Friday, April 10, 2009

Good to know...

Read this Article

After subbing all day at this high school, I hurried off to my night class in Clear Lake. It wasn't until I was driving home around 10:30pm that my dad told me over the phone that the school was on the news for having a gun scare. I told him it must be a mistake because I was there and knew nothing of it. He said he saw on the news that the school had lots of construction going on and I said yes that sounds like the same school. I got home and googled it and sure enough it was the school that I subbed at ALL DAY!

In retrospect maybe I'm glad that I didn't know, since everything was ok. I probably would have been really terrified had I known. On the other hand there are procedures that teachers (and yes, even subs) have to follow in a "lockdown" situation to protect yourself and the students, that include locking your door and not opening it for anyone who knocks.

I didn't even have a key to my classroom so another teacher would have needed to lock the door. I was there with my door open most of the day and had no idea that there was any kind of threat. I guess it's possible the teachers got emails or something but none of them felt the need to inform me about this. If that's the case it makes me really mad.

It is obvious that this school needs to improve on their communication. How you ask? THEY NEED PHONES IN THE CLASSROOMS! Brazoswood hadn't been remodled in years when I went there, but one thing they did have was an advanced phone system that connected all the classrooms.

On an even scarier note, I really think I saw this person. He peeked in my classroom and was communicating with one of the students in my class from the door. This is an EXTREMELY common occurrance. I thought about telling him to move on, but something made me not do it. I just looked directly at him so he knew I saw him and then he moved on. I'm glad I didn't because who knows if that could have triggered him. (I'm not sure, but it looked a lot like him)

On a brighter note, the Last period AP English class was delightful. They did their work but got a little distracted from their assignment at the end of class because they were debating Pie V. Cheesecake! These kids came up with elaborate arguments and they were hilarious. I wish I had it on video tape! It brought me back to my school days.... :-)

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