Wait... I'm a teacher?

It officially became winter here in the southwest corner of the mitten! That may be the understatement of the year, actually. We got hit with a LOT of snow and ice. Let's take it back a quick jog ... I was living life gloriously as a teacher with MLK Jr. day off. Spending the day just relaxing and mentally preparing to go back to work. Little did I know, Mother Nature had other plans.
    Tuesday morning I awoke with a jolt to the sound of my phone ringing, alerting me that "Coloma Community Schools would be closed" ... HALLELUJAH -- the first snow day of the season, in a district where I was assured, "we don't get snow days." Totally unexpected and totally awesome. I frolicked, yes frolicked in the snow that day  --- in the -20 degree weather -- I excitedly jaunted through the snow.

This is where I live -- and what it looked like on Wednesday by the lake. :)

Got myself all rested and prepared to go back on Wednesday --- psyche! Not happening -- Wednesday was called off too and then Thursday! It became sort of funny that we had all of these days off, but the snow kept coming and the wind chill kept dropping, so to keep the kiddos fingers and toes on their bodies - we gave them day after day off.

     It got to the point that we were joking about our jobs, "I think I'm a teacher... but I'm not sure anymore."
Friday was the day we, teachers, had all waited for -- back to school for a Monday sort of Friday. We reviewed, we played Math and Science games and we said farewell to our classes for the weekend (already). The weekend was odd, I felt like I was getting so much time off and that it was like Christmas break all over again!
       I spent the weekend, just as I had the past 4 days off of school -- lessons done, grading done... just enjoying time off. Monday came with a surprise -- 5:42am -- another day off. Sleeping in until 8 was becoming a bad habit -- but I was amazingly productive... cooked a delicious dinner and relaxed yet again.
Back to school today -- tough to get back into the grind, but I was SO ready. The kids love the days off .. but I know the consequences of too much time off and I was ready to see them again!

We spent today launching back into our units -- Dividing Decimals, Studying the Southern Colonies and Saturn. Oh, beautiful.. glorious .. ringed Saturn. We read from our textbooks as a class and then I showed this video:

I'm a BIG fan of Charlie -- but I had NO idea that he had a series on the Solar System! What a diamond to find -- the kids LOVE him because he's hilarious -- and he talks to them, just like I do. Like someone who is BEYOND fascinated by space and just oozes with excitement to share all of the crazy weird things that happen in space.

AMAZING.

Happy Happy Tuesday, teachers.

Welcome back.