A Bad Friday

Friday. Seventh grade science. Fourth period.

It had already been a day. It was pouring down rain, which meant the kiddos were already cold and wet. And the rain just brings out the crazy. (It doesn't rain for us much, so that means any rainy day is an unusual day.) 

Fourth period was after lunch, so the kiddos had just spent a half hour out in the weather. (It had been pouring rain all lunch. No, there is no real cafeteria for them to eat in.) 

So, I was expecting some crazy.

Two girls needed to get paper towels from the restroom to dry off. A boy fought me on sitting in his assigned seat. They went through a box of tissues. A couple boys stepped outside to wring out their clothes.

It was about halfway through the period when assigned seat boy, Austin, was doing something very strange.

(I am having a moment with Austins. This was not chair thrower Austin nor was it forever restroom pass Austin. This was an entirely different Austin. I've had him in class before, but he didn't merit a blog mention before.) 

Austin was "smoking" (snorting?) a powder from a small strip of paper (about five millimeters wide). 

I chased him back to his seat, examining the area. What had he been doing? 

Then another girl and then another girl did the same thing. That's when I noticed the girl passing these out: Briar. 

As my warning to stop fell on deaf ears, it was time to call out for help. The assistant principal sent me security. 

"She called security," got whispered throughout the room. (What, exactly, did they expect?) The class calmed.

Sadly, in the chaos, I was unable to pick out all three (five?) girls who had been involved, but I knew Briar and Austin. 

Briar claimed innocence as she attempted to surreptitiously brush the powder from her desk. (Seventh graders aren't subtle. They think they are, but they are not.) 

Things calmed somewhat after students left with security, but they were wound up from the get-go. 

Middle schoolers and rain are a bad combination. Is a small pinch of powder in a bit of paper the thing now? I am so out of touch when it comes to drug culture.

Stolen

Wednesday. The lesson was "Using Active Listening". Of which they were not.

The day was chaotic. I had students throwing things at each other. I had students talking over me while I tried to go over the lesson. As soon as the parts of the slideshow with videos in them would start, they would pull out their phones and ignore the screen. 

I put on slides what I wanted them to write down in their notebooks. Many of them weren't bothering. 

I was happy to get to the end of the lesson. 

It was the end of fourth period. The bell rang, and students were leaving. 

That's when Martin found her airpods missing. 

Uh...

There was nothing I could do. I would have had to call security while making sure no students left the room. And with these students, that would have meant me standing in front of the door as some would have just left even if I told them to stay. (The phone was on the other side of the room.)

Martin, understandably, was upset. She hadn't left her desk at all, and the airpods had been sitting next to her. 

This is why chaotic classes are bad news. 

But I couldn't stop. I had to prepare for the incoming sixth period, which was a worse class than fourth. (We're on a block schedule.) 

I was completely powerless to do anything. 

It's not a good feeling. 

Sixth period, as expected, was way worse than fourth. (Although, no belongings went missing.) I got a call part way into the period. 

Martin never made it to her sixth period class. (Nor did she make it to school on Friday.) 

Deep sigh. Days like these remind me why I don't do long term assignments. It's time to go back to just day-to-day subbing.

Movie Day

It had been a long week. And Friday came along to make the week even longer... 

We had two students with diarrhea (which is worse when the students need help in the restroom). One student had several wetting incidents. And my computer seeker continued with her usual. 

We barely got to the first break when I was done for the day. 

I turned to the instructional assistant Keyla (who I have renamed three different times on this blog because I can't remember what I named anyone on this blog) and asked what we should do. She gave me the answer I wanted: put on a movie.

So, I turned to Jennifer. She'd been rolling with the day as it unfolded. And she's the most "normal" of the students in class (but she is very much a little girl mentally). I let her choose our movie.

We had seen Turning Red the previous Friday (when it premiered), but Jennifer really liked it. I gave her permission to watch it again. And we did.

Because some days you just really need a movie. 

Two Days in Elementary Special Ed

When my gig at the adult transition center suddenly ended, I called in for a subbing gig for the next week. Alas, all that was available was a special ed class for first through third grade. For two days. 

I figured I'd have an aide who knew the kids. I could handle it. 

How sadly mistaken I was. 

The class was without teacher. The aide had also left the district for a better paying gig elsewhere. The class had been in limbo for a while, and I was a stopgap measure until Wednesday, when presumably they were getting a longer term sub or something. I have no idea. 

It was so bad that I now have enough blog fodder for weeks to come. Or I can blow it all out in one Thursday 13. Let's go for the Thursday 13, shall we... 

ONE

I started off day one sending two students to the health office, one with a toothache, one with a stomachache. The toothache kiddo was sent home. The stomachache kiddo was given a snack. When the stomachache kiddo (Emmett) learned the toothache kiddo (Alberto) got to go home, he said he had a toothache. The note from the health office stated that Emmett felt it was unfair that Alberto got to go home and he wanted to go home because he missed his mother. 

TWO

I was informed that I had no aide by the sub aide (a "floater") who came to help me out. She usually is a one-to-one, but her student was absent on Monday. I so needed the help.

THREE

When the one-to-one went to lunch, it was math time for the class. And, of course, things were insane. I gave one group the harder work, and I worked with the group that was cutting and pasting numbers in the proper order. Aubrey was doing very well. I had convinced her that 5 goes between 4 and 6 and that 2 comes before 3 and 4. And then, somehow, a 3 ended up between 4 and 6, and I couldn't convince her to fix it, no matter what I tried. In the end, I just left it wrong, because she just wouldn't do it correctly. Even though we counted together, and she counted correctly. Sigh.

FOUR

Perry's tooth was loose. He had been trying to pull it out off and on all day. He got fixated on it. I asked him if he wanted to have it for the tooth fairy. When he said he did, I explained that perhaps it would be better to pull it out when he was at home, so the tooth didn't get lost. That seemed to stop him from playing with his tooth.

FIVE

I was warned that Nathan would start crying at the drop of a hat. To keep him on task, he had a chart where if he got three smiley faces, he'd earn his STEM box at the end of the day. Alas, he did not earn it on Monday as the rest of the class gleefully pointed out. So, someone else took "his" box. (The boxes are numbered. There are three with the same pieces as "Nathan's", but he wants that one box.) Nathan ran from the room and proceeded to scream and cry outside for that whole half hour, screaming and crying louder when he saw me watching. 

SIX

The aide I had to help on Monday did not return Tuesday. I was alone with all ten of them. (I got an hour here and a half hour there of "help" at various points throughout the day, but it wasn't consistent.)

SEVEN

Alberto returned to school, albeit late. The minute he arrived, he asked for his "bloo-ee". It was a while before I learned this was his Blue's Clues water bottle. It had gone missing. 

When I did not have the "bloo-ee" to give to him, he cried and screamed at the top of his lungs, demanding that he have his "bloo-ee". Which I did not have. Nor could I find. And so, Alberto was inconsolable, needing that particular water bottle (even though he had a water bottle with water in it). He demanded I give it to him. I explained that I could not make it appear out of thin air. He screamed some more.

EIGHT

Then it was PE time. Alberto spent the whole time not following directions. He took another kid's spot. He refused to play the game, wandering the field while the other kiddos ran around. (There was a PE teacher. I was just there as extra supervision.) 

NINE

We got back from PE, and someone from the office delivered Alberto's "bloo-ee". And suddenly he calmed down. 

TEN

Emmett again had various complaints that "required" a health office pass. And again, Emmett was sent back to class with a note stating that he had asked to go home. He was not going to get to go home. 

I did inform him on his second and third pass that he was not going to get to go home. But sometimes you just have to let them learn this on their own.

ELEVEN

The assignment had them cutting out pictures and pasting them in order. Nathan enjoyed the cutting part a bit too much. Instead of cutting out pictures, he cut the paper into confetti that ended up all over the ground around his desk. 

At various points, I attempted to get him to clean it up. He picked up a couple pieces, but then got distracted by something else. I warned him that he would not get his STEM box at the end of the day if he did not clean up the mess. (He was not earning smiley faces at all.) Still, nothing. 

TWELVE

I went to pick them up from lunch, and Perry was slowly making his way from the playground. That's when I saw his left foot. It was bent back and to the side at a very odd angle. 

Someone said someone pushed Perry on the playground. I just... And for some reason Perry wasn't screaming or crying or complaining of pain. I looked around for someone to help as he shouldn't have been walking on that thing. Eventually, another student helped him to the health office. 

Another adult came over to me questioning what was up with Perry. I mean, his foot? It wasn't obvious? But apparently he wasn't talking. 

He returned to class to gather his stuff as he was being sent home. Another student said he'll probably get a wheelchair. I said it was more likely he'd be in a cast. They did not know what a cast was.

THIRTEEN

For about the last hour, the school psychologist and a trainee came by to help. And they were a great help. I pointed out the mess around Nathan, and one of them stood over him and prompted him to get every piece of paper he had cut. 

I snuck the STEM box away so another student wouldn't claim it. Because they were eager to. And once Nathan had cleaned up his area, I gave him "his" box. It was so much nicer not having him screaming and crying.

CONCLUSION

And that was two of the longest subbing days I've ever had. (Okay, I'm exaggerating. But this was the hardest I've had it in a long time.) This is why I dread doing elementary. Hopefully, things won't be this bad continuing on.

Three Subs

Seventh grade math. The lesson plan warned that the classes had been difficult (this was accompanied by an apology), but I was to have a co-teacher.

Of course, not thirty seconds after reading that, the phone rang. It was the office informing me that my co-teacher was also out sick, and a sub for that co-teacher had not been ordered. I begged the secretary for help. I knew I was going to need it. She said she'd see what she could do.

First period I wasn't to have a co-teacher. I muddled through, but it was as bad as advertised. Second period was the teacher's prep (and I went elsewhere to cover an extra period). Third period I returned, expecting more of what I had had in first period.

The bell rang, and I fought for attention. That's when another sub showed up.

via GIPHY

She was so helpful. I went over what they were to do, and Ms. F clamped down on them.

The kiddos were working. They were even nearly silent. All was well. Until the phone rang...

On the way over, Ms. F had fallen, and she was a little sore. (It was raining out. It's slippery. And she had come from across the campus.) This had been reported to the office, so they called to have her come to the office to fill out an incident report.

I found this all out later. While Ms. F was on the phone, another teacher walked in. She had been called to cover, but finding two subs in the room...

It was a bit chaotic. Once I realized that Ms. F was leaving, I assured Ms. E that I did need her help. It didn't appear so as the kiddos were quietly working, but considering how much effort was needed to get them there, I didn't want to risk losing the help.

Third period was totally lovely. (Well, not totally. They got a little crazy at clean up time. Par for the course with seventh graders.) But Ms. E had her own class to get back to, so I was left alone for period four.

Alas, no more subs arrived for the rest of the classes. I was alone. And things didn't go well. Not at all.

Home

I may not be very coherent for the next week or so. But before I whine, let me show you the pretty pictures.

The gray behemoth made it to its new home...

Niece seems to like it...

(If you want to say "hi" to my niece, you can find her on Instagram here and here.)

The rest of this post is me venting. It's been... Yeah. Consider this your warning. You might want to get out now.

Ahem.

1:15 AM. Saturday. I don't know what it was that woke me. But as I drifted awake, contemplating if I really, really needed to use the restroom or if I should just go back to sleep, I heard dripping. Kind of like rainfall. But the sound was wrong...

I jumped out of bed and turned on the light.

From that light, which was part of a ceiling fan just over my bed, was water, dripping onto my bed.

And then the dripping sped up.

I grabbed a couple towels to help sop up the water. Not sure what to do, I looked about for a bucket of some sort. I noted the time.

As the water sped up more, becoming a stream, more water started falling from a different part of the ceiling.

By the time I got my roommate (who owns the place) involved (yes, I woke her at 1:20 AM-ish), water was also streaming from just outside my closet. Landlady called it a waterfall. I called it a deluge.

Luckily, we had access to the water shut off for the building. Unluckily, the emergency line we contacted didn't send a plumber overnight (even though they said they were).

The water stopped after about a half hour. The plumber arrived 12 hours later.

I pulled all the sheets off my bed and put them in the bathtub. That's when I discovered that my mattress pad was awesome. My bed was basically a pool by the time the water stopped, but my mattress was only wet in a small spot right where the water had been dripping.

If I had been thinking, I would have taken pictures. I wasn't thinking.

Anyway, the plumber tried to replicate the issue. Above my room is a bathroom. He ran the shower. He flushed the toilet. No water. And this was after turning the water back on, and nothing happened.

(In other words, we turned off the water to our whole building--I don't know how many units--on a Saturday morning for nothing.)

What the plumber did find was a sopping wet bathroom. Wet floor. Wet clothes. Wet towels. And a stopped up sink.

The tenant above us? Yeah, he says no leak. No issue. Nothing happened.

Uh... Really? Apparently I'm a miracle woman, then. If only I'd known when we were in full on drought a year or so back. I could have single-handedly ended it.

So, it's now Sunday night. I've commandeered my other roommate's room. (She's out of town visiting friends.) My room has a dehumidifier going. Last I checked, it's 83 F in there. This is the stopgap measure until they can get someone to remove the ceiling.

They checked with their sensors, and the ceiling is wet. It's probably in the insulation. And we don't want mold.

I'm around. But my routine has been shot to hell. Hopefully I'll make the usual rounds this week. But we'll see. I'm taking things one day at a time right now. I have a bed tonight. I'll figure out where I'm sleeping tomorrow night tomorrow.

And hopefully things will get put back together sooner rather than later.

How was your weekend?

The Crayon Box: The New Watercooler

Seventh grade science. It's nearing the end of the year, so they were working on a major project--The Body Book. (It's a review of all the human body systems--like respiratory and skeletal--in an illustrated booklet.)

On this day they were to complete pages for the integumentary system and the endocrine system.

However, I had fair warning--this class was horrible.

As the assignment required colored illustrations, the teacher had provided a tub of crayons. Used, abused, broken crayons. (The kiddos don't treat provided materials with respect.) The students could borrow colors as needed.

A girl and two boys hovered over the crayon tub. When I queried them, they claimed they were searching for specific colors. But they weren't digging through the tub as vigorously as I'd expect. Or at all. No, it was clear they were having a conversation. (I definitely got a flirting vibe.)

I told them to find their colors and take a seat.

I would have hovered over them, but the class needed more attention. I had roamers to chase down. One girl decided she's rather sit on the floor. Another boy was arguing with a fellow student, and the pair needed my intervention.

I returned to the crayons to find the three still there.

Okay, fine. Time to put a timer on it.

I found the teacher's timer, set it for two minutes, and told them that was their time limit. They left before the timer went off--without crayons.

On the bright side, this assignment is worth major points, so the goofing off will impact their grades.

Whodunit?

Eighth grade English. It was the class that stole my clock. On a Friday. With an assembly scheduled.

Basically, I was doomed from the start.

I had gone over what their assignment was. They were doing the settling in thing, where they get their work out, they figure out what they need to do, and they get started. I turned away for a second (I think I was getting the roll sheet or some housekeeping thing like that), and that's when a sharp "pop" sounded.

And the class reacted to the stink bomb that someone threw.

Chaos ensued. Those closest to the offending smell fled the room. Others complained about the smell. Someone pulled out their perfume and sprayed. (It never fails. There's always someone who does this, and I always go after them as we don't know who might be allergic.)

I called security. (Well, I called the office and they called security...)

Victoria arrived. She got the class back in their seats and told them all to write down on a sheet of paper (without putting their names) what they knew of the incident.

While they were doing this, Anisha warned them not to be "snitches" and say anything.

Whether they listened to Anisha, they didn't know anything, or they just didn't want to say, it's hard to tell. But every single page had a variation of "I know nothing" on it.

Victoria pulled three students from class, one of whom was Anisha.

Upon Anisha's return, she informed the class that one of the boys who had been pulled had "taken the fall" for the incident. Apparently, he had stink bombs in his backpack. But it was clear that Anisha was telling the class it wasn't actually his fault.

I kind of wonder who the culprit is. Although, I was more concerned with getting the class back to some semblance of proper classroom behavior. This did actually occur, but only after several students who couldn't stand the smell fled.

I rather think it was one of them.

Those who remained were nose blind to the smell after a short while. And they know what's coming to them upon their teacher's return. They rather think they deserve whatever is coming.

What is your vice of choice after a particularly hard day? What is one way you tortured the substitute teachers you had in your classes? 

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

A Wasted Day

Eighth grade math. I covered the class for two days.

On day one, they were finishing up a lab. They had measured their heights and their armspans the previous day, and they were comparing the two. It was the kind of assignment that they should have easily finished.

But, they were on sub behavior.

It took them the whole period to graph all of their data. (That was roughly 30 points per class, but still, a whole hour?)

As Mr. J, their teacher, had been at a training, he stopped by at the end of the day to see how things went. When he learned that they hadn't finished what they needed to finish, he told me to go ahead and finish it up the next day.

And we did. One class even got some free time. Another got finished with only about five minutes left in class, so no free time. But they finished, so all was good.

Then sixth period arrived.

The prior day they had been difficult. But on this day...

I was authorized to do the assignment with them. That means, if they were following along, they got a complete assignment without having to do too much thinking. (Oh sure, I called on students to provide answers, but I made sure what they wrote down were the correct answers.)

But sixth period wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise.

I stood up in front of them. I got their attention. Then I turned to go over the first question, and they started talking.

I stopped. Waited. Asked for attention. Then I tried again.

They started talking again. So, around we went...

After about forty minutes of not being able to get to the answer to the first question because they wouldn't let me do it, I gave up. There are only so many ways one can ask for a class to stop talking and pay attention so we can do the work.

(The other classes that day managed to let me teach. So, it wasn't beyond the capability of an eighth grader.)

I had them pull out a sheet of paper and write a letter to their teacher explaining why they got no work done that day. I rather doubt they took any responsibility for their actions, but I was done at that point.

This is why most teachers give their classes worksheets on sub days. Although, not all classes behave this way. It's just so frustrating when they do.

Voices Carry

Math support. It's an extra math class for students who need extra help in math. Because they need extra help in math, these classes tend to be filled with students who hate math. And act out. And are freshmen...

Yeah, it was a bad, bad period.

I emailed the teacher and his co-teacher that evening...

(The teacher has a co-teacher for all but this period. But these students are also in with the co-teacher in another period, so she knows them. I figured she wanted feedback, too, so I included her in the email.)

It was a two-day assignment.

The worst offenders were Lawrence and Jose.

I ran into the co-teacher the next day. She informed me that she had made her displeasure known (she had "ripped them a new one"), and three students, including Larry and Jose, were going to spend the period with her (in the learning center).

Fine by me.

When they arrived to class, I wondered. The co-teacher called me to tell me to send the miscreants to her. So, I told them they had to go. They put up a protest, for a moment. Then they happily agreed.

I walked away, but I heard Jose say to Larry, "We'll take our time getting over there. We'll get there with two minutes left in the period..."

A moment later they were gone.

The room was loud, but I still easily heard Jose. And now I knew what my next step needed to be. I called the co-teacher and told her (1) the students had just left class, and (2) what Jose had said.

"Well, then, I should come out to meet them," the co-teacher said.

Surprisingly, the class settled after that. They still weren't on task, but they weren't nearly as crazy as they had been the day prior. Which just goes to show how getting rid of a couple bad players helps control a classroom.

But then, suddenly the students in class were at the door, opening it, looking out...

I got over there and told the students to sit down. I poked my head out to see what the commotion was about. Two security personnel (with their golf carts) and the co-teacher were having a discussion with the kiddos who should have already been at the other room.

It looked to me like the kiddos left the room and were planning on hanging out around the "porch" of the classroom. Because they were seated on the ledge. And I got a definite "hanging out" vibe.

I closed the door and turned back to the kiddos in the room. They had work to do.

No one ventured near the door again. One of the security guys came in and wandered the classroom. (The co-teacher had told me earlier that she had asked them to check on us during class time due to the craziness of the prior day.) He left. And things went back to the mild chaos that I expected of them.

I have no idea what happened to Larry and Jose. I'm sure it was a reasonable consequence for their actions.

I swear, teenagers don't get that their voices carry. They talk amongst themselves as if the adults can't hear them. Silly boys.

The Quiet Game

Freshman English. It had been a very long day, but it was only 4th period. (The students do not like their teacher, and so they've gone wild.)

At a ceratin point, there's nothing more for me to do. I try to contain the chaos, but otherwise I sit back and watch.

The students were loud. Most weren't doing the assignment. (They were supposed to be doing a "close read" of "The Lady or the Tiger".) The conversations were typical of freshmen. (I think. I wasn't really listening.) In the midst of this, one student decided it was time to play The Quiet Game.

via GIPHY

Seriously? They wouldn't shut up while I practically did the first question for them, but when they had leave to discuss their work (not that they were using the permission to talk constructively), they think The Quiet Game is fun?

via GIPHY

One student challenged another. Then, "The first person to talk is a loser," type of thing. And suddenly the whole room was silent--except for all the snickering.

The silence lasted for maybe two minutes. They tried again. Still, not long. The most peace I had during class, certainly. Although, I'd have traded any silence for actual work on the assignment.

Sigh. Freshmen...

Too Much Time on Their Hands

It was Friday. Summer school. Modern world history. They were to finish all chapter five work. According to them, they were all done. So, they found ways to "entertain" themselves.

Inappropriate ways...

To be fair, it was only eight of them. In a class of thirty. Everyone else either worked or found something quiet to do.

At this point in the summer school (the end of the fourth week), they should be fairly used to the routine, and if they knew they'd have time, they should have brought something else to do.

But, once I got through roll (which was a challenge in and of itself), the eight of them went into play mode. I already told you about the hair clippers. And I had the usual problems of students who would not stay seated. (That is, the boy decided it would be a good idea to amble about the classroom--at least until I put a stop to that.)

One boy left to use the restroom. The others hid his backpack. (I kept an eye on them. I was expecting them to flip it.)

A couple of them got way too interested in the wall behind them. Vandalism? They found a tack. The tack now resides on the teacher's desk.

Someone was playing with a condom. At least this one remained in its wrapper. Still, they were grossed out by it, so I put it in the trash.

When they finally settled in to watch something on their phones, they couldn't just sit still. No. Everyone had to watch the same video on one phone, crowding around it. (If they're done, I don't mind them being on their phones. It mellows them out. Until they're all sharing whatever one is doing.)

I was so glad to see the end of those two hours.

As they were leaving, three girls (not of the party of eight) were a little slower getting out of the room. So, I asked them if that group was misbehaving especially for me. I was told that the group did goof off when Mr. B was there, but they were a little quieter for him.

Ah well. I wonder if they're actually passing the class this time around.

Some Clown Made Me Sick

You've heard about the clowns, right? The idiots who are dressing up as clowns to terrorize people. Because some people think this sort of thing is funny.

It was Friday at the middle school. They were at lunch.

It hadn't been a hard day. I had been warned by neighboring teachers that the last sub had had issues with Ms. K's classes. Ms. K isn't one to tolerate that sort of behavior, so they were under dire consequences for misbehavior. And things were going well.

It was a normal type of assignment. We were to read a section of the book together, and then they had questions to answer. But Ms. K had left us a "nuclear option". If the students were too disruptive so that we couldn't get through the reading, they were to write out the section instead. Word for word.

The morning classes went smoothly. We got through the reading easily. Then they worked silently on the questions.

As I was coming back from my bathroom run at lunch, a couple teachers warned me of the lunchtime excitement. Apparently, some clown had "invaded" the school and ran around chasing the middle schoolers at lunch.

No. Oh no.

Middle schoolers are impressionable. They believe in the Illuminati and whatever other conspiracy theory you want to dream up. They scare easily. We, with years of experience with these things, know not to take a lot of it too seriously. We know this is all a hoax. But not the middle schoolers. For them it's all very real. And it's coming to get them.

Just what I need with groups of students who were already wound up...

The class arrived. And were the sort of loud I'd expect after lunch and after being chased by a clown. Except, they claimed it was three clowns. And everyone had stories...

So, I attempted to rein them in. Their warm up was a freewrite, so they could write about anything they wanted. I told them to write about the clown. Only that didn't have the desired effect. They wanted to talk about it, not write about it.

We went into the reading. One student refused to read. Then the phone rang. I was to send a student to the office as she was going home. (By the end of the day, 20% of my class was gone. Presumably because their parents picked them up because the school was "unsafe".) Then another student "had to" answer her cell phone because her mother was "blowing it up".

Then the principal came on the loudspeaker. The clown was a student. He had been caught. The principal had the clown costume. And the student had been "dealt with".

But there were three clowns, they protested.

I tried to get them to read. I really did. But they weren't having it.

Okay, fine. They get to copy the section, then.

Ugh. Shortly thereafter, my throat got sore. Which is my usual first stage of a cold. And I hadn't even been yelling.

I'll be so glad when this clown hysteria dies down.

Failure

For today's #ThrowbackThursday, a post from February 28, 2008. Another day with the evil 8th graders. Just goes to show, the more things change, the more they remain the same. 

First period I was sent to cover a middle school special ed. class. Reading. Their word of the day was "failure". I was to give an example so that they could get a grasp on what the word meant. I had trouble coming up with something right off the top of my head. Too bad that that was the harbinger for things to come.

The rest of the day I covered an 8th grade U.S. history class. But the subject turned out to be irrelevant. I had a very bad day.

The teacher had been out all week. I was the third sub. That's never a good sign. And the room looked like it had been through numerous battles. I saw about ten books missing their front covers. These were hard cover books. They were new (well, about a year old). The books looked like they had been thrown at wolves to keep them from attacking.

I spent the day trying to keep the classes from running wild. And mostly I failed.

I had one kid throw sharp objects at the ceiling. He was trying to get them to stick up there. He succeeded. I had students who would not remain seated. They tried to play with their toys. One girl's pen got stolen at least five times; she was one of the roamers, so I didn't have much sympathy for her. And that doesn't even take into account the constant pencil sharpeners or the ones who suddenly needed to find paper/pencil more than half way through the period (why they didn't think of this at the beginning, I don't know).

I sent several kids packing. I should have sent many more. And they were loud. I couldn't hear questions asked of me even when I was standing right next to the student. It's amazing that anyone got anything done (some actually did).

It was the passing period before 6th period. I was wiped out. And one girl came up to me to ask me a question. She had heard that I was strict. She wanted to know if it was true.

They were calling me strict? Awwww. How sweet.

Too bad it didn't feel like I was being strict enough.

The Ugly

Some days I should really just turn off my phone.

Last Friday. The day before Halloween. Many of the kiddos were in costume.

It was a minimum day (end of the quarter). So, not only were they wound up due to Halloween, but they were also anticipating and early release from school.

Oh, and I must mention that we had a fire drill.

So, the day was bad enough. Add in that I had a 7th grade class. That has had a succession of subs since the beginning of the year. (The teacher's out on maternity leave.)

This is the recipe for chaos.

Yeah, it was bad. By the end of the day I had no voice left. I'll leave it at that.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Quote Me

7th grade special ed English. They had a really easy assignment. Or, at least I thought it was easy.

It was an assignment on capitalization. There were a dozen or so sentences with no capitals, and the students had to identify where the capitals were to go. So, they indicated the first word of each sentence and figured they were done with it.

And then they went crazy.

Well, that took way too short a time. So, I picked up one of their papers and perused it. And started counting.

"You missed 24 capitals. Find them."

As I went to each student and counted, I could see them wince. The higher the numbers went, the more they looked at me like, "I couldn't have missed that many." Well, yeah, they did.

They had missed names. Places. Nationalities.

Half the sentences contained quotes. And every single one of them missed capitalizing the first words of those.

This would have been a great opportunity to take the time and go over the capitalization rules with them. Unfortunately, I was using all my energy just trying to keep them under some semblance of control. And failing.

I was so glad to see the end of that day.

How's your day going? What's the best thing that's happened to you today? Have you entered my giveaway? (The more entries I get, the more winners there'll be...)

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

Q is available for the giveaway.

And Then a Miracle Occurred

It was a bad, bad day. Algebra readiness. These classes were filled with freshmen who were not ready for algebra. And many were not fans of math anyway.

2nd period came in like a herd of wild elephants. They were loud. Wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise (and I was supposed to go over notes with them). And they thought it was fun to play around. Throwing paper at each other. Screeching.

I keep a tally of the number of times I have to stop and get their focus back. (I leave that number for the teacher.) It was north of 20.

So, typical freshmen. And I knew my day was going to be very, very long.

3rd period was pretty much the same.

I wasn't expecting much from 4th period. I started off the period by explaining that I had a bunch of stuff to go over with them (the notes were on scientific notation), and if they would help me out by paying attention while I did that, they could talk afterwards.

I got into the meat of the lesson...and the class settled. One student even commented on how quiet the class was.

I held my breath. I crossed my fingers. And somehow they remained settled for the entirety of the lesson.

A miracle.

Too bad 5th and 6th periods went crazy. At least I had a period of not-so-bad.

Reading Them the Riot Act

It was day 2 of the terrible, awful, no good 7th grade math class. Periods 1/2 (I had the same group for two periods) was actually kind of cooperative. At least, they were easier to deal with than on day 1.

4th period went nominally better. That could have been because I kicked one girl out fairly early. Unfortunately she returned...

Between the periods, the kiddos get to get up and walk around. They go outside. It's a nice break, and I'm more than happy to let them have it.

But something wasn't right. I can't tell you exactly what it was. A mood. A feeling. The kiddos were outside on the lawn, and they were all focused on the same thing.

A fight was coming.

I didn't hear the argument. But I've been in this situation a couple times before, and I recognize the signs.

It was almost time for the passing period to end, so I waved them all inside.

And it got worse.

There was an argument happening, and one girl was pretty upset. The others weren't helping matters. So, I did the only thing I could do--I called the office.

The classroom was fairly close to the office, so within seconds, the kiddos saw the principal coming our way. Suddenly, silence.

When she arrived, I let her know that a fight was imminent. She let the class know she was not pleased with their behavior. And she got to the bottom of the incident. Turns out that the troublemaker girl I threw out the previous period was angry at another girl over a boy.

Naturally.

Issues removed from class, and things settled. For a bit.

The Horror

You know it's going to be a bad day when you get to class and there are no lesson plans. Then the counselor walks in, explains the emergency the teacher had, and lets you know that not only did the kiddos have a sub the previous day, but also things had not gone all that well. And the kiddos in the 4th/5th period block (yep, had the same kiddos for two hours) are so over-the-top out of control that they're revamping the group. Next semester.

Oh, did I mention that these were 7th graders? In math?

Now, math's my subject, and I can totally knock out a lesson on this so long as the classes cooperate with me. These kids? Not so much.

(The counselor also came in with lesson plans, so I wasn't totally winging it.)

The lesson should have taken the whole period. It took me the whole hour to get through part of the first third.

And you see those streamers hanging down from the ceiling in the picture? The students have been warned not to bother them. They are too high for them to reach, really. But what do they do as soon as they get a sub?

Outburst

It's summer, so that means I have no new subbing stories. Lucky for you, I also had no followers early on in this blog, so I can repost some of my old posts for a new audience.

This post originally appeared March 3, 2008.

Did I mention that I had a bad day on Thursday? Today I subbed for the math teacher in this group.

There is a group of 8th grade teachers at this middle school. Each of these teachers has the same students as the others--so if a student has Ms. A for English, then he has Mr. B for history, Ms. C for math, and Ms. D for science. And since all the teachers share the same students, the teachers can coordinate with each other about these students.

It's great for the teachers. It's great for the students. It's bad for the sub who had a hard time with this group on Thursday.

At least I was prepared. I knew what I was getting into. And I made sure I had a stack of referral forms ready.

They were taking a test. I wanted silence. They decided to test me.

"My name is on my paper."

A boy announced this to the class after the class had gotten silent. It was as if he wanted to break the silence. As if? Nah. That was his intention.

Then the boy behind him announced, "Mine too."

I hope they enjoyed their stay in in-house-suspension. Clearly they wanted to be there.

Reminder: My contest is still on. Make sure to enter here...