{#sol15} 4/31 Never Count on a Snow Day

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for the March Slice of Life challenge.
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You know how it goes....

You are listening to the weather before dinner. There is a winter weather advisory listed for your town. Freezing rain, 2-4 inches of snow, 35 mile per hour winds.

All the ingredients needed for a 

SNOW DAY.

Homework waits.

You give your body and soul a much needed night off, secretly making a to-do list for tomorrow.

You check your weather app before bed.  It says that the weather will start about 3:00am, with the worst weather arriving between 6:00am and noon. Another needed ingredient.

You sleep. 

Deeply.

Dreamlessly.

You sleep.

The alarm goes off at 6:30am. You immediately realize there was no robo-call about school being called off--or even LATE!  You look out the window.

No sleet

   No snow

      No freezing rain

         NOTHING!

All that work you put off last night!  Arrrggghhhhhhh!

You shower. Read drafts with coffee. Comment on rubrics about yesterdays speeches. Figure you will use time throughout the day for grading other things. 

And in your head, the words of advice you gave to students yesterday echo, "Don't count on a snow day. Get your work done tonight."

SSSSSSSSllllllllllllooooooooowwwwwww

SSSSSSSSllllllllllllooooooooowwwwwww

That's how I'm trying to start second semester.

In looking back at last semester, I feel like I rushed many things in my classes. I ran lessons according to the calendar and not according to my kids. I was so worried about getting though each unit, units that I knew so well, that I forgot it was the first time students were going through them.

And, of course, because we are 1:1, I forgot that some of my kids still need me to walk them through setting up their digital portfolios. Some are unsure of themselves when it comes to new websites and software. Even though I assure them they won't break anything, they need reassurance that they are doing things correctly, at least for awhile.

SSSSSSSSllllllllllllooooooooowwwwwww

Last week's cold days helped me do that.

Before Christmas, I had two weeks to a month of lessons planned out for my kids. Some were tried and true. Some were tweaked. Some were brand-spanking new. And they were planned down to the minute (well, not really, but almost).

But you know what happens when you miss school. It messes up "the best laid plans".

And (thankfully) those cold days reminded me that just because I've got all these great lessons planned, I don't have to have this one done by Monday and the next one by the following Friday. And really. Does it matter if we do one less writing piece or one less speech?

Cold days also reminded me that I love time to sit and think about what I'm going to do next, and sometimes, my kids need that too.

SSSSSSSSllllllllllllooooooooowwwwwww

6/31 Remembering ALOHA

Join the fun of the March Slice of Life Challenge at Two Writing Teachers

Back in January, I chose my One Little Word...

ALOHA

After our visit to Hawaii over Christmas, I want to remember to keep that 

ALOHA

spirit with me all year.  This winter has proven to be difficult and lately, it's been hard to keep the spirit. The eight inches of snow Tuesday night and no school on Wednesday was staring me in the face and daring me to defy it.

So I did. 

I took Chloe for a walk. 

She was hooked up outside, watching my husband blow out the driveway for the umpteenth time this winter. I had scraped the leftover snow from the cement part of the driveway.  

For once, it wasn't below zero. In fact, the sun had a hint of warmth to it, so I thought, "What the heck?  Let's go for at least a little walk."

I reached inside the front door and grabbed her leash.

As soon as she saw it, Chloe went nuts. I wish I had a video.

She jumped. 

She grabbed the leash in her mouth as if she was going to walk me. 

She tugged. 

She stopped and looked back at me, as if saying, "Hurry up. Let's go. I haven't got all day."

Words of caution from my husband rang in my ears, "Be careful. The roads are icy." We took off down the street in front of our house. My very first slice of life post kept running through my mind.

It was a great walk. Although we went very slowly (well, I went slow. Chloe wanted to run the whole time), it felt good to be outside. And it was pretty. Fresh, new snow. The beginning warmth of the sun. People were outside! 

Chloe had a blast. She pranced the whole way. Smiling at being able to be outside again (even she doesn't like the below zero stuff we've had forever). I laughed at her tugging at me, wanting to run. There just isn't any place for her to go right now.

Once we got back to the foot of our driveway, I let go of the leash.

She raced as fast as she could to the house, to my husband as he finished the last of the shoveling. She ran circles around us as we stood there laughing at her antics.

The walk reminded me to appreciate what I have and the world around me. To accept that I can't change the weather or the snow days. I can only change my attitude towards it.

Sometimes, you just have to run in the snow....

ALOHA

A, ala, watchful, alertness 

L, lokahi, working with unity 

O, oia'i'o, truthful honesty 

H, ha'aha'a, humility 

A, ahonui, patient perseverance

Learning Doesn't Have To Stop

Here's the best thing about being in a 1to1 environment

Learning Doesn't Have to Stop!

Take a minute.

Think about it.

No snow days. Or cold days. No heat days. Or fog days. (We've had them all!)

Start up the computer, send out a message, and class is in session.

Learning Doesn't Have to Stop!

In creative writing, all they need is on the website (or will be once I finish this post). With schoology and remind101,  it's easy to communicate with students.  

And then there is email.

Learning Doesn't Have to Stop!

For quite a bit of this day, I've been communicating with one of my senior Creative Writing 2 students. I read her blog posts and did a website check. She's doing an amazing job. A requirement of the class is that students blog three times a week. She is using weebly to house her work, but she was putting all posts on a standard page.

I emailed her that on weebly there is a blog page. I told her I would show her tomorrow how to set it up.

Here's her response

And so, we have communicated all day about her work. I read and commented online, I sent her templates to create magazine layouts for her informational piece, and we've discussed the drawbacks of the firewall on the student computers.

Learning Didn't Stop

Gotta love a snow day.....

A little something to brighten a cold winter day.....

 

#10 of 31 The Fallback Post

 I knew it would happen. There would come a day I wouldn't have time or imagination to write. I saw this on someone else's blog a while back and wrote it down so I could use it on "one of those days".

Currently...

Listening: The Mentalist is playing on TV, although I haven't paid attention to anything on since I finished watching Once Upon a Time. 

Eating: Nothing yet. But when I am done I'm going to have some white chocolate macadamia nut ice cream

Drinking: water

Wearing: My typical Sunday attire--comfy pj pants, oversized sweatshirt, slipper socks and a blanket

Feeling: Better than I did this morning. The cold and the speech contest hangover seemed to have gone away.

Weather: Well, if it's Sunday, it must be snowing. We have another Winter Storm Warning. An expected 4-8 inches of heavy, wet snow. There is a strong possibility of no school again tomorrow. If so, it will be our SEVENTH snow day.

Wanting: Summer. My grades to be done. That ice cream....

Needing: More time in my day. Trying to keep up with my two writing classes is kicking my butt. And then there are the other five classes....

Thinking: If I don't have school tomorrow I'll be able to get grades done and finish The Diviners by Libba Bray (a seriously good book).

Enjoying: Comments from the judges about my speech kids' performances yesterday.  It was a great day. 18 Division 1 ratings and 7 Division 2's.  Kids were amazing. More on this later.

So, there you are. My fallback post. Feel free to steal use on your own "I don't know what to write" days!

#5 of 31 Snow Day: Chloe Style

I hope she hurries up. I really, really, really have to go to the bathroom. I wish Dad wouldn't have been in such a rush last night. I really, really, really should have gone then, but the snow was so fun to play in. And my hill's getting bigger. I love that.

Oh, here she comes. Yippee. Peeeeeeeee. I really gotta go outside.

Why is she coming outside with me? Geez, Mom. Can't a girl get any privacy? Oh, well. Might as well go back in with her and get a treat. Sure wish she'd give me one of those cookies she has with her coffee. They smell amazing.

Yep. She gets a cookie and I get a dog biscuit. SO not fair.

Mmmmmm. Bacon. Not so bad....

Coffee going. I better go get my spot on the couch and take a little nap while she showers. Then I'll get some hugs in. She never wants to cuddle until after her shower and a cup of coffee.

Wait. She's not taking a shower. She turned on that stupid computer though. Why didn't I remember to hide that thing?

Another cup of coffee? She's getting her book out?

WHAT'S GOING ON HERE? IS SHE STAYING HOME? WILL WE PLAY????????

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! I think she's staying home. Must be because of the snow!

Yippee! Yippee! Yippee!

SNOW DAY!