachers are a bit nervous about teaching in a multiage classroom, that is until they have experienced it. Once they have subbed in a multiage classroom I have observed that they enjoy how independent the students are and how, as one guest teacher of mine wrote, the students seem to “…get right to work without having to be cajoled into it.”
Guest Teacher Notebook
Multiage-Education 