Maternity leave at end of school year

I'm stressing about planning for a sub! If you were due at the end of the school year, did you leave at a set date or work til the end?

I'm due June 21. Last day of school (for the kids) is June 24.

I gave personnel the date of June 12 to be safe but told them I'd work past that if I felt up to it.

But...this is what stresses me out about this. What I like about leaving on June 12 is that I can be 100% prepared for my sub for the last week & a half of school. If I continue to work, and let's say, two days into the week I'm going to the hospital...the sub plans will clearly change because I've been teaching. To me, giving myself a definite date makes it easier in that respect.

I'm a specialist (music), and often my several sections don't always coincide as far as schedules because of holidays, field trips, etc...so that makes planning a chore sometimes for a sub. And the other issue is, most subs are non musical so I have to leave stuff that I would normally not do with the kids myself.

So...ideally I'd love to save up my sick time and not use too much of it and work til the end.

But for peace of mind...I like the idea of leaving early. But then part of me is almost thinking, do I just teach my sub plans until I go into labor? yikes talk about boring. But probably good for me physically anyway.

So that's my story.

If you were in a similar predicament, how did you deal with it? Did you choose to work til the end or leave at a set date? How did you handle your sub plans?

Sorry this is so long! TIA!

Re: Maternity leave at end of school year

Tara, honestly, if this a PLANNED leave and it's eating into your 12 weeks of FMLA, I wouldn't worry about leaving plans. if you're on-leave, it's the school's responsibility to have someone there that can do the job.

i will be in a similar situation as you (I am going to try to go to the end, but we'll see) and I will leave very basic plans they can follow, but I am not killing myself creating all these awesome lessons that the sub may or may not even do.

Re: Maternity leave at end of school year

Well, I was in the exact same position as you three years ago.
I was due June 21 and also a music teacher.
I ended up needing to have a C-section on June 12 and had 5 days to prepare for that.
What I ended up doing was not leaving plans. At that point in the year, it just wasn't worth starting anything new, so I had tied up loose ends and finished any unit I was currently working on before I left for the year. Everyone made do. You seem like the same type of person as me, you don't want the kids to miss out because you're not there. And we both know that whomever fills in for you will most likely not have a music background to be able to teach the kids. Luckily, my friends at work set up the sub with some movies I had and the sub was able to come up with worksheets and what not to use.
so if you leave anything, don't make it too hard to understand for the sub.

Re: Maternity leave at end of school year

Thanks K and Rachel...

wow, what a funny coincidence, the same situation! Thanks for your advice!

I think I'll start an easy unit before I'm on my way out - do a 'musicals' unit and show movies that will take a while to finish...so that the sub will be left with the ends of the movies and the worksheets. ugh that means I better start writing up questions.

Thanks!