The Sound of Silence

As you may recall from this post, I have a tendency to lose my voice.

Anytime I get introduced to any sort of virus, it immediately takes up residence in my throat, causing my voice to disappear for weeks at a time.

It has been the same, very quiet story for the past seven years: winter shows arrives, my voice departs. Last year, my voice departed for six long, tearful weeks. SIX WEEKS!

You'd think that, after a traumatic incident like that, I would have learned the importance of avoiding viruses. Unfortunately, I have not yet "become one" with the hand sanitizer despite the wealth of warnings posted around my school

And because I didn't pay enough attention to these signs...

...I had to spend the day teaching with these signs.

When my voice gave out after 2nd hour's play rehearsals, I knew I had better get my cute but silent backside into the doctor's office. Once there, I used what was left of my voice to beg for some sort of miracle cure. What I got instead was a prescription for some very nice steroid pills and the advice to take the rest of the week off from school and remain silent for as long as possible.

I took the prescription, but not the advice. I mean, I couldn't miss today. Today was the state writing test that I have been prepping the kids on for months. And missing tomorrow isn't an option because it is my last chance to rehearse my communications kids in the three plays that they will be performing for assorted peers and parents on Friday. Those com kidlets have been memorizing lines for a month. Calling in sick is NOT an option.

So after picking up my little pack of pills, I picked up a not-so-little, yet still portable white-board and spent the day teaching via low-tech-twitter in short status updates.

I used it to communicate as I helped to proctor the state direct writing assessment...

...and then to lead a class discussion about the test. Granted, it wasn't a discussion that featured a lot higher-order questions, or any higher-order questions, but I think it was still productive.

Later, I used the white board to answer questions as the kids filled out their study guides for the big, hairy, slobbery, fanged semester final that they will be taking week after next.

I even used it to check for understanding while the kids listened to a CD read them the next chapter of our novel.

Having to resort to brief written responses for an entire day really made me realize how many of the same questions I end up answering over and over, class after class, day after day.
But there were also a few new questions too.

By lunch, I was very tired (and quite possibly a little high from dry erase marker fumes) and started to feel a little frustrated. But my mood brightened considerably when I returned from my lunch-time bathroom break and discovered that one of the kidlets had used the white board to write a note for me.

And you know what? I did feel better. Briana's sweet show of concern gave me just the boost I needed to pick up that white board and get back to work...right after I edited Briana's sweet show of concern for capitalization mistakes and spelling errors, that is.

My voice may be gone, but I'm still an English teacher... until 2nd hour. Then I'm the director in charge of 30 7th and 8th graders in three plays.

Maybe I'll take those sick days after all.