Keep your students under firm control if the fire alarm sounds and no drills have been announced. Assume the emergency is real and calmly ask your kids to line up so they can walk to their evacuation station — usually on the athletic field. As they're hustling to line up, grab your roll sheet, a clipboard with paper, and your medical box. Then, remind the kids that they've practiced many times and if they'll follow your directions they'll be safe. Lead the kids outside single file, but before closing the door, scan the room to ensure that you've left no child behind.

Have your class walk single file briskly, but not haphazardly, along their familiar emergency route toward their evacuation station. If you ever had doubts about where your station was located, you've since practiced walking to it many times so that now, during a real fire, you lead your kids straight to safety. Or, if your school requires students to line up for buses that will transport them to safety, line those kids up and let the buses whisk all of you away.

Whether you're standing on the field or you're on the bus, take roll as quickly as possible. Note if anyone's missing, then ask your students if anyone's injured, following up with a quick visual check. Don't touch kids in sensitive or inappropriate areas unless, in your professional judgment, it seems absolutely necessary to do so. When an administrator comes by to check on your status, inform him at once if you have any missing or injured students. Constantly remind your kids that they must not horseplay, shove, argue, use cell phones unnecessarily, or get separated from the group. They must obey your instructions and those of valid authority figures such as other teachers, administrators, firefighters, paramedics, and police.