Home....Home

Today I am grateful that I made it home without committing a felony. It was a close call. This morning started out well, I arrived at school prepared! I had stayed late on Friday and copied all the homework. I had all my materials ready for the day and even the materials ready for after-school tutoring. I felt ready and rested and we were going to knock out some writing today!

Then, at 9:20, the loudspeaker came on. This is such a rare occasion. They NEVER make announcements during our school day....except to declare some type of emergency, or practice of an emergency response system. I figured it was just a practice. But, no...It was an actual "soft lock-down." This means that we should make sure that all of our students are in our room, and no one can enter or leave without an adult. About 15 minutes later, we had another announcement that we should log onto our school e-mail to see the details of the problem, and check there for further directions.

Bees. That was the problem. There was a huge bee nest attached to the edge of the portable classroom in which the P.E. teacher resides. This building is positioned in the very center of our playground areas. So...no one was to go outside until the Bee People came and took care of it. (Which I assume meant remove it and all the bees.)  I don't know if it was a wasp nest or regular honey bees, either. The Bee People were on their way. Stand-by for further news concerning recess. Oh no.

That's right! No recess!! At least none outside anyway. So, 62 students crammed themselves into my classroom to draw, color, put together puzzles, talk, use the restroom, etc. etc. for 15 minutes.( My partner eats her lunch and then takes over in the cafeteria and picks them up to bring back to class while I eat.) Then, I was to take them to the cafeteria (through inside hallways) and drop them off. And you KNOW that it was insanity. They didn't know how to line up correctly, they couldn't pass their lunch cards out nicely. THEY RAN DOWN THE HALL when they were around the corner from where I was standing. YIKES! It was dreadful. I sat and gulped down my salad and then they were back!!!

It was time for the afternoon classes. Everyone was just flitting all over (figuratively and literally) because they had not been able to go to recess and run and scream. Plus! Bees!! Sigh. We got very little done. I raised my voice too many times. I continually paused and just glared stared at them till they'd settle down and get really quiet. It was a long two and a half hours.

Then, if that wasn't enough!  About 2:30, someone from the office arrived with a typed paper outlining the dismissal procedures we had to follow in about an hour. EVERY SINGLE STUDENT had to exit via the front doors of the school, in order to avoid the bee nest that was still being dealt with on the playground. On a normal day, most of our over 500 students go up the stairs, onto the playground and meet their parents out of our back gate....where there is lots of parking...and several streets they can drive away into....without causing too much of a traffic jam.

Yeah. It was insane. But, the Parent-Link robo-caller had informed parents that we were altering our dismissal. We put up signs on the back gates and fences. It really went rather smoothly. For a completely chaotic event.

I have a magnet that says, "It was a good day if you didn't hit or bite anyone." signed (some 4 year old). Well, I had a good day. Just barely. I'm thankful that it is over. Tomorrow, we have no students because of voting in our multi-purpose room, so hopefully the Bee People will complete their task, and we will be Bee-Free on Wednesday morning. I'm not sure I'll survive another day of lock-down without biting or hitting.