Eight years at this school and there hasn't been a bear sighting in all that time. Some of the neighbouring schools are plagued by wandering bears all the time. Our side of town, just isn't really bear country.
The students were happy to fill me in - the announcement was before lunch. Although WHEN before lunch varied a great deal. It seems that there was an announcement as I was cleaning up the first cooking lab of the year. No wonder I didn't know there was a bear on campus!
If my first foods lab last year had been like this one, I certainly would have resigned the post, on the spot. Tomorrow is "Let's try to fix this mess and produce an edible apple crisp". I'll settle for an apple soggy.
I gave my demo, explained the salient points carefully, tried to not overload them... and set them to their task. Within minutes I was told someone was bleeding. Not unusual, that... but I scurried over to assess the damage. The patient was a little green. He couldn't tear his eyes from the wound, which was quite hypnotically dripping... into the sink, onto the floor... Yikes!
Switching into First Aid mode, I had him apply pressure, coaxed him to breathe more deeply... all that. Meanwhile, 20 some odd 11 and 12 year olds are on hold waiting for their ingredients, not knowing what to do. I assign a Teacher's Helper, who does her valiant best to deal with the supplies... it's a big job. My patient is still bleeding. I send a runner for help, and I move the boy out of his unit so he can sit down and I try to get the rest of the class running more smoothly.
No, it didn't help. By then, it was really too late for the rest of them. I have a fridge full of apple crisp in various states of assembly. The patient was attended to by the staff first aider, and returned before the end of class, looking much less green.
I may have been a bit green. There was blood to mop up, and while I'm not all that squeamish (I'm a mom, after all), it doesn't take much blood to make a big mess. And I was worried. Cutting your finger with a vegetable peeler must hurt... a lot... so he managed the whole situation very well.
The other classes have been told that no one is allowed to get hurt, at all, that all the turns were used up this morning. Let's hope it gets better. Tomorrow, we have to fix some apple crisps, and the 8s have Banana Muffins to bake.
