Irony

The Good:  Snow day tomorrow!  I love snow days.  My job is great, but what’s not to love about a surprise vacation?  You can go back to bed.  Or watch TV in your pajamas.  I can’t wait to watch my 17-month-old play in the snow for the first time.

The Bad:  Tomorrow was scheduled to be the first day of class in our brand new school.  We have waited so long for this day!  Students would find their new classrooms, and be the first to put their belongings in brand new lockers.  We planned to break in our new auditorium with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.  Dignitaries and media were scheduled to be in attendance.  If ever there was a day when all the students and staff were looking forward to getting up and going to school, this would be that day.  I am sure we will look back and laugh at the irony.  This all started with a single Kansas storm.  Now, Kansas weather is keeping us from getting into the new buildings as planned.

The Ugly:  I already wrote out my lesson calendar for the next two weeks.  In pen.

Visions of Hallways

Okay, this has nothing to do with math. But it has everything to do with my experience as an educator right now. I can't NOT write about it.


In the summer of 2008, the small Kansas town where I teach was struck by a tornado that left a path of destruction through the middle of town. The schools were aligned in such a way that every one of them was destroyed. A colleague of mine writes all about it here.


This is what the school where I teach looked like before June 11, 2008. 
(I'm not sure who took this picture, I got it from our journalism teacher.)

This is what it looked like on June 13, 2008.

This was my classroom. It was mostly empty because the floors were being waxed.

And these are a few of the classrooms we've used for 2 1/2 years.  

It has been a very, very, long journey.


Our new school is ready.


We move in tomorrow!


We have three days to get settled and the students will arrive on Monday.


Tonight, when I'm nestled all snug in my bed -- there will be visions of hallways dancing in my head.

5 More Days of Trailer School

I cannot blog about teaching math for another minute without mentioning that the single most exciting event in my entire career is less than a month away.

Before I tell you what that is, let me take you back 2 1/2 years . . . The small midwestern town where I teach was struck by a tornado.  The high school, middle school, and elementary school, along with many homes and businesses, were destroyed.  It was devastating.  I don't live in town, but I could tell you what it was like to meet security on the edge of town and convince them that I desperately needed to check the status of my classroom.  I will never forget the first glimpse of my school -- partially standing and partially in rubble.  The staff worked together to salvage whatever we could.  Thankfully, my files and teaching supplies were locked in a cabinet that was unharmed.  Never mind that I had to dodge broken glass and rubble to get to them.  Many other items were saved as well.

Items that we salvaged were stored for the summer while temporary facilities were put in place.  My trailer classroom arrived just days before the first day of school.  Miraculously, we started school on time, with modular classrooms dotting the blocks surrounding the demolished school.  Our students braved rain, wind, snow, cold, and heat as they walked the blocks from class to class, and stayed amazingly positive through it all.  We missed the things we used to take for granted -- like hallways, lockers, a teacher's workroom, proximity to our colleagues.  But we survived!

And now, through the window of my trailer classroom, I can see a beautiful new school.  Almost finished.  We move in on January 5th.  I am so excited to walk down a hallway, to eat lunch in a cafeteria, and to have assemblies in an auditorium, thinking about it almost brings tears to my eyes.

Time to finish packing!