Wednesday, 10/16/13

Today was our first lock down drill. Oy! Of course drills are the most important thing that we do, but boy-oh-boy do they rattle the nerves! The bizarre thing is, for as long as we've done them (the lock downs), every one of my classes talks about how much they love lock downs. Isn't that interesting? I do my best to answer as many questions as the kids have about the lock down because my main goal is always that they know that they are safe in school, but they come up with some doozies, I'll tell ya. 

I assigned the kids all spots in our "safe zone" and then we practice a few times. Literally the second I said, "Okay guys, it's going to happen in a few minutes, but let's..." the the alarm went off. I'm pretty sure my arms flailed in the air as I turned on my heel and headed for the door. (My job is to lock the door and hit the lights. Thankfully a few years ago we got new doors. The old ones only locked from the hallway...insert any of numerous jokes here........ but in reality, having to step into the hallway to lock the door was never good.) 

Once that alarm sounds, the kids are in their spots within a millisecond and then we just wait. The alarm continues to go off and someone comes down to check that our door is locked---in the meantime, all I do is think and pray, both of those who have gone through this in real-life and that we are never ever e.v.e.r. count ourselves as among them. The alarm eventually goes off, but still we wait. Finally, the announcement comes that we are done and my precious angels shake it off like "it ain't no thang." They're pretty amazing. From there I gave them a spelling game called Funny Face, which they love, and I did some deep breaths. 

On a lighter and brighter note--today we started our science unit on space (stars, sun, moon). We started with the sun. The kids knew so much--I was very impressed. I was able to debunk some of their space info and fill them with loads of fun facts. I hope they share some of them at home. Next week Starlab is coming to our school. It is an inflatable planetarium that we rent from the ROE. The kids see it in the gym every year, but it's only for 2nd graders, so it's always incredibly exciting when the kids get to go in. I'll give you more scoop and post a pic of it next week. 

Adios for tonight! If you're a boss--Happy Boss's Day! I'm blessed to have the best boss on the entire earth! Our principal is a teacher at heart so she's a student-first administrator, which I appreciate beyond belief. I also adore her because she doesn't run from me when I have some cockamamie (how much do I love that spell-check helped me with that word!!!!!!!!!!!!!) ideas, rather she embraces them and lets me run with them. I'm a lucky, lucky gal!!!