Wacky Wednesday just went to a whole new level.

I seriously don't even know where to start. So tired. Can't think straight.

School was insane today. Started out fine-ish. There's been some tension around the classroom lately for reasons that aren't important here, and we found out we would be having a meeting post-lunch to discuss the issues. This was unfortunate, as today was Sandee's birthday and we had a whole potluck lunch planned, and the meeting was sure to be a big downer. Also unfortunate? The meeting was going to start 15 minutes before my Geometry class was supposed to start, and it was going to be held in our main classroom. Last time we had a meeting like that, we had 20+ kids standing outside the door for half an hour waiting for our meeting to end so they could come in.

Here's how this all played out:
12:30pm- Celebrated Sandee's birthday with a fabulous lunch. Everyone's having a great time! (Or, in a few cases, ignoring the tension.)
1:15pm- Meeting starts; I go into the back room (my little classroom) to set up my laptop and the projector so I'll be ready to go at 1:30. I already have two students back there who arrived early but were allowed to stay in the classroom as long as they were doing work in the back room.
1:20pm- I go back out to listen to the "brief" meeting.
1:21pm- My student teaching advisor shows up.

Time out: My advisor was supposed to come halfway through the class to see the second part of Geometry, since he's always watched the beginning. He forgot about that today. Of all days.

Time in.

1:21pm- I greet my advisor at the door, explain the situation ("we're having a staff meeting literally right now, and the class is probably going to start a little bit late, and I thought you were coming at 2:15...?")
1:23pm - Two more of my kids show up and get hustled into the back room.
1:25pm - I go to the back and explain the situation to the kids and tell them to stay quiet and work on homework. (Yeah right.) Meanwhile, the meeting is still going on, as I run back and forth between the front door, the back classroom, and Michelle's desk to get paperwork for my advisor.
1:30pm- Half my kids are there, as well as four other students who are not in my Geometry class, but were hustled into the backroom so they wouldn't hear the very tense meeting going on in the main classroom.
1:31pm- My advisor takes a seat in the back room to begin his observation. I explain again this is not normal and we're waiting for the meeting to end so I can kick the extra kids out and start class.
1:32pm- More kids come in. More kids that are not mine come in.
1:35pm- It's really hot in our room. And really noisy. I do my best to keep them quiet and try to get them doing work. (Yeah, right.)
1:37pm- I discover not one of my kids did the homework from the night before, so I make them get it out and start working together (quietly... yeah, right) to solve the problems. For the most part they take me seriously, though it's still LOUD.
1:38pm- Everyone is seriously starting to sweat in our little back room, I turn on the fan, and papers go flying. Another student gets hustled in and has to stand behind the door because there are no more seats.
1:39pm- I peek out at the meeting. Still going strong. I get lots of sympathetic looks from the people facing my direction.
1:40pm-Apparently one of the kids escaped to go to the bathroom. When he came back he announced that the teachers were getting reamed (they weren't). More talking ensues.
1:41pm- I'm squeezing through students as I get called to help for problem after problem. They're still loud, but at least they're working... mostly. The non-Geometry kids are just sitting in there looking bored and taking up space.
1:42pm- One of the non-Geometry students asks if she can be in the workshop and I have to explain that we're in the middle of the course, and she's not even enrolled in Geometry right now. Cute kid though.
1:50pm- Finally the meeting is over, and I send the miscellaneous kids packing. My advisor also decides he's seen enough (he usually only stays about 15 minutes), but really I think he was over being in the hot tiny room with twenty high schoolers. Michelle told me afterward when he came to talk to her, he was sweating like crazy. We all were.

After that it was pretty much a rush of reviewing. The kids had a hard time getting into the swing of real class after the fiasco. I'd spent a ton of time creating a fun game for them to review, and we had to rush through it faster than I would've liked. And we didn't even get to do a lot of the important questions. Sigh. I suppose I can hope they'll be responsible and actually do their review homework tonight, and come prepared for their test tomorrow? (Yeah right.)

And then, to top it all off, halfway through my Algebra class, I realize all the calculators I'd borrowed from one of the other teachers were all missing. Usually when I borrow the calculators, they're left on the desks for the algebra kids to use next. Not a one was to be seen.

I started going through the list of kids in my head, trying to figure out who would steal six calculators. (The kids who come to our school steal all kinds of stuff, so I wasn't being very judgmental here. Only a little.) After I finally get the guts to go ask the teacher I'd borrowed them from if any of my students had happened to turn in their calculators to him on their way out, he informed me that, in fact, one of my students had taken it upon himself to collect all the calculators and return them for me.

Then I felt bad for thinking one of them might be a thief. (But really, if you knew some of your kids had been in juvie and were former gang members, wouldn't you be a little suspicious?)

Such a crazy day. But at least my advisor reported to Michelle that I did a great job handling unusual situations. Good thing he didn't know I was seriously ready to lose it trying to wade through all those students, help them with work they should have done two days before, and keeping the noise to a low roar.

Still, it would have been nice for him to see my awesome review game at the end of class instead. Such is life, I suppose.