You Know Those Days Where Chaos Reigns in the Classroom?

I feel like the title of this post is pretty self-explanatory.  When I walked into my internship yesterday, I was expecting a normal day.  The classroom was empty, but I figured my mentor teacher ran down to the office or something and would be right back.  My mentor, Gary, didn't come up, but his co-teacher, Andie did.  She immediately told me that there was a problem, but we'd overcome it.  Apparently a series of unfortunate events have prevented Gary from coming in to school.  Andie said to me, "I hope you don't mind teaching AP U.S. history."  I'll admit, I panicked for a few seconds, but I knew I could overcome this.

Now, on any ordinary day at my internship, this would have been a mildly stressful situation, but yesterday was no ordinary day.  The NewTech students, 51 students in a technology and research based program, had a HUGE presentation that night at the Seaford Historical Society.  This involved working models, food, PowerPoints on laptops, the works, and despite the fact that two days earlier they insisted they had everything together for their projects, it appeared as if nothing was done.  At least during second period, Andie and I knew we would have help from the inclusive teacher, Kenny.  Unfortunately, Kenny was playing a dead body for the 10th grade BioLit class, so he wouldn't be there either.  It was crazy in the classroom.  Students were attempting to build models they didn't think they'd need, putting finishing touches on just about everything and trying to figure out just how everything was going to be transported to the museum.  Needless to say, they overtook my car.  You know you're an education major when your car is full of presentation materials and you still have bulletin board paper in the backseat of your car (a precaution in case a group didn't have a table cloth last night).  On top of all of that, I had to photocopy everything needed for AP U.S. history and everything for the lesson I'm teaching Monday and Tuesday of next week.  For the first time, I really felt like a teacher, running around like crazy all during planning period and all day really.  Andie and I managed though.  It was definitely a stressful day, but it was all worth it.

That night, my roommate and I went to the Seaford Historical Society  to see the students present, and I couldn't be prouder of them.  Everything miraculously came together in the end, and everyone who came was incredibly impressed with the work the students produced.  Everything was amazing, and my roommate left saying, "Wow, I wish I did that kind of stuff in high school."  Yes, yesterday was stressful.  It taught me that with the proper help and support, you can overcome anything that happens in the classroom.  Last night presented me with a few very pleasant surprises as well, and no matter how stressed I was all day, I would go through everything again to have the evening I had.