Snow and Ice, Go Away

I don't mind winter weather. In general, it doesn't bother me. No, I am not a huge fan of driving in the ice or snow, but I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and went to college in Michigan. I can handle it. However, no matter how often it snows down here, people claim that it doesn't snow and they don't know how to drive in it. (This is our first winter in this immediate area, but, as we are not terribly far from the seminary, this is our fourth winter in the general area. It has snowed every year we've been around.)
Because no one knows how to handle the snow and the district my school is in is rural, we close school at even the hint of snow. Last week, we finally had a full week of school. That was our first full week of school since the first week of January. While school has not been cancelled for tomorrow yet (and I am REALLY hoping that it won't be), I would not be at all surprised if school were cancelled both Tuesday and Wednesday.
I really feel for my students. It is hard to develop any sense of consistancy when school is constantly being closed. I also know thar for some of my students, school is the best part of their day. My students have told me that they are sick of snow days, and I can't blame them. I am hoping that maybe the current weather system will hold off a bit, or, at least, be not as dramatic as they are predicting. (It's not a good sign when the National Weather Service is already telling people to not travel on Tuesday morning, though.)

Adopt My Classroom

I have added my classroom to the Adopt-a Classroom website. For those of you who don't know, I teach a a small, rural Christian school. Our goal is to:
SHARE Christ with the families of our congregation and community
CARE about each other as Christ cares about us
PREPARE children not only for productive living, but also for eternity

However, being a small school does have challenges. We don't receive the same kind of funding from the state that public schools do. Tuition alone does not cover all of our expenses. This means that buying "extras" is often difficult and would not be possible without various fundraising opportunities. So, while I don't plan to make a habit of posting this sort of thing on here, I just wanted to increase awareness. I encourage you to help out your own local Christian school as well, if it is by donations of items, money, or time. I am a product of a Lutheran preschool and grade school education, and I highly value it as being formative in who I am today.

(If you are interested in helping out my specific classroom or know someone who is, there is a link on the side of my blog.)

Oh, and why am I typing this in the middle of the day? It's a snow day, of course! (Number 5 this year.)

Taking Zinc

Flu season must be in full swing. I have 11 wonderful first and second grade students in my class. Well, I usually have 11 wonderful first and second grade students. Today I had 5. Yes, only 5! Needless to say, I threw out all of my lesson plans for the day and winged it a bit. The students I did have loved the day, though, as they felt that they didn't have any real work to do. I hope we have school tomorrow, but they are predicting snow, and the district my school is in closes school for practically nothing, so I'm not holding my breath. It's hard to get into any schedule after the break if I don't have any students or if we don't have school.