It was the end of a long day. At the end of a long week. I had a major headache because of a new weather front coming in and all of my kids had been hyper. (Stormy weather does that as do full moons, disrupted schedules, assemblies, short weeks, up coming holidays, start of spring, snow, and large amounts of sugar.) I struggled through fourth block. My fourth block has a reputation around school. People all over the building (teachers, administrators, office staff, student office aides, police officers, janitors, and security) tell me with sympathetic looks, "You fourth block is rough." Yes, I know. At this point in the semester I have seven students in that class who have been instructed not to speak to, look at and especially do not touch each other.
It was 3:15. The announcements had been said, the room tidied up a bit. The kids and I were packed up. We had managed not to kill each other and surprisingly and pleasantly no one had been written up. Then the principal gets on the intercom. "Faculty and students, we are under a tornado warning until 3:45 please take your emergency positions in the hallway."
Pandemonium.
Students had two trains of thought. One: that they didn't have to stay. Two: that they would miss their bus. No one thought about the danger of the weather. One student ran away and hid from me to be funny. I ran all over the building looking for her. I went and told the police she had bolted for the parking lot, only to find her hiding under a jacket around the corner from our class. She was laughing at me and my concern for her. I had to keep those seven students apart while keeping them together. I tried to pacify them with peanut M&M'S. One was concerned that the daycare her three year old was at would charge her extra. Several were text messaging trying to find rides.
Meanwhile 3:45 came and went. Students had to go to the bathroom, they were hungry, they wanted to go home, they were bored, they were mad, it was unfair. Their bottoms hurt. They wanted to walk around and see people. They were text messaging their parents to come get them despite a possible tornado within a mile or so of the school. Some parents did come and it was chaos trying to find their kids in the mad house that was the hallway. Instead of trying to reassure them we were safe, we tried to impress on them the danger we were in, hoping it would calm them down. Instead they resorted to making fun of all the parents and elementary kids walkingthe halls trying to find their kids or brothers and sisters.
It was 4:30 before the warnings cleared for just ten minutes. Just enough time to empty the building. Not at all the way I wanted to spend my Friday afternoon and pretty close to a bad dream I had not long ago about getting stuck with fourth block in a day that would never end.
2 comments:
Oh my goodness, Carrie. I love your teaching stories because they so remind me of my year in the classroom. That is a nightmare. I can only imagine. One day I got stuck with my worst class (3rd period, which was lunch) for 3 hours under a lock down. Apparently some criminal had escaped. All my student cared about was that they were missing lunch and that they were going to "starve to death." Wow, the drama. My favorite part--your student who was worried about her child in daycare. My students used to tell me that they were going on maternity leave, and I would be like,"no, you don't get maternity leave in high school."
Anyway, sorry for such a long comment, but my heart goes out to you!! And, I wanted to tell you that I was very inspired by your earlier post about working with Noah. You are such a great mom. I don't have the energy to do all of that with Ada, and I am at home all day. I know that you talk about guilt over working, but you are doing an amazing job of balancing all of your roles. God will surely honor that and your obedience to what he has for you right now!!
I like your stories about school the best. I am very sorry that you have to actually live them, but they do make great blog fodder. :)
Love you!
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