Friday is a sacred day for many people. This is especially the case for teachers.
It's even better when it's a half day.
A half day on the last day of the semester to boot.
Today, was the Yom Kippur of teacher Fridays. Holiest of Holy teacher school days.
I was able to sleep in an extra hour this morning. 5:30am wake up instead of 4:30am. It felt as though I slept until noon. Glorious.
I picked up a bagel at Starbucks, as well as muffins for the kids, instead of the usual cereal. Yummmmm.
I didn't get irritated when DO took forever to come out to my car this morning because we weren't in a rush. Breathe in, breathe out, smile.
When we got to school, I was able to do the paperwork I needed to get done. That was completed while I was helping AR proof read a DBQ (Data Based Question) for his AP US History class and then quickly typed it up as he finished his English essay. Check, check, check on my To Do List.
When my students showed up for school, I only had 4 kids in my first class. They all wanted to do online reading games. Who can say no to that? This allowed me to work on putting up the 600+ picture collage on my wall. Fun Friday?
AD came upstairs and explained that his teacher didn't have anything for him to do. He had a pass to spend some quality time with me. What a pleasant surprise. I felt like a mother who's son decided to stay in on a weekend night instead of hang out with his friends. We worked on the collage together. Thank you for this sacred day.
My second class wanted to do independent reading. They were excited to pull their books out from the secret hiding spots they tucked them into - they didn't want anyone losing their spots. JT came up with a note to do work in my room. He wanted help with his online course. Not a problem, it's Holy Friday, I can do anything today. So we worked on English 11 while AD and I finished up a section of the collage (only 1 more section to go!).
Ms. C, the gym teacher, came up and asked if the kids were going to come to gym today. I took a poll with the students in my room and there was a resounding yes. Exactly what I wanted to hear. This would free up the last 45 minutes of the half school day for me to handle the scheduling for next semester. The universe was on my side.
At our end-of-day meeting, that happened to be held at 10:45am, the kids were totally compliant, happily listening, and content with the schedule changes. They had thoughtful questions and they said they were ready for the change. This never happens. Holy Friday...
After setting the schedules, Ms. L and I took MD, DO, and AR out to lunch at 12:30p as the school day had finished. I had promised AR that whoever from my usual morning crew came to school would get to go out to lunch with me. (This was an attempt to get DT to come to school, but he was not tempted by my food bribes.) They claim they had never been to a Mexican restaurant, so Ms. L and I decided to make this a cultural learning experience as well as lunch. It was thrilling to be out of the building and off school grounds during daylight. This hasn't happened to me in months... Holy Friday.
Upon returning, word got out about a faculty basketball game. I went up to my room, spoke with Mrs. S who was having a minor panic attack about all of the SPED paperwork that needed to get done, and then brought my work to the gym to watch the faculty basketball game as I typed. There is no better background to tedious, repetitive, unnecessary paperwork than a fun/casual basketball game. My blood pressure never rose for a second during the 2.5 hours I was sitting doing my work. Peace be with you on Holy Friday.
After collecting my things, I brought MD and DO home. The traffic didn't bother me – I was in no rush. I got home around 6pm, three hours earlier than usual.
I sat on my couch, played around on Facebook, ordered some Chinese food, and then hunkered down with my evening project: mending AR's favourite uniform pants. He ripped the crotch so many times that they couldn't be sewn back together. I bought a patch last weekend, and never got around to fixing them during the week. Holy Friday was the day to get it done.
While working on this project, I caught up on one of my favourite TV shows (Parenthood), and spent 3 hours ironing on the patch, then sewing the edges to make sure that it won't rub his leg the wrong way. The entire time that I sat there, I thought about how happy I was. There was nowhere else I wanted to be. There was nothing else I'd rather be doing. Sitting on my couch on Holy Friday night, eating Chinese food, watching Parenthood, and sewing was perfection.
And then, it snowed. Holy Friday was complete.
It's even better when it's a half day.
A half day on the last day of the semester to boot.
Today, was the Yom Kippur of teacher Fridays. Holiest of Holy teacher school days.
I was able to sleep in an extra hour this morning. 5:30am wake up instead of 4:30am. It felt as though I slept until noon. Glorious.
I picked up a bagel at Starbucks, as well as muffins for the kids, instead of the usual cereal. Yummmmm.
I didn't get irritated when DO took forever to come out to my car this morning because we weren't in a rush. Breathe in, breathe out, smile.
When we got to school, I was able to do the paperwork I needed to get done. That was completed while I was helping AR proof read a DBQ (Data Based Question) for his AP US History class and then quickly typed it up as he finished his English essay. Check, check, check on my To Do List.
When my students showed up for school, I only had 4 kids in my first class. They all wanted to do online reading games. Who can say no to that? This allowed me to work on putting up the 600+ picture collage on my wall. Fun Friday?
AD came upstairs and explained that his teacher didn't have anything for him to do. He had a pass to spend some quality time with me. What a pleasant surprise. I felt like a mother who's son decided to stay in on a weekend night instead of hang out with his friends. We worked on the collage together. Thank you for this sacred day.
My second class wanted to do independent reading. They were excited to pull their books out from the secret hiding spots they tucked them into - they didn't want anyone losing their spots. JT came up with a note to do work in my room. He wanted help with his online course. Not a problem, it's Holy Friday, I can do anything today. So we worked on English 11 while AD and I finished up a section of the collage (only 1 more section to go!).
Ms. C, the gym teacher, came up and asked if the kids were going to come to gym today. I took a poll with the students in my room and there was a resounding yes. Exactly what I wanted to hear. This would free up the last 45 minutes of the half school day for me to handle the scheduling for next semester. The universe was on my side.
At our end-of-day meeting, that happened to be held at 10:45am, the kids were totally compliant, happily listening, and content with the schedule changes. They had thoughtful questions and they said they were ready for the change. This never happens. Holy Friday...
After setting the schedules, Ms. L and I took MD, DO, and AR out to lunch at 12:30p as the school day had finished. I had promised AR that whoever from my usual morning crew came to school would get to go out to lunch with me. (This was an attempt to get DT to come to school, but he was not tempted by my food bribes.) They claim they had never been to a Mexican restaurant, so Ms. L and I decided to make this a cultural learning experience as well as lunch. It was thrilling to be out of the building and off school grounds during daylight. This hasn't happened to me in months... Holy Friday.
Upon returning, word got out about a faculty basketball game. I went up to my room, spoke with Mrs. S who was having a minor panic attack about all of the SPED paperwork that needed to get done, and then brought my work to the gym to watch the faculty basketball game as I typed. There is no better background to tedious, repetitive, unnecessary paperwork than a fun/casual basketball game. My blood pressure never rose for a second during the 2.5 hours I was sitting doing my work. Peace be with you on Holy Friday.
After collecting my things, I brought MD and DO home. The traffic didn't bother me – I was in no rush. I got home around 6pm, three hours earlier than usual.
I sat on my couch, played around on Facebook, ordered some Chinese food, and then hunkered down with my evening project: mending AR's favourite uniform pants. He ripped the crotch so many times that they couldn't be sewn back together. I bought a patch last weekend, and never got around to fixing them during the week. Holy Friday was the day to get it done.
While working on this project, I caught up on one of my favourite TV shows (Parenthood), and spent 3 hours ironing on the patch, then sewing the edges to make sure that it won't rub his leg the wrong way. The entire time that I sat there, I thought about how happy I was. There was nowhere else I wanted to be. There was nothing else I'd rather be doing. Sitting on my couch on Holy Friday night, eating Chinese food, watching Parenthood, and sewing was perfection.
And then, it snowed. Holy Friday was complete.
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