Not a Good Sign

Friday. AP Computer Science, fourth period. 

It's AP test time. Most AP classes are studying for their test, taking their test, or recovering from their test. The lesson plans stated they'd be doing some test prep. I figured on a pretty chill class. 

The students started arriving. Saw me. And cheered... 

Uh oh... 

It was passing period. They were arriving. And they were celebrating like someone won a championship. Hugging each other. Saying "Merry Christmas". Jumping up and down. 

A couple of them were disappointed. They weren't remaining in class as they had an afternoon AP test and were going elsewhere to mentally prepare. (Or maybe have a lunch with others getting ready for that test. I was unclear as to what they were doing, but I had no problem letting them go as the AP test is a high stakes test, and they get understanding from me on test day.) 

Once class started I heard all about how much they did not like their teacher. "He doesn't teach," they told me. 

I don't think I've met this teacher. This was the first time I had covered the class. So, I could not argue with them (not that I was planning to). 

But my issue is: is the teacher very, very strict, and now they think they get to play? But, AP class... 

Well, they weren't doing a lot of work. But they didn't trash the classroom. So, a win? 

I mean, I got my stuff done. I was able to take roll. I told them what they needed to complete. Many of them had vaguely programmy stuff on their computers. There was eating in class and some had their phones out, but no one was locked into TikTok, and no one made a mess of food. 

This is all I want most days, so I call it a win. 

And, Friday. So, I got through another week. Summer is coming.

The Conversation

Thursday. Eighth grade math, special day class. Eighth period. 

To start every class, Mr. R has them do "Good Things". This is special ed, so the classes are small, so each student gets a turn. 

When it was Alonzo's turn, all I heard was something about going on a cruise. Well, that's cool. Only, as Alonzo continued speaking, the explanation went into Hantavirus and something about bombing the ship... 

Eighth graders... 

We moved on from Alonzo and finished Good Things, but when it was time for them to start working on their math, Alonzo circled back to Hantavirus. 

He had all the questions. I have not been following the news. I heard part of a report in passing about a cruise ship and Hantavirus, and that's really all I know. I suppose I could have looked this up, but they had math to work on, and I wasn't in the mood to humor Alonzo with this random topic. 

Alonzo? He found other topics to discuss with his classmates. Because I was of a mind to, I listed as many of the topics as I could for their teacher as they happened. As the topic changed, I added to the list. The list wasn't exhaustive, though, as some things were said in passing that I felt didn't merit inclusion on the list, and some things I just didn't get. 

So, what do eighth grade boys discuss when they should be doing math? 

• Hantavirus: Alonzo really couldn't let this go.
• History class assignment roles: apparently their history teacher had assigned them roles for some Civil War project. One boy was a spy. One boy was a slave. And the third boy's role was kind of unclear. There was a long conversation about how they liked/did not like their roles and how things got assigned.
• McDonald's: this was a weird ramble about food that turned into some VR chat that was McDonald's based. I was again unclear on what exactly they were talking about. 
• Tigger: yes, the tiger in Winnie the Pooh. This was more a rhyming thing where they did go there (starts with N...), but they were also wondering if they got the correct name for the tiger in Winnie the Pooh. 
• TikTok Challenges: they went from Tide Pods to a bunch I'd never heard of. 
• Mall food: food is always a popular topic. It ended up being a thing about various things they could get, and then Alonzo said he could also get food when he went to the mall for something else. Somehow this segued into how Alonzo needed to go to the bookstore to pick up a new book coming out (the kiddos were amazingly well-read). 
• Fake dice: they acted like they were playing craps. Without dice. For about a minute. 
• "Why are you rubbing your belly?" He was not rubbing his belly. 
• Movies: Hoppers and Project Hail Mary. They liked both. 
• Someone started whistling.
• "Jesse called some girl 'slave'", which then turned into Alonzo saying that he could say all sorts of career-ruining things about Jesse. 
• Alonzo said that some teacher said that because he did something with his thumbs, that he was double jointed.
• Alonzo pulled out some money and a receipt he had. The receipt got passed around. The money was counted. (After they left, I found a nickel on the floor.) 
• Somehow the money led to them talking about various gum flavors. Mostly listing and stating whether they liked them.
• Video games: a brief mention of some games they liked.
• They circled back to Tigger and words that rhyme with it.
• Kool-Aid pickles: and then pickles in general. 
• Six... seven... Yes, sadly, that's still a thing, and it just pops up at random times.
• And then some sidetrack into Zuckerberg. Why? I have no idea.

So, you won't be surprised that I rated the class as "some made better use of their time than others" and that I doubted they had finished their assignments. Because, seriously? 

Broken Record, Student Edition

Wednesday. English 9, special day class (read: special ed). Fourth period.  

The lesson plans had all sorts of warnings about this class, including the note that this was her least favorite class. The instructional assistant went on to warn me that the half the kiddos just didn't care no matter what they did. So, I was prepared for the worst. 

And... things weren't that bad. They were doing a vocabulary assignment that went along with their reading of To Kill a Mockingbird, and then they could use that assignment on a quiz for the last couple chapters they read in class. 

Early in the period, Kaleb asked to use the restroom. He returned in a timely manner. 

About halfway through the period the instructional assistant left (as that was her usual quitting time). 

It was almost the end of the period, and Kaleb again asked to use the restroom. I said no. 

Kaleb was not pleased. He asked why he could not go. 

I explained that he had already gotten one restroom pass in the class, and getting one pass out of class was all he was going to get. Besides, there were only ten minutes left in the class period, and the school administration had instituted a rule that no students were to be allowed out of class for those last ten minutes. 

Kaleb did not see my point. One pass per period? That was unreasonable as far as he was concerned. 

So, he asked again. Could he go and use the restroom? And again, I said no. 

"But why?"

Me: "I already explained why." 

Kaleb argued that when he asked the first time there had been eleven minutes left of class. (According to the clock on my computer, it had been less than ten minutes.) But even he couldn't argue that since the first time he asked time had passed, and at this point there was definitely less than ten minutes left of class. 

Then, Kaleb: "Can I go to the restroom?" 

Again, I answered no. Again, Kaleb asked why. And again, I said that I had already explained. 

This time Kaleb offered that he would be able to get to the restroom and back before the end of the period. (Likely true, as the restroom was just steps away from the classroom.) I did not doubt him, but I did not give permission. 

It was now time for the class to start getting packed up, so I made that announcement. Kaleb? Asked to use the restroom again. And again, he asked why not?

Now the rest of the class was invested. They encouraged Kaleb to just walk out. If it was them, they would just walk out. (If it was them and earlier in the period, I would have let them go as they hadn't used their pass for the period.) Kaleb did not take the dare. 

Around we went again. Maybe twice? I lost count. Eventually, time ran out. The bell rang. And they all left. 

Deep sigh. I'm not sure why Kaleb thought that repeatedly asking me the same questions would get different results, but freshmen. Kaleb did not realize just how stubborn I can be when pushed. 

Carefully Crafted Insults

Last week I came across this article: "Is Trump a Racist? Let’s Look at the Stats." I have some thoughts...

First, uh, yeah. Duh. There's a whole lot of rather racist things happening, emboldened by this regime. If you find someone defending any of that as not racist, they're probably racist too. They just don't want to admit it. 

So, then I read the article. And they tried to quantify his racism via the percentages of people he calls, "Low I.Q." Okay, whatever. I don't know if you can "prove" racism via data like that, but it's something to write. 

My second thought, on reading the article, was about projection. How people will take things they don't want to look at about themselves, and they'll attribute those qualities to others. I wonder when he was tested and how that test was explained to him. Because he uses this low IQ thing a lot.

When I was in school, I wanted to take an IQ test. They weren't administering them anymore. When I took psychology in high school, I did a research paper on the IQ tests. And the thing is, they're not really great tests of intelligence. They have their biases. That's not something you can measure, anyway. There's a reason they've been sidelined for decades. 

Then the third thing I thought was about how he's been going on and on about those cognitive tests. How clearly he's had a few of them. Why else would he be constantly touting them (as if they were something to brag about)? 

Yes, I've drawn some conclusions. They're not the ones the article set out to prove. 

What do you think? What thoughts does the article bring forth in you?

From Taking Down the Notes to Zhuzhing Up the AI

If you're a regular visitor to this blog, this was not the post you were expecting today. Yes, normally I would post something about what I'm knitting or crocheting. But, I didn't touch the yarn last week. While contemplating what to post today, I figured I could do the A to Z Challenge Reflections post (even though it's late), or I could skip posting today entirely (which was a serious option). 

I don't really have a lot to reflect about, though. Every year it's the same game. I write my blog normally, but I make the post fit the letter of the day. 

The hard part for me is the blog hop. That's why I skipped doing the challenge from 2020 to 2022. If you look back on those years, you'll see I did fit my posts to the letter of the day, but I skipped Saturdays, and I didn't do the blog hop. 

It got to be too much, fitting in the going through the master list and visiting five new posts a day. Especially when very few returned the favor. 

So, I don't do that part. I do return visits to everyone who visits (unless I can't find their blog). And this year I visited everyone I had met on previous challenges who were taking part. 

I keep track of the blogs I visit on Feedly. If anyone ever visits my blog, I add them to that feed reader. (I have several named feeds.) Then it's really easy to find them again. 

Because Feedly, anyone who visited me likely had me visiting their blogs for the remainder of the challenge. I skipped blogs that I couldn't relate to, offended me, or that I found I couldn't find something to say about (read: most poetry). I may have missed a day here or there when I was offline, or sometimes Feedly fails to catch some blogs every so often. (There have been times when Feedly gives me ten posts by someone, and I discover that I have missed a month of their blogging.)

I love the challenge as I discover new blogs to add to my daily reading list. It's the most consistent way to do so. Alas, I have found that these are bloggers that find me, not the other way around. (Not sure why, but that's my experience.) 

And now that we're fully into May, I'll see which of those new (to me) blogs become a regular part of my routine, and which ones fall away. 

So, now I look forward to summer vacation. I'm kind of planning my summer posts. On Fridays I have random quizzes, which are mostly done. I'm thinking up all the lists of 13 I can get set up for Thursdays. And on Wednesdays last year I started doing posts on blogging. That's where I need your help. 

What are some things about blogging you'd like to see a post about? 

I think I'm going to do a post about how to add gifs to your posts. (Or does everyone already know how to do that? I know many of you already know how to do that.) Maybe another HTML basics post? The posts I did last year are on this page (which you can also find at the top of the blog).

It looks like I'll have nine slots this summer. (Maybe less, if I catch a summer school day.) I only have two topics listed. That's way less than nine. Any ideas?

An Overlooked Detail

The very special ed class, Friday. 

The last time I subbed for Ms. H, the class was going on a field trip. This day, same. This time they were going to some event hosted by the LAUSD for their special ed classes. Something about a dance performance? 

Why was I needed? Some of the kiddos weren't going, so someone had to stay behind to supervise them. 

I had two students. And then a third joined us as her whole class was going as well as the teacher. (Why book two subs for two different teachers? I was sufficient to cover all the kiddos not going.) 

It was a fairly chill day. Alice was wheelchair bound and only spoke in grunts and cries. Nate arrived and put his head down on his desk and slept. Apparently, this was his usual. This was good as Alice does not like Nate. Nate has a tendency to (when awake) hover over Alice and bother her. (When Nate awoke near the end of the day, he hovered over me, and I had to make it very clear I did not want to be touched, and he still touched me.) 

Angela was from the other class. She took a seat and asked for paper so she could draw. 

I suggested a movie. Alice's one-to-one suggested Encanto. 

So, things were mellow. But then I noticed a problem. 

Ms. H's prep period was the last period of the day. Usually her students would join the other teachers' classes for the last period. But the other teachers were gone, too. What to do? 

I called Allie (the secretary I check in with). While I had looked forward to getting to leave early for the day, I was fine with staying and supervising the kiddos. But, I wasn't going to do it for free... 

Once I explained the situation to Allie, she readily agreed to credit me with the extra period. 

And so, once we finished Encanto, Angela suggested Lilo & Stitch (the original version). 

We were barely fifteen minutes into the last period when the field trippers returned. 

It had been a long bus ride. The kiddos had been outside. They'd been in the sun. They were wiped out. 

Which was fine. It wasn't like we were going to be doing work or anything. Movie and computer time. 

Some days, my job isn't much more than this. It balances out the more difficult days. 

Zzzzzz

Thursday. Seventh grade Spanish I for Spanish Speakers. Eighth period. 

They had a student teacher, so the class went on as normal. For this day, the students were doing oral presentations on various Central and South American countries. In Spanish. 

The student teacher taught the class in Spanish. 

I may have mentioned before that the language I took in school was French. 

So, yeah, I wasn't understanding a whole lot of what was going on. I mean, I got the gist, but I definitely didn't get the specifics. 

I may have also mentioned that I write about what happened last week, so this happened on April 30th. As it was the last day of the A to Z Challenge, I had distracted myself all day by reading blogs. But by eighth period I had completed that. 

And there's just something about sitting there while the kiddos were going through slides about Cuba, speaking in Spanish way better than I could ever attempt, that did not help my drowsiness. 

Sometimes, before bed, I'll play on my phone or I'll read. And there's that point where I kind of blank out, and when I go back and try to continue what I was doing, I'll realize I'm not comprehending anything I'm doing, and it's time to put that all aside and go to sleep. This is what I was feeling while in that eighth period class. 

Not good.

While I was not actively teaching, I was still there as an observer. (It's a legal thing. Since the student teacher isn't employed by the district, a district employee needs to be present.) And I was fading, fast. 

I needed something to wake me up. I checked my email. I flipped through some catalogs. I worked on the note to the teacher (which was largely unneeded because the student teacher would see her the next day). 

Even the fidgety seventh graders couldn't keep my attention. (And they were not behaving well.) 

Did I fall asleep? No. Well... I took a lot of micro naps. I definitely blanked out, many times, but not for long at all each time. 

Not ideal, but somehow I managed to stay mostly awake. 

(I did not stay up too late the night before, and I had gotten a good night's sleep. I should not have been that tired. But some days...)