I decided to do a lesson on extreme weather, thinking that if I explained how tornadoes/tsunamis/hurricanes actually happen it might calm some of my students’ 2012 fears. Big mistake. All I got all day long were variations of “BUT WHAT IF THERE IS A HURRICANE OF TORNADOES?!?!” and “WHAT ABOUT IF YOU HAVE TO GO TO HIGHER GROUND BECAUSE THERE’S A TSUNAMI BUT YOU ALSO HAVE TO STAY INSIDE BECAUSE THERE’S A BLIZZARD BUT YOU CAN’T BECAUSE A TORNADO CARRIED YOUR HOUSE AWAY, WHAT DO YOU DO?!?!?!”

Adding to the chaos was the fact that in the middle of lunch, the fire alarm went off. Usually fire drills are pre-scheduled, and if the alarm goes off unannounced it’s quickly followed by the Principal coming on the PA telling us to disregard it. But this time it went of for about a minute with no announcement, so we (the teachers I was having lunch with) started to leave. Then the office secretary came on the announcements to say disregard the alarm, only to have it go off again a minute later, accompanied by the office secretary telling us it was for real. I was beyond happy to not have had a class at the time, because the kids were off the walls during the evacuation. The 7th and 8th graders were in the cafeteria for the whole thing, and apparently they were screaming and jumping over tables. Anyway, apparently some construction near a fire box had mistakenly set the alarm off, and everything was fine. But the whole thing got the kids very hyped up, and they were unusually crazy for the rest of the day. Ugh.