The Poll Numbers

Sometimes teachers will leave their cell phone numbers for us subs just in case. I try not to use it as I don't want to bother them, but sometimes...

The first class of the day had a quiz. I told them to put their notebooks away. And they vehemently objected, stating that they were allowed to use notes. So, I texted Ms. S to ask, and sure enough, notes were allowed. 

Friday. Integrated math 2 (read: sophomore math) honors (read: taken by freshmen), sixth period. 

They had a quiz. It went well. While they had the whole period for the quiz, most had finished it with forty-five minutes left in class. (Block schedules give us loooong periods.) 

For the remainder of class, they were to study for their final which was the next week. (It'll be over by the time you read this. Their final was this past Tuesday.) 

"How many questions do you think will be on our final?"

A girl asked this of a friend, then another, and then another. She realized she was taking data, so she got out a dry erase board and started listing guesses. She went around the room asking everybody. 

And I just couldn't resist...

I'm sure the final is already set. But it was fun to mess with them.

In case you can't see the image...

Me: Student is polling the class on how many questions they think will be on the final. 

Ms. S: "liked" the text with "ha ha"

Ms. S: What do they think?

Me: 50 to 60, but with guesses as high as 200 and as low as 35.

Ms. S: Wow, tell them that 50 to 60 just seems like a lot, but if that's what they want, we can do it.

Ms. S: Also tell them Monday at lunch they can do a retake of the simplifying radical expressions if they want.

Me: Now they're guessing 24/25.

Ms. S: ::laughing with tears emoji::

A Polite Mob

It had been a while since I caught a day at the adult transition center (February 2023, in case you wondered). And my year at the ATC ended in June 2022. 

(For those of you relatively new here, in November 2021, while we were back in school but under Covid restrictions, I caught a long-term assignment for a class whose teacher suddenly retired--because she refused to get vaccinated--at a school for 18-22-year-olds who are very special ed. Here's a link to my "atc" tag where I've collected all the posts from my experiences there.) 

Since it's been a while, I saw many new faces as many of the students I'd been with had finished or "culminated". Or were in other classes. I had one of the instructional aides from Ms. S's class. And Pizza. (Leanne was also in the class, but she was absent this day. Her mother had passed away the previous week.) 

It turned out to be CBI day. That stands for community based instruction, but what it means is we go off campus so the students can practice doing things in the community. Specifically, ordering lunch and paying for it. 

There were eight students and four staff (including me). 

We headed out to the mall. We caught the city bus. We walked the mall (it was busier than normal because December, but it wasn't crazy busy). We had lunch in the food court. (Unsurprisingly, Pizza went to Sbarro for pizza.) They all got to choose what they wanted from the various vendors. 

As we headed out to catch the bus to get back to the school, we stopped in Macy's to kill some time. (We headed out a little early to get Starbucks, but those lines were shorter than expected.) We headed upstairs on the escalator as Pizza needed a restroom. 

As we took over the escalator, Ms. D commented that we were a mob. I replied, "Yes, but we're a polite mob". Because they were. Very polite. Letting others go first. Waiting in line. Doing what one should in public.

I mean, that's the point of these trips, after all. 

It's good to get back there from time to time. Of course, this was the easier class. And it was good to get off campus.

(It was really good for me as I needed to pick up a Christmas gift, and we went right by the place I had planned to hit after work that day. Suddenly, I didn't need to make an extra trip on my way home. Hooray!)

The Student Who Was Not There

Monday, third period. I was in the learning center. 

The learning center is a room for special ed kiddos to come and take tests. Some special ed students need an alternate location for that. It's also a room with fewer distractions, and some students can use the room on days when they need that. 

So, basically, I wasn't expecting to have any students. (Some days the room is empty. Some days there'll be several students in there.)

The phone rang. Mr. R asked if the student he had sent to the room had arrived to take a test. The student had not. 

So, I was surprised when this student arrived a few minutes later. 

He explained that he had been in the learning center earlier. He had finished his test. 

I was confused. Had he taken the test the previous period? Because, he had not been in the room during third period. 

When I got to the room during the passing period, it was locked. The room was empty. I had been alone for a while. There had been no other student there, so this boy claiming he had been there... 

I mean, I can think up instances of him being in the room and me not seeing him. Perhaps he found a learning center in an alternate dimension. Maybe he figured out a way to turn invisible. But, actual real world scenarios? Nope. He was not there. 

The boy asked if I could call Mr. R and tell him he'd arrived, so I did. But as he had not been in the room when he was supposed to have been, he was still in trouble. Mr. R asked me to send him to a different room to see a counselor, so I sent him on his way. 

(He returned a short time later, saying that the counselor said he couldn't stay. I let him and wrote it all down for the teacher I was covering. If he was lying, he's in worse trouble now. If not, well, Mr. R is kind of a jerk, so there was no point in making him angrier.) 

I was just so flummoxed by how certain this kiddo was that he'd been in the learning center that period. I tried to find out where the kiddo had actually been. But what I wasn't considering was the obvious: he was lying. 

Because, really, that's what this was. A lie. Where had he been? He wasn't telling. And he was going to keep repeating the lie that he had completed his test in the learning center. (Kind of have to admire him for picking a story and sticking to it.)

Losing the Mail

What if? It's the basis of many stories. We ask. We ponder. We wonder. 

On Tuesdays I throw one out there. What if? It may be speculative. It may stem from something I see. It may be something I pull from the news. 

Make of it what you will. If a for instance is not specified, interpret that instance as you wish. And if the idea turns into a story, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements 😉

This past weekend stories surfaced with the idea of privatizing the post office. Which got me thinking. Why would anyone think this is a good idea? What is with this idea of running things, like a service that is written into the Constitution, like a "business"? Why is running things like a business a good idea? 

(When has maximizing profits ever helped the consumer? Think about how hard it is to get any sort of customer service for any corporation. They do this on purpose.)

But none of these are in the vein of "what if?" So...

What if you could no longer get things delivered to your home? (If you could, it would be very, very expensive.)

Completed Present

Last week:

This week:

I'm rather proud of this progress. And while I would have liked to complete more than three, three is what SIL is getting for Christmas as I have to get this in the mail today if I want it to arrive before the holiday. 

Nothing like a deadline to get me focused.

These are fun to do. (The pattern for Autonomy is here if you're tempted to try it. It is a very easy knit. I recommend it.) 

Next up, another Christmas knit, but for someone local, so I have until the 25th to finish it. Wish me luck.

Deadlines

 Friday. Eighth grade English, fifth period.

The kiddos had an assignment on culture. It was a project that they had had a couple weeks to work on. It was due, but eighth graders. Ms. R knew most of them had not finished it, so she was giving them one last period to get it done. 

Those students who actually had done what they were supposed to do got the period to get a jump start on an assignment that wasn't going to be due until January.

Jesse informed me he had "short term memory". No, I don't know what that means. To him, it meant that the fact that he got so easily distracted that he got practically no work done was justified by some amorphous brain issue. 

He suffers from being an eighth grader.

Jesse asked if his friend could sit next to him. The co-teacher pointed out that the two of them were holding a conversation just fine from where they were sitting. (They were.) And they continued to do so, even though I repeatedly asked Jesse how his assignment was coming along.

The girl between Jesse and his friend wasn't getting much done either. Mostly because she was contributing to the conversation. She was attempting to write something about being a tuba player. I gave her a couple ideas. She didn't think they worked. (Fine. I was just trying to get her working.)

Considering that the end of the semester is a couple weeks away, you'd think they'd be more on top of their work. Nope. They spent a lot of time looking at their grades. And being unhappy with their grades. I did point out the obvious, but at that age, they'll talk something to death before attempting to do anything.

At the end of the period I went to collect their projects. A few had finished. Jesse and his group? Nope. I pointed out the last day to turn in late work (as if they hadn't turned in the work, it was now late) was the following Wednesday. 

I wonder how many of them will get the assignment in by then.

Christmas Cards

Thursday. Third period. Marketing. 

It was a career and technical education class where the teacher was in the connected room next door (that we could see through those windows in the above picture) getting training on a laser engraver that she got for the school. Since Ms. M was doing the training, she couldn't really run her classes like she normally did, but she could give them the assignment and then go back to her training. 

I've had way harder days. 

Before they got to the ethics in marketing assignment, Ms. M had a little project for them to complete. She wanted them to make Christmas cards. 

She explained to the class that one of her students, who is now a senior, had spent a year and a half out of school as he battled cancer. (He's well now.) He had been at CHOC (Children's Hospital of Orange County), which is a local children's hospital. And he suggested the project of giving all the kids who were there at the holidays cards. 

So, Ms. M gave them the assignment of making cards in class. 

She put on a drawing video. This was the front of the card. Then they were to write a message inside for the kids who would get the cards. Some did really well at writing something nice. And some just said "Merry Christmas". 

I thought it was a lovely idea. And some of them really got into it. 

Others weren't too happy with having to draw. They didn't like how their drawings were coming out. As it was supposed to be handcrafted, that made it way more personal. But teens. They can be such perfectionists.

I've mentioned these drawing videos on the blog before, but I thought I'd share one of the ones they used this day. Because it was so cute:

I would stop the video at certain points so they could catch up. And replay other points if they asked. I thought it was a great thing to do at this time of year. 

The Book Project

Wednesday. Ninth grade English. The assignment: begin working on their book projects.

Ms. B hadn't given me much information about what their specific assignment was. As usual, I was told "pass out papers, they know what to do". But freshmen...

What I was able to glean was that they had been reading a book (of their choice) for a few weeks. As a final project for the semester, they were doing something with those books. 

Right off the bat, several students "needed" to go to the library to get a book. (The first girl to ask informed me she just got back after having been suspended.) Um, they were supposed to have been reading this book for a while. And, Ms. B had gone over what the assignment was going to be in the prior class, so they totally could have gone to the library between that class (on Monday--block schedule) and then.

But, again, freshmen. They do not plan ahead, especially for in class stuff.

They were basically doing prelim stuff. They were listing title of book, author, publisher, and copyright date.

I got so many questions as to how to find copyright date. Sigh.

Then they were to find the author's website and get information from that.

A few discovered Goodreads. They asked if they could use that for info. It had some of the info they needed, and it wasn't Wikipedia. (They are warned not to use Wikipedia for research.) 

I'm not sure what the whole project will entail, but it's way more interesting than the book reports we had to write when I was in school. I think I saw something about Google slides. And presenting to the class. 

Yeah, I don't know if I would want to do an oral report in class. So, maybe I did have it better. 

(Oh, the whining over the books. They got to choose their books! But freshmen will whine about everything.)

The High Cost of U.S. Healthcare

What if? It's the basis of many stories. We ask. We ponder. We wonder. 

On Tuesdays I throw one out there. What if? It may be speculative. It may stem from something I see. It may be something I pull from the news. 

Make of it what you will. If a for instance is not specified, interpret that instance as you wish. And if the idea turns into a story, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements 😉

So, um...

Excerpt from this article.

Last week there was a big story in the news that you may have heard about. United Healthcare's CEO was shot and killed. And, considering the country in which I live, my question is about an outcome of this whole thing... 

What if healthcare companies hire security to protect their executives? What if they pass that expense on to their customers?

A Little Progress

I did knit something last week:

This is a little over half of Autonomy, and I did it all on Saturday. I better get a move on if I want to make a couple more and get them mailed to Ohio in time for Christmas.

I don't like my chances.

(At the rate I've been knitting during the week, my chances aren't great. Maybe I'll get an influx of energy this week? Not likely.)

Just a couple more weeks until winter break. I'll be ready.

Unremarkable

Health. Seventh period. The Friday before Thanksgiving break. 

It had been a fairly uneventful week. I was struggling to come up with blog topics. I was blog writing and reading and doing other things to keep myself awake all day. 

I mean, the health class had a test, but they first had a Kahoot as a review, so it wasn't quite testing time. I kept an eye on the fifteen students in class as I read this blog post. That's when I got a sudden feeling of movement, like I had been transported to a boat in calm seas. It was just a general unease, but I knew the feeling immediately.

I paused. Looked up. Took a breath. Was I swaying? Yup, earthquake.

A couple students reacted with laughs. The room had been pretty quiet, and once the laughs stopped, the room was again quiet. And just like that, it was over.

I finished reading the blog post. Then I pulled up my earthquake app to check. Yup. 3.5. Epicenter near Thousand Oaks. That sounded about right.

About ten minutes later I asked the kiddos to put away their cell phones and log into the test. (It was online.) They finished fairly quickly and then got back onto their cell phones. (I watched to make sure they were done before allowing the phones. No one tried to cheat.) 

The earthquake wasn't even mentioned. (I could have said something, but I didn't really have anything to say. No one else brought it up.)

Just another day in Southern California.

Taking Over

I've been doing a lot of co-teaching lately. That is, I've been covering in classes where there are two teachers, either covering the general ed teacher or the special ed teacher. And I've done a lot of days where both of those teachers were absent, so it was me and another sub running the class. 

My rule of thumb is if I'm covering the general ed teacher, I'll take the lead but if I'm covering the special ed teacher, I'll take a step back and let the other sub take lead. (If one of the regular teachers is there, they generally take lead.) 

Tuesday. English 10. 

I got to school at my usual time, but I had to wait outside the classroom as the sub covering the general ed teacher got the key to the room. Alas, he only arrived just after the warning bell rang. Deep sigh.

We got into the room with a bunch of the kiddos. I found Ms. B's desk and read through the lesson plans as the other sub did the same for Ms. U's plans. The plans were the same, of course, and we both needed to know what was going on. 

The bell rang to start the first class, and I waited. He would surely get things going, right? 

He kinda did? It... wasn't good. Or clear. Or... well, I guess I have high standards, or something.

After giving him a minute to do something I realized he wasn't going to, so... I just kinda... took over...

I am not proud of this.

I jumped in, introducing myself, and then giving a brief overview of what they needed to start. 

(They were reading Act V of Macbeth and then they had questions and a writing assignment.) 

I knew several of the kiddos. They had been in that ninth grade English class I started the year in last school year. 

Once the kiddos got to work, I waited to see if the other sub would take roll. We were both given seating charts and access to the online attendance. Again, this is generally the job of the general ed teacher, although we might discuss and come to some other arrangement (depending on the day and what the assignment is). 

The other sub did not take roll. So, I did it. 

I tried to engage him in conversation a couple times. He gave me monosyllabic answers. 

I circulated around the room, hovering over kiddos who were on their phones. (The lesson plan was clear on no phones and them on task.) The other sub? He got up a couple times in the first class, but not so much the rest of the day. (I did not circulate the whole class, but I did get up more than a couple times.) 

I mean, it wasn't a challenging class. We weren't having to deal with students off task. The room was pretty close to silent. 

But still... He could have done more than sit at the teacher's desk. 

Are my standards too high? 

The rest of the day I just assumed I was in charge, so I started off with my introduction (giving him a chance to introduce himself as Mr. T) and continued on. At least I know the kiddos knew what to do and roll got taken. 

Memory Lane

Monday. Auto shop.

(Yes, one of the schools I work at still has an auto shop class. It's been years since I had a chance to cover it, but last school year I had a chance to interact with them when my car door's lock broke and they installed a new one.) 

It actually was a pretty chill day. Because sub, the kiddos were assigned bookwork. (Auto shop 1 was studying the cooling system while auto shop 2 was dealing with wiring schematics and circuit testing.) 

Shop classes tend to have bookwork with a sub because a sub isn't trained on all the safety concerns, so it's just safer and easier to not have them work with equipment. Which is fine with me. (Although, you should have seen their book. It's huge. I don't know how they lifted that monster, it was so big.)

The auto shop 2 class had a couple familiar faces. Remember Adriel from the math class I covered in the spring? He was there. 

And there was a girl (well, there was more than one in the class...). And she just seemed familiar. I did a quick calculation, and yup, it had to be her. See, I recalled this now senior from when she was in seventh grade. It seems London is all grown up. Time flies... (Click on the links for the posts where I talked about her at the time.) 

But not only did I know many of the students. The class also has an instructional assistant that's been with the class for years. She also works with the district's occupational program. She's also made the blog before, as Ms. E is the IA who Harmony threatened to trip a couple years back. Whether my warning helped I can't say, but I can say that Harmony never managed to make good on that threat. And since she's left the district, I think Ms. E is safe.

(Ms. E brought up that incident. We talked about Harmony. I asked if she graduated. She ended up on independent study towards the end, so maybe? Probably? Some day I might ask, but I likely won't think of her next time I'm around the people who would know.) 

This is what happens sometimes. I run into students (and staff) who I have history with. It's nice to see the kiddos grow up. 

Beware the Bans

Not a "what if?" today. Just a question. What is pornography? No, it's not as easy to define as you might think, because this is how they'll ban books they don't like. 

Like they're already doing.

Comic from stopproject2025comic.org. 

Travel Not Knitting

I needn't have worried.

Last week I hemmed and hawed over what to take with me on my trip to Ohio to see my brother, sister-in-law, and niblings for Thanksgiving. And when I got there, I did practically nothing. 

I started a swatch:

But the most work I did was on my Mobius cowl, and that was all plane crocheting:

But, now I have new direction. While there, I gifted the Autonomy headscarf to my SIL. (And the Christmas lights.)

She liked it so much she wants it in several colors. Considering how easy of a knit it is, this is totally her Christmas present. Whew. Something to work on. 

(I had a nice trip. It was cold there. It actually snowed. It was nice to see the family as I hadn't seen the younger nephews since they moved. The last time I saw the twins, they were like 4. They're 11 now.)

December Approaching

Happy Friday. Here in the U.S. it is the day after Thanksgiving, and I am out of town. Since it is a vacation week, Friday is the day I post a random question. 

What are you most looking forward to in December? What are you dreading for the upcoming month?

I don't really look forward to the holidays, although I will enjoy some time off. (Hopefully I won't get sick on Christmas again this year.) I think my big dread, though, is my upcoming dental appointment. I don't like it when they do x-rays. There's a whole gagging thing that happens that I would rather avoid. Sigh.

A Thankful 13

Happy Thanksgiving.

And since it's Thursday (and a holiday week), why not a list of thirteen things I'm thankful for (for Thursday 13)? 

Note: I'm out of town, so it might be a couple days before I return visits. I hope you're having a wonderful holiday.

1. Vacation time. I may not get paid for vacations, but it is nice to get time off. 

2. Steady work. I wouldn't enjoy vacation time nearly as much if I wasn't working steady. This is not a foregone conclusion as a sub, so I'm very fortunate that I catch all the days I do.

3. Chocolate. Yeah, just chocolate. 

4. Flannel sheets. I know, I know, you wouldn't consider Southern California weather "cold". But we've hit the season where it's as cold as it gets for us, and it's nice to have snuggly warm sheets to sleep on.

5. This meme. It's been three years since I first saw it, and it still makes me laugh.

6. All of you. Blogging is a lonely endeavor. I write things and publish them into the void. And you all stop by and let me know you're here, too. I appreciate having people who read and comment. I feel less alone.

7. Sleep. There was a time when I was tired all the time and couldn't get to sleep at night. That doesn't happen anymore, and it's so nice to go to bed and fall asleep. (Melatonin did the trick for me. I am thankful for melatonin, too.)

8. Migranol. Whenever I'm getting a migraine, this is the stuff that knocks it out for me. It doesn't work 100% of the time, like if the migraine has fully hit (when I wake up to the throbbing pain), but even then it'll knock the worst of the pain back so I can function. 

9. A working car. I have issues with my car from time to time, but mostly it still gets me from point A to point B. 

10. Fast forwarding through commercials. There was a day a couple weeks back when I was watching something I had recorded, and the fast forward wouldn't work. It just... I felt off. For a time, I felt as if it might be gone. But it turned out to be a glitch that got fixed the next day, and now I know what it would feel like if I lost it. So, definitely grateful it exists.

11. Spell check. When it works. There are just some words... 

12. Internet shopping. I like grocery shopping in store, but everything else I'd rather pick it out from the comfort of my home and have it shipped to me. I don't have to look through shelves. I don't have to hunt through racks. I know, lots of brick and mortar stores are now going out of business due to habits like mine, but it's just so much easier to order and ship. 

13. Games on my phone. I've got Gardenscapes, Skip-Bo, and Words with Friends 2 keeping me distracted. Sometimes, I just need to chill out and not think, and these help with that.

This is by no means a complete list, but it's a good start. What is something you are thankful for today?

High Potential

I am out of town for Thanksgiving, so I may not be around the blogosphere as much this week. I'll catch up with everyone upon my return.

It's a holiday week, so that means Wednesday is time for that-TV-show-you-might-not-be-aware-of. Although, this show is on ABC, so I'm sure some of you have heard of it if you haven't seen it. I'm talking about the new show High Potential. 

In the pilot, Morgan is a cleaning lady, but by the end of the pilot, she's working as a consultant for the police. And while I tend to avoid procedural TV shows (because that's only encouraging the networks to make more), there weren't many new shows that caught my eye, and this one also kept my interest. Here's the blurb via Google: 

Morgan, a single mom with three kids and an exceptional mind, helps solve an unsolvable crime when she rearranges some evidence during her shift as a cleaner for the police department. When they discover she has a knack for putting things in order because of her high intellectual potential, she is brought on as a consultant to work with a by-the-book seasoned detective, Karadec. Together they form an unusual and unstoppable team.

Here's the trailer:

It was airing on ABC, but you can pick it up streaming on Hulu (to catch up). Currently it's on "winter break" until January. 

Have you seen this show? Does it sound interesting to you?

New Weather Expense

What if? It's the basis of many stories. We ask. We ponder. We wonder. 

On Tuesdays I throw one out there. What if? It may be speculative. It may stem from something I see. It may be something I pull from the news. 

Make of it what you will. If a for instance is not specified, interpret that instance as you wish. And if the idea turns into a story, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements 😉

Yes, a "what if?". But still a rant. 

What if you had to pay to get a weather forecast?

Sadly, this may happen. It's in Project 2025 to disband NOAA, and that includes the National Weather Service. They want to privatize it, which means that people would have to pay to access their findings. What happens to our weather apps then?

Comic pages from StopProject2025Comic.org.

Travel Projects

I haven't gotten much done (or anything, really) the past week on the knitting/crochet front. It goes that way sometimes. There are times when I'm busily making stuff and times when I'm not. This is a not time.

Mostly what I did last week was think. And plan. What projects do I want to take with me on my little trip?

I'm going out of town tomorrow for the holiday. (I've set all my blog posts up already. I have no idea if I'll be around or not, though.) And, of course, I need to have something to take along to do. But what? 

The dragon knit is way too complicated for a take-along project. And I have nothing else really going. 

I mean, I could make another strand of Christmas lights...

But that's kind of a lot of bits to carry along on an airplane. Although, I do have that green yarn that I used for the Christmas tree last year that turned out to not be enough, and I could frog what I did do...

Maybe? 

Or, I have some leftover yarn from the eye sweater.

Perhaps a hat to go with it?

I just don't know. And I should figure it out soon. I mean, like by tomorrow. 

(I have been contemplating this for weeks now. And I'm still no closer to a plan. Sigh.)

Pumpkin

Thursday. Environmental science, fifth period. 

They were working on something called the Nitrogen Cycle STEM Case Study. It was located in something called Gizmos that they accessed through something called Clever which is a portal where teachers can link to online resources for their students to access. 

In other words, the kiddos had work online. (I know vaguely how to find most of this stuff, and I get the gist of what they have to do, so I can monitor to make sure they're on task.) And many were on task.

Then, out of nowhere, one kiddo: "Pumpkin!"

And another, in response: "Pumpkin!"

(Imagine Dug in Up saying, "Squirrel!")

The thing is, this is the third time I've had random "pumpkin" pop up. The first time was in an eighth grade English class. (The environmental science class was largely eleventh grade.) 

Okay, now time to do an internet search, as the kiddos are not forthcoming as to why they're suddenly arguing "pumpkin" at each other...

Ah... it's a stupid TikTok trend. Because, of course. 

Stupid TikTok. 

Anyone have any good ideas as to a comeback? I'm going to have to ponder this one. 

More Familiar Faces

Wednesday. Eleventh grade English, seventh period.

There were several familiar faces in the room. This was unsurprising as I was at the school where I had covered Mr. J's math class last school year. The math class was a (mostly) tenth grade math class, so of course I'm going to know several of this year's juniors. 

They had questions about their current read: The Crucible. And some of them worked really well. But others...

Xaiden was one of the students who got bored in math and worked ahead. In English? He was pretty vocal about having missed the previous class, so he wasn't familiar with the part of the play the questions were about. I suggested reading it. He did not like that idea.

Jackson was "sucked into" his phone. All period. This was unsurprising as that's how he spent the math class. I wonder if he's destined for the continuation high school. I'd more expect him there than the boy I saw there the week prior. 

They were an interesting group. There's something about the last group of the day. Those classes end up being weird.

It was a nice preview. Ms. A is the English teacher I covered in spring 2023 when she was on maternity leave. She's going to go on maternity leave again this coming spring, and she's asked me to cover her classes. 

Those kiddos are going to be so surprised when I end up being their long term sub again. *insert evil laugh here*

The Invisible Assignment

Tuesday. Eighth grade math, sixth period. 

They had various assignments in Google Classroom. One was notes. The teacher had created a video for them to watch while they filled in notes from a worksheet that she had provided. Then they were to practice what had been in the notes. (It was the distributive property.) 

Because eighth graders, Ms. S (also a sub) and I were redirecting the kiddos back to what they were supposed to be doing (all. period. long.). 

One boy had nothing written on his paper. I told him to get to work. 

"I'm doing it." And then he used the flashlight on the pen to show that the pen he was using had invisible ink. 

Deep sigh. 

Then, of course, the invisible ink pen garnered all the attention from his classmates. It had to be passed around and such. (The link goes to WalMart, but if you search "invisible ink pen with uv light" you should find similar in your area.) 

But what the boy didn't seem to get (even though both Ms. S and I both explained it) was that he wasn't going to get credit for having done his work in invisible ink. Because his teacher wasn't going to look that hard at his paper. If she can't see work there, she's going to consider it not done. 

You'd think this would be obvious. Not to an eighth grader. 

Bluesky Migration

As I pondered what I was going to rant about today, something weird happened on Bluesky. Suddenly it got a huge influx of new users. Not only that, a couple people I know online joined. And that got me thinking.

I don't know exactly when I joined Bluesky. My first skeet* is dated October 16, 2023. So, it was likely a day or two before that. When I first joined, I did not know what to do with the platform. It was new. A wide open space.

I am not an expert. I dabble. A little. I scroll. But, I have picked up a few things that new users might want to know, and so I'm including those here in the hopes that you'll join me. My user name is @zizirho.bsky.social if you do happen to find your way over there.

First, there's an unofficial ID check. It's #ProofOfCat. Post a picture of your cat with the hashtag (as well as the name of the cat and/or something interesting about said cat). Sadly, I have no cat, so I have not done this. Some users have posted pics of their dogs in lieu of #ProofOfCat. 

Next, make sure to set your feed to "Following". One of the problems in the other places is the algorithm will feed you posts that you might not want to interact with. If you keep it on "Following", you'll only see skeets* from those you are following. 

Until you have a robust list of people you are following, you can use the "Discover" feed. With the influx of people, several users have created "Starter Packs" to help newbies find good feeds to follow. They've also created a few starter packs of feeds not to follow, but they are labeled as such.

Not to follow? That brings me to one of the lovely things on Bluesky--the nuclear block.

If you block someone on Bluesky, you never have to think of them again. It blocks them so you never have to see them again. It also makes you disappear from their feeds, so they can't see you. One big issue on other sites is how those who want to harass you can find ways around a block to get back to you. Here, they can't. 

(If you hit "subscribe" on a starter pack, you are given the option of blocking that entire list. Useful tool.)

And finally, if you find a skeet* or a thread you want to "pin", you can "quote post" and put an emoji pin in it. That collects your pinned posts in a handy spot to find them again. (I haven't quite gotten the hang of this, but I'm assured it works.)

Oh, it turns out there are some other ways you can scroll. I found this while finding skeets* to add to this post: 

I'm rather surprised I had as much to write about as all of this. I'm hardly an expert. But I find that Bluesky is where I spend most of my time scrolling nowadays. I hope you'll join me. 

And another helpful graphic:

(If you're looking for a "what if?" post, I have suspended them. Temporarily? I'm not sure right now.)

*Skeet is not the official name. There's a debate as to what to call posts. Someone on the anti side advocated against in the perfect way to make everyone else adopt the term, so it's probably going to stay.

Learning Curve

I didn't do a whole lot of knitting last week. I went from this:

To this:

So, a little progress. 

But what I really wanted to talk about today is Canva. 

I got a new computer over the summer. (It became necessary.) And when I did that, I was not able to import the photo editing software I'd been using--Picasa. Picasa was abandoned several years ago, but it was the thing I knew how to use. It only had simple tools, but it did the jobs I needed it to do.

I had been looking for something similar enough. And online I had heard some people talking about Canva for various online images, so I decided to check it out. 

And it turns out that it does just what I need it to. It's how I've been editing my classroom photos since October. It took me a bit of time to figure out how to get what I needed, but now I can do that fairly quickly.

So, I thought today I'd finally be able to show off that mistake in this dragon pattern. You know, the mistake that made me frog the whole thing. 

Alas, it's going to take me more time to figure out how exactly to do that than I have time for today. 

All I could do was circle the biggest mistake. (The other mistake, the reason that I decided frogging was worth the trouble, is way harder to see.) 

You may need to click on the image to make it bigger. Then look inside the circle. See how that cable snakes like a backward S? If you look on the other side, you can see how the cables all twist the same way, making for a spiral-like thing. That's what that was supposed to look like in the circle.

It's going to take me some time to figure out all the ins and outs of Canva. Hopefully it won't disappear like Picasa did. (I mean, I should probably learn Photo Shop, but that's not happening any time soon.) 

Do you use Canva? Do you have a better way of editing photos?

Caught in the Lie

Wednesday. Eighth grade English. Third period.

Bernard asked to use the restroom.

Restroom policies are thorny. Why can't we just let the kiddos go? Because some of them just roam campus, getting into mischief and missing class time. So, there are various policies. 

My policy is one at a time, and I keep a list. If the teacher doesn't care about the list, they can ignore it. But for those that keep track, it's there. 

Ms. N left me her policy, which was that the students were given a pass with five out-of-class-free times. I was to initial this for any student who went.

So, when Bernard asked to use the restroom, I asked him for his pass. He told me Ms. N had never given him one. 

I don't like telling a student no for the restroom, so I let Bernard go. But I made a note on my restroom list that "Bernard said he never got a pass". 

The next day I got an email from Ms. N. (She just responded to the email I sent her about how the day went.)

Quick question: did you sign off on the students who used the restroom yesterday? If not, I will do that tomorrow or make them stay after and owe time, especially since they know they need a bathroom pass (Bernard did get a bathroom pass, FYI... sorry you had to deal with that).

Uh oh... Bernard's in trouble...

This is why I write these things down. Students get caught in these lies (and hopefully will be less likely to lie in the future when they get caught). 

As for my answer, I replied that everyone else had given me their pass. 

Middle schoolers trying to get away with stuff. If I had a dollar for every time they made the attempt... 

A Smooth Transition 13

It was one of those weeks...

Well, yeah, I do mean that, but really what I'm talking about is work--the substitute teaching of it all. And luckily, it wasn't a bad week, which I kind of needed with the state of the U.S. and all.

It was one of those weeks where I don't really have any good stories for the blog. This is good for my mental health, but not so much for the blog. Which makes it a good time to do a Thursday 13. (The "smooth transition" is number nine.)

1. "Puppies with hormones." That's how my fellow sub co-teacher referred to seventh graders, and I find the description apt.

2. That was Tuesday. It was a co-taught eighth grade English class where both teachers were out. (It was "collaborative scoring" which meant all the eighth grade teachers in the district were at the district office reading student essays. It's the best time of year for subs as we have plenty of work those days.)

3. Tuesday's classes were challenging. But we had an easy lesson plan. They were watching The Birds. Yes, the Alfred Hitchcock film. The class has a unit on suspense where they read excerpts from Cujo and they had just finished reading "The Tell-Tale Heart". 

4. Wednesday I was at a different middle school but I again had eighth grade English. Same reason. And I again, I was in co-taught classes with another sub. Alas, this sub wasn't as helpful as the co-teacher I had the previous day.

5. At least the classes weren't terrible. (Not that Tuesday's classes were "terrible". Just "challenging".) I'll talk a bit more about Ms. N tomorrow.

6. Thursday I ended up in a Spanish class. The teacher was chaperoning a field trip that was supposed to take place the previous week. But it got postponed due to the Dodgers. 

The field trip was to a Day of the Dead celebration in L.A. But when the Dodgers won the World Series, they got a parade and celebration in the city. That fell on the Day of the Dead celebration. So, the Day of the Dead celebration got postponed. 

7. The Spanish classroom was opposite the classroom where I covered that seventh grade science class at the beginning of the school year. (So, if the science classroom had been room 101, the Spanish classroom was in room 102.) I could wave to Mr. H from the door (and, in fact, I did). 

8. And between those classes (in the equivalent of room 122) was the history classroom I had covered a couple weeks back. Which also had a sub covering. Who I know. It was a big sub day. 

9. The students were so excited when someone mentioned seeing Ms. S over in the science classroom. Because, this happened to be the day of transition. Mr. H had finished his thirty days as the long-term sub, and the next one was due to begin. 

Before I left that gig, Ms. W had lined up the third sub for the class, and it was an English teacher who had retired at the end of the last school year. So, when the students were ready to descend on the class, I let them know that Ms. S would be there for the next six weeks (thirty school days), and they could say hi at any time. 

10. I had subbed for Ms. S several times, and in fact, a couple times last semester. 

11. Friday I had a ninth grade English class. For another teacher I have subbed for in the past (but had not this school year until then). 

12. Fourth period was really happy to see a sub. Although, they won't be so happy when she returns, as several of them wasted the period, and I left names. 

13. What was their lesson plan? They were prepping to write their essay. (That is, they were reading the articles that they would use as their sources for the essay they would write the next week.) This would be the essay that the ninth grade English teachers will then all score at the district office at some time after. And we subs will again all have a day of work covering those classes. The cycle begins again.

Unexpected Familiar Face

I finally got back to the continuation high school last Monday. 

It used to be that the sub caller would put me over there, as she knew I was fine with working there. But ever since we went to the computerized scheduling app, finding and catching those days has been harder. And with the long term I started the year with, I just haven't seen the school since about February. 

February? Let me go back into my posts. I'm sure I wrote about the last time I was there...

Nope. The last blog post I have from the continuation high school is from August 2023. According to my year end stats, I only spent three days there last school year. Ouch. No wonder they barely remembered me.

(Not true. They remember me. The staff, anyway. The students were more like, "You subbed at [insert home school's name here]".)

I was in the English class. They were either working on their district essays (the district has them write essays every quarter to measure how well they can write) or reading (We Were the Lucky Ones) and answering questions. And, it went pretty much how I expect the classes to go. That is, many did little to nothing while a few got done what they needed to do.

Fifth period, as I was walking the room taking attendance, the students did their usual, "Don't you sub at...?" bit. 

Then one boy said I had been his math teacher last year. 

That's when I placed him. I mean, I recognize the kiddos when I see them as knowing I've seen them before, but where had I seen them? Yeah, it's not always there. But this boy? Yeah, I remembered him from last year's long term in Mr. J's math class.

And... I did not expect him to be there. There were a couple students who I would not be shocked to see there as they did little to nothing in class. This boy? As far as I recall, he was doing fine in math. He had a passing grade. He did the assignments. 

Deep sigh. At least he doesn't have to make up his math credits. Clearly, he did need English credits. 

But that's why the continuation high school exists. It's for students to come back from whatever setback led to the possibility of them not graduating.