Guest Bloggers

SoD Cross Post: Perspective

The following was originally posted by Jennifer at School of Doubt. Read it there or catch the beginning below.

Teaching is all about perspective. January 23rd, 2014 changed mine.

Thursday January 23rd was truly a perfect storm day for me. It started when I arrived at school and I realized that, as I was about to get out of my car, the thing that I needed to bring for my 4th period class was sitting on my dining room table. It was legal sized paper. There is a particular lab report format called the vee map that works perfect on legal size paper, but that sucks donkey ass on regular paper. Really I mean it. It is nigh impossible to use on regular paper, but that extra little bit of space makes it perfect. So as I sit in my car I look at the clock – 7:25 – the first bell is at 7:55 and this is not enough time to run home and back. Balls, balls, balls, balls, balls – I heard somewhere that cursing relieves stress and I am sticking to it.

As I walk to my classroom I run through the possibilities. I already hit up the office secretaries, the real people who make the school run smoothly, and I know they don’t have any, but maybe someone else has some hidden in a closet. I only need 25 sheets. I send the desperate email to the whole school in a vain attempt to get this paper – a hope against hope. I text my husband, then I call him knowing full well that he must be out walking our 2 dogs, voicemail.

To pass the time I set up a lab for my other 4 classes. I had previously put together the equipment, but on Tuesday, you may have noticed that a massive snow storm hit the east coast of the U.S. So I didn’t finish. I didn’t get to put the chemicals together. I knew it was a risk to leave without the lab 100% together, but it was snowing like Khione was pissed off at Poseidon, and really I only had to put together 27 beakers with labels and the materials to go in them. That is 10-15 minutes worth of work tops. So I risked it.

Continue on to School of Doubt for the rest of this harrowing tale of fire, theft, heroism, and the legendary quest for legal-sized paper.

Dan

Dan holds a PhD in Music History from a major Canadian university and is now pursuing a M.Ed in Higher Education at another one, because he likes to collect very expensive paper. He performs stand-up comedy at venues all over Toronto when he's not busy playing JRPGs with his cat, Roy. You can follow him at @incontrariomotu, but he isn't going anywhere. You can also send him a tip on PayPal (paypal.me/dandonnelly) if you like his work!

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