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Seating chart for a substitute teacher

A substitute walks into a room of strangers. An up-to-date seating chart is the single most useful thing you can leave — it turns "hey, you" into names in the first minute.

What to include

• The room as it is today: desks or tables exactly where they are, with the board, your desk and the door marked.
• Names that are easy to read: first names large; add a last initial when two students share a name.
• Students to keep apart — so the sub can move someone without starting a problem.
• Students who need a specific seat (front row, near the door), without private details.
• Today's notes: who's absent, who leaves early, who can help.
• Space to write what happened, so you get useful notes back.

Keep it current

A chart from September is worse than none if students have moved. Print a fresh one for each sub day — and put it on top of the sub plans, not inside them.

Privacy

Sub folders are often left out on a desk. Keep medical details, IEP specifics and behaviour history out of the chart; "please keep in the front row" says enough.

In ClassMap

Choose Print → For a substitute: you get the chart on one page and a second page with today's notes, your seating rules in plain words ("Keep Liam and Owen apart"), anyone not seated, and lines for the sub's notes.