Every morning, a teacher comes in assuming the classroom is the way he/she left it. That is, with the exception of being cleaner because of the amazing custodians who do their part in keeping the chaos sane. If you haven’t ever thanked your janitors, thank them now! They deal with a lot of work that we often take for granted, and seldom do people remember to thank them. But what happens when you come into your room and it’s not the way you left it? Maybe something is missing or some form of destruction has taken place. Well, this is what happened to me when I came back to my classroom one Thursday morning.
As sometimes happens (less than I would like), I was early to work! I’m normally “on time” but seldom early enough to actually conquer some things before our staff worship begins. But this Thursday, I was early enough to get a few things out of the way.
As per usual, I came in the back door, walked through the Library, and opened the lock to my classroom door. But when I opened my door, I could see – even in the dark – that my carpet went darker as it proceeded to the one corner. It then hit me that I could hear water rushing. I turned on the lights, and 1/3 of my classroom floor was soaked in water (carpeted floor).
My thoughts immediately rushed to thinking that a water pipe had broke. But thankfully – though still unfortunate – the handle to the water fountain had simply been stuck on, leaving the fountain to run and overflow all night long.
Anybody could have made this mistake. Students were in my room practicing for concerts that night, the janitors may have even taken a drink and not noticed the handle had stuck on, there is nobody to really be upset at. In fact, I wasn’t really upset at all. The damage was minimal. Aside from some students’ gym shoes that were soaked, the only thing that really suffered was the carpet itself. Everything else in the area was moveable.
But of course that left us with a bit of a situation. It was still an instructional day, and I had students coming soon.
Administration got on it right away. They had a shop vac to suck up the majority of the water, they had fans and heating lamps going, but to say the room was crowded was an understatement. When you move the furniture from 1/3 of your room to the already filled other 2/3s, there literally was the most minimal of space. Not to mention the smell. Soaked, old carpet. I think it explains itself…
Instead of being upset about the situation, I completely changed my plans, and made it so that we could have class in the Library. The students actually enjoyed the change (for the most part). Our Library has couches, big, comfy chairs, and lots of tables for students to work on. There are large sections of carpet to lay down while you work. It was a shift from the normal, but it was fun.
Of course, there were some parts we had to come into the room for, like lunch. No food is allowed in the Library (for good reason) so I squished all of the desks together and sat the chairs in rows like a theatre. The students then were able to eat their lunches while watching a video for lunch. The only problem was, with the industrial fans they brought in, and the heat of two heat lamps, my room was nothing short of loud and felt like a sauna! It was a little bit ridiculous.
All in all, it was a good day. We had fun, even out of the norm. I challenge you to take the moments of adversity and change them to moments of triumph. It was a relationship-building day for my students and I as we learned to work with each other in a space that didn’t have all of the conveniences as our regularly, set-up classroom would have had. We had to run back and forth quite a bit, but we did it. It was a fun, learning experience!
Calm in Christ and Fitness 