I Never Thought I'd Say This, But...

...it's time to go back to school. I am actually almost running out of things to do with my time, besides plan for school, because there is always more to do when it comes to that. But still. I kinda miss my kiddos, and having some semblance of a normal schedule in my life. Not to mention that too much money has been spent on going out, food and wine, and such in order to fill the time void. Let's hope Monday night's snow does NOT force the SDP to close the district again.

Snowpacalypse!

In case you've been living under a rock and never see or hear the weather report, we had a snow day today because Philadelphia got buried under almost 30 inches of snow this weekend:

Our backyard from my 3rd floor window
Somewhere under there is our walkway around the back of the house

Some kids (or adults) even made a very realistic looking igloo in the backyard of the apartment building down the street. Basically, for a snow-lover, it was an awesome weekend, and it is even awesomer because I got today off.

Snow days as a teacher are way more awesome than they ever were as a kid, especially when you find out the night before that you don't have school the next day. I know I was excited as a kid to not have school but as a teacher, snow days are like a gift from the heavens. Don't get me wrong, it definitely messes up my planning and its a day that my kids aren't learning, and that makes me frustrated, BUT they're awesome because they're a day that I didn't plan to have off, and therefore actually feel like I can use to take some time to myself. Over the course of the week, I prioritize my work so that I know what has to be done on the weeknights because it is immediately necessary for school, and I plan to do things like grade major papers and lesson plan on the weekends. I planned for enough things to do in 2 days this weekend, so having an extra third day off means that this is about as close as I can ever get to unadulterated free time. Plus it means I get to play in the snow (snow angels, anyone?), which is especially fun with roommates from the south who never did this as a kid, and this time we actually got to enjoy the Superbowl.

Of course, it is back to school tomorrow, but a four-day week doesn't look so bad- and we have a three-day weekend next week :)

A Whoa Moment, A follow up

The same student from my last post spent this morning in homeroom, when he was supposed to be doing his silent sustained reading, debating the existence and purpose of religion. His argument was that religion only existed to give scared people something to hang onto because they don't understand what's going on in the world, and that sometimes people in power take advantage of religion to get people to do what they want, but that he doesn't think there's actually some kind of higher power. Religious debate aside, I feel as though I may be teaching Karl Marx reincarnated. Seriously though, wherever this student came from, I want more of him.