Every day when students walk into a classroom, they expect to see their hard-working teacher ready to help them learn. But what if the teacher isn’t there?

Just like everyone, teachers have their own lives and take days off. Though this is understandable, it can really impact the way students learn. 

Science teacher Jordan Fuglestad is a coach for track and cross country and often misses school to attend meets. Fuglestad misses, at most, one day a week during the track and field season but does everything he can to help his students.

“I have to prepare sub plans which sometimes means adjusting what we’re doing,” Fuglestad said. “Like if we’re gonna have a lab, I have to shift the lab to a day when I’m there.”

Maternity leave is often the longest absence a teacher will have and therefore has the greatest impact on students. Science teacher Cheyenne Zelei went on maternity leave this winter, and physical education teacher Annie Chadwick went on maternity leave this spring.

“It was definitely harder to keep up on the work because we didn’t have that much help,” sophomore Morgan Bitcon said. “We just had to teach it to ourselves and use each other to explain stuff.”

Whether it’s for maternity leave, an appointment, or other reasons, students feel the absence of their teachers. Substitute teachers do the best they can to fill the role, but they simply don’t have the same knowledge of the curriculum or classroom as full-time teachers do.

“I don’t like having a sub instead of an actual teacher because they don’t really know how to teach the material or take the time to make sure we understand it,” sophomore Tomasz Kissel said.

At the beginning of the year, students meet their teachers for the first time. Throughout the semester, they learn about their specific teaching styles and personalities. As teachers gain more experience, they learn how to teach specific information in the best way.

If a teacher is gone, especially for a long period of time, it causes students to have to look elsewhere for extra help.

“It made me have to get more help from outside resources to understand the material more,” Kissel said. “I would often ask other biology teachers for help, look up questions I had online, and ask [classmates] if I had a question.”

Some teachers go to great lengths to prepare students so they are able to succeed in their absence.

“If I’m gone, I make alternative arrangements,” Fuglestad said. “I need to make time for people that are going to come get help that day.”

Students also just plainly miss their teachers. Whether they realize it or not, students look to their teachers every day for support. When Zelei went on maternity leave, some students were very affected by it.

“She was my favorite teacher so it was really sad,” Bitcon said. “I really missed her.”

It can be difficult for a student to miss school, but it is even more difficult when a teacher misses school. Students don’t understand how much they need their teachers until they are gone.