It seemed a ploy for attention, an idea that wasn't disproved when Jonathan* remained on the floor. I ignored his being on the floor for a while, and then I went over to him and asked him what was going on. He didn't reply so I asked him to write about why he was upset (this works about ninety percent of the time when the student won't respond verbally). He wrote that he was upset because Edwin* (the boy next to him) had pulled his chair out and caused him to fall. I wrote back that I hadn't realized that the chair was pulled out from under him, and it was dangerous and I would speak to Edwin after class. Jonathan continued to frown but acquiesced to my request that he get up off the floor.
I walked away and assumed he had gotten to work until I walked by again and saw that he was busy drawing a telling image- a boy riding a dolphin above the waves. The waves were labeled "piranha tank" and a boy in the water was labeled "Edwin." I smiled and let him keep at it.
Class ended and I went over to where Jonathan and Edwin were sitting. I turned to Edwin and said, "Edwin, you cannot pull chairs out from under people. It is dangerous, someone could get hurt, and it is not respectful. It's not funny when it can really hurt" or something along those typical teacherish lines. Edwin nodded and left.
Class had ended but Jonathan continued sitting and drawing. I came back to Jonathan a couple minutes later and beheld the new, improved version of his piranha tank vision; the tank and Edwin had been erased, and I had entered the picture as a mermaid! It is an ever so accurate depiction of the class, despite the slight misspelling of my name:
*names were changed
