Homework

We had four snow days last week.

And here we are today, home again.

Before we left the classroom yesterday I made sure my students had all of their homework (as usual), plus any papers that needed corrections. That way at least when we go back, everyone should be caught up and ready to hit the ground running again.

For any of you who think it might be nice to teach school and get snow days off, you're right. But I must tell you it's difficult to stop and start lessons. Last Monday we knew we were probably going to miss a few days so I tried to do WAY too much with my students, getting us a little bit ahead of where we would usually be on a Monday. Then we missed the whole rest of the week, so we were definitely no longer ahead, for sure. This Monday we got there and hit it hard again, knowing the weather was coming in again Wednesday. So we reviewed and then tested like mad, made up work some had missed, printed progress reports on Tuesday, completed an impressive amount of lessons, passed out homework and...whew! The day ended too fast.

Doing a week's worth of work in a couple of days is TOUGH when you're 6 or 7. Especially when we were home for 6 days. A few students worked on spelling and reading while snowed in. (I could tell!) But the reality is, most of my kids got rusty on reading, sloppy on handwriting, fuzzy on math facts. They were sleepy. Bathroom routines were messed up. (This is a big deal.) And of course they had missed seeing their friends, so were particularly CHATTY.

So teaching under these circumstances can be sort of like pushing wet noodles up a hill. Noodles that are talking the whole while.

I grabbed some homework for myself on the way out. Lesson plans to attempt, a few more tests that didn't get graded...going back when the weather is better will be easier if I'm on top of it too.