Join me this month as I write a slice of my life each day this March and join many others sharing slices at twowritingteachers.com. My students will also be slicing this month and you can find links to their daily blogs HERE. "Did you get hit in the back of the head with a snowball?" the front office secretary asked as I walked in from recess today.
My right hand reached up and felt the mass of wet sticky flakes attached to my hair. I wiped my hair a couple of times, the flakes almost instantly transforming to water droplets as I answered, "Maybe we should have had indoor recess today."
The rule at our school is below twenty degrees or in blizzard conditions, we do indoor recess, or as I like to call it, HELL. I would rather endure almost anything than the pain of getting the 150 students, ages 8-14 to take their shoes off, run around without causing injuries, deal with the racket, and finally getting shoes back on to go to class. It takes so much energy and voice and herding of cats to make it feel like anything close to recess happened.
So today, while I monitored the lunchroom, and watched the snow fly sideways in the twenty mile-per-hour wind, and plaster itself to everything in it's path, I thought, "It's not below twenty. We are going outside." As students came to ask me where recess would be, I said with assurance that we could handle fifteen minutes in the elements and, "You should be dressed for it anyway."Fifteen seconds after exiting the building and walking into the wind, my blue fleece was completely white. My sunglasses were a mass of wet, and three-quarters of the students were walking backwards towards the playground and field. Another teacher on duty ran to his car to get his snowboarding jacket. A student tripped over a shrub she didn't see while walking backwards. Students created huddle piles. The football game never advanced past the midfield mark due to the wind. Mammoths lumbered across the frozen tundra and glaciers formed in the packing lot.
No one threw a snowball, but perhaps I would have gotten the message sooner if they had.
Playground photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bensonkua/6585852763/">Benson Kua</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">cc</a>
Snowball fight photo credit: <ahref="http://www.flickr.com/photos/thethingsitdoes/7945245340/">thethingsitdoes</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>
What fun! I am so far away from snow it's hard to remember, almost.
ReplyDeleteWe have had only about six outdoor recesses since Christmas...and that snow and cold you had today is set to hit Indiana tomorrow! Ugh.
ReplyDeleteLove your take on indoor recess, Max - I can see why you decided to venture out...and you had fun!
ReplyDeleteMaybe sometime, the kids can spend the time in the classroom? Today was awful during that time. I thought about you as I walked to the car! Wow!
ReplyDeleteI would still rather have been outside. We've had our fourth day in a row outside. Love it.
ReplyDeleteCrazy snow predicted for tomorrow. Lalalalalala I can't hear you!
We've had very few outdoor recesses this winter. We take every chance we can get to get outside. My kiddos were out in snow today too. They were sopping wet by the time they came in, but I'm still grateful they got outside.
ReplyDeleteI totally get what you are saying about indoor recess...the worst!
ReplyDeleteHow fun we never get to go out when it snows of course in Oklahoma you also get 90 mph winds. But I would brave it all not to have indoor recess duty!
ReplyDeleteThis is slice just unfolds perfectly. We go out too if it is higher than 20 wind chill. I kind of love it to be honest. The kids NEED it. I dislike HELL as much as you do.
ReplyDeleteI was on duty today too...just finished writing about it : ) I liked your piece much more!
ReplyDeleteMy principal keeps the kids in if it's below 25. I have middle school lunch duty and would much rather take them outside, no matter what the weather! I think a little fresh air does us all good!
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