Thanksgiving weekend means several things to many people. It means a time for less than adequate cooks like myself to panic over cooking chores. It means a time for families to get together, sometimes awkwardly and uncomfortably, sometimes to argue, and sometimes to celebrate – it depends up on the family and the day. To some it means the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, including the early hours of Black Friday and continuing (after a nap) with trips to the mega malls, the discount stores, the mom and pop shops, and the bargain basement venues. To many English teachers, including myself, it means that research papers are due. It means a long weekend of reading, editing, giving revision advice, and generally massacring the weeks of hard work and effort by every senior in my English 12 class. (The kids loving call this process “hacking,” and some of them even ask me to hack their scholarships and other written assignments because they know I will give lots of feedback on the paper to improve before they turn in a final draft.)
The students understand the importance and weight that the research paper has on their quarter grade. We have devoted most of the second quarter to the research process, the writing process, MLA form, and to vocabulary and grammar related to these 7-10 page papers. They have been really busy. They have not had time for much else and they know their grade will reflect that effort. The last day before Thanksgiving break, for the students, is a day of relief and a time to forget about their papers, the topic sentences, the thesis statements, the work cited pages, and the statistics. They can relax – but I can’t. So you are probably wondering why I have time to write a blog on the Sunday afternoon of Thanksgiving break. You might be thinking that I have them all done, and that might have been a good guess if we hadn’t had a major tragedy just few short minutes ago…
My children and I traveled 6 hours away to visit my grandmother in the care home in Wichita, Kansas. My wonderful son drove all the way from home to Wichita with no complaints, so I got about ½ of the research papers read, edited and “hacked.” I laid the papers aside, put them away in my school bag while with the family, and enjoyed the rest of the weekend. Today, as we were leaving, and my son again took over the driving, I pulled out the remainder of the papers with hopes that I could get them all done before we pulled into our own driveway… and I got a lot done.
We pulled over several times for quick breaks, snacks, rest area visits, and the like, but eventually the late nights of hanging out with rarely-seen cousins caught up with my teenage chauffer and he wanted a break from driving to take a quick nap – so we switched drivers. I laid my folder of hacked research papers on the dash and jumped out. Since it is really cold and windy, we changed seats quickly and started moving again. As we pulled out, I asked my son to put the folder in my bag because he was beginning to read through the newspaper and look at the ads in an effort to finish his Christmas list, which he was to email to Grandma as soon as we got home. “No problem, Mom,” he said. I figured the folder was safely tucked away in its regular bed, also known as my computer bag.
He read the newspaper, made his list, took a nap, listened to some music, watched part of Disney DVD with his sisters, and then requested food. As we jumped out of the car to get food, all three kids did what every good child should do, they made their mother proud and grabbed all of the trash, cups, wrappers, and other debris from around the seats, in the door pockets, and on the dash. After I finished my lunch, and we switched drivers again 200 miles down the road, I realized that Carson had thrown the newspapers away. I looked in my bag, in the back window, on the floor of the car, between the seats, and everywhere else I could look. I also began to panic. We pulled over, on the highway, not in a nice parking lot, rest area or even a convenient driveway along the highway… right on the shoulder, in the bitter cold wind. They were gone!
How do I go back to school tomorrow and tell my students what happened? This is like the worst example of “my dog at my homework” that I have heard of in a long time. I am going to have to admit that I was careless, and that I didn’t get MY homework done on time, even though they had to meet all of the deadlines with no excuses. Believe me, I have thought several times that I COULD lie. I could tell them that I had them 80% done when they landed in the trash, but they wouldn’t have to believe me because I can’t PROVE a thing! I could also BLAME the entire thing on my kids, which I kind of have done in the blog post, but I should really admit that it was my fault. I SHOULD have taken the time to put the folder away myself before changing seats. I could simply tell them, “I am the teacher and I don’t have to do homework, so you will just have to live with my timeline,” but that is not my style. They know me better than that, and they will remind me of my PROMISE to have them done. (Note to self: Don’t tell the students they are “homework free” for the holidays, but that I will have tons of homework and they can “relish the fact” that the teacher will only enjoy turkey dinner with all the research papers and a red pen next to the plate.)
But here comes the tragedy part, and the epic proportions part: I realized that all the research papers went into the trash along with the newspapers, along with hours of hard work on my part and a complete annihilation of my carefully written lesson plans for the rest of the week. Those of you who are teachers realize that there is no way to get another copy of those papers in time to teach class tomorrow morning. I will have to wait for the kids to come to class, get them to print another copy. I will get to spend a couple more days reading and editing them again, and then give them back. That means I need to find another lesson/unit to teach this week while the students are waiting to get their research papers back. Which means all of the hours of lesson planning I did last week, before I left school for the holiday, have also gone down the toilet. Lucky me, a late night when I get home! (By the way, I wrote this in the car, on my laptop, and I posted this to my blog when I got home. I really hate to ride in the car, it is such a waste of time. Ask my husband and the kids, I always grade papers or work on something in the car and “use my time wisely.”)
9 hours ago


