Pratfall

Somewhere in the midst of period 2 yesterday, the school secretary called me. Could I cover a 4th period (the prep) for a special ed. class? Sure, why not?

I got to class, and there was no instructional aide. (There were two one-on-one aides for one student, though.) But there was a TA, and she passed out spelling work. I looked for a lesson plan, but there wasn't one. The students sat at their seats and worked, so I let well enough alone.

Occasionally, a student had a question. How do you spell eucalyptus? (I had to look that one up. I've gotten way too used to spell-check.) How do you pronounce soprano? Which dictionary definition should I use?

Then one of the girls got up to do something (retrieve a dictionary or blow her nose), and one of the boys got up and took her seat. He had been working peacefully earlier, so I went over to find out what he needed. He told me he needed to sharpen his pencil. I gave my permission while asking why he took the girl's seat in the process. I got no answer for this.

As the boy walked back to his seat, he walked around me and somehow got his foot stuck in the girl's chair. I thought nothing of it. But instead of removing his foot from the chair, he got stuck, tripped, and fell. Oh, did I mention the boy was taller than me (not quite 6 feet tall, but in the ballpark)? So, the fall was quite the event. He made a very large thud.

On the one hand, I was concerned. I hoped he hadn't hurt himself. But on the other hand, that fall was very suspicious.

The boy said he was in pain. I didn't doubt that. I offered to let him go to the nurse. He declined. He got back to work, sort of. He complained that his arm now hurt.

The teacher returned near the end of the period. I told her of the fall. She told me that the student does that sometimes. I told her that didn't surprise me. The fall seemed kind of staged to me.