The plans don’t work.
There are plans. They call for a video that won’t play, a platform you can’t log into, or a packet nobody left on the desk. You have the teacher’s intent and no way to carry it out.
Read the whole plan before the bell, not the first line. Find the part that’s going to break, and fix it now if it’s fixable — locate the packet, test the video, ask next door for the login. Ten minutes before the bell is when this is still solvable.
Why this happens
Plans are written by someone who has all the context, for a version of themselves who also has it. “Continue with the packet” is complete information if you know which packet and where it lives. “Do the usual warm-up” is precise if you’ve seen it ninety times. None of it is carelessness — it’s the same invisible shared context that makes the rest of this job hard, showing up in writing. You’re reading notes, not instructions.
What to do
- Read all of it first, then fix what’s fixable. A login, a missing packet, and a dead projector all have the same answer: ask next door.
- Ask the students what the routine is. On procedure they’re reliable, and you can check one answer against another.
- Keep the intent, drop the mechanism. If the video won’t play, the questions that were supposed to follow it still work as a discussion.
- Don’t get ahead of the unit. Repeating something is recoverable. Teaching Thursday’s lesson on Tuesday isn’t.
- Write down exactly what broke, in specifics.
Say this
K–2
“The video isn’t working today, so we’re doing it a different way.” That’s the whole explanation. Don’t narrate the problem, just move.
3–8
“The plan needs a login I don’t have. Here’s what we’re doing instead, and I’ll leave your teacher a note about it.” Naming the constraint out loud stops the room from reading it as “we don’t have to do anything today.” One of them will tell you how it’s usually done, which is often the fix.
9–12
“Part of today’s plan doesn’t work without your teacher’s account. I’d rather do the part that works than fake the rest.” Then ask the room how she usually runs it. At this age that’s a credible question rather than a loss of authority, and the answer is often correct.
Where the line is
- Yours: adapting the mechanism. Same destination, different route.
- The office’s: anything needing a login, a key, a cart, or moving the class.
- The teacher’s: where the unit goes next. Stop where the plans stop.
If that doesn’t work
If enough breaks that there’s effectively no plan left, you’re in the other entry — run structure and keep the period. One thing worth trying first: another teacher who teaches the same course almost certainly has the same materials, and often the same slides. That’s a thirty-second walk.
In the note
The Nearpod link needed your login, so we did the reading and the discussion questions instead. Everything else went as planned.
From Before the bell in The Sub’s Handbook.
Written by a substitute teacher, for substitute teachers. This is what’s worked in real classrooms — not official guidance, and not a substitute for your school’s policies or your district’s training. When something feels beyond you, it probably is: call the office. They’d rather hear from you early than late.
Open subin, the app the handbook comes from. Free to use.
Dan McSpirit is an active guest teacher and the author of The Sub’s Handbook. He built subin for the job he was doing at the time. More of his work is at danmcspirit.com.