A trip the the Express Care on Friday afternoon revealed that I didn't have strep throat, so I did the manly thing and went about the business of my weekend while complaining the entire time. Part of the business of the weekend was hosting a board game party, and preparing food for up to 12 folks. I strictly followed safe food prep procedures, so I didn't spread what I thought to be a tough cold to my friends, and soldiered on, keeping Purell in business the whole time.
Come Monday morning, I still felt like I'd been punched in the throat, but since I was still able to move, and didn't want to have to rely on Substitute Plans for my classes, I headed into work. About two minutes into my second class, I got a call from the Express Care, letting me know that there had been some kind of mix-up with my test results, that I actually did have strep throat, and that "Gosh, I probably wasn't feeling well at all!" Since strep is highly contagious, and I work with about 210 students on a typical Monday, I let the front office know and was essentially booted out of the building until I got my 24 hours of antibiotics in.
The reason I don't like using sick days isn't because I have an overly robust work ethic, or because I don't think a substitute could do justice to my pristine lesson plan. It's because I have separate lesson plans for every period of the day. And, frankly, I can barely keep on top of them, and I wrote them.
As a COmputer Lab Assistant, I see every class in the school over the course of a week, sometimes two or three times. I have 60 minutes of prep time each day, and much of that is writing curriculum, because there is none provided. Now, I love this setup. The days go by quickly, I get to be creative, and I like working with kids. My Sub Folder, which contains just the essential information for a sub to get by, weighs in at about 2 lbs of paper. It has class lists with log-in ID's, passwords to math and typing programs, schedules for each day of the week, emergency procedures, etc. Unless a sub shows up early, they won't have time to look at anything until after their third class of the day.
I've had to use a sub twice before. The first time was an absolute disaster that took about 2 weeks to recover from. The second was a mitigated disaster that just left a couple classes behind. Who knows what awaits when I get back in today?
As a COmputer Lab Assistant, I see every class in the school over the course of a week, sometimes two or three times. I have 60 minutes of prep time each day, and much of that is writing curriculum, because there is none provided. Now, I love this setup. The days go by quickly, I get to be creative, and I like working with kids. My Sub Folder, which contains just the essential information for a sub to get by, weighs in at about 2 lbs of paper. It has class lists with log-in ID's, passwords to math and typing programs, schedules for each day of the week, emergency procedures, etc. Unless a sub shows up early, they won't have time to look at anything until after their third class of the day.
I've had to use a sub twice before. The first time was an absolute disaster that took about 2 weeks to recover from. The second was a mitigated disaster that just left a couple classes behind. Who knows what awaits when I get back in today?
