This particular class has 31 students in it, every desk is full...not to mention my classroom isn't really big enough for 31 desks.
I was starting a new unit this day so the students had a few problems on the board to solve when they came in for their warm up and then I had a full lesson planned of instruction mainly from me.
As they come in, I notice one girl who doesn't seem to be feeling well. I ask her if she's okay and she tells me her head hurts really bad and she doesn't feel great, but she thinks she can make it through class.
If you know me, you know my fear of throw up so I start watching her like a hawk.
As class progresses, I can tell she is feeling worse and worse as I watch the color drop from her face. As I'm teaching, I ask her several times if she's okay. She tells me yes. Eventually she raises her hand and says no. I can tell as she leaves the room that she barely made it to the bathroom.
While I'm watching this student get really close to puking in my class, I'm still teaching and managing some silly behaviors of other students.
As I have some students working on some problems, one student isn't doing anything so I ask if he needs help. He says yes so I squat down beside his desk to walk him through the problem. As I'm talking to him, I notice something is in his mouth. I ask what it is and he says it's gum. However, he had been chewing this gum so long it had turned to liquid.
I don't know if this has ever happened to you, but it's the strangest feeling. The gum just kind of dissolves in your mouth and tastes really bad. So he looked like he was foaming at the mouth.
I asked if he wanted to go spit it out and he says yes. So I walk to the front of the room to go over the problems with everyone as he walks to the trash can. At this point, he can't take it anymore and is gagging as he walks to the trash can. Every time he gags, some of it drips out of his mouth onto the floor. He finally makes it to the trash can and somewhat spits it out, but now he has this white dissolved gum stuck to his face that he's trying to wipe off with tissues. Even though it's pretty much in liquid form, it's still sticky. I tell him to go get some water, wash his face, and then come back and clean up the floor. As this all progresses, he ends up with everyone's attention and no one is focused on math.
Once he leaves, I get everyone back on task and start talking through the next problem about the time the sick girl comes back. She walks all the way to the front of the room, right up to me to tell me she threw up. I tell her to go to the office and call home.
As I try to start going over the problem again, another student raises her hand and asks to use the bathroom. I ask if she can wait until we are done taking notes and she agrees.
So, I continue teaching . The sick girl comes back and tells me she doesn't know her phone number (you'd be surprised how many 6th graders don't know their number).
I tell her to ask the lady at the front desk to look up her number.
She gets half way out the door and comes back to tell me her grandma is out of town. I ask if she can call someone else and she says she'll try her mom.
Every time she has something to tell me, she comes to the front of room, right up to me, standing in between me and the rest of the class so she can have a one on one conversation with me while I'm trying to teach...
Ok, great...I go back to teaching.
The girl who asked to go to the bathroom calls me over to her desk to ask me again if she can go to the bathroom. I reminded her she agreed she could wait and she still agrees she can wait. This class took a bathroom break right before my class so I know she's just trying to get out of class.
As I'm going over problems and teaching, other students are raising their hands and asking great questions about what we're learning. In between the interruptions, I'm still trying to make sure everyone is understanding what I'm teaching for the day.
The sick girl comes back and tells me her mom didn't answer. I ask if she's okay and she says yes so I tell her to sit down.
I get to a point in the lesson where I give students some problems to answer to practice what we've just learned...or what I hope they've just learned. As I'm walking around checking these, the other girl, who has done nothing since she started asking to go to the bathroom, asks to go to the bathroom again. I tell her she has to do some work first...
I continue walking around and get to a boy who has nothing on his desk. I ask him where his paper is and why he isn't doing anything. He points to the floor. I look down and there is his paper...and it's blank. Everyone else is on number 4...so I ask him why he hasn't done anything. He shrugs his shoulders and says "my paper fell on the floor." I pick it up, lay it on his desk, and keep moving.
Finally we finish the lesson and line up for lunch...and that was only 1 out of 3 classes.
I couldn't help but think of the quote in the picture at the beginning of this post. These days are more common than you would think. And now you know why I am in bed by 9pm on school nights! Ha!
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