Thunderstorm Thursday

Well, this morning I got to begin my teaching day with a Tornado Warning. Right as I was about to hand out the Chapter 14 test to my Basic Business students our "This is a Tornado Warning" alarm came over the intercom.


The kids looked at me and asked if it was a drill. I told them it wasn't because the teachers would have gotten an email to warn us. They didn't seem to be to worried, which I guess is good. Except it is hard to get them to move quickly and get into position when they are that way.


This morning made me think of my last day of student teaching. What a crazy day! I remember sitting in Mrs. Stanley's (one of my cooperating teachers) room. I was finished teaching and she didn't have a first hour class so we were just talking about the summer, her having a baby, and me graduating. Then the alarm came over the intercom. She didn't have any windows in her room (just like I don't now) so we had no idea the weather was getting bad. As soon as we walked out into the hallway and was able to see out the big window by the stairwell we knew things had gotten BAD.

Since we didn't have a class to watch over I stayed around the Principals to keep an ear on what was happening. There were students driving in (because they had late start) and we couldn't believe they were driving with the weather like it was. Most of them didn't have the radio on so they had NO IDEA we were under a tornado warning.

Then we saw the roof of one of the buildings across the street get blown off and heard of a tornado actually hitting a near by school. Parents were worried (we kept getting phone calls) so we allowed the students to get their phones out and call home, but most of them didn't have service. I think the AT&T tower went down with the storm or something like that. We ended up losing power and that is when people started getting a little on edge.

After about 3 hours of sitting in the first floor hallways we were able to go back to our classrooms....still without power, though! The kids and the teachers both thought they would have to let us go home, but they didn't. Most classes were able to go on and teach but the business department was completely unable to do anything. By that time of the year all of our classes were finishing up project on the computers.

We never regained power that day....and it was a day I knew I would never forget. What a way to end my student teaching...

I think ever time we have a tornado warning here at Willard I will think of that day. Obviously today was not bad at all. We spent around 30 mins down stairs and then the storm cleared us.