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TitlePreparing for a Substitute
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A recent query on the FLTEACH listserv regarding how to prepare for a substitute teacher received the following reply:

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Search your district and neighboring districts for a teacher who is not teaching a language but is certified for it. See whether their is any legal way for him/her to take your class while a sub takes his/hers. Or find a teacher not certified for your language but who speaks it well.

Is there any way for you to identify which available subs can speak the language? Some systems have a way for you to request a particular sub.

Failing these, prepare two sets of plans: one for a sub who doesn't know the language, and one for a sub who does. I found it very frustrating when I was called to a language class and found instructions based on the assumptions that I knew nothing of Spanish AND nothing on classroom management.

See whether you can recruit a sub from among college students who are preparing to be language teachers. Ask the faulty for recommendations. (This might not work--in my system, no one was allowed to be a sub without a degree. Even a student teacher had to have a "legal" sub if his/her mentor was absent.)

If your absence is not a surprise, can you schedule it when the school is doing some special activity like standardized testing that would have interrupted your class anyway?

Groleau, W. Re: Preparing for a Spanish substitute.Foreign Language Teaching Forum listserv. FLTEACH@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (22 Sept. 2005).
SourceFLTEACH
Inputdate2005-09-23 17:18:00
Lastmodifieddate2005-09-23 17:18:00
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Publishdate2005-09-26 00:00:00
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