Every so often, perhaps once a year or so, I get a tickle in my throat that won't be denied. When it happens? I absolutely have to cough, and often tears stream down my face, and I am rendered speechless for up to a minute. And when I can actually talk again, my voice is strangled and hoarse. It can definitely be alarming to witness.
For some reason, this only occurs when I am teaching, as it did today, and how the students react can be a litmus test. This time, we were in the middle of our opening routine, where students are posting and talking and guessing. I use the time to check in with each kid and to let them know that I see them, and we can have fun learning together. But today I had to use that time to tend to a coughing fit that neither water nor drops would abate.
To their credit, the class waited quietly, allowing me to pull myself together, with a few expressions of concern, both genuine: Are you okay? and not: Are you dying?
Before the incident, I had set up a mostly student-led activity, and I bade them to continue, which they did. And here is where they really shined-- when left in charge of their own learning by a [seemingly] incapacitated teacher, they took the reins and carried on admirably.
And on the sixth class of the school year? I could not have asked for more.
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