A fire, some heroes and a birthday

Last Saturday there was a "small" fire at the school which destroyed both fifth grade classrooms. As many of you know our son, KL, is in fifth grade so his was one of the rooms affected. Apparently it started around 6 a.m. with a outlet (possibly a rodent of some kind chewed through the wire which started the fire). Around 6:15, as the guard was doing his rounds, he noticed smoke coming from the building and alerted the front guardhouse, which in turn called the Bomba (fire department). Within fifteen minutes Bomba was on the scene putting out the fire. Because it was caught early and the response was timely, the fire did not have time to spread to the adjacent rooms (counseling and special services departments), for which we are extremely thankful. Most of the items and resources in one of the rooms was lost while the other suffered a lot of loss and A LOT of smoke damage. Within a few hours there was a large group of people on the scene trying to salvage what could be saved and cleaning up the items that could be cleaned up and used again. Due to the fact that the classroom where I teach my classes is only used for my two classes daily, it was chosen as the temporary location for one of the fifth grade classes which means I had to move my classes to another room. After a few snags in getting things going in the new room, I am starting to settle in a bit. It's amazing how much of an adjustment it takes to get used to a new place, both by students and the teacher! I finished up my fourth day there today and I still felt like it was a pretty rough day! To add interest to it all, I am due to be observed and evaluated by the principal in the next couple of weeks!! Ugh...I'm sure I will survive (and in all honesty I really enjoy and respect my principal and I know he will take everything into consideration when it's all said and done) but I would have been more comfortable in my own classroom!

This is the classroom that had it the worst.

KL's room.

Melted AC unit. Pretty amazing really.

And a melted desk.

Another view of the worst hit room.

See how the keys just popped right off the computer.

KL and other grade five students helping scrub down desks.

Another look after much of the stuff was removed.

Sorting and doing inventory of what was salvageable. The lady in the pic is one of the fifth grade teachers. KL has her for Social Studies.

Sweet friend, Athy, helping record the list of books that will need replaced. She has twin boys who are in fifth grade as well.

More students getting involved.

I spent quite a while sorting through the desk and wiping down everything from the soot damage.

We are thankful that nothing more was lost or damaged and that no one was hurt during the fire. Estimated time for the rooms to be restored is about one month. We only have about 6 weeks of school left...so it remains to be seen if I get back in my classroom this school year or not.

On to other things...today was hero day in the elementary school. KR chose to dress up as me (I certainly don't see myself as a hero, that's for sure) and KJ went as our pediatrician, Dr. Chew. Both were kind of thrown together at the last minute, but turned out fine. This kind of thing is not really my strength, and sometimes it's more stress than I like to deal with, but all that considered, the girls enjoyed it and it all went well.
They always start out with a little parade so everyone can see the costumes the kids picked out.

KJ's preschool class.

KR's class.

And finally, today is Greg's birthday. It was a very busy day, but we managed to celebrate with cake this evening (after watching Americal Idol). Some of his students showered him with gifts of coke (and water), and coffee. I think, overall, he had a nice day.