T minus 1 day

The finish line is in sight, I've all but made it to Winter Break. Can I survive the last 50 meters?

Today:

• 7:38 am Woke up (38 minutes after the alarms had all rung)

• 7:45 am Called Lucy for a ride to work (I am still carless)

• 8:02 am Lucy called: she's on her way (earlier than usual)

• 8:36 am We get to school (9 minutes before the first bell)

• 8:42 am Richard (school principal) dances with enthusiasm to country-western Xmas tunes playing on the P.A. Parents and students passing by pause, stare, and continue, shaking their heads in resignation.

To start out the day, I gave my students a brain teazer: Connect all nine dots using only four straight lines, without lifting your pencil from the page, and without doubling back over any drawn lines. After 15 minutes of serious thinking and various attempts to change the definition of "four straight lines", I relented so far as to give them a hint: "Think outside the box". This was enough for two boys to solve it; the other students, as far as I know, are still mulling it over!

Putting the puzzle aside, we went over yesterday's math test. (If you think I am mean to give them a math test on the last week of class before Winter Break, think again! I had an emergency tutoring session last night for a grade 9 student whose math teacher scheduled a chapter test for tomorrow morning!)

With half the class away on a choir field trip, we spent the rest of the period working on a new recorder piece (one with two-part harmony and a few challenging notes), and the double-block after recess playing "educational" games in the computer lab.

This afternoon began with a bang, literally. Followed by another, accompanied by loud yells.

The first was the sound of the TV cart, complete with 27" television, DVD player, and two remotes, crashing to the ground in the hallway. It seems the diligent grade 7 boy who'd thoughtfully tried to wheel it in for us rolled it over a popsicle stick, which sent the whole kit and kaboodle tumbling to the ground. Adieu télévision!

The second crash came from around the corner in the hallway, about 3 minutes after the first. The choir kids, having just returned from singing at Grandville Island, were chaotically eating their lunch in the music room. For some reason Chris (ah, Chris ~ shall I ever forget you?) decided, ADHD-like, to climb up on top of some narrow shelving in the hallway and managed to send that tumbling to the floor, he still on top, somehow.

Meanwhile, with the help of my other grade 7 volunteer, we finished setting up the laptop and LCD projection screen for my students' movie-viewing pleasure (Home Alone 2: Lost in New York ~ ugh!) . . . but alas! without any sound! The highlight of my day was when my darling students generously exclaimed "Oh, it's ok, don't worry about speakers! We can read the subtitles! Yeah! Subtitles!"

We watched all but the last 15 minutes of the movie by the time the bell rang, the conclusion will be tomorrow morning's treat. After the students had left, I went up to give Richard the details about the demise of the basement TV. We were debating safety concerns in the school when, around by the front entrance stairs we heard ~ CRASH! Ahh nonn!! Richard and I ran, frayed nerves streaming behind us, to discover, at the bottom of the stairs, Cathy (grade 3 teacher) consoling Minuit (her guinea pig) whose cage she had dropped to the ground.

*sigh* . . . pauvre Minuit! . . . et . . . vive les vacances!