On the Down Low

Friday. Fourth period. AP Spanish V: Literature and Culture. 

The AP tests are over. So, the AP classes, effectively over. The lesson plan: "They can have free time". Fair enough. 

Sra. K was on campus in some meeting. Her other classes had a student teacher, who was also in class but off duty. He had had his classes create a "thank you" poster for Sra. K, with the kiddos writing little notes to her. He showed the poster to period 4 and suggested that they might want to do one as well. They agreed. 

A group of girls decorated this poster paper attached to the white board. (Then they got off on a tangent of one of the girls wanting an arm tattoo, and one of the boys wrote on her arm in ink what she was thinking about, and a discussion ensued on whether she should get the actual tattoo or not. "I just turned eighteen. I need to do something crazy.") 

I was about to suggest that the kiddos start writing their messages on the poster when the door to the classroom opened. Sra. K. 

Um, oops. This was supposed to be a surprise. 

Sra. K had returned to class to retrieve her charger for her computer. It took everyone a few seconds to clock that Sra. K was in the room and the posters on the front board were clearly visible. Once they figured it out, suddenly several students were just casually leaning up against the board in the front of the room. 

Sra. K? I don't think she noticed. 

She was preoccupied with getting her charger and getting back to the meeting. She talked to a couple students, talked to her student teacher, got what she needed, and she left. 

The students relaxed. I started directing them to go up to the board and write notes to the teacher. They went up in groups, got the poster done fairly quickly. 

And then the kiddos went back to not doing very much at all. 

Graduation Adjacent

Wednesday. Twelfth grade economics, second period. 

The seniors are about a week away from being done. (Graduation is June 3rd or 4th.) The lesson plan was for me to pass out the last page of their final study guide. And I was informed the classes were "pretty chill". 

Class started. Several were late. And several had yearbooks. I had a feeling not much work was going to get done.

But, then a funny thing happened. The class settled to silence. 

I've been spending too much time in middle school classes, I think. I had forgotten what happens as they mature. 

Were they on task? Some were. Some were looking through the newly acquired yearbooks. (I even had a student ask to use the restroom and return with a yearbook. How long did that take? Not long at all. I wouldn't have faulted him for how long he was out of class at all had I not seen him return with the yearbook.) 

Were they all looking through yearbooks? No. I caught many students doing the end-of-year science calendar. (The science teachers give them a bunch of facts that they list on a calendar as a review for the final.) I caught others doing other random assignments. 

And honestly? At this point they know what the priorities are. If they feel like their economics final is where it should be, I'd rather they spend their time on assignments that are more pressing. 

(See, not all my subbing days are terrible.) 

I spent much of my day working on my summer blogs. 

Reruns

We're at that time of year. Last week I did not cover a class I had not covered before this school year. I kind of needed that after the prior week. 

On Monday I caught an assignment at the adult transition center for the teacher I've covered a couple times this year. While there, a job popped up for Tuesday. After snagging it, I explained to the instructional assistants in class that I knew exactly what was going to happen. 

Ms. S coteaches with Ms. W. Ms. W was going to ask me to swap jobs for the day. She'd teach Ms. S's eighth grade math classes while I'd take over her fifth period success class and her seventh period learning center. 

And when I arrived at school on Tuesday? Exactly what I said would happen happened. (Ms. W's success class is very different from Ms. T's. How? Special ed. Ms. W has a smaller class and an instructional aide. That does make a world of difference.)

There were a couple surprises as I ended up covering an extra period, but that was also in the learning center. The learning center is an extra room where special ed kiddos can take a test in a separate setting (for those that need that, specified in their IEP). It's basically a period of me sitting and watching an empty room (although that class had a study hall type class and a whole math class came in to take a test). 

Wednesday I covered an economics class I had covered earlier in the year. Thursday I covered a special ed co-teacher who I covered for a week in February (and worked with when I did that long term two years ago). And Friday I covered that Spanish class that had a student teacher. 

When I say the bad days balance out, this is what I mean. Two weeks ago: brutal. Last week: cake. 

More Worried About the Boom

Remind me... It is a good thing or a bad thing when randos keep coming at you with guns? I think it might be a bad thing...? 

While the national news media has been fixated by that latest debacle, locally my corner of California is a bit more concerned by a potential environmental catastrophe. By the time you read this, hopefully the tank has finally blown up or cracked open. 

A tank at an aerospace company is leaking methyl methacrylate, a volatile and flammable liquid used to make acrylic plastics. This links to the story in the picture. The good news is I'm not in the evacuation zone. The bad news is if this thing does explode, I'll definitely feel the after effects. 

As for the rest of the country, our primary election is June 2nd (which I need to sit down and get my ballot filled out. We get mail in ballots, and I've had mine for almost a month now). 

When the Speaker of the House admits on right-wing TV that losing the midterms would end Trump's presidency... that's not a warning. That's a TO-DO LIST. Challenge accepted. 

"If we lost the midterms--heaven forbid--it would be the end of the Trump presidency in real effect." --Mike Johnson

Finished the Beanie

I finished it. Saturday.  And promptly gave it to my father, as I had been knitting it at his house. 

It wasn't a birthday present even though he had a birthday last Monday (his 80th). It wasn't for anything, really, other than when he modeled middle nephew's beanie for the blog, I promised him I'd make him one, too. 

And now, I am once again between projects (other than the reluctant sweater which I still haven't managed to start). 

About the beanie: 

• Not the Project I Should Be Working On
• Knitting Another Beanie
• Weekend Knitting
• Inside Out

The Chills

Whenever I find myself dealing with a challenging class, the teacher usually says something about them being "good kids". Only once before has a teacher referred to a kiddo as "evil". (I don't know if I wrote about her at the time, but I had her in a class later. This student.) 

I have encountered another. 

Damien (alias picked for obvious reasons) was noted in the lesson plan as "he won't do any work, but he won't disrupt the class". 

Okay, then. Tuesday. Eighth period. Eighth grade success. 

They were working on a Mission Map. They were to figure out a mission statement (for their life, I guess) and their four pillars (ideals of some sort), and then they were to make a poster with this information. 

They were given a packet of work to go through with setting goals and figuring out where they wanted their life to go. (This is the end of the year, so it was kind of a culmination assignment going over stuff they've been talking about all year.) They had instructions online. Ms. T said she went over all the instructions the week prior, so they should have known what to do.

But eighth graders with a sub for a week. They played weaponized incompetence. 

So, I wasn't much watching Damien. I did note that his desk had brown marker all over it. And he clearly wasn't doing any work. As promised. 

Half way through the period I passed out poster board. They were to make a poster, after all, and while I did not expect them to start the poster yet, I wanted them to have the materials they'd need. 

I warned them that they would only get one sheet of poster paper. (Otherwise the middle schoolers will make a mistake and need another. Not all, but most of them will. This is not my first rodeo. I know how they work.) 

And while most of the kiddos continued with their packets, Damien folded his poster paper into little boxes, and then he proceeded to tear them into little cards. Okay, then... 

I had Damien in class again on Thursday. The first thing he did was to grab the bottle of glue... 

Oh, no. Absolutely not. 

I took that glue from him so fast. (I didn't know what he was going to do with it, but it wasn't going to be good.) Then I noticed he had a blue marker. I attempted to take that away from him... 

And that's when I saw it. He kind of growled at me. 

Not his marker, but I decided not to have that fight. 

I tried to get him on task. I mentioned that he had already destroyed his poster paper. "Oh, was that what it was for?" Someone wasn't listening when instructions were given. 

But, I did give him another packet. (I had extra.) He then did with that what he had done with the poster paper. 

We kind of looked at each other. Damien just looked at me... Yeah, I like to joke that eighth graders are evil, but it is a joke. I know they'll grow out of it. They really are good kids. But Damien... 

Before I could contemplate how to get the blue marker away from him so he didn't make a mess of the desk again, the school psychologist came in and asked to take him for counseling. 

Yeah, I was good with that. Sadly, he returned after a half hour. 

Damien did not do any work. But he did not sacrifice any small creatures, so a win? (And I was able to clean off the desk.) 

Success (the Class) 13

If I commented on your blog last week, I apologize. I wasn't entirely mentally there. It was a long, hard week in the eighth grade success class. I don't have a lot of good stories, but I have a lot of little things that happened. Which makes this the perfect time for a Thursday 13. 

ONE

The assignment was to make a Mission Map. They had instructions. They had resources online. Ms. T had discussed it the week before. (She said this in the lesson plans, and I believe her.) But they had no clue what to do. More likely, they weren't listening when Ms. T was instructing, and they weren't bothering to read through all the materials to figure it out. 

TWO

Ms. T said they were to leave their phones in a phone box that all the teachers at that school have for just that purpose. They've been doing this all year. But with me? They "got their phone taken away". They "didn't have a phone". Yet, I saw many of them had a phone in their pockets.

I got irritated with this, so I took pictures of the mostly empty phone box each period. And I emailed them to the teacher. Petty, but I don't care. 

THREE

Beginning of seventh period, Monday. I warned students should be in their assigned seats. They said they were. I knew they were not as one of the kiddos I knew, and he was not in the seat indicated with his name on the seating chart. When I called him out on it, four other students suddenly knew where they were supposed to sit, too. (Names were noted.) 

FOUR

The fire alarm went off. Seventh period. As this is not the school where this happens frequently, the kiddos all ran out the door. We barely got down the stairs when an assistant principal shooed us back to class. False alarm. 

FIVE

Allergy season? Colds? Or an excuse... In sixth period they managed to go through a box of tissue as several boys kept getting up to go "blow their nose" outside. In groups. Every couple minutes. (I made a blanket rule that only one person could blow their nose at a time, that's how crazy that got.) 

SIX

Sixth period, Tuesday. Blake asked to use the restroom. (After refusing to sit in his assigned seat and giving me a false name.) He was on the escort list, so I called for security to escort him. He left before they arrived. And then he returned with popcorn. Sigh. (And acted clueless when I told him he was supposed to wait for an escort.)

SEVEN

Third period, Wednesday. Fire alarm went off. I figured it was another false alarm, but no. We evacuated. (Someone *ahem* didn't grab the evacuation stuff: roll sheet, sign, backpack, because she assumed it was a false alarm.) And that was a very long walk for someone who was already feeling the week. At least most of them made it back to the classroom before me. (That's good.) The three that took their time... Well, that's what detailed notes to the teacher are for.

EIGHT

Seventh period. A girl got a hold of one boy's paper, and was very loud about how she could not read it. They passed around the paper. Passed it to me. (Yeah, the writing was bad, but most of their writing is bad. It wasn't out of the ordinary bad.) Announced to the class that the boy had bad writing. And that he really needed to work on it. 

NINE

On Thursday and Friday they had guest speakers. Apparently, the state of California has a fund for students to use as a scholarship fund, and the speakers were walking them through claiming the accounts. 

Sixth period was embarrassing. You'd think they'd know how to behave for a guest, but no. Getting up for no reason. Not listening. Talking over the speakers. Yeah, it didn't go well. 

TEN

There were two kiddos who were tasked with making sure the Chromebooks were all plugged in at the end of the day. Odd day monitor did an excellent job. Even day monitor... Sigh. And I like this kid. Had him in the art class. He'll mature eventually, but right now he's giving in to his baser impulses. (Although, he had the best reaction to how much money he had in his CalKIDS account: "I've never seen that much money before in my life". It was about $1500.) 

ELEVEN

Joaquin, one of my problem kiddos in period one (see yesterday), asked for his work during first period Friday. I assumed he was not eligible for the CalKIDS scholarship, so I was going to send him out of class so as to not disturb the others with the presentation. One of the presenters: "He's eligible". Then why was he ignoring...? Free money for college...? Did he do what he needed to do to claim the money? Nope.

TWELVE

Third period, a student disappeared. Not to restroom (as I was keeping an eye on them). I stepped outside to see, but he was not there blowing his nose. He returned a bit later. Where was he? Oh, he had just gone to take something to his history teacher without asking permission. (I think the history teacher was next door, but still!)

THIRTEEN

If this was a Thursday 20 I could make it work. It was a hard week. I emailed all of this (plus what I couldn't include) to Ms. T. I received a reply. I don't think the kiddos are going to enjoy the consequences. 

Within the first day I learned that the kiddos were being bribed. For a good note they were going to get a pizza party. Most of the kiddos knew that they were not getting a pizza party. (Some tried to get me to "write a good note". I explained that I write an accurate note. It's good if they choose to be good.) 

Ms. T has a note on her board: Be Good Humans. Hopefully they will be. Just not with a sub last week.