Prepared for the Weather
Posted by Hope Spencer on 17 Nov 2009 | Posted in: Classroom Management, Classroom Routines
I commuted to work in the driving rain yesterday morning, and when I arrived at the office, I found out that we didn’t have any power. There were no lights, no heat, no computers. We were left with nothing but pencils and paper. It reminded me of many days in the classroom.
Once, when I was teaching in Galveston, Texas, I arrived at school to find the power out. I didn’t have any outside windows in my classroom and it was dark in there! The emergency lights were all in the hallways. We had a quick meeting with the principal and decided that, since students were already on their way, we would keep the kids in circles outside our classrooms and read to them by flashlight. Of course, we had little problems during that hour. Kids complained of having to use the powerless restrooms, and the cafeteria workers weren’t able to start lunch. But we handled it and made it through the hour until the power finally returned, though the day never quite got back on track.
During that same year, a tropical storm hit in the middle of the school day. Parents began picking up their children, and I tried to maintain order as the kids wondered what was happening outside. I wondered too, until I got a firsthand look. You see, we didn’t have a parking lot, so we parked our cars on the streets around the school. That day, the custodian came to get each teacher who was parked on the east side because the street was flooding. I had to wade through shin-deep water to get to my car before I returned to my classroom, wet and a little scared, to try to keep my students calm and engaged.
I saw some stormy days when I taught in Nebraska too. We spent several days in the tuck-and-cover position in our tornado-warning spots. With some age-groups, I had to deal with tears and fears in this situation. At times like this, I really felt like the parent as well as the teacher, and I was grateful that we had done so many tornado drills that we were prepared to handle the routine parts of it. That left me free to deal with the emotions.
In Nebraska too, we had to be prepared for snow from October through April. Snow can have different effects on students. Sometimes it helps them to settle in and work. There’s something about a thick blanket of snow that makes the classroom a cozy learning place. Other times, though, the prospect of an early release can have the opposite effect on the kids—and the teachers!
But today is a new, clear day, and the sun was shining as I drove to work. As you can tell, the power is back on and my computer is up and running! Whew! But the next time Mother Nature raises her hand, I’ll try to be prepared.
Happy teaching!
Hope
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I live in China and teach at an international school. Where we live, there is much construction going on around us. My first year here, we spent two weeks in January without power, and we did not cancel school. We were bringing in blankets, keeping our coats on the entire day, and bringing hot water in giant thermoses from home! It was a miserable time, but definitely memorable! We still occasionally have a few hours out of power, always at random and unannounced times, but I’ve found I get more and better work done when I have ABSOLUTELY NO DISTRACTIONS! If they could just do it when the weather is perfect, that’d be nice.