'Tis the season for mass cancellations!Ah, that time of year when local K-12 schools close and flakes suddenly become research experts on all things meteorological. (colleagues too)
Here at Comprehensive Regional Midwest U, the administration (wisely) decided to cancel classes yesterday, but managed to utterly mangle the message. We got an email that read "AM/PM classes cancelled, campus closed until noon, monitor local TV stations for more information and updates."
It appears that the intent was to hold evening classes - but no one really knows what constitutes an evening class.
Oh, and the TV stations didn't even try to figure it out. They all just said that classes were cancelled for the day.
The temperature is forecast to recover to the single digits today...below zero. Classes as scheduled!
Q: My question to you is - what would you do with a "day off"?
Me, I wrote an email to be sent to the whole campus about assessment and upcoming accreditation. Oh yeah!
Final note: in a long email chain complaining about the mangled communication, a proffie somehow managed to connect bad messaging to the holocaust.
Since my kids are home (school's closed when wind chills are below -30 sustained), I'd be watching Miyazaki films (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, The Secret World of Arietty) and baking. Probably some more writing. Definitely reading. Definitely a nap under my down comforter in there somewhere too.
ReplyDeleteHalf of the campuses on the Frozen Tundra are closed, but not mine (decision is up to each Dean). So instead of doing the fun stuff, I am fielding emails from students whose cars won't start and are panicked about being dropped (first day attendance is mandatory). Yay.
(I won't drop them. The noise my van made at 6:30 this morning sounded an awful lot like "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME WITH THIS?"
We cancelled ours....ironically we had almost no snow at all. So...the public gym was open so I worked out and did a 3 mile hike OUTSIDE. Yes, I live about a 5-6 minute walk to campus; there is never a day when I can't make it. :-)
ReplyDeleteThen I visited an old friend and read a math paper and blogged a bit.
In bed with coffee and a good book, or in my studio with coffee and stuff to make!
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ReplyDeleteRevise all the course calendars -- yet again -- to account for the lost day, and/or devise/implement online versions of the scheduled activities, so I don't have to revise the calendars. The online class, of course, simply continues (and it says so, in bold letters, at the top of said calendar, which is the landing page for the LMS site, but there will still be students who claim ignorance).
ReplyDeleteI still like snow, and snow days (very cold days without new snow, not so much, but, although we, too, are having record cold weather, I'm in no real position to complain, since "record cold" around here is still some degrees above 0 F.) But they aren't days off. I'd express some nostalgia for the old days in which teaching (and conferring with students) were entirely face to face activities, but honestly, I'd rather be working steadily in January than be entirely overwhelmed in April and May, when I'm itching to get outside (but am almost always at least a bit overwhelmed).
A day off? I would take my kid hiking just to avoid being near any wifi source or cell phone tower. If they can't find me, they can't make me work on my day off.
ReplyDeleteWe're off today. I slept in, made brunch, and dicked around on the internet. Later I'll be finishing up some problem solutions for the flakes, baking bread, and watching tv with my kids (who are also off school).
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