Dodging the Raindrops

Spring in the South can be a bit tricky.

The redbuds are out, the irises are blooming, the trees are leafing out, the grass is greening, and we're all trying to get our vegetable gardens in so we can have some great big huge ripe tomatoes come Independence Day.

However, one of the drawbacks to Spring in the South is Gawd-Awful rotten weather.

We just happen to live in the part of the country where cold fronts and warm fronts tend to bump into each other which means we get a lot - A LOT - of thunderstorms and rain and the occasional tornado.  When I went house-hunting when we first moved here, Hubby wanted one thing - a full, finished basement.  The primary reason was he had somewhere to put his office and our massive book collection but the other reason was "they have too many tornadoes and we'll need some place to go."  The fact that a tornado siren is down at the end of my street was just a bonus.  

Tuesday night they were predicting some really bad weather to come our way and I was hoping it would come through before it got too late.  I can't sleep during severe weather and really didn't want to spend most of the night in the basement.  As luck would have it, I was sound asleep when the tornado siren just about knocked me out of bed at 12:50 in the morning.  Great.  Hubby and I got the feline children in their kennels and got everyone downstairs pronto (we're getting really good at this and so are the cats).  We had just turned on the television to see what was going on when the power went out.   Fortunately we have plenty of flashlights and we pretty much sat in the dark, listening to my old Y2K wind up radio until the all clear sounded.  At that point we tried to go back to sleep but still didn't have any power.  Our power came on around 4:15, so I was one of the lucky ones.

By the time I headed to school around 6:15, it was barely light enough to see that there were a lot of trees down, street signs and stop signs laying flat on the ground, and debris all over the roads.  The traffic lights were out as well, which made it a bit dicey getting to school as some people don't seem to get a clue that when there's no traffic light, every intersection is considered a four way stop.  Surprisingly, when I got to The School, we actually had power.

We were one of the lucky ones.  Apparently power was out all over the county, including at a great many of our schools.  The high school down the road from us was dark, and there probably were only a handful of functioning traffic lights throughout the entire county.  Most of the kids rolled off the buses bleary eyed.  Half the staff didn't have power.  (There were some unusual color combinations and outfits spotted among staff and students, the result of getting dressed in the dark.)  By the time school started I was thanking my lucky stars that I actually had power since it appeared I was one of the fortunate few

As luck would have it, with so many schools without power (and with not good time frame from when they'd get power), the District decided to call it a day and pick everyone up and send everyone home.  Thankfully we won't have to make this day up (we're still making up time from our snow days this winter).  The seventh grade teachers - for once - got the best of this deal as our planning is 1st and 2nd period and they sent the kids home before 3rd.  

The forecast for the upcoming week pretty much indicates thunderstorms for the next five days.  It's Easter Sunday today and it's already rained 1.7" in my yard and still coming down.    I'm starting to worry a bit as we're coming up on the anniversary of  The Flood we had last year that many people are still recovering from.

But they say a flood like that comes along every 500 years....right.

Another Snow Day and a Wonderful Tool

We haven't been back to school since we dismissed early on Monday.  That storm came in and dumped 3.5" of heavy white stuff.  The roads were a mess (as usual) and although they were much better by Tuesday, the National Weather Service was forecasting another round of winter weather starting Wednesday morning, so they canceled school for Wednesday as well.  It started snowing at my house around 10:00 am, and finished around 8:00 pm after dumping another 4" of the white stuff.  Again, the roads were a disaster.  To make it even more fun, the nighttime temperature dropped to -6 - and this in an area where our average temperature is 50 degrees! So today, Thursday is another snow day and who knows what Friday will bring?  Hard to say.

So, we've really lost two weeks of instruction already and I've been getting a bit stir crazy.

However.  Thanks to a Tech Geek at our district I have been test driving a new tool to use to keep my kids in the learning game even while they're home for a snow day. A few weeks ago the Tech Geek was out in our building working with some teachers and I asked her if there was anything she knew of that I could use to connect with my kids during a snow day - a social networking type site, a chat site, whatever.

She recommended Edmodo.

I'm going to sound like a commercial here, so apologies ahead of time, but this application just rocks!  It's a social networking site that is teacher directed.  I signed up, gave my kids the code to sign up for my class, and so far I have about 50 kids signed up and a number of parents as well (parents can get a code to monitor their child which is a fantastic idea!) It looks a lot like Facebook, but the one thing is the kids can't talk with each other, they can only talk to the group as a whole or to the teacher.

I have posted extra credit, I've linked to Brainpops, I've put in missing work for absent kids, and I even posted a video lesson this morning (my first video!).  The kids who are absent absolutely love it, and they actually are turning in work (that's a huge problem for us - kids who are absent tend not to make up their work).  I can send direct messages to kids ("while we are out on a snow day, please finish your writing prompt.") and to individual classes and to the group as a whole as well as to parents.

If you haven't had a chance to check out Edmodo, take a minute and do so.  I can assure you that this will definitely be something I start at the beginning of the year next year.

Snow! Snow! Snow! or Why Bus Drivers Deserve Our Thanks and Respect

So the National Weather Service called for rain starting last night, turning to snow around noon today, and an accumulation of maybe 1-3 inches.

And they sorta got it just a bit wrong.

It was raining and 36 degrees when I got to The School this morning.  We went through 1st, 2nd, 3rd, no word of early dismissal which was a bit worrisome since Mrs. Social Studies had peeked out her back door and noticed that it had already turned to snow.  (We have no windows in our part of the building).  Halfway through 4th period The Principal came over the loud speaker and told us all to stop what we were doing and check our email.  Apparently we were going to dismiss two hours early, and we had a slight adjustment to the lunch schedule.  By the time we walked the kids down to the cafeteria, and past the bank of glass doors that go into the gym area, we could see that it was not only snowing, but snowing hard and everything was just covered.  This didn't look good.

We got the kids fed, went back to class and taught until around 12:10 when all the buses showed up and we dismissed the kids.  The good news is I got 3 periods taught.  The bad news is that it was a mess when the buses left.

I stayed behind, as part of the snow crew, for a while along with Mrs. Eagle.  We were supposed to be going to another middle school to see how their pilot STEM program was being implemented tomorrow, and worked on the sub plans for that only to get an email RIGHT AS WE FINISHED THE PLANS, telling us that the visit was canceled.  As I told Mrs. Eagle, if we didn't do the plans, we'd be going.  If we did them, we knew they'd cancel.  Oh well.

After about an hour we went up to check and see what the bus status was.  The whole idea behind us staying was in case a bus had to return or a kid didn't get picked up.  By then, it was a complete and total mess outside.  One of our teachers who lives in the county west of us decided that trying to get home was not a good idea, and had made arrangements to stay with another teacher who lives within walking distance.  She had called her daughter and they were reporting school buses sliding off the roads and people having to get 4-wheel drive vehicles out to the buses to get the kids off and home.  Not a pretty picture.  The Principal was on the phone trying to figure out if all our buses had made it safe and couldn't get a decent answer.  It didn't sound good.

She finally put her phone down and told those of us who didn't live within a few blocks to get home before it got even worse, and to text when we were home safely.  You didn't have to tell me twice.  By the time Mrs. Eagle, Mrs. Social Studies and I walked out to our cars, I had at least 3" of snow on mine and you couldn't hardly see the baseball fields behind the school.  It was wet, slushy, and coming down thick.

My 12 minute drive home took about three times as long, but for once people weren't being morons.  They were going slower, not tailgating (that drives me nuts) and I didn't see any wrecks on my way home.  That, however, was around 2:00 pm.  Since then we've had report of buses sliding off the road, some elementary schools just told the parents to come get their kids, and nothing but a huge big mess.  The local on-line paper reported that parents were swamping the district office with calls because the buses were late.   Another local news source is reporting over 80 wrecks.

I feel for these bus drivers.  It's not an easy job on a good day, but then having to deal with slushy slick roads, and poor visibility...they deserve a lot of credit for getting our kids home safe.  And I bet they won't get a cent of overtime for this.

And we're out for tomorrow.  The 1-3" is now looking like 4-8".  I'm beginning to think we may actually go to school again in March since there's another storm scheduled for Wednesday.

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.

A Mom With the Right Attitude

Last year when the school board came out with our inclement weather make-up plan, it involved using our winter holidays (MLK Day, Presidents Day and Good Friday) to make up the school we missed due to weather, over the measly three days we are allotted.

No one raised a fuss.  Not a peep.  And, keep in mind, the school board meetings are open to the public and the school board is elected by the public so there was plenty of opportunity for the public to have some input.  If they cared enough...

But oh my, when it actually came to implementing the plan (with MLK Day the first day we used), you would have thought that some big vast conspiracy was afloat.  (For the record, we had to make up days last year, but we didn't go over our limit until after MLK Day so we didn't have to use it as a make-up day.  We did use President's Day and Good Friday and no one squawked.)

We had a lot of absent kids, but, for the most part, very few kids who had notes stating that they were at some of the regional MLK celebrations.  Most of our kids were absent because (a) the parent is so clueless they didn't get the phone call/email/read the paper/watch the news to figure out we were going to school and the kids sure as hell weren't going to tell them of (b) they had plans made for the three day weekend already and most of them didn't involve any sort of MLK celebration.

So, the kids that were there were, for the most part, completely accepted the fact that we were making up a snow day, buckled down and got to work and didn't whine.

Drama Boy, a boy I had last year and who is now in 8th grade, was apparently whining a big about going to school to Mrs. Sandpiper's room next door.  He wasn't happy he was in school on MLK day.

"So, what did your mother say about it?" Mrs. Sandpiper asked.  We both have always liked Drama Boy's mom because she's pretty much no-nonsense when it comes to school and Drama Boy's drama.

"She said that if Martin Luther King were alive today, he'd want me in school getting my education," Drama Boy replied.  "And you can't argue with that."

No you can't.  Perhaps that would be a better way to celebrate the day - put a focus on getting an education and being the best person you can be.

Back at Last!

Finally!  Finally, we made it back to school, the high school kids were able to finish their exams and we'll be able to start the second semester tomorrow...8 days late.

I was beginning to wonder if we'd make it because just about every other county around us canceled and had another snow day (and many are cancelling already for tomorrow as well) but we went ahead and went.   I won't make any criticisms regarding the roads - I live in town where the roads aren't as hilly or twisty and they tend to get cleared and plowed before the county roads do.  For all I know, there's county roads under two inches of ice.  But we went ahead and had school (thank goodness), and we'll be making up our extra snow day on Monday, MLK day.

However.

One thing that has always perplexed me is how rarely we use delays.  When I taught Up North we used delays all the time.  The district would announce a two hour delay, which gave everyone a chance to see better in the daylight, and if the roads were still dangerous, they'd cancel for the day.  However, a lot of times that two hour delay was all the time we needed for the roads to begin to clear up, especially on a sunny day where the morning sun could begin the job of melting.  True, our classes were shorter, but we weren't having to make up so many snow days.

Down here, at least in my district, delays are rare.  And what's even stranger (and this just makes absolutely no freaking sense to me at all) is that even if we are on a delay, faculty and staff sill have to report at the regular time.  Which is two hours before the kids come in, assuming we're on a delay.  So, if the roads are too bad for buses, how come they aren't too bad for employees?  After all, supposedly, the whole issue is safety - we don't run buses when the roads are unsafe.  So why should the school employees get out on these dangerous roads to get to school?  And then, if it was eventually decided that we needed to go ahead and cancel school, (because the roads are unsafe) we then have to dismiss all the employees that went ahead and showed up and send them back out on dangerous roads.

Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Ideally?  Everyone reports two hours late...and that way, if it's decided that a cancellation is in order, there's no one to send back home.  And if the delay is all we need, we'd get in our scheduled day.

But hey, no one asks for my opinion.  I just give it.

Yet Another Snow Day

Our 4th Snow Day...which means we go to school on MLK day rather than have it off.

I am getting tired of not being in school.  True, I have plenty to do, but I'm getting bored with my own company at this point.

Hopefully we'll go tomorrow.  Please.

The Semester that Will Not End

Prior to the Christmas break, we had two snow days.  Two snow days right at the end of the semester when we were all finalizing grades and the high school students were taking their final exams.

So, it was decided by The Powers That Decide Such Things that when we returned this past Wednesday, the High School students would review for their exams (because we know they aren't mature enough to study for them over their break) then they would take them on Friday and today.  As a result, it was decided to extend our 2nd nine week grading period by one week so that everyone in the district would be on the same calendar.  Grades were held off for a week, and report cards delayed.

For those of us in the middle school it was more an administrative pain in the butt than anything else.  The kids were annoyed because they didn't get to go to their new elective classes (things like art, music, computers, etc).  We had kids going around with paper schedules because we couldn't make schedule changes in PowerSchool.  Just more of a pain than anything.  And in the midst of all this, we've got Benchmark testing coming up and all the silly scheduling nightmares that entails.

So today, Monday, the day the semester was going to finally freaking end as the High School kids would be taking their exams....it snowed.

And we had a snow day.  Our third (and last - from now on we use up holidays).

So the semester is not over.  Still.

They are predicting more snow and ice to come in tonight (oh joy) so we may be closed tomorrow as well.  As it stands we are now just about the only county in the region that is showing as open for tomorrow.  We shall see.

But as of now it feels like this semester will never, ever end.

Day Off, Part Two

We are on our second snow day today.

We only get three per year, so that means we have one left.

And it's not looking good for Wednesday.

And technically, it's not even Winter!

If we go over our allotted three before break (which officially starts for teachers the moment we wave those buses goodbye at around 11:00 am on Friday morning), then we will have to use December 20th and 21st to make up the days.  No one is looking forward to that.

Those of us here in My Beloved South are experiencing some very Northern-like weather.  According to the local news, this is the coldest December since 1942.  Really.  I can believe it.  I woke up yesterday morning to find it a whopping 7 degrees outside.  I think it may have reached 20 degrees by yesterday afternoon, and it certainly wasn't warm enough to get rid of all the ice on some of our twisty rural roads (which is why we're closed again today.)  Today it was 11 degrees when I woke up.  And on Wednesday they're calling for ice, wintry mix, and freezing rain.

Oh yay.

I hope we don't have another repeat of last year.

Hoping Grandma is Wrong

Years ago, my Grandmother R (the one who, along with my mom, taught me to knit) once told me that you wanted to pay attention to the date of the first snowfall of the year.  She said that the date would tell you how many snow storms you would have for that season.  For example, if it snowed on the 7th of November, you would have 7 storms that year.

I seriously hope that this is one of those old wives tales that really has absolutely no basis in reality.

Our first snowfall of the season was on November 27th.  That in itself is weird because we hardly ever get snow here until January.  (Or least we haven't since I moved to My Beloved South eight years ago.)

But, according to Grandma, that means we're having 27 storms this season.

And we just had the second.  And now we're out for a snow day for tomorrow.  (I am not happy - we only get three a year and this isn't the week we really need one.  We need to save them up for those dark and gloomy days in January and February when we really need a mental health day.)

I am so hoping that this year isn't a repeat of last year when it comes to missing school.

The Five Hundred Year Flood

At least that's what they are calling it now.

Our kids have missed an entire week of school. Staff reported on Thursday and Friday. It was decided that since the River was still above flood stage, and since the alternate bus routes would involve 2 1/2 hour commutes to and from school, the kids were staying home (smart call). I was one of the lucky ones because my drive to school wasn't impacted much by the flooding so it didn't take me any longer than normal. Some of the staff had to take detours - long detours - and had drives well over an hour, when normally it would take maybe twenty minutes. Traffic in most parts of town was bumper to bumper.

These past two days, without students, were really productive. We were able to work on finalizing grades for our retention and promotion meetings, get field day rescheduled, get our academic award party for the team organized. We do have one problem with the academic award party as the guy we usually buy our plaques from was, sadly, flooded out. So we're going to have to find another vendor as his phone is not being answered (I was hoping he may be working out of his house).

We did, unfortunately, have to cancel the field trip for the kids. No camping this year. Mrs. Eagle, Mrs. Bunny and I had a conference call on Wednesday and decided that we couldn't guarantee our kids' safety. The river is still a mess, things are still flooded, roads are still washing out, and it was just too full of unknowns. So we canceled. I'm sure there are a lot of disappointed kids out there, but honestly, not a single complaint from a single parent. They probably wouldn't let them go anyway.

Amazingly, out of our entire staff, only one of us suffered serious damage to a home (many were stuck and stranded for a few days). Our librarian had 6' of water in her basement and floating freezer and goodness knows what else. She's already applied to FEMA for aid as they had no flood insurance. Then again, many people who got flooded out didn't even live in the 100 year flood zone so the insurance issue is going to be a mess. We're still not sure how many of our kids got displaced, however. We hope to find out on Monday when we're back to school.

I do have another friend, a lady I serve on a board with, who pretty much has lost everything. She's one of those fantastic ladies who does a lot for the community, her church, the arts, you name it. A real classy lady. It breaks my heart that she lost her husband to cancer two years ago, and now her home. Sadly, she's not alone. It's been a pretty tragic week down here.

The Hundred Year Flood, Part Two

Monday - no school.

Tuesday - no school.

They've called school for Wednesday as well. Fortunately they also said they were going to approach the State Department of Education and try to have these days forgiven. I hope so. Our kids have been through enough already.

The river is supposed to crest at 1:00 am Wednesday morning. Hopefully the weather will stay clear and dry - it's been amazingly beautiful and warm. Good weather to clean out the damp part of the garage, sort through everything, toss out stuff, apply more Drylock, and put things in plastic tubs. I'm beat. Going to school would be a relief.

Many of our staff are still stranded. The terrain here is rolling hills along with rivers and creeks that criss-cross the county. Just about every low point with a bridge is closed. Getting from one side of town to the other is a challenge so Hubby and I are staying put except for a quick trip to Lowes for more supplies. We have plenty of food and water, the power is on (never went off) and although the waste water plant is shut down, we have water.

We may make a visit to rescue our friend Mrs. Littlebird, who is stuck in between two flooded roads. Her youngest, who is a non-verbal autistic, does not understand why he can't go to Burger King and everyone at the Littlebird house is stir-crazy. They can walk through the floodwaters to get to a road where we can pick them up so we may do that just to give them some peace and a change of pace.

The camping trip, alas, may be a wash (pardon the pun). We'll have to see. Mrs. Bunny, Mrs. Eagle and I are going to talk about it tomorrow, and see what The Principal has to say. There's the issue of transportation, the issue that the river won't be cresting near our camping area until the weekend, they may be using the campsite dorms for emergency shelters, and if everything is flooded, what can we do with the kids anyway?

And then there's the snakes. One thing flood waters leave in their wake down here are unpleasant creatures like water moccasins. I am not taking kids camping in a snake-infested zone. Sorry, just not doing that.

We may have to reschedule, if possible. Or we may do something special for the kids if we ever get back to school. A cookout at a local park, or something. I honestly don't know at this point.

I just really want to get back to school and see how my kids are.

In the meantime, if you are moved to help, go here:

Middle Tennessee Red Cross

Just When You Thought The Year Couldn't Get Any Crazier....

Sigh.

After seven snow days, and several weeks of longer school days to make up the snow days (we only have three allotted in our calendar), we get this:

Rain.  Lots of it.  Lots and lots and lots of it.  (Actually, we got more than that...I emptied out the rain gauge when it hit 8" a little bit ago and It Is Still Raining.)

And school is closed tomorrow due to flooding.

Heavens, we down here in the Volunteer State have even made the National News - nothing like video of a building floating down I-24 to get national attention.  It has been something else.  Most of West and Middle Tennessee is one big fat wet mess.

I have students being evacuated from their flooded apartments.  The school behind my house is a shelter.  And with only 15 and a half days left of school...we have an inclement weather day.

Amazing.

Oh, and last weekend?  We had this:

That's hail on my deck.  And leaves stuck all over the place.  And a glider that needed to be repainted a bit but even more so now that it got "hail blasted".  But hey, I didn't lose a tree like just about everyone else in the neighborhood.

Spring in the South.

Snow Bird Period

Since we have had so many snow days this year (we've been out for seven days, only have three built into the schedule, so we have to make up four), the district came up with a plan to add 30 minutes to the school day to help make up the time, before we have to take the Very Big Deal Government Mandated Tests this spring. After all, there really isn't much point in adding days at the end of the year when the kids have checked out mentally and there's nothing really at stake. The District, along with a parent focus group, also didn't want to take away spring break (although we did lose Good Friday) because so many people make plans and purchase plane tickets, and that would have caused more problems than it solved.

One thing that The District did was gave each school the leeway to decide what to do with these extra thirty minutes. We had a team leader meeting a few weeks ago and the fur flew as we tossed around ideas. There was one camp that wanted to add in the extra 30 minutes as a class period so we could actually teach a lesson, do an activity, and actually cover some content we haven't had a chance to get to yet. The other camp worried that the kids would get confused, wouldn't know where to go, would have problems in the hallway and just wanted to add the time onto the end of each period.

The seventh grade teachers were firmly in the extra period camp. The sixth grade teachers were firmly in the extra minutes camp. The eighth grade teachers didn't care anymore. (I know the feeling. I had those same kids last year). The Administration took what we gave them and came up with the extra period plan (with much whining and complaining from people that didn't like the idea of coming up with another lesson for their 30 minute block). Truth be told, yeah, it would be easier to just tack on the extra time, but if the goal is to actually teach these kids, the extra period is the way to go.

So today was the first day of the Snowbird Schedule. The idea is that the first day the kids will spend the 30 minute Snowbird Period with their 1st period teacher, the next day it would be their 2nd period teacher, the third day, their 3rd period teacher, and so forth. The best thing about the whole schedule was the fact that The Principal didn't want us just twiddling our thumbs during the 30 minute block when we didn't have a class (for example, seventh grade plans during 1st and 2nd periods, so today we didn't have kids coming to us - they were going to their elective classes). We were asked to pull kids - with the full support of the elective teachers - for remediation, extra help, and what not.

This worked out great! I pulled six kids who owed me a required writing assignment, plus a lot of missing work, and was able to work with them in small groups, help them get their writing done (and turned in), and generally spend some time going over what we're working on. It was wonderful! The kids worked, they didn't complain, they got work done. Those 30 minutes flew by.

The rest of the day was pretty busy and it didn't seem to be that much longer than our regular schedule. The one complaint the kids had was that our lunch is a bit later and they're used to eating at a specific time. They were getting pretty hungry by the time lunch came by - then again, I have kids that are ready to chew on the furniture by second period anyway.

The really amazing thing? My sixth period (my very tiny class of 13) was talking about the snowbird period and mentioned how they kind of liked it. This isn't a very high class academically so most of these kids had been pulled and had spent their snowbird period with one of their core teachers doing the small group instruction thing. They all pretty much commented that they really liked the fact that they got this extra help. In fact, one of them asked if he could come to my class for extra help tomorrow. I gladly added him to the list.

So far, so good...

Finally! Back to School - Again

So yesterday, President's Day, was supposed to be a holiday.

However.

The School Board voted last week to have us attend school, just like normal, in order to make up one of the four snow days we have had over our meager allotment of three.

So you know what happened, don't you?

It snowed.

And we didn't go to school.

So we lost our makeup day.

Sigh.

The good news is that today we managed to get to school. Granted, it was with an hour delay - and some of the bus drivers said that a two hour would have been a bit safer with the black ice that's still out there - but we still had school.

Finally.

The forecast? No snow until the weekend.

Oh, and our regular average temp for this time of the year? 51 Degrees. We haven't seen 51 for a month or more.

Snow Day Collaboration

Sigh.

So another snow day. Another day where I could be teaching my kids the wonders of Newton's Laws, but instead I'm stuck at home fretting over all the time I'm losing.

However, I'm not sitting on the sofa eating bon bons and doing my nails. I'm actually getting work done. And believe it or not, I'm actually collaborating with Mrs. Eagle on this work even though she's at her house across town (and in the woods with really bad roads).

First, a bit about collaboration. Mrs. Eagle and I have collaborated for the past six years. Honestly, neither one of us can even begin to imagine putting together lessons without the other's input. Why reinvent the wheel? So every week we get together, along with Mrs. Hummingbird who is the new 7th grade science teacher on her team this year, and spend about thirty minutes discussing and going over what we want to do the following week. We throw out ideas, go through our files and find cool stuff, and it's a real give and take. By the time we're done, we've come up with a pretty solid plan for the next week, I've typed up and printed the lessons, and we've assigned our jobs for the week. Mrs. Eagle usually does the vocabulary tests and study guides, I do the unit tests and rubrics, and Mrs. Hummingbird does the guided outlines. It works well. We even get together and copy all the stuff we need at the same time.

Why more people don't do this - and apparently a lot don't - is beyond me. Mrs. Eagle thinks it's a power and control thing and she may be right. All I know is it works for us.

Last year the Guidance Goober gave me the head's up on a great website that allows you to share documents with others. Even better, every time one of these documents is updated, it updates on all the other computers it is located on. It's called Dropbox. We've set one up for 7th grade science and we store all our documents there. So, when I'm doing lessons, or the test, and Mrs. Eagle is doing her tests and study guides, and Mrs. Hummingbird is doing the outlines, we can all see the documents, modify them, and access them without having to constantly email copies back and forth.

So yesterday, Mrs. Eagle and I spent the morning collaborating on a new unit we're going to do if we can ever get back to school to finish the one we're currently working on. (Mrs. Hummingbird, bless her, has three kids of her own and can't find a second to even think since they're all home from school today, and besides, she's been working ahead on the outlines...so she's off the hook today).

I spent a few hours on the test, saved it to the Dropbox and while I was looking in the folder noticed that Mrs. Eagle had done the vocabulary quizzes and study guide. I printed them out, noticed a couple of typos, fixed them on the computer, saved them again, and gave Mrs. Eagle a call.

"Hey, I've dropped the test and want you to take a second to go over it when you get a chance," I told her.

"No problem. Did you see the study guide and quiz? Let me know if you find any mistakes," she said.

"Already fixed them," I responded.

"Great! I'll check over the test then for you," she said.

And so forth. We discussed what we've done - whined about the snow day for a bit - and then finished our call.

Today I'm going to do our lessons (which basically consists of moving everything up ahead) and I'll drop them in the box for Mrs. Eagle and Mrs. Hummingbird to look at. We're losing our lesson planning time (every Wednesday) so we might as well do it this way so we're up and running when we get back to school.

Pretty cool.

And Yet More Snow...again

Snow Day Number Seven will be tomorrow.

And keep in mind we only get three. And oftentimes don't even use all three.

However, we did get a phone call from the Director of Schools. Our Monday off for Presidents day will no longer be off...we'll be in school making up at least one of the FOUR days we've gone over this year.

Thank goodness...losing this many days of instruction is not good.

Even if the snow has been rather pretty.

Oh No! Not Again

Another snow day.

We now have three to make up.

Crap.

And Yet Another Snow Day

The Great White Death was predicted to hit last night. It was first predicted to arrive around nine pm, then midnight, then after midnight, then by six am this morning. School districts all over the State, hearing the forecasts of Ice! Sleet! Freezing Rain! Snow! Snow! and more Snow! started canceling classes yesterday afternoon, including The District, which amazed many of us because The District is usually one of the very last to close.

And here I sit, after noon, with nary a flake in sight.

Why? Because this storm has wrapped itself into a donut-shape and we're right in the middle of the donut hole. So, while everyone around us is getting slammed, we're all staring at the sky wondering when we'll get our share.

So, it's another day off, we've used our last snow day built into the calendar, and I am going to be useful and write a test.

At least I did get to sleep in!

Oh Yes, We Read Minds. It's in the Job Description.

I usually check my school email account about once a day. There are times that The Principal will send out a blast to let us know about something that's coming up, a parent may drop a line about a sick kid, or even a student could be emailing about a homework question. (Although, truth be told, I get more spam than anything.) Anyhow, I notice an email from Mr. Math asking about what day this week we could do a parent meeting in the afternoon after school.

I think this is a bit odd as he mentions in the email that he just got off the phone with the parent. Which is weird. Because it's Sunday. And I know he's not in The Building (we can't get in there once the alarm is set without causing quite an uproar with the local authorities), and I can't imagine that he's home on a Sunday afternoon dialing up parents to set meetings. Even though this is a parent we've been trying to get a hold of for months without any success whatsoever - no return phone calls, no email responses, no response to notes in student's agenda

When we returned after four days out of school, due to our two snow days, I found out the rest of the story.

Apparently The Father sent Mr. Math a very irate email on Sunday demanding to know why - WHY? - he was so RUDE as to IGNORE the TWO voice mail messages his wife left on Mr. Math's phone on Thursday and Friday.

Okay, let's think about this a minute.

We had a snow day on Thursday. And another one on Friday. And hopefully this parent realized when she called around noon on both days that her child wasn't at school that day. That she should have been sitting there at home right in front of mom. Because the school was closed. Locked. Alarmed. And no big yellow bus came by and picked up her kid.

And because of the snow day, and the school being LOCKED, Mr. Math couldn't retrieve his voicemail. Which rings on a phone in his CLASSROOM, not his home.

Apparently when Mr. Math returned the call to the parent, after receiving the irate email, he mentioned that we weren't in school on the two days that the parent left a message. Her response?

"Oh."

Now I think I understand why this kid seems a little bit spacey.