Monday, October 22, 2012

Last Minute Plans, Old School

Last Monday I was awakened by the usual--my cell phone's gonging bells. (I like that ring tone.) The name of the teacher was familiar. I've subbed for him before.  

I got to school at the usual time. Got into the classroom. Looked for the lesson plans. Couldn't find them.  

I didn't panic. I couldn't recall a time when I had subbed for this teacher that he hadn't left me something. Now, I haven't subbed for him all that much, but I vividly recall every time I was left without plans, and he wasn't one of those. 

At times like these, I know what to do. I call the school secretary and ask if the teacher had emailed her the plans. 

Unfortunately, he hadn't.  

I wasn't worried yet. I knew he had friends in neighboring rooms. Perhaps he emailed one of them his lesson plans. I opened the classroom door so that the teachers could get to me easily, and I made contingency plans. (I looked at the board, got an idea where the class was in the book, and figured I'd assign them busywork from the next chapter.)  

It got closer to the beginning of the school day. Then the room's phone rang.  

Phone! Of course. 

It's been so long since a teacher called me to tell me the lesson plans that I had forgotten this was a possibility. Nowadays they email. But I don't really care the method, just as long as the classes have something to do for the day.

For my 1001st post, I figured it was time to change up the blog a bit. If you're anything like me, you may not see the changes (as you're reading this through a reader of some sort and not actually coming to visit the blog), so I thought I'd mention it. The background was knit (and photographed) by me. (Thanks, Chris, for your technical help in getting the photo blog ready.) 

What do you think?

3 comments:

  1. It's good to go old school with teaching these days. Who would have thought the personal touch via phone would be the one you would get?

    I love the new look. In many ways, writing and knitting are so similar. They both take skill and refinement, they both need the right tools or it cannot be done, and the end product is greatly influenced by the color and type of material that you select.

    BTW, I didn't mean to suggest that your half bottle holder the other day was not a good idea. Just seeing you talk about it gave me another idea (that of the coasters) that could perhaps be more readily recognizable and appeal to an existing market. The other one seems like more work as you are building a market for something no one has seen yet. Sure, there are people who create markets all the time. Steve Jobs did it with the iPad. And I'm not saying you are no Steve Jobs. I'm just saying, it may be easier to go with an "existing market" than branching into new territory.

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  2. Must have been a relief when he called!

    I like the new blog look and background. It's cool to see the stitch in detail.

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  3. Love the new look. The yarn background is perfect for you.

    And a phone call! How retro ;)

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