Rare Snow Day

Monday began with me telling my incredulous students that we weren't starting ISTEP until Tuesday. I say incredulous, because they tend to be pretty incredulous about anything, even about the fact that six minus zero is NOT the same as zero minus six. Seriously, I've had a girl argue vehemently that I was doing it wrong. In fifth grade. Well, this Monday morning they were willing to put aside their doubt for the feeling of relief that there was no testing that day. Only one was still worried, since, as she told me, we weren't going to have school on Tuesday, and we wouldn't be able to take ISTEP. It was going to storm. And she KNEW we wouldn't have school. I guess she should be a fortune teller or weather forecaster when she grows up. I might have believed her if she wasn't the same child that, given evidence of "nothing" or quantity of zero, thought that she could take 6 pencils away from thin air.

Tuesday morning came, and she came to school on time, mentioning nothing about our certain cancellation. Wednesday, however, the storm she had scheduled for earlier rolled into town. I knew that universities had been cancelled in Chicago, that my brother working in Chicago had been sent home from work early, and that we were expecting around 6-9 inches overnight, so I eagerly awaited at least a two-hour delay. Most of Fort Wayne's area schools and schools in the surrounding counties are cancelled today, leaving me with an extra vacation day. It's sad though, after rejoicing that I could sleep in, the next two thoughts that went through my mind were the following, "maybe this means that "Michael" who went home sick Tuesday will be back to take ISTEP Thursday," and, "I'm so glad I brought work home so I can get some grading done." So sad, but true.

6 + inches of snow on our balcony