Professional Practice

Make Sub Plans Easy in the Art Room with These 5 Tips!

| January 8, 2026

All art teachers need to take leave at some point in the school year for various reasons, including mental health days, illnesses, and field trips, to name a few. The good news is that taking leave doesn’t have to be a stressful scramble! With a few proactive steps, the process can be smooth. 

Join Janet Taylor as she shares her top tips for making efficient and helpful sub tubs for any grade level or class. All you need are a few portable plastic file tubs and hanging file folders.

Here are some quick tips to make the most of your sub plans:

  • Gather all logistical details, rosters, seating charts, and emergency plans.
  • Curate one sub tub per class, medium, or grade level.
  • Include a variety of lesson lengths from one day to multiple days.
  • Laminate the original to make your copies from.
  • Copy a class set of each resource per folder.

For more resources like this, don’t miss the following:

To chat about sub plans with other art teachers, join us in The Art of Ed Community!

Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lindsey McGinnis

Lindsey McGinnis is AOE’s Media Content Manager and a former high school art educator. She is passionate about equipping art teachers to be successful in their classrooms and firmly believes that art is the best place for students to explore and process the challenging topics and concepts around them.

More from Lindsey

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