Santa So Far

I received two more blocks from my bee-mates today, and it was a good conclusion to a Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day in class.

One boy cried, but not because of anything I said or did (horrors! how could he let English interfere with what he was thinking about as he sat in my classroom?)  Thirteen of the seventeen students that managed to come to class were unprepared, madly trying to finish up their assignment as they smiled and looked at me.  Four students were perfect.  I love them.  Three had emailed me that they couldn’t come to class with the following reasons: “I have a migraine and don’t feel so well,” “My mom’s stew didn’t sit so well and I don’t want to be running out of class all the time,” and “I have to be somewhere at 3.” (Our class begins at 3:00.)

After trying for nearly an hour to get the class off the ground, I made everyone sit down from where they were crowding around my desk, seeking help, and said, “You aren’t prepared.  Is it my fault?  Shall we postpone the next essay?”  And then I had what one of our teachers calls a “Come to Jesus” moment, when we re-acquaint them with the Truth, which is that not only does the teacher need to be prepared for class, but the students do too.  “And today, you are not prepared,” I said, calling for a break to clear the air, dismiss  the crying young man (family problems), and figure out where to go next.

So it was lovely to to come home to the two newest blocks, and I arranged them up on the wall, along with the one I’d made to replace Linda’s.  She gets a Full Pass on making quilt blocks because three weeks ago her home burned to the ground.  They escaped with their cat and their hard drive and not much else.  I’ll think of her every time I look at 54-40, or Fight.  Makes a bad day at class look pretty trivial, doesn’t it?

Maybe my bad day really began last night as I worked on the block?  Don’t worry.  I “un-stitched” it, flipped around the row, and put it back together properly.

I can only write about this now because a good colleague interrupted her grading to listen to me whine all the way home.

Of course, she took my side.  (Thanks, Judy.)  And doesn’t Santa look great, surrounded by lovely quilt blocks made by lovely friends?

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Four more days until we reveal our Four-in-Art Quilts.  Come back and see the art on November 1st.