Thursday, March 29, 2007

Everyone needs to teach Middle School...

even if just for a year. What an adventure it is. Yesterday we had a lock-down drill. That is where we lock ourselves in our room and hide in case there is an intruder in our school. This is the scariest thing about being a teacher nowadays. And how sad that we have to practice for it. So we are lucky (okay maybe not lucky) to have huge closets in our 2 classrooms so rather than hide in the corner, we hide in our closets. What an experience- being locked in a closet with 25 8th graders. yikes. I thought it would smell a lot worse than it did. So there we sat and stood for what seemed like forever. We have to stay there- silent- until an administrator or our Officer comes to let us out. I was surprised they were as quiet as they were. It was with my most challenging class- which is mild compared to classes I have had in the class. There is a new kid- yesterday was his second day- he got kicked out of his last school and hasn't made any effort to win us over. While I was covering the windows, my new angel shuts the door (so I was locked out) and turns off the lights. Luckily I did have my keys on me so I got in. But you better believe he got written up for that one. I asked him why he did it, and he says "because I wanted everyone to scream." He may be obnoxious but at least he is honest!!
So become a middle school teacher today!!
p.s. My friend who teaches in Vegas has had a few real lock downs and has learned from experience that it would be wise to buy some bottled water to keep on hand. So i think I might do that, with a few snacks. I was trying to think about an activity we could do while locked in there... like Yahtzee. Just joking. But we were just in there for maybe 10 minutes and it felt like FOREVER so I can't imagine what a couple of hours would be like. Any suggestions for silent games? Staring contests? Ha ha!

2 comments:

Andrea said...

That's true tortue. Wow. can't really think of any silent games. That's a tough one. I can't believe they'd all be quiet for that long. Such fun you have as a teacher!

Anonymous said...

Middle school. I don't know how you do it!! I can barely handle 2nd graders!! And lockdown would be scary. We had partial lockdown a couple of months ago but our kids were oblivious. We just had to stay inside, no recess. They just thought it was an inside recess day! And your new kid sounds like a real peach! I've got one like that! Sometimes I just want to smack him!!!