I’m an early riser.

I woke up at 5:30 (without my alarm) and began to crawl out of bed to go jogging on our treadmill. That’s when the phone rang and I received the glorious news that it was way too cold for human children to go to school. Snow day! Actually, Incredibly Cold Day.

I tried to go back to sleep, but after a few minutes I decided to burn off those calories from last night’s meal with a 15 minute jog; I enjoyed listening to a few chapters of the curious incident of the dog in the night-time on playaway digital audio book while I ran. That time could almost be called professional development with all the insights that book shares, through story, about the mind of an Autistic child.

Then I pasted some of the calories back on with a breakfast of one hard egg, hash browns, a couple smokey links, and a muffin with peanut butter and honey. Our general pattern is take advantage of special days by starting them off with an extra-yummy meal.

The next few hours included…
…reading the Lansing State Journal more thoroughly than usual
…several games of Sudoku on facebook against my son
…two games of chess against my son (in person)
…one handheld Yahtzee game
…correcting and commenting on many book reviews written by 7th graders
…layering significantly and going to the grocery store for a few items
…writing a draft of this post and a few emails to a parent, a student, and a colleague
…getting lost exploring a very comprehensive Inauguration website
…making dinner (yes, I can cook)

It’s true, I played many games on my surprise day off. And, of course, I won some and lost some. But I find that I always win when I do some correcting. That’s partially because I get a bit of work done. If I put off my correcting for too long it piles up, but a little correcting (interspersed with gaming) gets the job done in due time. Mostly, though, I enjoy reading what my students write. There are many gems along the way; Molly commented in her book review that “if you can’t read, you need to learn how so that you can read this book.” That’s classic stuff. It shows a genuine love of reading, as well as a thorough enjoyment of that story. Sterling’s amazing wiki page that incorporated photos, a map, and decorations in with her review was so good I plan to suggest she contact the author of the book so she can see it. And even the fact that over seven students chose to read Twilight (or some other book in the series) made me happy; they can then read each other’s reviews and comment on the subtle differences in what each saw as important and worthy of mentioning.

Teaching can be stressful. There’s no doubt about it. But a class of excellent students can make all the difference. When they want to learn, seem interested in books, have a sense of humor, take feedback well, ask great questions, share what’s going on in their lives outside school, help each other out, and smile at you in the morning…you know you picked the right profession.