Interrupted Conference "Period"

Ah, the cherished conference period. The 30-50 minute block of time where I can get anything and everything done—or nothing at all.

Today ,I was in the midst of checking emails and the teacher next door knocks on my door.  “I need to bring a distraught kid through your room,” he says. He opens the door to our shared storage closet and brings in the kid.

Well, the distraught kid (who I assumed was a girl) is actually one of the nicest boys I have in my Interactive Media/Game Design Class. I had both of his sisters last semester—and while they are awesome, he is awesome x 100. He always responds with a “yes ma’am.” He proudly told me the second day he was in my class that he was “the smart one” out of his seven siblings.  

So, this darling boy is sitting in the closet sobbing. I have no idea what to do.  

Finally, he starts to compose himself.

I tried to find out what was going on.

In between the sobs, he tells me, “Someone put a pad on my shirt during lunch.”

I look at him incredulously and ask, “Like a maxi-pad?”

Seriously, what is wrong with middle schoolers?

I asked him the usual questions…”Do you know who did this? How long was it on your shirt? How did you know it was on you?”

I did not ask if it was a clean maxi-pad. I assumed that it was. (Gross, I know.) I told him that he was really fantastic and that whoever did it was not the sharpest tool in the shed.

I think the tears were caused from the sheer embarrassment of the situation.

He is such a great kid, I have a feeling someone did it thinking they were just hilarious.

Thank god his teacher had the ware withal to let him come into my room so he was not even more embarrassed by his classmates and their questions and stares.

So, when my student had calmed down enough, I told him since he was there--I needed him to help me out.

He actually told me that would be a good idea, “because it would help him to take his mind off things.”

I had put some websites together to introduce my next unit on robotics and I truly did need a student to log in to see if they would work.

After he checked them out for a bit, he seemed to be in a lot better spirits.

He told me he was ready to go back to his other class.

I had him next period and he was in fine spirits.

I hope he doesn’t spend any more time thinking about the “incident” this weekend.

For me, I didn't really think of it as a conference period lost. It was just something that needed to be done. Period.