I got a phone call from my wife during school today – she told me that my older daughter is sick at daycare. I tell her that I’ll take care of it, and hang up. Unfortunately, I left my wallet at home, and the daycare is unlisted in the phonebook, so I call my wife back, but only get her voicemail. Thank goodness for email, I had the phone number from my wife in five minutes and I called the provider. They told me that she isn’t feeling well, just a bit tired, but is complaining about a backache. She doesn’t have a temperature, though. When I get the flu, my back is the first thing to hurt, so I was thinking that this might be a long weekend for my daughter.

During my lunch, I go to the secretary who can’t find a substitute for me, especially this late in the day. (The secretary did give me a list of teachers who had periods off in the afternoon so that I could go ask them to cover my class, but I certainly didn’t have the time to do it). I really hate missing days of school, didn’t miss any days in five years before I had kids, but I thought that this was just going to be one of those days. So I went to get my daughter and planned on bringing her back to school temporarily to begin my walk around the school searching for people to cover my classes for the rest of the day so I can get my daughter home. She was laying down on the couch at daycare when I got there and said that her back didn’t hurt, but her tummy did a little. I asked her if she would rather go home (which means I would have to face the wrath of my secretary on Monday for leaving her in charge of finding someone to be me for three hours) or to my school. She said that she wanted to go to school…she could play PBSKids on the computer for awhile, at least. She likes drawing on the boards, too.

So I get to school. My fourth period comes in and “oooos” and “ahhhhs” because one of my kids is with me. I get the kids started on their work (thankfully we are doing a review section), set up PBSKids, and then go to ask if the secretary had any luck finding a substitute. “No”. So back to the classroom I go. I begin walking around the classroom when the two girls who sit adjacent to my desk say, “Um, Mr. IB?” I look over to see my daughter has puked all over herself, my desk, herself, the keyboard, herself, my chair, and the floor.

Well, now my room smells, my daughter is a mess, but, armed with this new information, the secretary puts some effort into getting someone to cover my class! I take my daughter to the school nurse (across the hall – how nice!) and have her lay down. I get teachers to cover my classes and I am out the door.

Now this whole episode in class didn’t take much time – my daughter was just there a few minutes when she got sick. It did take a lot of time to clean up the mess, talk to the secretary, and such. But my kids (students) were awesome. They worked very well, despite the fact that I really could not spend any time with them. As a comparison, my first hour class (same course) required a great deal of effort for me to get them started and a little to get them to continue working. My fourth hour, realizing my predicament, were fantastic. I’ll have to do something nice for them on Monday.

Kids do rise to the occasion if emergencies happen infrequently. I remember having a headache so bad once, that I told my kids to work on their homework while I just sat down and literally massaged my temples and tried not to cry out in pain. They practically whispered to each other in their groups the entire period.