This is not what I meant

when I said I wanted the school year to be over. I meant that I wanted the year to end with the usual talent show, awards ceremony, field day and 4th Grade Walk.  You know...the general "how can I fill 7 1/2 hours of time with things that will engage the unengageable" mode that we teachers go into during the last week of school.  However, what I got instead was 2 1/2 hours in the basement of my school and the subsequent cancellation of the remainder of the school year due to damage within the district. 

Yesterday, I went to school.  It was a little muggy when I was putting my own monkeys on the bus, but the sky was relatively clear.  I hadn't watched the weather (thanks a lot alarm clock for being so very easy to reach and forcing me to hit snooze three times).  I got to school and started my day with my class.  The new teacher who is replacing me came to check out the room/what was there during specials.  I picked up my friends from PE, and we headed back to the room.  We had just settled in for just one more go at subtraction with regrouping.  A few of my friends finished early and we reading relatively silently when the Title I teacher next door flung my door open, and said, "You need to get your class to the basement NOW!" (said isn't the right word because there was an intensity to her voice that without a doubt implied the seriousness of the situation).  I happened to be near my desk so I, in one swoop, grabbed my purse and the hand of student next to me.  I headed to the door with the one lucky enough to be by my side while using my "Mama don't play" voice (the Cubscout calls it my scary voice) telling my friends to line up.  We headed out the door immediately.  Thankfully when we got to the basement, everyone was accounted for (I tend to have some friends who don't really hurry).  And there we stayed for over two hours.  The kiddos didn't really act scared until the second warning came and the support staff came in our room telling everyone to get on the floor (by everyone I mean all of us).  Seeing your teacher duck and cover with you is scary.  After the all clear came, we went up to the room to eat our lunches (kind of an anticlimactic end).  Each of my students got picked up by a parent (the buses weren't able to run).  Later, the word came that there would be no more school this year.  I hope they all can come to pick up their things tomorrow so I can tell them goodbye properly (you know, without the uncertainty of what awaited them at home).