what a day

So as I drove down Ridge Road on the way to school this morning (listening to the LONG list of school closings) I first noticed the Subway had no power, then realized all the street lights were out. As I drove closer to school I found myself hoping that they'd be out all the way into the parking lot. Sure enough...they were! I noticed all the lights off in our building, all except the emergency lights. I joined the 3 other cars in the parking lot and went inside. The 2 other teachers and custodian were waiting in the lobby with flashlights. Our principal and more teachers arrived by 7:15am. We all assumed they'd send us home and that'd be it. NOPE...word from the superintendent was that we'd be business as usual. With absolutely no direction as to what we were to do with the kids once they arrived, we went to our classrooms, opened the blinds and tried to get our day started.

Kids arrived at 7:50, screaming as they realized how dark the hallways were. They thought it was pretty cool, until they realized that the bathrooms were like a deep dark dungeon in the middle of the building, they refused to go in! News came by 8:30 that we may be moving everyone to another building in the district (we were the only ones without power). Of course, this possibility had the kids full of questions. "what school are we going to?" "will we get lunch?" "are they going to go by bus?" "are we going to have recess all day?"

I survived the many questions with my staple answer, "I know as much as you do." (I'm sure that helped them feel very safe!) At 8:55 we received news that we'd be loading the buses at 9:05 and needed to be ready to teach once we got there!

We arrived at our sister school and were directed to kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms. We had to pick up and move every hour--we were in a total of 3 different classrooms. At about 10:30 I finally had my students understanding that we were not going back to our school. By 10:45 they were coming around to tell us that power was back on at our building and we'd be loading up the buses to take students back at 12:30. UGH! Sure enough, they were full of questions again! "can we get grilled cheese sandwiches still?" "how will we pay for our lunch?" "is the power really back on?" My staple answer this time: "I know what time we're eating lunch and when we load the buses...that's it!"

We returned to our building (through the whiteout conditions) and settled the kids in for a movie. Every day at the end of dismissal we hear the announcement "All buses have been called." Today, those words were music to our ears...the day was OVER!