O.K.
all of you judgy mcjudgers can pump your brakes. Teachers need to take their
sick days. That is it, plain and simple. I am so tired of killing myself to go
to work when I feel like death warmed over, or worse calling in and feeling the
guilt of a teacher who took a sick day. The whole teacher sick day scene is
just wrong. Read this post to learn why I take my teacher sick days and how I
do it without guilt.
First
off I am going to pause and make it clear that I love my job. I do not take
sick days because I “don’t feel like going to work.” Trust me when I saw we
teachers typically only take sick days when we are on our deathbeds. My
question is why does it have to go to that extreme for us to feel worthy of
taking care of ourselves? Sick days are there for teachers to take time
and take care of ourselves. So why do teachers avoid taking their sick days?
Two reasons teacher guilt and sub plans.
Teacher Sick Day Guilt
Some
history about me, I have disc issues in my neck from an adolescent accident
that causes me great pain and also stems into migraines. For my first three
years of teaching, I did not take care of myself at work one bit. I felt guilty
calling out sick because of a migraine or horrible neck pain. Instead I would
do what we all do when we don’t feel our best at work, we power through. This
would result in a day that I was there with my students physically, but not
really mentally. Worse than that, I would have to go home and go to bed right
after school to ease the pain.
Now
that I am older and wiser I am happy to say I realize how stupid that was. Now,
I take sick days when I need them and I DON’T wait until I am in excruciating
pain to do it. The same goes for when I have a cold. I do not care what anyone
on social media says or the teacher down the hall who has never taken a sick
day thinks. None of that matters to me anymore. The only thing that matters is
being the best teacher I can be for my kiddos. In order to do that, I need to
take care of myself. I simply changed my mindset about sick days, and now I
take them as needed and don’t feel the teacher sick day guilt. I know that when
I push myself to just “be there” I am not really present and do not teach the
way my students deserve to be taught and loved. Thus, ladies and gents, I say
ignore that ridiculous guilt and take care of yo-self.
Sub Plans
Sub plans? Grrrooooaaaann! I know what we’re all
thinking; “writing sub plans are the worst, I’d rather power through and go to
school than plan sub plans right now!” I feel ya, writing sub plans is no walk
in the park especially when you wake up feeling absolutely horrible. But when
you have easy, digital, and editable plans that you can easily use and reuse, it
greatly simplifies writing sub plans. I use these editable sub plans to easily
make and print 3 days’ worth of sub plans at the start of the year. I keep them
in a binder labeled "sub tub" and replenish as needed. I'm not sure
why I call it a "sub tub" when it is actually a binder... hmm.
Anyway, I set this up because if I wake up feeling absolutely dreadful, I don’t
have to spend hours planning, writing, and emailing plans for my substitute.
Yay! Back to bed with all the tissues and soft blankets!
However you choose to
set up your sub plans, I definitely recommend writing a few extra days in
advance and putting them in a binder somewhere. You never know what may come up
or you may catch (no matter how many times you Clorox your tables). Still
thinking about taking time out now to make sub plans? Don’t, just hop to it!
Don't worry, you can thank me later. Click HERE to grab the editable sub plans I like to use.
There you have it folks. Stop feeling guilty about taking
your teacher sick days. Prepare in advance and simply call in when you need to.
Ignore the guilt and take care of your fabulous teacher self. Both you and your
students will be glad you did.
Want to explore my resources just for teachers? CLICK HERE NOW!
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