Behaved Well, Actually

While I was happy to work, I kind of was dreading the day. 

Friday. Eighth grade science. 

Science is my jam, but eighth graders... My tag for days with the eighth graders (8RE) is code for "eighth graders are evil". Because they can be. 

And then... 

They went and surprised me. 

The day's assignment was an animal adaptations project. They picked an animal. Then they were to find three adaptations that help the critter survive... 

Student: Can I pick a unicorn?

Me: No mythical creatures, please.

They were to draw a picture. Write about three of the critter's adaptations. Illustrate the critter's closest relative. And they had the whole period to do this. 

And you know what? They actually did the work. 

(Well, mostly. I had a couple kiddos who played more than they worked. But that happens everyday. It would have been weird if I didn't have a couple of those kiddos.) 

There was a good selection of animals picked. They went from axolotls to sharks to sloths to horses. Orson had a meltdown until I calmed him by mentioning different animals he could pick. And most of them finished or nearly finished the project in class. 

Now, can all my days with the eighth graders be like that? Please? 

If you could do a project on a mythical creature, which one would you pick? I think I'd go with a dragon. 

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

African-American Studies

Tuesday. AP African-American Studies. 

Welcome to April and the first day of the A to Z blogging challenge. When I say that the letter of the day sometimes just falls into my lap, this is what I mean. African-American Studies? Really? 

Last week was a light week. I only had Wednesday scheduled. Monday's assignment popped up at 5 in the morning. Tuesday's popped up at about 7 PM the night before. Which was strange. Usually assignments pop up during the school day or in the middle of the night. But hey, I went to bed knowing I'd have a job the next day, so I was fine with it. 

I got to the classroom. After turning on the lights, I headed for the teacher's podium. Nope. Headed back to his desk. Nope. 

There was a knock on the door. 

I made my way through the desks to the door to find a teacher waiting for me. She had a paper in her hand. 

"I was just looking for that," I told her. 

The day's lesson plans. 

Teachers will sometimes email their plans to one of their teacher friends. Who will then print them out and bring them to us subs. We do love having the lesson plans. 

It was going to be a pretty easy day. AP or advanced placement is a class students take to earn college credit. That is, they get the college credit if they pass the AP test at the beginning of May. The class of mostly seniors and some juniors had online work to complete. (It was phrased "independent projects".) 

Okay, then. 

For the second class of the day, I did my usual introduction, stating that maybe the teacher wasn't feeling well. 

A student: "Jury duty". 

Ah. 

Suddenly the timing of the call the night before made sense. 

In Los Angeles County, one must call in after 7 PM every night of the week one is assigned jury duty. One is told either, "call back tomorrow" or "report tomorrow". (I've done this a few times, so I'm familiar.) 

While I never wish a teacher ill (or stuck on jury duty), I do appreciate having work for the day. 

Have you ever served on a jury? Does African-American Studies sound like a class you would have liked to take in high school? 

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

How Many?

The other day I had an exchange with someone who actually still supports the regime. (When I expressed my views, she didn't trust my facts because I follow "the fake news". Deep sigh.) I said something about the fact that we now have concentration camps and those in charge are committing atrocities. 

Her response? It's not actually that bad. 

Um... 

And so, a few days later I had this thought. What if there was a website somewhere keeping a tally? Of those who have died as a direct result of this regime? 

How many have died in ICE custody? (Like this guy.) How many have died as a result of the gutting of USAID? How many have died of measles? How many have died in the attacks on other countries? How many have been openly just killed? 

I'm sure this number is way higher than people think. 

I do not know how to even begin to compile such stats. And I do not have the skills to create the website (although that part I could probably figure out). 

But I think it's something we need. A tally. That is updated regularly. Supported by facts. 

Some still won't believe it, but we somehow need to bear witness. Keep track. 

I hope for a reckoning someday. Until then, I want a list of everything. So we don't forget. 

(After I wrote all this, I stumbled upon an article that basically says the killing of people is a feature, not a bug: Our nation is quickly being destroyed by “necropolitics.")

And That's All She Knitted

The sweater is finished! 

And, if the tracking on the package can be believed, it will arrive at my brother's house in Ohio today. Just in time for my brother's birthday. Today. 

(I ordered my brother's birthday gift a while ago with the intention of mailing it along with eldest nephew's Christmas present. I cut that real close.) 

Last week all I had left to do was the collar. It took a while to pick up stitches along the neckline, but once I got done with that, knitting the collar was pretty simple. 

I finished it late Tuesday night. I packaged it all up Wednesday after work, and then Thursday after work I dropped it off at the post office. As I write this Sunday evening, the tracking says the box is in Columbus, Ohio. Which is the closest distribution center to them.

(The closest distribution center to me is Los Angeles. If a package for me is in LA by, like, 3 AM, I will have that package that day. That's why I'm not hedging in saying that my brother is getting this today. Save for some wackadoodle occurrence.) 

Phew. That only took me eight months. Not bad, really. 

April starts in a couple days, and you may have noticed I added the A to Z Challenge image in the sidebar. Yes, I'll be on the A to Z thing. I haven't mentioned this earlier as you won't really notice much of a change around here. I don't do a theme. My game is to fit what I'd normally post to the letter of the day. 

As of this writing, I've got A and D done for this week and I've got a pretty good idea what B and C will be. And yes, I will continue to scream into the void on Tuesdays (read: write about current events). X falls on a Tuesday this year. I don't know how I'm going to make that work, but I will, somehow. That's a problem for me in a couple weeks. 

And somehow, my yarn-y post for next week will begin with the letter E. How? I have no idea yet. You'll have to visit me to find out.

The sweater's previous posts:

• Starting the Sweater
• Getting to the Back
• Missed Deadline
• Distractions from Knitting
• A Month Late
• Inching Along
• Tracking the Growth
• Weekly Sweater Update
• Moving Right Along
• Good Progress
• Almost to the Interesting Part
• Plot Twist
• Not Worth the Effort
• Sleeve Progress
• Continuing Sleeve One
• Sleeve Two!
• Continuing Sleeve Two
• Setting a Deadline
• Almost There
• How I Keep Track
• Some Assembly Required
• Missed Winter
• Seamingly On Track
• Just the Collar

Caught in the Lie

Friday. English language development (read: extra English class for students not fluent in English). Ninth grade. Sixth period.

(If the above picture looks a little familiar, that's because I was subbing for Ms. A, who I've done two long terms for, the last one last April. Now that she has her two children, she's unlikely to need another maternity leave.) 

Ms. A left me a list of her students who were on the escort list. And she had warned me (I ran into her the previous day) that sixth period was her difficult group. 

So, when Aiden asked to use the restroom, I was ready. He did not complain too loudly (although when I mentioned he was on the escort list, he played like he had no idea) when I told him he'd have to wait for security to escort him. Although, he wasn't too happy when security took a while to get to the room. 

(Students get placed on the escort list when they take too long to use the restroom. It's not that far. We tell them five minutes, but if it takes a couple minutes longer, no big deal. But some take significantly longer than ten minutes.) 

While Aiden was waiting, Khloe asked to go. I again called security, and when they finally showed up, I figured they could escort both students. It would save a trip. So, both got up and went towards the security person in her golf cart, and I saw her talk to them both. 

Four minutes later, Aiden returned. Khloe... 

Other students were in and out. Because the assignment for the day was test prep, the teacher had said for the last bit of the period the kiddos could watch a movie. I was getting things going on that when Jordan asked to go. I knew I had a girl who was waiting, so I told him to put his name on the list. That's when whoever was out got back, and Jordan convinced the girl to let him cut in line. 

It was only after the movie was going that I noted the list and realized that Jordan was my third escort list kiddo, and he shouldn't have left on his own. (He timed it for when I wasn't paying attention.) Grrr. 

Jordan was only gone about ten minutes. It was later that I talked to Ms. A. (She was on campus in a meeting.) She caught Jordan out and about. He was on his phone. (They are supposed to leave their phones in a box in the classroom, so he shouldn't have had it on him.) Ms. A confiscated his phone (and turned it into the office). 

So, I feel comfortable that Jordan got his consequence for sneaking past me on the escort thing. 

As for Khloe, she returned after more than a half hour out of class with a story about security telling her to stay in the bathroom because she was feeling sick... I didn't catch half the story, and it didn't pass the smell test. If Khloe was feeling sick, security would have taken her to the health office, and someone would have informed me of this. 

Freshmen... 

Yeah, I took note of all of this, and their teacher knows. And she's not happy about it. 

I mean, seriously, the amount of work it took them to evade security... If they only put that kind of effort into their school work. 

Seventh Grade

Thursday. Seventh grade math. First period. 

It was a co-taught class, and I was subbing for the special ed teacher, so Ms. G ran her class as usual. The topic for the day was percentages. 

Ms. G explained the formula to them, gave examples, gave them a chance to try some problems, went over those problems so the kiddos knew what to do, and then she gave them problems to work on. Typical math class. 

And typical seventh graders. 

One boy just sat there, kind of staring off into space. Ms. G was doing notes, and he wasn't copying down what she was writing. When I tried to get him to do something, he said he didn't know what to do. Well, start with copying the notes she was demonstrating for him. That's a good place to start. 

Seventh graders think they can talk and work. What they end up doing is going off on tangents and getting no work done. So, while they were allowed to "work together", they weren't getting as much done as they could. 

Well, at least I could help them when they needed it. Mostly. And for a seventh grade class, they weren't too horrible. 

Shut Down

Wednesday. Integrated Math 2 (read: math for sophomores, kind of geometry). Sixth period. 

If the above room looks familiar, it's because I was there two years ago in a long term for Mr. J. Ms. L, his co-teacher, was there, and she was going over the topic of the day, special right triangles. 

I was in the back of the room, and I noticed a student hadn't gotten out her notes or anything. She was on her phone, but she was using it for pictures that she was drawing in a sketchbook. While I have no problems with students drawing, it was time for the girl to do math. I gently urged her to get out her notes and follow along with Ms. L. She ignored me.

The girl next to her had her notes. And then it was time for the kiddos to get into IXL which is a math program. They are given a problem to solve. If they get it right, the problems get harder. If they get it wrong, they are given how it should have been solved, and then they get another similar problem. 

This girl had the computer open, the program loaded, but she wasn't starting the assignment. I leaned over and clicked open the assignment. (She was right there. It was one click.) The girl? She immediately backed out of it. Sigh. 

Later, girl one had her head on her desk. Girl 2 was busily writing a paragraph on the back of her math notes. Whining. About having to do math. (I didn't read the whole thing, but I glanced at a couple sentences.)

Ms. L, who also went over and urged them to work, told me that the girls hadn't been doing much in the way of math this school year. Ms. L said she was kind of happy that at least girl one was coming to class, as the last year she had spent more time in the wellness center than in class. So, progress? 

Baby steps, I guess. 

So, I helped the students who were actually trying and who actually asked for help. There were several of them, and they really did seem to catch on. 

This is how some students fail. I can only do so much in a class period, so I'd rather help the students who will take the help.