13 Snippets of My Current Long Term

The third week of school went fairly well. I mean, seventh graders, but considering that, things could be going much, much worse. 

I've made many small observations. None would be a great blog post on their own, but together they make an ideal Thursday 13.

1. Baby naming trends of 2012: Matthew. I have, like five. Three in one period. Two with the same last initial. (Also popular: Samuel, Sebastian, and Daniel.)

2. Monday I got to school to find no internet. It was a district-wide outage. I've had this issue before. At least this time I could pivot so we didn't really miss it.

3. There are three seventh grade science teachers (including me). We're all doing the same thing, so I haven't had to scramble for lessons. I was given access to the online folder with the year's work. And I can ask the other two any questions I have. It makes lesson planning so much simpler.

4. We're still in the "honeymoon" phase, that is, when the kiddos are on their best behavior. But they're starting to get comfortable, so their true colors are showing. My job is to hold the behavior standards as they get comfortable so they get used to behaving a certain way in class. We'll see how well I manage this.

5. Third period is my trouble spot. I already have girls with attitude and chatty groups. I'll have to see if I can seating chart my way out of that.

6. Fifth period is bright. They're right after lunch, so I was expecting wild, but they're quiet until we get into a lesson, and then I have a bunch of volunteers. They might be my favorite. (Although the even classes have been pretty good, too.) 

7. I have twins in one class. Not identical. And one girl mentioned that she's a triplet. (Her two brothers are not my students.) 

8. I'm hoping the schedule changes are finally settling. One poor boy got switched into three different classes. First he was in period one. Then five. And then period two. Then he showed up to period five again, and I had to inform him that no, he did not have to take science twice. (I sent him to the office to find out where his new fifth actually was.) 

9. We had an assembly on Friday. I got to escort third period. Sigh. At least there was no tortilla slap. 

10. With all the schedule changes, my gradebook is a mess. I went through, and several students lingered there even though they were moved out of the class (or they never attended). I learned how to drop students from it, so yay, that's fixed. But yikes. (This is online, so parents can see their kiddos' grades at any time.) 

11. And suddenly I'm popular. I've heard of at least three other subbing assignments that I could have had if I wasn't already booked to this one. And two teachers have asked me to cover their classes later in the year when they have to be out. (One is going out of town for a week; another is having surgery.) 

12. The kiddos are actually paying attention. The emails have started, so I gave them a little primer on how to email a teacher. (Most important: include their period number.) And from the emails I've received, they're listening. Nice.

13. When I started, everyone asked where the classroom's printer was. We assumed the teacher took it home. Where was it? In a cabinet. I looked at it at least five times (over three weeks) before I actually saw it. If it was a snake, it would have bitten me.