(This is a post for Slice of Life, a weekly writing share hosted by Two Writing Teachers. We look at the small moments. You write, too.)
I noticed something amiss the fourth or fifth time I looked at the wall clock. It was still 7:40 a.m. Or so said the clock. It wasn’t. It was 8:25 a.m. and students would be arriving soon.
The clock was dead and I was nearly out of time.
I scrambled to see if it was just my clock. It was. Time had stopped on me. I notified the custodians, who promised to replace it, and finished up my morning message for students. I was thankful for my Saxophone Clock at the back room (although it was interesting when some students who have been with me for two months now only noticed it now, when the school wall clock was busted. So much for being observant.)
Later, while my students were at Physical Education and I was working on plans for the day’s writing, the custodians did indeed come in. They took down the old clock and put up a new one, and then told me that it would take a day to settle into the automated system.
Ten minutes later (I think), I looked up and time, as they say, was flying. The seconds hand looked like it had a jolt of caffeine and the minutes hand was doing its steady dance around the hours. By 3:45 p.m., after school had ended, the clock read 5:20.
It was time for me to head home.
Peace (ticking away),
Kevin
LOVE seeing time fly!!!!!
First time stopped, then it flew! What a day you had…hope time has settled in for you now.
What a great example of how time stands still and how time flies. What a day you had! Hope all the gears are aligned for you today. Have a great one!
I love when radio controlled clocks reset themselves. Time is such a nebulous concept for my third graders that having them estimate things that take a minute could really be changed watching your clock!
Such a fractured relationship we have with time. Rarely does it seem to treat us the way we want it too!
The clock in our classroom stopped working four years ago…I don’t miss a working clock at all. Somehow, it feels good to be unchained from that specific piece of timekeeping.
Sometimes the way I got through middle school Spanish was to try to sync with the jaggedy movement of the clock’s second hand. On a good day, I’d hit the exact moment the second hand triggered the end-of-class bell & I’d be the first one out of my seat and out the door.
Wonder what happens to kids when they can’t watch a clock?
And the kids who only know digital clocks … they must wonder what that number-art on the wall is all about …
Kevin, it is so strange when the clocks go amiss. Video is funny. Life goes on with or without clocks.