The craziest thing just happened in my class. Actually, I’m still not really sure what happened.
I went to teach my first class of the morning and the kids were as naughty as ever. They were being loud, disobedient, and potentially pretending to chloroform one another. I attempted to shout through my lesson on “Physical Appearance” and teach to the small handful who were listening. After setting up an activity for them to complete in their workbooks, I sat at a desk at the back of the room checking the work of the students who were finished.
All of a sudden, a giant BOOM came from outside the open front window. Being on the third floor and in a class of very naughty students, my first thought was, “Oh God, they finally did it, they finally pushed a kid out the window.” I looked to the faces of my students for an explanation, but all they gave me in return were scared faces, confusion, and oddly a little bit of excitement. Then some of them started saying, “firecracker” and, worse, “bomb.” I looked at the window and there were traces of smoke and an unplaceable scent seeping into the room. I went into sheer panic mode, but had no plan of attack. Then my co-teacher came running in and yelled at the students to get out of the class. The hallway was filled with students and chaotic teachers. One small, older female teacher started motioning for students to leave the building. Having no idea what hypotheses for the chaos were being spoken in Thai around me, I followed suit and descended. I ran into a fellow American English teacher on the first floor and, appearing less frightened than myself, I asked her if she’d heard the noise. She informed me it was an electrical circuit that had blown. Calming down, I thought about it and realized all the lights went out in my class after the loud noise.
I slowly came out of my state of panic, looked around, and gathered in the parking lot with the other teachers and students. Some of my students came up to me with their notebooks in hand and asked me to check their work. Brown nosers. I found my friend Leah and we swapped terror stories. Turns out she was on the second floor right next to the electrical tower that had made the loudest of noises. Before she could even finish her whole story, the teachers started calling their students back to class. Leah’s Thai co-teacher whispered, “dammit,” because apparently the mini explosion was in the middle of her naughtiest class and she just wanted to go to lunch. Me too, lady.
I hesitantly returned to class thinking there was no way my students would 1. all be there, and 2. be willing to listen. Much to my surprise, they were sitting in their seats, notebooks out, and working diligently on the activity. I guess all they needed was a midday freak out and a good sprint up and down the stairs in order to focus. Despite their random change of behavior, I ended class early because I was too frazzled to get back on track...and my lesson really sucked today.
School continued on normally. No one went home. No firetrucks came rushing to campus. Nothing happened. We went about our days without any detail on the situation, and we also went on without lights and air conditioning. So bizarre.
