Tornado!

So, most of us have been through public school and are well-acquainted with the whole fire drill and tornado drill protocols. I have to say that in all my years of schooling, that's all it ever was...a drill. On Tuesday, I experienced my first ever 'for real' duck-and-cover with a school full of kindergarten through second-graders. Can I say I'll be perfectly okay if that never happens again?

First of all, a sure fire way to create panic is to make a schoolwide announcement that begins with, "I need everyone to remain calm, but..." Yikes. Talk about immediate chills. Anyway, the first 5-10 minutes were a little scary, given that a tornado had been spotted not too far from the school. The remaining HOUR AND A HALF was just crazy. The kids were allowed to sit up after several minutes, but no one was allowed to move about the school. So imagine nine classes of kindergarteners in one library for almost two hours....doing nothing. Right. So, while the drama of it was a little fun, the reality of it was a whole lot less fun. Poor kids...or poor teachers. Depends on how you look at it.