Sheep At Work

Anyone wandering past my classroom today might have thought I was doing nothing.  That would be the best case scenario.  Truthfully, most people probably thought I had expired there.  Which is, of course, how any good teacher would want to go.  Seated at the big desk, surrounded by mounds of paperwork, bent paper clips littering the floor and random sticky notes clinging to every surface...that's a real grave for a real teacher!

I could see why passers-by might leap to the conclusion that I was either dead or slacking.  I was pretty much immobile for most of the morning.  When one's eyes are at half-mast from the pressure of the sinuses and one is experiencing the lack of oxygen that results from only being able to work with a quarter nostril, movement is not only inadvisable, it is downright dangerous.  But, there was a great deal going on in spite of all appearances.  A great deal, indeed.

Firstly, there were the weather checks.  Another storm is bearing down upon us and I wanted to see just what I was going to be dealing with tomorrow.  I normally get a few inklings when snowstorms head our way and I can usually predict when the weather is going to result in a Snow Day.  But, my inklings were very, very silent today.  Unsure of how much my Hideous, Horrible Worstest Ever In The Whole Wide World Cold was impacting my inkles, I decided to check the weather reports regularly.  

I'm going with my inklings.  I do not predict a Snow Day.  There will be school tomorrow.

Not that it matters to me.  The other little piece of business to which I was devoting my morning involved coming up with educational sorts of activities with which to keep my darling students busy tomorrow for the half day that school will be in session.  Like many schools systems, ours has gone to using early release days in lieu of full workshop days to get all the trainings and stuff taken care of so that we don't have to bill the taxpayers for our working year round.  And this sort of stuff is really very important.  

Just not so important that I am feeling like I can drag my eight hundred pound sinuses in for one more day.  By 10:00 this morning, I had successfully managed to create some pretty interesting packets for the kids to work on tomorrow while I lie abed and make lots of little whimpering noises and blow my nose like a trumpet.  I am taking a sick day.  The world of education will have to limp along without me for a brief period.  

Any thoughts I might have had regarding my indispensable nature were pretty much put to rest when I began to announce to teachers that I would not be in tomorrow.   Several people vigorously thanked their god and told me that I probably should have made this decision several days ago when the gooey-ness first started.  Point taken.

With tomorrow's schedule now decided and a holiday weekend to follow, I have a four day weekend with which to work.  As I do not anticipate suddenly deciding to scale a mountain or hike through the South of France, I'm guessing that I'll probably do a little knitting.  The gallons of cold medication purchased this afternoon are probably going to leave me fit to do little else.  I'm hoping to finish up the Cute Widdle Baby Sockies and get the ties secured to the front of the baby kimono.  I'm also hoping to start another pair of fingerless mitts.  

Or I'll nap.  It's anyone's guess at this point...

SA