Spanish Week

I tend to avoid covering Spanish classes. I took French. But sometimes I don't have much of a choice.

January tends to be a slow month, subbing wise. Last week, I had prescheduled assignments for Monday and Friday. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday's assignments only popped up in the evening the night before. These assignments came so late that I was figuring I might not work those days. (Although, there was still the possibility that I'd get something in the middle of the night.) 

This is why I took the Spanish classes. Two different classes. Two different schools. Two days in a row.

(I have covered both teachers in the past. Tuesday's. Wednesday's.) 

Sometimes, I go through themes. I may hit a bunch of tenth grade classes. I might get a cluster of days at the continuation high school. I might go on an English bender. 

Because both teachers called out last minute, they hadn't prepared the usual detailed lesson plans. All they left in the scheduling app was a brief, "The work is in Google Classroom," message.

That's generally sufficient. The students know how to log in as they normally have assignments there. While I don't know what they're doing specifically, if the class is trustworthy enough, they'll get the work done without my hovering over them. 

And, for the most part, things went well. One class needed textbooks, which they got up and got off the bookshelves. One class had to take a Scantron "test", and they told me where those forms were located. 

But then there was fourth period on the first Spanish day. I told them their assignment was in Google Classroom...

"We don't have a Google Classroom..." 

Uh... 

We are in the third week of the second semester. The teachers created a new class in Google Classroom for the spring semester, closing down the fall semester Google Classroom. 

I would have doubted the kiddos were telling the truth, but this was a Spanish 5 class, which is also AP and filled with seniors. They had no reason to lie. 

I mean, I can see how the teacher might have not gotten around to creating a new Google Classroom for them. 

I asked if the teacher had any other way of communicating with them. I wondered if she had created a Google Classroom knowing she'd be out. (They checked. They didn't have a new one pop up.) 

So, what to do with a class with no lesson plans? 

This was the sort of class populated with academically-minded kiddos. So, I told them they had the period to complete any work they needed to complete for any other classes. This does not work in a middle school class or a core class filled with the general school population. They take it as "free time" and play. But AP classes actually make use of the time.

I saw one student pull out a calculator. A couple of them were clearly working on some project, probably social studies. A couple of them pulled out books to read. 

A couple of them played games on their phones, but the majority actually used the time to do other work. 

Not ideal, but there was no way I was going to figure out something else for them to do on such short notice in a subject I know very little about.