• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts

The Educators Room logo

  • Start Here
    • Impact Statements: Teacher Expertise
    • Newsletter
  • Browse Topics
    • Content Strategies
      • Literacy
      • Mathematics
      • Social Studies
      • Educational Technology
      • ELL & ESOL
      • Fine Arts
      • Special Education
      • Popular Topics
        • Teacher Self-Care
        • Instructional Coach Files
        • Common Core
        • The Traveling Teacher
        • The Unemployed Teacher
        • The New Teacher Chronicles
        • Book Review
        • Grade Levels
          • Elementary (K-5)
          • Middle (6-8)
          • Adult
          • New Teacher Bootcamp
          • Hot Button Topics
            • Menu Item
              • Principals' Corner
              • Charter Schools
              • Confessions of a Teacher
              • Interviews
              • The State of Education
              • Stellar Educator of the Week
            • Menu
              • How to Fix Education
              • Featured
              • Ask a Teacher
              • Teacher Branding
              • Current Events
  • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout- An 8 Week Course
    • Becoming An Educational Consultant
    • Teacher Branding 101:Teachers are The Experts
    • The Learning Academy
    • Books
    • Shirts
  • Education in Atlanta
  • Teacher Self-Care
  • The Coach's Academy
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts
×

September 8, 2015 Current Events in Education

The Petri Dish Is Real: Staying Healthy During the School Year

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Jake Miller

Mr. Jake Miller is the 2016 National History Day Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year, a 2017 NEA Global Fellow to China, and a former candidate for county-wide office. Miller has written more than 500 articles, most of which have appeared on The Educator's Room. He's the opening contributor to TER's book When the Fire Is Gone. Learn more about Jake at www.MrJakeMiller.com
  • The Student-Teaching Model Is Outdated: Here's How We Can Do Better - September 15, 2021
  • Visualize: How Seeing What's Coming Changed My Teaching - August 16, 2021
  • 10 Lessons About Teaching from My Youngest Son - June 24, 2021
  • Ending the Epithet “Try-Hard” Once and for All in Classrooms - June 18, 2021
  • From STEM, Let's Pivot to the BRANCHES of the Humanities - May 25, 2021
  • Would Education Collapse If Teachers Stopped Working for Free? - May 20, 2021
  • 10 Ways to Teach Like Ted Lasso: Part II - April 21, 2021
  • 8 Tips So Your Substitute Plans Don't Suck - April 14, 2021
  • 10 Ways to Teach Like Ted Lasso: Part I - March 12, 2021
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers: Habit 3 - First Things First - February 26, 2021

Dr. Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, conducted a 2008 study regarding the germiest jobs in America – and the worst offender was not a sanitation worker, a doctor, or a bank teller – though they all ranked in the top 10. The germiest job in America is that of a teacher. In fact, our work space is 6-times more germ-filled, and our computer keyboards 27-times dirtier than accountants, who took second in this study.

In fact, the Wall Street Journal followed up this study by declaring, “Afraid of Germs? Don’t Even Think About Becoming a Teacher.” Why? Because the Petri Dish is real. Especially for new teachers.

 

That said here are some tips to keep teachers and students healthy during the school year:

1. Clean the computer keyboard EVERYDAY – after reading this study, we should all start or end our day with the dirtiest place the teacher interacts with most. This is especially true if a teacher brings his/her laptop home.

2. Teach students to wash their hands properly, and then lead by example – this might sound ridiculous, but researchers at Michigan State University estimates that 95% of Americans don’t wash their hands properly. The biggest problem is we’re not washing our hands long enough (it should be 20 seconds, or long enough to sing the “Happy Birthday Song” twice). For men, only half of us use soap. The number tanks when we consider students’ hygiene. So our nurse decided to do something and showed this video. Remember, we’re just a year removed from the Ebola outbreak fear.

3. Use hand sanitizer as bathroom passes – if the hand sanitizer is in students’ hands as they use the restroom, the odds of spreading germs decreases dramatically. Get a template for hand sanitizer passes from Stephanie Van Horn’s blog, Third Grade Thoughts.

4. Have the students wipe the desks at least once a week – Dr. Gerba stated that the dirtiest places students interact with on a daily basis is their desktop. When a teacher considers all the classes of students who sit in a desk at a secondary setting, we probably have upwards of 8 or 9 students at that seat in any given day. Odds are one of them is sick. At the primary level, students’ germs can manifest themselves and spread just as easily.

5. Invest in a bottle of Lysol – man, the amount of shared things that more than 150 hands touch in a week is too much for one case of Clorox wipes. That’s why teachers should invest in a bottle of Lysol. Spray the door handle when there are plenty of students out. Give the box of colored pencils a spritz. Spray some in the air after a class that has half the students missing.

6. Get a flu shot – the Center for Disease Control estimates that those of us who receive a flu shot will boost immunization to flu strains by 71%, and it’s higher for teachers who are 50-years-old and older. If teachers told students their study guides had similar effect and they didn’t use it to study for their tests, they’d shake their head when they fail.

7. Get exercise, outside if possible – Keeping one’s self fit and active is crucially important, so put down that gradebook and go for a jog. Additionally, Vitamin D is one of the greatest additions to the immune system, and teachers and students can acquire this best by exposing themselves to the sun for at least 15 minutes a day. This gets more difficult for our educators in Alaska’s winter, so supplements are almost as effective. Health.com provides ways to ways to acquire Vitamin D.

8. Stop touching your face – Women’s Health observed 249 people for a few weeks and determined that they touch germ-infested communal places 3 times an hour and touched their faces – especially the nose, mouth, and eyes – even more frequently. I shudder to think about how much more exposure and touching of the face the average teacher has. Ew.

9. Stay home when sick – I know, I know… making sub plans is more of a chore than being there. But if we’re going to have healthy classrooms, we need to model the behavior.

10. Drink loads of water – the health teacher down the hallway will tell all students to drink 8 cups of water a day (64 oz.), but the amount of water needed increases as the body fights off a cold. Help irrigate! Drink more.

11. Get your Z’s – teachers should be sleeping at least 7.5 hours on a school night. CureTogether.com has aggregated a plethora of cold studies and come to the conclusion that the single best way to battle the common cold is more sleep. Period.

12. Consult the family doctor if symptoms persist a week or more – then you might have more than a cold and need to see someone with a stethoscope.

Bonus: Gentlemen, if you sport a beard as I do, there are some sincere health benefits to growing out your whiskers, which includes acting as a filter against pollen and cold viruses. However, make sure to wash it multiple times a day - or it'll be dirtier than a toilet seat.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related posts:

Working for My Public School Is Just Like Working for the Mob Default ThumbnailWhat Am I Thankful For? A Damn Good Public Education How Humility Is Hurting Teachers Education15 Things My 4-Year-Old Taught Me About Education
« Labor Day Informational Text: “Work is a Blessing” from This I Believe
Classroom Battle Tips: You Can Win the War »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

The Educator's Room was launched in 2012 to amplify the voice of educators. To date, we have over 45+ writers from around the world and boast over twelve million page views. Through articles, events, and social media we will advocate for honest dialogue with teachers about how to improve public education. This mission is especially important when reporting on education in our community; therefore, we commit our readers to integrity, accuracy, and independence in education reporting. To join our mailing list, click here.

What we do

At The Educator's Room, we focus on amplifying and honoring the voice of educators as experts in education. To date, we have over 40 staff writers/teachers from around the world.

Popular Posts

  • My Union Showed Up for Me, and I'll Never Forget It
  • Your Students Deserve a Diverse Classroom Library. Here's How to Set It Up.
  • You Don't Have to Watch the Tyre Nichols Video, But Be Ready to Talk About It
  • "Let's Make This Happen": Following Student Interests to Interest-Based Mentorships

Featured On

Buy Our Books/Courses

How to Leave Your Job in Education

Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Using Your Teacher Expertise to Become an Educational Consultant

Check out our books on teaching and learning!

The Learning Academy

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Accessibility Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact
  • Services
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

 

Copyright © 2021 The Educator's Room.