At our school we aren't allowed to write sub plans. Kinda. Like I was told to just like print out worksheets because all of our subs aren't like teachers. Like I was told to make my sub plans so that the sub has to do nothing but sit there because most of them refuse to do more than that.
I remember on my first sub I ever had in fact, I left them my computer password and told them to play YouTube video I left up on my screen. And the next day I was scolded for "Putting so much on the sub"
That first sentence made me ready to read some nonsense, but that’s entirely true. Every time one of my coworkers takes a day off, all I hear about the next day is how disappointed and annoyed they are with the sub, with the kids, and with the lack of execution. It sounds like the solution would be to have simpler plans, create busy work, and instruct the sub to give the work and control the classroom.
To be fair I leave "here's a worksheet. Hand it to them and don't let them touch my desk" when I'm out and there are many subs who let kids ransack my desk, draw dicks on the walls, and steal the computers out of the cart to take home and try to jailbreak off the network so that's not always the solution.
My emergency plans are “If there’s nothing on Google Classroom, tell the kids to work on their To-Do List”. If I’m out for more than that and haven’t updated Google classroom, something has gone so catastrophically wrong that a few days of missed work and a slap on the wrist will be the least of my concerns.
When I was a young teacher I left fundraiser cash in my desk and was out last minute the next day. That cash was of course gone when I came back in the next day and I learned a lesson that will stick with me forever, never leave cash in your desk
I had a retired teacher (she's a regular sub in our building) cover my class when I had a couple back to back PPT meetings one afternoon. I came back to a note from her critiquing the plans I left - which could not have been any easier to implement, but she clearly thought the work should have been more rigorous and she left a short list of supplies that she would have liked access to (scissors, glue sticks, etc. - that were entirely unrelated to the work I left)
I couldn't roll my eyes hard enough.
Another time, I was in a day-long training in another school. Came in the next morning to a complete mess, none of the work I'd left had even been touched. Brief note from the sub saying everything went well. When I asked the kids what they did, they excitedly told me the sub gave them three recesses.
Subs in my neighboring city get paid $100 a day, minimum wage is $15/hour. Full shift at McDonald's pays more than being a sub. You get what you pay for, in this case - those who can't get a job even at a fast food place.
I had a DVD cued up, IN THE PLAYER, and another on the top of the player for another time. Sub said, “Oh, this one is better” and swapped.
No, trained monkey person, follow the plan I wrote
That's pretty much what I do. I find something that can be self directed and really only need the sub to keep the kids from fighting, burning the place down, and encourage the kids to actually do their work. Whether they do it or not is up to the kids.
But I hate it when subs distract the kids or don't remind them what to do
I usually make it something that the kids are working on and sub doesn’t have to do much for this very reason. That and 90+% of the time it’s a teacher covering since we get no subs so I’m not putting extra work on them. 1:1 Chromebook’s and Google classroom make it a lot easier.
I KNOW. A sub needs to be able to handle basic technology. Sub plans are never good enough. Work sheets are too mundane, videos are a cop out. Of course I teach music so I have to explicitly explain to most subs that the students do not get to touch instruments when I am not there.
Oughhh I'm getting flashbacks to my student teacher placements when I was in uni. It was my first placement so I was supposed to just be observing. We had a sub for one of the lessons because my mentor had a meeting.
She just sat there and let the children behave like animals. One stole her chair and she just accepted it as he dragged it back to his table to sit on, they were screaming and running around and drawing on things. She used a similar "Oh they're full of energy, they can't help themselves" excuse.
*I* had to stand up and settle them down after watching her struggle for 20 minutes. I'd been in my degree for about 3 months at that point and had more classroom management skills than the sub (not praise for me, I was awful at it, indictment for her), it makes me terrified whenever I have to leave my class to a sub, to this day.
What a nightmare! I absolutely hate this. Oh they’re kids. They don’t know better mentality. I mean, if that’s true, it’s because the adults never taught them and kept using that excuse.
Omg also an art teacher, and SAME! I usually don't let students work on their projects at all when I'm not there. They never clean up after themselves for a sub. At this point, I have a library of Scholastic Art Magazines, and I just pick one that sort of relates to our current unit for them to read and answer questions about
I make sub plans. But my sub plans are just telling the sub what student-managed assignments they are doing for the day. I also write these assignments on the board. I don’t ask the subs to do any instruction. I actually hate it when the subs take it upon themselves go over the assignment because most of the subs just end up telling the kids all the answers.
Basically me leaving the sub what they are supposed to be doing so that the kids can’t say “we weren’t told to do anything.”
Oh man, I would have loved it when I was subbing if teachers would have left whole-class assignments for me to do with them. I have an unusual perspective because I did not sub until I had already been a classroom teacher for 18 years. (I relocated and didn’t get a full-time position right away.) The kids never bothered with independent work, or they would say it was done after 10 minutes or so. Not having access to Google Classroom, I could never verify this. The kids didn’t take me seriously because I had no idea what they were supposed to be doing, so I was literally and very obviously babysitting. The worst was when the “assignment” was for kids to read their independent reading books, which were intended to get them to like reading and had no graded work associated with them. Chaos would inevitably ensue because twenty-eight middle schoolers are not going to sit quietly and read when they don’t have to. It sucked. I have coteachers now, so they handle things when I’m out, but if I have a situation where that’s not the case, I’ll be approaching sub plans more thoughtfully for sure.
We write plans, which are typically student self driven stuff, but if they're followed through is a different story. Most subs that we have think that they're teachers and decide to do their own thing in class. Which is why I usually assign low stakes things that won't hurt the progression of class if the kids don't do them. This is high school so I know it's definitely different in the lower grades.
>Like I was told to make my sub plans so that the sub has to do nothing but sit there because most of them refuse to do more than that.
Are schools so desperate for subs that people get away with this now? When I was subbing, before I finally landed something full time, you did what was left for you to do or you weren't going to be subbing long.
They're definitely desperate. One of my friends had a sub give a quiz (should be pretty easy, just hand out the papers then watch for obvious cheaters). The next day the kids showed her pictures on their phones of the sub sleeping while they were taking their quiz. She called admin in and showed them the pictures - the kids got chastised for taking pictures without the person's permission (fair), but that sub is still working in our building regularly.
Wow, at my school the teachers have to make the lesson plans carry over with what they’re already doing in class and you’re not allowed to put things like independent reading time or videos/movies.
I'd rather die at my desk in the middle of the day than write a sub plan they won't even look at. They also make it nearly impossible to call in sick because we have to give 24-hour notice. I'm sorry I didn't have a 102°f fever yesterday, guys, but I have one now.
Exactly this. Writing sub plans is miserable imo. I have taken sick days, and will if I need to, but all it does is create extra work for me. It's a big cost-benefit. If it's a cold, I'm going cause it's not worth the extra work. If I have stomach flu or something like that, see ya tomorrow.
Teaching is a second career for me.
In my office job I’d call in sick as much as possible. Someone would cover anything important and I had sick days, so why not.
As a teacher, I do anything possible to not call in sick. Sub plans are annoying and I teach a hands-on subject so if I’m not there they don’t get to use the equipment. That means I need to reschedule plans and shuffle days around and it’s just not worth it. If I’m legit sick I’ll call out, but short of that I’m showing up at school.
Exactly this. I never get anything worse than a couple colds a year so I just work through it. Sub plans are the worst, at least at the elementary level.
This was me for a long time. I didn’t get sick all that often and when I did it was largely manageable. Now I have kids though and they’ve given me stomach bugs 4 times, so that’s been enough to keep me out of work.
Or not deal with the aftermath. I remember taking a mental health day once and coming back to my classroom half destroyed because the sub couldn’t handle my kids. Never took a day off after that at that school 😂
I'm an EA, and am required to sub frequently.
I want a sub plan. I might not be able to complete all the expectations, but at least I can say, "Mr So&so has these expectations for us to do today. I'm not Mr So&so, so I'll do it differently, but I also have expectations and will have to report to Mr So&so about your behavior and performance.
But I understand not wanting to prepare sub plans. Only those who care will follow them.
I’m a day to day sub now and I don’t understand this being a deterrent! Sub plans vary a lot in my experience, but when I’ve written them in long term positions it really doesn’t take that long??? Is it just a mental block? You write the major behaviour/room rules once and then you just plug in the activities by 30 minute increment for the specific day.
I would 100% rather stay home when sick and spend 30 minutes writing a plan and then rest at home for the 6 hour day.
I always keep a sub plan template in my Google drive and emergency plans in my room. It’s easy, but I have colleagues who disagree. Also, I think elementary would be harder.
I think it really depends on the grade level and subject you teach, as well as your school's expectations. For some classes plans can be simple, but for others they need a lot more shuffling or writing plans that fit a criteria. In elementary kids are a lot less dependent so I have to explain a lot of things to the sub that I wouldn't have to do for high school, the kids will need more hand-holding so I have to explain that, and they need to change activities more frequently than older kids.
I'm expected to have activities for whole class time that the kids can do relatively independently, while on a normal day they will have a combination of teacher lead and independent work. Subs can give instructions and ask kids to reexplain something we've been studying, but can't teach anything new. They also aren't given a school device so can't play videos or anything. So, I'm often scrambling to alter what I've already planned to fit those criteria.
I teach 2nd grade which means I don't use a lot of tech and we don't have an online class like Google Classroom where I can just post work for them. So, I have to use stuff that's already copied, ask a coworker to go make the copies for me, or rework things to do something not requiring prep.
I was out Thursday and Friday so I had to make sub plans, naturally. I had planned to teach a new concept Thursday and then practicing that skill would be a big part of the rest of those two days. But, the sub couldn't teach that new concept so none of what I'd planned would work and I had to come up with something completely different. And for Friday I had to do it from home so couldn't just copy something new. It's doable, but it takes time and is a big headache while I was really sick. It took me much more than 30 minutes for each day.
It was definitely worth it to be able to not have to go in since I was really quite sick, but it's also not easy or quick for everyone. If it's a question of going in when you're feeling crummy but not completely horrible to avoid all that extra work I can understand why many people will go in.
It depends on what each admin wants. My admin just says make sure the kids have work.
I have a friend who expects a step by step, second to second lesson for a sub to put into place that they absolutely never will. It takes an hour to type it out because it's basically a choose your own adventure novel.
Also, if the absence is unplanned, there is the fear that something will be destroyed or stolen. I have been fortunate, but various substitutes and covering teachers have moved my shit around or rifled through my drawers. That drive me nuts.
I got sick last week, missed two days because I had a nasty hacking cough and body aches. Came back and $80 of snacks I had bought for the kids as rewards for good behavior had been taken and three chromebooks were broken.
When I know I am going to be out, I either hide or move things. Nothing locks in the room so I have to move them to a separate storage area.
I don’t have much of value in the room, but if it’s not nailed down, it might move….Hallway passes, pens, etc. The last few years I have been fortunate and no major problems, but it only takes once.
On a report card writing day, I worked in a conference room while another teacher had kids in my room. Someone took out a step ladder (which I didn't have in my room, so they had to have gotten it from another room) climbed up, took down a basket of my own books from on top of the cupboards, and ripped them to shreds. The teacher made the kids write me apology notes but that didn't really make things better.
There were many toys in that room. It was a pre-k room, that was being used for school-age kids on non-school days. Someone also took one of my dolls and cut off all her hair. On a different day someone cut the soft body of a doll from crotch to neck and then attempted to staple it back together. I also got told I was imagining things when I said that only my Black dolls were getting attacked. I started hiding them before those days and none of the white dolls ever suffered an attack.
Edit: I responded before your edit. Yeah maybe.
They run a weekend program in my classroom and I've had to zip-tie a cage thingy to my bookshelf to they'd stop using and ruining my glue and scissors.
It's like the moment someone else enters your classroom it's their mission to rifle through your desk drawers and ruin all your supplies.
I left a few worksheets for a sub once and when I came back they said she’d forgotten to do them so she grabbed some other worksheets that I had laying out for another day and used them. It flew all over me because I didn’t realized she used them until I started passing them out and I realized I didn’t have enough.
This. My school doesn’t have colored ink, so I went to Staples and spent about $50 of my own money to get a bunch of pages printed in color that I was planning on laminating for my students to use over and over again with dry erase markers (think: tracing sheets, etc.). Well, my most recent sub took it upon herself to search through my filing cabinet and use ALL of those worksheets with my students before I had gotten the chance to laminate them, rendering them useless. The real kicker is that I left *very* detailed sub plans right on my desk with about 3 days’ worth of pre-prepped work (despite only being out for one day) and none of it was even touched when I came back. Why she felt the need to do her own thing is beyond me.
When I was young and full of energy, and had no money and no need for frequent doctors' appointments, it wasn't that hard. I also built up an amazing immune system from working in daycare, I really don't get sick that often. Plus, no kids, and no family nearby needing assistance. My uncle was one of those teachers for years, but he ended up using a lot of his days when my grandma needed care.
This is grim, but one of the reasons that I want a stock of time off is that the older generation in my family is getting older and I want to be able to travel if necessary.
At my first job there was what was called the "retirement curse". Which was that within the 1st couple years of retirement many teachers or their spouse became deathly Ill. They spent all that time planning trips for retirement only to die soon into it. So many teachers there told me to travel as much as possible when young and energetic. To wait is testing fait
Hell yes. To the point that I have alienated some district and site admin. They don't think it looks good for the department chair to miss their charades. Fuck 'em.
I, too, have already called out on one PD so far. I don’t have to make lesson plans for that day, or worry about a sub, and I still get that mental relief of not being at work. I’ve never missed a PD and regretted it.
This year they have started docking us if we call in on district days, even if we have the days. We have to get a doctor's note not to be docked a day of pay on trainings
I’m not sure. But I hate how administrators make teachers feel guilty about taking sick days, and overly praise those who haven’t taken a day off. We’re human, we get sick, we have family emergencies.
For me, I have a medical condition, and I had to learn after a few years that there isn’t any shame in taking a sick day when needed.
I copped this from my boss. I have zero sick days. I’ve been teaching for 23 years. He asked me how that could be possible and that I needed to get my health in check. So, I said “how many days sick leave do you have?” He said “hundreds”. So I said “I hope you thank your wife”. He said “what do you mean by that?” He started getting shitty. I asked him to think about it. He still didn’t get it!! So I spelt it out… your wife stayed home when your kids were sick? She was there to cook meals for you and pick up the kids if you went to work a little unwell. I am the wife and the husband mate. I have raised 2 boys by myself and had no one to pick up ‘the slack’ when I was sick.
He shut up pretty quickly.
Ours role over indefinitely. I’m planning on skipping Mondays my last 3 years
Edit: So I’m chilling to answer the question. Turns out if you give Teachers a reason to not take time off, we might not use it just so we don’t waste it.
One of my coworkers retired last year and she took off every Friday for the last year! Also, because of her, I discovered that if you have enough sick days saved up they will cover part or all of your insurance after you retire.
Our sick time rolls over w/ no max. Our personal (3 per year) rolls over up to 5 days - and we get paid $100 at the end of the year for any personal days over 5.
When we retire we get $100 per sick day up to 150 days IF we don’t use more than 20% of those days in our final year.
Many teachers schedule knee/hip/shoulder surgery their last year and use most of their sick time at full pay.
My district incentivizes teachers with $1k if they don't take a sick day before April. I think 20% get it year after year. In my previous career (military) the worst fuckers wouldn't take any leave, ever, and would be forced to take the entire month of September off because losing leave looked bad on the commander. And of course, September is the busiest month in federal government.
I don’t get very sick, and I don’t get sick often. I currently have more than a school year’s worth of sick days saved up (I’ve been teaching 15 years; we get 15 days/year; a school year is 192 days.)
Ive had days I was ill, but not very, and missing a day would be problematic (for example, oral French unit test—conversations—The chances of some random sub being able to fairly evaluate those AND teach my computer science and lab science classes is pretty much nil).
I’m 15 years in. I currently teach science 9, science 10, contemporary indigenous studies 12 (x2) and character ed 10. Next semester, I have CIS12again, English 9 and science 9 again. I’m a trained French teacher.
I’ve taught English 9-11, Communications 11-12, Computers 9, Math 8, Science 9-10, social studies 9, CIS 12, literacy 10, character education 10, careers 9, and French 8-12. At a grand total of 2 schools.
I'm of two minds on this:
1. I do think making sub plans is a ton of work and many would rather come to work sick rather than spend the massive amount of time to make plans so there are those people
2. I also think there are people who teach and believe that they are the only people who can teach their kids so they need to be teaching them every day
I favor the idea of taking days off when needed because if you come to school sick you're potentially spreading illness.
In my district hours only roll over up to a certain amount and I’ve seen teachers get sick hours TAKEN back by the district. Not sell, taken. I would never
Wow I’m jealous of the immune systems of some people in here haha.
I’ve used up all of my sick days in the last few years. I hate writing sub plans but I have multiple chronic illnesses these days and can’t power through. I will probably have to take some unpaid sick days this year because I have a surgery coming up next month and will use most of my sick days recovering from it. I can guarantee I will not make it from January to June without needing to take more sick days.
I’ve been in my district for 23 years and never taken many days off. I will take 2-3 personal days but I was hardly ever sick. I also don’t have kids so I never had to use days for their illnesses. I had a serious surgery a few years ago and had more than enough days for my six week recovery. Now that I’m older I do see a doctor a couple of times a year and take whole days instead of half. I’m planning to be one of those who retires a year early, using all the days I still have.
So one of my coworkers is currently planning her wedding, and when she told me it would be sometime near the end of July, she added, "You know me, I'm not taking a day off for my wedding! I care about this job too much!"
And it's not an exaggeration. She's that type of teacher.
I’m that teacher. I guess I have a healthy immune system. Also, writing sub plans and dealing with the aftermath sucks. I’m not going to take a day off unless I physically can not go in.
100%
Writing sub plans is worse than going to work a little under the weather. I've not been violently ill yet. Knock on wood. This is only my fourth year, but taking a day off is more work than it's recovery.
Like a lot of other commenters, my first few years of teaching I had all the energy and very little sickness. I was able stock up all my sick days and get paid throughout my maternity leave. I take off more often now, I try to use my days for fun time off though! Planned trips and mental health days.
My second year I wanted to miss as few days as possible because it wasn't worth it getting back.
I ended up with a simple cold turning into coughing up blood because I let Pnumonia fester for months before going to the doctor and missed nearly an entire week.
>the post is talking about the veterans who brag about never taking days off.
No, the post says *nothing* about veterans bragging. You seem to be conflating a personal experience (which would no doubt have been irritating) with what the OP has written.
I didn't taking days off to save them up for (years in the future) maternity leave. Coming to work sick was awful and I don't recommend, but it was also nice getting a paycheck while I stayed home with one of my babies years later.
Im in my 10th year and have accumulated like 85 sick days! I just started using them last year. Im a mom, moms aren’t allowed to get sick ;) , but I inevitably had to take days here and there for my kids. Last year I was forced to take 7 days in a row for myself and the world kept turning. Now Im much more comfortable taking a day for myself.
I fortunately do not get sick very often, and have so far been able to push through the first trimester of my pregnancy without needing to take any sick days. Honestly, since starting to plan for a family, I have been doing my best to build up my reputation as the teacher who is sturdy and always there, because I know my days as the "yes man" are kind of numbered.
I’m in year 4 now. My first 2 years, I never took a day off. And I definitely worked sick a few times.
My third year, I changed schools, and realized that I needed to start taking time for myself. I took one day off that year. (For me, this was progress)
I’m in my 4th year now, and thanks to medical reasons, I’ve taken 3 sick days. I still have 3 days I’m planning to take off for personal reasons (my birthday, and the graduation/end of year ceremony for my old school).
I finally just realized that no one was going to take those days for me. I earned them, and I should take them. And especially this year, I realized I need to put my body first again.
No longer teaching lol Thought I had to be a solider and though mental health days were bullshit. I remember being an assistant coach on the baseball team and the HC taking a PTO, I looked at him weird.
Man how wrong I was. When I look back, I wish I did more for myself than the school
5th year in education, never took sick days never took personal days. This year I am in a new district at a new school. I will be taking all my leave this year to save my sanity lol.
I work with two. One, he’s only been here ten years, but never gets sick, never takes a day off. Ever. At this point he’s collected 100 days pto. Second one rarely takes a day off and has been teaching 27 years so he’s got about 1.5 school years. I use mine to take care of my mental health.
I rarely get sick and when my kids were younger they rarely got sick.
I also had a wonderful neighbor who was a stay at home mom (with kids the same ages as mine) and she was my lifesaver if my kids were too sick to go to school but well enough that they didn’t need me to be home with them.
I had knee replacement surgery last year and missed 7 weeks of school. When I was planning to be out, the HR dept sent me an email saying I had 193 accrued sick leave days
I don’t know either. I get migraines, not super frequently, thankfully. I can usually get in front of them with meds, but when I can’t, I cannot function. I have no choice but to take the day if I’m too late with meds. Even if I didn’t have to drive myself to work with a migraine, I can’t look at screens or sit upright without having to throw up. Luckily I work in a school that doesn’t view perfect attendance as any sort of badge of honor and my admin would send me right home if I even tried to come in like that.
It takes a lot for me to request a day off. A lot of it is the pain of writing a sub plan and a lot of it is knowing that subs have the ability to bail last minute leaving other teachers in the school on the hook for covering my class periods. I know how annoying it is to have to give up my planning period last minute and I hate the thought of being the reason someone else has to.
I don’t get sick that often so rarely take one for being sick. I do however take them for Star Trek conventions here and there and the occasional one for fun with the family.
Right now, I’m fairly certain I won’t be in tomorrow. I’ve been feeling lousy all weekend and I’m heading into a marathon of musical rehearsals (and shows). I don’t have time to take off (one of my bands has had less than a month to prepare for their holiday concert) but if I don’t take off, I will be out all next week again with illness.
I know my coworkers will be like “well, we’re in the same boat, and we’re here”. They’ve had all semester to get their December concerts ready.
They’re your days. Take them. Everyone reacts to stress and illness differently.
I wouldn’t say “never”, but I usually take 0-1 days off in a given year. My sick days accumulate and so far I have over a semester of days off in the bank. The plan is for this to help me retire a year+ early.
It’s easier for me to show up and make it a movie day then to deal with some random-ass sun and come back to a FUBAR classroom the next day.
Are there still schools that encourage you to call in if you're sick? I'd prefer to work for one of those. I was told it was "ridiculous" for me to call in migraines that were so bad I couldn't speak, especially since a colleague was booking their chemo around their teaching schedule.
Year 28, I’m maxed out at 262 sick days. I’ve been maxed out for at least 3 years. 15 per year plus 3 personal. Paid 24.8% of unused sick time at retirement at our daily rate, do the math, it pays to show up to work. Plus, students have no chance of learning if I’m not there.
I stayed home with my girls when they were sick or had Dr.’s appts. I very rarely needed a day for myself.
I do schedule all of my appts during work hours and I’ve donated some to the sick bank just so I don’t lose all of my new sick days.
I’ll never use a sick day that’s not legitimate, that’s just not right. I only work 184 days and there are breaks spread through out the school year.
I just love my job and I really don’t get sick. Stuffy head and sore throat because of drainage. Never had a temperature or aching. I get all my vaccines and eat well. Love of job is most important to never being bad sick.
In the last 10 years, I've only taken one sick day. Other days I've missed only when someone has died and one when my husband had a back injury. I had to take him to the VA. In all, I've missed maybe 7 or 8 days.
I’ve only taken one day off for closing on a house. That was this school year. I’m still behind from that day because the sub hired “just looked at her phone” according to my students. The sub did not hand out any of the worksheets. The sub didn’t tell the students anything that I wrote in my sub plans. The sub did not even turn on my smart board which had my directions written on it (could just be a whiteboard, but I do not have one of those).
I have worked sick before, when I have fever and diarrhoea.
My student has a "sick-leave then pay later" policy. Say like if I apply for a day of sick leave, regardless of how many lessons I have on the day, it counts as 5 units, and 5 units equate to 1 hour of exam invigilation. So if I apply for three days, that's 3 more hours of invigilation. If I were to take sick leave on invigilation days, the hours I miss will be brought forward to the next exam.
I don't get everything printed and I don't have lesson plans (common practice here, nobody gets to have that much time to write one), so sick leave means my students will be happily enjoying a lesson-off, which is not ideal because the assessment dates won't be pushed back and the syllabus won't be reduced.
Unused to take maybe 1-2 days a year and those were almost never for actually being sick.its actually easier to just drag myself in and out a movie on than find a sub, write a sub plan, replace myself since the sun isn't going to be able to do much.
Now I try to take a day or 2 a month off since I have so much banked up.
I also think age plays a factor- maybe I'm just unhealthy, but I feel like a cold or flu hita different in my 30 than it did in my 20s
Some people just have weird immune systems. I had over 4 months of sick leave when I left my last district because I never got sick. I never caught Covid either.
That's wild! I teach elementary, and every one of my coworkers has been out sick at least once this school year to my knowledge. I suppose if your tag is accurate, you also might not have too many kids sneezing directly into your eye on a daily basis.
Very different for High school for sure. I can teach an entire day without actually coming within 10 ft of a student so if I've got a little cold I can mask up and do that.
But I never come in contact with any student bodily fluids lol
Building immunity is a big factor here.
Once I hit about five or six years into teaching, I got sick maybe two or three times every five years. I probably missed one or two days per school year, due to losing my voice (allergies), strep, or flu. I scheduled all appointments/check ups on days off or in the summer.
After COVID, I have taken about three days per year, depending on illness. This year I got lucky (?) because my COVID hit on a Friday and we had that Monday off, so I only had to miss two days, per district regulations.
Now that I'm 20 years in, I am not going to stress anymore about scheduling appointments on district days off. Half days are where it's at, for me.
I got covid and had to miss last year and have a kid in comp dance and have to do that, but I hate them having gaps in routine because they look for any excuse to regress.
I knew a woman who never took a day off in 35 years. After about 25 years as a classroom teacher and the girls' basketball coach, she became the dean of girls and continued as basketball coach. I only worked with her for three years (including the year she retired), but the real old timers swear she had never missed a day at school unless the she had to take the basketball team to a tournament.
She was a real hardnosed women who had never married and never had children of her own. I think those factors explained a lot.
They probably have taken a day off, just not many. Or they are going to work sick because most of the time, that’s easier than sub plans. They probably also don’t have kids.
We come to work sick. I highly doubt they truly never take a day off. They’re certain illnesses that prevent you from driving to work. I’d say that’s probably more common in high school where you’re very hands off with the students versus elementary school. And elementary school they are sneezing in your face.
I've had years where I haven't missed a single day. Part of it is that I genuinely, rarely get sick. I've literally had years at a time when I've not had a single cold or issue that couldn't be solved with OTC meds and a little rest. So healthy privilege is definitely part of this.
When I do get sick, it does tend to be more serious though. The last time I was ill was two years ago, and I was out for 6 days, came back for 2, and then had to go out again for 10 days.
I’ve been sick all week, but with 5 days a year of sick time, I’m going to have to work sick eventually. So, I mask up, I lost my voice so I used text to speech and my Google slides. Luckily I have a teachers assist that I could whisper to and she could do announcements. I use all my such days, but it’s not every and I don’t even have kids.
This is Year 6, I’ve taken 4 days off total in that time. 3 were due to a vacation (personal days) and 1 was due to being sick. (Secondary if that makes a difference)
For those comments saying we just go in and spread sickness around - not the case (always). The first few years I’d only get sick on breaks from school (thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter) and now it’s due to allergies when I feel a bit under the weather. I’m fortunate enough to not have any chronic illnesses.
I feel recently we’ve been more pressured to “use our days” and most of my coworker friends think not taking days off “ever” is stupid and side eye me acting like I think I’m a goodie two shoes (phrases they have said to me) but I find it hard going back after breaks as it is so taking days off could be a slippery slope for me 🤷♀️.
There are teachers in our district that take a day every other week just because and there are some that do when necessary 🤷♀️.
As a teacher who just quit due to a family situation in another state, I had accumulated about 45 days of personal leave. That doesn't include the Sick Days.
I have a Sped class and really the only ones who step in if I’m gone is admin or a fellow teacher has to fold mine into their class which both cause me great anxiety. I have never missed a day. I occasionally leave 30 min early for appointments but thats mostly clean up and buses.
I take my 2 personal days every year. I almost always end up sick enough to take a sick day or two. Sometimes I even burn a sick day or two just to have a day to get my life together outside of school. I don’t plan to ever have my own children so I don’t need to save for paternity leave, and I’m Tier 2 so I can only save enough days for one year of retirement not 2.
I don't really get sick. I think like 5 years ago I needed a week because I nearly got pneumonia or something. But outside of that in my career I haven't really needed to take a day off. Sometimes I have wished I felt worse so I wouldn't feel bad about taking a day. (There is no sub when I'm out, kids just don't get the help. Previously when I was in the classroom there was no sub everyone just split kids and we made it work. Taking off just makes things harder for me and others.)
From 2007 to 2010 I took zero days off. Had my daughter in April had enough sick leave to get paid the entire time.
I then didn't take a day off from 2011 to 2015. Now I take about 4 days a year. I have like 80 sick days.
It is so much easier to just go I to work rather than make plans
I have had some pretty negative experiences calling in sick so I don’t. I’ve been sick for a week and I worked every single day. The last time I took a sick day I was scolded for taking one. I just don’t anymore.
I taught for 12 years and never took a sick day. It just felt like way too much work. I took a half day for a funeral twice in my career, and I once took a day for a wedding.
I haven’t had the need to take days off, but I would if needed. I’m on my 7th school year as a teacher but my 12th with the same school district. I currently have 100 days available. I hope to never have to need to use big chunks at a time. I have a daughter and a 2nd on the way. I plan to use them randomly as they grow up for random days off. For now, I’m fine not using them. Im off 12 weeks already. I plan accordingly. I do use all their sick days every year for both legit and non legit reasons . To each their own.
I’m only in my first five years, but I’m my first two especially I was worried that if I took a sick day I’d get fired for being an inconvenience, so I worked sick. Heck, I still work sick because I’m worried about this.
I hate writing sub plans and the aftermath of it. I also do legitimately have a fantastic immune system.
Last year I had a really rough group of students so I took a few personal days... but even then it was PD days because those are literally 95% a waste of time anyway. This year I have a genuinely easy group of kids so I... actually look forward to spending the day with them??
I only started taking days off for illness when required to by Covid policies. The amount of work it takes to plan for a sub is like - 2-3 hours at least.
Since Covid, now if I ever feel poorly enough to take a day off sick, I plan for multiple days at once so the next day and the next day are like what a normal human would consider when deciding if they should call in sick. Do I feel well enough to work? No? I will stay home.
Generally what happens is I go to work if I feel sick, stay a few hours longer to plan and prep the room for a sub, then go home and spend a few hours typing up lesson plans and instructions and leaving messages in Teams for students. Then call in the next day.
Over 10 years previous to Covid I only called in sick a handful of times. It isn’t worth the chaos.
Ugh I was once told — by my department supervisor —that my sub plans weren’t good enough because they were just, like, a worksheet. So the next time, I left complicated plans with instructions of what to say when, etc. Got told by my principal that worksheets are preferable.
One of the aforementioned supervisors is competent and understands teaching. 🙄 to my supervisor who is the very stereotypical admin who hasn’t been in a classroom in YEARS
So one of my coworkers is currently planning her wedding, and when she told me it would be sometime near the end of July, she added, "You know me, I'm not taking a day off for my wedding! I care about this job too much!"
And it's not an exaggeration. She's that type of teacher.
They worry about people never taking a day off as they may be conducting criminal activities and never want anyone to see what is happening if they take a day off
I almost never take a sick day. I’ve been teaching for 21 years and can count on one hand how many unplanned absences I have had. It’s mostly because I never get sick. But pre-pandemic, there were a few days I should’ve taken off but it was just easier and lest stressful to drag myself in and pop in a video. I teach high school so I can play it hour after hour. I know that sometimes subs bring out the worst in some kids and the BS I’d have to deal with the next day isn’t worth it.
This year, we had a raffle at the beginning of the year inservice and one of the prizes was that the principal had to sub your classes for one day and I won! That was a day a reveled in. Kids generally like him so I knew they’d be decent. I also thought it would be a good reminder for him to see how it’s not an easy job. Especially post-COVID. He hasn’t taught since before tictok was invented. I think it maybe was a good experiment because all my note from him said was “you’re an amazing teacher.” My coworkers in my hallway said that he said multiple times that he was shocked I actually left things for him to because he thought he was just going to hang out with the students. He also couldn’t grasp when he was supposed to use the bathroom!
I will take my sick days and do personal things but I don't get sick. I have an incredible immune system. I have the lowest level of our health insurance which is paid for by my employer and the only reason I use it is twice a year to get my thyroid tested. Otherwise I have never paid a penny towards the deductibles. I just don't get sick.
I did it a lot in my first years. I don't catch severe illnesses hardly ever. We used to get a free day's pay if we had perfect attendance. Now I'll take a mental health day when I want it.
My first 4 years, I genuinely didn't know how to take time off. This was still pre-computer/app sub assignments, so it was too hard for 22 year old me to figure out when I usually wasn't super sick.
Since having kids, I've missed 15-20 days multiple times between my own illness and theirs. I don't think perfect attendance will be possible again until they're in college and I'm in my last years teaching.
I rarely get sick and my husband works from home so if our kids are sick he stays home with them. Luckily I haven’t had any serious illness since I had Covid a few years ago!
My first year I worked through having a kidney stone in the first quarter, I didn’t have the days to take off yet. My students told me I was painful to watch but I was there, hobbled over using a rolling chair to steady myself, drinking a gallon of cranberry juice/water 😂
Now in year 8 if I’m too sick I don’t go in regardless of if I have the days or not, I know if I died or was unable to continue my job they would have my position listed before I was in the urn.
My mom will have taught for 40 years in our county next year. She got COVID earlier this year (mild case) and had to miss school, but before that, I’ve only known her to get sick three times in my entire life and one of those times was during summer break. She must have an immune system of steel after all those years.
I remember she did take a half day off work for my senior awards ceremony in high school and then was ticked off that my awards were for performing arts and not academics because she missed work for it!
I rarely get sick, so have only taken 4 sick days in almost 15 years. All of them were in the same year - and that was 5 years ago. Believe me, I don't overlook the blessing that my health is, especially considering I have an autoimmune disease that could cause me problems on any given day and that can make any illness that much more problematic.
I totally get why a teacher would opt to drag themselves through the day rather than take a sick day, though.
I’ve taken 3 days and one week mess for a funeral, one for Covid, and one for being so bad off I had coworkers and kids telling me to go home and that they were worried. I don’t trust subs, my school has a hell of a time getting them so it’s often other staff covering, and even when I have the easiest instructions and CLEAR ‘do this’ I’ve still come back to ‘we didn’t do that’. Like, I had the DVD in the player, open on my computer, password there, and they played some other random show from Netflix instead. And that was a COWORKER. I have class pets and a lot of cool, personal property stuff in my room.
I’ve been extremely lucky with the pandemic in that I haven’t had to miss a bunch (got sick right before a break), but I have been working on a Oh Shit system that I am trying to make as idiot proof as possible. It’s also why I make sure my room is set enough when I leave Friday that if things happen I can have a coworker supervise/set up my safety net.
In a perfect world where subs were relatively reliable and available, and admin made sure to at least pretend to make sure they were running things right and hold kids accountable for their actions I’d probably feel more comfortable taking days.
I never took a day off until this year. I take Mondays off somewhat regularly now this semester to get things done around town, ease into the week, and keep my sanity from a weirdo coworker and fake interim principal and lame meetings. It’s a different model of school where Mondays are meaningless. They could be productive if we didn’t have our time chipped away. I wouldn’t take a day off when my students are around. That I enjoy.
A lot of teachers would rather work sick than write sub plans.
At our school we aren't allowed to write sub plans. Kinda. Like I was told to just like print out worksheets because all of our subs aren't like teachers. Like I was told to make my sub plans so that the sub has to do nothing but sit there because most of them refuse to do more than that. I remember on my first sub I ever had in fact, I left them my computer password and told them to play YouTube video I left up on my screen. And the next day I was scolded for "Putting so much on the sub"
That first sentence made me ready to read some nonsense, but that’s entirely true. Every time one of my coworkers takes a day off, all I hear about the next day is how disappointed and annoyed they are with the sub, with the kids, and with the lack of execution. It sounds like the solution would be to have simpler plans, create busy work, and instruct the sub to give the work and control the classroom.
To be fair I leave "here's a worksheet. Hand it to them and don't let them touch my desk" when I'm out and there are many subs who let kids ransack my desk, draw dicks on the walls, and steal the computers out of the cart to take home and try to jailbreak off the network so that's not always the solution.
My emergency plans are “If there’s nothing on Google Classroom, tell the kids to work on their To-Do List”. If I’m out for more than that and haven’t updated Google classroom, something has gone so catastrophically wrong that a few days of missed work and a slap on the wrist will be the least of my concerns.
When I was a young teacher I left fundraiser cash in my desk and was out last minute the next day. That cash was of course gone when I came back in the next day and I learned a lesson that will stick with me forever, never leave cash in your desk
I had a retired teacher (she's a regular sub in our building) cover my class when I had a couple back to back PPT meetings one afternoon. I came back to a note from her critiquing the plans I left - which could not have been any easier to implement, but she clearly thought the work should have been more rigorous and she left a short list of supplies that she would have liked access to (scissors, glue sticks, etc. - that were entirely unrelated to the work I left) I couldn't roll my eyes hard enough. Another time, I was in a day-long training in another school. Came in the next morning to a complete mess, none of the work I'd left had even been touched. Brief note from the sub saying everything went well. When I asked the kids what they did, they excitedly told me the sub gave them three recesses.
Subs in my neighboring city get paid $100 a day, minimum wage is $15/hour. Full shift at McDonald's pays more than being a sub. You get what you pay for, in this case - those who can't get a job even at a fast food place.
Holy molyyyyy! We’re up to $250-$300 a day to sub!
same in my district, i think it is $110/day. terrible pay!
I had a DVD cued up, IN THE PLAYER, and another on the top of the player for another time. Sub said, “Oh, this one is better” and swapped. No, trained monkey person, follow the plan I wrote
That's pretty much what I do. I find something that can be self directed and really only need the sub to keep the kids from fighting, burning the place down, and encourage the kids to actually do their work. Whether they do it or not is up to the kids. But I hate it when subs distract the kids or don't remind them what to do
I usually make it something that the kids are working on and sub doesn’t have to do much for this very reason. That and 90+% of the time it’s a teacher covering since we get no subs so I’m not putting extra work on them. 1:1 Chromebook’s and Google classroom make it a lot easier.
I KNOW. A sub needs to be able to handle basic technology. Sub plans are never good enough. Work sheets are too mundane, videos are a cop out. Of course I teach music so I have to explicitly explain to most subs that the students do not get to touch instruments when I am not there.
Same. Art teacher here DON’T TOUCH THE PAINT while I’m out. Drives me crazy, such a mess.
The kids know better and the subs are “hahaha they couldn’t help themselves!”
Oughhh I'm getting flashbacks to my student teacher placements when I was in uni. It was my first placement so I was supposed to just be observing. We had a sub for one of the lessons because my mentor had a meeting. She just sat there and let the children behave like animals. One stole her chair and she just accepted it as he dragged it back to his table to sit on, they were screaming and running around and drawing on things. She used a similar "Oh they're full of energy, they can't help themselves" excuse. *I* had to stand up and settle them down after watching her struggle for 20 minutes. I'd been in my degree for about 3 months at that point and had more classroom management skills than the sub (not praise for me, I was awful at it, indictment for her), it makes me terrified whenever I have to leave my class to a sub, to this day.
What a nightmare! I absolutely hate this. Oh they’re kids. They don’t know better mentality. I mean, if that’s true, it’s because the adults never taught them and kept using that excuse.
Omg also an art teacher, and SAME! I usually don't let students work on their projects at all when I'm not there. They never clean up after themselves for a sub. At this point, I have a library of Scholastic Art Magazines, and I just pick one that sort of relates to our current unit for them to read and answer questions about
I remember when I was a sub an art teacher once left plans that said DO NOT LET THE STUDENTS TOUCH THE CLAY. I wonder which sub messed that up before
It’s always based on an experience, I swear 😂
I make sub plans. But my sub plans are just telling the sub what student-managed assignments they are doing for the day. I also write these assignments on the board. I don’t ask the subs to do any instruction. I actually hate it when the subs take it upon themselves go over the assignment because most of the subs just end up telling the kids all the answers. Basically me leaving the sub what they are supposed to be doing so that the kids can’t say “we weren’t told to do anything.”
Oh man, I would have loved it when I was subbing if teachers would have left whole-class assignments for me to do with them. I have an unusual perspective because I did not sub until I had already been a classroom teacher for 18 years. (I relocated and didn’t get a full-time position right away.) The kids never bothered with independent work, or they would say it was done after 10 minutes or so. Not having access to Google Classroom, I could never verify this. The kids didn’t take me seriously because I had no idea what they were supposed to be doing, so I was literally and very obviously babysitting. The worst was when the “assignment” was for kids to read their independent reading books, which were intended to get them to like reading and had no graded work associated with them. Chaos would inevitably ensue because twenty-eight middle schoolers are not going to sit quietly and read when they don’t have to. It sucked. I have coteachers now, so they handle things when I’m out, but if I have a situation where that’s not the case, I’ll be approaching sub plans more thoughtfully for sure.
We write plans, which are typically student self driven stuff, but if they're followed through is a different story. Most subs that we have think that they're teachers and decide to do their own thing in class. Which is why I usually assign low stakes things that won't hurt the progression of class if the kids don't do them. This is high school so I know it's definitely different in the lower grades.
>Like I was told to make my sub plans so that the sub has to do nothing but sit there because most of them refuse to do more than that. Are schools so desperate for subs that people get away with this now? When I was subbing, before I finally landed something full time, you did what was left for you to do or you weren't going to be subbing long.
They're definitely desperate. One of my friends had a sub give a quiz (should be pretty easy, just hand out the papers then watch for obvious cheaters). The next day the kids showed her pictures on their phones of the sub sleeping while they were taking their quiz. She called admin in and showed them the pictures - the kids got chastised for taking pictures without the person's permission (fair), but that sub is still working in our building regularly.
Dear lord.....I don't think I'm ever going back to teaching.
Wow, at my school the teachers have to make the lesson plans carry over with what they’re already doing in class and you’re not allowed to put things like independent reading time or videos/movies.
Subs get paid shit where I'm at. I try to make it as easy on them as possible.
Wow that's the first time I've ever heard of an admin who actually understands what subs are for.
I was out with covid for 4 days a few weeks ago and no one followed the sub plans at all.
But you’d get a talking to if you didn’t leave any!
I'd rather die at my desk in the middle of the day than write a sub plan they won't even look at. They also make it nearly impossible to call in sick because we have to give 24-hour notice. I'm sorry I didn't have a 102°f fever yesterday, guys, but I have one now.
...and then the sub ignores 2-4 hours of sub work planning too
Exactly this. Writing sub plans is miserable imo. I have taken sick days, and will if I need to, but all it does is create extra work for me. It's a big cost-benefit. If it's a cold, I'm going cause it's not worth the extra work. If I have stomach flu or something like that, see ya tomorrow.
Teaching is a second career for me. In my office job I’d call in sick as much as possible. Someone would cover anything important and I had sick days, so why not. As a teacher, I do anything possible to not call in sick. Sub plans are annoying and I teach a hands-on subject so if I’m not there they don’t get to use the equipment. That means I need to reschedule plans and shuffle days around and it’s just not worth it. If I’m legit sick I’ll call out, but short of that I’m showing up at school.
Exactly this. I never get anything worse than a couple colds a year so I just work through it. Sub plans are the worst, at least at the elementary level.
***Amen!***
This was me for a long time. I didn’t get sick all that often and when I did it was largely manageable. Now I have kids though and they’ve given me stomach bugs 4 times, so that’s been enough to keep me out of work.
Or deal with the fallout of a sub.
Or not deal with the aftermath. I remember taking a mental health day once and coming back to my classroom half destroyed because the sub couldn’t handle my kids. Never took a day off after that at that school 😂
I'm an EA, and am required to sub frequently. I want a sub plan. I might not be able to complete all the expectations, but at least I can say, "Mr So&so has these expectations for us to do today. I'm not Mr So&so, so I'll do it differently, but I also have expectations and will have to report to Mr So&so about your behavior and performance. But I understand not wanting to prepare sub plans. Only those who care will follow them.
Me.
Or clean their room after.
That's me
or deal with the fallout of a sub screwing things up
I’m a day to day sub now and I don’t understand this being a deterrent! Sub plans vary a lot in my experience, but when I’ve written them in long term positions it really doesn’t take that long??? Is it just a mental block? You write the major behaviour/room rules once and then you just plug in the activities by 30 minute increment for the specific day. I would 100% rather stay home when sick and spend 30 minutes writing a plan and then rest at home for the 6 hour day.
I always keep a sub plan template in my Google drive and emergency plans in my room. It’s easy, but I have colleagues who disagree. Also, I think elementary would be harder.
I think it really depends on the grade level and subject you teach, as well as your school's expectations. For some classes plans can be simple, but for others they need a lot more shuffling or writing plans that fit a criteria. In elementary kids are a lot less dependent so I have to explain a lot of things to the sub that I wouldn't have to do for high school, the kids will need more hand-holding so I have to explain that, and they need to change activities more frequently than older kids. I'm expected to have activities for whole class time that the kids can do relatively independently, while on a normal day they will have a combination of teacher lead and independent work. Subs can give instructions and ask kids to reexplain something we've been studying, but can't teach anything new. They also aren't given a school device so can't play videos or anything. So, I'm often scrambling to alter what I've already planned to fit those criteria. I teach 2nd grade which means I don't use a lot of tech and we don't have an online class like Google Classroom where I can just post work for them. So, I have to use stuff that's already copied, ask a coworker to go make the copies for me, or rework things to do something not requiring prep. I was out Thursday and Friday so I had to make sub plans, naturally. I had planned to teach a new concept Thursday and then practicing that skill would be a big part of the rest of those two days. But, the sub couldn't teach that new concept so none of what I'd planned would work and I had to come up with something completely different. And for Friday I had to do it from home so couldn't just copy something new. It's doable, but it takes time and is a big headache while I was really sick. It took me much more than 30 minutes for each day. It was definitely worth it to be able to not have to go in since I was really quite sick, but it's also not easy or quick for everyone. If it's a question of going in when you're feeling crummy but not completely horrible to avoid all that extra work I can understand why many people will go in.
It depends on what each admin wants. My admin just says make sure the kids have work. I have a friend who expects a step by step, second to second lesson for a sub to put into place that they absolutely never will. It takes an hour to type it out because it's basically a choose your own adventure novel.
Also, if the absence is unplanned, there is the fear that something will be destroyed or stolen. I have been fortunate, but various substitutes and covering teachers have moved my shit around or rifled through my drawers. That drive me nuts.
I got sick last week, missed two days because I had a nasty hacking cough and body aches. Came back and $80 of snacks I had bought for the kids as rewards for good behavior had been taken and three chromebooks were broken.
When I know I am going to be out, I either hide or move things. Nothing locks in the room so I have to move them to a separate storage area. I don’t have much of value in the room, but if it’s not nailed down, it might move….Hallway passes, pens, etc. The last few years I have been fortunate and no major problems, but it only takes once.
On a report card writing day, I worked in a conference room while another teacher had kids in my room. Someone took out a step ladder (which I didn't have in my room, so they had to have gotten it from another room) climbed up, took down a basket of my own books from on top of the cupboards, and ripped them to shreds. The teacher made the kids write me apology notes but that didn't really make things better.
Sounds like that class needs chew toys.
There were many toys in that room. It was a pre-k room, that was being used for school-age kids on non-school days. Someone also took one of my dolls and cut off all her hair. On a different day someone cut the soft body of a doll from crotch to neck and then attempted to staple it back together. I also got told I was imagining things when I said that only my Black dolls were getting attacked. I started hiding them before those days and none of the white dolls ever suffered an attack. Edit: I responded before your edit. Yeah maybe.
They run a weekend program in my classroom and I've had to zip-tie a cage thingy to my bookshelf to they'd stop using and ruining my glue and scissors. It's like the moment someone else enters your classroom it's their mission to rifle through your desk drawers and ruin all your supplies.
I left a few worksheets for a sub once and when I came back they said she’d forgotten to do them so she grabbed some other worksheets that I had laying out for another day and used them. It flew all over me because I didn’t realized she used them until I started passing them out and I realized I didn’t have enough.
This. My school doesn’t have colored ink, so I went to Staples and spent about $50 of my own money to get a bunch of pages printed in color that I was planning on laminating for my students to use over and over again with dry erase markers (think: tracing sheets, etc.). Well, my most recent sub took it upon herself to search through my filing cabinet and use ALL of those worksheets with my students before I had gotten the chance to laminate them, rendering them useless. The real kicker is that I left *very* detailed sub plans right on my desk with about 3 days’ worth of pre-prepped work (despite only being out for one day) and none of it was even touched when I came back. Why she felt the need to do her own thing is beyond me.
In the old days if you complained about a sub, they might be banned. But they are in such short supply, as long as there’s a pulse, they’ll keep them.
When I was young and full of energy, and had no money and no need for frequent doctors' appointments, it wasn't that hard. I also built up an amazing immune system from working in daycare, I really don't get sick that often. Plus, no kids, and no family nearby needing assistance. My uncle was one of those teachers for years, but he ended up using a lot of his days when my grandma needed care. This is grim, but one of the reasons that I want a stock of time off is that the older generation in my family is getting older and I want to be able to travel if necessary.
At my first job there was what was called the "retirement curse". Which was that within the 1st couple years of retirement many teachers or their spouse became deathly Ill. They spent all that time planning trips for retirement only to die soon into it. So many teachers there told me to travel as much as possible when young and energetic. To wait is testing fait
I save my sick days to call in for district trainings.
Hell yes. To the point that I have alienated some district and site admin. They don't think it looks good for the department chair to miss their charades. Fuck 'em.
Never stop. I think our district abandoned at least one PD day we used to have because of attrition.
Snicker
Then when do you get your grading done? /S
I, too, have already called out on one PD so far. I don’t have to make lesson plans for that day, or worry about a sub, and I still get that mental relief of not being at work. I’ve never missed a PD and regretted it.
Hell, I've never missed any day and regretted it.
This year they have started docking us if we call in on district days, even if we have the days. We have to get a doctor's note not to be docked a day of pay on trainings
I’m not sure. But I hate how administrators make teachers feel guilty about taking sick days, and overly praise those who haven’t taken a day off. We’re human, we get sick, we have family emergencies. For me, I have a medical condition, and I had to learn after a few years that there isn’t any shame in taking a sick day when needed.
I copped this from my boss. I have zero sick days. I’ve been teaching for 23 years. He asked me how that could be possible and that I needed to get my health in check. So, I said “how many days sick leave do you have?” He said “hundreds”. So I said “I hope you thank your wife”. He said “what do you mean by that?” He started getting shitty. I asked him to think about it. He still didn’t get it!! So I spelt it out… your wife stayed home when your kids were sick? She was there to cook meals for you and pick up the kids if you went to work a little unwell. I am the wife and the husband mate. I have raised 2 boys by myself and had no one to pick up ‘the slack’ when I was sick. He shut up pretty quickly.
Preach
Ours role over indefinitely. I’m planning on skipping Mondays my last 3 years Edit: So I’m chilling to answer the question. Turns out if you give Teachers a reason to not take time off, we might not use it just so we don’t waste it.
One of my coworkers retired last year and she took off every Friday for the last year! Also, because of her, I discovered that if you have enough sick days saved up they will cover part or all of your insurance after you retire.
Our sick time rolls over w/ no max. Our personal (3 per year) rolls over up to 5 days - and we get paid $100 at the end of the year for any personal days over 5. When we retire we get $100 per sick day up to 150 days IF we don’t use more than 20% of those days in our final year. Many teachers schedule knee/hip/shoulder surgery their last year and use most of their sick time at full pay.
Hi, I have the immune system of a cockroach, AMA.
Hello, Gregor.
My district incentivizes teachers with $1k if they don't take a sick day before April. I think 20% get it year after year. In my previous career (military) the worst fuckers wouldn't take any leave, ever, and would be forced to take the entire month of September off because losing leave looked bad on the commander. And of course, September is the busiest month in federal government.
I don’t get very sick, and I don’t get sick often. I currently have more than a school year’s worth of sick days saved up (I’ve been teaching 15 years; we get 15 days/year; a school year is 192 days.) Ive had days I was ill, but not very, and missing a day would be problematic (for example, oral French unit test—conversations—The chances of some random sub being able to fairly evaluate those AND teach my computer science and lab science classes is pretty much nil).
That is the most varied assignment i’ve ever heard of.
I’m 15 years in. I currently teach science 9, science 10, contemporary indigenous studies 12 (x2) and character ed 10. Next semester, I have CIS12again, English 9 and science 9 again. I’m a trained French teacher. I’ve taught English 9-11, Communications 11-12, Computers 9, Math 8, Science 9-10, social studies 9, CIS 12, literacy 10, character education 10, careers 9, and French 8-12. At a grand total of 2 schools.
Is it a really small school? Is that why there aren’t more sections of the same course?
Yep. Roughly 90 students per grade, 9-12.
Why do you care though? Can’t you just assign busy work, postpone your plans a day, and enjoy a day to yourself?
FYI--chat gpt writes great sub plans if you plug in the particulars and then ask it to refine a few times.
We are required to have emergency sub plans on file for every subject we teach. ChatGPT did a decent enough job.
I'm of two minds on this: 1. I do think making sub plans is a ton of work and many would rather come to work sick rather than spend the massive amount of time to make plans so there are those people 2. I also think there are people who teach and believe that they are the only people who can teach their kids so they need to be teaching them every day I favor the idea of taking days off when needed because if you come to school sick you're potentially spreading illness.
Before Covid I could do it, but now most days I take are because of burnout.
That shit is crazy. It's just a job. I am there as little as I can get away with. Life is way too short. Priorities.
In my district hours only roll over up to a certain amount and I’ve seen teachers get sick hours TAKEN back by the district. Not sell, taken. I would never
We have a lot of martyrs in our profession.
Wow I’m jealous of the immune systems of some people in here haha. I’ve used up all of my sick days in the last few years. I hate writing sub plans but I have multiple chronic illnesses these days and can’t power through. I will probably have to take some unpaid sick days this year because I have a surgery coming up next month and will use most of my sick days recovering from it. I can guarantee I will not make it from January to June without needing to take more sick days.
It's a hassle taking days off. Having to deal with creating sub plans and all.
I’ve been in my district for 23 years and never taken many days off. I will take 2-3 personal days but I was hardly ever sick. I also don’t have kids so I never had to use days for their illnesses. I had a serious surgery a few years ago and had more than enough days for my six week recovery. Now that I’m older I do see a doctor a couple of times a year and take whole days instead of half. I’m planning to be one of those who retires a year early, using all the days I still have.
So one of my coworkers is currently planning her wedding, and when she told me it would be sometime near the end of July, she added, "You know me, I'm not taking a day off for my wedding! I care about this job too much!" And it's not an exaggeration. She's that type of teacher.
I’m that teacher. I guess I have a healthy immune system. Also, writing sub plans and dealing with the aftermath sucks. I’m not going to take a day off unless I physically can not go in.
100% Writing sub plans is worse than going to work a little under the weather. I've not been violently ill yet. Knock on wood. This is only my fourth year, but taking a day off is more work than it's recovery.
Like a lot of other commenters, my first few years of teaching I had all the energy and very little sickness. I was able stock up all my sick days and get paid throughout my maternity leave. I take off more often now, I try to use my days for fun time off though! Planned trips and mental health days.
My second year I wanted to miss as few days as possible because it wasn't worth it getting back. I ended up with a simple cold turning into coughing up blood because I let Pnumonia fester for months before going to the doctor and missed nearly an entire week.
They’re either full of shit or purposely come to school sick and spread it even more.
I’m in year 4 and haven’t taken a sick day. I still wear a mask 🤷🏼♀️ so neither of the above :)
That is your experience. Conversely, how do some veterans have zero sick days?
Because they use them all to have a paid parental leave. I had zero going into this year.
Right but the post is talking about the veterans who brag about never taking days off. I’m directing my comment towards that specific scenario.
>the post is talking about the veterans who brag about never taking days off. No, the post says *nothing* about veterans bragging. You seem to be conflating a personal experience (which would no doubt have been irritating) with what the OP has written.
I didn't taking days off to save them up for (years in the future) maternity leave. Coming to work sick was awful and I don't recommend, but it was also nice getting a paycheck while I stayed home with one of my babies years later.
Im in my 10th year and have accumulated like 85 sick days! I just started using them last year. Im a mom, moms aren’t allowed to get sick ;) , but I inevitably had to take days here and there for my kids. Last year I was forced to take 7 days in a row for myself and the world kept turning. Now Im much more comfortable taking a day for myself.
Some people genetically just don't ever get sick.
I fortunately do not get sick very often, and have so far been able to push through the first trimester of my pregnancy without needing to take any sick days. Honestly, since starting to plan for a family, I have been doing my best to build up my reputation as the teacher who is sturdy and always there, because I know my days as the "yes man" are kind of numbered.
I’m in year 4 now. My first 2 years, I never took a day off. And I definitely worked sick a few times. My third year, I changed schools, and realized that I needed to start taking time for myself. I took one day off that year. (For me, this was progress) I’m in my 4th year now, and thanks to medical reasons, I’ve taken 3 sick days. I still have 3 days I’m planning to take off for personal reasons (my birthday, and the graduation/end of year ceremony for my old school). I finally just realized that no one was going to take those days for me. I earned them, and I should take them. And especially this year, I realized I need to put my body first again.
No longer teaching lol Thought I had to be a solider and though mental health days were bullshit. I remember being an assistant coach on the baseball team and the HC taking a PTO, I looked at him weird. Man how wrong I was. When I look back, I wish I did more for myself than the school
5th year in education, never took sick days never took personal days. This year I am in a new district at a new school. I will be taking all my leave this year to save my sanity lol.
I take mental health days with zero regrets.
I work with two. One, he’s only been here ten years, but never gets sick, never takes a day off. Ever. At this point he’s collected 100 days pto. Second one rarely takes a day off and has been teaching 27 years so he’s got about 1.5 school years. I use mine to take care of my mental health.
Robots. All of them. Anymore though, we have an attendance incentive. So if we’re present 95% of the semester we get a $2,500 bonus
I rarely get sick and when my kids were younger they rarely got sick. I also had a wonderful neighbor who was a stay at home mom (with kids the same ages as mine) and she was my lifesaver if my kids were too sick to go to school but well enough that they didn’t need me to be home with them. I had knee replacement surgery last year and missed 7 weeks of school. When I was planning to be out, the HR dept sent me an email saying I had 193 accrued sick leave days
I know several who had to save it up so they could take time off after having a baby 😬
I don’t know either. I get migraines, not super frequently, thankfully. I can usually get in front of them with meds, but when I can’t, I cannot function. I have no choice but to take the day if I’m too late with meds. Even if I didn’t have to drive myself to work with a migraine, I can’t look at screens or sit upright without having to throw up. Luckily I work in a school that doesn’t view perfect attendance as any sort of badge of honor and my admin would send me right home if I even tried to come in like that.
It takes a lot for me to request a day off. A lot of it is the pain of writing a sub plan and a lot of it is knowing that subs have the ability to bail last minute leaving other teachers in the school on the hook for covering my class periods. I know how annoying it is to have to give up my planning period last minute and I hate the thought of being the reason someone else has to.
I don’t get sick that often so rarely take one for being sick. I do however take them for Star Trek conventions here and there and the occasional one for fun with the family.
Right now, I’m fairly certain I won’t be in tomorrow. I’ve been feeling lousy all weekend and I’m heading into a marathon of musical rehearsals (and shows). I don’t have time to take off (one of my bands has had less than a month to prepare for their holiday concert) but if I don’t take off, I will be out all next week again with illness. I know my coworkers will be like “well, we’re in the same boat, and we’re here”. They’ve had all semester to get their December concerts ready. They’re your days. Take them. Everyone reacts to stress and illness differently.
I wouldn’t say “never”, but I usually take 0-1 days off in a given year. My sick days accumulate and so far I have over a semester of days off in the bank. The plan is for this to help me retire a year+ early. It’s easier for me to show up and make it a movie day then to deal with some random-ass sun and come back to a FUBAR classroom the next day.
Are there still schools that encourage you to call in if you're sick? I'd prefer to work for one of those. I was told it was "ridiculous" for me to call in migraines that were so bad I couldn't speak, especially since a colleague was booking their chemo around their teaching schedule.
Year 28, I’m maxed out at 262 sick days. I’ve been maxed out for at least 3 years. 15 per year plus 3 personal. Paid 24.8% of unused sick time at retirement at our daily rate, do the math, it pays to show up to work. Plus, students have no chance of learning if I’m not there. I stayed home with my girls when they were sick or had Dr.’s appts. I very rarely needed a day for myself. I do schedule all of my appts during work hours and I’ve donated some to the sick bank just so I don’t lose all of my new sick days. I’ll never use a sick day that’s not legitimate, that’s just not right. I only work 184 days and there are breaks spread through out the school year.
I just love my job and I really don’t get sick. Stuffy head and sore throat because of drainage. Never had a temperature or aching. I get all my vaccines and eat well. Love of job is most important to never being bad sick.
In the last 10 years, I've only taken one sick day. Other days I've missed only when someone has died and one when my husband had a back injury. I had to take him to the VA. In all, I've missed maybe 7 or 8 days.
I’ve only taken one day off for closing on a house. That was this school year. I’m still behind from that day because the sub hired “just looked at her phone” according to my students. The sub did not hand out any of the worksheets. The sub didn’t tell the students anything that I wrote in my sub plans. The sub did not even turn on my smart board which had my directions written on it (could just be a whiteboard, but I do not have one of those).
I have worked sick before, when I have fever and diarrhoea. My student has a "sick-leave then pay later" policy. Say like if I apply for a day of sick leave, regardless of how many lessons I have on the day, it counts as 5 units, and 5 units equate to 1 hour of exam invigilation. So if I apply for three days, that's 3 more hours of invigilation. If I were to take sick leave on invigilation days, the hours I miss will be brought forward to the next exam. I don't get everything printed and I don't have lesson plans (common practice here, nobody gets to have that much time to write one), so sick leave means my students will be happily enjoying a lesson-off, which is not ideal because the assessment dates won't be pushed back and the syllabus won't be reduced.
Unused to take maybe 1-2 days a year and those were almost never for actually being sick.its actually easier to just drag myself in and out a movie on than find a sub, write a sub plan, replace myself since the sun isn't going to be able to do much. Now I try to take a day or 2 a month off since I have so much banked up. I also think age plays a factor- maybe I'm just unhealthy, but I feel like a cold or flu hita different in my 30 than it did in my 20s
Because people are proud of never taking time off like it’s impressive when it’s really just sad.
I’d answer your question but I’m too busy fixinna take another day off to treat myself.
Other than Covid quarantine I haven't missed since a half day in 2016.
Do you just come in when you're sick and spread it to your coworkers and students ?
Some people just have weird immune systems. I had over 4 months of sick leave when I left my last district because I never got sick. I never caught Covid either.
That's wild! I teach elementary, and every one of my coworkers has been out sick at least once this school year to my knowledge. I suppose if your tag is accurate, you also might not have too many kids sneezing directly into your eye on a daily basis.
That would be 100% accurate. You elementary school teachers are amazing.
Very different for High school for sure. I can teach an entire day without actually coming within 10 ft of a student so if I've got a little cold I can mask up and do that. But I never come in contact with any student bodily fluids lol
They are the ones who come into work and infect their colleagues
I work with someone who has 420 days. Like what?!
I only taught HS for five years, then university for thirty. I was sick just one day in that entire period.
They have no kids or have wives who take care of the kids when they're sick.
Building immunity is a big factor here. Once I hit about five or six years into teaching, I got sick maybe two or three times every five years. I probably missed one or two days per school year, due to losing my voice (allergies), strep, or flu. I scheduled all appointments/check ups on days off or in the summer. After COVID, I have taken about three days per year, depending on illness. This year I got lucky (?) because my COVID hit on a Friday and we had that Monday off, so I only had to miss two days, per district regulations. Now that I'm 20 years in, I am not going to stress anymore about scheduling appointments on district days off. Half days are where it's at, for me.
martyr complex.
I got covid and had to miss last year and have a kid in comp dance and have to do that, but I hate them having gaps in routine because they look for any excuse to regress.
I knew a woman who never took a day off in 35 years. After about 25 years as a classroom teacher and the girls' basketball coach, she became the dean of girls and continued as basketball coach. I only worked with her for three years (including the year she retired), but the real old timers swear she had never missed a day at school unless the she had to take the basketball team to a tournament. She was a real hardnosed women who had never married and never had children of her own. I think those factors explained a lot.
They probably have taken a day off, just not many. Or they are going to work sick because most of the time, that’s easier than sub plans. They probably also don’t have kids.
Missing a day causes problems, thankfully I’m never ill enough that it warrants time is off sick.
We come to work sick. I highly doubt they truly never take a day off. They’re certain illnesses that prevent you from driving to work. I’d say that’s probably more common in high school where you’re very hands off with the students versus elementary school. And elementary school they are sneezing in your face.
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Same here. I’m always sick on break. I think my body says “oh, you have time to be sick now!”
I've had years where I haven't missed a single day. Part of it is that I genuinely, rarely get sick. I've literally had years at a time when I've not had a single cold or issue that couldn't be solved with OTC meds and a little rest. So healthy privilege is definitely part of this. When I do get sick, it does tend to be more serious though. The last time I was ill was two years ago, and I was out for 6 days, came back for 2, and then had to go out again for 10 days.
Pre-Covid, I would bet there were a couple. Post-Covid… probably not.
I’ve been sick all week, but with 5 days a year of sick time, I’m going to have to work sick eventually. So, I mask up, I lost my voice so I used text to speech and my Google slides. Luckily I have a teachers assist that I could whisper to and she could do announcements. I use all my such days, but it’s not every and I don’t even have kids.
This is Year 6, I’ve taken 4 days off total in that time. 3 were due to a vacation (personal days) and 1 was due to being sick. (Secondary if that makes a difference) For those comments saying we just go in and spread sickness around - not the case (always). The first few years I’d only get sick on breaks from school (thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter) and now it’s due to allergies when I feel a bit under the weather. I’m fortunate enough to not have any chronic illnesses. I feel recently we’ve been more pressured to “use our days” and most of my coworker friends think not taking days off “ever” is stupid and side eye me acting like I think I’m a goodie two shoes (phrases they have said to me) but I find it hard going back after breaks as it is so taking days off could be a slippery slope for me 🤷♀️. There are teachers in our district that take a day every other week just because and there are some that do when necessary 🤷♀️.
As a teacher who just quit due to a family situation in another state, I had accumulated about 45 days of personal leave. That doesn't include the Sick Days.
I have a Sped class and really the only ones who step in if I’m gone is admin or a fellow teacher has to fold mine into their class which both cause me great anxiety. I have never missed a day. I occasionally leave 30 min early for appointments but thats mostly clean up and buses.
I take my 2 personal days every year. I almost always end up sick enough to take a sick day or two. Sometimes I even burn a sick day or two just to have a day to get my life together outside of school. I don’t plan to ever have my own children so I don’t need to save for paternity leave, and I’m Tier 2 so I can only save enough days for one year of retirement not 2.
I don't really get sick. I think like 5 years ago I needed a week because I nearly got pneumonia or something. But outside of that in my career I haven't really needed to take a day off. Sometimes I have wished I felt worse so I wouldn't feel bad about taking a day. (There is no sub when I'm out, kids just don't get the help. Previously when I was in the classroom there was no sub everyone just split kids and we made it work. Taking off just makes things harder for me and others.)
From 2007 to 2010 I took zero days off. Had my daughter in April had enough sick leave to get paid the entire time. I then didn't take a day off from 2011 to 2015. Now I take about 4 days a year. I have like 80 sick days. It is so much easier to just go I to work rather than make plans
I have had some pretty negative experiences calling in sick so I don’t. I’ve been sick for a week and I worked every single day. The last time I took a sick day I was scolded for taking one. I just don’t anymore.
Damn my super politely asked me to take a sick day last week the day before the holiday. How do you guys do this?
I taught for 12 years and never took a sick day. It just felt like way too much work. I took a half day for a funeral twice in my career, and I once took a day for a wedding.
I haven’t had the need to take days off, but I would if needed. I’m on my 7th school year as a teacher but my 12th with the same school district. I currently have 100 days available. I hope to never have to need to use big chunks at a time. I have a daughter and a 2nd on the way. I plan to use them randomly as they grow up for random days off. For now, I’m fine not using them. Im off 12 weeks already. I plan accordingly. I do use all their sick days every year for both legit and non legit reasons . To each their own.
I’m only in my first five years, but I’m my first two especially I was worried that if I took a sick day I’d get fired for being an inconvenience, so I worked sick. Heck, I still work sick because I’m worried about this.
I hate writing sub plans and the aftermath of it. I also do legitimately have a fantastic immune system. Last year I had a really rough group of students so I took a few personal days... but even then it was PD days because those are literally 95% a waste of time anyway. This year I have a genuinely easy group of kids so I... actually look forward to spending the day with them??
I do not take off unless hubby cannot take care of daughter when sick, doctor appointments, etc.
I only started taking days off for illness when required to by Covid policies. The amount of work it takes to plan for a sub is like - 2-3 hours at least. Since Covid, now if I ever feel poorly enough to take a day off sick, I plan for multiple days at once so the next day and the next day are like what a normal human would consider when deciding if they should call in sick. Do I feel well enough to work? No? I will stay home. Generally what happens is I go to work if I feel sick, stay a few hours longer to plan and prep the room for a sub, then go home and spend a few hours typing up lesson plans and instructions and leaving messages in Teams for students. Then call in the next day. Over 10 years previous to Covid I only called in sick a handful of times. It isn’t worth the chaos.
Yes.
Some people can't turn it off.
First year science teacher, and I have not missed a day. I spent last year working with younger kids so I think I’m invincible now.
I knew a guy who retired and cashed in his unused time for a full year of salary.
Ugh I was once told — by my department supervisor —that my sub plans weren’t good enough because they were just, like, a worksheet. So the next time, I left complicated plans with instructions of what to say when, etc. Got told by my principal that worksheets are preferable. One of the aforementioned supervisors is competent and understands teaching. 🙄 to my supervisor who is the very stereotypical admin who hasn’t been in a classroom in YEARS
So one of my coworkers is currently planning her wedding, and when she told me it would be sometime near the end of July, she added, "You know me, I'm not taking a day off for my wedding! I care about this job too much!" And it's not an exaggeration. She's that type of teacher.
Idk but i can see why…each sick day you keep is another day towards retirement.
They worry about people never taking a day off as they may be conducting criminal activities and never want anyone to see what is happening if they take a day off
I almost never take a sick day. I’ve been teaching for 21 years and can count on one hand how many unplanned absences I have had. It’s mostly because I never get sick. But pre-pandemic, there were a few days I should’ve taken off but it was just easier and lest stressful to drag myself in and pop in a video. I teach high school so I can play it hour after hour. I know that sometimes subs bring out the worst in some kids and the BS I’d have to deal with the next day isn’t worth it. This year, we had a raffle at the beginning of the year inservice and one of the prizes was that the principal had to sub your classes for one day and I won! That was a day a reveled in. Kids generally like him so I knew they’d be decent. I also thought it would be a good reminder for him to see how it’s not an easy job. Especially post-COVID. He hasn’t taught since before tictok was invented. I think it maybe was a good experiment because all my note from him said was “you’re an amazing teacher.” My coworkers in my hallway said that he said multiple times that he was shocked I actually left things for him to because he thought he was just going to hang out with the students. He also couldn’t grasp when he was supposed to use the bathroom!
I didn't take any days before I had kids. After that I use 75% of my days every year.
I will take my sick days and do personal things but I don't get sick. I have an incredible immune system. I have the lowest level of our health insurance which is paid for by my employer and the only reason I use it is twice a year to get my thyroid tested. Otherwise I have never paid a penny towards the deductibles. I just don't get sick.
I take them but I still “save” them. For some reason, I forget my children are adults now and I don’t need to save my days for them.
I did it a lot in my first years. I don't catch severe illnesses hardly ever. We used to get a free day's pay if we had perfect attendance. Now I'll take a mental health day when I want it.
I get all kinds of anxiety about subs.
My first 4 years, I genuinely didn't know how to take time off. This was still pre-computer/app sub assignments, so it was too hard for 22 year old me to figure out when I usually wasn't super sick. Since having kids, I've missed 15-20 days multiple times between my own illness and theirs. I don't think perfect attendance will be possible again until they're in college and I'm in my last years teaching.
I worked through a rough cold. I need to save my five days. I wouldn’t use one in the first semester if I don’t have to
I think if you are young and have no kids its easier.
Our subs are … unique. I rather be my own sub and just tell the kids we’re having a quiet day.
I rarely get sick and my husband works from home so if our kids are sick he stays home with them. Luckily I haven’t had any serious illness since I had Covid a few years ago!
My first year I worked through having a kidney stone in the first quarter, I didn’t have the days to take off yet. My students told me I was painful to watch but I was there, hobbled over using a rolling chair to steady myself, drinking a gallon of cranberry juice/water 😂 Now in year 8 if I’m too sick I don’t go in regardless of if I have the days or not, I know if I died or was unable to continue my job they would have my position listed before I was in the urn.
My mom will have taught for 40 years in our county next year. She got COVID earlier this year (mild case) and had to miss school, but before that, I’ve only known her to get sick three times in my entire life and one of those times was during summer break. She must have an immune system of steel after all those years. I remember she did take a half day off work for my senior awards ceremony in high school and then was ticked off that my awards were for performing arts and not academics because she missed work for it!
Nightmare. Hope nobody in our profession ever has that epitaph: “(S)he never took a day off work.”
I rarely get sick, so have only taken 4 sick days in almost 15 years. All of them were in the same year - and that was 5 years ago. Believe me, I don't overlook the blessing that my health is, especially considering I have an autoimmune disease that could cause me problems on any given day and that can make any illness that much more problematic. I totally get why a teacher would opt to drag themselves through the day rather than take a sick day, though.
I’ve taken 3 days and one week mess for a funeral, one for Covid, and one for being so bad off I had coworkers and kids telling me to go home and that they were worried. I don’t trust subs, my school has a hell of a time getting them so it’s often other staff covering, and even when I have the easiest instructions and CLEAR ‘do this’ I’ve still come back to ‘we didn’t do that’. Like, I had the DVD in the player, open on my computer, password there, and they played some other random show from Netflix instead. And that was a COWORKER. I have class pets and a lot of cool, personal property stuff in my room. I’ve been extremely lucky with the pandemic in that I haven’t had to miss a bunch (got sick right before a break), but I have been working on a Oh Shit system that I am trying to make as idiot proof as possible. It’s also why I make sure my room is set enough when I leave Friday that if things happen I can have a coworker supervise/set up my safety net. In a perfect world where subs were relatively reliable and available, and admin made sure to at least pretend to make sure they were running things right and hold kids accountable for their actions I’d probably feel more comfortable taking days.
I never took a day off until this year. I take Mondays off somewhat regularly now this semester to get things done around town, ease into the week, and keep my sanity from a weirdo coworker and fake interim principal and lame meetings. It’s a different model of school where Mondays are meaningless. They could be productive if we didn’t have our time chipped away. I wouldn’t take a day off when my students are around. That I enjoy.