The Bead

Last week I substituted in the same K/1 class I subbed in on St. Patrick's Day. Everything went fairly smoothly until shortly after recess. We were beginning Math after doing the Calendar and Sharing when Eric began to cry. (Eric was one of the central characters in an ongoing conflict that I described in the St. Patrick's Day post.) When I went over to investigate, prepared to deal with some argument or disagreement, Eric revealed, "I stuck a bead in my ear!" The bead was smaller than a green pea, made out of hard plastic.

Repressing a mild desire to laugh, I began to reassure him that everything would be okay. He was obviously upset and worried. Perhaps it was due to my inexperience but I left him at his table to get the pad of hall passes so I could send him to the office/nurse. That was a mistake! Immediately the experts in the room, some of whom presumably having experience in such matters, started informing Eric what he was in for.

• "It really hurts when they take it out!"
• "It might be stuck in there forever!"
• "It's gonna go into your brain!"

Eric began to get visibly more upset. I immediately went and got him, reassuring him as best I could that everything would be okay and that the kids were wrong and not to listen to them. After Eric left the room with the helper of the day walking him to the office, I calmly explained why their notions about what would happen were wrong. I'm not sure they were convinced but we eventually moved on to our Math.