Little. Yellow. Different.

Img credit: https://bplusmovieblog.com/2012/05/06/pic-of-the-day-contract-or-no-i-will-not-bow-to-any-sponsor-im-sorry-you-feel-that-way-but-basically-its-the-nature-of-the-beast-maybe-im-wrong/

Nope. It's not Nuprin, but it is about your health.

Educators have a long, rich history of ignoring their health. I know a current teacher who has more than 120 sick days accumulated in a 16 year career. Assuming that contracts give 10 sick days per year (a safe assumption, as it was true in every district I've worked in in multiple states), this person has used fewer than 40 sick days in a 2,928 day career (183 working days for a teacher in a school year). Meaning this person has been present for 98.6% of their career. It's a tremendous number for someone to be so healthy for such a high percentage of time.

And I submit to you that it is likely a lie. No, I'm not questioning this teacher's integrity. I'll explain.

Teachers know a couple of things - I mean - in addition to all the things they know. They know that missing a day of school means missing out on time with their students. This creates gaps. Gaps in learning. Gaps in time spent on projects. Gaps in access to being able to ask the teacher questions. It's easier to work through "a little headache and some aches and pains" than to try to make up for a missed day. After all - there's one teacher and as many as a hundred students impacted by that one day.

The other thing that teachers know is that it's easier to show up than to make plans for a sub. Generally speaking, there is no guarantee of what's going to happen with a different adult in the room.

This doesn't matter. If you're sick - you need to rest. Please don't bring illness in the room when you should be concerned with your own well-being. I don't want my staff to be reaching out when they're sick. I want them to focus on getting better. I want them to trust that their students are in good hands, and they will be ready to return to normalcy when their teacher returns.

You owe it to yourself, and quite frankly, you owe it to your students to be the best version of yourself while you're in the building with them. So take a nap and grab some vitamin C. We'll see you when you get back.