What's more important than teaching class?

I was standing in front of a class of fifty fifth graders, making exaggerated gestures regarding my face (we're currently learning eye(s), ear(s), mouth, nose, face, and a few associated phrases), when I saw my cofellow standing outside my class. Why is he here? I wondered. Doesn't he have class now? But he just stood outside and didn't ask me to come out, so I finished out my lesson.

The bell rang, I yelled "See you later!", my students responded in kind, and I went to see what was up. 

"The central school wants us to go for a meeting about next week's teaching competition," he told me. 

"Now?" I asked. 

"Yes, the principal pulled me out of class to go," he responded. "Do you have class next period?" 

"Yes..."

"What class?"

"3(3)."

"Okay, let's find Chen Laoshi."

So we found Chen Laoshi just finishing up his own class and told him that we had this meeting, and asked him to cover my class.

Then we walked over to the school gate where the principal was sitting. "What class were you in?" she asked me.

"5(1)."

"Oh. I didn't look over there! I looked in every classroom on this side of the school," she said, gesturing to where the third grade classrooms are, "but not over there."

So the three of us trooped over to the central school (our third cofellow is away for a couple days). What was so important that they had to pull us out of class?

A documentary. Three people from the government came to talk to us about a documentary they want to do. They want to explore the situation of Teach for China fellows in the Jietou region. What is effective? What is ineffective? What could be improved? What will we take away from our experience? They have this grand hope that in the process of making the documentary they'll be able to actually improve the education system here and then advertise what success they've had.

So we were told that we should write about our experiences here. "Just a page or two. You know, stories that you won't forget. Then we'll choose a few teachers to video." They even want to reenact some of those "unforgettable" scenes. It was not a request.

Having explained the project, they moved to leave, but then realized that for some reason they weren't quite ready to go. So they told us, "if you're not busy, sit and talk for awhile." Our principal explained, "Well they had class, but other teachers are covering, so it's okay."

We returned to school as the bell for the end of class rang. I walked to the office, opened my desk, and checked my phone. I found three missed calls from my principal.

If only days like this were a rarity. Next week, I'm missing six classes to participate in a mandatory teaching competition.