twenty-six.

Today it snowed. It was the first real snowfall of the season and I wondered if school might be closed. It wasn't.

When I got to school I asked around and found out that in the past 7 years the city schools have only been closed once for snow. The city doesn't like to take snow days because its a loss of funds and sometimes parents complain that they have no where to put their kids when it snows and they have to go to work.

So today school was open. And I started my day with only 5 students in my first period class. In a class of 35 this is a big difference. The day continued like this and at the end of the last period the attendance office reported an attendance rate of 26%. We usually have poor attendance anyway and most days clear about 82%, but today was pretty significant.

On days with low attendance most teachers have the kids watch a movie or just talk throughout the day. I had my kids do work and it was the most gratifying day I've had yet. In all my classes I had only 5 to 10 students. The kids were attentive, they didn't complain, and I didn't have to be strict at all. I think my kids learned more today then they have all year. We did really great work and I felt like an amazing teacher.