Origin of the Snow Day

Okay. I just posted--and I have left out something--so I MUST immediately post again. (I wonder if my computer will explode at my posting two times in one day. Hmm.)

I wanted to tell you WHY we had the snow day--as in, who was responsible. It was my niece--Kate. She told my sister, after she woke up on Thursday and saw the snow and learned that she had a snow day, that she had done it! Her friend Amanda had given her three steps to follow to "make" a snow day happen. I'll outline them for you:

1) Wear your pajamas to bed inside out.
2) Put a spoon underneath your pillow. (Kate went overboard--or was incredibly thorough--if you care to look at it that way--she put a spoon under EVERYONE'S pillow. In fact, Brenda didn't find out until she was making the bed Thursday morning and found utensils under the pillows. She must not be that princess and the pea gal--you know, the one who could tell the pea was there--under lots and lots of layers/mattresses.)
3) Throw a couple of ice cubes in the toilet. (But Kate told Brenda that it couldn't be TOO many ice cubes or the electricity would go out.)

What kind of, and I use the term loosely, reasoning is that? I guess the reasoning of a 6th grader and her friend Amanda. It made me laugh and laugh.

That's all. :-) I've got to go now and--yes--put my pajamas on inside out, find some spoons, and empty the ice tray into the toilet. :-)

An Actual Snow Day AND Brushes with Fame

Okay. It's going to be mighty difficult to contain my excitement in this blog, but I'll do my best to try.

First, since I last wrote about an almost snow day, I thought it would only be fair for me to tell you (whoever is reading!)--or at least record the fact--that we did indeed have a snow day last Thursday. It was VERY exciting. Now, the snow wasn't all that exciting. We got, oh, about 1 and 1/2 inches. Maybe. But we also received some ice and sleet, so school was cancelled. I can't really put into words how seeing our school's name scroll across the bottom of my television screen makes me feel. I'm fully aware that it sounds like I dislike school, but I promise you--it's not that. It's just an unexpected surprise. And a treat. That's the best part--a gift of time you didn't know you'd have. What can compare to that?

Maybe the other part of my post--

Second, a brush with fame--well, we are all quite thrilled on our campus these days because the film Leatherheads is being filmed right off our campus--in fact, so close by that the crew/actors/etc. are set up in the parking lot of our football stadium. The set they're building is really close by--walking distance. (It's a 1920's movie--so it's an old football stadium they're building--bleachers, scoreboard, and all.) And it's George Clooney and Renee Zellweger who are creating the buzz all over campus. (Yes, they're the stars.) No one has actually spotted them. (WELL, one of my students, Sarah, told me today that she saw George, as she called him--as if they're close friends--as he was getting into a Buick--on the side of the road. And he was wearing, according to reliable Sarah, a tan jacket, a white shirt, and black pants. [What specific details!]) I was just watching the local evening news--because there were several news crews on campus today--to see the story (and to check if any of my students made fools of themselves). And one of my students was interviewed. She said (I promise you this is what she said--I just saw it), "My English teacher said that perhaps we could go on a field trip during class one day to look for George Clooney!" Ha! It's my brush with fame! :-) How exciting! (Now, did I say that? Who knows? I'm old now--I can't keep track! How scary!) I did look for him on the side of the road as I drove to school this morning--I thought that if his car had broken down, I could give him a ride. (Now, why would I think that 1) he drives himself to work; 2) his car would be the kind that would break down; and 3) there wouldn't be 1001 people around to help him out.)

Did I lie? Isn't it all exciting? It makes me laugh. The headlines read, "Hollywood comes to Tigerville!" (That's where North Greenville University--my school--is located--just in case I hadn't mentioned it before.)

I can't top all of that. I must stop for now. If I spot George or Renee, I'll be sure to blog about it. (AND, I'll snap a photo with my phone. That will be a treat, huh?)

Hope you're well.

An Almost Snow Day

Is that even possible? Well, we had cold temperatures. (Here in SC, it's been rather warm. So, our 33 degrees feels really cold to me. I am a baby now--I don't remember what it's like in Wisconsin!) And they (ambiguous pronoun, I know--the weather people) had been calling for an ice/sleet/snow mix for today. Phooey. We got enough ice to make it miserable--but not enough to cancel school--not even enough to go late. Enough to slip around on as you try to crack the coating off of your car--enough to make you slip as you walk across campus--and enough to cause the caring/overly-cautious public safety boys on campus to dump sandbox after sandbox all over campus. But not enough to cancel school.

As I read over that paragraph, I realize that it may sound like I don't like school. That's FAR from the truth: I do love school. But I had some cranky kids in classes today--they feel they've been cheated in some way. I thought my lecture on plagiarism and quoting/paraphrasing/summarizing was inspiring--and I can't begin to describe the joy my Nathaniel Hawthorne lecture brings to my own life. But it didn't seem like enough for some of them. Pooh.

We've been in classes for a week and one day now. But I got a call from one distressed student who proclaimed, after I greeted him on the phone about an hour after class, "I think I'm late for class! Isn't it Wednesday?!?" I calmly replied, "No, it's Thursday. And class is over." He said, "Are you sure? Where's our class?" I answered--with the patience I'm known for all over the world--"I am ABSOLUTELY sure. I'm looking at a calendar right now. AND your classmates are probably at lunch or in other classes since I dismissed them at 1:30--when our class is over." He said, "What should I do?" My response, of course--"Go home." Hee Hee.

Another student came running in the door of my office--all out of breath--saying, "I overslept!!!" (Those three exclamation points are absolutely essential.) I just looked at her--our class had been out for, oh, 2 hours or so by now. What in the world? She asks (still out of breath), "Did you mark me absent?" Hmm . . . how do I answer that question?

Wherever you are, I hope you're warm--and dry. (This freezing rain is really quite miserable.)

But remember: I DO love school. (But a snow day--once in a great while--is quite a treat!)

Graduation/Christmas Break!

Here I am, new to blogging. (Actually, new to the idea of using blog as a verb, to be frank) I thought I would give it a try--now that we've had graduation: papers are evaluated; scores are calculated; grades are submitted. It's time for a change. So, I'll give this blog idea a try. (Look--blog as an adjective) Many, many of my students record most (if not all) of their feelings on the Internet in their blogs (now as a noun); in fact, some of them direct me to their blogs (even when they've used their blog as a place to vent their frustration with school--or even with my class specifically). It seems incredibly odd to me.

Well, let's leave it at that. I'll try again later. We'll see if I keep it up.