Snow Day!

On Thursday of this week as the chatter of a potential snow day swirled about my classroom almost as heavily as the actual snow outside our northern Michigan school windows, one student asked, "Mr. Seymour, do teachers like snow days too?" Ahhh.. what a loaded question. How to answer, how to answer????

Inside of my head I retorted, Of course we do! Yes! They are glorious gifts from the heavenly Snow Gods!

But what left my mouth was a slightly more tempered message:

Well you see, it's not that simple of an answer. Yes, it's nice to get a day off from school, but in reality it somewhat disturbs the flow of our learning, meeting some of our deadlines, and really, I now have to consider whether we have enough time to finish our classwork, prep for the weekly reading quiz and actually take it all before we leave for another 4 1/2 days for the Thanksgiving Day break. That's a lot of work to accomplish with one less day. So if you're asking if I am hoping for a snow day tomorrow, the answer is yes, that would be nice, but also no. We have much to do. It's important that we stay on track and meet our learning goals. Besides, we're reading a novel this unit. Every day that we are not in school makes it that much more difficult for us to retain what we've read. Some of us are really good at keeping all that info in our heads for a long time, but some of us need to read every day in order for our story to have meaning. I could see him fading, and realized he had just asked a simple question at the end of the class period hoping for me to share in the excitement of a snow day, so I quickly wrapped it up.

I think he understood what I meant and seemed satisfied with the answer. But as he walked away, I couldn't resist. As he contemplated my response, I held up my hand with crossed fingers and said, "But here's hoping."

We got our snow day.

I slept in.

Took my time.

Enjoyed the morning.

Yet, I still answered and sent work emails.

I worried about those students who I always worry about.

I did some work, though not too much.

It's been a great day.

And yes, teachers like snow days too.