Entertaining Themselves

Friday. Fifth period. 

I got a new student. And he was lost. 

It's always a bit awkward to get a new student when a sub is there. And it was worse because he had missed most of this week, so he started off behind on a packet that's meant to take them three weeks to complete. 

Understandably, he had questions. 

The assignment for this day was an interactive activity having to do with interactions between atoms. (I lucked out and found a way to access the activities, and then I found a video explaining what they were doing, so I was able to steer them in the right direction.) They were confused. Several had questions. 

So, I got busy. I got so busy it took me twenty minutes before I managed to get the roll taken, and then I was back to going from student to student, answering questions. 

Alas, not all of them were on task. Those who weren't busy asking me questions and working on the assignment were doing other things.

They were throwing wadded up paper at each other. 

Ah, sophomores...

I growled at them. I reminded them that they had work. I asked them if they were so confident of the material, would they want a major test upon Mrs. D's return? ("Not gonna lie," one girl said, "I'm ignoring the assignment.")

Things settled a bit after that. Some still were playing around, but they were making less of a mess.

Until the end of the period. 

They had left trash all over the floor. That paper they were throwing around? Yeah, they left it there.

And I wasn't having it. 

The next period was lunch. I put myself in front of the door and told them that no one was leaving until the paper got picked up. ("It wasn't me. I'm not touching it.")

The paper got picked up. (By the girls who it was being thrown at. The boys who were throwing it are going to get all of my attention next week.) 

Fifth period is the class. Every teacher has one. The dreaded period. It's the class with the most misbehavior, the least attention paid to the work. 

At least with tenth graders (15 year olds), things shouldn't be as bad. Fingers crossed.

Contrary

Tuesday was a minimum day (so the teachers could prep for Back to School night, which I did not have to attend--yay!). 

Because it was a minimum day, there would be no lunch. Nigel was not happy. 

"Great. No lunch. So, I don't get to eat." 

I pointed out that while we weren't having a lunch period, food services was providing a "grab and go" lunch. It's a sack lunch that students can take with them when they exit the school. (Here in California, all school meals are free to students.)

"Great, now I'll get into trouble for bringing outside food home." 

I mentioned that perhaps he could eat the lunch on the way home, thereby avoiding any of those thorny issues. (I really didn't want to get into why this was a problem, although it probably merits further discussion.) 

Nigel's next complaint was mumbled, something about riding a bike or the bus, so he couldn't eat his lunch while getting home. (The bus driver doesn't allow open food containers on the bus.) 

It was at this point that other students in class chimed in, saying that Nigel was always like this. I could tell. Nigel was determined to be annoyed that we had a minimum day. He did not want to go home early. 

About then was when this whole conversation got interrupted. Another student wanted to use the restroom. 

There is a cool new app that the school is now using for restroom passes. I just got access. I stopped to let the student go. And I thought Nigel and I were done. Nope.

Now Nigel complained about the new app. Why didn't the school get the app earlier? (Not the complaint I was expecting.) I argued that the technology wasn't really right too much before now. But Nigel disagreed. 

At a certain point, you know the discussion isn't going to go anywhere. And this is where I "got busy" doing other stuff. Because there was going to be no pleasing Nigel. Whatever came up, he was going to complain about. 

I suppose it passes the time.

Not Quite All Set

On the Monday of the week I was covering ceramics, I ran into Mrs. D, the chemistry teacher. She asked if I would be interested in covering her classes for three weeks.

(Mrs. D isn't out often, but I have covered her classes in the past. In the before times and during hybrid school.) 

Mrs. D had to go to India for family issues (her daughter). She knows that I'm familiar with chemistry (as my degree is in physics), so her classes wouldn't get behind while she was out. (Although, at this point I wonder who they would be behind. The other chemistry teacher at the school has been out all week as well. I haven't heard for sure, but I suspect Covid.) 

On the prior Friday, she sent me her lesson plans. She gave me access to her Google Classroom, although her lessons were in Clever. Because I don't have Clever access, she made hard copies of the answer keys. (We had a couple discussions before she left so that I knew what we'd be doing and she could make sure I had everything I'd need.) 

So, this past Monday it began. 

And I was ready.

Yeah, famous last words...

Because that Monday, everything went sideways. 

(Okay, well not everything...) 

For some reason, I was running late. And that heat wave that we had mostly avoided the past month hit us full force. So, I get to school, and the secretary who normally checks subs in was out sick (not Covid, just a run-of-the-mill toothache). 

Alas, that school doesn't have back up people who know what they're doing, so it didn't go so smoothly getting keys and the passwords I need to take attendance. (Actually, I didn't get that password. I had to take roll via a paper roster. Annoying, but doable.) But I got my stuff, and I headed for the room.

Only to have to return to the office as the key I was given was for the wrong classroom. Sigh. 

By the time I got into the room, I was a puddle of sweat, and I had just a few minutes to get situated to start the day. 

The day? I mean, it wasn't terrible. I had the usual (for this time of year) drops and adds of students. Mrs. D had already passed out their packets, but they hadn't quite understood that she'd be out and that I was to check their work after each assignment was completed. 

It was just that all day I felt as if I was catching up from behind. 

As I write this (after the first week is over), everything is pretty well situated. But that first day was a doozy. 

Who's to Blame?

For the first four days of the six day chemistry assignment, we were watching The Day After. (They then had a writing assignment about nuclear power.)

It was period 4, the difficult group. I had just been shushing them again, so I stood and moved to a different spot where they could all see me. Glaring at them.

On screen, two characters had emerged from where they were holed up after the nuclear bombs had been dropped. The girl was having an understandable meltdown. The guy was trying to get her to go back inside, trying to explain that the radiation in the air was dangerous.

"What do you think killed all these animals?" he asked.

A boy at the back of the room responded. "White people."

(Go to about 4:54 for the scene in question. I couldn't get it to embed at the proper time code.)

My reaction? I laughed. I mean, he wasn't wrong...

Expected Drill

There's always a fire drill on a minimum day.

I was surprised to learn Tuesday was a minimum day. The kiddos would get out at 12:45 so the teachers could ready their rooms for back to school night.

When I checked in for the day, I asked about the fire drill. The secretary said there wasn't a fire drill.

No fire drill? On a minimum day? Really?

Okay, fine. But on my way to the classroom, I ran into another sub. He mentioned something about a fire drill.

I knew it! I called the secretary. She said she'd check.

As the students walked into period 1, one of them mentioned that there was a fire drill in ten minutes. I figured she knew what she was talking about. And she did. Ten minutes into class, the principal came over the PA to do his usual talk before the fire drill began.

At least this fire drill was mostly painless.

Which Stapler?

The assignment was for six days in a high school chemistry class, the same one from last week. The teacher had left them a movie (that took us four days to get through--it was a crazy schedule week). After the movie, they had a three paragraph "report" to write.

(The writing was tangentially related to the movie which was tangentially related to chemistry, so I won't bore you with assignment details.)

Upon completion of the writing assignment, they were to staple their writing to the prompt and turn it in. There were two staplers left out for the students to use.

They all went for the red one. So much so that students on the side of the automatic stapler would wait for the student using the red one to finish before stapling.

Turns out, they weren't sure what to make of the automatic stapler. I know this because I started offering it to them.

"That's a stapler too."

Every single person who tried it needed me to explain how to get it to work. Some tried to press the top down. And when the staple slammed home (it's loud), half of them jumped. Most of them looked like they were never getting anywhere near that stapler again.

However, a few thought it was cool. A couple boys (it's always the boys) started taking up others' papers so they could do it again. This was more of the reaction I was expecting.

Ah well. At least I exposed them to the thing. Perhaps next time they have to staple something, they'll be braver.

V Not L

I was glad to get the call this morning. I've been spending way too much time by myself, and the result hasn't been pretty. It was good to get out of the house.

I got to school, got the key, and I headed to the classroom. On the way there, I spotted the teacher on his way to the classroom. Uh oh.

Turns out that he wasn't going to be out today. So, I trekked back to the office.

The secretary was surprised. She searched through her paperwork. The teacher hadn't requested today off. She had no idea how she had made such a mistake.

The secretary wondered if she just requested a sub for the wrong teacher. We had to wait until the final bell to figure that out. At that point, they were looking for a bunch of students standing outside waiting for a teacher who wouldn't show. When we didn't get notified that a class was missing a teacher, the secretary sent me to the library.

When the school or the sub caller makes the mistake, I still get paid for the day. Many times, the school can find enough individual periods where a teacher had to leave early, had a meeting to get to, or some such to fill out a day. If, like today, this was not the case, then I get sent to the library.

I like the library. It's a nice assignment.

The library assistant showed me what I'd be doing: attaching bar codes to a set of workbooks that just arrived. But before I could get settled, a call came in from the secretary. They found the class.

The secretary wrote down the wrong name. They weren't close in pronunciation, but I could see how she could write one down for the other. Instead of covering a math class, I was sent to cover chemistry. Not a bad switch.

I got to the class. One of the assistant principals had started things. He got them going and he took roll. The class looked at me questioningly as the transition took place. As soon as the AP left, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

I explained the mix up (they were sophomores and juniors). They were as entertained as I was.

Over My Head

I got called to cover chemistry this morning. I figured that I knew enough to handle whatever assignment they had. But then I got to school, and I got a look at the assigned worksheet.

The first question was to find the definition of solvation. Now, I've heard of solvents and solutes, but solvation? They had 60 questions about water and solutions, and most of the questions looked foreign to me. And, it was multiple choice.

The first two classes were honors. I followed along as they worked through the questions, looking things up in the textbook as I could. I found a few of the answers. I knew that I wasn't going to be much help to them.

"What's the formula for salt?"

I knew that one. I replied: "NaCl".

I didn't hear the question, but a girl at another table said to her table mate, "She went to college." I assume that the first girl wondered how I knew that. I didn't see what the big deal was.  The girl at the table that wanted the formula explained, "Ms. D. went over this yesterday, and I still don't remember it."

I guess I know more than I thought. At least I didn't make a fool of myself trying to do their worksheet.