205 | Just Take A Sick Day

Let’s be real, teachers are pros at pushing through when they shouldn’t. Between planning sub lessons, worrying about routines, and feeling guilty for being gone, it’s easy to convince ourselves that resting isn’t worth the hassle.

In this episode, Bryson shares a heartfelt reminder that taking a sick day is not a sign of weakness; it’s an act of self-care that ultimately helps you show up as your best self for your students. He opens up about his own experience balancing teaching with foster parenting, and offers practical strategies for making time off less stressful, from setting up a “sub tub” to creating digital plans that make stepping away easier.

If you’ve ever felt guilty for taking a day to rest, this one’s for you. Because your classroom will survive, and you deserve to take care of yourself, too.

Episode Chapters:

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:57 Bryson’s experience
• 4:54 Tips for stress-free sick days
• 8:13 School policies & requirements
• 10:42 Takeaways

Links and Resources: 

• The Elementary Music Summit®
• Elementary Newbie Guide
• Disabilities Guide
• Steady Beat Survival Guide
• Join Elementary Music EDGE™

Have questions or want to share feedback? Reach out to us at hello@thatmusicteacher.com - we’d love to hear from you!

Have questions or want to share feedback? Reach out to us at hello@thatmusicteacher.com - we’d love to hear from you!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:57 Bryson’s experience
• 4:54 Tips for stress-free sick days
• 8:13 School policies & requirements
• 10:42 Takeaways

Transcript

Bryson Tarbet: 0:00

Let's be honest, we've all not taken a sick day when we really should have, because we didn't want to go through all the trouble of figuring out what our sub's gonna do, making sure that there actually is a sub, the guilt of having someone have to cover. I'm here to tell you, take the sick day, it's gonna be okay. You are listening to that music podcast with Bryson Tart, the curriculum designer and educational consultant behind that music teacher in the elementary music summit. Each week, Bryson and his guests will dive into the reality of being an elementary music teacher and how music can truly be transformative in the lives of the students you serve. Show notes and resources mentioned in this episode can be found@thatmusicteacher.com. Hello and welcome back to this episode of That Music podcast. Today we're talking about something that is absolutely vital, but often overlooked, giving yourself permission to take a sick day, whether it's for you, for your kid, for whatever reason. It's not about being irresponsible. It's about self-preservation and ultimately being a better teacher for when you are. My good friend, Grace Stevens always talks about how your energy teaches more than like anything else. I'm kind of butchering that, but it's kinda the same vibe. Um, basically your energy, the, the energy that you bring into your classroom as a teacher is so important. So if you're coming in there like not okay, your students know. What you're giving is not your best. And there's a difference between being your best and you know, going in when you're not feeling great and like going in when you just had an appendix taken out and you're like still having vertigo. Hey, I've done that. Um, so today we're gonna be talking about how we. How we can do this without feeling the guilt. We're gonna acknowledge the guilt and the, the kind of terrible system we're in. Um, but then we're gonna talk about how we can actually like really empower you to just take the sick day and not feel bad about it. Before we get too far in, I wanna kind of share a personal experience. So, when I first started, my, my first foster placement, um, was kind of a whirlwind, um. You know, obviously when she was placed with me, I had to take off some time before I could figure out childcare and things like that. And then essentially we ran right in from an initial placement to an inpatient hospital setting. Um, she, she ended up being fine, but like we were in the hospital for about a week. Um, so obviously I was there with her and I was not at school. Um, and thankfully I had wonderful, wonderful administrators, wonderful colleagues, and everyone was really supportive and understanding. But let's be honest. But my not being there did create more work for people. Um, and I kind of struggled with that personally, especially like as I was like sleep deprived and trying to like be there for my foster daughter and kind of figuring out what that, you know, it's my first place, so what does that, what does it look like? What does my role, how does this all fit in? And you know, I think that, you know, now that I've had some time to kind of process that and understand it, I think that we've all been in that situation to some degree where we are. Hyper aware of the fact that us taking time off or taking a sick day is, you know, whether we like it or not, creating a little bit more chaos at school. And as specialists, as music teachers, we are often the only music teacher in the building. Um, and even if we weren't, it's not like we can, you know, just pull another music teacher in and there, everything's fine. And we just kind of like it. Go, life goes on the way that it would've if you were there. It really becomes to the fact of. We are likely going to need to find a sub. And quite frankly, finding a sub is tough these days, especially finding a, a tub, a sub that will follow your plans, um, that is comfortable doing music that isn't scared off by it. Um, and you know it. And then on the flip side of that, we sometimes get subs that it's kind of perceived as an easy class, right? You just show up and you press play and everything happens. Um. We, we want to, we wanna push back on that a little bit, right? When, when we leave sub plans, we wanna find that balance of, you know, what's easy for the sub, but it's also like showing them what actually happens in music class. So it's not, we're not like enabling this perception of music is just all fun and dandy and everything is, you know, anyone can do it. Um, and then let's be, let's be honest, there's also the. The feeling of, of letting your students down. And we love our students and we don't want them to miss out on music. And we don't want them to mess, you know, we don't want our lesson rotations to be messed up. And maybe there's a constant coming up and we wanna make sure that they're prepared. But I wanna present you with a, a counter argument because the truth is pushing through when you're truly sick or when you know you truly have a reason not to be at work, doesn't serve anyone. You're not at your best, you're probably gonna prolong your illness and you might get other people sick, right? When you have the opportunity to take this sick day, take this sick day. So bringing it back to my, my experience I shared earlier with my foster daughter, um, I had already learned a lot of these things, but a lot of these things became very evident as I very quickly, you know, was thrown into the fire of being a parent. Who was also a teacher and how I had to do this. So here are some practical tips, um, for taking a sick day. Uh, the first thing is having some sort of go-to Subplan folder or a digital file or a sub tub, um, of just like I. Cannot write a sub plan right now. This will, you will survive with these plans. The kids are gonna have fun. It's gonna be okay. Um, they might not be your best sub plans. They might be like the most aligned with what you're doing in your curriculum right then and there. Um, but really giving, you know, some generic easy to follow up l lesson plans. Ready. For a sub or for, you know, a teacher that might get pulled in there at the last minute. So, focus on activities that a non-music sub can handle, because let's be honest, most of us are not gonna get a music sub. Um, so think like music listening activities, having some responses, some music games that they already really know. And then also write up the real rules really clearly. Um, some simple movement activities, maybe some play along videos on YouTube with some, you know, instruments that you know they're not gonna destroy. Um. Things like that. Uh, meet the composer of different videos, instrument identifications, and what the importance here is you want them to be minimal prep. You want to basically say. Hi principal. I'm not gonna be in, this is what they need to do. They need to open this folder and it'll tell 'em exactly what to do, and that's really all you need to do. Um, or put it into Asop or whatever. Um, so we're gonna be diving deeper into how I use digital sub plans in episode 2 0 7, but I wanna briefly mention digital sub plans because biggest change of my life, um, essentially what I would do isn't, you know, I had a couple of. In case the internet was out or whatever, because let's be honest, the Internet's always out. Um, but like physical printed plans that could be used. Um, but the vast majority of the time, especially like when I was in the hospital with my foster daughter, um, I was updating essentially a Google doc every day with new lesson plans or every rotation with new lesson plans, um, in this Google Doc in the digital nature. So I didn't have to go in. Um, but we'll talk about that more in episode 2 0 7, if that's something you're interested in. Another thing that's really important to, um, having a successful day when you're not there is empowering your students and your sub by making sure that they know the routine when you're there. So, practice what you're doing. Practice the things that you're gonna be doing with a sub. Um, don't give a sub something brand new like this huge, complicated game if they've never played it before. Um, because it's gonna be complicated, especially if the sub doesn't really know the game. Um, and you know, this is really gonna ha be huge on the sub day if you are very clear on your expectations of like, Hey, like, when I'm not here, X, Y, Z, or, you know, even when I'm here, like these are the expectations. Um, having a visual schedule for this sub can be really helpful. Um, clearly in label any instruments or materials if they're part of a sub plan. Uh, so for instance, in my sub tub that I had. Um, like it would literally, I would have a folder that said, this is a kindergarten lesson plan. Um, can you check off when Mrs. Kane's class has completed it? Um, that way I knew that they didn't do the same plan four times in a row, you know? So again, all we're doing is setting your students up for success so that your sub can be set up for success too. So whatever we can do to make it as simple as possible. And as do this, then this, then this, then this, then this, then go home. That's gonna be very helpful. Now let's talk about actually taking the sick day. Um, first of all, there are, um, depending on where you are and your union contract or non-union contract or whatever your contract. There are certain things you have to do, right? Like if I'm not gonna be in, I have to put it into Frontline or ASAP or whatever it's called, basically so that a sub can at least attempt to be found. And the goal is to put it in as soon as you can, right? You're not gonna put it in a sub like five minutes before the school day starts. Um, unless obviously something is wild. Um, basic. So basically follow the rules, you know, if you have specific things, um, that you, you need to do. Um, but like. Don't feel like you need to overexplain to your administration. Um, like, I know for me, I like my, my contract pretty much pretty explicitly said like, if I'm taking a sick day off and I'm not, and I'm putting it in appropriately, I don't have to tell you where I'm going. I don't have to tell you what's wrong. I often did. I was, I would say like, Hey, you know, I'm homesick, you know, my foster daughter's in the hospital. Obviously that was a different thing. Um, but if I'm just taking like a sick day, I would just be like, Hey, I'm, you know. I'm putting a sick day. That's how, you know. Um, and then there were certain things, like if it was so many, so many days in the length, you know, I would have, you know, they have the opportunity to ask for doctor's notes or certain things like that. So be aware of those rules. Um, you don't have to give them a play by play of your symptoms. You don't have to say that, you know, you're da da, da. You could just say, Hey, I, I'm not gonna be in today, um, due to an illness. Um, or, Hey, my, my son's sick, or whatever. Um, and then from there on, trust your administration to find a sub. It's their job. And if they don't, it's gonna be okay. And it's not your fault. And I think that's the biggest struggle is do whatever you can. For instance, if you know that you are really sick and you are likely going to be sick in the morning, put the sub day, put the sick day in the night before, give whatever powers it, be the best chance of finding you a sub. Um, but if they can't, that's not on you. It's not your job as a teacher to fix the sub shortage. And then our final tip is to let go. Trust that things are gonna be okay. The classroom will survive. Your kids are gonna be fine. You might come back to a mess sometimes, and that, that, that is part of the drawback. But the reality is, is that it is important for us to accept that things might not go exactly as you would've done them, and that's okay. The goal is to keep the students safe, engaged, and happy not to have a perfect music lesson in your absence. Focus on. You need to focus on resting and recovering, not worrying about what your students are doing at school. So to wrap all this up, I want to make very, very clear. Taking care of yourself is not a luxury. It is a necessity. You cannot pour from an empty cup and you are part of a broken system, likely as, as as an educator, but that's not your job to fix all the parts. Sometimes you are just part of it, and you need to trust that the other people that are part of it will do what they need to do so that you can take a sick day. It's really important. Give yourself permission to rest. Your students need a healthy present teacher, and sometimes that means taking some time away from them so that you can get to that state. Next week, we're gonna be diving into how you can take a sick day without throwing off your whole lesson structure and rotation and everything, because I know that's a really common structure for specialists like us. So if that's something you're interested in, be sure to join us next week for episode 2 0 6. And with that being said, thank you so much again for listening to this week's podcast. If you have not left us a review on iTunes, YouTube, wherever you're watching, listening, whatever, I would love for you to leave us a comment or review, subscribe so that you can check out next week's episode. So once again, take the sick day. Take care of yourself and from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for making a difference in the lives of the students that you teach.