The organization could have been tighter.
In addition to it being the Friday of a week interrupted by a holiday and testing, today was also picture day at school, and I was subbing. My group was scheduled to go a little before lunch, which was actually the middle of fourth period. In addition to the class I had, the assistant and I were supposed to pick up "a few" kids from a math teacher on another team. As it turned out, thirty-five excited sixth graders and I busted into the theater, ready for their close-ups.
Fortunately, it was not my first experience with such picture day chaos. Unfortunately, there was not a single administrator or school employee in charge, nor did I know these kids. Fortunately, one of the photographers took matters into her own hands when I asked her where she wanted the students to stand and confessed that I was a substitute.
"Listen here!" she boomed from the stage, and the kids stopped wiggling like puppies for a minute and looked up at her with wide eyes. What followed was a crash course on preparing to be photographed quickly and well. As they combed their hair, straightened their collars, zipped their jackets all the way up (or took them off), and made sure their necklaces were clasped in the back, she divided them into groups and sent them to line up by one of the three makeshift studios.
"Oh, will you tell them to sit in the center section and wait when they're through?" I asked. She did, and they did.
In less than 10 minutes, we were on our way back to class. "The doors are shut," she told me, "because it's our lunch time. But just go ahead through; they're not locked."
"Thanks!" I said. "You did an amazing job up there."
"Thank you!" she shrugged. "I do a lot of middle school pictures."
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