Home Base

Wednesday. Special ed math. (I was covering Ms. L, who at this point I know rather well.) 

First period was co-taught with Mr. J, who was also out. He had left a test. I took the special ed kiddos next door to the math learning center so they could do their test. 

{My big drama for the period was when one kiddo made a dramatic entrance about halfway through the test. He was supposed to be with me, but he remained behind, not sure why. I called names of who was going. One reason the kiddos take tests separately is because the special ed kiddos are allowed to use their notes on the tests--it's one of their accommodations. So, when the other sub caught him using his notes, he understandably called the student on it. 

Apparently Mr. J lets him remain as Mr. J knows who is allowed the notes and who is not. But subs. So, the student got sent to me, and he was not happy about it. 

I know how Mr. J will react to this. Something similar happened last year. Mr. J has told the kiddos that they can follow the sub's instructions for the day. They're old enough to go with the flow for one day. But sophomores. They get touchy about things.}

Then third period was Mr. L's conference period. (The school is on a block schedule. This was the odd day.) I remained in the learning center as that's where Ms. L's desk was located. I was just settling in for a little break (opening Feedly and getting ready to read through the day's blogs) when I got a call from the sub secretary, Sherry. Could I cover a third period? Deep sigh. 

I packed up my stuff and headed out. When I got to Ms. G's temporary classroom [her a/c wasn't working, and last week our temps hovered around 100℉ (that's about 38℃)], I learned that the lesson was for them to take a test. And the co-teacher I was covering was to take the special ed students to another classroom so they could test in a quieter setting. Guess where. 

So, we hiked back to the learning center. 

I plopped my stuff back on Ms. L's desk, and I watched the kiddos take their test. (Things went smoothly.)

If I had known I was going to spend two periods in the same room back-to-back, I would have set up a more comfortable spot to observe from. But some days kind of take you by surprise. (The rest of the day I was in different classrooms.) 

The Competition

Monday. Tenth grade English. Co-taught. 

The kiddos had some questions to answer from their reading of "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe, and then they were to begin reading the articles for their district writing essay (that they do once a quarter). And other than the kiddo in period eight who thought that that was the perfect time to blow up balloons and make balloon animals for everyone, the students spent their time making progress on their assignments. 

It's early October (at least, this day was), and while I had been scrambling for assignments, August and September were mostly filled with working days. While I was booked for most of last week, that was the extent of my bookings. The rest of October and November (and December and after) were completely blank. 

But this is when the jobs start popping up. 

I was seated, watching the kiddos work, when I got an alert on my watch. New job. I grabbed for it. Missed. Damn.

Then another job popped up. This one I caught. 

I looked over at my co-teacher for the day. Mr. H. The usual co-teacher was also out at the meeting (or whatever) that had taken Mr. E, so it was us two subs. Mr. H has been a sub about as long I have been, and we get along. We've both been trying to keep busy working. So, when I realized that someone (likely Allie) was putting in gigs, I let him know jobs were being input. 

Then another gig popped up. I grabbed for it. Missed. 

I turned to Mr. H. "Did you get it?" Nope. 

He got an alert that I did not get. (I heard his phone alert.) He grabbed for it. I think he missed it, but I'm not sure. 

Why didn't I get that alert? It could be that it was on a day I already had a job, or it could be that it was taken before it got to me. No matter. 

We both kept looking. Not much was input for a while. Or, at least I didn't get alerted. 

The class was working quietly. My computer alerted. I grabbed, and I got it! "Yes!" I probably shouldn't have said that out loud, but it just slipped out. 

Mr. H? He was still trying. 

At the end of the day I had picked up three assignments. During the rest of the week several jobs came up for grabs, and while I would have liked to have gotten more of them, I got a fair number. 

As of this writing, I have at least one gig booked for each week of the next six weeks (two weeks with one, three weeks with two, and one week with three), and a teacher reached out to let me know he'd be out for December and could I cover his classes? 

So, I'm working. Mr. H? He's working, too. Hopefully more days will pop up. I mean, it's likely. People get sick. Things happen. It'll be fine. 

At least I've got some things coming up that are already booked. 

How Goodhart's Law Explains Why Social Media Is So Bad

It was a hot week. I caught some sort of stomach bug (more of a minor irritation than anything that knocked me down for the count). And I've just been trying to hold on. I wasn't really paying attention to, you know, everything. 

Although, if a certain someone gets outside forces to take out Los Angeles, that's me. I'm not in Los Angeles proper, but a good nuclear blast would be close enough to take out my city. So, that attack was personal. 

Anyway, I'm being lazy this week with a video I stumbled across. It talks about Goodhart's Law, which states, "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure". In this video, at about 3:54, they say something very interesting about how they started measuring social media engagement, and discovered that outrage keeps people online longer. This explains a lot about our current online issues. Food for thought. 

But I can't leave this post without some "resisting" content, so from Rachel Maddow, the word most picked by people to describe you-know-who is corrupt. Unsurprising, really. 

I hear there are No Kings protests coming this weekend. Just a heads-up in case you hadn't heard (like I hadn't until just before writing this post). 

A Beginning and an Ending

As I mentioned last week, I still had some filming to do to complete the video tutorial for the ugly slippers. Not anymore. I managed to complete the filming. Probably. 

With the slippers completed, I just had the opening to do: 

And the closing: 

And a few spots in between, mostly the gauge swatch and how to measure everything. 

Now I need to go through what I filmed, choose the best versions, upload those so that my brother has access, and wait for him to have time to put it all together. (He has a full-time job. He'll get it done when he can.) 

I also need to come up with a video title and create the video thumbnail. That will include getting decent photos of the slippers. 

So, the actual video won't be done for a bit yet. But progress. I'm content with it. 

Cure for Sub Boredom

Culinary arts. Friday. Sixth period. 

Yes, that's cooking. Yes, home ec is still around, although they don't do sewing anymore. I think it's considered a CTE class, that is career and technical education. 

The assignment was a cooking video and then they had questions to answer. 

The video: 

They had the video in their Google Classroom as well as the questions. I played the video on the big TV, but I wasn't too concerned when they ignored it as I could hear it playing from some of their computers. 

I walked the room to talk to a student about something, I forget what. Then another student said something, and I offered my help. I said what I always say. 

"I have nothing else to do, so please, if you need some help, let me know."

The student? 

"You can stream a TV show from your computer," and as she said it, she motioned towards the teacher's desk as if to say I should go there and not bother them. 

Yikes. That was dismissive.

But, teenagers. 

And seriously, they didn't need my help. I was being way too much. Which is part of the fun of subbing with teenagers. It is so much fun to be way too much when they are doing their sullen teenage thing. 

I got my revenge. I took a picture of their cell phone storage which wasn't holding many of their cell phones. And I sent it to their teacher. Bwa-ha-ha!

Phoning It In

Signs I've been subbing too long:

When I got the keys for the day, the secretary told me that Mr. J was in room 908. But I knew that was wrong. I knew that Mr. J was in room 911. Room 908 doesn't really exist. So, I asked for the key to room 911. 

I got to where Mr. J's room was, between rooms 910 and 912, and sure enough, the door now says room 908. I tried the key for 908, but it didn't work. I tried the key for 911 which did. 

So... why? One day (a day I was on the campus for, it happened last year when I was in that vacant art class) people on campus tried calling Mr. J in his classroom. The number to dial is the room number. But on this day, that 911 ended up going straight to the outside emergency line, and it broke the entire school's phone system. 

They reprogrammed his phone to extension 908 (as nothing else worked and that extension number was free), and I guess they had to make the room number match the extension number. 

Once in the room I found no lesson plans. But as the kiddos were arriving, the phone rang. Mr. J. I knew he wasn't going to leave me hanging, but he was running late, and he let me know to stall until he got there. (He was going to be out of class for a meeting, but he'd be on campus.) 

And after getting the kiddos going (he got there shortly after I took roll), he promised to put another assignment into Google Classroom for the students who were ahead. Alas, he did not do this as once he got to his meeting he got involved in his meeting. 

(I texted him to remind him, but he didn't check his phone until way later. Not in time for that class, but he put the assignment in for the next group.)

The class? Eighth grade science. 

The last class of the day was 8th grade success. It's basically a study skills class. Mr. J had thrown together a plan, and I was in the process of getting them started when another adult arrived. She explained that she was there to do a drug prevention presentation to the group. 

Considering how the day had gone thus far, I was not terribly surprised that Mr. J had forgotten. 

Did the kiddos pay attention? Once the presenter bribed them with candy, they were more receptive to the information. 

Some days... 

Stylin' the Eighties

Chemistry. Tuesday, eighth period. 

The lesson plan for the day was for them to complete some surveys the district was requiring of all the high school students. Mr. U said that it should take the whole period, but teenagers rush through things, so many were finished with much time to spare. 

Mostly they were sophomores, and mostly sophomores know how to not make a nuisance of themselves when they've finished their work. Most have learned how to sneak onto video games. 

But not Jessie. No. Jessie first distinguished himself by taking 20 minutes in the restroom. In a building where the restroom was steps away from the classroom. Deep sigh. 

I'm not going to list all of Jessie's misdeeds, mostly because as I write this it's been four days since I covered the class and I've forgotten exactly what it was that made him stand out. Self preservation, I think. I can't keep all of the silly things they do at the forefront of my memory. 

Why Jessie made the blog has to do with the last thing he talked about, just before the final bell rang. 

He asked me if I wanted to cut it off. Cut what off? 

He reached around his neck and pulled out a long, narrow braid... 

A rat's tail?!?

Suddenly, I was a seventh grader again. I think that's the last time I saw one of those. They're back? Really? 

So, I said the first thing that popped into my head. 

"1983 called. They want their hairstyle back." 

But the bell rang at the same time, so Jessie did not hear me. 

I'm not upset. It was a rather weak joke. It's been made hundreds of times. Just not about rat's tails. 

Rat's tail. 

Wow. 

I did not expect to see that style return.