5 Reasons No Snowdays = No Good

Note: These are intended to be funny observations and silly metaphors. Please do not take my sarcasm and fantastic wit the wrong way.

1. Teachers' salaries that are making people freak out aren't the norm. We don't make what you think we do. A snow day is a fringe benefit. Deal with it.

2. Have you ever went to school and attempted to teach a classroom full of kids (or 5-7 of them throughout the day) who thought there was going to be a snowday? It's Hell on earth. You might as well write in you lesson plan: "Listen to kids ask 'Why are we even here today?' for the entire block. On those days you are crowd control. Period.

3. Most teachers use a snowday to catch up on grading, grad class, or they still go into work because they didn't know there would be a snowday and the kids turned in projects that need to be graded. We aren't watching Scandal on Netflix. We did that over Christmas Break. Don't judge.

4. Schools are allowed a certain number of days for inclement weather. If you don't use them you lose them. You'll be getting out on the same day unless you go over that allotted amount.  It's like getting $20 in Kohls Cash.  Would you want to let baby go to waste? We all know the right answer here.

5. Have you ever been in a pit of dispair, burning in anguish and misery, praying for an end to your suffering? Yes, you have. It was every year of high school around February 3rd. Think of what an a-hole you were then. Imagine that a-hole you were with a cell phone and Internet access. That's what teachers are contending with. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Math: Nature vs. Nurture?

I can't lie...math has never been my strong suit. Heck, it's not even my weak suit. I have no love for numbers and it is no secret. I make my students check my math on their graded work. I depend on my grade book to figure grades, and I chose to teach high school because I wanted to teach ENGLISH...The polar opposite of all things number. 

But, tonight my heart broke when I realized that my reading and writing-loving girl seems to have my same traits. Her frustration with second-grade subtraction coupled with my frustration teaching it are two variables in an equation that I definitely don't know how to solve.

I am ashamed...I am a teacher who can't show my own daughter how to do math that even I can do in my sleep. I am a mom who makes up math problems at the kitchen table and goes in the bathroom and cries because it hurts my heart that she just doesn't get it. And I can't fix it.

We draw pictures, make number lines, use the hundreds chart, and I've even made up my own strategies to help. I want to just tell her to borrow from the ten and carry the one but I can't because it's not the way to do it yet. 

I am absolutely terrified for her tomorrow. She has a math test and could only do about half the problems on her own.  I'm thinking about hiring a math tutor. I'm thinking about bothering her teachers for help. Then I think of even more troubling scenarios.

What about those kids who put themselves to bed at night? The ones whose parents don't care or don't have the luxury of caring? The kids who haven't eaten dinner and probably won't for the rest of the week either?

I guess it's time to gain some perspective and think about proportions. In the grand scheme of things, is my kid's subtraction issue even an issue? She's going to be fine because even if she does fail, she has parents who love her. She has parents who will advocate for her. She has parents who will find her the help she needs.

So, I guess those tears I shed earlier were more in vain than anything. It hurts when you see something you don't like or aren't proud of in someone else...especially when you're genetically responsible for it. I bet that has to do with math too. Damn you, Punnet square!