Sick Days Make Me Jealous

I've got the flu again. And, yes, I did get my flu shot.

I'm super annoyed because I got it last year, too (the shot AND the illness). As I write this, I'm on a third school day at home, fever seemingly ended, but energy so low that I got dizzy making a cup of tea. I'm glad you can't tell how long it will take me to write this post.

Yes, I probably caught it from the children.

My husband and sister work in corporate in different fields, so I get to see a little of what it's like to have those kinds of jobs.

There are lots of things that make me jealous, like schedule flexibility, an actual lunch break, being treated with basic respect by the world at large, and the ability to go to the bathroom when you'd like (oh yeah--and the paycheck!).

But the thing that makes me most jealous is how it goes when you're sick.

As a teacher, I still have to do the bulk of the work when I'm ill. The school district will hire a sub, but they are only responsible for the classroom supervision--keeping the kids safe at a basic level. A good sub will interact with the children and try to help them complete their work, but I teach Spanish and I can't remember the last time I had a sub who knew any Spanish. (A bad sub will take out a book to read and ignore the kids entirely or preach to them the entire period on whatever topic they feel strongly about).

I'm lucky--I got a retired teacher as substitute for 2 of my 3 sick days, so the chaos levels are probably low.

Even with a fever, I'm still expected to provide a lesson plan for my students that they can make progress on without me there.

This is harder than you might think. 11-14 year old people are not the most independent and self-starting learners out there. And kids are relationship-driven. They resist cooperating with the relative stranger sent to sub for me. Sometimes this manifests as apathy, sometimes as rudeness and disrespectful behavior.

Since my new classes (4 of my 7 classes) just started Tuesday, and I got hit with fever and chills that night, I haven't even fully built my relationship with these kids yet. I hope they're treating my sub with basic kindness at least.

If I fail to provide a lesson (which does happen--sometimes teachers are actually unconscious or delirious from their injuries or illnesses), I'll only be making another teacher's day harder--one of my colleagues will be called upon to scramble something up for my kiddos, and since I'm an "only" at my school--as in, the only teacher who teaches my subject--that's not easy. Guilt. Guilt. Guilt. Not really helpful for rest and recovery.

Between naps during this bout of flu, I've also been responding to emails from the children, answering questions, reassuring them, and calming them down. I'm also trying to make sure my sub is informed of all the building weirdness of the day--information I receive in email, but that needs to get to the substitute who's actually in the room today. If I felt even a little better, I'd be doing my best to grade student work, too. So, really, still doing half or more of the work I'd be doing if I were at school.

When my husband gets sick?

He tells his boss, who lets everyone he was supposed to meet with that day know. If it's immediately important, he sends someone else from the team to the meeting to keep things going. If not, they postpone. Because he leans towards work-a-holic, he still tries to respond to emails and such, but he doesn't have to.

Yep. I'm jealous.

Gonna go take a nap now.