Throwing Money at the Problem

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 😉

The other day I saw a post on social media that made me stop and think about vast wealth. Because, seriously, people who have billions of dollars wouldn't miss one of those billions. And it would solve so many problems...

What if billionaires donated money to make the world a better place? What sort of problems could that much money solve?

Finished Christmas Gift

Yes, I got last week's project...

...finished...

...in time for Christmas. It's a pillow:

This is the same yarn I used to make her afghan/blanket that I gave to her for her birthday (three months late). The buttons are so the case can be removed to wash.

I think it turned out rather well, especially considering how I got it done in about a week. 

And now I am once again between projects. Sigh.

CNN's Year in Review News Quiz

For the last Friday of the year, I like to find a quiz about the past year. This year I stumbled upon CNN's 5 Things Year in Review Quiz. And I felt like that's the one I had to do. 

It's here for you to try: 

Year in Review Quiz: 2024

I got 14 out of 20, which I consider pretty good. (The quiz is US-centric, so feel free to skip it if you're not US based.) 

Why did I feel like I had to do this one? This past year I discovered CNN's "5 Things" sometime in the summer. It's a daily seven minute show that gives the main headlines for the day. (I stream it via Max.) 

Let me know how you did in the comments. 

2024 in 13 Posts

For this last Thursday of 2024, I present my recap of the year, sort of. I've gone through and meticulously selected 13 posts that represented my year...  Um, not really. It was more of a "oh, I remember that," or, "that was funny," kind of thing. 

This is a Thursday 13. (I started doing this recap in 2020, so now it's kind of a tradition.) And so, for my year in review: 

1. January 18th: Performance Review

Where a student thought I was a terrible sub and told me. Of course, the joke was on her as she ended up being a student in the long-term assignment I had starting in March.

2. February 8th: Locked In

This was the day the manual lock on my driver side door broke. I eventually got it fixed at school by their auto shop. (For the record, not the school where it broke.) There was drama, as when I went to pick up the part, I fell, landing on my face. And one of the students who worked on installing the new lock was in that long-term assignment I had that I mentioned just above in #1. (This was done in April. The lock is still working fine.)

3. February 16th: Day in the Life of a Sub

This one? Was a day. Not all my days are this all over the place. This one was notable. But, this is the job, and things can be this kind of all over the place.

4. March 11th: Two Months' Work 

This was my first major project of the year: a blanket. It was for a birthday. In January. But as I knit it in front of her (and she picked out the color and had veto power over the stitch pattern), it wasn't a surprise. 

5. April 20th: Ruined 

I did A to Z in April. And, as usual, I wrote what I normally post about, just fitting the title to the letter of the day. Then a funny thing happened, and "interesting" things happened, and I included them on Saturdays. This was the post about the fire in a neighboring building in my condo complex. (The missing cats were found alive. Currently the units are being rebuilt. It's slow going, but they're making decent progress.) 

In April

End of December

6. May 24th: The Wrong Johnson

An eighth grader used ChatGPT to help him with his work rather than his textbook. It gave him a wrong answer. He was all about how his teacher knew he did this and didn't care. Although, when I had him in class a week later, he sang a different tune (being very careful not to make my note to that teacher). 

7. June 7th: Not a Freshman, Not a Senior

From my long-term in March through May and then at the end of May comes this story. The boy claimed to be a senior. This was the day that was proven a lie.

8. July 1st: How to Crochet a Water Bottle Carrier

I added three videos to my YouTube channel this year. This was the post introducing the first one. The channel is still a work in progress, and I hope to post some new videos next year. (One is currently in production.) 

9. August 29th: Collapsing

I started this current school year in a seventh grade science class (long term). This post was where I talked about flailing as there were more schedule changes than usual.

10. September 6th: The Dog Ate My Homework

That seventh grade science class had a kiddo actually tell me he couldn't turn in an assignment due to doggie influence. (The dog peed on it.) 

11. October 14th: Eyeing the Sweater

My second major project of the year, this one was a crocheted sweater with a big eye in the center. It was for my niece's birthday (in June), but I finished it in October. Sigh. (I wrote about it sixteen times this past year as I worked on it.) 

12. November 15th: Caught in the Lie

An eighth grader lied to me (about not having a bathroom pass). Hopefully he learned not to lie to me again, as I write things down, and teachers follow up on these things.

13. December 6th: Unremarkable

I blogged about a few earthquakes that I experienced this year. (See "earthquake files" in my tags for the collection.) This was the last one for the year. (Last earthquake post. Not the last earthquake.)

The Christmas List

Merry Christmas. I doubt I'll be around, so rather than a post, I'm linking to my favorite Christmas movie (although, I haven't previewed this, so I have no idea of the quality. I doubt anyone is going to click through and watch the whole thing anyway. I'm sure you all have better things to do). 

If you care to comment just to say you stopped by, let me know what your favorite Christmas movie is. (If you don't have a favorite, pick a winter movie you like.)

Droning On

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 😉

Apparently, the eastern part of the country has been invaded by drones. At least, that's the story I've heard. Mysterious drones...

My science fiction brain can go wild here. Aliens? Time travelers? Someone creating a portal (or looking for one)? But those are rather obvious "what if?" questions. 

What if the government entities actually know what's the behind the drone sightings, but they will not admit it publicly because it's embarrassing to them? 

A Ticking Clock

Last week I mentioned that I have one more Christmas present to complete. As of Sunday afternoon:

It's more than halfway knit, but then I have some finishing to do. Fingers crossed I finish it in time.

(Our celebration got pushed to Christmas Eve, so I've got even less time. Sigh.) 

I'll explain once I have finished pictures. No need to guess what this is. I'll reveal all next week. Now, I'd best get back to knitting. Time's a-wasting.

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.)