Roll of Darkness, Hear My Cry

Imagine washing your hands in the bathroom, the lights go out, there are no emergency lights anywhere,no lights period, and you can't see where the lock is on the door to get yourself out of the bathroom. Well that is what happened to me on Wednesday(2/2) as I was getting ready for the day. What a great way to start the day locked in a dark bathroom. I can laugh about it now, but at the time I panicked, for a second as I stumbled to the door searching for the handle and lock. Well I made it out of the bathroom and walked into the main office part where my favorite registrar and secretary were trying to contact the principal using their cell phones. I stuck around in the office instead of going back to my dark classroom to read like I do every morning. Rumors that came into the office said that the power companies were doing rolling blackouts all day because of the storm system that was going through. This didn't make sense to me because Texans were dealing with the coldest temperatures they've had in a long time. I had my phone at that point and my Mom confirmed the rolling blackouts as she was snowed in at home in Iowa City.

The tree right outside our living room window.(Iowa City) 

Standing on our screened porch looking to the backyard.(Iowa City) 

She had been sending me pictures because I was feeling left out on all the excitement of the massive snow that hit Iowa. I made myself useful because I was antsy just standing around in the dark doing nothing so I helped the secretary get out camping lanterns and walked them across the courtyard to the library where the kinder and pre-k classes are held before the day starts. After about 15 minutes of darkness the call was made to bring the children to their classrooms and start on with the day. Not the idea I had in my mind, but I made it work.
Thankfully the teacher next door was on duty so I just picked up her kids and they split from my kids when she meet us in the hall. This meant that I didn't have the normal mess of kids on my carpet for the first few minutes of class. Instead of having the kids work on their Reading Mastery books like they were supposed to I entertained them for a few minutes showing them the pictures of the snow. They were beyond excited because the weather man had been talking about the chance of snow for Friday and they thought that the pictures I showed were the kind of snow we would get. I let them revel in the uniqueness of being at school with no lights.
While we waited for our teacher, who was stuck in bad morning traffic with every stoplight out, I checked their homework and they worked as best as they could on their RM books. It was a very unique morning to say the least. The lights went on and off several times during the day, usually at the most inopportune moments. It was out while both my teacher and I were being observed. My teacher was observed, by the vice principal, doing math centers while the lights were out for at least 30 minutes. I was observed doing letter of the week activities with the lights out in the beginning and halfway through they came on causing a bit of an uproar about the lights flashing back.
While I should have asked for him to come back another day to observe me I thought it might be beneficial having him observe me in a setting that caused disrupt all day and the way I approached the situation and the students. His critiques of my lesson were of the parts that are routine to the students and all the things that my teacher did that I chose not to change because I liked the structure of the lesson. I also felt that it gave the students time to adjust to me teaching without having to adjust to a completely new style of teaching. (This could be a post on its own, but I'm not going to go any further.)
I did and still do wonder how they cooked all the hot food and kept it hot while the power kept going in and out. I will never know, but I was really glad I hadn't decided to eat with my kids because I did not trust the cafeteria that day.
The whole day was a little crazy because of the power going in and out, but it was a big lesson in just adapting  what you have planned to fit the things that are happening around you. I can definitely say after the day was over I never want to be in school in record low temps (for Houston) and have the power go in and out. I kept praying that they would call school early, but it never happened. I did however get my prayer for a shorter week answered when we got a "snow day" Friday(2/4). It was wonderful and much needed because I was starting to feel very sick and I needed the extra rest to ensure I stayed healthy.