It was a wild and crazy day today at school. First we took our last test of the year... which is always something special in itself. I was also anxiously awaiting a former student coming in the afternoon to speak to my AVID classes. She has visited Africa and has helped people in Uganda with HIV/AIDS and I'm so proud of her. I couldn't wait for my AVID kids to meet her.
The tests went really well in the morning, I was cruising along in my day and very happy that I was getting a lot of my correcting done. At the end of the year, every time you get an assignment graded, you are closer and closer to the finish line. A very rewarding feeling.
During 5th period, my last test of the year, we entered "LOCK DOWN" on campus. Yeah! Nothing like something to totally distract the kids. They dealt with it pretty well, even though there were a bunch of announcements, each more strange and vague than the last. I was pretty confident that we were ok. My door is always locked for that reason. I joke all the time that I am the only person who opens the door (and that is true - I always open the classroom door) because it could be a "terrorist." It's a silly joke, but it is grounded in reality. There could be an incident at any time. So my job is to keep my kids safe.
I put the paper over the window on the door and we kept going with the test. It ended up being an issue with a homemade bomb in a garbage can out in the front of the school. Unfortunately there were television station helicopters hovering over the school the rest of the day, hazmat and FBI out front and they made everyone exit as soon as the day was over. So it was a zoo.
What made things nutz was that my former student was waiting outside to come into the school for about 40 minutes. She finally was able to get in a side entrance and found my wife's classroom (She is a former student of Norma as well) and Norma got her heading to my room.
While all this was occurring, one of my students wrote me a note. She has gone through a really, really hard spring semester. She missed almost 6 weeks of school. So we have been working on catching her up in the last few weeks. In the note, she explained how important the 5th period class was to her and how important I was. It was very touching. I teared up, but I just looked back at her and gave her the thumbs up. I didn't want to start balling or anything.
After the test was over, her friend said that she wanted to read the letter to the class. So, of course, we were all touched that she voiced her appreciation for her friends that have helped her through such a tough year. I was a wreck. Pretty much just sobbing. So I made a joke, "My guest speaker is going to walk in here, see me in tears, and think something really was happening here today to force us into a lockdown!" I smiled and we all laughed. But, I was truly touched. She is a special young lady. What she doesn't realize is that everyone goes through rough times. It just happened to be her time this spring. And she is going to emerge a lot stronger and tougher when this is all over.
So 5th period finally ended after an hour and a 1/2. My guest speaker made her way to 6th period and she was AWESOME. The kids were totally into it. Her work in Uganda is so inspirational. The last time I busted out crying (really sobbing) in class was when I was explaining how important her work was to me. This former student emailed me before the school year began and it really got to me. She took what she learned in my class and then went about making the world better as best as she could. It is every teacher's dream come true. (Read her email to me in my blog posting here:
Back 2 Work from 08/2008So I was showing a video about Anderson Cooper going to Africa during a terrible period of starvation (emotional enough) and then I explained to my students that I had a former student go over there. Well, open the water works! I can't help it. I get emotional sometimes. But, what a better thing to get emotional about. I was so proud of her... it just came out in tears.
Today I kept it together (probably because I just finished balling the period before!) and she gave a remarkable presentation. The kids learned so much. And so did I.
A crazy day. Next week is review week and then finals begin. Thank goodness. I'm pretty much an emotional wreck. :) But, in a good way. This has been a great year.
