23 and Me

Seventh grade English, fifth period (last Thursday).

The desks were numbered. Some teachers do this. It makes seating charts easier to read.

We're five months into the school year and three weeks into the second semester. That there are numbers on the desks or what number is on each student's desk should come as no surprise.

"23?!?"

Me: "It's a prime number."

That's not what weirded the boy out.

"I'm at desk 23 in math class. My PE number is 23. Science..."

He listed all the 23s in his schooling life. I tuned out as the other students arrived and other issues required my attention.

The bell rang. I stared passing out their assignment...

"Today is the 23rd!!!"

Uh, yeah, it had been all day.

I resisted telling him about numbers that follow you. If I'd gone that route, I would have lost the entire class of seventh graders. No way any of them would have been able to focus on their reading with that shiny new idea glittering before them.

Switched Again

Thursday. I was scheduled to cover Ms. D, middle school English. When I arrived, I was handed the keys for Ms. A, also middle school English.

Again?

I may have mentioned before that this school year I've been hit with a lot of these. That is, I've arrived at the site expecting one kind of class only to end up covering a different one.

I'm not complaining. It's way better than showing up to discover that I have no assignment at all. And sometimes the change has been for the better. Although, on this day, it was more of a lateral move.

For a change, I learned why the switch.

When I got to class, Ms. A was hurriedly putting together lesson plans. Then another teacher walked in, and they got to talking. I was able to glean the whole situation.

There was a field trip. The eighth graders were going to the closest community college (the one that most of the students at the local high school end up at, the one that is offering two years free to graduates). Ms. D was supposed to chaperone, but she had woken up sick. They asked Ms. A if she wanted to take the spot, and she jumped at the chance. (The other teacher was telling Ms. A that she thought she'd say no, and Ms. A explained that she loved going on field trips.)

One mystery solved.

However, Ms. D was sick, so she was out that day anyway. So, um, why did they call in a different sub to cover her class? I mean, I was already scheduled to be there for her.

Sometimes school logic eludes me.

Strange Math

Freshman and sophomore math (what used to be called algebra and geometry).

I've subbed for Ms. J several times. She always leaves the "same" assignment. She gives them a practice worksheet (or packet) on whatever topic they're currently studying.

I've never had an issue with this before. But on this day...

I passed out the assignment to period one. The stack I had left seemed a little light. So, I counted.

I had sixteen packets. By the roll sheet, I saw there were twenty-one students in period two. That was going to be a problem.

Luckily, Ms. J had left me someone to contact for issues. Ms. R had first period prep, so once I got a hold of her, she made me more copies.

Period two arrived. I passed out the assignment.

And, I swear, I had the same number of assignments left over as Ms. R had made for me.

Now, that can't be right. I know this. I had one absence, so I would have been short four packets. And I'm sure Ms. R made more than five copies. But I had, like, eight left over.

The math is somehow wrong here, and I can't figure out how.

The Offer

At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements. 😉

What if you received a lucrative job offer, but to do something you don't particularly enjoy?

Crochet Stitch Comparison

At the moment, I have several projects going. The beanie from last week now fits a human-sized head. Eldest nephew's beanie's ears are in progress.

And I've started my sister-in-law's scarf.

I'm using thick yarn, so it should go quickly. But, I wasn't liking the pattern stitch...

There's nothing wrong, really. But it feels... I don't know. Off, somehow.

I don't like the drape, but that might be okay after it gets bigger. Maybe.

Then, the other day, while perusing Instagram, I was reminded of the star stitch. (It had been used on a beanie.)

I have tried to incorporate star stitch on three different projects over the last several months, but each time I've had to frog and use something different.

Why? Reasons. I tried it on a moebius scarf, but the color pooling was bad. I tried it on a scarf for me, but the yarn is so fine, it wasn't worth the effort.

Could it work for this project? Finally?

Well, take a look...

I started this on Friday, and I'm really kind of loving it. I left the other pattern unfrogged, just in case (I had two skeins of the yarn), but at this point there's no question which pattern stitch I'll continue.

The waffle stitch (in the first picture) will have to wait for a different project.

The Long Walk

Monday I was called to cover a Spanish II class.

Class had barely begun when a girl asked to use the restroom. (This is not unusual.) But when another girl and then another boy asked, I noticed that the first girl had been gone a while. (It's a one at a time rule, so they couldn't go until the first girl got back.) This was weird as the restrooms were about three doors down from the classroom.

Finally the girl returned about twenty minutes later.

Whenever a student takes forever, I note it. Some students use it as an excuse to roam campus, and they can get into all sorts of mischief (vandalism, disturbing other classes, meeting up with friends, or meeting up with boyfriend/girlfriend to do things they shouldn't).

However, this time the girl immediately apologized for taking her time. She explained.

Apparently, there's been "an issue", and she was afraid she'd get "jumped" in the restroom, so for safety, she had gone to the health office to use the restroom there. The health office was on the complete other side of campus.

There have been a lot of fights on campus lately. I can't fault her for looking after her own safety.

Although, she could have asked for a health office pass. I never refuse those.

Ah well. At least I know where she'd gotten herself to.

Floaters

Keeping the kiddos in class is more of a challenge at the continuation high school. They will take any excuse to roam the campus.

Tuesday I covered the computer class. And every period at least one boy took forever to use the restroom. It's a small campus, so they didn't have far to go. Yet, 20 minutes, 30 minutes they were gone for.

Students who abuse the liberal restroom policy get placed on a "floaters" list. They lose the privilege of going during class time. So, I note those who disappear for half a period, because they probably don't do it with just me.

(I even had a student disappear for ten minutes when he stepped outside to blow his nose. I got up to find out where he went, and he was sitting at a bench outside, chatting up a couple girls. When I got him back inside, he needed to go next door to return the restroom pass to that teacher--he had borrowed it the previous period. That took another five minutes.)

Third period ended at 11:03 AM. At 10:58, a student walked in. He had a pass from the counseling office.

Students frequently need to speak with the counselor or the principal. If they're kept, they have a pass. I don't mark them tardy if they have one of these passes as they have an excused reason.

As per normal, there was a time marked on the pass. 10:15 AM.

10:15??? He left the counseling office at 10:15?

I could see the counseling office door from my classroom. It's about as far away as the restrooms. It does not take 45 minutes to get from one to the other. Walking at a good pace, it shouldn't even take a full minute.

Just to check, I called the counselor. It took her a minute to realize who I was talking about (that's how long it had been since he'd been there). She verified he left her office at 10:15.

Well, I know what to do with that...

I went to the attendance clerk. I gave her the pass and told her this story. She shook her head, and then pulled up his attendance record on her computer. She encoded it as a "cut" for the period. She even gets a little box to write an explanation, so she wrote that in.

Because, seriously...

Powerless

It was just an ordinary Wednesday at the high school. They worked; I watched. I looked about for something, anything interesting to post about.

The day ended. I checked out. I headed for my car.

The hood of my car was open. It wasn't propped open, but it wasn't fully shut. I closed it, and I wondered. Had I accidentally popped the hood as I got out of my car that morning? I've never done that before. Was it possible?

When I went to start my car, I realized I hadn't accidentally opened my hood. Because, my car wouldn't start. And unlike when my battery has died (which it has done a few times over the years), I had no power at all. That's when I suspected...

I opened up my hood to be greeted by...

...a big gaping hole where the battery should be.

I didn't have any time to process this turn of events on my own, as one of the security guys noticed my distress, and he was standing with me when I opened the hood. He immediately called for the rest of the security team.

While they were talking about "the video" and how long my car had been in that spot (all day), I was contemplating next steps. I needed a battery. AAA has roadside battery service. So, I needed to call AAA.

The guys were concerned that something else had been taken out of my car. But I could tell that nothing was missing. I don't really leave anything of value in my car anyway, and besides, it didn't feel like they'd been inside the car. How did they gain access to the engine (as the hood release is inside the car)?

Waiting for AAA to arrive, another of the security guys was talking about insurance and police reports, and only then did it occur to me that I should probably call the police. I mean, one does call the police when one has been robbed, correct? And what is the proper term for this? Burgled? Thieved?

Security got word that they found the incident on the video surveillance. (The school has cameras all over.) The thieves were in a silver Nissan with no plates. Apparently, the whole theft took them five minutes. They reached beneath the car to release the hood. I was invited back to see, but I didn't really need to. I doubt I would recognize them, and I was waiting for those I had called, anyway.

AAA arrived. He was just getting started when the police arrived. The AAA driver made a comment that he does arrive before the cops, but I had called AAA first, so that really doesn't count.

The cop asked how much it was going to cost me to replace, and the AAA driver quoted him the price.

I gave my statement. The cop was surprised to hear that there was video of the incident. He asked if he could see it, and the security guy said, "Of course". It sounded like the cop had been to the school before, for he knew which office he'd need to go to for this.

AAA finished just slightly before the police were done with me. I was given a file number for my report, and then I was on my way.

I have been subbing a long time. I've been working at this school for years. This is the first time my car has been broken into. Still, I was nervous to return as I was already scheduled to cover a class there on Friday.

Friday came and went. My car was in the same state as I had parked it in. But I'm still going to be a little nervous for the foreseeable future.

The Plot

At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements. 😉

What if you happened upon someone's plot to murder someone you don't know?

Miscalculated

For Christmas, my niece wanted a beanie like one she'd seen online in periwinkle. Okay then...

Yes, Christmas. I really only started my Christmas knitting after Christmas, so all those gifts are late. And yes, this is the niece of the gray behemoth from last year. 

From the picture (which I'm linking to only out of copyright concerns), I could tell it was a rather fine yarn knit in a one by one ribbing. But finding the color periwinkle proved to be a challenge. Ultimately, I had to search "periwinkle" on LoveCrafts.

I swatched. That just means I cast on a small number of stitches and worked them in pattern for a bit. I know how many stitches I cast on. I measured the piece. I know how big I want the finished beanie to be (niece's head was measured), Just a bit of math told me how many stitches to cast on.

From the picture, I could tell they used a tubular cast on. (These were machine knit, I'm sure, but I can still replicate in hand knitting.) I've never done tubular cast on before, but I have seen it done and I can follow directions. (Every technique is demonstrated somewhere online. That makes picking up new skills easy.)

It turns out that the tubular cast on is a bit complicated. You have to use a provisional cast on, then work five rows in a specific manner and... (If you're interested, you can see a video of this here.)

I set aside an afternoon just to cast on. It took me two and a half TV shows to complete, but I managed it. Then I joined to work in the round. And that's when my sneaking suspicion proved to be correct...

My hat was way too big.

For comparison, the above image has an actual head-sized beanie next to it. (It's more of a child size, but child size versus adult size isn't that much different.)

Deep sigh.

There's nothing for it now. I have to frog it and start over.

I mean, unless you know a giant that wants a beanie. In periwinkle.

I sat down to recalculate. Because somewhere the math went wrong. And that's when I saw it.

I had done the math correctly. Alas, when using niece's head measurement, I transposed the digits (instead of 23 inches, I calculated 32 inches). Someone, ahem, wasn't paying attention...

Considering how many times I gently correct students in math class with, "Does that number make sense?"...

Last Day Scramble

Seniors (twelfth grade). Government.

The teacher was out all week. (Bereavement. Her mother passed away.) She gave them a project.

It was a very clever project. They were to write a "bill" for the House or Senate. They could pick any topic, and they were given a template for how the thing should look. Then they were to create a poster to go along with this fictional bill.

They had four days to work on it.

I did not cover the first day, but I was there for the last three. So, on day two, they acted as if they had it. Quiet classrooms. They appeared to work on the computers.

But on Friday...

Oh, the scramble. So many of them needed to get their "bills" printed, so there were a bunch of them who needed to go to the library. (They can print their work out there. There was no printer in the classroom.) And so many of them had barely started their posters.

It was entertaining to watch, really.

I got a good stack of finished projects. They had come up with some interesting "bills".

And I can't complain. No one was surprised by the deadline. They were told it up front.

It's the same everywhere. We all kind of scramble to get things finished on time.

Not So Obvious

The first week back after winter break is traditionally pretty slow for subs. But illness has taken hold, and the computer teacher was hit hard. The students were all, "Another sub..."

It was a bit of a scramble to get the lesson plans. (They had been emailed the previous day, but the prior day's sub hadn't left them.) And then...

Any other week, all I'd have to do with the class was tell them to go into Google Classroom and find their assignment for the week. But it was a new semester, and this class was a semester course. These kiddos were brand new to the class. Which meant that they needed to sign up for the Google Classroom class.

This is actually pretty simple. All they need is a seven digit alpha-numeric code. Which I could not find on the lesson plan anywhere.

There were links to the Google Classroom page. The teacher had said the codes were included. And the sub's note from the previous day said they had worked well. So, what was I missing?

Turns out the codes were there, just in small print. It only took me a half hour to figure it out...

Some days I'm the idiot.

How Do You Say...?

Seventh grade world history, first period. They were starting their unit on Asia, so they had a map to work on. They were to identify the countries, cities, rivers, oceans, and features listed on the map.

Sometimes I forget how young they are and how much they don't know.

"Wait. Russia is in Asia...?"

"Is that where Indians come from?"

"Why do so many countries have -stan in their name?"

I spent several minutes trying to get a kid to stop saying "boo-dee-ism" for Buddhism. (This was the same child that wouldn't show me his paper. It was on his desk until I went over to talk to him. Then it vanished from his desk. He swore that he had done quite a bit of work, but he wouldn't allow me to see it.)

But the most repeated question was "how do you say...?" I was called to several desks and asked how various countries' names were pronounced. Pakistan. Turkmenistan. Uzbekistan. Etc.

If I had been covering more than one period of this (the teacher returned later that day), I would have taken the time with each class to read through all the names. Although, maybe not. There were a couple Chinese cities that I wasn't sure how to pronounce. (I'm so glad they didn't ask me those.)

What Are Your Pronouns?

At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements. 😉

The other day, someone was telling me about the gender neutral pronoun "ze". I'd never heard of it. All I'd heard about was singular "they". The point of this conversation was complaint, so I won't go there. (I don't see what the big deal is. We should all be able to identify ourselves the way we wish.) But it got me thinking...

What if our language had no gendered pronouns?

Shark Beanies, Finished

As predicted, I did finish the shark beanies by the time last week's post went live. So, here they are, finished...

It appears that the blog post where I found the pattern no longer exists. However, the pattern designer has uploaded the pattern to Ravelry, so if you are interested in making one (or getting someone to make you one) you can find the pattern here.

Because there are two, I can show both the back and front in one picture. 

Yes, it is supposed to look like your head is being chomped by the hat. With teeth and everything...

From the back you can see the fin and the tail.

I mailed them off on Wednesday. They arrived on Friday. And I was sent a pic of the twins wearing them on Saturday.

One Two Christmas gifts down. Four more to go...

Another Fall Day

There's a moment after your balance has been lost, when you look around for something to grab onto and find nothing, when acceptance sets in. You're falling, and you're going to hit the ground, and there's nothing you can do about it.

"Damn it!"

I'm rather glad a stronger curse didn't come out of me at that moment, because I was in a classroom filled with seventh graders.

It was fourth period on the last day before winter break. (December 19th, to be exact. I started autumn with a fall and I ended it with another. There's a symmetry there...) They had finished their finals, and on this day they were just hanging out. I was monitoring them to make sure they didn't destroy the classroom.

Actually, fourth period was a pretty good class. If I had ranked the week, they would have earned the number one spot.

I was seated at the front of the room. The stool was in a slightly wrong spot, so I stood up, moved it slightly to the right, and sat back down again. Only, I was still positioned to sit on it where it had been, so instead of sitting on the stool directly, I hit the edge. The stool tipped, and over I went.

I landed flat on my back, staring at the ceiling.

I just wanted to lie there for a moment, contemplating my luck or my life or something. But I was in a room with seventh graders. In a moment, they all surrounded me.

"Are you okay?"

"Do I need to call the nurse?"

"Did you hit your head?"

On the bright side, they weren't laughing. (Eighth graders would have been laughing.) But lying on the floor was out of the question. They were going to get me up with their help or without.

I told them I was fine, the nurse was unnecessary, and that I hadn't hit my head. (A sore neck later that day told me I had held my head up so that it didn't hit the hard floor.)

I crawled to my knees and pushed myself up. I was so grateful that I hadn't fallen forward this time. Instead of a scraped up knee and twisted ankle, my butt and lower back had taken the brunt of this fall.

I refused to sit on that stool for the rest of the day. (It was a short day, luckily.) And I could still move. Sitting down and getting up gave me a twinge, but moving about was okay.

I did write this in the note to the teacher. Because, seventh graders. There's no way that spill doesn't come up in conversation. And because seventh graders, I'm going to be hearing about this for the next five and a half years. Sigh.

(It's three weeks later, and I'm fine. I had a black and blue line from mid back and going left that's largely gone now. My left "cheek" hurt the longest, but that pain is mostly gone now.)

Finals Distraction

The week before winter break was finals week. Due to a teacher taking advantage of the break to recover from surgery, I got to work it.

Eighth grade science. They had finals.

I knew Vanessa from that English class that I started the school year off in. She was fine on her own, but she was also friends with the troublemakers, and she could get loud in concert with them.

My job during a test or final is to keep the class silent while tests are being taken. They know that's the behavior expectation, so once they settle in to the test, I don't usually have issues with them talking. When I have to watch out is when the majority of the class is finished while one or two are still working.

Fifth period. Their final was on Wednesday, first thing.

After they'd gotten started, there was a bit of commotion over near Vanessa. She was having trouble with her left eye. One of her neighbors said she had pink eye.

I pushed them to focus on their own finals. I allowed Vanessa to get a paper towel to wipe her eye. And I watched.

(Pink eye? I don't want a student to have pink eye. That's so contagious. I don't want to catch it!)

One by one, the kiddos finished up and submitted their finals. As they did this, I allowed them to keep their computers and play games or watch videos...

Oh, did I not mention their finals were online? It was a nifty little thing. The final was only open for the two hour window of when their class was. Once they logged in, the final locked them out of doing anything else online until they had completed and submitted it. Because it was computerized, the questions could be scrambled (as well as the answers), so no two students had the same test. And the tests could be individualized, like for the Spanish speaking student whose final was in Spanish.

We got down to four students still working. Then three. Then two. Then just Vanessa. Except, Vanessa wasn't working. She was watching the video of the girl doing her hair on the computer of her neighbor...

I don't usually get in a student's face when they're the last one working. They get all the time they need. But Vanessa wasn't working, so I asked her if she was distracted. I informed her that she was the only one still working, and that if she was distracted, perhaps she should sit somewhere else.

And you know what? She moved. She focused in on her test, and she finished it a few minutes later.

Then she asked to go to the health office because her eye was burning and had been burning the entire time she was working on her final.

Thursday we had all the classes. The teacher had alerted me the evening before that she had finished grading the finals. So, when I saw period five, I let them know that their finals were graded and recorded.

Because everything is computerized nowadays, their grades were posted on Parent Portal. The kiddos all know how to log in and review their grades.

Vanessa was in class. Her eye was fine. Which, luckily, means it wasn't pink eye. (I hope she told her parents and they did something about it, whatever it was.)

She logged in and checked her grade. She got 60%. And she was thrilled.

"I thought I got a 12."

60% isn't great. That's a D. One point above an F. But if she was happy with it...

At least she was trying. That bodes well for the future.

Unprepared

The week before winter break was also finals week. And due to a teacher taking advantage of the break to recover from surgery, I got to work it.

Eighth grade science. They had finals.

The finals were open book/open note. And most of the students had their papers all out and ready for use. Most of the students... 

"I need help."

Any other time, I'm all over that. But not for a test. Definitely not for a final.

She reached for her neighbor's notes...

"Where are your notes?" I asked.

"I forgot my backpack."

I shrugged. If she didn't come prepared...

"What does it matter? They're the same notes."

Perhaps. Or perhaps she didn't take notes and she was counting on using her neighbor's work to get through. It didn't matter. The teacher had been very specific. They could use any of their own materials, but they could not use someone else's.

She was not pleased. But I've seen when they want to "share" notes on a test. It might as well not be a test. It might as well be partner/group work.

It was a good lesson for her. In the future, perhaps she'll remember to bring her own materials (and notes!) for her finals.

You, Enhanced

At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements. 😉

What if you learned you aren't actually human, but that your brain is some sort of computerized artificial intelligence? 

Shark Beanies, Almost Finished

As I write this, it is Sunday afternoon. This is my usual time of getting my blogs ready for the week. So, this is also my deadline for having my knitting projects ready to be photographed and talk about. 

I had planned to have shark beanies all finished and ready. Alas, I didn't quite make it. Last night (Saturday night), I managed to get the tails all finished up and attached. All I had left was to embroider the eyes on. 

It was 11:30 PM when I was ready to tackle that task. I decided it was perhaps not the right time to work on something I needed to be able to focus on. (I did try for a while, but it didn't go well.) 

So, here are the shark beanies, almost finished... 

They came out pretty good. I won't need to rip either out to start over. 

School was out all of last week. I finished up the main knitting of the second beanie early in the week. I took one night to do the "fins" for both. Then another night (Friday) to get all the teeth done (again, for both). The tails were Saturday's project... 

That is, I knit the forms, sewed up the seams, stuffed them, and attached them to the hats. So, really, I did do quite a bit. 

All that's left are the eyes. By the time you read this, they'll probably be done. Hopefully. 

Then I can dig into the next project, which is a beanie for eldest nephew. I'll talk about that a bit more as the interesting bits start to happen. All that happens at the start is for me to knit a standard beanie... 

What? That's a good take-along project. I took it along on my Saturday out of the house... 

(I'm so glad for streaming TV so I had something to watch as I worked. I got through the entire first season of Jessica Jones and The Morning Show. I know, I'm totally late getting into Jessica Jones, but I only just got Netflix a few months ago.)

Ends in FF

This week for Random Quiz Friday, we're looking for words that end in "ff". You know more than you think you do...

Ends in "FF" Quiz

A few pointers: 

• Let the site load before you try the quiz. While loading, it's really slow and will impact your time.
• You can answer in any order. Type in a correct answer in the box, and it'll find its proper home.
• It is timed. Sorry.

I only got 12 out of 18. Not bad, but I could totally do better. (I didn't, so leave me with my delusions.) Good luck.

Clueless

I've been subbing a long time... 

Today's post from the wayback files goes along with yesterday's video post. It was the last week of school, and I had gotten assigned a science class. It turned out that the science class wasn't absent a teacher. The principal asked for another body in the room to help the teacher control his classes during finals. 

I didn't put too much on the blog at the time, but it's been ten years, so I think it's safe. 

The new teacher had a difficult class. Very difficult. And from what I observed of him, he was doing a great job of trying to contain them. But it was a battle. 

His contract was not being extended/renewed. He knew this at the time. The thing that pushed him over the edge and got the principal thinking he needed backup during finals wasn't his fault. It was entirely the fault of a class out of control, and that class was out of control because it was filled entirely with kiddos who were not interested in doing any work. (It's seeing classes like this that convinced me I was not cut out to teach full time.)

What happened? He had pulled a kiddo out of class to discuss his bad behavior. While they were outside, the teacher could see the entire classroom through the windows. But still, someone in class managed to get a porn DVD into the player and going... 

The video wasn't on long, but the damage was done.

I was feeling out of place on day one. On day two, the following occurred. This post originally appeared June 16, 2009... 

Day two as an assistant. Today I understood why my help was needed.

Most students enter a room calmly. Andres announced his presence. He headed right for the teacher's desk, and he sat in the teacher's chair. As this was the chair I had been using (I was standing as the class entered), I told Andres to find another seat.

"But Mr. D always lets me sit here."

A glance at the teacher told me this wasn't true, and the teacher told Andres to get to his own seat. He did, but then he started talking loudly. Humming. Rocking in his chair. I told him to settle down or he would spend the period in a not so nice place.

Then another student rushed across the room. Andres stood. They started menacing each other. I got right in the middle of the two of them and told them to settle down. No fighting.

"We're not going to fight. We're going to have a jerking contest."

Also inappropriate, and I said so.

I got busy dealing with other students in the classroom. Then I saw Mr. D kick Andres out. I wasn't at all surprised. But Andres was.

"But I didn't dooooo anything..."

What brought this particular class to mind? After the kiddos finished their finals, Mr. D put on a video. The last week before winter break, I was covering a science class, and they had finals. I needed a little something to keep them busy after they had all finished. And I remembered his video. It's the show I linked to yesterday.

Time Warp

It's a holiday week, so that means I'm on "summer schedule" here on the blog. (My subbing stories from the week before break will appear next week.) Wednesdays are all about TV, and in this case we're talking streaming TV.

I was introduced to this show by a science teacher. (The full explanation of how I met him I will save for tomorrow's post.) I couldn't recall what it was called or if I could even access it online. But it came to mind because I needed a little something to keep middle schoolers entertained after they'd finished their finals. (Spoiler alert: it didn't work.)

Turns out, it's still live on Discovery Channel's website. It took me way less time to come up with the title Time Warp than I expected. I Googled something like "two guys slow motion video". I seriously lucked out.

Anyway, the show is about two guys filming interesting things using a high speed camera so they can slow it way, way down. It appears that it only had two seasons, but that'll be enough to keep you busy until our normal shows start up again.

Alas, the streaming online does contain commercials. But otherwise it's a fun watch.

You can find it here. I don't think you need to watch them in any particular order. Each episode explains who the guys are and what they do. There are 34 episodes available on the site.