Missing Days

I had to take a couple days off from writing.  I have been sick.   Upper respiratory infections are one of the major obstacles of being a teacher.  I don't think that there has been one year that I didn't have a cold at least once. I make sure that I don't get the flu, because I always get a flu shot.  Problem for me is that I still don't know the difference between what I always get and the flu, so I may have had it and didn't know it.

Over the years I have missed days of school due to illness.  Actually, if you consider that I have been in education for 42 years, there probably have been a lot of days.  For some reason I feel the urge to estimate how many days this might be.  So let's start with an estimate of days missed per year.  In the early years I missed very little, but in later years the number increased.  I am going to say that I averaged 5 days missing a year.  Take that times 42 years - that is 210 days!  A current school year is 180 days.  I ask all of you that reading this, please don't let the teacher pension know this.  They might credit me for one less year of service!

Just seeing that number causes me to reflect on the time that is lost in classrooms due to teacher absences.  I know that when I wasn't in the room, I couldn't guarantee that anything would get done.  When I was out for long stretches (surgery, pneumonia, etc.), I would feel guilt that I wasn't helping my students.  And I want to make it clear that I am not blaming substitute teachers.  The toughest job in education is subbing.  I know that in retirement I won't do it!  Very special people do that job.

There is that other issue that comes with missing a day of school - the paperwork that piles up while you are gone.  Unless the sub is willing to do it, all the papers need to be graded.  They still need to be entered into the gradebook.  Parents need to be called.  Then you still have to get your plans together for the next day.

Well, I am finally getting to my point.  You have to wonder what our state government is thinking.  Consistently, they make the job of teaching worse.  Then, when they seem to have covered everything, they  include teacher attendance as a part of how we are to be evaluated.

I learned a long time ago that the best way to help your attendance rate is to not have students or staff who are sick in the building..  If you take their standard of 95% attendance, I would have easily have been in compliance, but that is because I believed it was important to be there to teach.

The last I looked FWCS was down 42 teaching positions. That means for four weeks students in those classes have had substitute teachers.   There are no candidates.  The word is out; use your degree for something else.  Oh, and they aren't turning to charters either.

So, in my sickness, I have this message - the best teachers are still out there.  Don't be discouraged.  Hang in there.  When state legislatures finally realize, they can't find a school with qualified teachers, things will change.  Just a matter of how long it will take.