I was working in a 4th grade classroom and in the middle of a lesson when a tiny Asian boy came up and asked to go to the office.
Me: Can it wait till recess?
Kid: No, I stapled myself.
Now, I’ve had enough experience with almost all kinds of excuses to take a little walk to the office for every known “imagined trauma” known to kid-kind. This sounded like the “I got a paper cut, call the EMTs!!” variety.
I wasn’t going to annoy the office because of a minor “injury” like this. A cursory look showed it wasn’t even bleeding. Though one end of the staple was still sticking in the end of his finger, I was sure that simply pulling it out wouldn’t hurt and he’d be fine.
Me: Why are we playing with the stapler? We are supposed to be reading a story.
Kid: I thought it was broken and tried to fix it. I need to go to the office.
The kid is starting to appear a bit pale as I took a closer look at the injury. He had not only stuck himself in the finger with a staple, he had managed to put the staple completely through and out the other fleshy side of his finger! The boy is quivering and looking a bit green. I think he’s gonna faint on me!
Me: Go! Go now and take a friend with you.
The last thing I wanted was for the kid to faint half way to the office. I called to let them know the situation and that I had sent someone to go with him to make sure he got there.
At recess, I received an update call from the office letting me know that the staple was successfully removed by the school nurse and that the grandparents were coming to take him home. The grandparents wanted also to stop by the classroom to “inspect the stapler”. I could only wonder what answers to questions they might have from examining a common kid sized stapler.
My guess was the grandparents actually wanted to “inspect” the incompetent substitute teacher that would let their grandson become mutilated by negligently operating dangerous industrial office machinery.
So, after inspecting the kid sized finger sticker, the grandparents and the boy had a short discussion in native dialect. The boy didn’t want to go home and convinced his grandparents he could stay the rest or the day.
Tomorrow’s lesson: “Electric outlets and metal paperclips – a no, no!”
Showing posts with label injury. Show all posts
Showing posts with label injury. Show all posts
Monday, November 29, 2010
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Walk Don’t Walk…
At the elementary school, yard duty is actually pretty boring duty. Be the adult presence in the yard. Walk around and keep the peace. Attempt to have the eyes in the back of your head to see that errant basketball before it hits you in the back.
“Walk! Don’t run!” is the order of the day even though it seems counter productive to not to encourage a healthy activity like running just for the fun of it.
Someone might fall and hurt themselves is the explanation. But we’re sending mixed signals, commanding kids to “RUN! Don’t walk!” laps during P.E. class. These are the same kids who would willingly chase after each other at tilt-a-whirl speed for the entire 20min recess if we let them.
The playgrounds we had when we went to school were all concrete or asphalt. Yea, there were some skinned knees and sore elbows, but it was part of the risk of having fun. You quickly learned the limits of your gymnastic ability.
Now the school playgrounds, where all the climbing bars, swings and slides are located, have a spongy rubber matted surface underlay to cushion any fall. Does this reduce the risk of injury? My informal observations seem to indicate that kids tend to jump off swings and climbing bars from much higher heights than I ever remember doing.
I guess I’m supposed to discourage jumping off things any higher than a foot or so but they don’t seem to be injuring themselves, so I let it slide. They’re having fun.
(…Why is that teacher with the horrified look running over here? Should blow my whistle and yell at her to “WALK, DON’T RUN?”)
“Walk! Don’t run!” is the order of the day even though it seems counter productive to not to encourage a healthy activity like running just for the fun of it.
Someone might fall and hurt themselves is the explanation. But we’re sending mixed signals, commanding kids to “RUN! Don’t walk!” laps during P.E. class. These are the same kids who would willingly chase after each other at tilt-a-whirl speed for the entire 20min recess if we let them.
The playgrounds we had when we went to school were all concrete or asphalt. Yea, there were some skinned knees and sore elbows, but it was part of the risk of having fun. You quickly learned the limits of your gymnastic ability.
Now the school playgrounds, where all the climbing bars, swings and slides are located, have a spongy rubber matted surface underlay to cushion any fall. Does this reduce the risk of injury? My informal observations seem to indicate that kids tend to jump off swings and climbing bars from much higher heights than I ever remember doing.
I guess I’m supposed to discourage jumping off things any higher than a foot or so but they don’t seem to be injuring themselves, so I let it slide. They’re having fun.
(…Why is that teacher with the horrified look running over here? Should blow my whistle and yell at her to “WALK, DON’T RUN?”)
Friday, September 09, 2005
What Time Is Lunch?…
PVES-OG-G2
The detailed three page lesson plan for this 2nd grade class assignment was clear, concise and complete. The required materials were labeled and arrayed in order of use on a desk in the corner of the room. I couldn’t ask for a better start.
Then the kids came in.
No one in this class can seem to ask a question unless their nose is planted squarely in my face.
ME: “Ok! RULE for today! You have sit down and raise your hand to ask a question.”
I think I repeated this phrase ten thousand times that morning and still there would be a tug on my [shirt/pant leg/hand/arm]: “[Where/what/when/how/why/can] I [read/ write/ get/ put/ have] [that/ this/ he/ she/ it/ them]?”
Each time I’d look the little yanker kid (YK) in the eye and ask: “Are you in your seat with hand raised”?
YK: “Oh…I forgot.” And back to his/her seat they go.
(Repeat this scene all morning…)
Finally, during the math work sheet, a hand is raised! The little YK is IN her seat!
Praising the little YK for being seated and quietly raining her hand, I smilingly ask: “Now what question do you have?”
YK: “What time is lunch?”
ME: Eyes closed, rubbing forehead with thumb and index finger. “Ok. Listen up. New rule! You have sit down and raise your hand to ask a question AND the question has to be about the work we are doing NOW!”
The rest of the day we worked on the “…work we are doing NOW!” with not much progress.
Class behavior report:
Four boys earn first level warning cards for acting up in class.
One boy earns a second level timeout after throwing a fit about getting a warning card.
Injury report:
“Throwing Fit” kid fakes fall and points to elbow claiming to need a cold pack from the health office. He becomes indignant and starts to cry when request is refused. Somewhat mollified when supplied wet paper towel.
Oh Damn! report:
Kid waits too long to ask permission to go to the bathroom. We have leakage. Janitors do “Rock, Paper, Scissors” to do choose who gets damage control.
Summary:
The lesson plans were great but execution of the plan not so smooth.
I’m taking Monday off…
The detailed three page lesson plan for this 2nd grade class assignment was clear, concise and complete. The required materials were labeled and arrayed in order of use on a desk in the corner of the room. I couldn’t ask for a better start.
Then the kids came in.
No one in this class can seem to ask a question unless their nose is planted squarely in my face.
ME: “Ok! RULE for today! You have sit down and raise your hand to ask a question.”
I think I repeated this phrase ten thousand times that morning and still there would be a tug on my [shirt/pant leg/hand/arm]: “[Where/what/when/how/why/can] I [read/ write/ get/ put/ have] [that/ this/ he/ she/ it/ them]?”
Each time I’d look the little yanker kid (YK) in the eye and ask: “Are you in your seat with hand raised”?
YK: “Oh…I forgot.” And back to his/her seat they go.
(Repeat this scene all morning…)
Finally, during the math work sheet, a hand is raised! The little YK is IN her seat!
Praising the little YK for being seated and quietly raining her hand, I smilingly ask: “Now what question do you have?”
YK: “What time is lunch?”
ME: Eyes closed, rubbing forehead with thumb and index finger. “Ok. Listen up. New rule! You have sit down and raise your hand to ask a question AND the question has to be about the work we are doing NOW!”
The rest of the day we worked on the “…work we are doing NOW!” with not much progress.
Class behavior report:
Four boys earn first level warning cards for acting up in class.
One boy earns a second level timeout after throwing a fit about getting a warning card.
Injury report:
“Throwing Fit” kid fakes fall and points to elbow claiming to need a cold pack from the health office. He becomes indignant and starts to cry when request is refused. Somewhat mollified when supplied wet paper towel.
Oh Damn! report:
Kid waits too long to ask permission to go to the bathroom. We have leakage. Janitors do “Rock, Paper, Scissors” to do choose who gets damage control.
Summary:
The lesson plans were great but execution of the plan not so smooth.
I’m taking Monday off…
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Triage...
CES-OG-G1
At first, things started smoothly with these seventeen first graders.
Then, while returning from the first recess one of the girls said she didn’t feel well and wanted to go to the health office. As a second year veteran substitute teacher, I know that the kids are always trying to get out of class to the bathroom, health office or anyplace that’s not in the classroom. Instead, I applied the medicinal cure-all wet paper towel. She was happy with that, but I kept an eye on her just in case.
Ten minutes later I sent her off to the health office with a note. She was back less than ten minutes after that with a note from the school nurse saying she seems fine now and her temperature was 99F. It WAS a hot day and the kids WERE running around at recess.
By the time lunch bell rang she looked a lot worse and was complaining about a headache so I dropped her off at the health office once again on the way to deliver the rest of the kids to the cafeteria. During lunch I got word that she was going home with a temp of 102F
After the lunch recess, the yard duty people informed me that another one of the girls in my class had fallen on her back from the monkey bars and was being sent home.
Back from lunch, yet another girl was staring at the ceiling while pointing to her bloody nose while the boy next to her pulled up his pant leg and promptly picked a scab off his knee that started bleeding.
YIKES! In less than half a day, almost 25% of my class is sick, maimed or injured! Fortunately the wet paper towel cure worked on my last two mini-patients. I closed out the day reporting only a 12% medical emergency loss of students in my report to the teacher.
What a day. I hope I can get through the next class injury free.
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