Desk Spillers

Once in a while I happen to get a student whom I will call a "desk spiller".  Not in every class, thankfully, and maybe not in every semester.

I'm worried that I have one now.

Let me explain.  A "desk spiller" is a student who, for no reason, happens to in the habit of accidentally yet consistently knocking things off of his/her desk.  I should include the words "poor timing" in the definition also.

Let me give you an example.

I have a new student, and he appears to be quite capable with English.  However, in Thursday's class I wanted to check his written work, so I moved over to his desk, yet, right when I got there, he knocked his pencil case off of his desk and bent down to retrieve it.  Since the process took a bit of time, I waited for him to surface with the pencil case.

When he did, I started to ask him--again--about his writing, yet just as I was doing so his elbow nudged his notebook off the side of the desk an onto the floor.

Thus interrupted, I waited again for him to retrieve the fallen object.

Once upright, with notebook in hand, I began a third time to query him.

Foiled.

This time his textbook fell to the floor.

With a soundly muffled curse--by this time several minutes had passed--I returned to focus my attention on the other students in the class.

Woe unto ye, desk spillers, bane of teachers!