Unexpected Gift!

There's nothing like an unexpected gift.  No, I didn't win the lottery, but I imagine the feeling is similar.  I was so stunned I didn't quite know how to react.  I didn't even know where to go or what to take with me.  No, I didn't win a vacation.  Not quite.  So there I am in my classroom on a Tuesday afternoon after testing.  We're watching a movie, Akeelah and the Bee, to be precise.  I'm busying myself writing next week lesson plans and supervising the kids who need supervising.  I haven't had to harp too badly yet.  I have an hour to go.  The door opens and another teacher walks in.  He tells me I'm free to go.

At first I am confused.  There was a class coverage list but I wasn't on it.  According to the list, I get one prep break all week, half of 45 minutes split with someone else, and this takes place tomorrow.  I am not overly pleased by the arrangement, but neither am I distraught.  In teaching, the schedule changes from year to year.  Some years we like our schedules; other years they stink.  I've had years when my testing or half-day schedule had me working non-stop, and other times I've made out like a bandit.  You take the good, you take the bad.  So anyway, there I was being told I could just leave for 45 minutes.  Forty-five free minutes with no papers to grade, no parents to meet with, and no children to tend to!

So here I am hiding in the back of the school library, typing away my amazement.  I'm not really hiding, but...well, you never know.  I'm enjoying this out of all proportion.  It's not like I don't have a prep every day.  But every day there's something to get done.  This free time is, well, free.  It's unscripted and great.  And what does all this excitement about forty-five minutes say about my standards of happiness?  The answer to that question is scary.