Chickenpox

Chicken Pox or Chickenpox?  I've seen it written both ways. Well...

Chickenpox are not so noticeable on darker-skinned kids, I now realize. 

3C has been attacked by a spreading case of the Chickenpox.  It began with a student who came back to school after a family trip, and realized a few days later that his cousin had given him Chickenpox.  No one realized that he had already exposed the class to the infection (probably because it is contagious before the spots show up), until yesterday, when a student's mother came by to let me know she was going to bring him to the school doctor (yep, our school has a real doctor, and some nurses too) to see if he had bug bites or ... something else.   It turned out not to be bug bites.  Today, two of my boys who commented about "bug bites" yesterday are also home with Chickenpox.  It appears that two fourth graders have it, too.

Anyone seen the movie Contagion yet?  I just saw it, and this situation keeps bringing to mind.

How old were you when you got the Chickenpox?  I think I was a baby.  Most people I know got it really young.  A few of my students say they've had the vaccine... but many have not had either the vaccine or the real infection.   I don't know... I just find it strange.  Maybe they're more sheltered than I was... but to have various third and fourth grade students who have yet to catch it seems odd.

Let me just say that the peace of having 4 students absent from an already not-too-big class is making for some calm days.  We are getting extra great behavior reports from special teachers, too.  I think I'll take some Chickenpox now and again...