Door update

After rushing around, and decorating my classroom door last minute, my homeroom won 2nd place in the contest. Woo-hoo! We each got a ginormous Hershey bar for a prize. Life is good...

Tis the season

My homeroom students decided this morning to decorate my classroom door. There is a contest, with the judging taking place before school tomorrow morning. They brought in all kinds of tacky stuff, but no way to affix it to my door. Needless to say, regular scotch tape didn't cut it - halfway through my second period class, everything came crashing down. Now, I've got 3 students from my homeroom frantically trying to re-decorate the door during their lunch/Channel One time. This time, they are using velcro, with better results. We'll see....

Cell phones are not trophies...

I do NOT like being the cell phone police! Students aren't allowed to have their cell phones out during the school day - not even out in the halls, or to 'check the time' (translation: check who's texted them in the last few minutes). Some teachers are cell phone Nazis - collecting cell phones throughout the day, and keeping a running score as to how many they've confiscated. Next thing you know - they'll be giving us utility belts (modeled fetchingly by Mrs. Wormwood in the picture below) so we can keep up with the confiscated phones.

This I know is true...

it's snowing, here in central VA. Not bad, but enough to make the roads a little dicey. I've technically been a southerner all my life (wanna fight about it?) since I was born and have always lived south of the Mason-Dixon line, but people 'round here cain't drive in the snow!!! Trying to get to work this morning was a nerve-wracking experience - not because the roads were soooo bad, but because the drivers were worse. I get within 3 miles of school, and up ahead, cars are stopped on the hill. STOPPED ON THE HILL. You never stop going up a hill when it's slippery, never. 'Cause guess what? You won't be able to get started again. Not without a lot of gears grinding, swearing, and sliding around. Which was what is happening on the hill ahead of me. So, I stop at the bottom of the hill, call my school, and tell the secretary I am waiting for the road ahead of me to get clear. She tells me that I'm not the only one - several teachers are stuck, especially those who live 'over the mountain'. Finally, people either pull over to the side, or suck it up and make it up the hill. The car in front of me is about the same size, make, and year as mine, so I do what any self-respecting coward would do - wait to see how it fares going up the hill. Luckily, this person knows the 'don't stop on the freakin' hill when it's snowing' rule, and makes it up the hill with little trouble. Up I go, without stopping ('cause I know the rule), and I get to school a few minutes later.

Several teachers have not made it in to school, and we're doubling up on homerooms for now. We're in a holding pattern in homeroom while the administration decides how we're going to proceed with the day. The forecast is for continuing light snow, with temps not getting out of the mid-30's. We've had about an 1/2 inch, and they're calling for maybe an inch more. People anyplace north or west of here thumb their noses at this weather, and there would be no question of activities continuing as scheduled. All because they've had practice driving in the snow, and know the rules.