The Teacher’s Survival Kit: Sub Plans, Sanity, and Saving Time
The Struggle Every Teacher Knows
If you’ve been in the classroom for more than a week, you already know the drill: you wake up sick (the “back-to-school flu”, as I call it), your own child’s school calls, or you get pulled into a last-minute meeting that probably should hav been an email.
And just like that, you’re scrambling, trying to pull together sub plans on top of everything else.
It’s exhausting—and let’s be honest—sub planning almost always drains you. For just one day being out, we prep the day before for the day we’re out, and the day after. And let’s not even get into prepping sub plans for longer than just a day.
Fun times to be had!
That’s exactly why every teacher needs a teacher survival kit. So let’s put yours together shall we?
Step One: Ready-to-Use Sub Plans
The heart of any teacher's survival kit is a reliable set of ready-to-use emergency sub plans. These are the plans you can hand to a sub (or post to your online classroom) and know your students will stay on task and keep learning.
“Bonus points for sub plans that don’t require additional materials or resources; it’s all in the worksheet!”
I put together a FREE Editable Sub Folder Template with two science lessons you can use right away. It’s flexible, it’s no-prep, and it’s the perfect first step toward building your own classroom survival kit.
👉 Grab the Free Editable Sub Folder Template Here.
Another lifesaver is keeping a quick stash of low-prep activities on hand—think review puzzles, bellringer question sets, or even a couple of brain-break challenges. Anything that keeps kids engaged with on-topic content while you’re out AND saves you from last-minute scrambling is so worth it!
Step Two: Stop Scrambling With an All-in-One Upgrade
A sub folder is a lifesaver, but let’s be real—it’s just the beginning. What teachers really need is peace of mind. That’s why I built SciAcademy, a teacher membership designed to make sub plans (and lesson prep in general) stress-free.
When you join, you’ll have instant access to:
A monthly rotating resource library for physics and chemistry, organized by timely lesson content
Two weeks’ worth of on-topic bellringers
Hands-on, standards-aligned labs (that don’t require a ton of prep)
Emergency sub plans already written for you; no materials or additional resources required by subs or students
Think of it as the ultimate teacher survival kit! Instead of losing hours creating plans at the worst possible time, you’ll always have something ready to go.
Why This Matters
Time is the most valuable thing we teachers have, and it’s also the thing we never have enough of. The less time you spend scrambling for last-minute lesson coverage, the more time you can spend:
Planning lessons you actually enjoy teaching
Helping students who need extra support
Taking care of yourself on sick days without guilt
Catching up on the never-ending to-do list
Or just taking a mental health day…love these in quarter 3, lol.
A teacher survival kit—whether it’s a simple sub folder or the full SciAcademy library—gives you back the freedom to step away when life happens.
Next Steps
Download your free editable sub folder template—your first step to building a teacher survival kit that works for you.
If you’re ready for the all-in-one upgrade, check out SciAcademy and see how it can save your time (and sanity) all year long.
