Tag: snow day

Bring it, bitches

On By Luther M. SilerIn Reading, TeachingLeave a comment

The storm that was supposed to hit Monday night fizzled, leaving us with not even a dusting of snow, but I am assured that the predictions of 4-8″ in the next several hours plus 45-50 mile an hour winds are real. We have a new superintendent this year and it’s always hard to predict how the new dude is going to react to things, but nobody wants kids walking to school in the middle of a blizzard and definitely nobody wants kids walking to school in the middle of a blizzard featuring 50 mph winds.

So fuck it, I am predicting an actual snow day tomorrow. There are literally no consequences if I’m wrong other than mild disappointment early in the morning so I’m making the call.

The best thing about this? Because my building is planning on some standardized testing tomorrow– today went as predicted; I don’t have any real complaints other than I’m tired as hell– we kept everyone’s iPads. There are always going to be some kids who leave their iPads at school rather than taking them home, but in this particular case it’s all of them, so if we have an e-learning day tomorrow there’s genuinely no point in even posting something because nobody will be able to do it. Which means no one will be bothering me about it all day.

Does the district know this? They do not. Don’t tell ’em, either.

There’s a new book in Brandon Sanderson’s massive Stormlight Archives series coming Friday. It’s going to be over thirteen hundred pages in hardback, supposedly, and no volume of the so-far five-book series has come in at under a thousand. I have read the first two. I started the third one when it came out, way back in 2017, and never finished it. I should check and see if I wrote anything about it here, (Edit: I did!) but my recollection is that I decided the books thought the wrong people were the heroes, and I ended up not ever picking it back up.

It crossed my mind yesterday to see if I can read the entire series in the month of January. That would mean rereading the first two books, finishing the third, then reading the fourth and fifth for the first time– nearly six thousand pages in 31 days.

For a normal person that would be insurmountable. I am not a normal person. I’m up to 161 books in 2024 so far, with three weeks left to go, and this is Brandon Sanderson prose, which reads faster than normal. I also have the entire first week of January off and a three-day weekend for MLK day, plus potentially another snow day or two if I get really lucky. It’s not even 200 pages a day. I’m pretty sure I’m already pulling off higher numbers than that, but I’m not about to do the math and my Goodreads summary isn’t out yet.

What do you think? Should I do it?

Staring out the window

On By Luther M. SilerIn Teaching2 Comments

…no, I’m not giving you a picture, as it’s dark outside, but the district sent us all home today with an email darkly suggesting we “prepare for a delay or cancellation” tomorrow, as the entire region is expected to be blanketed in ice tonight, and given that fact, I have absolutely no intention of doing any lesson planning tonight, so I’d prefer if they would just get it over with and cancel something. The smaller and more rural districts are already starting to pull triggers, so … let’s just do it now, okay? I want to know when to set my alarm for tomorrow, dammit. 

SNOW DAY DANCE

On By Luther M. SilerIn Teaching4 Comments

If you don’t know one go make one up, but I expect everyone to participate. I don’t wanna go to work tomorrow!

Oh this just isn’t fair

On By Luther M. SilerIn TeachingLeave a comment

My Algebra kids have a final on Tuesday, God, and as much as I’d like to see a massive blizzard start at 5:00 in the morning and cancel school this week, if you could put it off until Wednesday morning and then maybe have it last a couple of days I would appreciate it. Thanks.

Oh, Ricky, you’re so fine

On By Luther M. SilerIn TeachingLeave a comment

I don’t even think it’s raining outside yet— and you might notice the typical St. Joe Valley Weather Shield wrapped protectively around South Bend at the moment– but the snowfall tonight is supposed to be just ugly enough to raise thoughts of … well … The Good Thing Whose Name Shall Not Be Spoken. Go sacrifice something to Winter Storm Ricardo, please.

In which all that training finally pays off

On By Luther M. SilerIn TeachingLeave a comment

I have, in the last 48 hours, recommended coming over to my building to two different people. One of them is a veteran educator and one of them would be a first-year. Today, for the first time in a 19-year career, I had to wash the blood of someone else’s child off of me after breaking up a fight. So today could have gone better, I guess?

In other news, somewhere between four and six inches of snow are expected tomorrow, with the heaviest snowfall being expected between 5:00 AM and noon, so I’m doing the Dance of Snow Day Please. My new district calls off at the drop of a hat so I’m expecting at least a two-hour delay tomorrow, and it will probably be an e-learning day of some variety or another. I am not going to do any lesson planning tonight, which feels risky, but I guarantee whatever I get set up will be unsuitable for whatever happens tomorrow, so I’m going to risk it. One way or another if I get through the day without anyone bleeding on me it will be better than today.

Uggghhhhhhh

On By Luther M. SilerIn TeachingLeave a comment

I was sick as fuck yesterday, and called in to work at about 3:30 in the morning and then slept for damn near the entire day. I called in for today last night, not feeling much better, and then– miracle of miracles– they called a snow day, not because it was snowing but because apparently so many of our bus drivers are sick that the whole system has broken down, and there’s already another one tomorrow, although this one is synchronous so I get to spend all day in Meets waiting for kids who will not show up. At least I’m feeling better? Sure.

Even money on whether there’s school Friday, or whether any of the kids show up if there is.