You know how the "problem" kids are never absent? That's a thing. The kids that cause the most trouble almost never miss school. So I was totally surprised when *Brandon was absent that day. I even asked the class "Where is Brandon?" because even though he caused disruptions, he was hilarious, and I was kind of bummed he wasn't there. Nobody knew where he was so I went on with class as usual. The kids worked on their bell work and then we did the problems on the board and started on to the lesson.
About 20 minutes into class I heard this quiet tapping that I couldn't place. I kept going with the lesson, but I was looking at each kid's hands and feet to find the noise maker. I couldn't find it. The tapping stopped and I figured I must just be hearing things.
The tapping started again. This time I tried to walk towards the sound. I had isolated it to one side of the classroom, but I still couldn't see which student was making the noise. I started to realize that I must have finally lost it and am completely making up noises so I asked the class "Do you guys hear that?"
To their everlasting credit they all kept straight faces while they told me "It sounds like it's coming from the closet.." Some even managed to look nervous and asked if I kept any animals in there. I tried to assure them that there was no way the sound was coming from the closet, but as I was saying those words a distinct knocking came from inside the closet.
I threw it open and there was Brandon sitting inside the closet. The class erupted into laughter while I just stared in awe. He had been in there the whole time and everyone knew except for me. On the one hand I was impressed that the class could hold it together well enough to pull that off for half the class. On the other hand I was (and constantly am) surprised by how much can get by me. I really feel like I have a grip on what's going on in my classroom and then things happen like students start popping out of closets.
*Name changed to protect the not-so-innocent.
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