The Last to Leave

Will this winter never end?

The weather forecasters have been going crazy over the past week forecasting snow and ice and every miserable thing a cloudy sky can produce for today.  Great.  We've already had to use one holiday up to make up a snow day and the last thing we want to do is use up another.  When I went to bed last night the storm was supposed to hit around 3:00 pm, so we were all hoping that we could get in a day of school before the Great White Death began to hit.

No cancellation call this morning, so off to school we went.

Only to be told by the kids getting off the buses that the bus drivers had informed them that we were going to be dismissing early.

Great.  Nothing like having them bouncing off the walls with excitement before 7:15 in the morning.  I think every teacher in that building was about ready to find a bus driver and wring his/her's neck.  Good luck trying to get any learning out of our kids today.

Of course, we didn't get the word until every kid in the building knew about it.  But finally, we were told that yes, we were going to have a half day and get the kids out of there by 10:45.  The storm was apparently going to hit around noon, and we needed to get all the high school and middle school kids dropped off and then the buses would pick up and deliver the elementary kids.

But first we had to feed them.

For seventh grade and sixth grade, the day wasn't bad.  Seventh has 1st and 2nd period planning, sixth has 3rd and 4th period, but eighth grade - they didn't get any planning today as their planning is 6th and 7th period.   The idea was that the sixth grade would have lunch first, then us, then eighth, and we'd have them all fed by 10:30.  To speed up the food service, the kids would be eating in their classrooms.

I actually had kids in my room making up their benchmark tests during 1st period, 2nd period was free (although I spent it with Mrs. Eagle making up a different lesson plan than we'd planned since we'd only see two of our five classes today), and then third period we'd take them to lunch, and 4th we'd have an actual class.

It really did go a lot smoother than I thought it would.  My third period, the group that had to eat lunch in the classroom, did pretty well and actually once they'd finished eating, they got out their workbooks and began working on a meiosis assignment (which will be extra credit, but I sure as heck didn't tell them that).  Fourth period was a bit hard to get going as they knew they'd be leaving shortly, but they didn't do too bad either.

Thank goodness I didn't have to deal with my Seventh Period Class From the Very Depths of Hell Itself.

Mrs. Eagle, Mr. Math and I are part of the "Snow Team", the group of teachers that stay back for an hour or so until the last bus has delivered the last kid and the last parent has picked up their child.  It's a volunteer thing, but basically if you live nearby the school, don't have any kids of your own to pick up, and can drive in the snow, they kind of like it if you stay.  The idea is we want someone at The School in case a kid(s) doesn't get picked up or a bus has to return.  It wasn't snowing yet when the buses rolled, so we didn't really have anything to do but go back to our rooms to work on whatever.  (Mrs. Eagle and I ate our packed lunches and worked on our notebooks for next week).  It's actually not a bad thing because it does give you some quiet time to work in your room - I love that opportunity.

And goodness, after 12 years in Ohio, I can drive in snow.  Don't like to do it, but I can.

And now, that I'm home, it's snowing like mad.  And tomorrow?  Who knows?  The high is only going to be 23 degrees.

And it looks more and more like we're going to have to add 30 minutes to our day to make up the time.

Ick.