Sick days

How many of you dread having to take a sick day?  I think for most teachers it is one of the most avoided tasks under the sun.  The majority of educators that I know (myself included!) will suffer through just about anything because going to work is easier than planning for a sub.  Every time I try to explain this logic to my husband or another non teacher I just get confused looks.  Thats because our logic doesn't make sense!  Most other jobs, you call in sick and go back to bed (or whatever)... but not teachers.  When you finally make the call there is usually at least an hours worth of work to be done in attempts to prevent complete and total chaos in your absence.  Such was my week last week.

While attempting to write up my 5 for Friday post two weeks ago I was feeling a bit under the weather, so I decided to put it off for the next morning.  Well, Saturday morning came, and I was sick.  The kind of sick where your kids and husband actually feel bad for you and cut you some slack.  I ended up with a fever of 102 and all the extras for 4 days.  Despite my best efforts to get up and head in to work, the fever beat me and I spent several hours in the wee morning typing up sub plans.  I thought I was good enough to head in on Wednesday morning (since my fever was gone), but boy was I wrong.  After sleeping for almost 4 days straight all the colors, sounds and movement of my 1st grade classroom just about put me over the edge.  Somehow I managed to make it through the day, though I don't actually have any recollection of it!  It proved to be a bit too much too soon and I ended up pretty sick that night.  Thankfully I was able to copy off a bunch of busy work  extremely engaging and meaningful worksheets because Thursday morning I was back to typing sub plans!

I finally headed into the Dr.  and it ended up that I had a pretty nasty case of Bronchitis.  Let me just say- I am not a fan of Prednisone.  While it helped me breathe and made me feel better, that stuff is no joke!  So Friday was another day out of the classroom.

Finally, after a restful weekend, I was able to return to work this week.  My classroom was still in one piece, as well as all my students.  They were VERY happy to see me :)  I don't think that I've taken a sick day (or at least more than one in a row) in almost 5 years, and I certainly don't plan to take any more in the near future.  I am thankful for my excellent teaching partner who knows where I keep things/ what I do in my room- she was able to make a lot of copies and improvise when needed.  I also have a "sub tub" (I believe I got the idea from Pinterest) filled with survival info and filler activities for unplanned absences.  What are your best sick day strategies?