“I lost my class. I lost 20 whole humans.”

Technically I had actually only lost 10 humans because, let’s be honest, they’re second graders. They’re only half grown humans so far.

This is what I said to myself on Friday after I made my way to my second grade classroom.

I split my time between a second and a third grade classroom, but I have learned that there is definitely a big difference between the two grades. The second graders are really still just babies.

On my way back from third grade that day, I ended up standing outside of the classroom for almost 10 minutes wondering where my second graders were. They were supposed to be coming back from specials with all of the other classes, but they were the only ones who were not back yet.

I ended up making a lap from the classroom all the way down to the specials rooms twice before checking with another teacher to see if she knew where they were, but they were nowhere to be found.

What made the situation a little more off putting was the fact that my mentor teacher was not answering her phone either. No one had any clue where they were.

After a lot of searching, I ended up finding the kids in the other classroom next door reading with another class while our teacher finished up a meeting. They were pretty much hiding in plain sight.

After all of that searching, they were right next door. Sometimes in teaching, you have to basically go on a scavenger hunt just to find your kids, and that’s normal. That’s just how it is sometimes.