talk about a rough day at the office............

well......it wasn't even an office........it was a whole school.......and my class of kids were the target..........
talk about a doozy prac placement!!! (and i'm not even on the payroll......pfffft!)
so......i'm essentially a 3rd year primary education student - currently on a 3 week prac block within a local primary school.
i've been assigned to a 3/4 composite class of really great kids - however some - let's say - do have some interesting behavioural issues.
today was my 7th day on prac - and things really did not go well.
today was the day that the kid (9 years old) with the most challenging behaviour lost the plot.......completely.
kids got things thrown at them and pushed - i got hit (while trying to protect some of the other kids) - i was threatened with a shovel (!?! - i kid you not) - the library got trashed around us while we were there - our class got placed into lock-down for all our protection - and for 5 minutes (that seemed like an eternity) - i couldn't find one of our class members that has mild autism and who was terrified by the events that were happening all around us.
and - to make it all the worse - the usual class teacher (my mentor - and the one that knows all these kids so well) - was absent from the school for 4 hours due to other teaching committments.
we made it through in tact - other more experienced teachers got the child in question calmed down and picked up (ie - taken home from the school) - and everyone else managed to leave the school today in one piece.
but then - once packed up - and back in the staff room - someone looked at me with 'that look' - and asked if i was ok..........
and i burst into tears.
*sad*
i came home - and headed straight to my neighbour (a very experienced teacher of special needs kids) - and upon seeing my face and hearing my story - she made me a nice strong gin and tonic, and let me cry it out on her shoulder.
needless to say - i love my neighbour to bits. xox
my mentor teacher got back to the school late - and immediately phoned me.
her first words - "mrs c. - it's mandy - please do come back tomorrow!!!!!".

i'm good - and i still have my passion in tact to follow my teaching dream.
it's just been a very rough day - and i'm sure there will be many more like this one.
this troubled child has had a very very rough start to life - and is incredibly misunderstood. i and mandy both saw the behaviours escalating earlier in the day - but our calls for help from powers above were spoken to deaf ears - and the result was some pretty wild and somewhat scary behaviour.
*sigh* - some people just don't really understand what makes some kids tick.
i hope that mandy and i can calm this all down so that my remaining 8 days are as good as my first 6.
fingers crossed for me please peeps.
hugz from me.
mrs c. xox