Children are indeed members of society the moment they are born. But it is as they grow that they increase in responsibilities and wisdom and are able to make more mature decisions. You cannot expect a child to act like an adult or to be able to think like one. Certainly all children are individuals, but we must be careful in how we treat them and not expect them to be able to think out all consequences of any given situation. As members of my classroom, the children are often invited into a discussion about our class rules and policies. These discussions are guided by me and give the children opportunities to talk over the "why" of rules and procedures with one another and with me. In this way, they are making the classroom decisions their "own" and are able to "share" in the decisions in the classroom. Ultimately, I, as the classroom teacher, am responsibile for the children in my care.
Even though Deb shared that Ohio "suggests" that emergency plans are created, most of the schools with which I have worked, have a formal plan in order. The district and each individual school has plans in place to deal with varying emergencies such as fire, tornados, and lock-down situations. Plans should be practiced in drills and all staff should be trained in procedures that are necessary to each type of drill. The students have a responsibility to follow the directions given and perhaps be a "buddy" to a special needs student during an emergency. Drills provide a better understanding of what is expected of students and staff in case of emergency. As is stated in "Disaster Drills..."we need to talk to the children, not "to frighten them, but ... [to] say something to them about why we are doing this". Information for emergencies should be posted by the door and the location of this information should be familar to students as they may need to aid a substitute teacher in the procedure.
As a substitute teacher, I know that I need to look for the emergency procedures posted in each classroom. Usually, each teacher has a substitute folder prepared with a listing of where everything is in a classroom, including these emergency procedures and packets. I think that all substitutes should recieve some training in emergencies and the specific school policies. I have been unprepared as the fire alarm went off one day and I was unaware what the certain signal meant. The students had practiced and were able to let me know what type of drill it was and what I needed to take with me. This shows that the more they practice, the better prepared they are to face the emergency with calmness.
Someone in class brought up the idea of how we know if it is a real emergency so that we might have the right "mindset" and know how to deal with the students. I believe that each time the drill begins, we should treat it as the "real thing". Why should our attitudes be different? Do we expect our children to be quiet during drills? If it were a real emergency, should they be quiet? For example, in the case of a lockdown, the lights should be off, the door locked and the children should be quiet. As Brian (?) had shared, he had recently had a situation where it was "real" although he did not know it was. Be prepared and when the real situation occurs, the fear factor will be minimal.
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In my classroom we have had very serious talks about emergencies -fires, tornadoes, chemical spills etc... I believe although it may be a little scary these students need to be aware that these things can really happen. Just last week in Cleveland a school had to be evacuated because there was a discovery of a meth lab that was close to the school. Because there were a number of deadly hazardous materials in the home the school had to be evacuated. While watching the news some of the teachers had commented that they thought it was a joke and really were not prepared for a "real" situation like this. We can't use the term drill with our students. In our classrooms at our school the teachers know that it is a drill but the students do not...I do not tell them when I hear we may have a drill. We practice what we need to do during drills whether it is scary or not to them. We practice lockdown situations even though it does scare some of my students. I had a mom last year ask me about our lockdown procedure because her daughter had a nightmare about it..although I did not say this to the parent my thoughts were ..if we don't practice these drills your going to have a worse nightmare to deal with. I take these drills very seriously as my oldest sister was killed in a fire...although she knew what she needed to do..in her case another person panicked and their actions made it difficult to escape as she was trapped with no where to go. We do need to take all of these drills and practice them as they are the "real" thing. I believe all of us teachers need to consider if any changes need to be made such as my example of my classroom door not being locked form the outside. What is the point of hiding in a lockdown if they can walk right through the door? We need to all stand up and approach our administration about any concerns that we feel are in the way of keeping not just our students safe but ourselves as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Amanda, that treating drills as a real situation is important. If kids think they're just practicing they may not take the situation as seriously and will be ill prepared for the real life senario.
ReplyDeleteI think it is even good for the teachers to be unsure at times if it is a real situation or not. I have worked in rooms before where it is 2 adults with 8 kids with special needs, up to four in wheelchairs. We could prep for extra help if we knew a drill was coming. But I always wondered what would happen if there was a fire and she was in the restroom or something and I had all these students in wheelchairs.
Thinking through and conversing about some possible real life senarios at a planning session would be a good prep method for odd situations you could encounter at any time.
Our school was evacuated last year due to a gas leak, but all went well. We have been told by the administration, though, that if we are in an emergency situation and we see kids pulling out cell phones to call parents, we are to confiscate the phones. They want to avoid parents rushing to the school and causing more confusion. Any thoughts on this? Should students be allowed to call their parents during an emergency?
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