You just can't make it up. One minute I'm at school grading projects--and the next--we are having a fire drill BECAUSE THERE IS A REAL FIRE. As a seasoned teacher--I have been on countless fire drills. They are just a fact of life. We drag all the kids outside--take attendance--keep kids orderly. OK--so we go out for THIS drill--THINKING IT'S ONLY A DRILL--and it's NOT. It took me a few minutes to wrap my head around the situation. Thankfully--we got all the kids out safely and later home. You can drill all you want BUT until it happens at your school.....The good news is that we had just practiced a whole new fire drill line up/system two days before so the kids knew what to do. Although only one office was affected by the fire, countless others have water damage and the whole school will have to undergo a major clean up. Hopefully we will be back in school sooner than later but just think of all the extra reading I can do. I recently finished a beautifully written book by Elif Shafak called
There are Rivers in the Sky. This historically based novel is set against the Tigris and the Thames and has four main characters who are connected through the centuries by one drop of water. King Ashurbanipal of ancient Mesopotamia in the 7th century B.C., whose library held the original
Epic of Gilgamesh that is later discovered by archeologists. Arthur Smyth in the 1800's, a product of the slums, who by grit, determination and brilliance eventually escapes to study the ancient world. Narin, a young Yazidi girl, who lives by the Tigris River in Turkey who is forced to flee with her grandmother because of ISIS in 2014, and finally Zaheekhah, a water scientist in London, recently divorced who faces an identity crisis in 2018. Their stories and the supporting characters in the book are interesting and I really enjoyed learning more these areas. Check it out and let me know what you think.
