Best Laid Plans

Teachers in our district return 2 weeks before the students. We have pre-service activities almost every day. We talk about planning and curriculum, campus-wide programs for behavior, things like IAT and RTI, we go over the school handbook, etc. I actually went back a week before we were required to this year to set up my classroom. I am in a new room at a new school and wanted to really take the time to go through my cabinets and see what I had before I determined what I needed to bring from my garage.

So we worked hard planning and decorating all in anticipation of the first day of school. Well, then Hurricane Harvey decided to come in and gum up the works! On Friday, our teacher prep day in our rooms, the district decided to dismiss us at 11:00. The rain began that evening and as of Sunday afternoon, is still going. Our city floods like crazy, but my area usually doesn't-I'm not near any of the bayous or water sources that tend to overflow. With this storm however, my street and front lawn were definitely flooded. I'm also worried about my car because the water came all the way up my driveway for a while. We need a break in the rain so everything can drain out.

This is the rainfall expected:

This is down the street from my house:

So we are going to start our school year a whole week late this year. That is a first for us. We missed over a week for Hurricane Ike, but that was toward the end of September. I think the good part about is I'm an adult and I'm already bored of having to be stuck in the house-imagine how excited the kids are going to be to get out of their homes and go to school the first day! Luckily, I brought a bunch of work home with me-like cutting out laminated workstations and curriculum to plan my lessons.

In teaching we have to always be flexible-that is definitely going to be the case here! :)