Pac-Man Fever

Thursday. First period. Co-taught freshman math. 

It was the last ten or so minutes of class. I was seated in a corner, watching. And then, the opening strains of the music for Pac-Man rang out loudly in the middle of class. 

I walked over to the student. Stood there. He looked up.

And he got very, very defensive. "I'm completely finished with my work. I have no other work to do. Class is almost over. I can play this game."

I continued to stand there. 

That's when he realized why I had targeted him. 

"Oops. Sorry."

He quickly muted the sound, and continued with his game. 

He had headphones on, so he hadn't realized that his game's music was being broadcast to the entire silent classroom. 

(He was right. He had finished his work. He could play a game for the remaining time in class. But, we weren't supposed to hear his game.)

The Easy Class

On Tuesday of last week, I was asked to cover a class on my prep period. No problem. (I get paid extra for this, so it's not generally a hardship.) 

The teacher, Mr. H, had a meeting, so he was there to start class. There were eight students. And they had a story to read and questions to answer. The assignment was online. 

Mr. H explained to me the class was really good, so I'd have no problems. 

Well, I didn't have any behavior problems...

First up, one of the students couldn't log into the assignment. We tried everything. She switched computers. We reloaded. Nothing. 

Apparently she'd been having issues. Nothing I could do about that.

And then, just when things were going well, the internet went out.

Naturally. 

(Later I found out the internet went down for the entire district, so at least it wasn't some weird dead spot where we were.)

The good news was by that time half the class had already completed their assignment. And their phones worked fine. So, they kept themselves entertained. 

Why is it that the internet goes down when I have only online work for kiddos and no way to pivot to something else? Sigh. 

Of Streaming and Screenshots

For second period, I sort of co-teach with another special ed teacher. (The "sort of" is doing a lot of heavy lifting. It's a complicated story that I don't want to spend the time explaining.) 

When I started the class, they were finishing up their World War I unit. For a final, Ms. L is having them write an essay about the movie they watched: All Quiet on the Western Front, the 1930 version. 

Because they're special ed eighth graders, this was not something they're used to doing. So, it has taken a lot of pushing to get things going. 

The plan was for them to write about certain portions of the movie. But, of course, they were having trouble recalling the scenes. Then somehow I ended up looking up where it could be streamed, and sure enough, it's currently streaming via Tubi. 

Which they could access via their in school Chromebooks. 

Suddenly, all the kiddos were rewatching the movie. 

"So, I can actually watch movies at school." 

Yeah, probably shouldn't have clued the eighth graders in on the fact that they can stream movies on their computers. (If you look, Tubi has a lot of content. Some of which the eighth graders would like.) 

With me and Ms. L and our two instructional assistants in class, the kiddos couldn't really sneak in other movies. But they do have other classes. 

One thing Ms. L wanted the kiddos to do was to find a photo from the scene of the movie they're writing about. There are a ton of images they can find. But one kiddo wasn't finding the precise image he wanted.

I reasoned that one could take a screenshot from the movie on their Chromebooks.

I explained this to the kiddo. He knew how to take a screenshot. And he managed to capture the image he wanted. 

Ms. L isn't very techno savvy, so when she saw what the kiddo did, she had him instruct another classmate so he could get the image he wanted. 

Yeah, I think I just created some problems. For later. And likely for other teachers. 

But they were actually writing essays on the movie. And about World War I. So, maybe it's a good thing? 

Something Missing

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 😉

I spent the weekend at my uncle's. I'm out of ideas, so I asked him to give us a question...

What if a void suddenly appeared where one wasn't before? 

And Then There Were Two

The Enderman is finished. 

Last week, I showed off the head. I had chosen a deadline of Thursday to get it finished. I'll explain...

First, I made the Creeper. (These are characters in the videogame Minecraft.) Because twins, I offered to make a second. They named a couple different characters. I found the pattern, but I didn't get much further than that because then my mother died. (I promise, this is related.) 

A week later, my brother said he was planning to visit our uncle (our father's brother), and would I like to come along? He wanted to check in on him after his wife passed away the same week as our mother. 

The plan was to fly up Friday, fly back Sunday. (Uncle lives in northern California. I live in southern California. Brother lives in Ohio, but he was going to be in southern California for work that week.) 

I realized that if I got Enderman finished in time, I could give it to my brother rather than mailing it to him. By doing a piece every day, I got to this point on Wednesday: 

And Thursday night I assembled it. It went into my luggage Friday morning, and I gave it to my brother at the airport: 

And as we puttered about with our uncle, we ended up at Goat Rock Beach:

Next up will be Zombie. If I can find a pattern. And yarn. And the time. But I might just pause and work on some other things for a while. 

The Rose

As Friday was a holiday, our Thursday became the Valentine's celebration on campus. In the pouring down rain. 

I didn't think much of this. I tend to not think of the day at all. 

It was third period. World history. We were reading out of the textbook. There was a knock on the door.

It was the singing Valentines. Every year, the choir does a fundraiser thingy. Various kiddos form groups, and they go and sing for students. They sing a snippet from an appropriate song. Give a card and a rose. Students can choose which group they want to sing for their sweetie or friend. I don't remember how much it costs, but it's not very expensive. Five dollars? Something like that. 

They asked if they could perform. I always say yes. No reason not to. I wondered which student it was for.

It wasn't for a student. It was for me. 

I was stunned. 

I've never gotten one of these before. I looked at the card. It wasn't signed. 

Hmmm. 

One of the students in the group was one of "my" students. (They get permission to be out of class on this day.) 

Later, Ms. S told me she had sent it. She realized she had forgotten to sign it. 

That was so nice of her. No one's ever sent me one of these before. (Usually I'm day-to-day subbing, so no one would know where to find me, anyway.) 

And we all got to see our student (and their classmate) perform. 

I may not be around today or this weekend. I'll catch you all next week.

Three Books

I mentioned that I'm kind of scrambling at the start of this new long term that fell in my lap a couple weeks ago. Which, honestly, is normal for any long term. What I'm scrambling for varies, but the scramble is expected. 

While the math classes were set (with another teacher who's been giving me worksheets to give the classes), I didn't really have anything for the history classes. 

I managed to find some textbooks in a cabinet in the classroom. The current textbooks. The current general ed textbooks. But, Mr. B used general ed textbooks in his special ed class (a long term I did in November-December 2023). And I could do something similar to what he did. 

Problem: I had five textbooks. There were eight students in third period. 

So, I did what any reasonable adult would do. I went to the library and checked out three more textbooks. 

Boring assignment, but it was better than nothing (and it gives me some direction as to topics to cover). We read together. They wanted to play games on their computer "when we finished" as it wouldn't take the whole period. Me: "Challenge accepted". 

Well, it didn't take the whole period, but these block periods are long. 

The next day, I was poking around in the cabinet while looking for something when I spied something in the back corner. Three textbooks. Um...

So, I had eight textbooks the entire time. Deep sigh. 

Of course, returning the textbooks was a bit more of a challenge as the ones I had checked out were now mixed in with the originals. (They have barcodes with serial numbers.) Luckily, the librarian is kind and looked up the numbers of the ones I checked out. 

Now I'm set. Sort of. Now I have some structure to what I should be teaching. In case you're wondering, our current topic is The Cold War. 1950s, here we come...

A Riot, Not a Protest

Monday. When I arrived at school, Ms. S told me all about an impromptu meeting the staff had had that morning to discuss a walk out that the students were supposedly going to hold. 

Out of the loop again. No surprise. 

Fourth period. Two students showed up. Out of a class of seven. (It's special ed. Smaller classes.) 

At about the last half hour of class, a third student showed up with a late pass. Emilio had gone to the protest. And... it didn't go well. 

It started out on campus. Administration had opened the gym to the protestors. But then they were going to march on city hall. I think. Emilio wasn't terribly clear on the plan. He was clear on the gates being open, so those that chose to go could go. 

(The gates are usually closed and locked during the school day.)

They walked for miles. Emilio described where they went, and I recognized the locations. I've driven there. Walking from campus? It was a hike.

But sadly, it didn't go well. Fights broke out. There were weapons. Emilio told of a girl who got heat stroke. He got her water. He was upset that no one else seemed to notice her distress. 

Then the police showed up. They had the choice of going back to school or being arrested. Emilio chose to go back to school. 

As he was telling the story, Tatum, who had not joined the protest, responded. At the end of the story, she summed it up thusly: "That was not a protest. That was a riot."

Sadly, I think she was right.

What was this all about? Immigration. The school is very heavily Latino. The threats of ICE raids hits them hard. 

(Tatum made a snarky comment about Mexicans. She's a proud Filipino.) 

Anyway, not a lot of graphing happened that day. (This is one of the math periods as opposed to the history classes.) 

Webrings? In 2025?

So, the news is terrible. Everything I was afraid would happen is happening, in spades. And there appears to be no resistance. I just... 

Rather than wallowing, this week I wanted to point out a new bit over there in the sidebar. It's a smaller version of this:

It's not new new. I joined it a couple weeks ago. I was going to blog about it then, but then, well, you know. And I've been a bit distracted. 

Anyway, a couple weeks ago a guy over on BlueSky (Greg Pak) thought it might be a good idea to revive some things from the early blogging days (before algorithms curated what you see on social media) because the forces of censorship have gained momentum. For obvious reasons. 

The idea was to bring together active bloggers. And, well, that's you. If you're reading this, you're obviously an active blogger. 

The website is here. The instructions for how to join are there as well. If you're interested, that is.

He's also done an old school links page. Here. Some of you might be interested. 

And if you're way more computer savvy and want to create your own, I'm in. I'll join you. 

I mean, I'm sure I could create my own. But right now that's not happening. So, if anyone is game, let me know. 

A Head in the Game

Mid-January, I talked about doing the Minecraft Enderman amigurumi after having completed the Creeper. And then I got a cold. And then my mother died...

On Friday I finally got off my butt and dug out the yarn I'd need. 

I got started. I got to almost the end of the head, and I realized I had read the pattern wrong...

I did back loop single crochets instead of back post single crochets at the point where the top turned into the face. I went looking at the video, and I realized that I had done the eyes wrong, too. Sigh.

As the above had taken roughly one TV episode to complete, no big whoop. I'd rip out and start again.

Both of these pics are from Saturday. Before I ripped it out and after. The after took a bit longer than one TV episode. (I got about half done by the time we watched this week's Severance.) 

So, some progress. I have a long four-day weekend. (They gave us Friday as well as Presidents' Day Monday today.) I've been taking it easy, but having something to do with my hands is relaxing for me. 

I hope next week I can show off a completed figure. 

Missed Deadline

I started a new long term assignment on Wednesday. There are a few things that I have to do right off the bat with these assignments. Get keys to the classroom. Figure out what I need to teach. Check out a teacher computer. And get access to the gradebook.

This school has a whole new administrative team, so I did not know who was in charge of adding me to the online gradebook. I asked around. Found out. Sent him an email. 

I had to do something in the main office, so I dropped by the assistant principal's office. Mr. R was not there. Since clearly he was busy and perhaps not on campus, I figured I'd circle back the next day. 

(I did get keys and a teacher computer. I was scrambling for lessons, but that's pretty normal for a new gig.) 

For reasons I do not know, the previous sub had not gotten access to the gradebook. Ms. S, the instructional assistant (who's been working at that school for many years), had been keeping up with the grading and had a paper gradebook for the kiddos. So, while there were grades, the kiddos could not see them. 

On Thursday, while in the main office on other errands, I managed to find Mr. R in his office. I asked about gradebook access. He had gotten my email and was going to take care of it. Since I was there, he did it right then. (And I had other questions for him.) 

And, because I knew, I asked the question. When were progress report grades due? 

4 PM. That day. (We were having this conversation at about 2 PM.) 

Yeah. Not going to happen. 

(First I had to set up the gradebooks. Then input the assignments. Then the grades. While I know how to do this, I don't know how to do it well. There's a lot of searching for things and going back to make sure I didn't leave anything out. Grade ranges have to be entered. And that's all before entering their progress report grades into the system.) 

Seriously, the previous sub should have taken care of it. They open the report cards four to five days before they're due, so he could have totally finished that on his way out. But again, he never got the gradebook access, so...

While I felt bad, I knew this one was beyond my control. I let Mr. R know those grades weren't happening. And he understood. 

(How did I know grades were due? Because they always seem to be due when I start a long term. I wrote about it five times in the last three years: one, two, three, four, and five.)

On Friday Ms. S input all of the outstanding grades. It took her all day. She's a rockstar. (Seriously, getting up to speed on this assignment is so much easier with Ms. S there to handle a lot of the administrative tasks that I'm usually scrambling to get under control.) 

Make Work

On Tuesday I got an email from the sub desk. Would I be interested in taking over a long term subbing assignment? Starting tomorrow? 

I mean, better busy than spending too much time in my own head wallowing. 

On Wednesday, I jumped right in. 

My first period was a co-taught class, so I circulated and helped where needed. Then it was time for third period (block schedule). 

And I had nothing. Deep sigh.

The classes are special ed. I had an instructional assistant (IA). She gave the me low down on what the class had covered with the previous sub. As the class started. 

Uh... 

It was a world history class. They had just studied World War II. With no other ideas, I quickly created a Google Classroom for them, threw up some blank slides, and told them to create a presentation about an aspect of WWII. 

Terrible lesson plan. But I'm terrible at winging things, and this was totally winging. But it was something to keep them busy until I could get something set up. 

Deep sigh. 

Why did I take this class again? Yikes.

(The whole thing is a mess. Their teacher, who was hired after the school year started, left the position at the end of the first semester. It's not likely that the school is going to hire a new teacher for them, so they'll have a succession of long term subs until June. 

Oh, and the schedule is a mess. Two co-taught periods. Two periods of sophomore math. Two periods of sophomore world history. It's a weird combination. I mean, I can do this, no problem, but someone didn't plan this well at all.)

Completely Useless

Tuesday. Digital art.

I arrived to the classroom to find the teacher there. It was an art meeting day where Mr. L was going to be close by, just out of class. This is not the first time I've encountered this setup. Just this school year I've done this five or six times. (There was math day, science day, and history day. Across different campuses.) 

Mr. L informed me that he'd be there for the first ten minutes of class to get the kiddos going. And then he'd go back to his meeting.

No problem. Again, I've encountered this situation before. 

The first block was a conference, so I covered a different class. I returned for the second block. and Mr. L wasn't around. No problem. I knew the gist of the assignment. 

Oh, the kiddos were thrilled Mr. L was out. I did warn them he planned to drop in, though.

I started to explain things, and that's when Mr. L appeared. He went over what they had to do. He took roll. And then he went back to his meeting.

For ten minutes. 

Mr. L returned. He had gotten leave to do the purchase orders he needed to do in the classroom. 

Uh... 

I mean, I'm there. I can watch the kiddos work. 

Anyway, throughout the day, Mr. L was in the class more than he was at his meeting. While I was kind of needed for those moments he was out of class, those windows got shorter and shorter. 

By 8th period, he didn't leave at all. (He told me that the teachers went out to lunch. He didn't want to go. So he remained in his classroom.) 

I was not needed. 

(There were a couple teachers not covered, hence why I had a class to cover on the conference. Things would have been so much better if I had taken one of those classes leaving Mr. L's classes to be period subbed. Since he was mostly there. But hindsight is 20/20.) 

With about a half hour left in the day, Mr. L told me I could go home. So I did. 

I mean, it was an easy day. But I felt pretty useless. Sigh. Better than some of the difficult days I've had.

Nature of the Universe

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 😉

I don't even know what to target this week. It's disconcerting watching the fascist takeover. I had hoped that someone would be pushing back on this, but apparently it's all grandstanding and hand wringing. Deep sigh. I will miss living in a free country. 

In and amidst all of this, I stumbled upon a blog post that purported to know "the truth" of the universe. And that was that rather than a benevolent entity or energy controlling it all, the truth was that the universe was controlled by a deep evil. 

(There's a lot more to it than that. And I don't have the energy to find the original blog post to link to right now. If you want to read it, email me at mllelizka [at] gmail [dot] com, and I'll find that link and send it to you.) 

That got me thinking...

What if the universe was created by a deep evil that permeates everything? What if it is our job to overcome that evil and bring goodness and love to it?

The Project in the Background

I didn't do a whole lot of yarny stuff last week, either. Between my lingering stuffy/runny nose, a long-term subbing gig that fell in my lap mid week, and the sudden death of my mother, I've been a bit, well, you know. 

But I did manage to pull out another project that's been around for a while. And I worked on it for about an hour. 

For my birthday in 2019, my brother got me some yarn. I decided I'd make a moebius scarf with it. I started it, and then I used it as a school project. That is, I carried it with me to work for days when I didn't have much to do. And while there were times I'd work on it, those were sporadic. 

I didn't like the pattern I was using, so at some point I ripped it out. By January 2023 I was working on the current cobweb pattern. (I have gathered links to previous posts about this scarf. They are at the bottom. I hope I found them all, but there are probably one or two posts that I missed.) 

And now I find myself at a point I was doubting I'd ever reach. I have nearly gotten to the end of the skein.

If I was planning on ending this at the beginning of a round, I'd be done. I doubt this is enough yarn to make it around the whole thing again. But I'm doing this in a spiral, and at this weight of yarn, no one will be able to tell that I didn't end at an even round. 

And so now, I contemplate. The yarn came with two skeins. The brown above, and this one:

Which is fuzzy and will make a nice border for what I've done so far. 

Or, I could just finally be done with the original. After 5 1/2 years. 

At the rate it took me to crochet the first ball... (They were roughly the same size.) 

I'll think about it. I don't know what I'd do with that ball if I don't put it on this cowl/scarf/whatever. 

And maybe I'll find something yarny to work on so I have something to write about on Mondays. I'll get my mojo back. Eventually. But life has been a lot lately, and I'm just trying to keep up.

Moebius Scarf Posts

• Moebius Experiment
• A Back Up Project
• Unraveling
• A Redo
• A School Crochet Project
• Crocheting at Work

Minimum Day Surprise

(If you haven't seen this Monday's post, you probably should. It's here.)

Thursday. After checking in for the day, I headed to the classroom. I happened to look over at a sign with important dates for the month. As it was the 30th of January, all had been marked off except one. 

"Navigation Night, Jan. 30th."

Navigation Night is what they've rebranded Open House as. Since no one attended Open House anymore, they put it earlier in the year and turned it into a time when various classes could show off their offerings to students to entice them to take various electives the next year. 

They do this before the kiddos have to start setting up their schedules for the next school year. 

None of this impacts me as it takes place in the evening. But, Open House always turns that school day into a minimum day. 

Did I walk into a minimum day without being aware of it? Yes, that I did, in fact, do.

It was a nice surprise. Yes, I do get paid for a full day, so I can just enjoy getting out early. 

(Not that I enjoyed the day, particularly. But, that was due to *waves hands at everything*. If you did not see my post earlier in the week, on this day my mother was fading out. She passed away last Friday.) 

Seat Shuffle

(If you haven't seen my Monday post, you probably should. It's here.)

Wednesday. Eighth grade U.S. history, fourth period. 

I generally wait to deal with attendance until after I've gotten the kiddos started on the day's assignment(s). So, I had done my introduction, passed out their work, and explained what they needed to accomplish. (They had vocabulary, questions, and a game on the Bill of Rights.) 

They had been inattentive, but not loud, so I felt I had been able to get my message across. I told them to get started on the work.

Then, with the seating chart in my hand, I visibly started working on verifying who was absent. 

The first corner seat was empty. I called the name. The student was on the other side of the room. 

As he hurriedly reclaimed his assigned seat, a handful of other students suddenly remembered where their actual assigned seats were. There was a flurry of movement as kiddos shifted to where they were supposed to be. 

I mean, what am I, new? Did they really think I wasn't going to check? 

I waited until they once again settled, and then I began working on attendance again. Suddenly, the room was a whole lot more settled than it had been. 

I haven't had a group try the whole seat swap thing in a while. I suppose I was due for the challenge. Sigh.

Stealth Mode

(If you haven't seen my Monday post, you probably should. It's here.)

Monday. Seventh grade math, second period. 

They were working on a study guide for their next test. And a review thing online, also for the next test. (The next test was likely the next class period, but I'm not 100% sure.) 

A student asked to move to work with his friend. I said no. The student moved anyway. Grrr. 

So, as I walked around the room, I came up behind the pair. And... 

They were actually working on the assignment. 

The boy who moved was actually explaining the problem to the other boy. As I listened the boy gave a good explanation of how to find circumference. 

Okay, then. I'm irritated, but the boy needed help, so I'll let that go. 

While hovering, boy two turned a bit... and about jumped out of his skin.

"When did you get there?" 

I had been behind him for maybe thirty seconds. Long enough to see that they were on task. But I didn't tell him that. 

"Seriously, how long have you been standing there?" 

I'm not a small woman. I'm not particularly graceful. But apparently I can sneak up on students quite well. This isn't the first time I've startled a student by being right behind them when they didn't realize I was there.

Of course, it might just be that they don't hear me when they have their earbuds in their ears, they're talking to their classmates, and they're not paying attention to their surroundings. 

It was fun to watch him wonder. Once I saw that he was working fine, I moved on to hover over someone else. 

Safe Banks?

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 😉

That was fast. 

Okay, so the U.S. has become a fascist state. Raiding the Treasury records. Retaliatory firings in the DOJ. Setting up Guantanamo Bay concentration camp for immigrants. Tariffs against allies. And dismantling banking safeguards. 

I missed a bunch. Last week was a lot for me personally, so I couldn't keep up with everything. (See yesterday's post.) 

If I had more mental bandwidth, this would be a different post, but today I'm just going to ask a "what if?" that seems like more a matter of time than anything else.

What if they dismantle the FDIC? Would you trust your money in the bank? 

Seriously, would you? I'm wondering if I should start stashing cash in my mattress. No, seriously. 

Mom

Normally my Monday posts are yarny. What I've been working on. But last week... It was a lot. 

Tuesday night my brother texted me to let me know he was taking our mother to the hospital via ambulance. Because, "She had a cough yesterday that went nuclear today. Maybe pneumonia." 

She died on Friday. 

And, plot twist, it wasn't pneumonia. It was a perforated bowel. 

They went in and did surgery. Wednesday. During sixth period (while I had a group of eighth graders, who were fine, but eighth graders) he sent me a text stating, "Bottom line is the surgeon gives her 20% chance of surviving post op." 

She woke up Thursday. They removed the breathing tube. Put her on oxygen. Were doing all the things. But she indicated no. So, Friday, they moved her out of ICU, and she passed (again during my sixth period with a different group of eighth graders). 

So, yeah, last week was a lot.

Pamela Farrah Arundel
November 20, 1946-January 31, 2025

And just because, this wasn't the only death in my family last week. My aunt (my father's brother's wife) passed away a week ago (last Monday). So, a bonus shot:

That picture is from 1979, before my parents' divorce, when my brother and I were still kids. Mom's on the right, Janet is on the left. 

My blogs continue this week (as I did work last week) as normal. Sort of. It was a rather odd week, and now you know why.