Friday, May 12, 2017

A Non-Break


The schools are on block schedule for state testing. Two-hour periods. Which, depending on the lesson plan, can make for a very long period.

(Only specific teachers are testing on any given day. They're not absent on those days. I'm covering classes that are business as usual, albeit with very long classes.)

Health class. Freshmen. The teacher left them a huge packet on safety to complete. (Stuff like what to do in a natural disaster or if an accident were to happen in the home.)

I was braced for the worst. Freshmen. For two hours. Of what amounted to busywork. And it was the same teacher that I covered a few times in the fall semester. (I posted about those days here, here, and here.)

But then I remembered that health is a semester course (meaning that as we're now in the spring semester, all the kiddos I had issues with are no longer in the class). Except that Ms. E left me a few names of students to keep an eye on. And guess who was on the list? Kevin. Naturally.

Kevin was as happy to see me as I was to see him. (I was gratified to see his reaction to seeing me. He was so not pleased. I guess I make him do work, or something.)

Class started, and something surprising happened. The room stayed silent...

Oh sure, Kevin did no work. As did another boy on the other side of the room who I'd also been warned about. But they did no work silently. While the rest of the class busily scribbled away.

I wished for my knitting. Or a magazine. I was expecting to be dealing with issues, and there were none.

Ms. E had recommended that the class get a break at some point. With this group I think I would have offered on my own. They probably needed one. So, at an hour in, I told the class they could get up and stretch or move around.

They looked at me like I was crazy. And continued to work.

Well, not Kevin and the other boy. They took a break. (From not doing work. *shakes head*)

At the end of the two hours, two students had finished, while the vast majority had only a couple pages of work left. Well, except for Kevin. He still had seven pages to go.

Some weeks are easier than others. This week was pretty easy.

24 comments:

  1. Just count it as a blessing. Although I would've been bored as well.

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  2. Wow! Too bad you didn't have a project to work on yourself.

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    1. I know. If I had known the period was going to do that easy, I would have brought my knitting.

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  3. This close to the end of school, that truly is amazing!
    Barbara @ Caneyhead

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    1. Agreed, my boyfriend tells me his classes start going crazy right after spring break, and even the teachers are doing a countdown to the end of the semester.

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    2. We still have a bit over a month left...

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  4. That's impressive. I'd have been yearning for some knitting too!

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  5. I can't believe sitting there doing nothing for 2 hours would be worth it over the penalty of not doing the work. Some never learn.

    betty

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  6. Ugh, block classes. And I'm sure Kevin needed a break from doing all that nothing.

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  7. I wonder why kids like Kevin even bother to come to school!

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    Replies
    1. Because the punishments for not are dire. At a certain point it becomes a police issue, and he could end up in court for severe truancy.

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  8. So close to year end - well, they will have some hard truths when entering the adult world. Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com

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    1. Well, there is always the chance that he might grow out of it. He's a freshman. He could "wake up" and get with the program in the next couple years. (I've seen it happen with others who acted similarly.)

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  9. I don't understand all this testing. When I was in school I believe we did the Iowa standard testing. I'm one who doesn't test well.
    Coffee is on

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    1. The pendulum in education has swung back. When I was in school testing was out of fashion. It's in fashion at the moment.

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  10. OH my.....what will you do with your self when school is out? What will you do without this sort of entertainment? haha

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  11. Hi Liz - sometimes life (and people) surprise us ... at least there was no disruption ... enjoy the weekend - cheers Hilary

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  12. I feel like if Kevin keeps it up, we're going to need that link to just go to a master-list of Kevin shenanigans. haha

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    Replies
    1. I named him, so I expect he'll make future blog appearances. (All students names are changed, so it took some doing to come up with a good alias for him.)

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  13. A silent classroom is the best classroom.

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  14. Totally laughing at yalls mutual reaction to each other. ::snort:: Nice to have an easy group!

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