Power Outage

Today was an interesting day at school. We had no power for most of the day. I’m not sure what caused this to happen. We had a storm last night but we have storms all the time in Florida.

I came to campus early to get ready for the week and only half the lights were on in the hallways. When I went in my room all the lights turned on and one of my computers turned on too! The Internet wasn’t working but I thought this doesn’t seem so bad. Then we got news from our principals that the power was running on the generator and that would only last for two hours.

In my mind I’m thinking “Ahh oh no what do I do without technology!?!” Our whole day we use the smart board and computers!

Then in walks a new teacher. She tells me she is supposed to observe me for part of the morning and then observe other teachers. Didn’t Dr. Principal let you know? Umm nope! But I welcomed her all the same.

Since my computer that hooks up to my smart board was still working I decided to use that asap1 I knew my time was limited. We did our reading lesson and then started centers. In the middle of me explaining a word work center for the week all the lights went out.

No power.

We were now on emergency lights only. I had one light in my room on and the bathroom light. Thank goodness I have windows. Some classrooms don’t so they were really in the dark.

So we went on through our day and did literacy centers. We had several people in and out of the room all morning. On stated “No the power will not be coming back on” Another few times “ Can I have your attendance?, can you give me your lunch count? Food went bad and they needed to know how many lunches and make a list of those kids to charge later.

My kids did really well and went with the flow. Just like Pete the Cat ;) Love that little cool cat.

The afternoon was uneventful. We went through writing fine and my kids were shocked we could learn math without smart board. I’m glad it was a review lesson though. I allowed for a lot of extra time to use manipulatives (cubes and counters) during the lesson. Then I gave them plenty of time to finish their independent work and play math games.

Then the kids went to P.E. and the teachers all chatted because we didn’t have any e-mails to check, things to print, and data or grades to put in. I did get a chance to check math papers, write team meeting notes, and make of list of things I needed to do once I had Internet.

Then all of a sudden  the lights came on again! Yeah! Power! It was the end of the day at 2:30 but the power finally came back on! It puts things in perspective the things we sometimes take for granted.

We finished the day with snack and a book about polar animals. Some days are a little crazy and we have to be flexible to keep it all going!

Glad that everything is back up and working for tomorrow. Now this tired teacher is off to the gym to keep in shape!

Hope you had a more organized and productive Monday.