Just. Go.

I hate letting students out of my room. First off, they tend to play when in the bathroom or on the way to the water fountain. Second, my class periods are only 45 minutes ... 45 short, precious minutes to shape young minds. Every second is important.

However, I am not heartless. There are exceptions to my strictness. The obvious is vomit. If you have to hurl, you R-U-N to the bathroom. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

Just. Go.

The other is blood. Lots and lots of blood. If you are bleeding profusely, you need to take care of that. You do NOT need to do what Joseph (nope, that is not his name ... it's not even close) did during my class the other day. When his nose started bleeding, he did not get up and head to the bathroom. He calmly sat at his desk with one hand over his nose and the other hand in the air. I admit I ignored him because I was finishing an assignment explanation and thought that I might answer his question during the talk. But when I was done, and I called on him, I noticed a weird shadow on his chin. As he started asking if he could leave to go to the bathroom, I realized the kid had blood pouring out of his nose and down his face. It was everywhere. This falls under the "Just Go" rule. Joseph clearly did not get that memo.

Sadly this was the second time in the week that a student sat at his desk with blood running down his face.It's like they're terrified to get up and go take care of their minor disasters. Perhaps I should lighten up just a bit ... or just make them MORE terrified of sitting there getting blood all over everything than of going AWOL.