Home Sick

I once heard that there was a saying amongst teachers: Never waste a sick day being sick. I don't know how wide spread that really is, but it makes me chuckle. I usually don't spend sick days frivolously. There was one year that I used one in December (after my winter concerts were all done) to do some extra shopping.

When I first started teaching, I was afraid to use sick days because of the daunting task of preparing sub plans. I think I was just afraid that someone would find out that I didn't know how to run my class. Then one day I got horrendously sick... food poisoning I think. I was forced to call in. Once that happened, and I returned a couple of days later to find that my classroom hadn't burned down in my absence... well, it kind of opened up possibilities. After that I called in at least once a month for "mental health" reasons. Again, it was my first year and I felt overwhelmed most of the time.

These days I don't use my sick time. I usually come to work anyway if I have a cold. I stock up on flu remedies and just power through the day. Yesterday I had kind of a tough day... I was fighting off heavy symptoms and trying to put up with the recent freaky heat wave in a classroom with no air conditioning. At the end of the day I looked at myself in the mirror and said "You know what? I'm not coming in tomorrow." I tried to idiot-proof the room as much as possible, typed up a quick sub guide/lesson plan, called for the sub, and left.

I'm lucky that I have numerous assistants and responsible students who will help run things while I'm gone. As far as I know, everything went well. It was certainly a rather uneventful day for me. I probably should have spent most of it sleeping, but I was on the computer playing old games.

I did get one phone call from my accompanist, who told me that everything went well. He said that Autistic Sally in 1st period actually started crying when she heard I was sick, and kept asking how I was doing (sweet). I really don't want to know how Autistic Billy reacted.

I told everyone I'd wait and see how I was feeling before I made a decision whether or not I'll go back tomorrow. I'm feeling better, I'll probably go in.