the sunshine after the rain

It has been an interesting week at school, so much so that I feel the incredible urge to document it - so that it can never be forgotten ;) It's Thursday afternoon, and we've just finished another week of school. I have about an hour before Saba, Alia and Rawan are due to pick up Pam and I for an evening of Wii DDR (Dance-Dance Revolution).

We have three weeks of classes remaining, plus a week of review, and a week of exams. The time is just flying by, and it's hard to believe that we'll be done so soon. But don't worry, the students are making us earn every last penny (or fil) up until the very last second of school!

We're told that our seniors this year are the craziest that we've ever had. This past week seems to be their way of proving this fact....

It started with a fire drill earlier this week, on Tuesday. It was the 4th false fire alarm that we've had this year - and the girls have been lectured again and again on the dangers and inconveniences of false fire alarms. They've also had privileges taken away...and this time was no different. We were supposed to go to Keiran Resort today as an entire school, but it has been postponed until someone confesses. Innocent girls have been trying to confess just so that we can go...but we have yet to find the real culprit.

On Wednesday morning, I arrived to school to see teachers running around with garbage bags and disinfectant and air fresheners...because students had entered the school in the evening and hidden dead fish all over the third floor; in lockers, empty boxes, behind a/c vents, in the tv cart, everywhere. The start of a horrible day. Everyone was on edge, patiences was thin and there were a lot of tears and hugs spreading around. It was as though we had entered a 'state of emergency' and it was all we could do to work together and make each other feel better.

The fish weren't all...students also brought in a couple cockroaches and set them free in a few classrooms. Yes, chaos ensued. Sadly, "a couple cockroaches" turned out to be many cockroaches...not on set free in a few classrooms, but also into the ceiling of the high school. This is not only disgusting, but really hard to fix. We didn't realize just how many were set free until this morning.

Because Keiran was canceled today, we had a regular school day instead - classes were planned, and we were all sad...until we realized that only the good students were going to come to school on a day that was supposed to be canceled! That lifted our spirits. And what a day it was.

My first class consisted of six students. They talked me into taking them on a field trip to the Starbucks next door. "On va au café, Miss?" We had to call their mothers but soon we had permission to leave and off we went :) Only two students arrived to my second block class - one of them went home and the other went to the science class! I ended up playing soccer with the grade 9 PE class. For the first half of third block I attended Pam's Algebra 2 class and realized just how much fun Algebra is! I copied down the notes and did the examples and even got to write one on the board! I managed to do the homework for the second half of third block, while supervising my study hall students. At lunch I had canteen duty, and I am still amazed at how 70 students can make themselves sound like 200...but when it was time to go inside, they didn't hesitate, they didn't give me attitude, they went inside...it was mind-blowing. During fourth block I popped between the Home Economics class (where they were cooking pasta and yummy desserts) and the PE class (who were playing frisbee and soccer).

Although Keiran would have been a great day, to sit and hang out at the beach, today turned out to be a fantastic day all around. A day we needed...it was just ideal. Hanging out with all the "good" students. The ones who respect each other. The students who come to school because they want to be there, because they like it there, they love hanging out with each other, learning a little something new, enjoying the random quirkiness of the peculiar high school teachers.

What an awesome day.