January Blues

Pretty much.

I have been so exhausted lately. I think it's just January. It has been so snowy. And pretty cold. And snowy. Did I mention that there's been snow? Lots of it. 

Most adults I talk to in Utah talk about how much they hate the snow. Driving in it is the worst. Sure, sure, whatever. (I really don't even know what the problem is...there's only ever like 2 mornings a year where there's actually scary snow on the roads that haven't been plowed or salted. Otherwise it's just like rain people!) It definitely sucks having to scrape your windows and brush the snow off your car, but these people don't really have room to be complaining. They're not elementary school teachers.

I know when I was a kid, a snow day was a dream. A day that school was cancelled and you got to go play in the snow! It was the best! But here in Utah, there is no such thing as a snow day. In my 4 years of teaching there hasn't even been a whisper of such a thing existing here. So instead, kids just dream about playing in the snow all day long while they're in class. Except they don't know what they're doing. Strangely, dreaming about playing in the freshly fallen snow manifests itself in extremely chatter. Talking to each other, talking to themselves, talking out in lessons, trying to get me to talk about anything except the lesson that needs to be taught, talking to each other again. No stopping. 

Thankfully we've been pretty lucky and the school I'm at is fairly lenient about outside recess. It has to be below 22 degrees or precipitating enough to get the kids wet for it to be an inside day. So most of the time they get to go outside and get a little bit of their snow energy out. But it's still not enough. Especially since we're in a portable and have to walk through the freshly falling snow and the iced over snow on the ground and be reminded of the snow at least 3 times a day. And on the days that it is an inside lunch recess...good luck getting anything done for the rest of the afternoon.

Now, I should clarify that I'm not saying my class is horrible or wild or out of control. None of that. It just takes more effort to wrangle them in, and it has to be done much more often. The snow just has some sort of crazy, strange effect on them. 

Anyways, I started this post just to say I'm crazy tired and I blame it on the blah January weather. 

On a good note: the days are getting longer:)