We cancelled the afterschool iPad class today because of the mega snow storm that is on its way. That got me thinking about what it's like when there is lots and lots of snow on the playground, what it's like when students come in from outside recess all cold and wet, what it's like when you're trying to teach and the kids are looking out the window at the snow, what it's like to drive in to school early in the morning with white knuckles because of the road conditions.......
What have been some of your experiences, either when you used to be in a classroom, or while in the library, with big snow storms?
When I taught 3rd grade, I can remember how antsy and unfocused my students would get when it was snowing really hard outside. We live in snowy Utah, for goodness sake, and you'd think that snow would not be such a distraction to kids---but my students were just about always distracted when it was storming.
I remember one particularly horrendous storm when Darleen Robles was superintendent. She was in sunny California the morning we had 18+ inches so she didn't call off school. I barely made it in my 4 wheel drive. We had about 75 kids that day. Several teachers didn't make it. One nearly had a heart attack trying to walk to school. It was awful!! We herded the kids into the auditorium and showed movies. Now I live 2.1 miles from school and could cross country ski there, but I'm hoping I won't have to tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThanks for canceling class.
Yes, thanks for canceling the Ipad class -- perfect timing!
DeleteI have a large bank of windows at the south end of the library. I can watch the snow outside. I love to see it from inside, being the cold wimp that I am. I just had a fun experience getting home tonight from visiting Stephanie up at Ensign. I left the school at about 4:45 p.m. and slide most of the way down the hill from 12th Avenue to my street, 4th Avenue. Ahhhhh! The worst was a workshop a few years ago that I was presenting at up at the Homestead in Midway. It was one ugly storm up through the canyon. There were cars, SUV's mostly, off the road and into the median. I drove 25-30 miles all the way to the Heber exit. Then the storm was almost non-exsistant. It was also crazy in the canyon going home that night. I will never forget the wheel-gripping terror driving in that. Jean, I remember that winter, I was one block away from my school, Lowell. I walked to school, and we had about the same number of kids in the building that day! It was kind of a fun day together.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the class on the 24th!
Wow what a storm in progress! I slide an entire circle on the steep street going down from the school -I think I might have lost one of my nine lives. Only took 2 hours to get home though, so that was a relief. (Yes, I am being goofy). Wish me luck for tomorrow :) See you all next week!
ReplyDeleteSo this morning I am finally at school in the library with only the kids I should have. The district snow plow broke down in our school parking lot. Some people that live on St. Marys our only access street took it upon themselves to say we couldn't come up the block. They actually physically blocked the road for all people. Even if you have a 4 wheel drive. We had to park in the church parking lot and wait to be suffled up. Kids had to walk up. Parents are furious we are in school. It is beautiful to look out at it through my windows. I don't want to even think about how hard it is going to be to get home. The few teachers that actually made it up are going to have to shuttle the rest of use down.
ReplyDeleteI remember one day when I was teaching 4th grade and HUGE flakes started falling. I think it was the first snow of the season. We turned out the lights, put on some soft music and watched the snow for about 10 minutes. Why fight it? :)
ReplyDeleteI remember the BIG SNOW that others have talked about. We had about 5 teachers in the building that day and I'm guessing 25-30 kids. It was a haunting feeling!
Having taught in the District 30 years now, I remember the BIG SNOW in, I think, 1984. I drove my husband to work and came back to Backman only to find that the district had closed schools so then got to drive all the way back home. The only other time schools closed the teachers that did make it had to stay with the students that didn't know school was closed. We had no power or heat. It was lots of fun.
ReplyDeleteI love to look out over the valley (when there's no inversion) and watch storms roll in. I am as distracted as the students when it comes to looking out the windows. When I taught in the classroom, I always tried to do something "snowy" on those days. (inside of course) Now that I am old and arthritic I don't like the snow so much anymore.
I'm thankful my neighbor shoveled today. He did a really great job. I backed out of the driveway trying not to hit a car parked across the street. Going forward I drove into the huge bank of snow left from the slow plow guys. Once I was here at school, I found we had several teachers missing (I had thought of staying home more than once)so we are all teaching various classes. I have two walls of windows and I can see it STILL snowing.
ReplyDeleteI have only had the "snow day" call twice in my 25 years. I bought a CD by Sam Payne when I heard him sing "Snow Day" from his Christmas CD.
ReplyDeleteI think it's only natural that the students are interested in what is going on outside. The biggest problem I have in the library is that our ceiling goes all the way up to the roof. If we have a hard rainstorm or the ice melts and falls on the roof, the children are nervous about what's going on "upstairs."
ReplyDeleteI pack my Wall Street Journal, walk across the street, hop on bus 455 and relax while reading until it stops, practically, at the school door. Then, at the end of the day I reverse the process.
ReplyDeleteI too am distracted by the snow, and I love to watch it fall, I love to see the white blanket cover the scenery, and I love to shovel it (but that may be more because of my Gravely snowplow - like the ones the schools used to have.) And I remember the big storm mentioned. It was before I had finished my Teaching Cert., and I was working as a Sub that year. Jo P. at the District was a little put out when I told her I could not go sub. that day, but I couldn't get out my driveway. The snow was over the hood of my Honda. Now with my truck - bring it on! It is now Monday, and I didn't take my truck out of 4wheeldrive from Thursday evening until Sunday evening. I have teachers who are mad that the District didn't cancel school, but I figure we dealt with it, so get over it. We didn't have any teachers absent, though a few - myself included - were a little late. And very few absent students. We never had a snow day when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteSnow - I love it!!
One idea you may wish to try. I have taken books which I weeded from the regular collection, put them on a cart, and labeled them "Foul Weather Library". The cart is kept in the Auditorium, and when students are in there waiting for school in the morning, they can take a book off the cart and read it. And I don't care if they disapear, or get used hard. When they wear out - we throw them out.
ReplyDeleteWe're lucky to have an actual weather forecaster as one of our science teachers. Dina Freedman teaches 7th and 8th grade science, and you'll often see her telling us it's cold on channel 4.
ReplyDeleteWe had a bad snow storm when my sons and I were at Beacon Heights years ago. Half of the students didn't come (one teacher even cross-country skied to work!) so it was Movie Day. My sons still remember it as the best day of school ever!
ReplyDeleteYou are right, Joseph. I don't remember a snow day in school until March 25, 197? something. The power went out in high school and they let us go home. I remember because it was March. When I got home, walking, several neighbors were at my house because we had gravity heat. It didn't need an electric starter. It just heated.
ReplyDeleteJill, what is "gravity heat"?
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