I'm missing one day of school today to be at the FCIS Conference. Then I leave for Beijing on Sunday for a HanBan Teacher's Workshop. I'll be in Beijing for a week--and will miss 3 additional days of school. Before I left yesterday, I needed to write substitute plans for four days. What I've discovered (something all teachers know) is that it takes about four times as long to write substitute plans as it is to simply teach the class. I had written some detailed lesson plans for my 4th and 5th grade classes that I prepared in my technology class. However, that still left three different PreK classes, a Kindergarten class, a second grade class and two third grade classes for which I needed to write substitute plans.
The most challenging part of writing substitute plans as a language teacher is that most substitute teachers are not proficient or trained in the target language, so the plans have to be written for a lesson to be taught in English. I am fortunate that today's substitute teacher has been a Chinese teacher, so I could continue my Chinese lessons for today's classes. The rest of the classes, however, have to be conducted in English. Edhelper.com to the rescue! This site has some great lessons at a variety of grade levels--and has quite a comprehensive collection of China culture-related activities.
I also found a great site where you can make your own matching puzzles and word search puzzles. One thing I like to do for a good substitute day activity is to have the substitute teacher read a book, and then give the students an activity related to the book (a coloring sheet for the younger students, and some kind of puzzle or word search with words from the book for older students). I love http://www.theteacherscorner.net/ which is a FREE website that has lots of premade puzzles in many different subjects, and give you the ability to make up your own puzzles and worksheets. I
Well...it's off to the conference!