Musings in the dark during the power outage…
It is amazing to me that the hurricanes happening on the coast can cause repercussions this far inland. This afternoon and tonight I’ve felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, Auntie Em, Auntie Em, as the chairs outside slide around in the wind, my car shakes as I drive it, and every major tree in the neighborhood has been pulverized. The power is out around most of central Ohio…so people have been gravitating toward the few pockets where there is still power and fighting over the outlets in the coffee houses. I was lucky one man saw that I needed to plug in my laptop and got out his power strip so more than one plug could fit-who carries extra powerstrips around I ask you?
Personally I wouldn’t have even headed out of the house, but of course the one weekend I start to type up my lesson plans on my laptop instead of writing them out by hand is the weekend the power goes out.
I’d much rather be playing cards and ye-old games like the pioneers and sit around with candles but I have to do loads of lesson plans a week in advance. Because in case I get deathly ill, there needs to be copies kept at school---this I believe is such a joke. Nobody else would be able to even follow them due to the large amounts of materials I have to cart around each day---I strained my back just lifting my cart out of the back of the car the other day. And the poor cart looks like it is about to give out and it is only the 3rd week of school!
Plus the sub would have to go to each classroom individually and pick up the kids for ESL, since they don’t remember what time to come yet or even where the room is. He or she would also have to deal with the kids with behavior problems and IEPs. God help them if I am ever sick. My goal hence is to never get sick!
Someone new I met today was calling me Anna and I explained that my name was Anne like Anne of Green Gables, which of course brought back all kinds of cheesy memories of those flicks and her poofy hair and poofy puffed sleeves. But at the same time I realize just how much I have in common with Anne Shirely-we both are teachers and have “challenges,” both want to be writers, and both have tempers. Mine has been flaring up recently as it usually does with stress, and I really don’t know how to deal with it-other than herbal tea, prayer and deep breaths-visualizing that light at the end of the tunnel that supposedly exists after praxis III.
One more note-not only do I have a kid that speaks British English in ESL, but a kid I assumed could write all his letters because he wrote SPIDERMAN. Well this kid can’t write his own name, but he can write the word Spiderman which he continually writes on the name line on his papers.
Personally I wouldn’t have even headed out of the house, but of course the one weekend I start to type up my lesson plans on my laptop instead of writing them out by hand is the weekend the power goes out.
I’d much rather be playing cards and ye-old games like the pioneers and sit around with candles but I have to do loads of lesson plans a week in advance. Because in case I get deathly ill, there needs to be copies kept at school---this I believe is such a joke. Nobody else would be able to even follow them due to the large amounts of materials I have to cart around each day---I strained my back just lifting my cart out of the back of the car the other day. And the poor cart looks like it is about to give out and it is only the 3rd week of school!
Plus the sub would have to go to each classroom individually and pick up the kids for ESL, since they don’t remember what time to come yet or even where the room is. He or she would also have to deal with the kids with behavior problems and IEPs. God help them if I am ever sick. My goal hence is to never get sick!
Someone new I met today was calling me Anna and I explained that my name was Anne like Anne of Green Gables, which of course brought back all kinds of cheesy memories of those flicks and her poofy hair and poofy puffed sleeves. But at the same time I realize just how much I have in common with Anne Shirely-we both are teachers and have “challenges,” both want to be writers, and both have tempers. Mine has been flaring up recently as it usually does with stress, and I really don’t know how to deal with it-other than herbal tea, prayer and deep breaths-visualizing that light at the end of the tunnel that supposedly exists after praxis III.
One more note-not only do I have a kid that speaks British English in ESL, but a kid I assumed could write all his letters because he wrote SPIDERMAN. Well this kid can’t write his own name, but he can write the word Spiderman which he continually writes on the name line on his papers.