Absolutely Not

Archie and Alvin. The boys I talked about last week. So, this was fifth period.

I had swapped Alvin and another boy, but that other boy was absent (and has gone on independent study, so he won't be back for a while), so at the beginning of class a day after I had made the switch...

"Can I move back to that seat? We'll be good..."

Alvin was practically sitting in Archie's lap. The two would not stop talking. Even after I asked them to. Repeatedly. 

"We promise. We won't talk."

Um, right.

I would have made the joke that the two of them act like they're in love, but I wasn't going to humiliate them in front of their peers. And it might be the truth.

Because, seriously, the way they were together... Yeah, I can see a spark. They work as a couple.

But, seventh graders. Things are more open nowadays, and there's less of a stigma, but seventh graders. 

Anyway, I did say no. Pretty emphatically. I wasn't even tempted. I didn't feel even a little badly about it. 

I'm doing them a favor, really. 

Because, seriously, they could not focus on the lesson and sit next to each other. I'm protecting their science grade.

That Middle School Attitude

It was the end of first period. Corbin approached. He couldn't figure out how to get into the student portal to look at his grades, so he asked me to pull them up for him. 

(One of the great things about long term assignments is full access to the gradebook software. I can click on any of "my" students and pull up all of their current grades. Honestly though, I rarely look.)

He had mostly A's with a D in PE...

Me: "Have you not been dressing out?"

Corbin: "Ms. B hates me. She says I have attitude." And he looked genuinely perplexed. 

So, let me back up a minute. Corbin... Well... When I gave him back an assignment as it wasn't completely done (and we still had half a period to go, so he had time), he complained that he always gets A's in science, and he did the assignment well enough.

And he's the one who actually did the whole, "When does my real teacher start?" to me. (He's only met me. As Ms. S doesn't return until February, I've been non-specific about how long she'd be out. That's a long time for seventh graders.) 

So, uh, yeah, I can confirm Ms. B's assessment. Attitude.

To Corbin's look, I gave a look back. 

Me: "Well, uh..."

He genuinely has no clue that he acts like he knows everything. Which... tracks, really. 

What's funny is once I separated him from the other boy in class who's a disruption, Corbin's been okay. (Other than his smugness.) I kind of like him. And he does do his work. 

As for the attitude, well, he'll likely grow out of it. Or decide to become a surgeon. One or the other, really. 

Library Memories

What if? It's the basis of many stories. We ask. We ponder. We wonder. 

On Tuesdays I throw one out there. What if? It may be speculative. It may stem from something I see. It may be something I pull from the news. 

Make of it what you will. If a for instance is not specified, interpret that instance as you wish. And if the idea turns into a story, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements 😉

Today I'm stealing a "what if?" from Olivia Waite (it's okay if I attribute it, right? 🤔) and her novel, Murder by Memory. 

What if you could read memories stored in a library? (Whose would you read, first?)

Coming Attractions

Last year, I shot three videos of me making stuff with yarn. I got two of them posted to YouTube this past summer. And also this past summer, I found the time to go through the clips of the third video and pull out the outtakes so my editor* could put the thing together.

My editor* got the thing finished up just as school started back up...

Well, I finally watched the thing, and it's an hour and fifteen minutes long. !!! Yikes. I do blather on. 

Anyway, as soon as my editor* adds a title, I'll be ready to post it. So, hopefully soon. 

What did I make on camera? It's a pattern I created a while ago (we're talking about a decade ago):

I blogged about it when I made the video. And I have several posts about the original design. This one is sized to hold a cell phone, but I've made them large enough to hold a tablet. 

Here's a link to my YouTube channel. I only have four videos on there now. I blogged about the videos when I uploaded them: 

• Lip Balm Holder
• Egg-Shaped Lip Balm Holder
• Mobius Scarf
• Water Bottle Carrier

Notice how all of those are crocheted. This tells me I should probably do some more knitting videos. I just need to figure out what.

*My editor is my brother, who is doing the editing as a birthday/Christmas gift to me. 

The Stack

A little over a week ago, I got an email from a parent. She was concerned that her student had an F in the class, and could her student make that up? 

At that point I had two grades posted. The student had been absent when the second assignment was due, and she hadn't gotten it to me. Since then, she had been one of the good ones, so I was sure I had all her work. It was just ungraded. 

I told her mother this in the email--that I was behind on grading and that her student's work was fine. And I set about catching up on what I had to grade. 

Slowly I got through the current stack. Well, most of it. 

I don't recall which class, maybe fourth period, when a student asked when I'd have their lab safety packets graded. 

Deep sigh. 

I pulled out the stack to demonstrate: 

Holding it up for the class to see, I said, "It might take me a while." 

I'm dreading it. 

I'm writing this post on Saturday. I'm scheduling it for the following Friday. So, almost a week. Will I have graded it by then? 

Likely not. 

I'm okay with that, though. 

And the student whose mother asked about her F. She no longer has an F. She got the assignment to me that she was missing, and now she has an A. (Before, with the other work she'd completed, she had a B.) 

I'm getting there. Slowly.

Broke Fifth Period?

Wednesday, fifth period. 

As the schedule changes seemed to be settling down, I figured it was a good time to make some seating changes. Mostly in period three, because period three has become that class. 

But in period five, I had one girl seated by herself in a corner in the back that is not turning in work. She gives me definite distracted vibes, like she has ADHD. I wanted her closer so I can keep better tabs on her. And while I was doing that, I might as well move some in the back closer, as the class was pretty small, and I didn't need kiddos way back away.

Once I moved several students, a couple others wanted to be closer, too. So I allowed that. Then I got on with the lesson of the day.

And I found that I had broken fifth period.

Fifth period was the good group. They were my reward for getting through third period.

The first day I had them, they came in quiet. And then wouldn't talk. After lunch. (Middle schoolers are notorious for being wound up after lunch. After lunch classes tend to be crazy.) 

Over the last couple weeks, I've discovered that they're the bright group. I ask a question, I get many volunteers to answer. And I can teach them. They're attentive. They're engaged. They're lovely. 

But after the seating changes... Suddenly, I had to stop to regain attention. Oh no.

But, mostly it was two boys. They hadn't been sitting next to one another before, and they just couldn't seem to get enough of one another. 

Would separating them work? 

On Friday, I tried just that. And, things calmed down considerably. 

Phew. I thought I had broken the class. 

(Both boys were good boys. Attentive. Volunteered.)

We'll see if that was the only issue. Seventh graders, so these things don't necessarily stay static. Hopefully they'll continue to be my good group. I need that.

Following Directions

Last week I mentioned the emails from students are starting. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I told the students to let me know if there are any mistakes in their grades. I don't generally make those kinds of mistakes, but it can happen, and I'd rather they let me know than going to their counselor and having them send me an email questioning their grade... 

So, when I got an email from a student immediately after inputting three assignments, I wasn't offended. The email: 

I am writing because of my grade book. I finished the Lab Safety Packet, and the Scientist Card Sort. 

I think you did both the Lab Safety Packet and the Scientist Card Sort wrong, but if i'm misunderstanding, please let me know. 

Thank you.

The student did not get full credit on one of those assignments, and the other had not been graded yet, so it was missing from the gradebook for everyone (and did not impact their grade). 

I wrote back explaining why they'd be missing points for the assignments. And when I passed back their graded work the next day, sure enough the student lost the points just as I explained in the email. (I didn't have the work in front of me when I responded to the email, but I deducted points for some very specific things.) 

And the student? Wouldn't look at me during class that day. I think they were a little mad at me. I'm not sure why, entirely, as I deducted points for things like not fully completing the assignment as instructed. (They were required to write 5-6 sentences on one. This student did not.) 

Ah well. Seventh grader. While I don't want them to not bring their grade concerns to me, I would rather they make sure their work is fully complete before assuming that I made a mistake in the grading. 

And... I totally would have let them resubmit the assignment with corrections for full points. But, I would only tell them that if they asked. They did not.

(If I have to regrade every assignment after they've turned it in and gotten it back, I don't even want to contemplate how much work that would be.)