What Is a Sub Binder?
Many schools will require teachers to create a sub binder at the beginning of the year. The idea is that if you are out unexpectedly, especially at the beginning of the year, the completed sub binder can be handed off to the building sub or other substitute and they will have a nice handbook for your classroom. Even special education teachers need a sub binder! If you work in a resource room, you probably are never getting a substitute, but if you’re a self-contained classroom teacher or co-teacher, you might (emphasis on might…) A sub binder needs to include all of the important, relevant information a substitute would want to have a smooth day. Imagine if you were dropped into your teacher bestie’s class for the day- even if you knew her well and knew her students, you would still need to know her systems, roster, and schedule to have the day be successful! When creating a sub binder, keep this analogy in mind. Would a random stranger be able to navigate your classroom well using only the information you provided in the binder?
Why Do I Need A Sub Binder?
You might be thinking, but Megan, that’s SO much work! And to some degree, you’re not wrong. But let me lay out another scenario for you that might help put this in perspective. You get a call late on a Thursday night that a family member in another state is seriously ill. You need to drop everything and head out to where they live, but the only flight you can get is at 7am the next day. You won’t know who the substitute for your classroom is until at least 8am, but by then you’ll be on a plane and can’t touch base with them. You didn’t leave any sub plans behind because you didn’t know about this emergency until now. You can’t call your paraprofessionals to prep them because it’s 11pm. What is the substitute going to do?!
This exact scenario happened to me this year, and boy was I glad that I had a little binder on my desk that had all the relevant information that anyone- a substitute, a paraprofessional, a related service provider- would need to know in my absence. You might not ever be in such a dire situation as this, but things come up in the school year all the time. Even if you aren’t fully out of the building, I don’t think it is hard for many of us to imagine this scenario- you’re in an IEP meeting, a student starts engaging in a behavior but the substitute covering you doesn’t know how to respond to the behavior. This is another situation when having an accessible, completed sub binder will come in handy. Bottom Line- Your future self will thank you if you spend 90 minutes putting this binder together today!
What Do I Put In A Sub Binder?
Now that I have hopefully convinced you why you need to take this assignment seriously, let’s get into the practical steps of how to build this magical binder. I’m going to break down all the sections of what I include in my sub binder in case you want to copy what I do, but feel free to make this your own based on your individual classroom’s needs!
Sections:
- Student & Para Roster: This is a very basic table of the students’ names, the paraprofessionals’ names, and any staff assignments you might have because of 1:1 or 1:2 pairings. I do this really quickly in a table on a Google Doc, but you could do something fancier if you’d like.
- Student information: This table provides more detailed information about the student that would be helpful for someone new coming in to know. Think big picture, what are the emergency things to know. If you get too much in the weeds on this… nobody is going to read it! The things I include in this quick table are student classroom assignments, what grade they are in, if they have any pertinent medical information like allergies or history of seizures, and parent contact info. Another thing you would want to add is toileting information for each student, if it applies.
- Quick BIPS: This will be the easiest step because you probably already have these written! I take each copy of my students’ behavior intervention plans and include them in a tab of each binder. The intention is not for the sub to be an expert in how to respond, but more for them to be aware of what could potentially happen and what antecedent strategies will be useful. In the event of a behavior, the expectation should be that staff who know the students will respond. That protocol could be explicitly stated, either in this section or the classroom protocols.
- Student Schedules– Another easy section because you’ve already put so much effort into these at the beginning of the year! Tuck in your schedule as well so they have an expectation of where they need to be and when.
- Emergency Protocols– If your classroom doesn’t already have an emergency binder hanging by the door explaining where your fire drill location is, what different codes mean when called, etc. this would be where to put those. Think about worst case scenario- fire drill followed by a hold in place followed by a power outage- and lay out all the things that a sub would need to know to keep the students safe and align with school policies. It would also be helpful in this section to put information in about how to call for assistance, important staff names that could assist like a behaviorist or counselor, and how to reach the office or custodian. If a student on your caseload has any medical plans, this would also be the place to include those.
- Classroom Protocols: It would be easy to go on and on in this section but for the sake of the substitute, you should keep it brief. What are the expectations for the students when they come into the classroom? How do centers run? What does the lunch/recess block look like? What does Flex Period mean in the schedule? What might be helpful here is to break things down by time of day in the schedule. For example, you might have a section labeled “8:20-8:40am” and another section for “8:40-10:15”. This will be a guide they can reference throughout the day without having to memorize your schedule or be asking the staff what’s expected at every period.
But Wait, Where Are the Lesson Plans?
You might be coming from a different discipline and wondering why I don’t have individual lesson plans as part of my sub binder. There are 3 reasons why I don’t go down and put lessons in the binder when I know I’m going to be out.
- This is a binder that stays in the office all year, it is handed to the sub when they check into the front office first thing in the morning. I wouldn’t have the time to put lessons for all 9 of my students for their entire day every time I’m going to be out!
- I run a centers based classroom that has all the materials students need at each center. My ELA center, for example, has a list of what skills we’re working on for each student now and what we will introduce next. The Independent work center has a list of which task boxes each student is independent in. For that reason, my sub binder does not include lessons. The only time of the day I do whole group is morning meeting- which is hard to do even when I’m there- so I don’t have the subs run the meeting time.
- Students on IEPs have very specific specifications for who can deliver instruction in their service delivery grids. A sub shouldn’t be providing extensive instruction to the students because they probably don’t have Special Education certification. Especially if this is a short term, one-off sub, having someone come in for one day to provide instruction is not going to be beneficial for the students. Have the sub take on other roles and let your paraprofessionals, who already know the student, continue to provide instruction they are slated to in their grids. Leave things like direct instruction and assessment for when you come back- it’s okay to miss it for a day or two.
My Sub Binder Needs Help!
If you feel like you need to update your sub binder after reading this, I have a bunch of resources in my TPT store that you can use to beef up your binder! There are also many of these pages to sample in my free resource library which you can access below.