The wind is howling outside my office window as the great snow storm of 2011 rages on. I am in a state of exhaustion as a result of overwork, lack of sleep, and a nagging upper repertory infection I have been battling since Christmas vacation. My day begins at 5:45 am when my alarm goes off and ends sometime around 7:00 pm when I get back home from teaching all day and tutoring. Last week was especially exhausting because of four discipline board meetings over two days, a department meeting, and a pile of papers to grade. The storm has caused many problems, but the day off tomorrow from school and tutoring because of the snow will provide a welcome period of rest—at least until I have to take out the snow blower and take care of business outside. I pray that the snow will be so deep that we will be off Thursday as well.
I am old enough to remember the great storm of 1967 when I was a freshman in high school. The snow began early morning and was bad enough by 11:00 that school was called off and we were all sent home. I lived about four blocks from school so I got home without a problem. About 20 students and a teacher were stranded in the building for two days because their bus could get through to pick them up. School was shut down for three days. In ‘67’, the storm was a complete surprise stranding many who did not react fast enough to the weather emergency. In contrast, this storm was predicted well in advance allowing people time to prepare. Not wanting the same situation to occur, the principal decided to send everyone home at 1:20, several hours before the main storm hit. We got the automated phone message calling off school for tomorrow at 7:30 this evening.
This week we are at the midpoint of 3rd quarter. I have several students failing at this point, mostly because they have been absent and have not made up the work they missed yet. I plan to spend tomorrow grading make-up work and will contact parents by email if anyone is still failing after everything has been recorder.
My yearly evaluation has been completed, but the administrator in charge of my observation has not yet scheduled a meeting with me to go over his notes. I did meet with the principal today about some minor department matters. I want to drop my final exam in AP Chemistry and replace it with a lab project; something the principal has indicated that she would be in favor of. I got her permission to set up the project and approval to let the students off for their regular exam time. We then needed to edit some of the class descriptions for the B-Level courses; the lower level class for the less capable students.
Apparently, these descriptions need to be edited to meet NCAA standards. The NCAA needs to approve all high school courses for college bound athletes. Everyone in the high schools knows the process is a joke, but for a student to obtain an athletic scholarship we must “word” our course descriptions appropriately.
The stack of papers to grade on my desk is eight inches high and awaits my attention tomorrow. I plan to dive in after my coffee and breakfast in the morning. Thank God for the snow day!
