Three Days at the Continuation High School 13

After finishing up the long term in the English class, I was able to snag three days at the continuation high school. The last time I was there was December. And, things went about how I'd expect. As none of those things were terribly blog-worthy, I figured this was a good opportunity to do a Thursday 13. Because while nothing that happened merited a full blog post, it was an interesting three days. 

ONE

My long term ended on the day the internet went out for the entire district. So, I could not do the grading I had intended to do before leaving. But Tuesday the internet was fine, and the classes were small in the computer class, so I was able to finish that stuff off. I still had access to the class (that hadn't been turned off yet), and I was on district time... 

TWO

On Tuesday I covered Mr. M's class. One of his periods is orientation. That is the class the newbies take first, right when they are first transferred in to the school. 

At the beginning of May, I lost a student in one of the English 11 classes. She dropped suddenly. So, when I saw her name on the orientation's roll, I was not surprised. 

She asked about Ms. A's class. I told her that my last day had been yesterday. 

THREE

I had a prep period. On Mr. M's bookshelf happened to be a copy of The Great Gatsby. I had missed out on reading the last two chapters in the English 11 long term. (Timing.) So, I took the time and read them. Of course, I only read them once, whereas I read the other chapters four times (this go around), but at least I got to actually finish it. 

FOUR

Seventh period, credit recovery. The kiddos worked on various assignments in various subjects that they needed to earn credits for. (Classes that they had failed the first time through.) A boy sitting near the teacher's desk was working on math. 

I watched him get out his phone, take a picture, and then input something into the software. Deep sigh...

I pointed out that what he was doing was cheating. I told him to put away the phone. He could do it on his own. He explained that he knew the material, but he wanted to get it done quickly. 

I sat with him and helped him. And no, he didn't know the material. But, he caught on as we worked through a few of the problems. 

He was not the only student I had to urge to do their own work and not rely on "help" from their phones. 

FIVE

As I left school on Tuesday, a couple students caught my attention. After school, there's an occupational program that students can sign up for. (These students were taking the childcare class.) 

The two students had been in Ms. A's class. They complained that I had left them. I reminded them that I had hit my max number of days, that I had warned them of my leaving, and that Ms. A was to return the next week. They said I should return to the class. I told them they'd see me around as this wasn't a goodbye, but more of a "see you around". (Ms. E was there, and she agreed that I was around a lot so I wasn't going away.) 

SIX

Wednesday and Thursday I covered Mr. A. He was chaperoning two field trips. On Wednesday, they went to Disneyland. On Thursday, the L.A. County Fair. Which shrunk the classes a bit as many of the students had gone. 

SEVEN

Mr. A teaches two periods of woodshop, two periods of graphic arts, one period of leadership, and a video editing class. The woodshop has its own room. The other classes are in a different classroom. 

When there's a sub, due to safety issues, the woodshop class meets in the room where all of Mr. A's other classes meet. They do know this, but I still did put a note on the door to alert the students to go to the other room for class. 

EIGHT

On Wednesday, I was surprised to have no students in first period. Sure enough, though, a student did arrive late. By a couple minutes. 

Upon a couple minutes of conversation, I discovered that the kiddo had been on time, but had been waiting beside the woodshop to go in. Sitting on a bench. Then he remembered Mr. A had gone on the field trip and that he had to go to the other classroom. 

At no point did the student notice the sign I left on the door...

NINE

Fifth period leadership. I perused the names on the roll, and I was surprised by one. Well, not all that surprised... But I had just seen him at one of the traditional high schools. Okay, so that was in January. Of course, he was not in class that day. Probably for the best.

TEN

Wednesday was advisory day. I read over their announcements, which were all about graduation stuff. Student had a serious question for me. What was he supposed to do after graduation? Was he required to go to college? 

We ended up having an interesting conversation about him. He's been doing computer coding, and he's already making decent money at it. As for what he should do with the rest of his life, I had no answers for him. I replied with a question: what do you want to do? 

ELEVEN

On Thursday we were supposed to have even fewer students. When no one showed up to first period, I went looking to make sure no one was waiting at the other classroom. That's when I ran into the teacher next door, and we got to talking. For the whole period. 

I was in his room, but the two rooms had a connecting door. It was open. At some point, a student did arrive. Late. I only learned this at the end of the period when he left as he gave me his late pass. 

I mean, technically I was supervising him, as the door was open. And he knew what the assignment was as it was the same as the day before. And, as the day before, he didn't do it. (He was late on Wednesday as well.) 

TWELVE

As I headed to the restroom on our break, I learned that the school now has a pickleball court. Four of the teachers were playing. I asked another teacher if the pickleball court was for the students or the teachers. I was told both, but it appeared that the teachers were enjoying it more. 

THIRTEEN

Sixth period was video editing. Apparently the kiddos have a screening of the film they've been making next week. On Wednesday they did little to nothing (even though I pointed out they were supposed to be working on their poster). Then Thursday, when the experts were there (able to actually direct what needed to get done), they got quite a lot of work done. I'd've been more upset at the lack of work on Wednesday, but the editor had been on the field trip. I can't really blame him for enjoying Disneyland. 

Floaters

Keeping the kiddos in class is more of a challenge at the continuation high school. They will take any excuse to roam the campus.

Tuesday I covered the computer class. And every period at least one boy took forever to use the restroom. It's a small campus, so they didn't have far to go. Yet, 20 minutes, 30 minutes they were gone for.

Students who abuse the liberal restroom policy get placed on a "floaters" list. They lose the privilege of going during class time. So, I note those who disappear for half a period, because they probably don't do it with just me.

(I even had a student disappear for ten minutes when he stepped outside to blow his nose. I got up to find out where he went, and he was sitting at a bench outside, chatting up a couple girls. When I got him back inside, he needed to go next door to return the restroom pass to that teacher--he had borrowed it the previous period. That took another five minutes.)

Third period ended at 11:03 AM. At 10:58, a student walked in. He had a pass from the counseling office.

Students frequently need to speak with the counselor or the principal. If they're kept, they have a pass. I don't mark them tardy if they have one of these passes as they have an excused reason.

As per normal, there was a time marked on the pass. 10:15 AM.

10:15??? He left the counseling office at 10:15?

I could see the counseling office door from my classroom. It's about as far away as the restrooms. It does not take 45 minutes to get from one to the other. Walking at a good pace, it shouldn't even take a full minute.

Just to check, I called the counselor. It took her a minute to realize who I was talking about (that's how long it had been since he'd been there). She verified he left her office at 10:15.

Well, I know what to do with that...

I went to the attendance clerk. I gave her the pass and told her this story. She shook her head, and then pulled up his attendance record on her computer. She encoded it as a "cut" for the period. She even gets a little box to write an explanation, so she wrote that in.

Because, seriously...

A Bad Combination

Sometimes students fight. But more of the time, students mock fight. That is, they go at each other as if they were going to hit each other, but they pull punches and they're laughing about it.

Stopping a mock fight is usually simple. I tell them to cut it out.

With Jordan and Daniel, it wasn't that simple.

Monday at the continuation high school, I was covering the social studies class. They were supposed to be reading Martin Luther King, Jr's Letter from Birmingham Jail. Mostly they were playing Krunker.

Fifth period. Even though Jordan and Daniel sat a distance apart, they found excuses to get up and "attack" the other. Or, they both got up and pounced on each other.

So, I kept having to intervene. It was annoying, but it didn't escalate any further.

Tuesday at the continuation high school I covered an English class. Guess what pair was in third period together.

And it happened again. They played at fighting. I told them to cut it out.

Then something unexpected happened. I was asked to cover the social studies teacher's class fifth period as she had an IEP meeting to attend.

Deep sigh. I knew that meant Jordan and Daniel again.

Alas, this time it escalated. The boys sat next to each other. And while I stood over them, Daniel "punched" Jordan in the kidney.

Daniel felt my kicking him out of class was unfair as Jordan had "slapped" him in the face in the second that I had turned away. I wanted them separated, so sending them both to the same room would have defeated the purpose.

Because the social studies teacher was on campus, I wanted to let her know what had happened. It turned out she has the exact same problem with them. She doesn't let them sit together because of it.

Thursday at the continuation high school I covered the computer class. Guess which pair was in fourth period.

So, seriously? These two kiddos have all their classes together? No wonder they spend all day playing.

Jordan and I got into it when I wouldn't let him sit next to Daniel. (I learned that lesson.) At least they didn't attempt to punch each other again.

After that class, I happened to run into the counselor. I asked her nicely if she could possibly in the future maybe make sure those two boys did not have any more classes together. Because, seriously, it was ridiculous.

I wasn't the only one complaining.

Perhaps they might find other outlets for that energy, like, perhaps doing their schoolwork, if only they didn't have each other to feed off of every day (and in every class!). Fingers crossed.

The Troublemaker

On Thursday, Caleb stormed into the classroom, bellowing that I had "gotten him in trouble" as he thunked into his seat.

I attempted to explain that all I had done was to report what he had done, and he was the one who had gotten himself into trouble. I say "attempted" because Caleb wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise.

Sigh.

I'm not sure why he was surprised. Or angry. Because, seriously, he should have known.

On Wednesday, I was covering the math class at the continuation high school. (On Thursday I covered the computer literacy class at the same school, hence seeing Caleb again.) Caleb was in 3rd period. 3rd period is right after they have a 15 minute snack break.

The school has a fairly liberal restroom pass policy. The only restriction is that they're not supposed to go for the first or last 10 minutes of class.

Caleb walked into 3rd period just about at the bell. He insisted that he had to use the restroom right then. I told him he could go in 10 minutes.

Oh no. This was not going to work for him. He had to go right now.

If it was such a dire emergency, why didn't he go during snack? He had a full 15 minutes.

He was "busy" he said. Well, if he was busy, he clearly didn't need to go that badly. Then it turned into he didn't need to go during snack. My response was the same. (Or it might have been the other way around. Either way, the story changed as I questioned him on it.)

Caleb... Yeah, Caleb doesn't back down. He's one of those students who... I don't know how to describe him. But I've dealt with him quite a bit, so I knew it was going to be 10 minutes of arguing, and I just wasn't in the mood.

I informed Caleb that I'd let him go, but I was going to let Mr. F know what had transpired. He said he was okay with that.

Mr. F, the math teacher, is one of the strict ones. And they all know this. I knew that writing down this incident would result in a consequence for Caleb. He should have known it too.

So, when he stormed into the classroom the next day, I wasn't sure what the problem was. He had agreed that Mr. F would be informed. So, really, he should have known.

(Before I get comments about restricting restroom usage, if it's clear it's an emergency I wouldn't have hesitated to let him go. This was more a case of a failure to plan as he had just had a break.)

The Better Topic

"I think I want to kill myself."

It was 7th period at the continuation high school, and there were four students in class. Jason had been talking to the girl next to him all period. He's a nice enough kid--he was in dark purple lipstick and had complained earlier that his foundation hadn't been applied quite right that day.

Considering the context of the statement (it was more of an "I'm so bored; I'm annoyed with the world" conversation), I wasn't actually concerned he'd do himself harm. (If this was that sort of incident, I would not be blogging about it.) But still, I wasn't going to let that just pass. I let him know that I report such things.

I thought he should probably go back to his previous topic.

Satanism.

This was not the first time I'd had him in class where this was the topic of the day. I had heard of this particular philosophy before, and what Jason described lined up with that.

In case you're unaware, this brand of Satanism is more of an anti-church stance. It's about atheism and using reason rather than blindly following a leader. (In case you're interested, here are some links: Official Church of Satan website; Church of Satan Wikipedia page; 10 Ways the Church of Satan Might Surprise You.)

The Satanism discussion was a fairly innocuous, actually. It was about the "church's" beliefs. So, I sat back and listened. (If it had been something inappropriate, like about sex or drugs or illegal activity, I would have jumped in.)

I think one of the reasons I do fairly well at the continuation high school is that I don't shock easily.

Extra Credit Agar.io

Computer class at the continuation high school. Same class as X, interestingly enough. They had work to do. And as per normal, some made better use of their time than others.

5th period, however... 

Most didn't even make an attempt at starting any work. They immediately logged onto agar.io. And the newest game from them... slither.io. Oh, joy. (Although, it's not like I haven't encountered this sort of thing before.)

Well, of course I clamped down on that quick. Told them to get on task... 

"This is extra credit. Mr. M counts it. Really." 

Um, yeah. Right. Sure. 

But they weren't going to budge, so I did what I usually do in this instance. I took down names. Along with their lie. 

I ran into Mr. M the next day. Laughed about the lie. He said he can block sites. I have a feeling I will no longer have issues with the game. Kind of hard when the game is blocked...

via GIPHY

Ximena's Help

Um, yeah, so I'm totally cheating today. The girl in the story--not named Ximena. Although, I do generally change students' names. (They are minors, after all.) And I have run across a girl named Ximena. She's three years younger and a pleasure to have in class. Not blog-worthy at all.

(In case you're wondering, her name is pronounced "humena", so my title is an alliteration. Kind of.)

I was back at the continuation high school. It's been a while. The computer class. They were working on computer literacy, career planning, or the yearbook. Every class had some of both (although there was only one period of yearbook).

And, of course, there were the ones not working on any of the above. Even though they should have been. This was the continuation high school, after all.

But the boy was on task. It was an assignment on workplace safety. Things like how should one lift something and how one responded to fire alarms. He called me over to ask the answer to the last question, which was something about what causes back pain.

He chose an answer and hit "submit" for the whole thing. He got 79%. He needed 80% to pass. Helpfully, the submission screen gave him a list of what he'd gotten correct and what he'd missed. But he couldn't go back and fix his answers.

I wandered away. The next time I returned, I discovered the boy and Ximena working on the assignment again. Redoing it. Only this time, they were utilizing Ximena's phone. She had pictures of various screens--the question screens and the submission screen.

Um... Cheating...?

No, they said. These were the boy's answers. Ximena had just taken a picture. Of his answers. And whether they were correct or not. So, they could retake the questions and get them all right this time.

Deep sigh. Well, at least it was on task.

That next time through, he got 83%. So, he passed. And as that was the last assignment for the class. He had finished.

It just kinda left me with an odd feeling.

Would you consider that cheating? Or, was he just redoing his own work? What did you post for X today? Did you cheat, like me?

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

Early Day

Spring break starts early at the continuation high school. So, they have an extra week for "intersession". Basically, it's like summer school, but for a week. They can earn extra credits while the school is technically on vacation.

Because of this, it's rare to get called in to sub on these days.

But, Mr. A had a meeting and was only going to be gone part of the day.

The first group finished. We had a break. And the second group came in. (There were only two "periods" for the day--each 3 hours long.)

The second "group" consisted of two students.

I got them started. Shortly thereafter, the counselor came in to register the students for class. When she saw there were only two, she decided to cancel the class. (There needs to be a certain number, or else it isn't worth it to run the class for the week.)

No students, no need for a sub. Which meant I was done for the day. Before noon.

Yup, that was a short day.

Have you ever gotten a surprise early dismissal? What did you do with the rest of your unexpected day?

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

The Off Game

Typing class at the continuation high school. After making sure the students were on the proper program, I went back to the front of the room and took a seat. Of course, the teacher's computer was open to the monitoring software.

I hadn't even had a chance to settle when I heard the loud protest: "He turned my computer off." Then seconds later, that student's computer also mysteriously powered off.

Oh no. Really?

Both students claimed innocence. "Diego did it." (Diego was seated two seats away from the both of them, and he was busy on his own computer.)

Time to move students.

Marcus, the one who supposedly started it all, moved to the new computer indicated with minimal protest. Jose, however, wasn't having it. He didn't do anything. Why was he being punished? (I was moving him to an on computer unlike the off one he was sitting in front of. He's lucky I wasn't passing out referrals.)

Eventually, Jose went to the computer indicated. I turned around for one minute...and Marcus glided across the aisle to turn off the computer of a girl who had nothing to do with any of this.

Okay, that one I saw. (The others I only saw the aftermath.)

You think they'd be done with this, but no. That's when Diego went over to "visit" Jose, and Jose's computer turned off.

Diego: "Jose turned it off himself."

Um, right. Sure.

At that point the period was over. It was time to log off computers and get ready to leave.

As they were going, from Jose: "It's no fair. You [referring to Marcus] got me three times, and I only got you once."

Jose, that is a confession. So much for your innocence.