So in order to understand this tale of the seventh grade teacher you have to know that I have trouble remembering things. I used to blame it on the medicine but now I just accept it for what it is. Today, toward the ends of 6th period, I had pretty much reached the end of my rope (this happens frequently) and a fellow teacher came in and needed some paperwork. I went to my back counter to help her when this small foreign object wacks me in the boob. This may not seem like a big dea, but please remember that throwing things is something my class has been workign on not doing for quite a few weeks now. So I look at the student whom I think is guilty and tell him to wait for me in the hall. Now, as a rule, we are not supposed to put students in the hall as a punitive thing but occasionally if I need to get ahold of the class I will ask one to wait out there so I can yell at them in private and then class proceeds almost uninterrupted. Today though was a bad memory day. I still have a headache and I was distracted by a colleague and so on and so forth.
The point of this story is that after the other teacher left I remebered that a student was there who had been out for a week and I had a grammar packet to give him. So I find it and give it to him and explain what I want him to do and them like a bolt of electricity I suddenly remember that I sent a student to the hall! So I blurt it out like an idiot that I forgot he was out there. I personally found this hilarious in that innapropriate, I shouldn't be laughing but I can't help it way. So I am standing by the door trying to compose myself to go out and yell and let's be honest, I couldn't remember what he had done. So I go out there and ask him what his excuse was, I tell him to stop throwing things and we move on.
Thankfully it will not scar this particular student for life but I am going to start having the students put a sign on the door or something when they are out in the hallway, so I don't forget them in the future. I was at this class a couple weeks ago and they told me that a teacher makes 5000 decisions a day and that 5 will impact a child for the rest of thier life. That scares me to death and ever since then I have been really weighing the smallest decsions, I think I need to go back to thinking that my decisions don't impact others and that I am only one person so how much damage can my inapropriate laughter cause. At least I will feel better.