That Teen Attitude

Thursday. Third period.

It was a pause day in our reading of The Great Gatsby. The students had an assignment on various quotes from the book, and I was giving them the period to complete it. It was also some time for them to go over the chapters to prepare for an upcoming quiz. 

I had explained the assignment, solicited questions, and released them to work independently. The room settled. I took a quick walk around the room to make sure they knew I was available for questions. 

I passed behind Aria. She had a computer out, but propped on it was her phone. With a movie playing. Deep sigh. 

"Are you going to get to work?" I asked, in my sweetest, quietest voice. 

Aria turned towards me with a look of such malevolence that I was surprised her head did not continue all the way around in a full circle. 

This is the girl who complained that I didn't give them more in class time to complete a previous assignment. 

And so many of them had phones out and were clearly not working on the assignment. 

Ah well. I suppose they don't need class time to finish their work anymore. Fine by me. I'd rather spend time on the chapters, anyway.

Sideways

Tuesday. 

You ever have one of those days? Nothing wrong, exactly. It's not a bad day. But things just kinda feel off. 

First off, I was running late. (I ran late all week. Just tired. Even though I'd been sleeping.) When I got home and looked in the mirror, I realized I had forgotten to apply makeup before leaving for school. And I didn't even notice all day. Sigh. 

I start my day with the daily Wordle. I do this as I log into the computers (for this gig, I've been using three, daily... well, four if you count the in-class TV screen). And... Hole in one:

And you know my first reaction? "Damn it! Now I have to find a new starter word." (It's now "tenor". In case you're interested.) 

Just as I was coming to terms with that (and while I was eating a muffin), the assistant principal dropped in. (It was my prep period. I was kind of trying to sort of prep.) I did need to see him. 

I have two ELD classes. They have to take a test yearly called the ELPAC. A few of them really need to take it so they can reclassify. (They'd be considered "fluent" in English, so they would no longer need to take an ELD class.) I can't give it because sub, so I have to coordinate with another teacher to get it done. 

The assistant principal came by to discuss when we'd get this done. He proposed doing it Wednesday/Thursday. But, long story short, that fell through as the teacher who would have done it then was actually out on Tuesday, so he couldn't coordinate anything. Naturally. 

I went back to getting prepped for the day. I looked over the next quiz the eleventh graders would take on The Great Gatsby. And as I read through it, I discovered that there are questions on it that I have not covered. Stuff like symbolism. And... Yeah, probably should mention some of this stuff so the quiz doesn't take them by surprise. 

It's always something. I suppose I should have realized that things were going too smoothly. I had to be missing something. Hopefully I found most of the issues. 

No Spoilers

Monday. Seventh period. 

It was the end of the period. The kiddos had put away their Chromebooks and were lining up at the door. 

Elliot: "Oh my god! Chapter seven..."

The eleventh grade English classes are reading The Great Gatsby. I may have mentioned this once or twice. On Monday, they had a quiz on the first three chapters. And then we started reading chapter four together. 

However, some students are reading ahead. I'm not sure why as we will be reading the whole thing together, but whatever. I'm not going to stop them. 

Elliot's been a chapter or so ahead for over a week. He was kind of bragging how far ahead he was. But this day, he was blown away by the events of chapter seven. 

And... Well... Yeah. I'm not giving spoilers for those of you who may be tempted to read it. But here's a link to the chapter summary for those of you who would like a reminder or aren't worried about spoilers. Anyway, chapter seven is a humdinger of a chapter. 

I nodded in understanding. Dennis, who sits next to Elliot, was also a bit blown away, as he said he looked over at what Elliot was reading. Elliot pointed out that Dennis really needed to read the prior chapters as they set the scene for chapter seven. 

"Just don't spoil it for the rest of the class, please," I asked. 

Elliot: "Oh no. I want to see their reaction when they read it." 

Me too, actually. 

Although, considering how bland their expressions are, I rather think they won't visibly react. We'll see. 

As for the quiz, they did pretty well. So, maybe they're not reacting, but it seems like they're following along with the plot just fine. 

Information Is Key

There are some people we can't reach. These people are fully in the cult. No matter what arguments we make, they'll still believe the lies of the regime. In fact, they might actually approve of what the regime is doing. 

And yet, it seems like in general, they seem to be the ones that get targeted by all the memes and arguments and media. 

We forget that there are so many people who just don't want to get political. The low-information voters. And the mass media has downplayed and normalized all the horrors. These are the people we need to reach. Because they don't realize how bad things truly are. 

And things are bad. ICE arrested a sitting mayor and disappeared him. A woman who was arrested for writing an op ed (and denied her asthma medication, so she was in severe respiratory distress) was finally released, but only after hard fighting to get her out. RFK Jr wants to create a list of autistic people (and why would the government want a list like that?). The regime is ignoring judicial orders. And that's just the things I can think of off the top of my head. 

So, what should we do? 

Well, first, call your reps and register your opposition to them cutting Medicaid. Then, don't help the regime make any lists. Be aware of where ICE is in your community, and if you see them kidnapping people, do what you can to impede them. (I know, some will only get themselves kidnapped too, so only what you can safely do.) 

Finally, I'm including last week's Last Week Tonight (just because)... 

...and a video that popped up on my BlueSky feed. It'll be interesting to see who agrees and who is offended by this one. 

Take care of yourself. Take care of your community. Stay safe. 

Two Rows

The last time I mentioned my dragon swatch was in April: 

And I pretty much hadn't worked on it since. There's just something about how complicated it is that stalls me out. I feel like I should have a couple hours of time to just sit and knit before I'll even contemplate pulling it out. 

So, last Sunday, after spending the day busy (with laundry and blog writing and such), I again found myself in the evening hours without having pulled out the dragon even though I wanted to. And so I told myself, "Just two rows." I could do just two rows. And I did. 

At that moment, I determined that I could do two rows a day. It's not much, but it's way better than the nothing I've been doing. 

So, before my two rows for yesterday: 

Progress. Definite progress. 

I counted. I've got 14 more "two rows" days to complete the dragon. (There are a few rows of straight stockinette stitch to form the border. I'm not counting those as I don't have to focus on them.) This is doable. 

(I'm not going to say it'll take me 14 days as Saturdays I'm busy elsewhere, so I won't commit to the two rows that day. And there's the possibility that a day might get away from me.) 

I'm getting there. Finally. I've been working on this thing off and on for two years now. Two years? Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's been two years. 

Missed a Step

Friday. Sixth period. 

This is the ninth grade ELD class (English language development), and they're reading Of Mice and Men. Friday, it was chapter five. 

In case you are unfamiliar, chapter five is where Lennie does a bad, bad thing... 

I mean, perhaps I could have warned them. But nah. More of an impact if they don't see it coming. 

After we finished reading the chapter, they had questions to answer. Like a prepared teacher, I had set up the assignment before class. I added it to their Google Classroom. I didn't release the assignment until after we finished doing the reading, as I had done for chapters one through four. 

They got to work. But then, a hand... 

"I can't type on the assignment..." 

And I instantly knew what had happened. 

When one uploads an assignment, one "attaches" it to the specific assignment. Then, one has a choice of selections. Either the uploaded doc can be "viewed", "edited", or "make a copy for each student". The correct answer is "make a copy for each student". That way, each student gets their very own digital copy that they can modify in any way, like by adding their answers to the questions. 

Sure enough, I had not chosen "make a copy for each student". 

There are like a dozen choices one must make when uploading an assignment. Points. Due date. Title. Instructions. Attach the assignment. And others. I try to be very careful when doing this as to not miss a step. But sometimes... 

The worst part? I can't go in and edit it to make a copy. The only thing I can do is delete the assignment and reupload a new one. (Yes, I found this out the hard way.) 

Well, it wasn't like anyone had started the assignment, anyway. They couldn't. They couldn't type on it. 

Now, do I forewarn them about chapter six? Of course not. Better if they don't see it coming... 

The Giggles

Wednesday. Eighth period. 

We were reading chapter three of The Great Gatsby. Or, rather, I had put on audio of the book while they followed along with the narrator. And every so often I'd pause the reading to comment on something that I thought they'd miss otherwise. 

Some things I know they didn't know, like when a character mentions that the pages of some books weren't cut. I didn't know that people would cut open pages while reading books back in the day, so I knew they didn't know that. 

And then there was the car accident scene. 

It's pretty clear on the page what is happening. A very drunk driver hit a wall and his car was so badly damaged a wheel was sheared from the car. No longer drivable. But the driver was so drunk that no one could get him to understand this. 

I mean, terrible scene and all, but the way it's written I find extremely funny. I assume that was the intent. 

But, the way it was written, one has to be paying attention, and one has to infer some things that aren't explicitly on the page. And teenagers? Yeah, most aren't following that closely. 

Every period I made sure to stop and point out what was happening. I know they weren't getting it as I heard no chuckles. No snorts. No intimation that anyone was laughing. I mean, these kiddos don't react much at all, but even correcting for this, there was still no way they were getting it. 

Then, eighth period, my fourth time through the scene, I broke. We read through...

"Wha's matter?" he inquired calmly. "Did we run outa gas?"

"Look!"

Half a dozen fingers pointed at the amputated wheel—he stared at it for a moment and then looked upward as though he suspected that it had dropped from the sky.

"It came off," some one explained.

He nodded.

"At first I din' notice we'd stopped."

A pause. Then, taking a long breath and straightening his shoulders he remarked in a determined voice:

"Wonder'ff tell me where there's a gas'line station?"

At least a dozen men, some of them little better off than he was, explained to him that wheel and car were no longer joined by any physical bond.

"Back out," he suggested after a moment. "Put her in reverse."

"But the wheel's off!"

He hesitated.

"No harm in trying," he said.

And it was the "wheel and car were no longer joined by any physical bond" that got me. I was explaining, and I couldn't hold it any longer. I began to laugh. And then the laughter just took over. I couldn't stop. 

I've had moments where something struck me as so funny I couldn't stop laughing. Usually I'm alone. Sometimes I'm with others who find it just as funny. This time? Yeah, all of them looked at me like I'd lost my mind. 

So, I hit play on the audio while I got the giggles out. A joke explained is a joke lost. Even if they didn't find it funny, at least I was able to convey that the guy was so drunk he didn't understand what was going on. I hope. 

At least I'm enjoying the book. They aren't. I mean, they're really too young. So many of the nuances of the story you can't really get until you've lived a bit. 

You'd get it. You might be surprised at how much better the book is when you've experienced more of life than a teenager has.