A Blessing in Disguise

At the end of our teachers meeting this morning, the coaches announced that District Tournaments start on Thursday, softball and baseball in different towns. I added to that, "And we're going to the zoo."

"Who's going to the zoo?"

"My preteaching class, Kindergarten and 1st Grade."

"How are you getting there?"

"Matt is driving the bus."

"There isn't a bus available."

And this is when our zoo trip fell apart. We'd been planning it for months. We put it on the school calendar 3 weeks ago. There was no mention of softball or baseball on that day. I reserved our tickets, the cafeteria was ready to make our sack lunches, I had a sub coming, high school students got the day off from their jobs, name tags were made... And now we've got to start over? That's the way it goes when sports is at the top of the pecking order.

I realize that they can't rearrange their district tournament and we can rearrange the zoo trip. We just need better communication.

I called the zoo to reschedule our trip and the man on the phone told me that we'd probably have a better time on a different day anyway. Our scheduled day was April 22, Earth Day and the zoo was planning a science extravaganza. They have 15,000 people registered for the Earth Day celebration. Long lines, crowds and no buses unloading at the gate. Not good for the young children. Not good for me. After I got off the phone, I wanted to thank the coaches for saving us from the zoo on Earth Day.

A student told me that today is the celebration of marijuana. When I said, "What?" he went on to explain, "Yeah, you know 4-20." I was like a broken record, "What?" "He cleared the whole thing up by saying, "You know, April 20, 4-20." I did remember that 4-20 has something to do with marijuana so we turned it into a mini research project. If the Internet can be believed, 4-20 is the police code for marijuana. "I need back up, we've got a 4-20 in progress." I do so enjoy my students.