Lost Notebook

I don't lose things. (Well, most of the time. I somehow managed to misplace my compact umbrella, just in time for rainy weather.) When I do lose track of something, it usually turns up later (socks especially).

Students lose things all the time. Supposedly, subs lose students' work (although, I think this is sometimes just a ploy). That's why some teachers don't have us collect work. Of course, these teachers aren't familiar with my knack for not losing things.

But I digress. Today I wanted to talk about students' notebooks that went missing.

Every student was issued a notebook. They do all their work in it. Since this is the continuation high school, the students aren't apt to remember to bring stuff to class, like paper and pencil. As long as the student has a notebook, the student can do the work, and it keeps it all together.

At the beginning of the period, the students retrieve their notebooks from the class' box. They return the notebook to the box at the end of the period.

A student in period 2 couldn't find his notebook. It wasn't in the box.

I'm a firm believer in the it-has-to-be-here theory, so I was bound and determined to find the notebook. We searched through the other classes' boxes. We searched the teacher's desk (he had a pile of them set aside for grading). After going through every stack of notebooks, I went back to period 2's box, pulled out all the notebooks still in there...and found it. It had gotten stuck behind another notebook.

My record was again challenged in 3rd period. This time I started with period 3's box, but it wasn't in there. I told the student to go through the other classes' boxes. Turns out the first box I picked up had it shoved somewhere in the middle.

Yeah, I'm good. Now, if I could just find that umbrella!