Welcome back to my 3 part series on how to plan for a Music Maternity Leave. Post one was on questions to ask the potential substitutes in the interview. Check it out HERE.
This post will be on what to communicate to, and leave for the sub. I ended up making a binder AND a dropbox folder for my substitute so she had a hard and digital copy of everything.
What I left:
Procedural Information
Schedule- in my IDOCEO App on my IPAD
Seating Charts- in my IDOCEO App on my IPAD
Emergency Procedures- Fire, Tornado, Lock-down, Shelter-in-place, etc.
Bathroom Procedure- this one is important because I teach in a modular classroom so students need a special pass to get back in the building to use the restroom!
Pertinent Student Info like serious allergies, behaviors to watch out for etc.
Music Room Rules and Behavior Management Plan-We use what is called "The Wilson Way" at school so I outlined this plan and shared how I implement it in the music room.
Phone numbers, emails, etc. of Important people- This includes contact info for people such as the piano tuner, the ordering contact (we have a specific person all orders go through that is not the school secretary), the PTA treasurer for concert accompaniment payments, the accompanist list, etc.
What To Teach
What I had already taught-I left her information on where students were including concepts known.
Song Lists- This included songs students already learned this year as well as songs for the concepts they are working on that I typically teach and Master Copies/ Retrievals for them all. There was a separate list for each grade with songs already known and then I also attached my master song list that is an excel sheet with a tab for each grade and concepts the song helps teach marked.
Where students should go- I left very specific information on what I wanted her to teach. This included an overview, my year plan, and a document called "What we know and Goals For Sub" that went into much more detail. Check out my quick 3rd grade info below:
3rd Grade:
What We Know-
Solfa: m-s-l (working on do but calling it Low) Rhythm: Quarter, eighth, quarter rest, and tika-tika (4 beamed 16th notes- just learned!) Forte vs Piano, repeat sign
What we need to work on while you are here
1.Music Math (know number of sounds/ beats for each rhythm they know- all are 1 beat, but all have a different number of sounds)
2.Continue to prep (and maybe even present) do. –Hometone- need to approach from Sol to do and mi- to do as well as do-sol before they are ready to learn name. Also need to be able to read (both staff and solfa notation), write (using manipulatives), and aurally ID (can you hear it type games)
3.Practice Tika-tika- just practice practice practice so they can really read, write, hear and sing this pattern really successfully! Jazz Pizzicato and Mozart’s Rondo alla Turka!
4.Crescendo and Decrescendo, mezzo
5.Start to talk about tempos (Extreme tempos first- Largo and Presto)
6.Use classical listening examples when talking about dynamics, tempo, etc.
Needed information for Chorus-Because I not only teach General Music for grades 1-6 but also chorus I left a specific document for chorus with information on our upcoming concert. I did not plan a lot for this concert because I was gone from one week after the previous concert until 2 days AFTER the winter concert happened. I started a few songs and left some suggestions, but really I left this concert to the sub and allowed her to make it her own.
Access to SMARTBOARD Game files and other manipulatives- I made sure to leave my school computer and give Katie access to all the game files she might want to use through use of this computer. In my plans for the first 2 weeks, I even linked the files directly into the lesson plan so she didn't have to search at all.
Lessons for the first two weeks- I made these lessons basically what I would have done for these two weeks. I gave time for introductions and added a lot of review games, but also made sure there was lots of singing, games, and dancing for the sub to teach the students and the students to teach the sub. I hope they worked out! The 2nd week was planned fairly quickly cause little man came early and I wasn't quite ready! More on my plans will be in the next post.
In addition to the above documents, I also gave my sub access to the Chorus email list (not my email account) and my schoology account (though she hasn't used it). Communication during my time off has also been key. Katie has emailed me once or twice a week since I took off and I have no problem responding to those. Though some may prefer to not be involved at all while on leave, I loved having that little bit of communication to reassure me that my classroom was in good hands.
Katie and I also talked a lot about my teaching style, and while one student told her mom "the sub teaches different" I know that Katie is doing her best to respect my teaching style while adding in her own personality.
Comment if you think anything else is super important to leave for a long-term sub!
