Seating chart for a substitute teacher

Why leave one

• Names, fast. A substitute who can call on students by name gets better engagement and fewer behavior problems in the first ten minutes than one working from a class list alone.
• Attendance and participation are easier to track against a seat map than a scrolling roster, especially in a class the sub has never met.
• Less morning-of scramble for you. A chart you can grab (or that's already in the sub folder) beats reconstructing seating from memory over the phone when you're calling in sick.

How to prepare one

1. 1. Keep it current. Update the chart whenever you actually rearrange desks. A chart that doesn't match reality is worse than no chart, since it actively misleads a sub who trusts it.
2. 2. Print two copies. One goes in the substitute folder (where sub plans and emergency procedures already live); tape the other to your desk so it's the first thing anyone sees, sub or not.
3. 3. Flag anything the sub needs beyond names. If two students genuinely can't sit near each other, use a "keep apart" rule (Deskplan supports up to two on the free tier) so the arrangement already accounts for it, with no sticky note needed.

Print tips

• Names auto-size to the seat, so they stay readable from across the room without any manual font fiddling.
• Landscape is the default and fits most class sizes on one page. Check the print preview before handing it off, so nothing gets cut off.
• Print a fresh copy after any last-minute rearranging. An out-of-date chart is a common source of sub-day confusion.
• If the sub won't recognize faces either, pair the chart with a page of printable name tags for the first day back. It's cheap insurance either way.

Ready to build the chart itself? The seating chart maker takes a pasted roster to a printable chart in a couple of minutes, with no account, and the roster never leaves your device.