Are you feeling the weight of the teaching world on your shoulders, especially when it comes to those dreaded sick days? As teachers, we've all been there – waking up feeling under the weather, yet the thought of calling in sick seems more daunting than sucking it up in the classroom. But here's the thing: it's time to break this cycle of overwhelm and guilt.

In this episode, we address the common struggle teachers face when it comes to taking sick days. The pressure to power through illness, the guilt of taking time off, and the overwhelming task of preparing detailed sub plans can leave educators feeling trapped in a toxic cycle of self-sacrifice. We explore the reasons why teachers often get sick at the most inconvenient times, such as before, during, and after breaks, and offer practical tips to manage this without adding extra stress. From understanding the impact of chronic stress on our immune systems to automating sub plans and empowering students to take responsibility for their learning, we delve into essential strategies for reducing the overwhelm around sick days. Join us as we challenge the narrative, provide actionable steps, and empower educators to prioritize their well-being in a system that often demands self-sacrifice.

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[0:00] Have you ever woke up really early in the morning, your head's pounding, your throat sore, and all you want to do is curl up in bed, but then the stress hits you?

The thought of actually calling in sick brings this wave of anxiety. Why?

Because for teachers like us, a sick day isn't just a day off.

It can be hours of preparation, leaving detailed plans, and worrying if your class is actually going to stay on track. And let's be real.

At the time of this episode going live, this is the time of the year that sickness is in full swing.

I know that feeling, and you are not alone in this.

If you've taught for any amount of time, most of us have been there, scrambling to put together subplans in the wee hours, feeling guilty for taking a day off and even questioning if it's easier just to power through that sickness. I am not going to lie.

This is a cycle that leaves us even more exhausted, and it's a silent struggle that many of us face.

It's also really toxic, especially in this part of teaching, and I want to help us crush that today.

[1:05] That's why in this episode, we are going to chat about why we often get sick at the most inconvenient times, like right before, during, and right after breaks, like winter break and spring break, and how we can manage this without adding more to our stress.

I'm going to give you some must-haves for preparing for sick days so that they don't feel overwhelming, including four tips for automating your subplans.

And for those of you who think taking a sick day is more work than actually just going in, I've got a special little pep talk just for you. So let's jump in.

[1:36] When I first started teaching, really like my student teaching and my first three years teaching, I literally got every sickness known to man, or at least, I mean, it felt like it.

And I was scrolling through TikTok the other day, as I do, and I came across this.

[1:52] Newer teacher who does these like vlog style TikTok videos.

And she was talking about how she had the flu.

And she actually had to go into school to get her computer to put in her sick day because she had the flu.

And she knew she had the flu, but she still got up, went into school.

And she actually said that she felt guilted by some of the other teachers on the way in because they didn't have any subs.

And I see this time and time again, where we feel guilty for being sick and we have just to do a lot of work just to call in and get your sick day.

I mean, this woman actually went into work to put in a sick day on her laptop.

This isn't an isolated thing. I actually had a friend who was diagnosed with cancer a few years back and she was in treatment, yet she was still coming to school as much as she could, sick as a dog, even with a long-term sub, because an administrator said, your kids need you.

The other teachers on her hall kept guilting her by saying, oh, your kids miss you so much.

You can even see these in news articles.

Headlines that say, teacher undergoing chemotherapy for stage four cancer continues working from hospital, or sick teacher finishes students' grades in hospital before passing away.

These are real news headlines.

[3:18] And Nicholas Ferroni said it best, stories about teachers working while they are sick, that's not inspiring.

They reveal how toxic the education system really is.

Sometimes I think that this happens because we have these higher ups expressing that expectation.

But then more often than not, I think that these are expectations expectations that we're setting on ourselves.

Perhaps because like we're afraid of what other people will think.

I mean, like I said, my friend who had cancer, there were teachers on the hall saying, oh, your kids miss you so much.

And you, you really, your kids need you. I mean.

[3:57] Some of the thoughts that I've had when I've called in sick are, will my co-teachers think I'm slacking off or that I don't care enough?

Will they talk about me for having to take time off to get well?

You see, these are all types of thoughts that we have about our sick days.

And I'm going to need us to work on this for a minute about not giving a crap what other people think about how you take care of yourself. self.

[4:26] Okay. Let me say that again. If these are any of the thoughts that you've had about taking your sick days, then I need you to work on not giving a crap what other people think about how you take care of yourself.

There is no reason why we should be compromising our health for the sake of meeting external or internal expectations.

It is essential to shift the narrative from this is self-sacrifice to self-care.

You are not just a teacher. You're a human being with physical and emotional needs.

And when we push ourselves beyond our limits, it does not serve anyone, not us and not our students.

Before we get into how to reduce that overwhelm around sick days and whatnot, I really want to share with you some information about why you might be getting sick.

And yeah, at the time of this episode that it's being released, it is cold and flu season, but you might be getting sick due to the stress that you're experiencing.

[5:29] Maybe it's a part of a lack of taking care of yourself. Maybe your immune system is telling you just to stop and rest.

I love the saying, if you don't take the time to rest, your body will take it for you. because if you don't proactively take the time to heal and rest, your body will indeed force you to do so often through illness.

It's a clear sign from your body saying, hey, I need a break.

You see, the chronic stress that we experience as educators, that really weakens our immune system.

It makes us more susceptible to illness.

This is not just a theory. It is backed by science.

Stress releases hormones like cortisol, which, again.

[6:09] Initially can boost your immune system, but over time, it reduces your body's ability to fight off infection.

Studies consistently show that people who experience high levels of stress over time and don't release the stress tend to get sicker more often than those who have a healthy way of ending the stress cycle.

We've talked a lot about how to end the stress cycle on this podcast, starting all the way back in episode four, but I'll be revisiting this in the future episodes as well.

But there's another phenomenon that happens where teachers tend to get sick right before, during, or right after breaks from school.

And you might notice a lot of teachers getting sick smack dab at like Christmas break or spring break, those types of situations.

This pattern is often linked to what is called the letdown effect.

It is a situation where the onset of relaxation, like following a period of stress, actually triggers illness. And here's why why that happens.

The stress builds up. So leading up to breaks, there's often a rush to finish grading, plan lessons, meet various educational milestones, whatever.

And this period is incredibly stressful.

So during the stress, your body is in a high state of alert and it suppresses signals of illness as you kind of push through.

[7:27] But when you're constantly under stress, your body produces more stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.

That temporarily boosts that immune system, but it's not sustainable.

So once that stress subsides, like when break starts, your immune system, that heightened state relaxes and you become more susceptible to the germs that you've been warding off.

And as you approach these breaks, your routine changes.

Perhaps you're sleeping less, you're eating differently, you're abandoning maybe your regular exercise regime, whatever, all that can really impact your immune system.

But then there is a psychological component. The anticipation of that break actually keeps you going.

But once you hit the break, the realization of your exhaustion and the mental relaxation can make your body more vulnerable to illness.

So what can you do to manage this? Well, instead of going from 100 to zero, you want to try to ease into your breaks.

This means winding down with your activities and your responsibilities gradually over time, trying to keep up with those healthy habits like regular sleep and balanced nutrition and exercise.

Even when you're in those stressful situations, that's going to help you to end the stress cycle.

[8:43] Continually working on managing your stress.

This doesn't mean like eliminating stress completely because that's not realistic, but finding healthy ways to release it like mindfulness, yoga, those types of things, even just taking time to take a breath when you're in a high stress situation and really listen to your body.

Pay attention to the signals that your body is ascending. If you feel run down or on the edge, it is time to take a step back and time to slow down.

[9:14] And you might want to consider some ways to kind of boost your immune system as you approach those breaks, like taking vitamins, staying hydrated, ensuring that you're eating well.

The thing that we need to know is that us taking care of ourselves with those healthy foods, those types of things, de-stressing and ending the stress cycle daily, that's what's going to help our immune system fight off those bugs that are constantly circling around our classrooms.

If you're just pushing through those times when you do catch a bug, not only are you putting others at risk around you of getting sick as well, but your body is undergoing more stress, releasing more cortisol because you're not allowing it the rest that it needs to recuperate and to heal effectively.

You see what I'm saying? So what can we do in order to make it less stressful for you to actually take your sick sick days.

Because for some teachers, it may be that they're not taking their sick days because of what other people might think about them.

But if you're anything like me, you probably had the thought that it's more work to take a sick day than it is just to go in.

You might be thinking about the time and the effort that it takes to prepare those lesson plans and those materials for a.

You might be concerned that, you know, that substitute won't be able to manage your class the way that you do. I mean, I felt that way.

Maybe it's the idea of returning to that mountain of work, like emails and administrative tasks and student queries and, you know, catching up on what wasn't covered or, you know, not covered in your absence.

And it can seem more daunting than just going in sick, right?

This is why I'm always telling you guys about automating your classroom.

Because when you have a specific and streamlined procedure, automations work for you in the background so that you don't even have to lift a finger.

And it no longer feels like you're going to be coming back to a mountain of work.

You won't wake up, you know, early on that sick day and think, I've got to spend 30 minutes to an hour cranking out a sub plan because my students need to be on track.

There are so many different ways that you can automate this, both with technology and non-tech solutions.

That is generic and basic and really great for this, just like a ready-to-go sub-tub.

And I will link some in the show notes for you that I think are really great.

So really, just having some automated classroom procedures, those would have those specific procedures, those specific routines that your students are familiar with.

And that way, you're almost creating a self-running classroom environment where that if you're out for any reason, those Those students know exactly what to do, which.

So that's number one, automating your classroom procedures.

Number two would be setting up that subtub or that digital folder, having that pre-prepared subtub or digital folder, those general plans, those classroom routines, those activities ready to go.

That's an excellent non-tech solution.

It could be a mix of maybe physical resources, maybe digital content that really aligns with your teaching style and your curriculum and fostering that independence and that routine with your students.

By creating that classroom culture where your students are really accustomed to a certain level of independence, you're ensuring that your classroom continues to function effectively even when you're out.

So this approach not only supports your students learning, but it also empowers them to take responsibility and some accountability for their education.

So they'll know where do I go to find out my daily tasks.

Well, if they have a learning management system, maybe they pull that up.

And when it comes to automating your subplans, technology can be your BFF.

Things like iExcel, those are easy things that you can kind of plug and play.

And clearly, I'm obsessed with utilizing artificial intelligence to help support creating your subplans or really any other tedious or repetitive task.

But if I were automating this, I might use something like EduAid's subplanner.

So EduAid.ai, this tool is a lifesaver for teachers.

And while EduAid has a ton of different tools inside, I really like their substitute planner.

It's inside the teaching assistant and then the professional duties section.

And it allows you to create this detailed, easy to follow subplan really quickly.

You can automate much of the prep work required for a substitute teacher.

This means less time that you're spending creating those plans when you're unwell and more time for you to rest and recover.

All you have to do is just enter your grade level, your subject, your topic, or your keyword, and wham, bam, thank you, ma'am, gives you a quick list of assignments that you might use and just a substitute template that you could customize to your liking. Number two, you're.

Sometimes just a quick video related to your subject matter or your unit can be a really effective tool for a substitute to use.

You could curate a list of educational YouTube videos that align with your curriculum for use in the classroom.

Substitute and then a tool that I can think of to use with this would be Ghibli and that offers a range of tools for lessons assignments gamify learning and more but these tools could be integrated into your daily routine making it easier for substitutes to step in in order for you to use this all you'd have to do is just input that link to the YouTube video into Ghibli and it it would create questions based on that.

Now, Ghibli has the option to do kind of like this gamified learning where students can do like collaborative groups and things like that, but they also have individual quizzes as well.

In my past experience, the collaborative games and things like that, that needed to be saved for when I was there because it could get kind of out of hand with a substitute.

But just using that gamification feature independently, independently, that's usually okay. It keeps students engaged and on task.

So basically they would watch the YouTube video and then answer the questions as like a formative assessment and progress monitoring.

The last thing that I would recommend automating is your communication.

That way when you're out of the office, it's something simple.

It's just with the click of a button, you have an out of office notification.

That way anybody who sends you a message when you're out, may that be students or parents or colleagues or whoever, they have an idea of when you'll get back to them and why you're not responding, okay?

And just a little blurb that says if it's an emergency, you know, contact the front office or department head, whoever best, you know, fits the bill.

I've also used FAQ pages to kind of help students and parents know where to go when I'm out.

That way, I don't feel like I need to be checking my email. That kind of sets that boundary there and allows them to know this.

I have all of this information as well as other templates inside of the teacher email template toolkit that you can grab at teachingmindbodyandsoul.com slash email templates.

But remember, the goal here is just to kind of make sure that taking that sick day doesn't mean that you are adding additional stress or adding a pileup of work upon your return.

With the right tools and a little bit of planning, you can ensure that your classroom runs smoothly, even when you're not there.

And most importantly, it allows you to take the time that you need to rest and recuperate without worry.

At the end of the day, I want to leave you with a crucial reminder.

I know that sounds a little bit blunt, but hear me out.

As teachers, we often carry the weight of the world on our shoulders.

We feel personally responsible for every aspect of our classroom, our students' learning, and even as far as broader issues that are affecting our schools.

But it's vital for us to recognize where our responsibilities begin and end, okay? The challenge of finding substitute teachers, that's a systemic issue.

It is rooted in factors like funding and policy decisions and the broader educational structures.

When you're sick and you need a day off, the burden of securing a substitute and ensuring that your class runs smoothly in your absence, that should not fall entirely on you.

That's an organizational responsibility, one that your school or your district needs to address.

If you need more of a reminder and more empowerment for taking your sick days, I highly recommend going back to episode 35, where we talk about how to feel empowered and prepared to take your sick days with Kelsey Sorensen.

Share it on your social media. I know that there are so many educators who struggle with this mindset, and my goal in bringing you this episode is just to challenge that narrative, to give you some steps and some tools that might make this a little bit easier so that we can start prioritizing our well-being so that we can heal the system from the inside out.

Don't forget, you are a resilient teacher. We're in this together. You got this.