This just in from A Fancy Word for Simple:
According to the nerdy meteorologist's best estimates, the temperature here will not be above zero at all today. And probably not tomorrow either. I'm not even going to mention how cold it is supposed to be with the wind chill. It will frighten even the toughest person.
I didn't even consider the fact that cold temperatures make for a really unsafe environment for kiddos to attend school. Not until this very morning when my phone rang at 5:45 a.m. In a teacher's house, a 5:45 a.m. phone call can only mean one thing. . . . SNOW DAY!
You learn at a very young age that, besides the obvious Christmas break, summer, chicken pox epidemic, and the time when you realize the smelly kid who picks his boogers and eats them is sick, Snow Days are the best damn thing to happen to your school year.
-Chad Stevenson
Seriously. There is nothing better than a snow day, not even summer vacation. I so wasn't expecting to have off work today, but guess what?!? I do. I imagine this is what it would be like to have a surprise eighth day in the week. I wasn't expecting it. I don't have anything planned. It's just an entire day to do exactly what I want to. I just won't think about the fact that this means there's an extra day tacked on to the end of the year. . .
What would you do with an entire unexpected day off? What is your favorite childhood snow day memory? What's the weather like where you are?
Freezing Cold!!! The worst thing that can happen in a teachers’ house is when one gets a snow (cold) day and the other doesn’t. Tracy works for an urban district where almost everyone walks. I work for a suburban district where almost everyone rides a bus. Still this morning (a big 5 degrees—no wind chill figured in) was too cold even to wait for a bus, but nonetheless my school district was open. Imagine my surprise, however, when I open the door to my classroom and it’s a big 48 degrees! Effectively no heat—not anywhere on my side of the hall. I have, however, the only regular classroom on that side. The rest are special areas, special ed offices, etc. So my 21 fifth graders and I shlepped around trying to find empty spaces that were big enough to accommodate us. We spent most of the day doing our work in the library. We actually got a lot done, but by the end of the day I was truly exhausted. The kids were great. I hope there’s heat tomorrow as there’s not supposed to be much relief in the cold weather.
Updated: Just got a phone call from a colleague. They've already canceled school in my district for tomorrow!! Amazing--the first snow (cold) day we've had in 2 1/2 years. So what will I do with my day? Read, scrap, grade some papers, and go to the gym at a decent hour instead of 5 am.
