Ace in my Pocket

There's something about seeing a sub that makes some students turn off. Especially at the continuation high school.

Mr. H is not a popular teacher. He's strict. He requires his classes to work silently. And they resent him for it. So, when I show up, the class relaxes (read: I can't get them to do anything).

Actual student quote: "A sub? Good. I'm not going to do any work today."

But as luck would have it, it was Thursday. At the continuation high school.

BUYOUTS!!!

I explained that if they wanted me to sign their buyouts, they had to do the work. And finish. (I've had students do one or two questions and think that's enough.)

But of course some students can't buy out. The student who said the above? Didn't do any work. Also, he didn't have a buyout.

Every student who had a buyout, however, did do the work. So, it was a win for me. Sort of.

Illusory Question

I'm going to keep it fairly simple today:

What if everything but you was an illusion? How did that happen? Why?  

Any Excuse

There are certain classes I dread covering. In this particular math class at the continuation high school, the students rarely do any work. (The teacher assigns work. And he tries to keep the students in line. But they've decided that this is the class where they won't do anything, so they don't.)

I passed out the assignment. Offered my assistance. (It's math. I can handle just about any topic.) Then I took my usual perch.

As per normal, they ignored the assignment. Suddenly, the lights went out.

I took a quick inventory. The sky outside was cloudy, but there was enough light in the room to see. They were doing worksheets, so their assignment required no electricity. They could continue "working".

"We can't do anything now. There's no power."

Not that they were doing anything before. I pointed out that they could do their assignment perfectly well even without power.

Less than a minute later, the power came back on. Crisis averted?

Surreptitous Station Switch

I don't know why this is, but students seem to work better when they have music playing in the background. They're not allowed to listen to their mp3 players at school (school rule), but when they do, they tend to mellow and focus on their work. (Not that I've ever looked the other way when students surreptitiously slip earbuds in as they're doing their work or anything.)

Math class. Ms. P keeps a radio in the room. The students all asked if we could have it on while they were doing their assignment. (Algebra 2 class. The assignment was about arithmetic and geometric sequences.) As this wasn't the first time I'd covered this class nor the first time they'd asked for the radio, I figured this was a normal occurrence, so I allowed the music.

I turned off the radio for passing period, though. It's distracting to have commercials in the background as I do my normal intro and get the class going with the assignment.

After the intro in fourth period, a student walked over to the radio. I had almost forgotten it, so I didn't think anything of a student turning the radio on. But, he was there for an awfully long time. The power button isn't that hard to work.

So, I wasn't surprised when the radio was tuned to a different station. I walked over and found the radio tuned to Power 106.

I've done the radio on in the background before. It can turn into a battle between factions in class. My solution in this case was to leave it on the station that Ms. P leaves it on all the time. I worked the tuning button.

Another student observed what I was doing. He chided the other student for turning the station. "We normally listen to 102.7," he told me.

Nice try. But nope, they normally listen to Jack FM. At least, that's the station the radio was tuned to first thing in the morning. And the last three times I've covered the class. (I've met their teacher. She seems like a Jack FM person.)

Enhanced Interrogation?

Usually, I find I need a long winded explanation to set up my "what ifs". But I think that today's question benefits from no setup whatsoever. 

What if someone (or something) figured out a way to make you think you had dementia as a way to extract information from you?

I Want a Blogging Social Network

Add this to the list of things I really, really want but don't have the technical skills to make a reality.

We all know Google Reader is going away. This is a bad thing for those of us who try to keep up with a plethora of different blogs. By far, the RSS thing is the best way we have of keeping track. But the more I think about it, the more I notice that the RSS system has some serious flaws.

Keeping up with commenting is tedious. For every blog I comment on, I have to click on it from my reader, wait for the everything to load, wade through the other comments, and then post my comment.

Then, if I want to check on follow ups, I have to remember which blogs I commented on, go back to the old posts, wade through the comments... More often than not, I don't go back.

But this thought hit me the other day. What if there was a better way? What we need is a blogging social network.

Imagine. A reader-like system where you could make your comments. Have those comments appear on the blog you want them to appear on. Then, it would keep track of the fact you commented, and it would notify you of any follow up comments.

Yes, I know there are plenty of social networks out there. You can upload your blog. Follow others. But they don't really play well with blogs. Not in the way I'd like them to, I mean. Because, while you can make a comment on the social network, it's separate from the blog itself. And the system I want should integrate with the blogs.

If I had a modicum of computer programming know how, I'd be working on the coding right now. But since I don't, I'm putting it out there. Would someone please make a system like this for me?

Not an A Student

It's standardized testing time.

This makes for kind of a long day. They had a three hour and fifteen minute testing block followed by three full period classes. By the end of the day they're kind of wiped out.

This day's assignment was a simple read-the-article-and-answer-questions in an environmental science class. I explained the assignment, passed out the article, and looked around for trouble.

One student wasn't even making a pretense of doing anything. When I asked him, he explained that he was tired. I understood. I explained that it was an easy points assignment, and that if he needed help, I was available.

"I don't need the points. I have an A- in this class."

A girl sitting right in front of me snorted. The boy didn't notice. The girl told me that the only As in the class belonged to her and the two students who sat around her--the only three who ever did any work in the class. Apparently, Mr. A- never did any work. Ever.

This was not a surprise to me. A-students tend to not announce the fact. You can tell who they are by their work ethic. They're working.

Mr. A- looked familiar to me. Not in a good way. But I think it's about time I learn his name. I have a feeling I'll be seeing a lot more of him. At the continuation high school. In the near future.