Heart attack teaching day!

Kind of like what eating 16 of these will do to you. All at once. And only the chocolate-caramel outside.

Introducing a new tag: heart attack teaching day! I've actually had quite a few of these, so I'm surprised I've just thought of the idea now.

Today was a pretty big heart attack teaching day, even though it was only one incidence (oh yes, there are heart attack teaching days FULL of incidences). My routine is to go get the students at the recess bell and bring them in from the line in the playground. Today was no exception.

Except one of my students had an asthma attack. Without his inhaler on him.

I, nervous newbie student teacher that I am, panicked. By panic, I mean P.A.N.I.C.K.E.D.

What do you do when something like that happens to a student, and you can't leave the other 27 alone. And you are not certified to do any medical thing other than administer CPR (and I honestly never want to, even though I know how). And the school nurse is only on campus THREE DAYS out of the week due to budget cuts. And the school office where the student's extra inhaler and medications are, is a stone's throw away for a healthy person but seems like miles away for a kid who is being strangled by inflamed muscles. What the hell do you do?

Well, the proper procedures are to send another student (preferably a healthy one) with the asthma attack student to the office. Needless to say, I didn't do that.

Luckily, the student got over his attack. I'm not sure how one "gets over" an asthma attack without some sort of medication, but apparently he did.

In any case, it was a heart attack day for me. Note to self: be sure to know which student has what medical conditions! Have my own emergency kit in the classroom handy. And make sure said students have their inhalers on them at all times.