Ass...ign...ment

Seventh grade science. Friday before the week-long Thanksgiving break. Their teacher had left them a simple assignment: they were to label all the parts of an animal cell, state what each part's function was, and color in the cell.

Unfortunately, this was not enough work to keep them all busy all period.

(I suspect that many of them rushed through the assignment. They tend to.)

Because this happens frequently, I have a list of things that I tell them to do if they finish early. It includes things like reading a book, getting ahead on homework, studying for upcoming tests, etc. Stuff that older students would automatically just do. But at that age, they haven't yet figured out that extra time is time they can use to get ahead.

After getting the "What do I do if I'm finished?" question and repeating the list several times, I figured it was time to write the list on the board. Not that I wouldn't have to still answer the question, but at least then I could point.

I turned to the board. Opened the dry erase marker. Began to write "Assignment" on the board...

(As long as I was writing things down, I figured I might as well write what they were supposed to finish first.)

I got three letters in when a student called out to me. I turned...

I heard the titters behind me. 7th graders. 12-year-olds.

Um, yeah. That was going to get ugly. I turned back to the board, finished writing "Assign", and turned back to the student. I got about five more questions before I could return to the board and finish writing "Assignment". I got about halfway through the cell page explanation before I got called away again.

It took several tries before I got to "What do I do if I finish early?", and then a few more before I had a full list written. Because 7th graders.

And I was so glad I had that written for later classes as I referred to it frequently. Because even after pointing it out and reading it to them, they still asked what they should do when they finished. Because 7th graders.

Out of Order

Seventh grade science. They had a test.

This teacher had assigned a couple students every period to be test helpers. Their job was to pass out tests and then to organize the tests after they had been turned in. And most of them did a pretty good job. (It's early in the school year. They'll get better.)

(I know the drill. I covered this teacher for four? weeks last school year.)

But in 4th period...

Each student got a "test" and an "answer sheet" (a Scantron page to fill in the multiple choice answers). The tests got reused every period. To make sure they all got returned, they were numbered. That makes it easy to see if one is missing.

So, the test helpers were to put these back in numerical order.

While the test helpers were taking their tests, I'd keep things neat. I ordered the tests, mostly because I can't abide disorder when I can do something about it. But when the test helpers were ready, I left them to do their job.

The first thing the 4th period helpers did was to take my nice, neat stack and turn it into five or six piles of chaos. Their method made no sense, but I figured they had a plan.

Turns out, I was wrong.

At the end of 4th period, the helpers handed me the stack of tests. Initially, I thought just a couple tests were out of order. But then I took a closer look.

(4th period was right before lunch. By the time I'd taken a closer look, the kiddos were all gone.)

I don't know what order they were going for. It would be one thing if they just weren't in order at all. That I could somewhat understand. But this?

I took a picture to send to their teacher because I couldn't not share...

The top of the pile was test #2. The bottom was test #20. (Click on the picture to get a closer look.) And in between...

It's like they started to put them in order, but then they didn't finish? Or they had them sort of in order, but then they didn't order the smaller piles? I just don't get it.

As I told their teacher, those helpers either need to be retrained or replaced. Although, I think there's hope for them. Probably.

The Wanderer

My last day in Ms. D's science class, the 7th graders had a test. (Which I mentioned several times over the 7 days, yet some still acted surprised when we got started. Deep sigh.)

Some special ed students take their tests in a different room. There are fewer distractions, they can get the supports they need, and some need extra time. I had a list of who was to go.

Jamal was ready to get started. Class had barely begun, and he wanted to go to the testing room right then. Fine by me. I gathered his materials, wrote his hall pass, and sent him on his way. It was 1:45.

I sent the other two students who were supposed to go out. Then, I got the rest of the class going on their tests--passed out, room silent, instructions given, etc. I did a walk around.

The phone rang.

The teacher manning the resource room called. (I've subbed for her before.) Jamal had just arrived. It was 2:00.

It is possible to get from the classroom to the resource room in 3-4 minutes when it's raining and the campus is crowded with students getting to their next class. (It's a large campus. Lots of students. The crowds do slow one a bit.) I know this because I've done it.

It does not take 15 minutes to go that distance when it's dry and the campus is mostly empty (all the students are in class).

I said to go ahead and let him take the test. Considering Jamal's general lack of effort, I highly doubted he had gone in search of test help.

At 2:30, Ms. K called to let me know she was sending Jamal back. It should take him a minute to arrive, she said. It took him four.

And then he told me he hadn't finished his test.

via GIPHY

Silly boy. Extra time is given to students who need it, not students who wasted time they could have used for the test wandering who knows where.

The Imposter

Diego tried again.

It was Tuesday. It was the passing period before fifth. Diego walked in. I let him.

Students come by and visit other students during passing period all the time. It is sort of their time. I don't start class until the bell, so before that time, they can meander and talk and do such things. I figured that Diego wanted to say hi to his friends in class, and I didn't have a problem with that.

He took a seat in the room. The student assigned to that seat hadn't arrived yet, so I wasn't concerned.

But, as the passing period progressed, I figured it was time for Diego to get on his way. I wasn't going to excuse his tardy to wherever he was supposed to be now, so I urged him to be on his way.

"This is my class," he explained. "I'm Ace."

Yup, he was seated in Ace's seat. But he was definitely not Ace.

This sort of thing might work if I had been in the class for one day. Even two. But this was day 12. And Ace was... memorable.

Plus, Diego is Latino. Ace is African-American. They don't look a thing alike.

So, I called him by name and told him he should get to his actual class. And he left.

It's nice when the lies are so blatantly obvious.

Defeating the Vandal

Friday. (The 13th, as it was...) They had a test.

I was having a good day. The classes were cooperating. Things were going smoothly enough that I was able to get caught up with some of the grading.

(Yes, I was actually grading student work. It doesn't happen often. But with longer teacher absences, it's better to keep the students' grades up to date. It lets them know that what they do while I'm there counts, and more of them stay on task that way.)

So, I was in a good mood.

It was towards the end of 4th period. Students were finishing up their tests, and some were even doing the after-test assignment (which was starting the semester final review sheet).

I happened to look over at one student's desk, and I noticed him drawing. On. The. Desk.

(Students draw all the time. There's a great art department at that school. Sketchbooks frequently come out. This I don't mind.)

Um, seriously? The afternoon classes frequently complained of defaced desks. Early on, I found the cleaners so they could clean off their desks. I just hadn't caught any of the morning classes in the act before.

I growled at the student. (Not literally. But I did make my displeasure known.) I told him to stop. He dutifully got out a book. (But didn't do any work.)

I went to the closet, pulled out the desk cleaner, went back over to him, stood over him, squirted the "artwork", and proceeded to make it disappear.

Ah. That felt good!

The boy? He quietly (tests were still out) complained to his neighbors. I had ruined all his work.

Yeah, um, okay. If he really wanted to preserve it, wouldn't he have done it on something he could take with him? And this made me the bad guy? (I could have made him clean it up, so he really got a gift from me.)

Referee

It was a clever assignment. One I hadn't seen before.

7th grade life science. They were learning about photosynthesis. And how it related to cellular respiration. The project was relating the two by making a "poster".

The "poster" had two halves. One half showed photosynthesis. The other, cellular respiration.

The class was broken up into partners. Each partner did one half (either photosynthesis or cellular respiration), and then they put the halves together to make a whole.

Cordelia came over to me. She wanted to do the photosynthesis part of the poster. Um, okay. But not my call. This was between her and her partner, Jessica.

But, Jessica wanted to do photosynthesis, too.

Nope, I was not making that decision. I informed the girls that they needed to work it out themselves. I suggested flipping a coin or rock-paper-scissors. They went back to their seats. For a time.

Jessica returned. She told me that they had done rock-paper-scissors, best two out of three (and she even told me what they'd thrown), and Jessica had won. Okay, great. Jessica would to photosynthesis.

But then Cordelia came back. She claimed she had won rock-paper-scissors, best two out of three...

I am terrible at spotting liars. Students lie to me with straight faces all the time, and I can't be sure if they're lying or not. But this time...

Jessica was a very sweet, very quiet girl. I get the impression that if she lost the tiebreaker, she would have accepted the outcome. Reluctantly, but she would have. Cordelia, on the other hand, was the type of girl who was going to get her way no matter what. A louder personality. She was going to bludgeon her way into doing photosynthesis.

(I set up the partners, so these two would not have chosen to work together.)

Cordelia had already titled her paper "Photosynthesis", and she insisted that that was what she was going to do.

I think she expected me to make Jessica do cellular respiration. But I'm not built that way. I felt the need to stick up for Jessica. I'd give Cordelia a new paper. Cordelia was going to do cellular respiration.

Yeah, well, Cordelia wasn't built that way...

After a day (they had two and a half days to work on the project) of Cordelia running to me to complain, I had had enough. Fine. They could both do photosynthesis. They were no longer partners.

(The assignment was set up so each half of the assignment could be graded separately. So, unfortunately, that wouldn't penalize Cordelia. But, luckily, it wouldn't penalize Jessica, either.)

7th graders...

Getting Back Up to Speed

Winter break was over. I got an early morning wake up call. Guess who would be out another week?

I was not shocked by this. The teacher I covered before the break had been out due to shoulder surgery. I half expected her to need more time to recover. So, back to it, the same group I had before the winter break.

Deep sigh.

The teacher was prepared. She left lesson plans for the entire month of January, just in case. So, I knew we were covered. The first day back, they had an assignment in their packets.

All the classes received packets for the unit. The first pages were fill-in-the-blank notes. Then there were pages of various assignments that they would need to complete. These packets were passed out the first couple days I was in the class. They all had them.

After the initial explanation that their teacher would be out another week, I told them to get out their packets...

"What packet?"

"I lost it."

"I left it at home."

I was not shocked. I wasn't even surprised. Since they came to school with their binders and folders and backpacks and such, I figured the packets would have to be in their stuff somewhere. Presumably, it would be with the other school stuff they hadn't looked at in two weeks. (They didn't have homework over the break, so they shouldn't have even needed to take it out of their backpacks.)

Most managed to find their work, and we got underway. Well, except for one notable exception. Blaine.

"You never gave me the packet."

Um yes, yes I did. And you know how I know? He had scores recorded for assignments that were in the packet. Which he couldn't have done if he didn't have the packet.

But he protested he'd never received it. This went back and forth for a bit. Until he realized, "Oh, that packet."

Yeah. That packet.

Excellent Timing

The last day before winter break was a minimum day. And as with most minimum days, they scheduled a fire drill.

Insert eye roll here.

I do not like fire drills. They are disruptive. I never know which students are mine, so I hope that they're showing up where they're supposed to be. And then when we get back to class, they're all wound up.

I understand the importance of fire drills. I do. Emergencies happen. We've had to evacuate due to earthquakes and actual fire incidents (that were minor). But that doesn't mean I have to like participating in them.

But, it was a lovely, wet day in SoCal. It had rained much of the night before. And we were expecting more rain later that day. So, they'd surely cancel the drill, right?

Nope. Drill as scheduled.

*grumble, grumble, grumble*

I did luck out in that the drill fell on my prep period. When the alarm sounded, I was to report to an assistant principal to "assist". (Read: stand around.) We got out to the athletic fields, and then we were promptly sent back to class...

Back in class, I got back to the setting up for the day stuff I needed to do. I heard all the kiddos arrive back in class, and when things settled down, I figured it was a good time to hit the restroom before I had a class the next period.

I walked outside... And it was pouring down rain.

We missed getting rained on by minutes. Now, that was some good timing.

Missing

Ms. D had warned me about her class before I filled in. But I didn't realize how many familiar faces there would be. Blaine was there...

He wasn't as bad as he was last year, but he was still a handful. If I had a dollar for every time I had to ask him to sit down... And he was out of class once every day to use the restroom. Which might not sound like an issue, but one has to wonder why he can't remain in class for a full period.

The last day I was in class they were to watch a video. Blaine approached asking if he and a girl could go and take care of something having to do with the school's annual canned food drive. Turns out he and the girl were in student government.

As it was the last day before break and I knew he wasn't going to sit still for the video, I allowed it.

A short time later, I got a call from the office. Blaine was needed in the front office because his probation officer was there.

Naturally.

It was then that I realized I didn't have a clear idea of where Blaine said he was going to be. There was something about a class getting extra cans that they got credit for and... It was vague. (And I don't usually let students out of class without knowing exactly where they're going to be.)

After some hemming and hawing, I realized he must be in the ASB room. I called over there. Only, he wasn't there. The office also called there and called me back. I was to send Blaine up as soon as I saw him.

(This is a headdesk moment. I should have known where he was. I had to remind myself that usually when the office calls, I send the student right away. This was an anomaly.)

Blaine did return a short time later. So, I sent him on his way again. This time, I knew exactly where he went.

That's what I get for being a little lax before a holiday.

Inappropriate Mirth

For the last seven days before the winter break, I covered a science class. I had been warned the classes were difficult. Luckily, the teacher gave me a few tools to try and keep things moving along.

One of the days (and at a certain point, the days started running together), the afternoon classes were to answer 20-odd questions on photosynthesis. They were true/false. They got ten minutes to do the paper, and then we were to correct them together.

Many of them were playing around rather than doing the work, so I wanted to get them thinking at least while we were going over the questions. So, I pulled out the name cards. (I was so glad to have name cards. Not every teacher leaves those for us subs.)

I announced what number we were on, pulled a card, and had the student read the question and their answer. (I got volunteers, but I insisted on the cards. That way they all had to pay attention. Besides, they had a 50/50 shot at getting it right.)

Since many had not done the work, some of them made wild guesses when called on. (This is better than when they have to fill in answers. Then if they haven't done it, they'll freeze up or refuse to answer.) And there were a couple times when they gave a wrong answer that should have been obvious.

So, the class as a whole would laugh at them.

Which was not cool. Nope. Not at all. It's hard enough to be called on.

So, I made a blanket rule. If someone wanted to laugh at a student for giving a wrong answer, they could very well answer the next question.

That stopped the laughing right quick. (I only had to follow through on that threat once.)

Trying to Return

It was 5th period on my second or third day in Ms. D's class. I called out the names of those I was marking absent. The class informed me that Diego was no longer a member of the class. I checked the online roll sheet and verified that he was no longer listed. (I was taking roll via the seating chart.)

I talked to Ms. D a few days into her absence. I had a couple questions about other things. I mentioned in passing that Diego was no longer in period 5. She was quite happy about that. She explained that he was the most difficult student in that period. I was just happy that he had been pulled before I began covering.

Then on Tuesday, my fifth day in the class, I had separated a couple students who had been verbally sparring, taking advantage of the open seat Diego had left. Only, there was Diego, claiming his seat.

He informed me this was his class. I said I thought he had been dropped. But, students are removed and returned to class without me being notified all the time. (I'm a sub. I don't get the official emails.) So, I said I'd double check to see if he was back on the roll.

I logged into the system. (The online computer attendance is always up to date.) No Diego enrolled in period 5. I turned back around... And Diego was no longer in the room.

Ah. I see. He was trying to "visit". That is, he was going to play like he belonged in class. I know that game.

I don't want to imagine what ruckus he would have caused. Period 5 was difficult enough without him riling things up more.

Not Expecting That Grade

There were quite a few familiar faces in Ms. D's classes. Vaughn was one of them. I have uttered his name many a time. Many of those times, the tone was sharp.

He was seated in one of the "attention" seats. Every teacher has a spot (or two) that I can just tell is the spot where the difficult students sit. It can be kind of isolated. It's generally in a spot that the teacher can easily keep an eye on.

I was not surprised at Vaughn's behavior. I was used to it.

But I did get a big shock when I was recording the class' tests.

I don't really look at names when I'm grading papers. And, these tests were Scantron, so they were graded by machine. I don't know if I noted the name or the score first, but when I put the two together...

Vaughn got a 95% on the test. He missed two questions.

After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I recorded his score. (And no, he didn't cheat. While I can't be certain, I did not witness anything that would make me question the validity of his score.) Then I looked at his grade. He has a B. Another shock.

It looks like he's one of those lucky souls who remembers things easily. I talked to the teacher, and she said he does well when he does his work. He just doesn't always do his work.

Deep sigh. I just hope he matures out of his difficult ways. Because imagine what he could do if he really tried.

Check Your Key

The last seven days before the winter break I covered a science class. On day one (which was a Wednesday) all the classes had a test.

Because I was going to be there for over a week, it fell to me to get the makeups for this test taken care of.

The tests were on Scantrons, so that made the grading easier. I waited a couple days before braving the Scantron machine. (I had never used one before, so I thought figuring it out would be a challenge. It wasn't.) A few test stragglers had made their tests up by then. But not all.

After grading and recording the first batch of tests, a couple other students got their tests taken. I retrieved the keys from the "keys" book. (The teacher left me a binder with keys for all the assigned work during her absence.) I ran the tests. And I went home for the day.

While recording the test scores, I noticed something about the key I used for one of the tests. It said "earthquakes". But the Earth science test had been on "resources". Oh crap! Had I used the wrong key for all the tests?

The next day I learned the answer. No, I hadn't. I had just grabbed one wrong key for one test.

Whew. Because having to run all the tests again... (And there were A and B tests, so putting everything back into the right order...)