Friday, February 4, 2011

Teachers are as bad as students

So yesterday I was speculating on how long it would take the kids to wish they were at home being bored again.  I think by the end of 1st hour, they were pretty much over being back at school. But...

I didn't even last that long.  I walked into the building and the internet was down.  (Of course it was!)  All of my lesson plans involved students being able to log onto the computer.  The student server hasn't been up since we've been in the new building, but they were soooo close on Friday.  I figured with three additional days that we would be good to go.  Nope.

Plan B.  I scrambled to find a hard copy of an assignment.  That accomplished, I made copies and rushed to start the day.

During 1st hour they came on with announcements.  I had totally forgotten that there was a County Spelling Bee in Tiny Town on this day, and that I had agreed to be the "pronouncer."  (Yes, that is an official job title.  Weird.)  Actually, I hadn't forgotten so much as I had thought it was scheduled for Wednesday and that, with the snow day, they would have to reschedule.  Nope. Yesterday was the original date.

Mental slap.  Sooooo....

The Bee was to start at 1:30, with the workers being present by 1:00.  I called down to the principal to see if he had a sub for my room.  Nope.  So now he was scrambling, too. 

A substitute teacher couldn't teach my lesson plan in the afternoon.  (Of course, they couldn't.  Argh!)  I change lesson plans again, write them out for my sub, and look over the list of words to pronounce.  I'm frustrated because I won't see my afternoon classes for another day--an entire week after I last saw them.  I rush. I rush. I RUSH.

You know what I have learned about Spelling Bees?  The job of "pronouncer" is a bit stressful.  There were the mumblers.  I wasn't sure if they said the correct letters or not.  (Combine their mumbling with my minor hearing loss:  disaster!) I had to announce if the spelling was correct or incorrect. If it was incorrect, I had to respell it.  There were rules about if they started spelling, stopped, and then retraced their steps.  There were all kinds of little rules about things like that.  Argh!!!!  Thankfully, there were three judges, too.

There was a computer to help find definitions, but using the word in a sentence was kind of an "off the cuff" affair.  It was nerve wracking.  (The biggest challenge was using the word psalm in a sentence without adding an "s" to the end of it.  And you've got just a couple of seconds to come up with it.) 

An hour and a half later, we had a winner. Now I was making up my own psalm about the fact that it was over!

So... Welcome back to school.  Ugh!  I've never been so glad for a two-day week.  And yes, I'm just as bad as my students.

When's the weekend?

3 comments:

Lisa said...

I know what you mean. I was ready to be back, and most of the kids were. They aren't old enough to get very far on their own, so they wanted to see their friends. My room was 55 degrees when I got there. The custodian seemed uninterested? Anyway, I got additional help and they got the heat going at about 10am. My TV didn't work for Channel One. That isn't a real big deal because that is all I use it for, but why won't it even turn on? Then the basketball boys left at 2:15 for a game, so I won't see the 7th grade boys until today. Some of them are so behind, but my other seventh grade is first hour, and they haven't missed any class for games. Oh well, it comes with the territory I guess. Have a good weekend!

Mary said...

What luck that there wasn't a long line at the copy machine! :D
I know what you mean about not being able to see your students for such a long time. I finally got to see my students at one of my schools for the 2 days/week that they're suppose to be seen!

Puna said...

hahaha! Pronouncer...p-r-o-