It would appear that over the past week my school has officially entered cold and flu season. My grade level’s attendance was around 90% for the week (and we are consistently around 98%), one of the teachers on my team was out for 2 days, and my eldest daughter finally caught the bug that has been passed around 2nd grade on Thursday evening by way of projectile vomiting her dinner. What a time to be alive.
According to the CDC, flu season usually starts around late October and peaks between December and January. Ask most veteran teachers, and they would tell you that this corresponds with the most challenging part of the school year, where the back-to-school honeymoon period has worn off, days are literally getting shorter (Thanks, daylight saving time!), and tensions run at an all time high.
It’s best to be proactive during this time of year, so I have curated my top 3 tips for staying healthy during cold and flu season.
- Help support your immune system by maintaining healthy eating habits. It’s easy to start slacking on the meal prep and rely on not-so-healthy (yet more comforting) options when the weather gets colder, but resist this urge to help your body be prepared to fight any nasty germs. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways from meal prepping, to “eating the rainbow,” to taking vitamin supplements, to avoiding junk food. I try to make sure my lunch bag is filled with healthy-ish snacks to prevent trips to the vending machine, and I always keep a box of Emergen-C in my desk drawer. There are always small healthy eating wins we can plan for that will have BIG impacts when the germs are coming at us from all angles.
- Allow your body to rest and recharge. The CDC recommends that adults get at least 7 hours of sleep each night, but as a teacher and single parent, I’m not even close to that during the weeknights. Since I started teaching, I have learned that “rest” doesn’t always have to equate to sleep. During this dark part of the year, I try to take a day of “rest” on the weekend where I don’t do any school-related tasks. My never-ending To Do List will be waiting for me and I feel more balanced and productive when I set clear working-hour boundaries over the weekend. Define what “rest” means for you and then allow yourself to take a break.
- Schedule self-care throughout the season. The term “self-care” sounds cliche, but being aware of our mental, emotional, and physical state while proactively taking care of our needs is more than necessary. Especially during this stressful time of year it is important to be deliberate in taking care of your mental, emotional, and physical state. I make time to listen to an informative podcast or a chapter of an audio book to take care of my mental state. I make sure to journal (at the least) to decompress after a stressful day at school to take care of my emotional state. I maintain my exercise regime (and bring my gym back to school daily) to take care of my physical state. The goal is to find out what works best for you!
Use a double-dose of hand sanitizer for good measure. Hopefully these tips are helpful as you navigate another week of teaching. Please share what your top 3 tips for staying healthy in cold and flu season would be in the comments below.
Next week we’ll look at the dilemma of productivity over long breaks as Thanksgiving break is fast approaching.
Teacher Triage 