No School. Again.

Its been over a week since I've set foot in my school. At first I was pleased by the free time, and even thought about taking a last minute trip to Turkey (that was shot down immediately by my three more realistic friends). However, now its just plain crazy! Between illness and the snow/rain that has been occurring lately, School 12 was forced to close (at least I thought).

Real Snow in Zestafoni (not like the snow/rain we get in Samtredia!)

All of February the Samtredia girls and I have been teaching to classrooms that have been more than half empty. There was one day I taught only three 5th formers and we just played hang man the whole time! Another time I taught five 3rd formers the 'Hokey Pokey' song as an unplanned activity and they LOVED it. Even though I was teaching much smaller classes I felt like the students that were coming were getting some well needed attention and review. Hey, learning 'left' and 'right' and 'shake it all about' are pretty important phrases to grasping the English language ;)


Then, last Wednesday, February 9th I walked into an empty 5th form classroom with just two backpacks and no children. I found out later the two children that actually came to school were put to work to collect wood for the teacher's lounge's fireplace (nope not kidding). I walked disgustedly into the teacher's lounge to just sit and wait two periods with nothing to do. Nana, finally came to school and told me that they were canceling school Thursday and Friday, and I could go home right then (11:30am). I said, " Well, I still have Vicka's 8th form class to teach today." And Vicka goes, "Oh don't come to my class. Only three 8th formers came and they are cleaning the windows."

Empty School 12

So after my lovely four-day weekend (see next blog), Monday I woke up and got ready for school. As I went into the kitchen to start making my coffee, Iraqli, stops me and says, "You have school? Look. Snow." (His English is getting so much better!). It was coming down pretty hard so I called Nana, and she said, "Don't come to school because no children will come." The same thing happened on Tuesday. 


On Wednesday, Nana told me to meet her at school at noon to catch up because she missed me (She's so cute!). Then like clock-work she called me around 11:15am and said I shouldn't come because its snowing again, and everyone is going home. This is the first time it occurred to me that we've probably been having school all along, and Nana just hasn't had me come in because no children have been coming. I definitely appreciate her reasoning, but I wouldn't of minded coming in at all. Even if it would of been just to teach one child! Granted, my school is a lot smaller than the other girls so my school probably took the biggest hit of low attendance. I just felt bad because all the other teachers have probably been going to school everyday, and I've been researching post-Georgia opportunities, and watching Mad Men. 

With all this time at home at least Bebs is letting me help her cook!

So after this realization you would think I would of definitely made an attempt to go to school Thursday and Friday despite Nana not wanting me to come. Well, my family finally got a doctor to come look at my foot on Wednesday, and he put me on bed rest for 4 days. Apparently, I tore a muscle in my foot 3 weeks ago, and then me walking on it didn't really help matters. So no school for me. This Monday I'm not letting ANYTHING, snow, rain, illness, or my stupid foot get in the way of my children. 'Tara Teacher' is coming and my kids better have been practicing their ABCs.