As a teacher, your lesson plan is your road map. It’s how you plan what your students need to learn and ensure that learning is done effectively. However, even the best-laid plans can go awry. If you find yourself short on planning time or in sudden need of a sub, consider these free lesson plans and resources for your next substitute teacher. Each resource can be adapted to work for different Career & Technical Education (CTE) courses. Many can be adapted for in-person or remote instruction.
Free Career Exploration Curriculum
Whether you’re preparing students for careers in welding, nursing or agriculture, your sub will find our free career exploration curriculum relevant and easy to implement. In fact, each lesson includes a “Lesson-At-A-Glance” feature that details the activities, required materials, preparation steps and teaching time. We suggest you highlight this feature in particular so they know exactly what they need to do for each lesson.
Explore our free career exploration curriculum >>
Career Scenario Cards
Available for agriculture, health science, FCS and trade skills courses, these activity cards are a fun, easy way for substitute teachers to facilitate soft skills practice in class – whether they have 5 minutes or 50 minutes to fill.
Each card features a real-world workplace situation, plus key questions about the soft skill that scenario addresses. Instruct your sub to pair up students or separate them into small groups, then give each group a few cards. If you only have a few minutes, instruct students to read through the scenario together and answer as many key questions as they can. If you have an entire class period, consider assigning a variety of cards to each group, then having students present what they learned to the class or write down their answers for you to grade upon your return.
Sample our Career Scenario Cards. Use the three activity cards in each sample to preview the activities found in our complete, 19-card sets. Get your samples >>
Free Guide: 5 Ideas for Incorporating Soft Skills Into Any Classroom
Soft skills like teamwork, empathy, patience and critical thinking continue to grow in demand; Linkedin’s Global Talent Trends 2019 report found that 92% of professionals reported that soft skills are equally or more important to hire for than hard skills.
Bookmark this free guide for your next substitute teacher. It contains step-by-step ideas, tips and even five free posters your sub can use to jump-start large- or small-group discussions on soft skills in today’s workplace.
On-demand webinars for teaching remotely
Although we hope the 2021-2022 academic year will be unlike the prior, you or your substitute teacher might be in need of last-minute lessons that can be facilitated remotely. If that’s the case, consider these on-demand webinars. Each presentation features our subject matter experts reviewing how to facilitate lessons from the curriculum that accompanies our learning aids – but you don’t need our learning aids to use the lessons. You (or your sub) will get ideas and best practices for engaging your students in important topics without leaving your computer.
Free Guide: Using Scenario-Based Learning to Explore Careers
Scenario-based learning is a fun and engaging strategy for helping students learn concepts and make lasting connections with classroom material. We created this free guide to give CTE instructors – and their substitute teachers – a source for ideas and facilitation instructions for a variety of scenario-based learning activities.
More resources
Looking for additional resources for your substitute teacher? We recommend:
- These free, downloadable posters and infographics. They address topics like high-demand careers, the importance of soft skills and more. Print them for your next sub them to initiate small- or large-group discussions or writing assignments on applicable topics.
- This webinar, “Teaching Soft Skills: 15 Tips in 30 Minutes.” Watch it to learn 15 simple ways you (or your sub) can help your students develop important job-readiness skills: