Thursday, January 26, 2023

Catching Up

Eighth grade English. Fifth period. And I was confused. 

Class had barely started when a student asked me for a restroom pass. I checked the seating chart to get a name. "Evan?" I asked. He confirmed.

But, just before the bell had rung, another student had asked for a different hall pass. He needed to retrieve belongings from the PE locker room. Before I let him go, I asked his name so I wouldn't mark him absent when I went to take roll. He said his name was Evan. 

There were not two Evans on the roster. 

Getting roll taken takes a couple minutes. I was squaring away who had asked for hall passes (a girl had asked to go to the health office) and making sure I noted who was out of the room (the office had called for another boy) while checking for empty seats against the seating chart. I hadn't quite gotten my feet under me. 

Then the Evan who went to the locker room returned and sat in Evan's seat.

And now I knew what the problem was. Restroom Evan was not Evan. He was only pretending to be Evan.

Ah yes. A name swap. This I'm familiar with

Restroom Evan returned to greetings of, "Hello, Jose." 

Jose's seat was occupied. Jose attempted to sit in Evan's seat, not noticing that Evan was sitting there, all the while saying, "My name is Evan." 

Uh huh. Dude, the jig's up. 

Caught, Jose went back to his seat. The boy in that seat protested that Jose had told him to sit there and pretend to be him. (Considering his behavior up to this point, I'm more likely to believe that he was a willing participant.) 

A couple minutes later, and the boys were all back where they were supposed to be. A couple minutes after that, and the class settled. 

And then I had some time to write this all out for their teacher. I can't be the only one to "enjoy" their antics.

15 comments:

  1. Hi Liz - keeping up with everything is a puzzle isn't it - well done - cheers Hilary

    ReplyDelete
  2. Replies
    1. And I doubt that his teacher was too pleased with him. (She emailed me to let me know that she was going to have "a conversation" with the class.)

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. They do. It's so much fun to disabuse them of this notion.

      Delete
  4. And they were so close to getting away with it. 🙄

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just think if there had been two Evans in the class, and one of the Evans wasn't an Evan - that could really have become complicated.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, um, actually, I lied. There was a 2nd Evan in class. I deleted him from the post so as to not complicate things more. Evan gave me his last name before he left. Jose sat in that Evan's spot. The 2nd Evan didn't figure in things at all.

      Delete
  6. Sound like middle school drama.
    Coffee is on and stay safe

    ReplyDelete
  7. I wonder if that's a prank they regularly do on substitutes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If they do, I'd think they'd be better at it.

      Delete
  8. It's funny what they think is hilarious at that age.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. {Poop, not sure why I have to sign in every time I want to post these days - never had to before ~ AJ Blythe again}

      Delete
  9. Replies
    1. Fake Evan is the gift that keeps on giving. I just saw him again yesterday. He doesn't like me much now. His antics have made their way back to his mom...

      Delete

I appreciate your comments.

I respond to comments* via email, unless your profile email is not enabled. Then, I'll reply in the comment thread. Eventually. Probably.

*Exception: I do not respond to "what if?" comments, but I do read them all. Those questions are open to your interpretation, and I don't wish to limit your imagination by what I thought the question was supposed to be.