In the Lou

Twas the end of exams
and all through the halls,
not a student was stirring,
not one at all.

At 10:45,
the bells they weren’t ringing,
but the buses were here,
the students near screaming.

And then all at once,
in a flood of fury and glee,
they sprinted on foot
to their yellow-domed party.

Now that they’re gone,
all that’s left is a mess.
Chairs are askew …
is that scrap paper or my test?

Bubble-sheets to score,
grades still to crunch.
The best part of the day
will be dining out for lunch!

And when all’s said and done
at the end of today,
I can proudly proclaim
I’m twenty-five percent of the way.

Yet in my desire
for break never to end,
in my heart I admit,
we’ve still got a lot of knowledge gaps to mend.

So while we’ll have fun
not seeing each other for days,
very soon student and teacher
will again have achievement levels to raise.

I’m so excited, I couldn’t even wait till the end of the week…

This morning, we arrived, and officially, we had no working copiers in our two buildings. Both of our copy machines were broken with permanent errors, and our Risograph (high-speed printing press-like machine) was out of ink. We were stuck in a rut it seemed. I was joking with my colleagues that I was preparing to have to take the plunge and go to Kinko’s since final exams needed to be copied ASAP.

But then, during lunch, we were saved. The Xerox men (and woman supervisor) arrived with two new Xerox machines. These are like the Porsche model. Time to go make some copies!

To make this post slightly more meaningful, please enjoy the note that MJ wrote to go ice skating. (copied exactly)

Dear Mr. G,

I’m writing this letter because I want to go ice skating this weekend just to experience it. I also want you to kno that I haven’t caused you any problems lately. I’ve been good and you haven’t called or had a meeting w/my parents.

Why in the world with someone without predetermined aspirations to be in education become a teacher? The answer to this seemingly rhetorical question is quite simple, I believe. Pulsing through my veins is the ability to care for others.

Before you start to roll your eyes at the seemingly seasonal-sappiness of this discourse, let me say that I had two run-ins this week that are holiday-independent and affirm this aspect of being a teacher. (more…)

Unlike this summer, this time I escape with power. In fact, I have my windows open to cool it off because the radiators are heating things up a little too much.

Let’s turn to our  friends at the St. Louis Post Dispatch for an update…

The storm was the worst ever to hit the AmerenUE system, company officials said during a news conference today at their headquarters just south of St. Louis Union Station. And it struck less than six months after back-to-back severe thunderstorms knocked out power to 600,000 of the company’s customers.

Read the whole story

Current temperature… it’s warmed up to 26 degrees. It was 22 earlier.