Wednesday, January 9, 2008

things i am bad at as a teacher:

*recognizing when a child actually needs to go to the clinic. i usually lean to the side of "wow, look at you being brave even though you have that imaginary paper cut on your finger. go get a drink of water, take a deep breath, and then get back to work." or for the particularly difficult cases who tell me they aren't brave...
"good thing you don't need that foot to listen to a story."

because of this fatal flaw i have had my feet thrown up on. when i was wearing flip flops. to make it worse, the kid was only sick because at lunch he ate an ENTIRE KIWI to impress his friends. fuzzy skin and all.

still, no lesson learned.

so today when a child with a perfectly clean nose yelled, "I'm BLEEDING!" i did a necessary check, told him to get a drink of water, be brave, and get back in line. moments later there was blood everywhere. the floor. the walls. the kid's shirt. me. amazed at how the child predicted he was about to be bleeding moments before the blood began to pour, i hauled him into the clinic, apologizing to our awesome clinic aid for the blood streaming onto her floor all because i wasn't proactive.

but really, what's worse? sending every imaginary illness to the clinic every five minutes, or waiting until they have proven themselves.

based on smell and mess factor, perhaps i should really allow for at least some of those imaginary illnesses to make it to the clinic.

2 comments:

Jenny said...

I never send kids to the clinic either. However, I have to admit to not having faced some of the same drama as a result. Good gracious!

Silly Corn said...

I feel the same way!!! (We were actually talking about this today in the office)
But, I don't feel comfortable telling a kid that they are fine if they're telling me they're not fine. So, I usually run through the drill that the clinic aid would give:
Can you make it to the end of the day?
Did you try to go to the bathroom? Sometimes that helps.
If I send you to the clinic what would happen? What do you think the nurse will say?
Who would come to pick you up if you have to go home?
Wash it off. Wait 5 minutes. If it still hurts we'll reassess at that time.
Maybe you should sit out for a few minutes.

There is no good answer and something will always happen to reverse your thinking, but we know you are doing your best!

Side note- Based on your description I'm assuming he/she had a nosebleed. I used to have those a lot when I was younger. I can't really explain it, but if you get them frequently you just know. You can feel something happen... a sudden surge or rush feeling moments before anything happens. It's weird.