Like a Good Neighbor

Heidi had an appointment to meet a friend at the gym, so I cleaned off the car and shoveled it out before 9 this morning. As the day wore on, I looked out at our quiet parking lot several times with some concern, taking mental inventory of the still-buried cars and their owners.

The Audi belonged to a young woman who lived alone upstairs with her long-haired Dachshund, Charlotte. The red Rav 4 was the family's who lived below her, a single Mom and her 7-year-old son. The blue and white Hyundais were the cars of a woman a little older than us and her disabled husband. The pair of Priuses with the handicapped hang tags belonged to our neighbor down the way with the bum knee and his wife who was recovering from a hip replacement.

Just then there was a knock on the door; another neighbor came by to borrow one of our shovels. Of course! we said, putting on our coats, too, and heading out to join her. A little less than an hour later, everyone was dug out.

Breathing Room

We woke this morning to several inches of fluffy snow and the promise that it would continue through nightfall, and even though it was many more hours until it was official, we knew that there would be no school tomorrow.

Knowing that I wouldn't have to rise in darkness for the first of five busy days at work gave me an extra burst of energy to get things done today. The car was cleaned off before nine; the Christmas tree was restored to a simple (if very dry) fir, and all the holiday decorations were finally organized, packed, and stowed away until next year. The house was vacuumed and the laundry washed and folded. I even split some of the dry firewood into kindling to keep our hearth warm and crackling.

Now, dinner is on the stove, and I'm ready to relax for the evening, knowing that I'll have time to work on grades and paperwork for school at my leisure tomorrow.

Well-Provisioned

We had planned to go to Wegmans today long before the weather forecast included a few inches of snow. We stuck to our schedule, but we were joined at the grocery store by about a bazillion other shoppers.

It could have been ugly, but everyone seemed to be in pretty good humor. It might have helped that there was plenty of bread and milk and eggs and toilet paper (and wine and beer), but there were a few shortages. Jostling for produce shoulder to shoulder with my fellow shoppers, I snagged the last bulb of fennel, as well as the final bunch of cilantro

Judging from the limited quantities of a few other non-essential items, I'd guess that people are going to be eating pretty well if they're snowed in.

Don't Stop There

My students were taking a standardized reading test when one of them raised his hand and waved furiously. For valid results, they were supposed to read the short passages and answer the related vocabulary questions completely independently.

I walked over to him. "What is it?" I whispered.

He gestured at the screen; glancing over, I didn't see a problem.

"I'm not allowed to help you," I reminded him.

His eyes widened, and mindful of the directions to keep a quiet testing environment, he wordlessly stabbed his finger at the passage, then ran it back and forth along the screen, pantomiming a desperate need for assistance.

I looked more closely at the passage. Ask your teacher for guidance... it began. I looked at the student. He smirked in self-satisfaction; after all, he was only following the directions.

I shook my head and laughed.

...in selecting possible research paper topics, it continued. Afterall, this may be your first attempt at writing a research paper. It helps to bounce ideas around with an expert... 

"Keep reading," I advised him.

Goodwill Hunting

Yesterday our team started the day with a quick "Hot Chocolate Social". It turns out you can serve 150 cups of hot chocolate to sixth graders for about a quarter each in a minimum of time with not much trouble. After fifteen minutes spent sipping a warm beverage and socializing with their friends, our usually unruly pack of tweens was almost tame heading into the school day. Sure, there were a few naysayers, This hot chocolate is too sweet! insisted one, and a couple were suspicious, Why are they doing this for us? What do they want? another student whispered urgently to her friend, but in general, the group just relaxed and enjoyed the cocoa in a rather well-behaved way. Anecdotally, I feel like I benefited all day: the goodwill seemed tangible.

The same could not be said for today. The mid-year "Safety Assembly" where administrators admonish students for all the rules that are not being followed and all the expectations that are not being met was held first thing in the theater. Tens of powerpoint slides full of DON'Ts in tiny writing filled the screen above the stage as we all sat through a droning review of the rules. Even I, a rule-follower and an adult in the building who would greatly benefit if more students followed more rules, was ready to pull my hood up over my head. Nobody likes to be scolded.

And maybe it's a coincidence, but man! Those kids were right back to their old ways. 

Swing and a Miss

"I really like this pen," one of my students told me, grabbing it off my desk without permission. "Can I have it?"

I was hardly surprised by his impulsivity and boundary-bending, and I decided to use the situation as leverage. "Do you solemnly swear to use this pen for good?" I asked playfully. "Use it to complete your assignments thoughtfully and neatly and work hard for the rest of the class period? So help you--"

"I do!" he told me seriously.

"Then you may have it." I bestowed the pen upon him with a cheerful flourish and a smile. "Get to work! I'll check in with you in a few minutes."

As he headed back to his seat purposefully it almost seemed like the pen might do the trick, but when I touched base with him, he was off-task with nothing written.

"Hey!" I said. "You promised you were going to get some writing done!"

He looked at me, confused. "I was lying!" he explained.

I frowned, discouraged.

"I thought you knew!" he said, and handed me the pen.

Counterclaim

I moved a student's seat closer to where I was working with another student so that the first student might be less distracted. The first guy did not appreciate my support.

"I didn't do anything!" he declared indignantly.

"I promise if that were true, I would have left you where you were," I told him. "I'm too busy to bother with false accusations."

He insisted he had been doing exactly as he was expected, and to save both of us some time I outlined why I had moved him. "1, you weren't doing the assignment," I started.

"I was getting ready to," he said.

"2, you were talking to people around you, preventing them from doing their work."

"They were talking to me!" he claimed.

"3, you are argumentative. You don't listen to me when I redirect you, instead you argue with everything I say, even when you know I'm right."

He paused. He knew he shouldn't say a word, and I could see the struggle on his face. In the end it was too much for him, though. "No I don't!" he insisted.

I raised an eyebrow.

He got to work.
Briefly.