Between Classes

This invaluable piece of advice came from my loving sister. Years ago, I felt overwhelmed at a certain point in the semester, but our district didn’t have enough subs to cover a “mental health day,” and I was crying the blues to her over the phone. “Go in as your own sub,” she said simply. “What?” “Go in as your own sub,” she repeated. “You know, go in and run your own substitute lesson, whatever you would have left with the sub—a vocab log, film and questions, word puzzles, whatever. I’m sure it will still be a higher quality day than your students may have otherwise received.” Simple genius, really. I’ve coasted my way through more than one Friday since she gave me these words of advice over a decade ago by pretending to be a competent substitute instead of the remarkable instructor I usually strive to be.