What do I leave for the teacher?
The last bell has gone, you have five minutes, and there’s a blank sheet of paper on the desk. Whatever you write on it is the only record of a day the teacher didn’t see.
Write it during the day, not at the end. Keep a running list in the corner of a page as things happen: who was out, what got finished, what broke. Five minutes at 3:15 is plenty if you’ve been collecting. It isn’t if you’re reconstructing.
Why this happens
Most substitute notes say some version of they were good. That tells the teacher nothing about the day and nothing about you. A specific note is rare enough that teachers remember who wrote it, and teachers request substitutes by name far more often than the system makes visible. It’s five minutes, it’s the last thing you do, and it’s the highest-leverage five minutes in the job. That’s a strange thing to be true, and it’s true anyway.
Where the line is
- Yours: what happened, what got done, and what you saw.
- Not yours: what it meant. “Jordan seemed off today” is a report. “Jordan is struggling” is a diagnosis you’re not positioned to make.
- The teacher’s: what to do about any of it.
What to do
- Say what actually got done, specifically. “Finished the worksheet through question 12” beats “we did the work.”
- Name what broke and what you did instead. Specifics, not complaints.
- Name two students positively, and spell the names right. If something actually landed — a discussion that went somewhere, a student who got it — write that down too. Teachers almost never hear about those.
- Flag anything they need to act on: work you collected, a student who had a hard time, a message from the office.
- Say where you left things. Collected work on the desk, sign-out sheet in the folder.
If that doesn’t work
If the day was genuinely bad, write it anyway and write it plainly. A note saying the period came apart after lunch and here’s what you tried is more useful, and lands better, than a cheerful one that doesn’t match what the teacher hears on Monday morning.
In the note
Period 3: 24 here, Alicia and Devon out. We got through the reading and questions 1–8; I collected them, they’re on your desk. The Nearpod link needed your login so we did the discussion questions instead. Maya and Josiah were a real help settling the room after the bell. One student had a hard time mid-period and I let the office know. Sign-out sheet is in the folder.
From Handing it back 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.