Emergency Release!

This week was originally supposed to be busy... now it's just chaotic!

• Yesterday we had an emergency release day meaning that something happened to cause the district supervisor to release the students from school for the day. That something would actually be two things: a busted heater and a broken water pump. We had about three hours of school and then students were called down alphabetically to call home and get permission to leave school for the day. In the mean while, since the bathrooms were out of order, students could travel by bus load to the next school over to use their bathrooms. Once the students had permission to leave, all students were released at approximately 11am. Oh, did I mention that not only did staff need to stay but our rooms froze and we had to travel to either Subway or the gas station down the road to use the bathroom? The heater wasn't as big of a problem as was the pump, which was only roughly three years old! A replacement and parts had to be sent in from somewhere in IL! As of last night, the district wasn't sure if they could have school or not today! But they did and everything worked as it did before!
  
• Sad news: the mother mouse of the babies went missing sometime between Friday night and Saturday night. We thought it would have to be somewhere in the room because she was still in her cage when we taped the bottom of the door just in case one did get out! But, alas!, we didn't even hear her last night at parent-teacher conferences! We are hoping that one of the females who seems to be trying to feed them is lactating. She actually looks pregnant herself, but we'll see. It's sad and puzzling at the same time... it's almost as if she just disappeared! Other sad mice news: we started off with ~12 babies and we're now down to three. Every day now will be a struggle for them now that their mother is gone.
• On another note, I take over the class next Friday (which just happens to be Friday the 13th!). Eek! It's going so fast! But I'm really looking forward to it and it should be a lot of fun for the students... I'll keep you updated!
• I noticed at our emergency staff meeting yesterday that teacher tendencies don't really differ that much from student tendencies. For example, we all walked into the room we were meeting in and immediately the men sat on one side of the room and the women on the other. There was no mixing! In my seven classes, there are about five instances where a girl and boy are sitting at the same table together. That's it.
• On Thursday, both my teacher and I will be observed by different people! My supervising professor will be visiting for my first observation--hopefully it will be a piece of cake! Jodie will be observed by W. Weber, the school principal. He's planning on coming to observe me as well in another week or so.
  
• On Friday, I will be traveling to Milwaukee with my teacher to go to the Wisconsin State Science Teacher's Conference (WSST). It should be fun and I'm hoping to collect some really good resources and materials!
• Toward the end of this week sometime, Bill Volkert from the Horicon DNR will be letting me know if he can come in and do a presentation on Wisconsin's Birds my last day. He said today that he should be able to do it. I don't want to get my hopes up though--it would be really great if he could!
  
• Next week sometime my advisor for my next placement (English) wants to visit and observe me in the classroom. I guess certain aspects of teaching are the same all across the board!

Phew! I told you it's been busy! :)