All in a Day's Work

I always thought that if I got hurt at school it would either because I was bitten by one of my special ed kiddos from the side jobs, or because one of my tough kids decided to take revenge...I'm only half joking.  ;)

Well, who knew that the real dangers were the actual walls, floor, and ceiling of my classroom?  This morning as I attempted to pull down the projection screen to use with my overhead, it got stuck part way down.  So, I jerked it the littlest bit and it FELL DOWN, taking a piece of the drop ceiling brackets with it, and completely clocking me in the side of the head.

Owww.

Actually, that was my actual reaction: a stunned, "Owwwww," and not the strand of expletives that were flying through my head.  How my brain made the right choice to verbalize the school-appropriate response, I will never know!   Reeling and choking back tears (seriously, it hurt THAT BAD), I booked it to the phone, stepped into the hall, and called the office:

(In a tearful voice) "Hi, this is Miss Teacher in room 202.  My projection screen just fell off the ceiling and hit me in the head.  I need someone to bring me ice and to take care of that, thanks!"

"Kids, I need to sit down, please read quietly, thank you."

I'll tell you, there is nothing like getting injured in class to shut the kiddos up!  Luckily, I ended up being fine.  I convinced the nurse not to make me go to urgent care or home, insisting that I would tell her if I thought I was going to throw up/pass out.  After about an hour of throbbing pain, I felt a WHOLE LOT better.  Phew.  What a day!!

As I was sitting icing my head and staring at the disaster zone that was my room, my first thought was actually, "I should take a picture for my blog!"  But before I could summon the energy to get my phone out, the custodians whisked away the evidence.  Here is my screen-less ceiling, minus 1 bracket:

I'm beginning to think I don't get paid enough at this job.... :)