Paper Deficit

Monday. My last day in the English class. 

As is my habit, the first thing I did was to get out my computer(s) and log on. Very quickly I discovered that there was no internet. I soon learned that the internet was out for the entire district. 

Not only was this a "transition day" where I was going to give the next sub access to the Google Classroom, lesson plans, and slideshows she would need to teach the class for the week, I also had grading to finish up from my tenure in the class (all done online along with the online gradebook). 

Oh, and the classes had a quiz. That was online. 

After I panicked, I began to contemplate how I was going to approach the day. Luckily, I had a prep period first, so I had some time to adjust. I thought about how I had seen the paper copy of the quiz in the digital file of quizzes for the class, and how I wished I had internet access to print out said paper. And that's about the time I remembered that Ms. A had a file cabinet, and wouldn't it be cool if there was a copy of that quiz somewhere in those files? 

There was a copy on paper of that quiz in Ms. A's filing cabinet. It took me not all that long to locate it. 

The copy machines are not dependent upon the internet. 

I decided to make an answer sheet to go along with the quizzes. (I had time. That lovely prep period.) I was in process when the sub who was taking over for me arrived, so I got a little sidetracked explaining what she was going to need to continue teaching the class. But eventually I got the answer sheet completed, and we headed to the copy room to make the copies we would need for the day. 

It was interesting to do the quizzes on paper. The kiddos were not used to this sort of thing. I had to explain how it worked. It wasn't all that long ago when no explanation would have been necessary. How quickly we adapt to new technologies. 

The online quiz and the paper quiz were pretty much the same. The only difference was the format. And yet, the kiddos who took the paper quiz didn't do as well as the classes that took the online quiz the previous Friday. (There was a 20% difference in average scores.) 

This makes me wonder. Was it the technology? Or were the kiddos who got to take the quiz online cheating somehow? (The quiz was "locked down", so the kiddos couldn't access another tab while taking the quiz. And I monitored them for cell phone use.) 

This is not the first time we've had an internet outage. (There was this time and this time that happened fairly recently.) I'm sure it won't be the last. 

Three Weeks Notice

Friday. Eleventh grade English, eighth period. 

The kiddos had a quiz on The Great Gatsby chapters four through seven. As they walked in and asked what the plan for the day was, I told them this. Some of them were surprised. 

Emmitt: "You are required to give us three weeks notice before you give a quiz." 

Now, normally I'd push back on this. Say something snarky. Point out that pop quizzes were a thing. But I didn't have to. 

"I kind of actually did," I said. 

Another student: "She told us about it the first day she was here." 

Now, that was a bit of an exaggeration. I wouldn't say I mentioned it the first day. When we began the book, I outlined the plan. Quiz after chapter 3, quiz after chapter 7. Final on whole book (after I was out of the class). 

I can list all the times I mentioned that they had a quiz coming, but that might be a bit of overkill. Suffice it to say that I mentioned it a lot. 

And yet still, some of them were surprised. Well, I can only do what I can do.

Unexpected Sixth

Wednesday. Sixth period. And the class showed up... 

Sixth period is ELD. The English language development class. One of the major things that they had to do during my tenure in the class was to take the ELPAC. I couldn't give it, but I got questions from the students and from the counselors as to when the class would take it. 

Last week the assistant principal got back to me about it. He scheduled it for this week. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. He told me he would get back to me with more information, but he never did. He informed me that they would call the kiddos out of class, and there was nothing for me to do. Okay, then... 

Tuesday, I had four students in fifth period. (A few of them didn't have to take the test.) This was fine as I was expecting no class. I hadn't planned for them to do anything. (I had moved the plans for the day as ELPAC was to take priority.) 

But Wednesday, the kiddos showed up. They had been called out of class the previous day and had finished their test. 

Uh... 

Well, the actual lesson plan for the day was study hall. That's what Ms. A had originally scheduled. It was a "buffer day". She had put in an extra day just in case I got behind on Of Mice and Men. I hadn't. 

I had the next day's plan ready to go, though, too. So, I gave the kiddos the option. They could get the study hall day on Friday. They picked Wednesday. Fine by me. 

It would have been nice, though, if the assistant principal would have let me know that all the students would be tested on Tuesday. You know, so I could plan ahead. 

At least it's done. And as I get ready to leave this long-term assignment (when this post goes live, I'll have already left), it's good to know this major component did get completed. Even if I didn't have to do any of the actual work involved. 

Caught Red-Handed

Monday. Period four. We had finished up chapter six of The Great Gatsby in the last class period, so on this day they had an assignment analyzing quotes from the novel (chapters four through six). 

They had a similar assignment for chapters one through three. I was saddened as I read through their work. Their analyses were too good. Great word choice. Some insightful takes on the scenes. 

Yeah, that wasn't their work. 

Too many of them said the same thing. I didn't go back and check, but if I did, I know I would find that some papers were exactly the same. They talked of the themes in the novel. They hinted at things that were to come (that they hadn't read yet). I know they pulled answers from elsewhere. 

(Not everyone. Some clearly had done their own work.)

So, I pointed this out to period four as they began. 

I took a couple strolls around the room. Some of them were working. Some were not. 

Virgil was sucked into his phone. I sidled up behind him and glanced at what was on his phone. 

ChatGPT. 

Me: "You need to do your own work. Get off the ChatGPT." 

Virgil visibly startled. I don't think he heard me come up behind him. 

I remember reading Virgil's chapter one through three assignment. Him being on ChatGPT did not surprise me at all. 

He put the phone away. And then proceeded to do no work for the rest of the period. Deep sigh. 

That Teen Attitude

Thursday. Third period.

It was a pause day in our reading of The Great Gatsby. The students had an assignment on various quotes from the book, and I was giving them the period to complete it. It was also some time for them to go over the chapters to prepare for an upcoming quiz. 

I had explained the assignment, solicited questions, and released them to work independently. The room settled. I took a quick walk around the room to make sure they knew I was available for questions. 

I passed behind Aria. She had a computer out, but propped on it was her phone. With a movie playing. Deep sigh. 

"Are you going to get to work?" I asked, in my sweetest, quietest voice. 

Aria turned towards me with a look of such malevolence that I was surprised her head did not continue all the way around in a full circle. 

This is the girl who complained that I didn't give them more in class time to complete a previous assignment. 

And so many of them had phones out and were clearly not working on the assignment. 

Ah well. I suppose they don't need class time to finish their work anymore. Fine by me. I'd rather spend time on the chapters, anyway.

Sideways

Tuesday. 

You ever have one of those days? Nothing wrong, exactly. It's not a bad day. But things just kinda feel off. 

First off, I was running late. (I ran late all week. Just tired. Even though I'd been sleeping.) When I got home and looked in the mirror, I realized I had forgotten to apply makeup before leaving for school. And I didn't even notice all day. Sigh. 

I start my day with the daily Wordle. I do this as I log into the computers (for this gig, I've been using three, daily... well, four if you count the in-class TV screen). And... Hole in one:

And you know my first reaction? "Damn it! Now I have to find a new starter word." (It's now "tenor". In case you're interested.) 

Just as I was coming to terms with that (and while I was eating a muffin), the assistant principal dropped in. (It was my prep period. I was kind of trying to sort of prep.) I did need to see him. 

I have two ELD classes. They have to take a test yearly called the ELPAC. A few of them really need to take it so they can reclassify. (They'd be considered "fluent" in English, so they would no longer need to take an ELD class.) I can't give it because sub, so I have to coordinate with another teacher to get it done. 

The assistant principal came by to discuss when we'd get this done. He proposed doing it Wednesday/Thursday. But, long story short, that fell through as the teacher who would have done it then was actually out on Tuesday, so he couldn't coordinate anything. Naturally. 

I went back to getting prepped for the day. I looked over the next quiz the eleventh graders would take on The Great Gatsby. And as I read through it, I discovered that there are questions on it that I have not covered. Stuff like symbolism. And... Yeah, probably should mention some of this stuff so the quiz doesn't take them by surprise. 

It's always something. I suppose I should have realized that things were going too smoothly. I had to be missing something. Hopefully I found most of the issues. 

No Spoilers

Monday. Seventh period. 

It was the end of the period. The kiddos had put away their Chromebooks and were lining up at the door. 

Elliot: "Oh my god! Chapter seven..."

The eleventh grade English classes are reading The Great Gatsby. I may have mentioned this once or twice. On Monday, they had a quiz on the first three chapters. And then we started reading chapter four together. 

However, some students are reading ahead. I'm not sure why as we will be reading the whole thing together, but whatever. I'm not going to stop them. 

Elliot's been a chapter or so ahead for over a week. He was kind of bragging how far ahead he was. But this day, he was blown away by the events of chapter seven. 

And... Well... Yeah. I'm not giving spoilers for those of you who may be tempted to read it. But here's a link to the chapter summary for those of you who would like a reminder or aren't worried about spoilers. Anyway, chapter seven is a humdinger of a chapter. 

I nodded in understanding. Dennis, who sits next to Elliot, was also a bit blown away, as he said he looked over at what Elliot was reading. Elliot pointed out that Dennis really needed to read the prior chapters as they set the scene for chapter seven. 

"Just don't spoil it for the rest of the class, please," I asked. 

Elliot: "Oh no. I want to see their reaction when they read it." 

Me too, actually. 

Although, considering how bland their expressions are, I rather think they won't visibly react. We'll see. 

As for the quiz, they did pretty well. So, maybe they're not reacting, but it seems like they're following along with the plot just fine. 

Missed a Step

Friday. Sixth period. 

This is the ninth grade ELD class (English language development), and they're reading Of Mice and Men. Friday, it was chapter five. 

In case you are unfamiliar, chapter five is where Lennie does a bad, bad thing... 

I mean, perhaps I could have warned them. But nah. More of an impact if they don't see it coming. 

After we finished reading the chapter, they had questions to answer. Like a prepared teacher, I had set up the assignment before class. I added it to their Google Classroom. I didn't release the assignment until after we finished doing the reading, as I had done for chapters one through four. 

They got to work. But then, a hand... 

"I can't type on the assignment..." 

And I instantly knew what had happened. 

When one uploads an assignment, one "attaches" it to the specific assignment. Then, one has a choice of selections. Either the uploaded doc can be "viewed", "edited", or "make a copy for each student". The correct answer is "make a copy for each student". That way, each student gets their very own digital copy that they can modify in any way, like by adding their answers to the questions. 

Sure enough, I had not chosen "make a copy for each student". 

There are like a dozen choices one must make when uploading an assignment. Points. Due date. Title. Instructions. Attach the assignment. And others. I try to be very careful when doing this as to not miss a step. But sometimes... 

The worst part? I can't go in and edit it to make a copy. The only thing I can do is delete the assignment and reupload a new one. (Yes, I found this out the hard way.) 

Well, it wasn't like anyone had started the assignment, anyway. They couldn't. They couldn't type on it. 

Now, do I forewarn them about chapter six? Of course not. Better if they don't see it coming... 

The Giggles

Wednesday. Eighth period. 

We were reading chapter three of The Great Gatsby. Or, rather, I had put on audio of the book while they followed along with the narrator. And every so often I'd pause the reading to comment on something that I thought they'd miss otherwise. 

Some things I know they didn't know, like when a character mentions that the pages of some books weren't cut. I didn't know that people would cut open pages while reading books back in the day, so I knew they didn't know that. 

And then there was the car accident scene. 

It's pretty clear on the page what is happening. A very drunk driver hit a wall and his car was so badly damaged a wheel was sheared from the car. No longer drivable. But the driver was so drunk that no one could get him to understand this. 

I mean, terrible scene and all, but the way it's written I find extremely funny. I assume that was the intent. 

But, the way it was written, one has to be paying attention, and one has to infer some things that aren't explicitly on the page. And teenagers? Yeah, most aren't following that closely. 

Every period I made sure to stop and point out what was happening. I know they weren't getting it as I heard no chuckles. No snorts. No intimation that anyone was laughing. I mean, these kiddos don't react much at all, but even correcting for this, there was still no way they were getting it. 

Then, eighth period, my fourth time through the scene, I broke. We read through...

"Wha's matter?" he inquired calmly. "Did we run outa gas?"

"Look!"

Half a dozen fingers pointed at the amputated wheel—he stared at it for a moment and then looked upward as though he suspected that it had dropped from the sky.

"It came off," some one explained.

He nodded.

"At first I din' notice we'd stopped."

A pause. Then, taking a long breath and straightening his shoulders he remarked in a determined voice:

"Wonder'ff tell me where there's a gas'line station?"

At least a dozen men, some of them little better off than he was, explained to him that wheel and car were no longer joined by any physical bond.

"Back out," he suggested after a moment. "Put her in reverse."

"But the wheel's off!"

He hesitated.

"No harm in trying," he said.

And it was the "wheel and car were no longer joined by any physical bond" that got me. I was explaining, and I couldn't hold it any longer. I began to laugh. And then the laughter just took over. I couldn't stop. 

I've had moments where something struck me as so funny I couldn't stop laughing. Usually I'm alone. Sometimes I'm with others who find it just as funny. This time? Yeah, all of them looked at me like I'd lost my mind. 

So, I hit play on the audio while I got the giggles out. A joke explained is a joke lost. Even if they didn't find it funny, at least I was able to convey that the guy was so drunk he didn't understand what was going on. I hope. 

At least I'm enjoying the book. They aren't. I mean, they're really too young. So many of the nuances of the story you can't really get until you've lived a bit. 

You'd get it. You might be surprised at how much better the book is when you've experienced more of life than a teenager has. 

Modern Video Problems

Tuesday. Third period. 

Upon finishing reading chapter three of The Great Gatsby, we were to watch the scene from the 2013 movie version. 

This was in the lesson plans. I saw it weeks before. So, like any prepared teacher, I set about making sure I had what I needed to get this done. Because technology wasn't going to make this easy for me. 

The movie was on Netflix. Was. But, alas, since Ms. A had found it there, it had been removed, for when I went to look for it, it was gone. And it wasn't streaming anywhere else. (If you ever want to know where some movie is streaming, just search it up on IMDb.com. It lists it there on the first page.) 

Ms. A had it on DVD. But, no one has a DVD player any longer. I have a teacher computer. No DVD player in it. (The old, out-of-date computers have DVD players in them, but they don't work all that well. And I couldn't get a hold of one.) I called the library to see if they still had a player (as I had heard that they were getting rid of theirs). They did. But, it didn't have a cable that would connect to the in-class TV. (It had the RCA connector, not the HDMI cable that the TV has connections for.) 

I looked on YouTube and found some video clips of the movie. That were heavily edited and not very long. Sigh. 

After discussing it with another teacher, Ms. K, the co-teacher, bought a digital copy on Amazon. Phew. Problem solved. 

So, it was Wednesday, the day to show the video. We were on a shortened schedule for state testing. The audio for the chapter took about a half hour. 

But, I stop. And discuss. So, even shortening my discussion because I knew it was going to be a time crunch, we finished reading with about ten minutes left in class. The video clip was ten minutes long. Close, but I could make it. 

I went to play the video... 

It worked just fine. On my computer. The projection? They could hear, but they could not see. Deep sigh. 

I did not have time to troubleshoot. (I saw it worked on my computer and hadn't bothered to make sure it projected.) I had a YouTube clip to show to finish out the period, but that was all I could do. And since I wasn't going to have time for the other classes, I took my time stopping and discussing with them. 

But Ms. A wanted the clip shown, so it was time to figure it out. 

I know five ways to connect the computer to the TV screen. The way I was using wouldn't show the video. I knew another way that would show the video, but it was jerky. Not smooth. I managed to scrounge an HDMI cable, but when I found the cable, I also found a wireless display adapter. But it wasn't connected. 

Luckily, I had kept a copy of the instructions on how to connect the thing in my files. Still, it took me 45 minutes to get it to work. Sigh. (And then it turned out there was an easier way that I figured out two days later.) 

The good news: it worked. Finally. 

When I went to show the video the next day, it played. And I watched as they watched it. So, success. Eventually. 

It's always something. 

Make Work

Last week we started our annual state testing. (This week we'll finish it up.) I explained the schedule on Wednesday. As I mentioned yesterday, what this meant for me was that I had two hours of "free" time to get some things accomplished. Which meant some things got done that I might not have gotten to otherwise...

Before spring break, the eleventh grade classes did a whole lot of anticipatory stuff for reading The Great Gatsby. We talked about the 1920s. They read about the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald. And they had a couple videos to watch. 

I had them take notes. And then I gave them points for taking the notes (mostly because I expected that they'd ignore the material and spend the time on their phones if I didn't). Or, rather, I gave them points for the first day of notes, but for the rest of them I wasn't going to bother. Because it was practically spring break. 

Thursday. Jocelyn had to go home early. She came to class briefly to find out what the assignment was going to be. She got the title of the video so she could watch it and turn in the notes so she wouldn't miss any assignments. 

I would have told her not to bother, but she did this so fast. Mostly, what I was concerned about was that the video, a biography on F. Scott Fitzgerald, briefly discussed The Great Gatsby including how it ended. This part I skipped over while showing it in class (as we didn't want spoilers before reading the book), but how did I explain this to Jocelyn? 

When I wrote last week's blog post mentioning the video, I looked it up, searching for it rather than clicking on the link Ms. A left. And, surprisingly, the first video to pop up on YouTube is without spoiler. Someone edited it out! Meaning, Jocelyn most likely saw the version without the spoiler. Big Whew!

Then, on Friday, during eighth period, I informed them they'd need to take notes...

Evan: "I'm not going to take notes. You're not going to grade them." 

Yeah, so now I have to grade them. 

So, when all this time opened up this week, the first thing I did was to grade all the notes from before spring break. 

Because, seriously? I'm pretty easy going most of the time, but when someone challenges me like that? Don't tell me I'm not going to do something. I will so do that thing. 

Settling into the Long Term 13

Now that I've kind of settled into this long-term English assignment, I find that I have a lot of things I want to mention, but none have really risen to being the point of a whole blog post. So, I believe it's time for a Thursday 13, Ms. A's English class long-term sub edition. 

One

I mentioned that I have a lot of familiar faces in these classes. A few of them have made the blog before. Considering how things are going, I don't expect they'll do anything blog-worthy before this assignment ends, so I wanted to mention them. 

First off, I've got Lou again. Remember Lou? They (not sure what pronoun they're using at the moment) are in eighth period and they're still, well, like freshman year. But they seem to still like me, so they're not making things hard for me. 

Xerxes is in seventh period, but he's been absent a whole lot. (My naming convention is their blog alias starts with the same letter, usually. So, you know what his name actually is. Unless it's that other X boys name.) 

And Marta, although she's been very under the radar for me now.

There are several others who weren't given blog aliases, but I'm pretty sure I mentioned them. Tracking down those posts, however... 

Two

Last week we started state testing. Or, I should say, "they". They don't let subs proctor the tests. We're "supervision" for students who don't need to show up early, but do. I've had lots of time to get caught up on things. (See tomorrow's post.) 

Three

The eleventh graders (who have to do the state tests) have been reading The Great Gatsby. Which I have taught twice before. Once for this teacher and once for another eleventh grade teacher at the same school (so they use the same assignments). It makes prepping really easy as I don't have to do anything much but make sure things are ready to go. 

Four

Alas, when I go to discuss various aspects of the text, I get lots of blank stares. Sigh. One thing I am terrible at is selecting a student to answer my questions. I don't want to pick on anyone (as no one is behaving in such a way that I need to call them out), but I do want someone to answer. This is why teachers have pull cards. 

Five

As Ms. A doesn't have pull cards, I thought I'd make some. Just to randomize who I call on. But, lazy. So, it occurred to me that there has to be a computerized way (much like a random number generator) to do this. And, it turns out, there is. I searched online, and I found a couple different ways it could work. But then...

It turns out that Google Classroom has a randomizer built in. And... OMG! I love this thing. Two weeks ago I had no idea this existed, and now I'm absolutely obsessed. I can pull it up on my phone. I open it up, and a student's name appears. I can then hit "next" and I can call on another student. Best. Thing. Ever.

Six

I decided that I wasn't going to do any work over spring break. And then I broke that vow. I did some "lesson planning". Not really, though. I went looking for a back up assignment in case Ms. A didn't fill in what short stories she wanted the tenth graders to read. And then I wanted to "pretty up" the slides I was using with the eleventh graders for The Great Gatsby. (I put links to the audio from YouTube in one place so I didn't have to search it out every day.) I even found some video clips of the 2013 movie for a couple parts of the book. 

Seven

And then I didn't need any of it. Not a bit. Ms. A came through with lesson plans for the tenth graders. The co-teacher, Ms. K found a digital copy of the movie. And all the time during testing time gave me enough time to "pretty up" The Great Gatsby slides. (What I had done over the break looked terrible. I redid them, and they came out better.) 

Eight

Remember when my school bag broke? I finally purchased a replacement. 

Nine

Ms. A actually stopped by campus. To pick up boxes. Not only does she have a newborn (who she brought with her), but now she's moving. At least she's still on leave...

Ten

My co-teacher, Ms. K, used to work at a different high school (for LAUSD). That my father worked at. Turns out, her father worked at the same high school at the time my father worked there. Teaching can be a small world. 

Eleven

I can't keep the periods straight. I blame this on having the first block as conference period. I keep thinking third period is first and fourth period is second. And then I can't keep track of whether fifth period or sixth period is the ninth graders. I keep saying wrong period numbers and mixing up my days. Somehow, I haven't started teaching the wrong thing, but it's a close thing. 

Twelve

The above being said, I don't like third period very much. But seventh period I enjoy. And the even day is a little weird, but in a good way. I think part of this is me making all my mistakes in third period (the first time I'm teaching the lesson). And just having it down for the second day. (Block schedules mean it takes two days to get through all the classes.)

Thirteen

Reading chapter two of Gatsby, period three was all blank stares. Then period seven actually seemed to get it. It was quite funny to listen to them discuss what we had read (while they were doing the assigned work after we finished reading for the day). It's classes like that that make the whole thing worthwhile. (I haven't gotten to the even classes for this lesson yet. Odd classes were on Friday, so the even classes have the same lesson on Monday. Block schedule means some weeks start on an even day, some weeks start odd.) 

Zonked

Tuesday. Eleventh grade English, eighth period. 

(I was kind of loath to reuse this title. But when I went looking for the last time I used it, I found that I had used "Zilch" twice and "Zizi Rho Designs" three times. And Z. So, I'm going to go with it.) 

We got back from spring break on Monday. Tuesday we started state testing. While most of the high school doesn't have to participate, the eleventh graders do. 

They set up a special schedule for testing. Testing started at the usual start of the school day. Those not testing (the ninth, tenth, and twelfth graders) didn't have to even come to school until after the testing block. The testing block was two hours. 

The lesson plan for the day? We finally got to start reading The Great Gatsby. (For the two weeks before spring break we did lots of anticipatory activities.)

Have you ever read The Great Gatsby? Do me a favor and read the first page. Real quick. I'll wait...

Um, yeah. It's a little dense, especially for eleventh graders. 

So, I took my time, stopping a lot and explaining what was going on. (We would have easily finished chapter one if I didn't stop as much as I did.) 

And the class? Eighth period? Yeah, they were zonked. 

I saw heads on desks. I wasn't getting much in the way of feedback when I invited comments. 

Not shocked. And okay with it, really. Considering everything. The book takes a couple chapters to really get going, and they'll be more into it then. 

I hope. 

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

Visiting Teacher

Friday. Sixth period. I got an email from the co-teacher, Ms. K. 

The eleventh grade English classes are all co-taught. (This means that there's another teacher, a special ed teacher, who is in class with me.) The ninth and tenth grade ELD classes are not. (ELD=English language development. Read: English for non-native speakers.) 

My day is: 1st block--conference period; 2nd block--11th graders; 3rd block--ELD; 4th block--11th graders. Ms. K is with my 2nd and 4th blocks. (We're on block schedule, so it takes me two days to see all the classes. Both even and odd days are the same, which is good and bad.) 

Anyway, I had seen Ms. K in fourth period and I would see her again in eighth, so getting the email was weird. 

But, the email explained that Ms. K wasn't feeling well and was going home. So, I wouldn't see her eighth period. 

No big deal. It was a minimum day, the Friday before spring break. We were watching a video (on F. Scott Fitzgerald--background info before reading The Great Gatsby). It wasn't like she really needed to be there. 

But, teacher contracts require all missing teachers have a sub. (I've been in classes where both teachers were absolutely needed, so I'm good with this.) Ms. K said there'd be a sub, and she let me know who it would be. (I wonder if she asked the teacher herself. I wouldn't be surprised.)

I was going to get to work with Ms. L again. Woo-hoo! 

Last year, exactly a year ago, I was in that math long term assignment. Ms. L was the co-teacher. 

And... Yeah, that's all the excitement there was. The class arrived. I explained the assignment. They whined a bit. I put on the video. While the video played Ms. L worked on her stuff. I got some grading done. 

(I mean, it's not like I haven't seen her around since then. We've run into each other.) 

It was a nice way to finish things off before our break. 

Of course, this week was our week back after spring break. (I saved the subbing stories for the week I'd be at work.) Next week I'll post about what happened this week (as is my custom). I hope you've had a wonderful week. 

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

Under the Printer

It was the Thursday before spring break. On Wednesday, a kiddo delivered a couple paper Easter eggs with a note. Later, I saw an email which said the same thing. The student leadership had come up with a school-wide game. My job: hide the Easter eggs in the classroom. 

Okay, then. 

They looked like this:

On the back were the instructions. The finder could take the egg to the ASB office and exchange it for candy. 

I pondered where to hide them. It had to be someplace the students would be. I didn't want to make it impossible, but I didn't want to make it too easy. So, I hid this one behind that poster on the wall: 

And I put the second one on the other side of the room, under the printer:

For context:

(If you'd like more context, if you look at the classroom pic at the top of this post, the heart egg is on the left side, just beyond the picture, and this printer is on the right.) 

I had eleventh graders in third period, the period of the game. I wondered if they'd care. 

When, in the morning announcements, they talked about the game, I interjected that the eggs were hidden in the classroom. 

Nadine piped up. "I know where one of them is."

Me: "Go ahead and claim it." 

She jumped up and retrieved it. 

Then she looked around for the second one. I did not look in its direction. She did not see it. But Madden did. Again, I gave him permission to retrieve it. 

He got up, retrieved it, and headed back to his seat. On his way, he gave Nadine the egg. 

Me: "Uh... You found it. You can keep it."

Madden shrugged. He didn't really want it. But Nadine did. 

Um, well, okay. I mean, he earned it. But, that meant that he could do with it as he pleased. And he chose to give it to Nadine. 

There were also three golden eggs hidden, and the prize for those was a gift card to Raising Cane's. Nadine wondered where those were. I explained that they would be hidden for their lunch time, and it would be hidden outside. 

The game finished, we got into our lesson for the day, which was a documentary on F. Scott Fitzgerald. They'd be reading The Great Gatsby once we returned from spring break. (Which will be as you read this. I saved my subbing stories for when we're back at school.) 

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Text for Help

When Ms. A left for her maternity leave in February, she shared her online lesson plan calendar with both me and Ms. S (the sub before me). I saved the link someplace handy, and I didn't glance at it again. Until I started the long-term assignment. 

On the first day I was in class, I noted the pacing of the teaching of The Great Gatsby for the eleventh grade classes. I noted that the ninth grade class would be reading Of Mice and Men starting that week. (I've taught both these books before, so I was prepared.) 

However, the tenth grade class had nothing listed to do. Well, the first days I was there they were finishing up an argumentative essay, but for my second week, there was nothing in the plans. A big, fat blank. 

Um...

I didn't even know what Ms. A had intended for them. With the other classes, if something wasn't filled in, I could easily figure out how to fill some time as I had a topic on which to base things on. But not so for the tenth graders. Were they going to read a book? Were we going to do grammar lessons? A writing assignment? I had no clue.

Ms. A sent me a text saying she'd fill in the tenth grade plans. But she was cutting it pretty close. I mean, she's at home with a newborn and a toddler. I don't expect her to work. But I do need some guidance as to what to assign the kiddos. 

Then, Tuesday morning, a lesson plan appeared. Whew. Since my first block is planning time, I clicked on the links to get things set up for the day. Only, the links said I did not have access. Sigh.

But she had texted me to let me know to text her questions I had. So, I texted that I needed access to the material. Her response: "Oops. Geez." 

It's always the obvious things that slip through the cracks. 

Now I know what our unit is on. Short stories. So, now I have a topic with which to work. Yay! 

(We were reading "The Interlopers". I had not read it before, so it was new to all of us.) 

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Jazz Age Notes

Friday. Junior English. Third period.

It was my first day flying solo (so to speak--there's a co-teacher) in Ms. A's class. The lesson plans said to present a slideshow to the class while they took notes. Easy enough. 

I previewed the slides. And I panicked a little. The classes are 92 minutes long. There was no way the slides could possibly take up a full hour and a half of class time.

The classes will read The Great Gatsby once we return from spring break. The slideshow was about The American Dream, F. Scott Fitzgerald (the author), and general historical background on the 1920s Jazz Age (when the book is set). 

But, I had made the assignment from the previous class due Friday, so they'd get a bit of time to finish that up if they needed it. Or so the plan went. 

After the morning announcements, we got to work. As I do, I discussed the slides. They had bullet points about The American Dream. I expanded upon what was there. I pointed out how while taking notes, they didn't need to write down what was on the slides verbatim. 

And as I talked (and waited for the students to finish writing), I watched the clock. Time kept ticking away. And soon I realized this was all taking some time. A lot of time. 

We had twenty minutes of class time left. I did a mental inventory. We had a lot of slides left. And I realized, I wasn't going to finish the slideshow by the end of the period. 

Oops.

Although, this was a good problem to have. I was worried I'd have half the class to fill after finishing up. 

I had no idea I could talk that long. And it wasn't even an issue of me having to stop every two minutes to get their attention again. They were following along, a few piping up when I asked questions of the class. I mean, it went well. 

When I noticed that we were within five minutes of the end of the period, I called it. Not quite finished, but looking ahead to the next week, I realized I could finish off the slides then. I definitely have a bit of a cushion, although that means that we'll do a video on the author's life on the last day before spring break. They were supposed to have a free day as Ms. A was kind of expecting many of them not to show.

No big deal. The video is just on F. Scott Fitzgerald's life. I mean, it's interesting and all, but it won't hurt them if they miss that day. 

The slideshow was 55 slides long. I got through about 30 of them. 

So, now I know I can fill an entire 90-ish minute period with 30 slides. I might need this information later. 

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Idyllic Transition

The day had finally arrived. The day I had been anticipating since September (or October). I would be taking over Ms. A's classes for 30 days. 

Ms. A has been out since the middle of February. But because emergency teaching credentials only allow us subs to cover 30 days total in one class, and because Ms. A planned a 14-week maternity leave, two subs would be needed. Ms. A told me she wanted me to do the second half. 

The first half had been done by Ms. S, who I had worked with in the past. We were given two days of transition, which are days where she tells me what I need to know to keep the class going. Only, as I had covered Ms. A's classes before, I knew what I was in for.

That is not to say that the transition wasn't needed. It's good to have a couple days where I get up to speed before teaching the class. It's way better than the scramble I usually find myself doing. 

But, we really only needed a couple hours of transition, not two days. (We both got paid for them, so I'm not going to complain too much.) 

I recognized many of the faces in the classes. I had had many of them before, most notably in the math class I covered at this time last year. 

On the first day of transition, Ms. S taught the classes. (They had "study hall", so there wasn't much to do.) On the second day, we were beginning talking about The Great Gatsby (which is what we'll be reading until pretty much the end of the school year), so I took over. 

We started with a bit of background on the 1920s, and then they had an article to read on the author's life. They were to annotate it. I uploaded the article into their Google Classrooms, and then I explained to them what they were to do.

To annotate an article online, they use the comment feature on Google Docs. They highlight the passage, and then they can add a comment to it. Easy enough. 

About halfway through class, Aria approached. I have had Aria in classes for the past couple years. I may have written about her before, but I can't remember what alias I used. Sigh. 

Anyway, Aria had a problem. She had made all sorts of comments on the article (allegedly), but they all vanished. 

Upon some digging, we figured out what went wrong. Aria had clicked on a check mark on the comments she made. Which, if you've ever used the feature, is the thing that tells the program that you have "resolved" the issue from the comment, thereby deleting it. 

And there's no way to retrieve the comments. 

On the bright side, I now knew of one issue that might again crop up, so I made sure to warn every other period about it. 

But Aria's comments... Knowing her as I do, I just said I'd take her word for it and not make her redo the comments. (She wouldn't redo the comments.) 

At the end of the day, Ms. S was again free to do day-to-day subbing assignments. And now I'm in another long term. Should be interesting. 

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Holding No More

April 1st. Tuesday. My first day in the long-term English class that I knew about since something like October. Maybe September. 

(The teacher had emailed me to ask if I would be willing to cover her class when she went on maternity leave. I was unsurprised at the maternity leave as she had mentioned wanting a second child when she returned from her first maternity leave, which I had covered in part for her.)  

I arrived at the school with my usual carry bag and an extra bag with some other things I'd need for the classroom (as I knew I would be there for 30 school days). 

I went to the office to check in. The first door was locked. The second door was locked. I headed for a third door that would be locked, but it would be manned by the school's receptionist who would let me in. (The other two doors are usually unlocked when I arrive at the school. I was just a touch early this day.) 

As I climbed the stairs, my carry bag suddenly fell from my shoulder. I caught it before it hit pavement. What the...? 

I examined the bag. One of the clasps holding the strap to the bag had broken off. 

Uhhhh....

Yikes. This bag has no other handle on it. With my second bag, it was just plain awkward. But at least the office door wasn't too far. As predicted, the school's receptionist let me in, and I went to check in.

I mean, once I was in the classroom I found a spot for my bag to live in for the day (as I usually do) and I didn't have to worry about carrying it again until it was time to leave. The walk to my car is kinda long for holding a bag that has no working handle or strap. A minor irritation, really.

I have a bag that I used to use that still has a functioning strap. Time to pull it out of storage. It'll do until I find another bag to replace this one. Maybe. 

What a way to start my new long term.

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Graded

One of the things I get to do while doing a "long term" assignment is the grading. (I'm only in this class for three weeks, but Ms. A has been out since January. I'm actually doing lessons and everything.) 

The eleventh graders are reading The Great Gatsby. As the English classes have been teaching this novel yearly for a while, they have certain set assignments that go with it. One is an assignment where the students describe the characters using quotes from the novel. Another is where the students explain the significance of certain passages.

These are tricky assignments, but at this point in their schooling, they should be able to find quotes and argue their perspectives. (Since I've covered every year of English, I see how these skills are built up from the seventh grade. Each school year they add on another layer of complexity.)

I introduced the assignments. I explained. I went through examples. 

When they said one class period wasn't long enough to finish, I gave them another. (Ms. A had built in two class periods for the assignment into her lesson plans, but we were behind so I was trying to play catch up.) 

Because the assignments are online, I was able to peek at what they'd been doing, and I read through and offered suggestions as to how they could make their arguments stronger. (It didn't take as long as it might have as half the students hadn't even begun.)

Then the assignments were due.

During the conference period, I graded. So many of the assignments were not done well. Some hadn't identified the correct speaker for the quotes. And their analyses were weak. Sigh.

I "returned" their assignments and then entered them into the online gradebook.

I stepped out of the room to hit the restroom. Upon my return, a student was knocking on the classroom door. (It was still my conference period.)

He wanted to know why he hadn't gotten full credit. 

His was one of the better assignments. I just had a couple quibbles, things he said he would fix. 

Then I got an email from another student. And during passing period, a third student stopped by asking what she had done wrong.

Oh my. Some of them do care about their grades.

Still, a third of them hadn't bothered to do the assignments. (That third have very strong Fs at the moment, and as we have less than a month left of school, they're likely not pulling that grade up in time.)