Surprise Fire Drill

Wednesday. Economics, special ed. First period. 

This was Mr. B's class, a class I'd done a long-term stint in two years ago when Mr. B was out recovering from surgery. So, I wasn't terribly surprised to find no written plans, only an agenda on the board along with three folders each labeled with a class period. 

The agenda on the board said finals. I assumed the work in the folders were their finals. Okay, then.

Class started. I passed out the finals. I recognized about half the students as ones who had been in the special ed class I covered long term this past February/March. 

They got to work. 

A half hour later, the fire alarm went off. It was not until that moment that I recalled that there was a fire drill scheduled. I had seen the reminder email the previous week and promptly forgotten about it. 

(Usually, the front office informs subs of drills when we check in. And usually the teacher makes mention of it in the lesson plans. Neither of which happened on this day.) 

So, I announced that it was a fire drill. They needed to leave their work and evacuate. 

And that's when a student, Edgar, grabbed the signage we use for fire drills and asked where the emergency backpack was. He led us to where we were supposed to line up, and he held out the green sign (for "everyone's present, no issues") once I informed him that I had accounted for all the students in the class (all seven of them). 

Well, that was painless. 

I hate fire drills. Besides being an interruption, usually it's a matter of corralling students and dealing with the crazy that the interruption starts. This time? None of that. 

We got back to the classroom, and they went back to work. (They all managed to finish the final before the end of the period.)

If only every fire drill I have to do goes like that, I wouldn't hate them so much. Very nice.