Some Follow Ups 13

We are almost a month into the second semester, and I'm finding that I'm repeating myself. That's what happens when you sub at the same handful of schools on the regular. 

Lately, some things have come up that relate to incidents I have posted about in the past, but they're really not interesting enough to make their own blog posts. And then I remembered Thursday 13. I think I've collected enough of these to make a full 13. 

ONE

Last week I ended up in classes that I was pretty familiar with. On Monday, I was back in the classroom I spent November 2021-January 2022 in. Ms. S retired, that's why I took it over for a time. For this school year, they hired a new teacher to take the class.

Although, it wasn't the same class. Two of those students culminated. The remaining students are in other classes. 

But I did have two familiar faces. Jennifer and Jonas. 

As for the rest of the class, one of them had been a student in another class last year, one of them I remember from the feeder high school, and the other three were new to me. 

Since last year they have shuffled the aides. Vera is the one-to-one for a new student. One of the aides was new to the school this year. And the other three were aides in the other classes, but as everyone at the school works together a lot, I was familiar with them. 

It was a pretty nice day. (I don't really have any good stories to hang a full blog post on.) 

TWO

On Singles Awareness Day, I got to revisit the chemistry class I covered for three weeks at the beginning of the school year. Things were much like how they were in August. What I never mentioned in August was how many familiar faces were in the class. 

Jeremy is a tenth grader now. He's grown up a little. Alas, he spent so much of his time in class playing games on his computer. Sigh.

THREE

In the same period with Jeremy was Helen. She seemed so sweet in ninth grade. Well, initially. After having her in that vacant English class, I had her in the geography class I covered immediately after, and she was less sweet. This year? She sits in the back of the room and doesn't appear to do any work. Deep sigh.

FOUR

And also in that same period is Doris' sister. I've never mentioned her before because she has not done anything blog-worthy. She's quiet. She does her work. I wouldn't have even realized she was related to Doris if not for her fairly distinctive last name. (Yes, they are sisters. I looked it up.) 

FIVE

Speaking of siblings, back in January I covered one of the classes that feed the adult transition center. One of the students had a familiar last name. It was Pizza's brother. When at the adult transition center last week, I got to see Pizza and say hello. I told him I had met his brother. He wasn't sure what to make of that.

SIX

Remember Harmony and her threat? I do. So, two Mondays ago, I was pleasantly surprised when the aide in the special ed class I was covering was Ms. E. I let her know what Harmony had said. Ms. E was not shocked. She also said that Harmony is no longer in that program where they saw each other, so they likely won't run into each other again. (But I did want to mention it to her, just in case.) 

SEVEN

Two days later, I was back at the continuation high school in that social studies class. I was dreading another run in with Harmony. (I had had the class a couple weeks prior, so it wasn't the first time I'd seen her since the threat.) 

At the lunch break, I overheard the PE teacher discussing something with the principal. And a couple other teachers chimed in. Apparently, Harmony had shoved a girl during PE, and she had been suspended. So, I was not going to see her in sixth period. Yay! (When I said as much, the principal: "Even the subs know who she is.")

EIGHT

The social studies teacher I was covering, Mr. K, is someone I have covered many times in the past. The previous day, I had actually been in the classroom he had when I first covered his class. 

Mr. K transferred to the continuation high school from another school in the district. Actually six of the nine teachers currently there transferred from other schools in the district. (Yeah, I've been at this job too long.) 

NINE

Remember Austin the chair thrower? I mean, I wasn't positively sure it was Austin throwing the chairs, but he sure acted like it had been him. 

I didn't mention that I was back at the alternative education center in last week's posts because I had other things to post about. It was third period. I had two students. They were nominally on task as I could monitor as I sat next to them while they worked.

One of the boys brought up Austin. He had been in the class where the chair throwing occurred. The other boy hadn't. Boy 1 told boy 2 all about it. Boy 1 had seen Austin throw the chairs, so now I know. For certain. (Of course boy 1 never said anything before because they would never "snitch" on each other.) 

Anyway, the reason they can now talk all about it is because Austin is gone. He either ran away or he's in juvie. (Or he ran away and then ended up in juvie.) Rumors have been flying, but nothing's confirmed. 

It's a sad story, really. Austin needs help. But... 

TEN

I got to see Lou. I had a last period prep, so I got to go home early. As I walked off campus, Lou was sitting there. He said hello. (Or I wouldn't have seen him.) 

The way the block schedule works at that school, not everyone has a last period, so Lou was out of school validly. 

The next day I heard Lou call to me while I was heading towards the bathroom. I didn't get a chance to say hi, though. It was between periods, and he really needed to get back to class.

ELEVEN

Remember Austin who liked to take twenty minute restroom breaks? Apparently, the school has instituted a floaters list since I last had him in class. He was in the eighth period chemistry class. As expected, he requested a restroom pass. 

Floaters aren't trusted to leave class, so he had to be escorted. I called the office for his escort. (When I said I had to do this as I had been warned about this in the lesson plans, he acted like he had no idea what I was talking about.) Austin hovered about the door. It had only been a couple minutes, but he complained he "really had to go". Sure. Just as I called the office back (as he insisted I do), security arrived. (The lady in the office commented that he was a bit of a drama queen. Yup. Can confirm.)

TWELVE

I arrived at the high school for a day of AP geography and AP economics (read: an easy day). The secretary asked if I would cover an extra period (as per normal). Then she told me what class, and I remembered the last time I had covered that class.

And yet, this is the first time you're hearing about this. As luck would have it, not every terrible class is always terrible. They were actually pretty mellow on this day. Of course, they were allowed to have computers (they weren't the previous time). So, they played games and didn't attempt to entertain themselves in inappropriate ways. (And, of course, it's a new semester, so the health students are now in geography.) 

THIRTEEN

Standing outside the classroom during passing period, a student walked by, saw me, and said, "You wrote a bad note about me. My teacher called my mom, and she wasn't happy." 

Was I supposed to be sorry? I'm all for telling the mom all about it. 

Later, I realized it was fake Evan. Which begs the question: was he in trouble for being fake Evan or for playing around in choir? I assume it's the latter as he said nothing to me when he was in choir. But, I didn't write a note then. I just talked to his teacher.

Hence, my confusion. But he was long gone. *shrugs*