Episode 1: Mondays.....and emergency coverages

Monday, September 18, 2023 

I was running on three hours of sleep from the night before, and the morning was shaping up to be a disaster.  I barely made it to work on time, where an administrator was waiting to highlight the sign-in boxes of anyone who didn't plant their initials by 8:00 a.m. with a green neon sword.

Back to School Season is in full swing, and several teachers I know are already experiencing burnout.  When 27 out of 150 call out on a Monday morning, you know the day ahead will be challenging to say the least.  Because I am a middle school librarian, the perception is that I do nothing but read and check out books all day, and I should be thrilled to get an emergency coverage, but nothing could be farther from the truth.  Rather than throw a full tantrum rant here, I wanted to share the system I've built to deal with the dreaded emergency coverage.  My Emergency Coverage tool kit.

The Toolkit was born out of necessity.  I was tired of walking into rooms where there allegedly were photocopies already made or chrome books that didn't work for various reasons, so I needed a solution that wasn't dependent on the internet.  The first thing I did was find an extra dollar-store plastic basket. I took several folders  and filled them with looseleaf, plain white printer paper and manila drawing paper.  I found a set of colored pencils, a box of crayons, regular pencils and a sharpener.  Voila! Instant art station.

Then I located a great site with word search puzzles that are free for classroom use.  I love an old-school word-search puzzle.  If you know me from TPT, you already know I love an old-school worksheet as well. I created sets of 40 copies for each of 5 different puzzles.  My kiddos love variety.  

Next, I threw in a dozen sets of of my secret weapon, pentominoes. They are 12 piece puzzles that the main character of one of my favorite novels, Chasing Vermeer, uses to solve mysteries.  You can grab free printable pentominoes here, but the downside is that they need to be printed on cardstock and laminated if you want them to last.  You can also order six sets fairly cheaply here.  I love pentominoes because they challenge students to think critically.  They seem simple but they're not.  You have to take these twelve oddly-shaped pieces and make a perfect rectangle without ripping or breaking off the pieces.  It definitely engages them and prevents mischief.

Here's hoping your Mondays are coverage-free!

Talk soon!

Kelly