Substitute Teacher Guide • Grade 12 • Phase 2, Unit S1: Studio Orientation
Triage & Assignment: How We Pick Up a Job
Today's focus: Triage & Assignment: How We Pick Up a Job
✅ Before Students Arrive
- Materials needed today:
- Sample/mock incoming requests (3-4, varying urgency and scope)
- Assignment board (physical or shared Doc)
- Most students keep their class notebook at its usual spot in the room and use it every day (see routine below) -- but it's each student's own notebook, so a few may bring theirs from home instead. Either way, everyone should have one out.
- Write today's Do Now on the board before the bell rings (see below).
📓 Daily Notebook Routine (students already know this)
Keep this going every day, in your class notebook: date today's entry, jot your Do Now response, add any new vocabulary word(s) from today's Key Vocabulary section (word + a quick picture + a simple definition in your own words), and take 60 seconds to sketch something connected to today's topic. This notebook is yours to study from, reference on projects, and pull evidence from later for your portfolio.
📁 Portfolio Update Reminder
Once a week, add your best finished or in-progress yearbook (or, later, studio) work to your portfolio with a 1-2 sentence caption -- and once you're in the Design Studio phase, a photo of the piece in its real, installed location if possible. This is the same evidence trail you'll use for Archive & Portfolio and any PBAT/portfolio review.
🗣️ Opening: Do Now
Write or project this, and have students start immediately:
“Of these 3 sample requests on the board, which would you tackle first, and why?”
📋 Class Plan (step by step)
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Step 1 — 10 min
🗣️ Say: "Today we're looking at ___." Then walk through the point(s) below at the front of the room.
📋 Mini-lesson: how to triage requests by urgency and scope (10 min).
-
Step 2 — 15 min
🗣️ Say: "Here's what we're doing next." Then read the instructions below to the class.
📋 Practice: in groups, triage 3-4 sample requests, deciding an order and a rough team size for each (15 min).
-
Step 3 — 20 min
🗣️ Say: "Here's what we're doing next." Then read the instructions below to the class.
📋 Set up the real assignment board: create the shared system the studio will use all semester to track live jobs and who owns each one (20 min).
🔑 Vocabulary Introduced Today
- Triage
- Quickly sorting incoming requests by urgency and scope to decide what gets worked on first.
- Scope
- The size and complexity of a job -- how much work it will actually take.
- Internal Deadline
- A team's own target finish date, set earlier than the client's deadline to leave room for revisions.
✅ Wrap-Up: Exit Ticket
A few minutes before the bell, say: "Time to finish your exit ticket."
“What would you do if two urgent requests came in on the same day and you only had one team available?”
Collect exit tickets (or have students leave them in the usual spot) for the regular teacher to review.
⏳ If You're Short on Time
Protect the Do Now and the Exit Ticket above all else -- those are how the regular teacher tracks daily progress. If a step above is optional/homework, or is a "share out"/discussion step, shorten or skip it first.
⏳ If Students Finish Early
Have them keep working in their notebook: add extra detail to today's vocabulary sketch, review previous vocabulary, or -- if this is a portfolio update week for this class -- work on their portfolio. Early finishers should never be idle or distracting to classmates still working.
📝 For the Regular Teacher (fill in ahead of time)
- Regular teacher's name / how to reach them: ______________________________
- Where finished work / exit tickets go: ______________________________
- Front office extension / emergency contact: ______________________________
- Anything else this class needs to know today: ______________________________