Taking a Cover Lesson by @molin_bryan

Name: Bryan Molin
Twitter:  @molin_bryan
Sector:  Secondary
Subject:
Position: Assistant Headteacher
5 Bits of Advice About: Taking a cover lesson

1. Make sure you read through the cover work ahead of time. If there are any questions ask a member of the relevant department.
2. Visit the classroom you will be teaching in ahead of time so you have your bearings.
3. Make sure you have spare paper and equipment for this lesson. You don’t want to be struggling with the basics.
4. Teach it as if it was your lesson. Students appreciate a teacher who makes an effort and cares about their learning.
5. Keep behaviour management simple with lots of praise, but remain assertive. Students need to be quiet when you are giving instructions.

Setting Supply Cover Work by @TheModernMiss1

Name: The Modern Miss
Twitter name: TheModernMiss1
Sector: Supply
Subject taught (if applicable):
Position: Supply Teacher
What is your advice about? Setting supply cover work

1: Don’t leave an overly detailed plan. By the time the supply teacher has read it and worked out what the class are meant to do, someone will have started a riot.

2: Leave a clear plan, identify potential troublemakers in the class and leave sufficient copies of worksheets. Always leave enough work to last the whole lesson.

3: Remember the teacher covering you may not be a subject specialist, so don’t write notes using technical acronyms. Set work that builds on something already taught.

4: “The students know what they are doing and can continue their project work” strikes fear into the heart of a supply teacher. We don’t want an essay, but we do want some clues.

5: Never, ever set a word search as cover for a PE or tech lesson. There will be a riot in the class, the room will be wrecked and the supply teacher will refuse to return.

Setting Cover Work by @Gwenelope

Name: Gwen Nelson
Twitter name: @Gwenelope
Sector: FE
Subject taught (if applicable): English
Position: Leccturer for A-Level English courses
What is your advice about? Setting cover work

1: Be mindful that whoever covers your classes is unlikely to be a subject specialist; meaning they will not be able to ‘teach’ them like you would.

2: Never set anything ‘new’ in a cover lesson. The class will be bamboozled, the cover teacher foxed and chaos will reign.

3: For both KS3 and 4 classes, set some form of revision activity based on your most recent teaching (within the last week), using knowledge or skills they already have.

4: Email the work to at least 2 people, remember to attach documents and write very clear, step by step  instructions for each teaching group.

5: Assuming you have seating plans, have them readily available in your room, or email them with the cover work, thus giving the cover person a fighting chance with your class.