Jasmin, Sonia and Nicky have an afterschool class on the third floor across and down the hall from where I teach. Jasmin especially takes advantage of that fact. When I'm visible, I'm the authority. So far Mary hasn't minded this because she hasn't gotten her preschool teacher legs yet. She's only been teaching for a week and her last job was teaching 6th graders.
Friday, at the very end of the day I was jsut preparing to dismiss my class when I heard this caterwaul. I was out of my chair and across the hall before the sond I was hearing really registered. I reached the door of the classroom, nearly jostling Mary aside to get to Jasmin. Mary still had a look of disbelief on her face. Kraig, who is in the neighboring room, was three steps behind me.ÂÂ Jasmin was wailing in the doorway right in front of Mary. Sonia and Nicky were looking at me like I could fix it. The other kids were just confused.
I scooped Jasmin up and carried her out of the door. Mary explained that she had dripped some water on Jasmin. Being Jasmin, she overreacted. I got her calmed down pretty quickly and told Mary she was probably just startled. According to Mary, she was happy by the time the elevator got to the first floor.
What really scared me was, not only did I swoop in like the Marines, but I reconized the cry of one of my student across and down the hall through a closed door and over the fairly low noise level of my own class. I covered the 30 feet to her in less time than it took Kraig who was less than half that distance away. I thought it was bad when I could recognize the kids by the tops of their heads as they came up the stairs from the first floor (they're Korean so they all have basically the same hair color). I wasn't especially surprised when I could recognize their voices down the hall and around the corner. But this? This is a whole new level.
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Three Alarm Tenant
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Comments: 12
I used to work with kids and could always pick out my own from other units' little darlings/crowds ... usually it wouldn't be crying that I'd hear though - it would be bad words & tantrums