Teaching Kindergarten

and sometimes they teach me

Summer in a Year-Round School……..

I have always taught at the same OLD (over 40 years, and for here, that’s old) school.  I was there for 18 years and during that time the school facility went through two major rehabs.  Power outages, and heating and air-conditioning problems  just seemed part of being at an OLD school.  My new school is less than 6 years old.  What could go wrong?

Dumb question.  Apparently anything that can go wrong at an OLD school can happen at a newer one.  Yesterday, early afternoon, the power went out and was out intermittently for the rest of the day.  It turns out that one of the two compressors for the air-conditioning system for the building died.  Nobody chose to tell the parents, or the staff that.  So today we had “half” air.  The district doesn’t have the part.  No word to us on when they will get the part.  It was 99 degrees F. today.  It wasn’t too bad in my room, because yesterday I happened to overhear the Principal telling another teacher (apparently someone she cared about) that she “might” want to bring a fan for her room today………

I brought a fan, and an ice chest and Koolaid for the kids.  It went real well.  Except for the the one boy who drank too much Koolaid and apparently has a thing about using (or should I say NOT using) the toilets at school.  I now have a nice PEE circle on my carpet.  I say MY carpet because it IS my carpet, the one I bought for circle time, because the district provided one was lame.

June 25, 2009 - Posted by teach5 | Teaching | | 7 Comments

7 Comments »

  1. Ok, you’re reinforcing my fears about going year-round!! We go back Aug. 5, which is smack in the heart of Chicago Summer Hell!!! The past two days, we’ve had heat index numbers in the triple digits. Today the actual temp hit 97! (Amazing, since just two weeks ago, it was in the 50s!) It’s just going to get worse from here, so by Aug. it should be good and steamy! And we have NO air conditioning (I’m quite jealous of your half air!!) Oh good God, what have I gotten myself into?!?!

    Comment by ChiTown Girl | June 25, 2009 | Reply

  2. Okay, hands down, you’ve got me beat with the humidity in Chicago. But even though my school is not year round, the air conditioner has been broken for THREE years. Even though they officially declared it DEAD this year, and I’ve been told there’s one with my name on it at the district, is has yet to be installed. It makes me DREAD September.

    I have a friend who teachers Kinder and we like to joke that we’re going to take some Luminol into her room to check for body fluids. I bet it would look like Las Vegas!

    Comment by alwaysjan | June 25, 2009 | Reply

  3. We use hand sanitizer, and Chlorox wipes ALL the time, and it’s still just gross to think about. 5-6 year olds are just gross.

    Comment by teach5 | June 25, 2009 | Reply

  4. I can totally relate to this post! You are so lucky you had a heads up and came prepared. We had a power outage at my school last year- you can read all about it here: http://blogs.preknow.org/insideprek/2008/04/pioneer-day.html It routinely hits 100 degrees here in TX during the school year, pretty much every day from mid-June until late September until it cools down into the 90’s for the remainder of the year :)
    My cousins live in England and their school year goes until mid-July. A few years ago they canceled school for a week because of “extreme temperatures” during a heat wave. I asked them what the temperatures were and they told me “75 degrees!”- LOL!

    Comment by vanna/tx | June 26, 2009 | Reply

  5. Yep, my oldest son used to live in Dallas/Ft Worth area, he got caught out in a hailstorm that basically ruined his car a few years ago. Golf ball size hail. They live in the Austin area now.

    During the power outages on this one, we had bathroom issues. The ones in my room didn’t have emergency lights in them, one of my girls got really scared in there. I did have a flashlight and let her use it. The main bathrooms had emergency lights. They were darker than normal, but you could see.

    Comment by teach5 | June 26, 2009 | Reply

  6. Hate those pee circles!

    I bought an interlocking foam floor mat for the “rug area” in my room. Each piece is 2 X 2 made of 1/2 thick foam. The foam is closed cell so it doesn’t absorb bodily fluids. You can remove the soiled piece for washing and cleaning. I’ve been very happy with its practicality. Each kid has his or her own square to sit on, too.

    Here’s a link to one of many suppliers:

    http://www.ezfloormat.com/servlet/StoreFront

    Comment by Dan Gurney | June 29, 2009 | Reply

    • Hey Dan! That’s a great idea! I think I’m going to get some.

      Comment by teach5 | June 29, 2009 | Reply


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