worst teacher ever

on mondays i usually join one of my classes in the computer lab while they do type to learn. in the beginning of the year getting 20 kids on computers created mass-chaos and i was more than willing to go be an extra pair of hands as we bounced from child to child solving computer issues.

now that all of the kids know what to do the classroom teacher doesn't really need me. normally the teacher and i end up chatting since the kids absolutely do not need or even notice us unless they need permission to go to the bathroom.

today i was trying to finish up some work before i headed down to the computer lab and i lost track of time. when i realized i was already late i kept thinking 'five more minutes' as i finished an iep, planned lessons, and got ready for some meetings this week. we're closing on our house tomorrow and i had a test tonight, so i'm just a tad stressed.

i looked up and one of my friends was standing outside my office. he'd taken a friend to the bathroom and ended up waiting outside my room. "where you?" he asked, accusingly.
i launched into a "tell your teacher i'm so, so sorry!" when he looked at me and said, "5 more minutes? just five minutes. you come now."

how do you argue with that? so i followed him down the hall as he joked around with me about recess and caught me up on classroom gossip (this much verbal dialogue is very out of the ordinary for him!)

he took me over to his computer with a huge smile on his face and sat down to show me how he can "win" every time (get 100% accuracy). this is incredible. before he really only got around 30%, and that involved pounding his head against the computer, telling me to leave him alone, and throwing the mouse pad at me. in fact, i had been planning on breaking into his type-to-learn program and doing his work for him so that he could move on to the next level (as he knows everyone else is way beyond him at this point).


but no, there he was, as proud as could be.

and there i was, the guilty high-schooler, caught skipping class. i will never do that again. because when i deem myself "not needed", i apparently have no idea what kind of value an extra teacher's presence means to some kids.