Spinning Wheel of Doom

Tuesday. Film Studies. Seventh period. 

When I walked in the classroom first thing in the morning, there was a note projected on the screen. It said to leave the big screen down all day, and that the movie the class was watching would automatically start shortly after class started. Okay, then.

First period, things worked perfectly. The class watched Sisu. 

It was a pretty violent movie. The teacher said it was in the same vein as John Wick. If you like that sort of thing, I do recommend. 

Third period was sophomore English, which I wrote about yesterday. The screen projected a note to the kiddos, reminding them of what they were supposed to be working on. Then fifth period it turned into another note to me, saying not to touch anything. 

It was a little creepy, but I've heard some stories of what subs end up doing, so I understood. I did not touch anything. Why would I? Everything was working perfectly... 

Oh, you know what's coming. 

Seventh period walked in. I took roll. Explained what they would be watching. (They watch movies all year, so this was nothing new.) Then, as planned, the movie started. 

I got comfortable. We were about ten minutes into it when something blinked on the screen, we got the spinning wheel of doom, and the movie froze. 

Naturally. 

The teacher had left his phone number, so when things didn't right themselves, I texted him. When I got no response, I called. 

I explained the situation. He said he couldn't fix it from where he was, and he couldn't leave. (He was on campus.) The class would have to do something else... 

Luckily, this was a good class, so they found something to entertain themselves. 

Just before the period ended, Mr. A walked in. He did something on his phone, and the movie righted itself. He had Apple TV hooked up, and he had programmed the full day on it. Somehow it had lost connection. Mr. A had the remote on his phone. If he had left a remote with me... 

But, as I said before, some subs... Anyway, the kiddos had access to the film, so they could watch it at home. Not as good as on a big screen, but tech issues and all. 

I was kind of glad not to have to watch the movie again. But I know they would have rather had it. Ah well. 

It worked for almost the full day. 

Weather Sense

I have very deliberately not been discussing the weather with y'all. I know much of the U.S. is buried in snow, and the temps have been bitterly cold. I'm sorry. It sucks. I'm wishing for an early thaw and an early spring. I can't even imagine how you all are coping. 

Tuesday. Sophomore English, third period. 

I was at the door, greeting students, as usual. As Jessica entered, she asked me to turn on the heat in the classroom. 

Jessica was dressed in jeans and sneakers, and she was wearing a tank top. No jacket. Deep sigh... 

At the end of the previous period, I checked the thermostat. It read 73 degrees. Knowing how many bodies raise the temperature in the classroom, I went to put on the fan. It was cool enough outside that there was no need for air conditioning. We definitely didn't need the heat. 

I told Jessica no. Then I asked her where her jacket was. 

She explained that when she stepped outside to leave for school, she noted how it was overcast and cool. But she didn't feel like turning around, going back inside, and getting a jacket. 

Her problem, then. 

The previous day, Jessica would have been dressed okay. The previous week, Jessica was dressed completely appropriately. Because the previous week, we were in the 80s. Yeah. End of January/beginning of February, and I had been wearing shorts. There were a couple days where we were pretty close to 90 degrees. 

But the weather reports had told us the temperature would be dropping. Rain was forecast for Tuesday evening. Our projected high was to be about 65 degrees. 

I pulled out warmer clothes. The rest of the class was dressed appropriately in long sleeve hoodies and the like. It wasn't bitterly cold, but it was not the day to be wearing a tank top with nothing over it. 

Jessica admitted she hadn't been paying attention to the weather reports. So, I warned her that the rest of the week was forecast to be cool. She might want to be bringing her jacket for the next couple weeks. 

This is very much a case of a lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine. I do not understand why it is so hard for teenagers to learn how to keep up with the weather reports. There's a default weather app on every phone. 

Accountability?

I'm tired, so I'm going to let someone else do the talking today: 

I will not let the world forget what the Trump administration did to Minnesota.

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— Peggy Flanagan (@peggyflanagan.bsky.social) February 12, 2026 at 3:42 PM

If you can't access the video, the post is here. 

Although, I don't believe ICE is really leaving Minnesota. ICE is still in LA. But it's not making national news, so we've kind of forgotten. ICE is expanding, not retreating. 

They are still committing atrocities. (Against children.) Do not forget. 

How I Keep Track

Last week I got a question about how I keep the pattern for this sweater straight while I'm knitting it. This is one of those things that we knitters figure out along the way. My process works for me. I picked up some of it from other knitters, and some of it just made sense to me.

The pattern is When Harry Met Lucy. If you scroll through it, you'll see that the sweater is made up of five different panels. One center cable. Two side cables. And two raindrop stitches. 

Each panel has a different number of rows to complete the repeat. How could one possibly keep track of all of that? Well, it's not really that hard. 

There's my current sleeve. I have added lines to show each of the five panels. 

Before I started, I took screenshots of each of the charts for each panel. (Working from charts is much easier than working from written out instructions. Especially for this.) Then I took those images and added them to a document. I adjusted the size so that it all was about the same and all fit on the same page. And I printed out: 

The paper shows the wear it's gotten as I've used this for the front, the back, sleeve one, and now sleeve two. 

I took a picture of the sheet where it's at right now, so you can see my sticky notes. Each one is underneath the row I will knit next, so I can easily see which stitches I should be making. It's numbered one to five as that's the direction I work while knitting. 

Then the "wrong side" is the exact same, so I knit back (from five to one) knitting the knit stitches and purling the purl stitches. At the end of the non-public side, I move each sticky note up two rows, and I work from one to five again. 

The sticky on the sticky notes wears off after a while, so I have replaced those sticky notes a few times. I also cut them to fit each panel. Panels one and five are worked multiple times over the stitches, while panels two through four are only worked once. The panels are worked bottom to top, so when I reach the top, I start over again at the bottom. 

You can't really see the markers in my knitting if you look at my knitted piece, but they're there. I have a marker at each one of the lines, marking each one of the panels. Because if I somehow get lost in one of the panels, I only have to count back to that section, not back to the beginning of the row. 

Any questions, comments, or concerns? 

I'm getting close to finishing this sleeve. I'm not going to say how long it should take, because experience tells me the minute I make that guess, something is going to rise up out of nowhere and hit me across the face, stopping me in my tracks. 

So, until next week... 

The sweater's previous posts:

• Starting the Sweater
• Getting to the Back
• Missed Deadline
• Distractions from Knitting
• A Month Late
• Inching Along
• Tracking the Growth
• Weekly Sweater Update
• Moving Right Along
• Good Progress
• Almost to the Interesting Part
• Plot Twist
• Not Worth the Effort
• Sleeve Progress
• Continuing Sleeve One
• Sleeve Two!
• Continuing Sleeve Two
• Setting a Deadline
• Almost There

Cough-Wink-Cough

Tuesday. Photography. 

Mr. S arrived shortly after I did. He explained that the art department was having their yearly planning session (which I was there for last year, covering a different teacher), and that he wanted to explain the assignment to the class. Okay, then... 

Their "open house" was the next day, only they call it something different now. They've shifted it to now as the students are getting ready to choose their classes for next school year, and the event is more about the various elective teachers and other programs promoting their offerings. 

Mr. S instructed his students to pick their best photograph and upload it to the slideshow that Mr. S was going to use for his open house presentation, to try to entice students to choose photography next year. They had to do it in a certain way so that Mr. S didn't have to go through and fix it later. 

I completely understood what the kiddos needed to do, but it kind of did need to come from him. 

While he was explaining the assignment, he had another announcement for the class. 

Mr. S: "Oh, and before I forget, and in case I forget to mention this on Thursday... So, you know how sometimes your teachers will tell you they feel like they're coming down with something, so they're going to miss school the next day? Yeah, well, I feel like I'm coming down with something, so I won't be here... Monday and Tuesday..."

The class? Crickets. 

I don't know if they got what Mr. S was hinting at, but whatever. I did. I really hope he had something fun planned. 

Then Mr. S went to his planning meeting, which was practically next door to the classroom, and he didn't return at all. (Unlike the teacher I covered last year.) 

Unsettled

Thursday. Eighth grade English, co-taught. 

I was expecting a two sub day, but nope, Ms. C was there, like the last time I covered this class, just a couple weeks ago. 

They were doing the district writing assessment. Every quarter every student is required to write an essay. The prompts are standardized by grade level. They're given some source material (usually articles, but sometimes videos), and then they have some sort of question to answer. 

For this essay, the eighth graders were writing an argumentative essay on the media. (They could choose pro or con.) 

This was day two of the essay, and Orson had taken over the couch in the back of the room, stretched out. He had a computer with a game on it. Okay, then, Orson had finished the essay. 

The rest of the class, however... 

Ms. C gave them instructions. They basically already knew what to do. Ms. C had already explained the structure, and they'd been over things like citing evidence and creating a hook. Then Ms. C took a group of the students to work in another room, leaving me alone with the remaining group. All they had to do was to start writing...

Yeah, no.

While I hovered, helping those that had questions (mostly things to get started), the rest of the class started talking. And got louder... 

Then a boy arrived, late. He joined two others at the front of the room, and those three got into play mode. 

As I tried to figure out who the late boy was and settle the class, Cedric suggested that I adjust their seats. (Cedric was the boy from this day, unnamed the the post, but he was the one who played that entire period, at least until he left and had to be shooed back by security.) 

Just when I thought I was going to lose the class, Ms. C returned. And the whole class settled. Sigh.

(She apologized for being gone so long. There was a group of eighth graders roaming the school, including the boy who arrived late, and she was helping the principal corral them.) 

The three boys at the front? Ms. C stationed herself in front of them, and they still needed constant redirecting. 

And before you ask, one of the boys was not supposed to be sitting there, but Ms. C let him when the late boy wasn't there. Then when the late boy appeared she just left it like that rather than disrupt things during assessment essay time to move him. 

Ms. C told me that was her worst class. Me: "Really? I couldn't tell..." 

Changing My Password

Wednesday I was back at the continuation high school. And... Meh. The teacher was chaperoning a field trip whale watching. I had one student per class period. Yeah. Seriously. 

Alas, at the end of the day they had not seen any whales. They did see lots of dolphins, though. 

But I had one major thing I had to do on this day, and it had nothing to do with the students. 

Last summer, the district implemented a bunch of new security protocols. There were some breaches. Nothing bad has happened as of yet, but the IT people are concerned. So, two factor authorization became mandatory, and passwords now have to be at least 15 characters long and include a capital letter, one of the other special characters, a number, an incantation to summon the rain god, and the name of our first grade teacher. 

Well, maybe not quite all of those. 

And, of course, now passwords must be changed every three months. 

To change the password, one must use a district-issued device. Of course, as a sub, I do not have a district-issued device checked out to me. (I do get one when I'm on a long-term assignment.) And most teachers nowadays have laptops checked out to them that they don't leave in their classrooms for their subs to use. 

Some classrooms still have very old desktops. And some classrooms have newer desktops. So, knowing that it's been about three months since I changed my password, I was delighted to see a district-issued device that I could access in Mr. P's classroom. Which meant that this was the day that I could update my password so I don't have to worry about this again until May. 

I had a new password picked out and everything. 

Second period was my prep. As soon as my first period student left, I went about logging in and getting that password changed. 

And for the next hour... 

Because, yeah. I spent an hour on this ridiculousness. 

I mean, the actual changing of the password was pretty quick and painless. It was just in updating everything that uses that password that took for-ev-er. 

So, there's the login to the district computers. And my emails. (I have two with the district.) Then there was the login I'd used to login to the computer I was using, so every tab I had open suddenly didn't work. I have the district email on my phone, so that had to be updated. As well, I had to update my Wi-Fi access, as I can access the district Wi-Fi, but only via my username and password. 

And then the big problem. I had to re-login to Google on my phone, as that's what I'm using for my 2FA (because texting a code led to other issues), and that required 2FA, and... 

Like I said, an hour. 

And so, now I don't have to worry about this again. Until May. Sigh. 

All done. All clear. Until the next day when my computer wouldn't log in so I could take attendance, and I took way too long to find where to update the Wi-Fi password on that computer. Because of course there would be one more thing I hadn't quite updated. 

Whew. 

*My first grade teacher's name was Mr. Elm. 

Combat Voter Suppression

This week I want to talk about the voter suppression act making it's way through the Senate. The so-called SAVE Act will make it harder to register to vote. By disenfranchising voters, the regime hopes to stay in power. 

Your job is to contact your senators and urge them to vote no. 

Are you a married woman? You're going to have to jump through hoops to register to vote. Your marriage certificate is not an accepted form of ID, and since your name is different than the name on your birth certificate, you'll have to get other proof you are who you say you are.

(Did anyone jump through those hoops to get a Real ID? I heard it was a pain in the rear. Same issue.)

Anyway, here's the actual bill. And here's some more info via the League of Women Voters. 

I read the “SAVE Act” (the GOP’s new voter suppression bill) so you don’t have to. This is my one page summary. Jesus it’s bad. 1/

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— Jenny Cohn (@jennycohn.bsky.social) February 6, 2026 at 11:54 AM

In case you can't see that Bluesky post, here's a link to it, and also so you can view the whole thread.

After calling your senators, check out the Adopt a Day Labor Corner. There's also a virtual webinar about it on February 18th. 

And, finally, there's one more video following up last week's follow up (and here's that direct link as I know some of you can't see the video here):

Almost There

There's something about knitting sleeves...

My great-grandmother, the one who taught me to knit, stopped knitting sleeves. When I knew her, she only knit vests. (This post contains some pictures of her work.) 

I'm beginning to understand why. 

When I started sleeve one, it seemed like I'd be working on that sleeve forever. It didn't seem to be gaining any length. Until it did. And there was a moment when I looked down at my work when it went from, "Will this sleeve ever be long enough?" to, "Wow, I'm almost done." 

For sleeve two, I hit that point Saturday. 

That's roughly 13 inches. I just need 18 inches to be finished. I think it was 18 inches... (My notes are across the room. I'll look it up later.) 

It's closer to the length of sleeve one, anyway.

My self-imposed deadline is looking more and more doable. Wish me luck.

The sweater's previous posts:

• Starting the Sweater
• Getting to the Back
• Missed Deadline
• Distractions from Knitting
• A Month Late
• Inching Along
• Tracking the Growth
• Weekly Sweater Update
• Moving Right Along
• Good Progress
• Almost to the Interesting Part
• Plot Twist
• Not Worth the Effort
• Sleeve Progress
• Continuing Sleeve One
• Sleeve Two!
• Continuing Sleeve Two
• Setting a Deadline

Building a Wall

I managed to catch a three-day assignment to round out my week. The last time I had subbed for this teacher he taught computer stuff (coding and such). But I knew he had moved into a new discipline in the career and technical education department. I thought he was teaching woodshop. 

It's not woodshop, though. Now the class he teaches is called residential construction. And yeah, it is what it sounds like. 

Residential construction 3, so the students in the third year of it, were building a shed for the activities director. Residential construction 2, second year, were building a tiny house. On the day I was there, a couple students were working on installing a toilet while a third was adding siding to the outside. 

And the first year students were doing a small wall. 

(Normally I would be stuck with them doing online work while their teacher was out, but the classes had instructional aides who could supervise, so they could actually work on their construction stuff.) 

I'm calling it a small wall as that's kind of what it was. First they built a frame. Then into that frame they attached outlet boxes. And then they had to wire them. 

Before they could move on, they tested the wiring. The IA plugged a bulb into the socket. They connected the wiring to a live outlet. And then they flipped the switch. If the light turned on, they passed. 

Then it was time for drywall. 

They had to cut the pieces to fit. Then they screwed it into the frame. 

Some students were behind and just getting the wiring done. Some were ahead and able to drywall. But a few were in a holding pattern as they were just about out of drywall. (The teacher was going to bring more, but he's out for a reason.) 

Well, they had online work, too. There's a website sponsored by Home Depot called Path to Pro. They have instructions on how to do all sorts of construction stuff. (The year two and three students were completing OSHA training stuff.) So, they had enough to keep them busy.

Of course, high school students, so some were more on their phones or on online games. But that's pretty standard. 

Just in case you were wondering what they're teaching the kiddos in school nowadays.

Returned

By the luck of the app, I happened to catch a day in the art class I had started this school year in. (If things hadn't been so dead lately, I probably would have "missed" it, but I couldn't afford to miss another day as there was no guarantee that anything else would pop up.) 

First period. Tuesday. 

They had a shading assignment. I was given instructions to go over with them, so it was a more labor intensive day for me. (Not a bad thing, but it meant that I was pretty busy engaging with students, and I had less dead time than usual.) 

And, of course, I had many restroom pass requests. 

I don't give this a lot of thought. If no one else is out of the room, the kiddo can go. I write down their names and the time they left (so I can track how long they were gone). 

Joshua was out of the room. I had three other students who were waiting to go. And the phone rang. 

"Did you let Joshua out to go to the restroom? Security found him out wandering..." And this is where I got reprimanded for letting Joshua out of class, because Joshua was on the escort list. 

Escort list? 

Okay, so some students take advantage of restroom passes. They leave their class, and instead of doing their business and getting back to class, they wander campus. They meet up with their friends. They share vapes in the restroom. I don't know what they do out there, but it's not something they should be doing. 

Students who take too long out of class get added to an escort list. That means that if that kiddo asks to use the restroom, the teacher has to call security to escort them to the restroom. They hate this, but they've demonstrated that they can't be trusted to leave class on their own. 

They provide subs with the list. It's in the folder we get. Although, usually the teacher will leave the names of who we need to call security for. It didn't even occur to me to check the list, not that I had time to do so. 

(Oh, and the list is a mess. It's mostly alphabetical by first names, grouped by grade level, but there are a few with last names listed first. And then half the list is a jumble of I don't know what, because it's not quite alphabetical and it's definitely not grouped by grade level.) 

Joshua returned to class fifteen minutes after he left (yes, I was keeping track). Surly. Ah well. 

Ms. D was on campus (they were doing some curriculum planning) and stopped by after first period. I told her of the incident. 

It turns out that Joshua was on the escort list for a week a while ago. Otherwise she totally would have left his name. And there were no other students on the escort list (as far as I could tell; I went through the list and compared it to the class rosters, and... well, I mentioned that the list was a mess). 

There has got to be a better way to deal with restroom passes and wandering students. I don't know what it is.

Invalid Excuse

After catching a gig at 3 AM only to have it cancelled five minutes later, I was very happy to catch a Spanish class on Monday at 6 AM. (Things have been very slow lately. But February is more than half booked now.) 

Spanish 2, fifth period.

I had been asked to cover a third period elsewhere. (It was the teacher's prep period. They're on a block schedule; this was the odd periods day.) There was a minute or two of the passing period left when I arrived back at the classroom. I unlocked the door, and the students who had arrived before me filed in. 

Teachers covering other classes on their prep periods is pretty common. And some teachers will take the passing period to hit the restroom. The students wait. It's so common as to be something I've never needed to comment on before. 

Fifth period started. I got the students started on their online assignment. (Well, some of it was in their books, but the instructions had been posted online by their teacher.) I took roll. (So, a few minutes of the period had passed.) 

Two students walked in. Tardies have been a huge issue lately. The schools are trying many things to curb it. But for me, it just means I need to be aware of latecomers so I can mark them as tardy in the attendance. 

As they were arriving, the two students explained. "We knocked. You weren't here." 

I did not comment on this. Nor did I add this comment to my note to the teacher. I marked the kiddos tardy in the attendance. 

Because, huh? They knocked? When? And why did they leave? Where did they go?

Yeah, no. They're supposed to wait. If I wasn't there at the beginning of the period... Well, even then, they should wait. (There have been times when the teacher is late. This is very obvious because of the crowd of students waiting outside the door.) 

I checked. They're freshmen. That tracks.

Here for the Graffiti

This past Saturday I went to visit my father as I usually do on Saturdays. 

The route I usually take goes past a certain flag-flying house. The flag flown is one you may have seen. Navy blue. The lettering touts a certain president's electoral wins, one of which is blatantly false. The guy (I assume it's a guy) has swapped the flag from time to time, flying the most current iteration. 

I found that giving the flag the one-finger salute as I pass makes me feel better. It doesn't do anything, but it does put a smile on my face to do it. 

This past Saturday, I had to take a slightly different route. (The reasons for this are irrelevant.) Instead of just passing the back of this guy's house, I traveled along the side, making a right turn onto the usual street. 

On his front lawn he had another flag planted, one you're probably aware of. And then I saw the side of his house. 

Someone had spray painted "F*** Trump" there in green paint. Although, the sentiment hadn't been censored in spray paint. And I found myself smiling.

This house is in Orange County. While California is a blue state, Orange County is a very red county. (It's been getting more liberal over the years. I grew up there.) That the guy has had these flags up for years does not surprise me. That anyone spoke out against him does. 

There is reason to be hopeful. 

I posted this before, but it's been a while: 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action.

And a follow up to the video I posted last week. (If you can't see it, here's a direct link.) 

Setting a Deadline

I may have done something stupid. 

The place where I usually get my brother's birthday gifts was having a sale, so I bought his present. Since it is way before his birthday, I'm shipping it to me, and then I'll ship it out to him closer to his birthday. 

I mean, I'm going to eventually have a package to ship to Ohio. This sweater I've been working on since last July, eldest nephew's Christmas gift, is going to be finished. Eventually. My brother's present can hitch a ride when I mail that out. 

So, now I have a deadline. I need to get this sweater done in time to get my brother's birthday present to him on time. That is, if I want to only ship one package. 

Can I do it? I think I can. We'll see. 

My brother's birthday is March 30th. 

I have sleeve two to finish. 

Then sleeves one and two need the ribbing. 

Then the sweater gets assembled. And then the collar is knit on. 

We'll see...

The sweater's previous posts:

• Starting the Sweater
• Getting to the Back
• Missed Deadline
• Distractions from Knitting
• A Month Late
• Inching Along
• Tracking the Growth
• Weekly Sweater Update
• Moving Right Along
• Good Progress
• Almost to the Interesting Part
• Plot Twist
• Not Worth the Effort
• Sleeve Progress
• Continuing Sleeve One
• Sleeve Two!
• Continuing Sleeve Two

All Excuses

Friday. Period three, study skills.

Study skills is just a fancy way of saying study hall. I mean, technically the teacher is supposed to have curriculum that teaches skills for studying, but most of the kiddos who really want that are in AVID or success. (Or even if they don't but have someone urging them in that direction.) Study skills is the special ed equivalent, and most of the time, the teacher gives them time to work on missing assignments. 

This is a very long-winded way of saying that I had a class that had nothing to do. They were allowed to be on their phones once they were done with all their work. They were done with all their work. 

Except...

I had an instructional assistant, and she warned me of Nick. In semester one, Nick had claimed that he was doing all his work and he had no homework. Alas, his semester grades showed these claims to be lies. Miss B no longer trusted him. 

Miss B then told me that Nick would have many excuses. His work would be on paper, but the paper would be at home. And as it was homework, he'd do it at home. 

Nick arrived. Miss B asked him what he had to work on. He told her he didn't have anything. But Miss B wasn't having that.

It came out that Nick had some maps to complete for his history class, but he had left the papers at home. Miss B sent him to his teacher to get another copy. Upon his return, Miss B sent him to his math teacher to get work from her. 

And then, while he was out, I got a call from the speech therapist. Nick was needed for speech therapy. 

Naturally. 

Miss B set up his computer so the map he'd need was on the screen. She made sure he had everything he needed to complete his work. And when he returned, he did work. Kind of. 

I looked down at his map of the Middle East, and on the Arabian Peninsula he had written "France". He did get Africa and Asia in the right places, though. (My knowledge of geography is pretty terrible, but I can locate France.) 

When I pointed out where various of the list of places he needed to label were, he immediately wrote those down. But he was slow walking the looking up and figuring out where the places were on his own. I wasn't going to do it for him, so I walked away.

If you want to get something done, you find a way. If you don't, you find an excuse. Nick was all about the excuses. Sigh. 

One would hope that at some point he'll want good grades. Until then, he's going to fight us about doing his work. 

He's young. He may grow out of it. 

Repeats

Wednesday. I was expecting to cover eighth grade math only to discover once I got there that the assignment had been cancelled. Sigh. But, because it wasn't my error, they put me to work covering classes where the teacher wasn't out all day. 

Which meant my first period of the day I got stuck covering PE. Sigh. 

Lots of familiar faces. "My class" combined with another PE teacher's class, so I just had to take down how many laps they ran. Chilly day, but otherwise not too terrible. 

Then, for seventh period, I ended up covering a success class. Of the class of fifteen, three had been in the PE class that morning. (This is a frequent occurrence when I'm covering more than one teacher, so I was not surprised.) 

Mostly my issue in success was with one student who was doing anything but the assignment. I kept circling back around to him, pointing out that he hadn't done anything on his paper. He took twenty minutes in search of a pencil. 

When he asked to use the restroom, against my better judgement I let him go. He took along his drone. (Why he had a drone with him, I don't know. It sat on his desk all period, so at least that wasn't a distraction.) And the rest of the class informed me that he wasn't going to return to class. 

He did return. After twenty minutes. And after I called security to shoo him back. (He claimed he had gone to the office for reasons, but he didn't tell me that before he left.) 

The next day I was in a co-teaching situation with Mr. H. As we chatted, I mentioned my roving the prior day. We got to talking about how terrible the success classes were. And as I told him about what they'd done, I realized he'd know them, too. I told him that Simon was in the class as was Orson. 

If you recall, Mr. H was the one who took over that seventh grade science class when I hit my full thirty days, so he had all those students, too. 

Not Just Me

After my dead week the week prior and narrowly missing three other assignments, I was very relieved to catch an assignment for Tuesday. (Monday had been a holiday.) It turned out to be co-teaching, and in fact, it was a teacher I had covered before. 

Second period integrated math one (read: algebra 1/freshman math). As Ms. B was there, she taught the lesson that she had planned, and I "assisted" the kiddos. 

And... The last time I was in this class, it was a two sub day. And the kiddos were a handful. I'd've thought that things would go better with their regular teacher. Uh, no. 

While some teachers aren't that great and I can see why their classes would be awful, Ms. B has been around a while, knows what she's doing, and can handle a class. These kiddos, however, are just terrible. Of course, they are freshmen, which contributes to the problem. 

The lesson for the day was mostly review over what they had been doing as they had a quiz the following class period. (Ms. B: "Everyone needs to listen to this. You have a quiz on Thursday. You've all heard this now, so no one should complain that I didn't warn you ahead of time." Note: I'd be shocked if no one complained about a quiz they didn't know about on Thursday.)

I hovered. While the intent was to be available in case anyone needed extra help, mostly what I ended up doing was to redirect the kiddos towards the work they were supposed to be doing. While their teacher was doing examples and they should have been following along with the lesson. Sigh. 

Suddenly, three different students went outside to blow their noses. But that was too many students. So, I stepped outside to shoo them back in. Which they didn't like. 

Of course, as this was happening, a random student from elsewhere happened along, and he wanted to hang out with the students who weren't supposed to be outside. 

Random student (to student from class): "Who is this?" 

Because, apparently, the kiddo has never seen a substitute teacher before. (He looked familiar. I'm sure I had him in class before.) 

So, difficult bunch. Nothing I haven't seen before. But I left that class feeling kind of relieved. Why? 

It's not just me!

They act like that with their regular teacher, too. 

I mean, that's not great news for these kids today, but I feel better knowing they're not acting up just for me. 

Some days I need to know this.

Extinction Burst

I can't even anymore. Rather than list all the current atrocities (which will be out of date by the time you read this), I'm going to share a bit of hope that ran across my timeline this week. 

The video is from May, and we're still in the thick of it, but it's something I have heard in different contexts throughout my lifetime. I hope he's right. (I hope the video works. If not, you can find it here.) 

I found (via Knitty) a pattern that all the proceeds of which are going to those impacted by the ICE raids. Melt the ICE Hat. It's a protest hat. Anyone want one? 

For those of us not in Minnesota, here's a blog post about ways we can help them.

Continuing Sleeve Two

This past week I made some progress on sleeve two:

Last week I was here:

I'm content with that. 

I wish I had something more to write. But some weeks are like that. No major hiccups. I would have liked to have gotten further, but work. And it's still winter, so I'm not terribly behind. 

I'd say I'll have more drama next week, but I really hope that's not true. Slow and steady is good. I'll get there. Eventually. 

The sweater's previous posts:

• Starting the Sweater
• Getting to the Back
• Missed Deadline
• Distractions from Knitting
• A Month Late
• Inching Along
• Tracking the Growth
• Weekly Sweater Update
• Moving Right Along
• Good Progress
• Almost to the Interesting Part
• Plot Twist
• Not Worth the Effort
• Sleeve Progress
• Continuing Sleeve One
• Sleeve Two!

Finishing Reward

Last week I ended up with an unexpected vacation. There were just no sub jobs to be had. So, when on Thursday night I was able to snag a gig, I didn't even mind that it was a middle school class for a teacher I've heard the students complain about. And according to the calendar, an assembly was scheduled. 

It turned out to be a dual language immersion class, so while it was a middle school history class (world history for seventh grade and U.S history for eighth grade), it was taught in Spanish. 

Of course, this isn't an issue on sub days. It wasn't a class for Spanish speakers; it was a class for students who were working on being fluent in Spanish. I'd had many in other classes. They spoke English fluently. 

Fifth period. Seventh grade world history. 

It was after the assembly (Olympics-themed) and after lunch. So, basically everything for a crazy period. But, they were actually not too terrible, for middle schoolers. 

I was to sign off their packets (per the teacher's instructions) when they finished. When I explained the assignment, one boy asked, "What if I already finished?" Because naturally. 

I couldn't check his work because it was in Spanish, but he had written something for each question. From what I had seen earlier in the day, it appeared that he had, in fact, finished the assignment. And at times like that, I let them have free time. (No reason to give extra work to the one student who is ahead.) 

I walked the room. Ended up behind the kiddo who had finished. He was playing a game on the Chromebook. It took me a moment to recall he was finished so as to not growl at him for being off task. I moved on. 

"You're not going to say anything about him playing a game." 

This was from another student. (No one complained about a student on a game while I was at the front of the room.) I shrugged and said he had finished his work. 

"Does that mean we can play games in class?"

Without coming out and saying yes, I heavily implied that I wouldn't care, once they were done with the day's assignment. 

I did sign off most of the students' papers, so apparently they didn't get too distracted by games or such. 

It's really all I want most days in classes like that. It was nice things didn't go the way I had feared. 

Not Quite a Two-Day Install 13

I finally (FINALLY!) have a completed shower. This whole process started in October. And so, to commemorate this long bathroom nightmare, I'll take you through all the snags in 13 steps (for Thursday 13). 

ONE

I didn't particularly want a new shower, as I was afraid the whole thing would go sideways, but it wasn't up to me. Landlady noticed that the old shower had developed some holes. She had been talking about replacing it for a couple years, and then one day she got a company to come out and look, and she signed the contract. This was late September. 

TWO

It was to be a two-day install. Day one they tore out the old shower. (This was October 30th.)

THREE

Day two was Halloween. Because of the way these condos are configured, to turn off the water to the place required access to the neighbor's garage. You know, the neighbors that flooded our place. Twice. They were apparently not home, even after being called repeatedly for two days. (They were home.) 

So, to get the water turned off, we had to turn off the water to the whole condo complex (it's an ongoing problem). Which required 24 hours notice. As Halloween was a Friday, the earliest they could complete the shower would be the following Monday. 

(There are two bathrooms in the place, but the other one is an en suite attached to landlady's bedroom. This will become more important later.) 

FOUR

When I returned home from work on that Monday, I learned the awful news. The shower was almost finished. All that was left was to attach the doors and a couple finishing touches. But...

An hour away from finishing, they got a knock on the door. The city inspector, who just happened to be in the complex for other reasons, noticed the work truck and had a question: Did the company have the required work permits for the construction? No, they did not. 

FIVE

They had to stop work immediately, get the permits, and then they could finish the shower. In the meantime, we could put up a shower curtain to use the almost fully finished shower in our bathroom. (For the record, I hate shower curtains.) 

They would have to prove that the room had no asbestos. (The complex was build in the early '70s. They definitely used asbestos.) Then they would have to tear out the shower so the inspectors could confirm they were building the shower up to code. Then they could reinstall the shower. 

SIX

Although landlady's convinced that the inspector was just in the area was a lie. She thinks that upstairs neighbors turned us in. (Upstairs neighbors have since moved out.)

SEVEN

After much back and forth with the company, the first hoop to jump through was an asbestos inspection. Failed. So, they had to do asbestos mitigation. Thursday, December 18th. I went to work and returned home to:

No bathroom access AT ALL. Which was kinda a big issue as December 19th was a work day for me, and the only other bathroom in the house is an en suite. I generally get ready quietly so as to not wake landlady when I leave for work in the morning. Having to traipse through her bedroom to get to a bathroom is not quiet. 

Oh, and the bathroom and my bedroom share a wall. In the bathroom was one of those heater/dehumidifier machines. They are loud. I did not get much sleep that night. 

EIGHT

The next day, Friday, December 19th, they came and tested the bathroom again for asbestos. If it tested negative, the worst was over. But, of course, we'd get no test results until the next working day, Monday. Which meant for the whole weekend, no bathroom access and the hum of the machine through the wall to my bedroom. They couldn't legally remove anything until they had the negative test. 

NINE

Landlady wasn't having that, though, and she tore everything open and removed the machine. Whew.

Unfortunately, when they did the mitigation stuff, they threw out the shower curtain. Landlady got another from Dollar Tree. Which did the job, but...

Okay, so I hate shower curtains because they float towards me the entire time I'm showering. And so that's what I'd been dealing with. The old curtain was nice and thick, so not as big a problem. But the Dollar Tree one was flimsy, so it attacked me with more gusto. (Eventually I figured out a way to tape the thing down.)

TEN

Monday, we got the results back: negative. Whew. But, that was December 22nd. Ain't nothing happening Christmas week. Or before the new year. 

ELEVEN

Although, we got a call the next week. (Monday or Tuesday, my memory's hazy on this.) Could they stop by with one of the inspectors who needed to sign off before they could install the shower? Of course. 

The guy arrived, parked by our open garage, but there was no sign of him. When he finally appeared, he said the plumbing inspector had gotten to the complex gate, and he went to meet with him. Turned out that he was okay with just seeing photos of the install. 

TWELVE

Monday, January 12th was the day. They had to tear out what they had done so the inspector could approve their work. 

They arrived at 8 AM. Tore out half the shower. The inspector was scheduled for noon-2 PM. He showed up pretty close to noon. Approved. Then they had to reinstall all that they had torn out. 

The guy asked if they could stay late (after their usual 4-ish finish time), and so when he left just before 8 PM, the shower was done. Double whew. Finally. 

THIRTEEN

Ignore the hole in the wall behind the toilet. They had to rip that out when they did the asbestos mitigation. They patched that hole on Friday. 

The Spam Folder

In December a fellow blogger asked how to find their spam comments folder. And as it is rather hidden, I thought it would make a very good blogging post. 

(You should be checking the folder regularly. There was a point when Blogger marked at least 500 of my comments spam, going back several years. While it took a while to get through that backlog, it was better than letting them languish in spam prison. And since I check the folder daily, I can keep up with rescuing many comments that don't belong there but get sent there for vague reasons.) 

You'll click on your "Comments" in your sidebar. Sometimes Blogger hides the sidebar, so if yours is hidden, first you'll need to open it: 

Click on the "hamburger" in the top left hand corner. That'll open up the sidebar: 

Comments is the third thing in the list. Click on it, and you have a list of all the comments to your blog, in order of posting. Next, you'll go to the arrow next to "All":

Click on that:

And on that pop up menu, you'll click on "Spam". As you can see, at this moment I have zero spam comments: 

Yay!

But not every day is like that. Sometimes I open up that pop up menu to find: 

I click on "Spam":

And there's two comments that are not spam. (I redacted them so as to not call out the commenters.) See how one says "4 hours ago" and one is from December? I've had times when the comments that were in the spam folder were from 2014. And I'm not even exaggerating a little bit. 

Move your cursor over the day or date of the comment to get:

The trash can is to trash the comment if it's actually spam. (Sometimes it's spam.) But mostly things get caught in the folder on accident, so click on the check mark to publish the comment to your blog:

Verify that you want to publish, and it's done. The comment will now appear on your blog. 

If you don't already, get in the habit of checking your spam folder. I don't know why it happens, but with some regularity Blogger sweeps comments into the spam folder that do not belong there. 

How often do you check your spam folder? Is there another blogging topic you'd like me to tackle?