Teachable Moments
Friday, June 19, 2009
Things Are Not Always As They Appear
Supervision is not one of my favorite things to do, especially since we have a double nutrition and a double lunch at my school. This responsibility, alone, takes up so much of my day! On the other hand, some of my most interesting experiences as an administrator occur during supervision.
While speaking to some students in the lunch area, someone pointed to the area near the physical education building and declared, "I think something is going on over there!" I ran over and a child was laying on the ground. I thought he was hurt, so I called for back up. He was on the ground and I was leaning over him. The school police officer came over and thought the crowd around us had me on the ground until she realized that I was helping the student! While we were all standing over the student, the nurse and other security were summoned and an entire crowd had assembled in a matter of a few minutes.
After all of this hoop-lah, we realized that the student was playing with his friends and tripped over his shoe string and lost his balance! All of the adults had to rib one another because what we thought was a critical situation ended up not being one at all!
Well, this reminds me that "things are not always as they appear". Therefore, as educators, let's asses a situation before we make decisions about how to respond.
It may look one way and turn out to be quite another!
Lesson Learned!
While speaking to some students in the lunch area, someone pointed to the area near the physical education building and declared, "I think something is going on over there!" I ran over and a child was laying on the ground. I thought he was hurt, so I called for back up. He was on the ground and I was leaning over him. The school police officer came over and thought the crowd around us had me on the ground until she realized that I was helping the student! While we were all standing over the student, the nurse and other security were summoned and an entire crowd had assembled in a matter of a few minutes.
After all of this hoop-lah, we realized that the student was playing with his friends and tripped over his shoe string and lost his balance! All of the adults had to rib one another because what we thought was a critical situation ended up not being one at all!
Well, this reminds me that "things are not always as they appear". Therefore, as educators, let's asses a situation before we make decisions about how to respond.
It may look one way and turn out to be quite another!
Lesson Learned!