This is REALLY true in the computer science classroom. I am not out often, and try to keep it to one day at a time. I went to TCEA for a week once, and found my classroom in complete chaos when I came back.

I can't find anyone who can instruct the students at all. My criteria for a sub: there hasn't been a fight when she's been in the room, there hasn't been major equipment missing -- this year, whenever I'm out a mouse disappears. It's happened twice. Weird, but I think it is a student punishing me.

I'm worried about the Game workshop, I'll be out three days, at the end of the six weeks.

Teacher absences are hurting learning - Education- msnbc.com
Duke University economist Charles Clotfelter, among a handful of researchers who have closely studied the issue, says the image of spitballs flying past a daily substitute often reflects reality. "Many times substitutes don't have the plan in front of them," Clotfelter said. "They don't have all the behavioral expectations that the regular teachers have established, so it's basically a holding pattern."