Time – Weekly Photo Challenge

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day, cold, but it is February, after all. This morning was gray and cloudy and for February, relatively warm – 37 degrees F or 3 degrees C. Warm for February. But, it’s all relative. I didn’t get to spend much time outside yesterday. I spent the day catching up on grading – grading Civil War tests – timelines and essays. And it’s not likely I’ll get much time today, either.

essays - what is central idea of the Gettysburg Address - they don't grade themselves
essays – what is central idea of the Gettysburg Address – they don’t grade themselves

I had promised time to B, my wife, but grading the tests took longer than I expected. I went to school to grade – the tests needed to be scanned and the only scanner I can use is at school. I was sort of married to school. The school was open Saturday, the local youth athletic league had rented the gym for the basketball season and yesterday was picture day.

I donned my lanyard with my school ID and keys and ambled in. I found the library open – a bonus of sorts. The library is being transformed to a modern library use – space to sit and read, use laptops, and other devices and maintenance workers were in on the weekend finishing work on a charging station and a printing station they had started the day before. The library still has books, but times are changing and our school will be issuing all students a Google Chrome laptop for use next fall and the librarian is trying to get ahead of the curve. We, meaning teachers, are, too.

I graded one class set and then scanned the sheets. Their grades were good, better than the kids thought they did. My tests are challenging because they need to be; the kids think they’re hard, but, they’ll thank me in a couple of years. This is my first ‘real’ year with the history curriculum. Even though I taught history last year, I spent more time with science and those two preps than I did on my history class. This year, all of what I am doing is new and being created as I plan, teach, and assess what my students are learning. It’s been a good year. But, it takes time.

Before long, I had finished all four classes, scanned the answer sheets, and marked the tests with their grades. I was done with the tests, but there was more to do. There always is, it’s time.

I had promised time to B, my wife, but grading the tests took longer than I planned. I’ll make time for those chores today.

On the way home, I stopped to get fixins’ for dinner – burgers – and food for Super Bowl Sunday. It’s today. I went back in time and looked at the blog from last year and discovered I had spent time last year grading at school. Irony.

Last year, we had a snowstorm on Super Bowl Sunday and no school on Monday. I remember the call in the middle of the third or fourth quarter. I also remember the relief I felt knowing I could go to bed, sleep in, and deal with the snow on my time. Here is last year’s post – Not my problem.

There is snow in the forecast this evening, but not a storm, more of a dusting. It’s been a light winter thus far and other than the cold snap three weeks ago it’s been relatively mild. i know winter does last until late March and I’ve even seen a snowstorm in early April, I am hoping I don’t have to wield my snow shovel again this season.

And despite the time I spent at school yesterday, I still have grading to do, updating the gradebook, and some planning for the week ahead. Time.

Time will stop about four o’clock this afternoon so we can be ready to watch the Super Bowl as a family. We’ll make the food and sit down to watch what is left of the pre-game and then, the game and the commercials. It’s gonna be a good day, but I had better get on it. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, using all of the time I have.

How’s your time today?

Valentine’s Day is next week, but I got flowers yesterday – they’ll be here all week long.

This post is in response to the Weekly Photo Challenge: Time. This week, think about time and portray it photographically. Maybe you have a photo about one of the activities in the extract from Haig’s book above. Perhaps you have a fascination with clocks. Or maybe contemplating time takes you somewhere else completely. I hope you enjoy this week’s challenge.

7 thoughts on “Time – Weekly Photo Challenge

  1. “Spending our time so it counts”. I like your take on the challenge. I hope you don’t have a snowstorm. It’s hard to imagine here in sunny Australia where I woke up to a minimum temperature of 24 degrees C today (8th Feb), bracing myself for a week of temperatures over 40 degrees C (104 F) in Perth. We will be sweltering! Best to make the most of early mornings and have some late evening swims.

    1. It summer there – winter is slowly coming to an end here. We had temps well below freezing the last few days and a dusting of snow Monday night into Tuesday. Enjoy the warm days and stay cool when it gets hot. My team won the game and I enjoyed watching it. Thanks for stopping by – have a wonderful week.

    1. My team won for the second year in a row. I enjoyed watching it, but mostly I enjoyed digging out from under my layers of papers. I got more this week and even more to do, but it’s all in a days work. Hope your week has gone well and you are booked for the long weekend. Have a great one.

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