Wednesday, November 20, 2024

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. 

21 comments:

  1. Jamie: This sounds very strange.

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    1. And that's what dealing with 8th graders is like most of the time. They are strange.

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  2. This story perfectly encapsulates an 8th graders mind, lol.

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    1. It does. You wouldn't catch a 12th grader doing this, for sure.

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  3. He tried to make math fun, I'll give him that!

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  4. lmao I could see my grandson doing this.

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  5. That's definitely a unique approach. Maybe he's really bad at math and thought that might help somehow?

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    1. I do not know what he was thinking. More likely he just wanted to play with his new toy. 8th graders really don't think things through.

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  6. Replies
    1. Kids that age are fascinating... if you don't have to deal with them ;)

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  7. Definitely no critical thinking at that age.

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  8. Hahaha 8th graders are funny!

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  9. OMG! I can't decide if that's funny or sad. 8th grader doesn't understand that if it's invisible people can't see it....that's sad or pathetic or both maybe. But, funny maybe because he's being creative? Egads. Wonder what the teacher will do when she see's doesn't see the paper.

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    1. I'm going for funny. I did mention to the teacher about the invisible ink. I imagine she won't give him credit, and that'll be the lesson he needs.

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