Teaching While Sick...

Teaching while sick…

          Of all the professions in the world (that are non-medical of course), I think that teaching may be the one that has the highest illness rate.  Why you ask???  Because we work with kids! 

I have not been able to blog for the past several weeks, because I have been really run down.  Typically, I will start my day at the gym, teach all day, and then work for a couple of hours on TPT, and then finally unwind watching some TV after dinner.  BUT…over the past two weeks, I have barely been able to make it to school each day.

         

At the beginning of each school year, I tend to get sick, whether with a sinus infection, or with really bad allergies.  However, this year, my aliment is more of a general run-down feeling that does not want to leave me.  And I am comforted in knowing that I am not alone. 

Dragging ourselves into school when we are sick, is something that we have all experienced.  And honestly, it is easier to come to work (despite the illness or ailment) then making lesson plans for a substitute.  I, myself, have come to school on way too many occasion with sinus infections, strep throat, horrible allergies, and the list goes on, and on.  Yet, sometimes staying at home is not restful…in fact, it can be downright stressful.

This is a notion that people outside of the education profession just cannot understand.  How could staying at home either laying on the couch or in bed, be stressful?  If you have ever had a class that is a handful (I know I have), you understand the feeling of being stressed about staying home. 

Are there ways to make these instances easier? Sure! There are many resources on TPT that you can download that you can have in your arsenal of resources.  Yet, despite having these resources at the ready, I still feel guilty and stressed when I stay home from work.  Andddddd more often than not, I will just pack extra tissues, and come to school sick.

I am not going to offer suggestions or solutions to this problem that plagues every teacher.  I will however, remind you that you are not alone.  And although that is not a miracle cure, it is a comfort to me, and I hope it is to you too.

-Rachel