As I sit here looking out the window, I see the smattering of snow from yesterday’s brief weather event.  Snow on the rooftops and on the grass, patches of snow on the road where melting hasn’t occurred from the ice melting concoction that the city spreads.  Two inches or so isn’t enough to get all excited about, so only a few plows have been out with a little bit of snow like this.

However…tomorrow we have a winter storm warning with the possibility of 6-13 inches of snow.  Every child’s dream!  Even as teachers, we do things like shake the snow gourd or wear pajamas inside out, or put a spoon under your pillow (I heard it works ; ) because it’s going to be a Snow Day.  Now for me, since I’m no longer in the classroom, and Monday is not my usual day in the office,  I consider it a wasted snow day.  However, it depends on how MUCH snow we get on Monday because it could affect Tuesday and even Wednesday.  If we’re lucky.  So, after two decades of teaching in Nebraska, Lincoln in particular, here’s what I believe the possibilities of snow days are for this week:

Monday:  For sure no school.  The snow is scheduled to begin at midnight Monday morning, meaning it will have a full 5 hours before they have to make a decision and it’s supposed to snow into Tuesday.  With even just 6 inches, we’ll be off for the day. (Just 6 inches?  I’ve lived in Nebraska too long!)  It won’t affect me, so here’s where we have to look ahead.  Now we look to see when the snow is supposed to end.  

Tuesday:  We’re supposed to get snow and snow showers through @5 a.m. on Tuesday.  The way this city works is that they won’t begin to do much plowing until the majority of snow has finished, so I’m thinking the main roads overnight on Monday going into Tuesday.  If it’s only 6 inches, we still won’t have school because the main roads will be done, but not the neighborhoods. If it’s the 13 inches their projecting, it will take the day at least to get just the main arterials going.  So I say, no school for Tuesday.

Wednesday:  Here’s the tricky one.  I’m going to say, if the snow is on the low end, we’ll have school on Wednesday.  Even if they don’t get to all the neighborhood roads and people have driven on them until they’re a solid sheet of ice, we’ll suck it up and proceed to complain about it all day once we get to work.  But we’ll have made it, even if we slide a few times on the way.  Even if we have to get in “snow traffic mode” and give grace to those who have to continue through red lights because they can’t stop.  I hate those days and I have to drive a lot further this year.  So, here’s hoping we get the whole kit and kaboodle, the 12 or 13 inches which will take Wednesday out of the picture.  Working now at the district office, it would have to be that much to make it a district closure day.  I hope – I’m a newbie at this district gig. 

Thursday:  We’re back regardless. It’s Nebraska and somewhere, a man in shorts is feeling the need to mow his lawn under all that snow.  

Please don’t misunderstand. For me and for most classroom teachers I know, it’s not that we don’t love our kids or the teaching or in my case, loving the teachers.  Most teachers I know love what they do.  However, like anything stressful, whether we love it or not, time away once in a while is healthy.  That’s why some people take “mental health days”.  Not teachers of course, because we would have to make sub plans which is more work than if we just sucked it up and went in, but for some people in other professions, taking a mental health day from a stressful job is great and fills our bucket so we can go back refreshed and ready to tackle whatever comes at us.  But for teachers, not only is a snow day (or two) a mental health break, it means these are days where maybe we CAN’T do anything for work, so we can focus on other things.  Those chores or projects that we haven’t had time to get to because we’re grading papers or creating lesson plans and assessments.  Time with family playing games or doing puzzles.  Having meals together because we’re not rushing off to do some event or sport.  Maybe it’s just sleeping in and reading a good book or two. Or something as simple as having lunch when we get hungry and going to the bathroom when we need to. The lack of job responsibility and freedom of choice is the best type of mental health day we could have.  

For those of you who have no experience within the education profession who are thinking to yourselves, “but they get the whole summer off”, I would be more than glad to educate you on the subject.  About the salaried positions that pay for a 35 hour work week and not the 11 hours overtime per week that research shows, and that we don’t get paid for summer.  Our 9 month paychecks are spread over twelve so that we get a monthly paycheck all year.  

And you know how you might get stressed dealing with your own child or children in the mornings, evenings and weekends?  Imagine 20, 25 or 30 , you can’t leave them alone all day, and try to teach them something they need to remember for a lifetime.  And then return home to your own children for the evenings and weekends.  Shoot, teachers can be superheroes, but we’re not THAT good. Hence, the need for the occasional snow day.

In my case, I have no more children at home and I don’t have a classroom full of little darlings to teach, but there’s something magical, something that brings back my childhood when you get that phone call in the morning telling you it’s a snow day.  The kind of day where you high five your teacher spouse, snuggle back under the blankets and look forward to a day of rest.  So yes, I’m weighing the possibilities.  At my age, I could always use a break : )