It's the most wonderful time of the year.

December has proved to be a trying month. I think that in past years, December has been the point at which we throw in the towel – we say, “Ok – this is how it’s going to be. It would be too much work to fix it and we have everything working against it, so scrap it – let’s try again next year.” That may be the mentality of many people right now, but not the overwhelming majority.

There were no days off in December. I know that from a strictly theoretical standpoint, this seems like it would benefit education – uninterrupted teaching. That’s a logical fallacy. With a looming holiday and temperate weather, students have absolutely no focus. Heck, teachers have absolutely no focus. We took to waking up each morning and checking the news to ensure that school wasn’t cancelled (hoping that it was). For all the threats of big winter storms, all we managed was one lousy delay day.

Another contributing factor to the drain of trying to push through in December is the looming end of the semester. Chemistry is a half-year course (90 minutes) this year, so after the break, we only have 2 weeks left before they get their final grades. Many of my students…ok, most of my students, are failing the class right now, and early December brought the shock that they were going to have to work their tails off to bring those grades up to passing. Those students whose grades were below 30% were dismayed to find that there was absolutely nothing they could do that would lead to them passing Chemistry. As a result, the motivation levels in my class have gone down the tubes. I refuse to budge on this issue – I think students should have consequences for not meeting deadlines, and maybe a failing grade will help them to realize that the real world doesn’t make exceptions. But maybe that’s overly optimistic…

The most exasperating thing that nearly wiped us out this month, though, was a series of bomb threats and associated evacuations during a cold, wet spell. The first one came on Monday right at the end of the first lunch period. The kids evacuated, but total chaos ensued because they weren’t with teachers yet and consequently weren’t accountable to anyone. It was irksome, but I figured since we hadn’t had any fires and only one other bomb threat so far, we could handle it. However, the next day, at the start of second period, we had another bomb threat and evacuation. This time, the kids WERE with teachers, but their behavior wasn’t any better. It was clear that they were getting used to the idea that evacuations are a hopping good time. I recommended that we practice the evacuation a few more times, figuring that bringing them out in the cold until they could do it correctly would both tighten up our evacuation procedure and dissuade any further bomb threats if they were being called in as an excuse to go outside. When we got the all clear, the kids went back inside (I went to guard the restrooms so they had to go straight back to class) and Mr. Brown and I took a box of chalk outside to write the teachers’ names on the sidewalk. Ms. Lance then evacuated the students by floor – without allowing them to go to their lockers to get their coats. They came outside, stood by their teachers’ names in two straight lines, and stayed until they were nearly perfect. Then they went in and came back out as one whole school. She made the final practice into a competition – the class with the best line and best overall evacuation would get an out of uniform pass. It went well. When we got back inside, Mr. Brown and I made signs for every teacher on stakes so they could hold them up the next time we had to evacuate – that way, the kids could find them easily and get in line. Little did we know that we’d get to use them just about 2 hours later when a third bomb threat was called in during 6th period. This final bomb threat was a pain in the neck, but was made worse by the fact that the other two schools in our building dismissed while we were outside, but we had to go back inside. I think not dismissing was the right call (“Here’s your reward for calling in a bomb threat – go home early!”), but the kids were super ticked that everyone but them got to go home. In a perhaps none too shocking turn of events, we had THREE bomb threats called in the next day – but my principal made the smart call not to evacuate. They just swept the building with everyone inside and we had a strong police presence. They also managed to trace the call (it was coming in to 911) and got a name and a number. No word yet as to whether they were able to track the person down – but they did manage to call in at least 2 more bomb threats the following day, one of them to the middle school in the building. It was all extremely absurd. The general theory going around is that there were a few kids in the middle school who were caught up in some gang nonsense, ad that someone wanted them to be outside so that they could jump them. They never evacuated – just stayed inseide in the office to go down with the ship.

So, as winter break approached, it was all I could do to keep driving toward the end of the year. I baked approximately 30 dozen cookies (with my new cookie press!) to deal with the stress of school and my anxiety over some of the events that will transpire while I’m home (bridal shower for Liz, dress shopping, family junk, gift-giving, friendship issues). I cleaned and organized like a fanatic yesterday, both in my house and in my classroom, and left at 6am today with great gusto. I’m actually typing this entry on a plane somewhere over Texas, though I won’t be able to post it until I get home to my parents’ internet connection. I could not be more ready for Christmas, a break, and some good old Albuquerque.