The Aggressor

What if? It's the basis of many stories. We ask. We ponder. We wonder. 

On Tuesdays I throw one out there. What if? It may be speculative. It may stem from something I see. It may be something I pull from the news. 

Make of it what you will. If a for instance is not specified, interpret that instance as you wish. And if the idea turns into a story, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements 😉

What if he does try to acquire Greenland and/or the Panama Canal? How would he do it? Are we turning into that national aggressor sending its military out to acquire territory? Aren't we over this ridiculousness yet?

Video Thumbnails

I'm slowly building up my YouTube channel. I finally put up a link in my sidebar here. (Eventually there'll be a picture there or something.) I'm working on a new video. (I'm in the process of finishing my example piece so I can finish shooting.) And I finally made thumbnails for the videos already posted. 

(A thumbnail is the image that sits on the video in the search screens. Before, I let YouTube pick a random frame from the video, but these were of a partially completed project. It's easier if people can see the completed project, because that might get people to select it.) 

It turned out that it was pretty simple to do. I used Canva. And it didn't take me long once I figured out what I was doing. 

(Figuring out what I was doing didn't take as long as I expected it to. But that time and energy needed to be factored in to the project.) 

And these are my finished thumbnails: 

Crochet Lip Balm Holder

Crochet Egg Lip Balm Holder

How to Crochet a Water Bottle Carrier

How to Crochet a Mobius Scarf

Knit Your Phone a Pyramid Pillow

I need better pictures to create better thumbnails, but these are way better than what was there before.

Starting Off on the Wrong Foot

Thursday. Fifth period geography. 

Tuesday had been a scramble. There weren't enough desks for the students. I let them sit anywhere as I hadn't had a chance to set things up. And then they had a video to watch that many of them ignored. 

Thursday was a whole different ballgame. Because I had adequate seats, I had randomized the seating assignments. They had a lot of work to complete, but they had time to get it all done. 

While on Tuesday the class was talkative, on Thursday they were quiet. Most were busy on the 200 point assignment that was due. (They could have started it on Tuesday. Most had.) 

I had two boys having a conversation. About sports. The boy on the soccer team was scrolling on his phone...

I reminded the boy that he had to maintain his GPA to be eligible to participate in his sport. He said he knew this. He said he was done with his work. 

Because I'm going to be covering this class for three weeks, Ms. B had given me access to the Google Classroom. So, boyo was done with his work? I could check. 

He had done about half of the 200 point assignment. Enough to earn about 50%. Which is an F. Fs make him ineligible to play. (And I will track down who his coach is and send them an email about the student's lack of work if that becomes necessary. I've done it before.) 

I pointed out to the boy that he had quite a lot to still complete on his assignment. And that he should maybe do that rather than scrolling on his phone. 

Did he see my point? Not really. But freshmen sometimes need to learn things the hard way. He's on sub behavior, not realizing that things are going to be graded in a timely manner. It'll be fun when he finds out just how quickly he can get behind when he chooses to scroll his phone in class rather than getting his work done.

A Bad Choice

Wednesday was way calmer on my nerves than Tuesday had been. I had had a day to get acclimated to the class I'd be covering for the next three weeks. And I got the extra desks I'd need. (See yesterday's post.)

The school is on a block schedule, so on Wednesday I had a whole new group of classes. All were semester courses, so the kiddos would be new to the room. I got to assign seats.

I like to randomize seat selection when assigning seats. That way I'm not picking on any student (or appearing to). 

I learned in teacher school to not let the kiddos pick their own seats. When you do that, the kiddos will group in ways that make classroom control harder. Difficult students will find each other and feed off each other to make things more difficult. The good kiddos will sit in the front. And friends will sit next to friends, which makes them less likely to pay attention to the teacher when instruction is being given. 

So, to randomize, I had index cards with numbers on them that I shuffled. As the students gave me their names at the door, I'd pick the next card, give them their number, and write that number on my roster. (The desks were numbered.)

Fourth period. Ninth grade geography. 

I had assigned seats. Gotten the kiddos logged into Google Classroom. And then I had an intro video about South America for them to watch while they took notes. 

As they watched the video, I translated their roster into an actual seating chart. 

I compared my seating chart to where the kiddos were sitting. There was a discrepancy. I had a boy sitting in an unassigned seat while I had a seat with a name attached that was empty. 

Carson was sitting in the last seat of a row where I had assigned him a seat at the front. Ah ha. I found him scrolling on his phone.

I went over to discuss. He swore I had not given him the number 6, that I had given him seat 9. It's kinda hard to mistake a 9 for a 6 in speech and in my writing (on a clipboard, so I didn't flip it over). He was lying. 

But, I decided to let it be. 

Why? Because I wasn't in the mood for an argument. Not on the first day.

And, the teacher's station was at the back of the room. Rather than the front.

I have way better access to him if he's in the back. 

It'll be fun to hover over his shoulder. Frequently. 

He should have taken the seat I actually assigned. 

First Day Scramble

We went back to school after winter break last Tuesday, and I already had a gig lined up. Ms. B was going to be out for the first three weeks of the spring semester recovering from surgery. 

Ms. B has two classes that are year classes, meaning the kiddos had been in the class for the first semester. Her other four classes are semester classes, meaning the kiddos would be new to her and to me. And to the classroom. 

The classroom had 32 desks. I had rosters with 35 and 37 students. Uh... 

Luckily, Ms. B is just at home recovering, so when I emailed her with a "what do I do?", she contacted the school's custodial staff to get more desks delivered. Which they delivered... after I had had the classes. 

Well, that was only one day with inadequate desks. 

(I found a folding chair and the teacher's stool for the kiddos to sit on that first day. And luckily we had a couple absences.) 

There's nothing quite like walking into a class you're going to be covering for a while cold. Something was bound to go wrong.

No Help for You

What if? It's the basis of many stories. We ask. We ponder. We wonder. 

On Tuesdays I throw one out there. What if? It may be speculative. It may stem from something I see. It may be something I pull from the news. 

Make of it what you will. If a for instance is not specified, interpret that instance as you wish. And if the idea turns into a story, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements 😉

You might have heard that Los Angeles is on fire. According to the weather report (I'm writing this on Sunday), more Santa Ana winds and red flag conditions are expected this week. Which means things are likely to get worse (even though things are getting slightly better as of Sunday) before they get better. 

And so...

In our current political climate, I had a thought...

What if the federal government refused to provide disaster aid to areas they declared "the enemy", even though they are part of the country?

This isn't very far-fetched. Last time a certain president was in charge, he wanted to deny California aid for fires. He only relented when it was pointed out that that particular county was pro him. 

(I'm too lazy right now to go looking for links for this. It happened. I'm going to be very cranky if anyone has memory-holed this and claims it didn't happen.) 

For the moment, I'm far enough away from the fires to not be in danger. I hedge this as with continuing dry conditions and winds returning, it is possible that new fires could pop up at any time. And I don't want to tempt fate. It ain't over until the winds are gone and our humidity rises.

New Project Loading...

As I predicted, the Creeper I wrote about last week:

...ended up being given to my nephews. The twins. 

I know this because my brother sent me a video of them "opening" it. (I had wrapped it in tissue paper to mail. My brother brought them the thing in that tissue but out of the mailing envelope.) It's a thing my brother does. He always films his kiddos opening gifts. 

Knowing that this would go to twins, I offered to make a second one. When my brother asked the boys, they threw out other characters that they'd like: Enderman and Zombie. (These are all Minecraft characters. I realize I haven't specified where these characters are coming from. Minecraft is a video game.)

Well, why not?

I haven't found a Zombie pattern, but I did find an Enderman one. (I haven't looked very hard so a Zombie might be possible. I saw amigurumi Zombie critters, just not links to patterns. And it was only a cursory search. Because I'm going with the low hanging fruit here. Easier one to find is the one I'm going to do.) 

There's a video:

I'm not sure how quickly I'll get this done. I'm back at work, so I have less mental energy (and less time) to work on yarny things. But there's no rush. It wasn't timed to a birthday or anything.