Can We Go Home Yet?

The snow has finally arrived!

Outside it’s coming down thick and fast and I’m watching it from the cosiness of my front room, feeling very thankful that today is my day off.

In teaching there are many things that can lead your carefully planned lesson astray; last night’s Facebook kick-off, a puppy love quarrel (and the subsequent tears that come with it), someone accidentally calling you Mum. But nothing compares to the complete derailment that is snow! Forget trying to teach them anything, your lesson is literally out of the window!

snow

It starts as soon as the first few flakes begin to fall, “It’s snowing!” and thirty kids race from their seats to be by the window. To be fair, watching snow fall is a lot more fun than solving quadratic equations so I don’t blame them.

And then the questions start:

“Do you think we’ll get sent home?” No
“How cold does it need to be before they shut the school?” Never going to happen
“We don’t need to do any work now do we?” Ermm, yes
“We’ve got to go home, it’s a health and safety risk!” I’m sure at the age of 15 you can manage to walk on snow
“You want to go home as well, don’t you Miss?” Too right
“Can we have the lesson outside?” Definitely not!
“Can we thrown a snowball at the head, he’ll see the funny side?” I can guarantee you he won’t!

When break does arrive they race out onto the playground as if they have never been allowed outside ever and the fifteen minutes that follow are carnage. Snowballs thrown from every direction whilst staff monitor from corridor windows, far too risky to actually step foot out. ย No one wants to be known as the teacher who got the snowball in the face!

Of course, trying to get them in after break is no easy task, and if there’s anything worse than kids who are desperate to be allowed home to play in the snow, it’s wet (and now very cold) kids who are desperate to be allowed home to play in the snow.

The rest of the day is pretty much a write-off. You will have regular updates from the kids about which schools have already closed and they will personally blame you for the fact that they are still in school, “It is so unfair!”

My advice to any teachers out there is to just roll with it. Write a snow poem, draw some symmetrical snowmen pictures or discuss the finer points of Frozen because the kids, for the day, really do care more about the snow than Pythagoras and his theorem. Actually, if i”m being honest, so do I!

Can we go home now?

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And then the fun began...

13 Comments

  1. January 30, 2015 / 10:57 am

    Ha ha ha I loved seeing this from a teacher’s perspective! My kids immediately say: do you think we will have to go to school tomorrow? Ridiculous! We had about 10 flakes yesterday and that question was the first one uttered! x x
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  2. lifeatthelittlewood
    January 30, 2015 / 2:51 pm

    Oh I remember this so well Jo! It literally turns them crazy! ๐Ÿ™‚ Mind you, I was always so thankful for those ‘snow days’ – nothing like an extra sneaky wee day off! Xxx

  3. January 30, 2015 / 4:44 pm

    We live well down south and I can’t remember my school ever closing for snow. Trees blew past the classroom window more often than it snowed. That was classed as a health and safety risk! ๐Ÿ™‚ Fun post! #pocolo
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  4. Merlinda Little (@pixiedusk)
    January 30, 2015 / 5:44 pm

    Awww if only they know that its not only them who wants to go home! Sending your hugs =) #pocolo
    Merlinda Little (@pixiedusk) recently posted…#Fallen44My Profile

  5. Louise @ Birds and Lilies
    January 30, 2015 / 9:13 pm

    Haha, it used to be so exciting when it snowed as a kid and hoping and praying that our school would close. I used to be soo disappointed when we heard ours was the only bloody one open! I do feel for you though; I can imagine it’s a nightmare! x #pocolo

  6. Potty Mouthed Mummy
    February 3, 2015 / 8:14 am

    Ha never thought of it like this, only having been on the student side of the snow excitement!!! May you never get a snowball to the face lovely xx
    Potty Mouthed Mummy recently posted…Point + Shoot | 3rd FebruaryMy Profile

  7. February 3, 2015 / 8:48 am

    No one wants to be the teacher that gets a snowball in the face, but lots of kids want to be the one that does it so it’s very wise to stay behind glass. Good luck as it looks like there’s more here today #thetruthabout
    Stephanie recently posted…The truth about: coming home from holidayMy Profile

  8. February 3, 2015 / 5:14 pm

    I’m loving reading this today as it totally coincides with our first snow day on which JJ was still able to get in to school (albeit I nearly took us all out trying to park!). Poor teachers! Hope you’re surviving the winter behind the school doors! ๐Ÿ™‚ X #thetruthabout
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