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!
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