inservice~NOT!

Today I honestly believed was an inservice day. Thank goodness I didn't wear jeans to work. I came with no plan and no temperment to deal with pubervescent 5th graders. Little did I know, as I drove up to the school, dark skies, cold wind...even as I walked inside the building head shielded from the brisk morning air, that a swarm of kids would be standing by the entrance next to the water fountain!! WHAT?!! Are you kidding me!??!! NO!!!
I scrambled to get a shred of energy and make use of the day. It won't be so bad, I told myself, as I mustered Good morning, to all the students waving, nodding and smiling at me as I quickly moved to get to the opposite side of the building into the comfort of my classroom.
Good thing I had throughly cleaned and organized before the Christmas break. But I had no lesson plan, not even a hint of where we left off, I usually like to reorganize the desks before the kids return for a fresh start and that wasn't going to happen. I hadn't even had my morning cup of joe, or breakfast; nor did I pack a lunch, because I just knew the day was a teacher day of scantily preparing for the upcoming week. Full of lesson planning, meetings, staff development, sitting through slide-shows, and impromptu mottos and speeches of how great the remainder of the year will be and how exemplary the TAKS scores will be. Complete with laid out continental-style breakfast, hot coffee brewd and ready to drink, and an hour and a half (if we're lucky) lunch.
NOT!!!
I wondered why my colleage had called me the night before ( I curse anyone who contacts me outside school hours to discuss school) Seriously...don't do that!! LOL! However, in the back of my mind, I wished I would have taken the call. Then, and only then, would I not be so baffled as to what I would have on the objective for the day.
Others in the department came to me asking what I had on my plate for the day. I had no time to discuss. I raced like a mule horse to the teacher study to get a coke and hopefully a smile. I wasn't exhausted, but heavy eyes were sure to adorn my face within the hour. It was inevitable!
After I got myself together, drank half the bottle of coke, I sat at my desk, turned on the computer and began to sift through the dozens of emails I had recieved in the course of the morning. Are you kidding me?!!?? I ask again. I collectively looked for any indication of what I could do for the classes. Then it doned on me. I was in this alone.
First class. "Good morning! Happy New Year! Today you will create a review poster. You will work in groups and to complete this assignment. Your job is to visually teach others about your assigned topic!" Perfect I thought. Group activity. Thinking. Collaborating. Heck, but not every class can do this. Keeping it real, not all classes are on the same level to produce the same results. I have to come up with a back up lesson. Mission accomplished. By the end of the first class I was ready to conqueror those little 5th graders. I had energy and a PLAN!!