(Tip for new teachers and anyone interested.)

Time for a practical post. According to Erin Brodwin of Business Insider, “research suggests that both the cold air from outdoors as well as the dry air from indoors may play a role in protecting the aerosol droplets we sneeze and cough into the air, allowing them to more easily spread from one sick person to another.

Plus, stuffy, unventilated indoor air could make it easier for colds to spread; a 2011 study of crowded college dorms in China found that in rooms with poorer ventilation, colds were more likely to thrive.”

The wind brought November to Illinois last night, after an afternoon in the sixties. I walked the Chicago Botanic Gardens with a girlfriend yesterday. Today I will be looking for matching gloves.

I strongly recommend a big bottle of hand sanitizer for the classroom. I suggest specifically laying out rules for its use. From past experience, I’d suggest you keep your sanitizer by your desk or toward the front of the room and in sight. Mischievous kids have been known to drop handfuls on seats when I put it in the back of the room. If students are getting up, you want them coming toward you, rather than away from you.

Be sure to smell the sanitizer before you purchase it. Boys will mostly decline to use strong floral or sweet scents. You want a pleasant, clean smell that appeals to the group. If you are feeling generous, you might also lay in some of those little bottles from Bath and Body Works. They tend to be fragrant, often fruity or floral. I share them with girls who ask and they seem to consider those scents a treat.

P.S. I recomment Tdap shots. Pertussis can make an adult or child sick for weeks or even months. If you work in a school, you might ask your doctor about this.