Fall holidays
Oct. 10th, 2020 09:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
olorielThis year, thanks to the inscrutable workings of the German holiday system, my federal state has its fall holidays exactly between the end of the summer holidays and the start of the Christmas holidays, with eight weeks of regular school on either side. Well, eight weeks of regular school between summer and now, at my school, which is located in a blessed little city upon a blessed little hill where, apparently, the Rona doesn't really want to go. (There have been five confirmed cases - no casualties - between March and May, and none thereafter.) In cities all around, classes or entire schools have had to go into quarantine for a couple of weeks, but B-feld (no, not the conspiracy one) has been spared so far. Who knows how it'll go after the holidays. As our principal said meaningfully when he reminded everyone to remain cautious and stick to the rules, "Winter is coming."
Winter is coming. Already, our lessons start in the dark; and when the holidays are over, even the return to regular MET won't help the fact that the sun just doesn't rise before 8:30 in our latitudes, and soon it won't rise before the first recess. (For some reason, I have a really striking memory from back in grade 8, when we had an east-facing classroom and sat translating Caesar under a spectacular sunrise. The things our brain chooses to keep!) Moreover, the end of the decade is coming, so there are even more road constructions than usual. The Powers That Be have decided that, when there are major roadworks on one of the two connecting roads between the two towns I have to pass through on my way to work, it makes total sense to block the second road for construction, too. Then one week later, another road I need to take was blocked as well. It's hard not to feel targeted personally. I can now either take one of the official detours, which of course all the trucks are taking, or I can take three little detours of my own which, in spite of being longer, still get me there faster than the truck-infested official way. (Yes, yes, I know, until they can send goods via e-mail, I shall have to share the road with trucks.)
Winter is coming. One of the cornerstones of our COVID protection concept is that the windows are open as much as possible, ideally at all times. For a variety of reasons, it isn't possible even now - my classroom faces out to the school bus stop, so by 12, when the elementary school kids start gathering there, no lessons are possible when the windows are open. It's not even that they're playing and talking - which would be distracting enough - but that they keep rubbing their noses on our classroom window, waving, talking and even throwing things inside.I, the teacher, should be able to stop this with a few stern words. I am not. They don't care. All we can do is shut the window. We don't even have curtains that we can draw shut against the distraction. We don't even have those sticky foils that you can put on the windows to darken them. Talked to the janitor and he said "Well I'll have to ask the architect about that." Yeah, putting some darkening foil on the windows definitely sounds like something that's got to be cleared with the architect. Apparently, we aren't even allowed to stick window clings or other cafts stuff to the windows, let alone foil! (The frames, on the other hand, are made of metal, so I've been considering buying a set of neodymium magnets and hanging posters from the window frames. Daylight? What daylight? Winter is coming, anyway! Or maybe I'll use fabric?)
One positive effect of the open windows and the incoming cold season is that I'm no longer getting into trouble with colleagues for not telling my students to hang up their jackets in the corridor. "No jackets in the classroom" is one of those unwritten etiquette rules that I don't get, don't remember, and certainly don't care to enforce. I don't see the problem. That is, I don't understand why it's supposed to be a problem, and I also genuinely don't perceive the jackets unless I specifically pay attention to them, which I usually don't, because I don't remember the rule. I have jacket blindness. There can be a full classroom of 25-29 kids, all of them huddled in their jackets or using them to cushion their chairs, and my eyes will glide right over them. When other colleagues are in the classroom with me they'll immediately spot the students in the fourth row wearing their jackets and snap at them to take them outside. Then ten minutes later one of those students will notice another student having stealthily hung their jacket over the back of their chair and rat on them, so there's another student you have to send outside to hang up their jacket. And of course, a lot of students will argue for why they want to keep their jacket or why they shouldn't have to take it outside now. It's a self-made disruption and I don't see the point in the first place. I don't feel disrespected by students in jackets. IMO, it's a completely arbitrary rule. Besides, all the jackets right next to each other on the coatrack in the corridor seems like a surefire way of spreading lice or scabies, should someone have them! Not Worth It. But most of my colleagues are adamant about the "no jackets" rule - or were. Now that we have to keep the windows open most of the time, and many students forget to bring warm pullovers (or maybe they don't have one), we have been told to permit the wearing of jackets. That's a small blessing for the students and also for the jacket-blind, like me.
Another blessing! I've only been teaching there for two and a half years, so I've only heard it twice, but the "plastic building" is finally going to be demolished! The plastic building is one of those fugly 1970s modular container buildings that were used in schools all over the country for a couple of years until the cheap materials and the asbestos in the insulation made them unuseable. Our vice principal announced it during the last conference, starting with a little story. "When I started working here in 1984, the principal said, 'Oh, and don't worry about our plastic building down there, we don't use it anymore. In fact, it's going to be demolished any day now.'" General laughter. As we all know, it's 2020 and the damned thing is still there. Some students hate it because they're not allowed to play ball because too many hard kicks have damaged parts of the already damaged building (not all of it is plastic). Other students like it because they hide behind it for their illegal smoke. The teachers all hate it because we occasionally have to round up the secret smokers behind the building, which means climbing through a sizeable bramble and stinging nettle thicket first. Also, it's taking up a lot of space on what could otherwise be another nice part of the schoolyard. It's ugly and broken and sits in the way and is vandalised regularly, which is still technically a crime even though in this case, the building really is asking for it. But of course, it's not up to the school to decide to get it demolished; this has to be decided by the district council, and the district council always put it off. But now the state has announced that it won't be paying for the sins of the 70s after this decade is over, so the district council has finally signed the permit. The construction (or, in this case, destruction) company rolled in last Monday, started and will (hopefully) manage to get all the dangerous bits dismantled during the holidays and the whole thing gone by the new year. Oremus. After that, maybe we'll actually get an outdoor seating area? The kids aren't currently allowed to sit and eat in the cafeteria because it's too small for safe distancing, so they have to pick up their lunch (in plastic bowls or paper bags) and eat outside. The last two weeks were rainy and cold, and it's not like that's likely to get better in November. I hope our principal will finally allow the kids to go back into their classrooms, for lunch at least if not for all of lunch break. As usual, a few kids who couldn't behave have so far ruined this option for everybody. But we will see. After all, winter is - I may have mentioned this before - coming.
But first, I have two weeks of (theoretically) no school work, which (practically) will be used trying to tidy up and preparing for after the holidays. No rest for the teachers. And maybe I'll be able to look after the garden, which I've been forced to neglect since August? Jörg really wanted to go on another vacation AND start some major renovations (the fact that we now have two incomes is going to his head) but he ended up not booking as one option after the next turned into a high-risk zone. I'm a bit wistful - this time last year, we took the kids to London and Bristol during the fall holidays and it was fantastic - but also grateful, TBH. I just... don't want to have to go anywhere for a couple of days. Is that selfish? Maybe it is. But there's just so much to clean away and catch up with and prepare. The mere thought of going on a trip and leaving all that stuff for (yet) later is making me want to curl up and cry and threatening to start the self-loathing spiral (Why didn't I deal with this paperwork months ago? Why can't I stay on top of things for once?!?). And the long, dark tea-time of the soul hasn't even started yet.
Winter is coming. Already, our lessons start in the dark; and when the holidays are over, even the return to regular MET won't help the fact that the sun just doesn't rise before 8:30 in our latitudes, and soon it won't rise before the first recess. (For some reason, I have a really striking memory from back in grade 8, when we had an east-facing classroom and sat translating Caesar under a spectacular sunrise. The things our brain chooses to keep!) Moreover, the end of the decade is coming, so there are even more road constructions than usual. The Powers That Be have decided that, when there are major roadworks on one of the two connecting roads between the two towns I have to pass through on my way to work, it makes total sense to block the second road for construction, too. Then one week later, another road I need to take was blocked as well. It's hard not to feel targeted personally. I can now either take one of the official detours, which of course all the trucks are taking, or I can take three little detours of my own which, in spite of being longer, still get me there faster than the truck-infested official way. (Yes, yes, I know, until they can send goods via e-mail, I shall have to share the road with trucks.)
Winter is coming. One of the cornerstones of our COVID protection concept is that the windows are open as much as possible, ideally at all times. For a variety of reasons, it isn't possible even now - my classroom faces out to the school bus stop, so by 12, when the elementary school kids start gathering there, no lessons are possible when the windows are open. It's not even that they're playing and talking - which would be distracting enough - but that they keep rubbing their noses on our classroom window, waving, talking and even throwing things inside.I, the teacher, should be able to stop this with a few stern words. I am not. They don't care. All we can do is shut the window. We don't even have curtains that we can draw shut against the distraction. We don't even have those sticky foils that you can put on the windows to darken them. Talked to the janitor and he said "Well I'll have to ask the architect about that." Yeah, putting some darkening foil on the windows definitely sounds like something that's got to be cleared with the architect. Apparently, we aren't even allowed to stick window clings or other cafts stuff to the windows, let alone foil! (The frames, on the other hand, are made of metal, so I've been considering buying a set of neodymium magnets and hanging posters from the window frames. Daylight? What daylight? Winter is coming, anyway! Or maybe I'll use fabric?)
One positive effect of the open windows and the incoming cold season is that I'm no longer getting into trouble with colleagues for not telling my students to hang up their jackets in the corridor. "No jackets in the classroom" is one of those unwritten etiquette rules that I don't get, don't remember, and certainly don't care to enforce. I don't see the problem. That is, I don't understand why it's supposed to be a problem, and I also genuinely don't perceive the jackets unless I specifically pay attention to them, which I usually don't, because I don't remember the rule. I have jacket blindness. There can be a full classroom of 25-29 kids, all of them huddled in their jackets or using them to cushion their chairs, and my eyes will glide right over them. When other colleagues are in the classroom with me they'll immediately spot the students in the fourth row wearing their jackets and snap at them to take them outside. Then ten minutes later one of those students will notice another student having stealthily hung their jacket over the back of their chair and rat on them, so there's another student you have to send outside to hang up their jacket. And of course, a lot of students will argue for why they want to keep their jacket or why they shouldn't have to take it outside now. It's a self-made disruption and I don't see the point in the first place. I don't feel disrespected by students in jackets. IMO, it's a completely arbitrary rule. Besides, all the jackets right next to each other on the coatrack in the corridor seems like a surefire way of spreading lice or scabies, should someone have them! Not Worth It. But most of my colleagues are adamant about the "no jackets" rule - or were. Now that we have to keep the windows open most of the time, and many students forget to bring warm pullovers (or maybe they don't have one), we have been told to permit the wearing of jackets. That's a small blessing for the students and also for the jacket-blind, like me.
Another blessing! I've only been teaching there for two and a half years, so I've only heard it twice, but the "plastic building" is finally going to be demolished! The plastic building is one of those fugly 1970s modular container buildings that were used in schools all over the country for a couple of years until the cheap materials and the asbestos in the insulation made them unuseable. Our vice principal announced it during the last conference, starting with a little story. "When I started working here in 1984, the principal said, 'Oh, and don't worry about our plastic building down there, we don't use it anymore. In fact, it's going to be demolished any day now.'" General laughter. As we all know, it's 2020 and the damned thing is still there. Some students hate it because they're not allowed to play ball because too many hard kicks have damaged parts of the already damaged building (not all of it is plastic). Other students like it because they hide behind it for their illegal smoke. The teachers all hate it because we occasionally have to round up the secret smokers behind the building, which means climbing through a sizeable bramble and stinging nettle thicket first. Also, it's taking up a lot of space on what could otherwise be another nice part of the schoolyard. It's ugly and broken and sits in the way and is vandalised regularly, which is still technically a crime even though in this case, the building really is asking for it. But of course, it's not up to the school to decide to get it demolished; this has to be decided by the district council, and the district council always put it off. But now the state has announced that it won't be paying for the sins of the 70s after this decade is over, so the district council has finally signed the permit. The construction (or, in this case, destruction) company rolled in last Monday, started and will (hopefully) manage to get all the dangerous bits dismantled during the holidays and the whole thing gone by the new year. Oremus. After that, maybe we'll actually get an outdoor seating area? The kids aren't currently allowed to sit and eat in the cafeteria because it's too small for safe distancing, so they have to pick up their lunch (in plastic bowls or paper bags) and eat outside. The last two weeks were rainy and cold, and it's not like that's likely to get better in November. I hope our principal will finally allow the kids to go back into their classrooms, for lunch at least if not for all of lunch break. As usual, a few kids who couldn't behave have so far ruined this option for everybody. But we will see. After all, winter is - I may have mentioned this before - coming.
But first, I have two weeks of (theoretically) no school work, which (practically) will be used trying to tidy up and preparing for after the holidays. No rest for the teachers. And maybe I'll be able to look after the garden, which I've been forced to neglect since August? Jörg really wanted to go on another vacation AND start some major renovations (the fact that we now have two incomes is going to his head) but he ended up not booking as one option after the next turned into a high-risk zone. I'm a bit wistful - this time last year, we took the kids to London and Bristol during the fall holidays and it was fantastic - but also grateful, TBH. I just... don't want to have to go anywhere for a couple of days. Is that selfish? Maybe it is. But there's just so much to clean away and catch up with and prepare. The mere thought of going on a trip and leaving all that stuff for (yet) later is making me want to curl up and cry and threatening to start the self-loathing spiral (Why didn't I deal with this paperwork months ago? Why can't I stay on top of things for once?!?). And the long, dark tea-time of the soul hasn't even started yet.
