Making Standardized Sub Plans Using Google Forms

Even though I am a Level 2 Google Certified Educator, I still want to learn new ways for Google to help me and the teachers I support.  I found this blog post titled "The Magic Automatic Lesson Planner with Google Forms" a while back and finally, last week, had time to try it!

I walked through the process, and while it was great to practice with Autocrat, I didn't know if I would use it as a teacher - or if any of my teachers would.  So I started to think about what I (or others) might need...

And then I realized that substitute plans might be the way to go.  Most of the time is it the same thing over and over, and there are always lots of little details that could get missed. So I started thinking about all the little notes that I added to sub plans, like attendance, collecting papers, and whether or not students can work together.


The form is designed for those that have 3 different preps. Sections can be duplicated or deleted as needed.  (If you add sections, you will need to change the headers in the Google Sheet, so that all of the data can be mapped).  

After I created the form, I created the response sheet.  Since my second and third preps had the same names in the form, I had to update them in the response sheet to 2nd class, 3rd class, etc.  

Next, I had to create my template.  The directions in the blog post are pretty clear, so I won't duplicate them.  Once I got the hang of tags, it was pretty easy.  Once I was finished, I had to run the Autocrat add-on to connect the responses to the template.  I really like that I can create either a Google Doc or a PDF of my plans and if I had a teaching partner, it could be set up to email my partner each time I run Autocrat (ie any time I will need a sub - that way someone has an extra copy!) 

When I was done, I ran my job! Ouila!



Here is the link to the folder where I keep these files.  I definitely think teachers would use this to create sub plans.  I know the checkboxes would have helped me remember all those little things that sometimes I forgot! What do you think?  Would you use it? 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Math Icon Board

Image
In my job, I am always looking for new ideas to share, whether it is a new activity or a new twist on an established one. Recently I got an email from Matt Miller at Ditch That Textbook with this idea -   an icon board for visual thinking.  I really got me thinking about how it could be used... and what other icon boards could be created. Since I am a former math teacher, that is where my mind heads - to math.  I started looking at the icons in the Insert Icons for Slides add-on, and sure enough, I found plenty that apply to math. So I started adding them, and thus creating my Math Icon Board My goal was to add icons that could be utilized in a variety of math and science classes. Obviously I do not have everything, partly because I couldn't find it or it didn't come to mind during my creation. When students use this, my suggestion is that they copy the icon (either by right-clicking and choosing copy OR hitting ctrl and C keys at the same time) and then pasting it
Read more

Remote Learning Recommendations, part 1

Now that many of us are in the thick of remote learning, or for those of us in my district, where we are preparing for remote learning, I have come across some great resources that I wanted to share. I am sure that throughout all this that there will be more, so that is why this is part 1. First, I have to say, I love Slidesmania . Her templates are amazing and I am constantly recommending her site to everyone. Right now, her Weekly Planner template is a must for teachers teaching remotely. Check it out! Second, I have seen a lot about educational technology companies reaching out to teachers, schools, and districts with free offers of normally paid versions.  On one hand, that is really cool, but it can be really overwhelming to teachers to decide what new tools to try in their classes.  Edweek  even wrote a very good piece on it. Based on what I have seen, planning with teachers and instructional coaches for remote learning, my recommendation is for teachers to generally use wh
Read more

My Personal User Manual

Image
One of my bosses, Ryan Smith, recently blogged about the clarity of a personal user manual . As I thought more and more about his post, I thought about how it might help me in my role as an ITS. Something like this might be useful, considering a large part of being successful at my job requires building and maintaining positive relationships with my staff. So here is my personal user manual: I'm a pretty positive person and I tend to smile a lot. Sometimes I worry that others will think my smile is fake or looks fake because I do it so much. But I promise it’s not… I can’t really fake a smile. One of my biggest strengths is that I am willing to say yes to new projects and innovative ideas. One of my biggest weaknesses is that I have a hard time saying no. So if I say no to an idea/project, it is not because I don't want to be involved, it is because I feel that I cannot give it the time that it deserves. I hate looking incompetent. I prefer to be "in th
Read more