When it rains, it POURS!

Today we experienced a deluge! No, seriously, a flat out deluge! It happened over the noon hour. Kids were heading here and there to eat their lunches. Some of our junior and senior students get to go to the neighboring rec center for a sort of "off campus" lunch hour.  In the span of 20 minutes it became so dark that some of the street lights came on. Then the biggest downpour I have seen in many years came pouring out of the sky. Sheets of rain were blowing in every direction. The rainwater was actually flowing UPHILL out of our parking lot as it was being pushed by the winds at the surface. It was awesome, and scary!

In the middle of this, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch; and like lemmings marching to the sea, our kids began crossing the 200 yards between buildings to return to class. All as this enormous storm was dumping water on them. They looked like they had taken a shower as they entered the school!

And here is my point. What are we teaching kids when they fear getting a tardy more than they fear being struck by lightning or doused by incredible amounts of rain? I could scarcely believe my eyes as each kid obediently crossed the lot and returned to school, while utterly failing to consider just sitting tight, safe and warm in the building, until the rain eased up. Nope! Onward they came and soaked to the bone they became!

Guess some folks are not wise enough to stay out of the rain in the first place -  much less to come in out of it! Time for some lessons in plain ol' common sense.

A Good Use of Leaves

I am not a fan of leaf raking... that said, there is ONE sort of leaf raking I AM a HUGE fan of... it's the sort of raking that leads to photos such as these. Enjoy these, and then go find a toddler tyke or several of them and RAKE up some fun!

Syd shows real potential as a leaf raker!

She buried herself this deep without ANY help from her grandma!
Like I said, she has GREAT potential as a leaf lover and raker!

Huzzah! It's Friday!

Those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile know that there are not many times when I actually "celebrate" Friday. That sort of thing was something I did frequently when I used to teach junior high. In fact, I even had special outfits, usually terribly loud and somewhat outrageous, that I wore on Fridays. But this week, I feel really compelled to say "YAY, it's Friday!"
Some of my reasons are typical, I mean, who DOESN'T enjoy a good Friday?? However, it's been a rather strange week in certain ways. The weather has been all over the place... from lows in the teens to highs in the 60's. It has made my students a bit "loopy", to say the least. They are saying and doing things that make us scratch our heads and wonder, "What are they thinking!?" Our underclassmen have been particularly squirrely lately, even for underclassmen. Some of the shenanigans they have pulled would shock you, and for the sake of discretion, I won't go there, but all in all, I find it pretty unsettling. To top it off, we've had a "winter spirit" week going on with a big dance at school tonight following the basketball games. So we've had some themed dress days happening.... "hippie day" anyone? (actually pretty funny since the kids have no concept of what hippies truly were!) Today we are all in black as it is "Black out our competition" at the basketball game tonight. (Strangely ironic in light of the fact that the high school coming here to play tonight is a predominantly black school from the city..... hmmm... that will look friendly when our kids are all in the stands! See what I mean? It's been an odd week... think I'll go home tonight and knit!

Stuff I Don't "Get"

This is not an all-inclusive list... in fact, if anybody out there is reading, feel free to add to my list via the comments section. Today presented me with several things "I Don't Get...

1. how my students can have 2 days to relax and enjoy snow and come back A) tired and B) with unfinished homework!
2. why one kid needing to use the restroom causes 10 others to need to "go and do likwise".
3. how 10 out of 21 of my AP kids can choose the same prompt out of 22 possible choices on a list and then not imagine that as I slowly go insane grading them it won't make my red pen bleed on them even more!
4. why schools feel they can pile greater responsibility on our students yet turn around and not offer them greater trust/respect/privileges.
5. how my kids can bear up as they SIT for 6 hours per day! I would be DYING!
6. why we don't have more than one snow day built into our school calendar in a state where people are paranoid about driving in 1'' of snow.
7. early risers (as in pre-6am)
8. people who think sports REALLY matter in the long run.
9. why anyone would want to go sky-diving.
10. how it is possible to consider recalling all the peanut butter shipped from Georgia!