I hate having a substitute. My students are usually never on task and don’t complete the assignment. I put a lot of time into substitute plans get really annoyed when they are not taught the way I instructed or a lesson was not completed. This year I resorted to a video or a simple activity the kids can do on their own rather than continue with my lesson plans.
This week I had to create substitute plans with 
a days notice and rather than change my plans I used the application Explain Everything. I created a 15 minute podcast lesson for my students to watch and listen to with a substitute. My students said “It was like you were there with us,” or “I liked the lesson.” I never hear that after having a substitute. The following day the substitute came into my classroom and said it was the easiest class they ever had to cover.
I learned about Explain Everything from @gregkulowiec at EdCamp Social Studies. Explain Everything is an easy to use app that allows you annotate, animate, and narrate any presentation. You can create interesting and dynamic lessons and tutorials. You can take any lesson and record on screen drawings, objective movements, and capture audio. You can add any photo, powerpoint, PDF, or a file from dropbox, Evernote, Email, or Photos. Explain Everything is truly a wonderful application that is changing the face of education.
For other uses of Explain Everything, please visit the History 2.0 Classroom.