Not Gardeners

I was very surprised by a late call on the penultimate day of school. I had just enough time to get ready and get there, plus the cushion of the teacher having a first period prep. 

Wednesday. The continuation high school. English. 

It was a fairly quiet day. Their graduation ceremony had taken place the night before (in the middle of a surprise rainstorm with thunder and lightning). But this time of year is a bit quiet for them anyway. 

When a student gets enough credits to graduate, they stop attending school. (They are done. There's no reason for them to show up.) The deadline to participate in the graduation ceremony had been the previous week. So, the only students left were the juniors and the few sophomores that had recently started at the school. (They have to be sixteen to attend.) 

The lesson plan said they were to work in the garden. 

So, I took roll, and then we headed to said garden. Only, no person to run the garden was there. 

There is someone in charge of the garden. She instructs the kiddos on what to do. 

I called the office to find out where she was. They didn't know either. I heard that she had been on campus that morning, but she dropped some stuff off, and then she left. 

Uh...

The class was quite content to not be in the garden. (Only fourth period was disappointed to not have garden duty.) I instructed them to complete any missing work they might have. (If they haven't graduated, there is work they can be doing.) But end of year. No one was really in the mood to do anything. 

I'd've been more upset at this, but the day had already gone sideways. If I run into any of these kiddos later as they scramble to finish credits in time for one deadline or another, I'll point out the time they wasted on a day like this one. But likely, it won't come up. 

And that was my last working day of the school year. (There was a very, very late call on the last day of school, but I woke up with a migraine, and there was no way of getting to the school on time if I had taken it.) 

Next week I officially go on summer schedule, starting off with my stats for this school year. Happy summer. 

Finishing the Leis

Tuesday. Eighth grade U.S. history. 

But, um, well, the eighth graders were done. It was technically finals day, but not for eighth graders. They had taken their finals the previous week so that they knew who was eligible for promotion. Grades had been turned in. 

The eighth graders who were eligible for promotion and who wanted to go went to see a movie. (Lilo & Stitch). Mr. F, their teacher, was one of the chaperones. Hence the need for a sub. Because not all the eighth graders go. 

And, well, the other eighth graders didn't really need to be there. But we can't just up and say, "Don't come to school," so it gets hinted, but every year many eighth graders still show up. 

My actual lesson plans (given to me directly by Mr. F before he headed out): Don't let them burn the building down. 

No worries then. 

Most of them found things to do on their phones. But, there were a couple girls (who were not in the class) who had to finish making candy leis. They were doing a fundraiser for the middle school leadership class, and so they had to put together 75 of those things. They had 60-odd done already. 

Found on the internet. If you search "candy lei diy", you can see many different versions as well as instructions on how to make them.

At the end of first period, the girls weren't quite done. I was quite willing to let them continue working during third period even though I had a prep period. It wasn't like I had anything to do. But then, of course, I got asked to cover a different class. Uh... 

I couldn't leave the girls in the classroom on their own. I offered to let them come with me to the other class I had to cover, but it was a lot of stuff to haul across campus. One of them got the idea to ask a counselor to supervise them. That would work. 

Before I could find out if they found someone, I had to head out. I returned to the room (for seventh period) to find all the lei making stuff neatly stacked. Hopefully it was all finished. 

As I was leaving for the day, Mr. F caught up with me. (They all enjoyed the movie.) When I explained about the leis, he said that explained the weird text he had gotten from a counselor. Because, apparently, the girls found a counselor to supervise them. And they finished the 75 leis. Well, that's a relief. 

The leis could be purchased to give to eighth graders to wear during their promotion ceremony. And then after they could eat the candy. 

The joys of the last days of school. So much stuff going on. 

The Same Choice

Monday. The last week of school. French.

Tuesday and Wednesday were finals days. So, Monday was a finish-any-late-work day. And study for finals. 

But, the teacher clearly knows her students. She also left them a choice between two movies. 

It's no longer put tape in VCR and press play. Oh no. Nowadays, it's streaming. The teacher had her computer set up with both movie choices on separate tabs. And the computer was already connected to the large TV in the room. 

(I did manage to muck things up early, though. I accidentally closed one of the tabs and then disconnected the computer from the TV. But it was easy enough for me to reconnect to the TV and I opened a new tab and found the movie. I managed to do all this before the students arrived, so no issues there.) 

As I didn't really care, I gave each class the choice of movie. And put it to a vote. And all three classes chose the same thing...

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Naturally. (The other choice was A Minecraft Movie.) 

And so, once again, I got to see the beginning of the movie multiple times, but not the end. On the bright side, we're on a block schedule now, so I only had to see the beginning three times (rather than five). And, it is streaming on Disney Plus, which I have, so I can actually see the end of this thing. Whew. 

Outside

Friday. Integrated math I, eighth grade (read: the advanced group). 

The day's assignment had them taking a survey online, then completing a "banner" with advice for next year's eighth graders. And then free time...

It's the end of the school year. The eighth graders' grades were due the previous day. (The grades have to be turned in early so the school knows who gets to participate in promotion. Those who failed classes do not.) And they all knew this. They were ready for their free time. 

As soon as they completed what they needed to complete... 

"Can we go outside and play volleyball?" 

Two girls asked me this. Then two boys asked as well. 

Any other time of the year, the answer would have been absolutely not. But now? 

The four students turned into ten. Somehow. Security drove up and through the group a couple times and didn't bother to stop them. (Of course, I was hovering near the door, watching.) 

The next period, it got hotter. But another teacher had his class set up an actual volleyball net. Well, okay then. Again, half the class was outside. 

The last class of the day was the not advanced group. And by that time it was about 90℉ (that's about 32℃). The first boy that asked was in a long sleeve black hoodie. I pointed out he'd be hot. That didn't bother him. 

Of course, by the end of the period, he was panting and complaining of being hot. It was too hot for him to walk home... 

I mean, I warned him. (The co-teacher texted his mom, and apparently this was an ongoing thing.)

It's a weird time of year. The rules get very relaxed. Many of them got good grades and they're just about high schoolers. (I mentioned they were days away from being high schoolers, and I could tell they're a bit nervous about this.) It's almost summer vacation. 

It was good to get outside. 

The Usual

Tuesday. Seventh grade science. 

I had gotten the assignment at 1 AM. In their Google Classrooms, the teacher informed the kiddos that he'd had a medical emergency. He left them plenty to do. 

And some of them did the work. 

Others...

Two boys immediately logged onto a game. Fortnite, I think. I told them they had work to do. As I walked up behind them, they showed their screens with the actual work. And no open game tabs. 

They set it up with two desktops. (I think that's what it's called.) I do similar. You can flip between one screen with appropriate tabs, and the other screen has something else. (Usually for me it's blogs.) Somehow, they thought they were fooling me. I don't know why. 

I told them to close the game and get to work. Of course they didn't. 

My philosophy in this circumstance is that it's their grade. If they don't do the work, they don't get the points. I can point out that they're not making good choices, but they're their choices. (I also note who was blatantly not working in my note to the teacher.) 

Considering the time of year, things went pretty well. At least they entertained themselves. Better than what they could have been doing. 

I'm ready for some time off. It's coming soon. 

Letter to Myself

It was the penultimate day of school. (Yes, this is the same day as I wrote about yesterday.) I was covering a special ed teacher who co-teaches. 

For second and fourth periods, I was co-teaching a seventh grade English class. 

It was finals day, but Ms. Q was not giving a final. (One girl was disappointed that she didn't get to present her presentation. No one else in the class was upset at not having to do a presentation in front of the class.) She had a different activity for them.

The students were to write a letter to their future selves. 

Upon completion, we sealed up the letter in front of them (without reading it), and Ms. Q set it aside to return to them as they graduate high school in five years (that would be 2029). 

"But I don't want to write a letter to myself."

"I won't be here as a senior."

"I won't care what I have to say."

"How will you get this to me?"

We insisted, and they relented. Some ended up writing quite a lot. And some... Well, seventh graders.

It was such an interesting assignment. I've done something similar with a group at the beginning of the school year where they'd get the letter at the end. I don't think I've seen one where the teacher planned to hold onto the letters and then give them to the students' senior English teachers in five years. 

I'd be curious to be a fly on the wall when the students get these letters later. They whined about it now, but I bet many of them will love this when those letters find them again. 

They really don't realize how the time will fly. Or how much they will have forgotten. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they completely forget about these letters. 

Wouldn't you love to find a letter from your seventh grade self? (Or not. It may have been a difficult year, depending.)

An Eighth Grade Playlist

It was the penultimate day of school, and I had caught a gig covering a special ed co-teacher. Her sixth period class was eighth grade English.

The eighth graders were officially done. All that was left were the end of year activities. On this day it was a trip to a water park. (The general ed teacher was out too; she was chaperoning the water park trip.) So, any eighth graders left behind...

Well, they had excuses for not going. It was too expensive. (Likely true.) They had a season pass to a water park, so why go with the school? (Also likely true.) They had a doctor appointment that day. (The student was wearing a knee brace, so likely true.) 

Also likely true: they did not qualify to go. To qualify, they had to be "promoting" (passing GPA, etc), no recent behavioral infractions, and no excessive absences. 

Because of this, the students in class were few. And they were a bit wound up. They had no assignments (they're done for the year), so they had free time. Once the initial flurry of activity subsided, most of them were on their phones and they settled to pretty mellow.

One girl went to the class TV and changed the music that was playing. It was some rap something that didn't sound very school-appropriate, but I didn't have a chance to chide her on it. She changed the music, and then she left to go hang out in a different class. (This was okay per the teacher.) 

So, I looked at the remaining students and asked if that was the music they wanted on. It was not, so they changed it...

And I was floored by their choice. They left this artist on for the rest of the period. 

Seriously, take a listen. I commented that the music sounded like it was out of the '40s. What decade does it sound like to you? (And if you're intrigued, check her out on YouTube. She's got dozens of songs all in a similar vein.)

That's All, Folks

Summer vacation descended upon me like:

I was going along, working daily, and then there was nothing. Smash. Bam. Done.

The full time teachers filled all the summer school teaching positions, so there will be no summer school class for me. (Although, those teachers might need a sub to fill in for a day here or there, so summer school is not completely out of the question.) 

And I spent last week suddenly without anything to do.

(The last day of school was June 1st. My last working day was the prior Friday. My end of year stats post will go live tomorrow.) 

Whatever am I going to do with my time? I'm going to do my best to enjoy it.

Last Wednesday, I decided I needed to make a Target run. I mean, I didn't really need anything, truly. Although, I picked up a few things that would make a couple projects I was working on work better. 

As I was driving into the parking lot, I noted a restaurant nearby. Pizza enjoys this place quite a lot, and he was in Mr. G's class this past year. And Mr. G's class went to that restaurant on Wednesdays as their usual CBI. 

Nah...

While in Target, I hear my name called. I turned. And sure enough, it was three of the instructional assistants from the adult transition center with a couple students in wheelchairs. 

They told me some of the other students were in the Target. (I did not run into them.) We talked for a bit, and then they were on their way. And I was on mine.

I think I would have been more shocked if I hadn't realized it was Wednesday and knew that that class would likely be there. It was nice to see them. I'm sure I'll get back to that school next school year. 

Now I get to find other things to occupy my time for a couple months. The blog now goes on summer schedule for however long I'm not working. 

(Summer school starts this week, and I'm on the subbing list, so I could work. That ends the week of the 4th of July. Right after that, the alternative education center opens for the month of July. The continuation high school starts the last two weeks of July. And the first day of school is August 10th.)

Last Days of School 13

I'm really not sure what one story to tell to wrap up this school year, so instead I'm going to tell 13 mini stories. (This is a Thursday 13.) 

Note: Tomorrow will be my annual post of my year end stats where I wrap up the year with a tally of how many days I worked covering each subject. (I do this post more for me. It can be dry. It is definitely long. And I completely understand if you wish to skip it.) 

1. Last Tuesday was Natalie's birthday. Each student gets a small celebration for their birthday. We had pizza for lunch, and Vera made Natalie chocolate brownies. I think Natalie appreciated having "Happy Birthday" sung to her (multiple times). Although, we let her spend most of the day on her computer. 

2. Also on Tuesday, one of the teachers hosted a softball game in the park. Jennifer and Jonas went along. Which meant more pizza for those of us still in class. (They ordered pizza for those that went to the park, so Jennifer and Jonas didn't miss out.) 

3. Our school is right next to an elementary school. (At one time, I think our buildings were actually part of their campus.) Our classrooms are separated from their sixth grade classrooms by a fence. Last Friday and Tuesday (Monday was a holiday) the sixth graders were very loud. Understandably so. It was their end of year celebrations. (It's not like we were taking finals or anything.)

4. Thursday morning, I was on bus duty. (It wasn't actually my day, but Mr. G was late, and the other aides weren't there. However, the buses were.) Jennifer: "What's going on over there?" She was referring to the elementary school. Me: "They are having a literal field day." Earl: "It looks like kickball." We decided it must be a kickball game of faculty versus the sixth graders. No one bothered to confirm or deny our supposition. 

5. The reason the staff was missing for student arrival: the principal had brought in goodies from a local bakery and had invited everyone to partake. (I got some cookies and fruit salad later on in the day.) 

6. Wednesday morning. Me: "I don't have anything planned for today. What do you want to do?" I'm not sure who suggested a movie. I was down for that. I opened the floor for suggestions. Keyla: "I think we should play one of the classics for a change." That's when I knew. Cinderella. Jennifer was unfamiliar with the story. I was quite pleased that we didn't miss out on that little bit of Jennifer's education. 

7. Also on Wednesday, Ms. L, the teacher who retired, came by to say hi. Jennifer was thrilled to see her. Jennifer had been making Ms. L a book. (I helped her punch holes in the paper so she could "bind" it with twine.) Jennifer got to give it to her in person.

8. We had some drama in our yard. Remember the neighbor who keeps chickens? One day I looked over and saw a warning sign on the back of the fence, saying not to touch as it was electrified. It took the administration about a week longer to notice, and then it became a thing, as I guess they're not allowed to put up electrified fences next to schools. The school put up caution tape around the whole thing. 

Apparently the city got involved. I mean, it wasn't like the students really go near it, so the tape was kinda unnecessary. 

9. The only student who's generally out there is Domingo. He has his little area... 

...although he wanders the grassy area much of the day. One day I didn't see him. He was on the other side of the caution tape. Earl informed me that he just pushes the caution tape out of the way and goes through whenever he wants. 

So, yeah, that caution tape really made the students safer...

10. The last week or so, we all got our summer school assignments. The adult transition center's program goes for two weeks and two days. They're bringing in a teacher from the high school that feeds the adult transition center to run one of the classes. I've met her. This is not her usual gig, but she does have a special ed credential, and it might be a nice change for her. I wish her luck.

11. I got an email from the sub caller asking if I wished to teach a summer school class. While I do want some time off, I am aware that I'll likely be bored, so I said yes. I'm not sure if this is the right choice, but when this post goes live, I'll be on day 2 of that assignment. 

12. While I will miss these students, I'll be glad to do something different now. It's a reason I sub--I like the variety. And, I'm still on the sub list. If one of the teachers needs a day off (and they have taken days off), I can be the one to fill the gig next year. So, it wasn't like it was a forever goodbye.

13. On the last day, I checked in my computer, turned in my keys, and left the campus for the last time this school year. The 2021-22 school year is officially complete.

Virtual Ceremony

At the adult transition center, the students don't "graduate". We had our "culmination" ceremony last Wednesday. 

Today is actually our last day of school. Woo-hoo! I'll have the wrap up of the school year along with my year end stats for you next week. And then the week after... Summer school. Because they asked me and I said yes.

The students "age out" at 22. We only have one student who will be 22 in July. 

It was a virtual ceremony even though the other schools in the district are holding in person graduations this year. The principal had put together a slide show, and I set up the virtual meet to be projected in the class for all the students.

I have been projecting things to the students since I took over this class. No issues. For this? No sound.

I tried everything. In the end, while they could see everything on screen, they had to hear the ceremony via the speakers on my laptop computer. Sigh. 

It was a nice ceremony. The had pictures of all nine "graduates" along with their baby pictures. So cute. 

Because it was virtual, it went a lot quicker than it would have if everything had been in person. I totally copped out when it was time for me to talk about Elena. I wished her luck in her future. Luckily, Ms. L (the class' newly retired teacher) was there (as a surprise), so she said a few words about Elena. It was sweet. 

And then there was a spot for pictures (the families could come to have pictures taken) and cake. 

I'm going to miss this class when I leave. At least I got to do this celebration with them.

Peep Show

It was Monday of the last week of school. The eighth graders were on a celebratory field trip to Knott's Berry Farm. The teacher I was covering was one of the chaperones, and I was left with all of his seventh graders.

Mr. S had one period of middle school leadership, one period of middle school theater, and two periods of English Language Development (read: English learners). As his leadership and theater classes needed a different sort of room, he traveled to a more academic classroom for the ELD classes.

The room he used for his ELD classes housed health classes the rest of the day.

It's the end of the semester, so the health classes are currently studying sexually transmitted diseases, something first period gleefully informed me of. (I knew this already, so I shrugged it off.)

The classes' assignment was an essay about what goals they had for their summer vacation. And they were less than pleased to be writing.

And sixth period...

They were terrible in the usual sort of way. I was not shocked. So, I tried to settle them as I went into explaining what they were doing for the period.

"He lets me pull up the screen."

All classrooms have projectors now, and most of the time the screen is down. I didn't need the board underneath, but I figured what was the harm in letting the boy raise the screen?

As soon as the screen went up, the whole class erupted in hoots and hollers.

I looked back at the board...

Posted to the white board was a poster of the female reproductive system.

I pulled the screen back down.

I should have known.

The boys (there were two girls in the class of about twenty) didn't settle at all that period. I have a feeling that's their normal behavior. At least that class is no more. (School let out on the 6th. It is officially summer vacation.)

A-Tacked

It was the last week of school. Monday. Tuesday through Thursday (the last day) were their finals. So, the Monday was all about finals prep.

Tenth grade world history. Special ed. Their final was on World War II, so I was to quiz them on what they should know.

I had been warned about third period. "All boys. Five of the six can be a handful..."

They arrived, and they behaved as advertised. Two boys sang songs in Spanish loudly. At the bell half the class wouldn't sit and let me start class. And as I attempted to get them to the task for the day, Thomas approached me.

Thomas held up his hand in the universal gesture of "give me a high five".

I'm always hesitant to high five students. It's not a natural greeting for me. And I wonder at the students' motives.

It was during this hesitation that I noticed Thomas' hand. And the tack held between his middle and ring fingers with the pointy end pointing towards me.

Thomas swore that he wasn't intending to hurt me. I'm not sure how he figured that. He can claim what he wants. Because of my hesitation, he got written up for attempting sticking-me-with-a-tack rather than sticking me with a tack.

(So many excuses/explanations afterward. He tried to talk his way out of it. I felt no guilt over kicking his butt out.)

Three Sentences

Middle school ELD (English language development). This is one of those classes where you wouldn't realize the students aren't considered "fluent" in English just by talking to them.

The teacher had us practice writing sentences. We only had three to do, but we managed to make this take the whole period.

How did such an activity take the entire period? Some of it was due to language struggles, but the rest was just middle school squirreliness. Combine that with sub day and end of the year...

We did have another activity that we never got to.

Anyway, your assignment (if you choose to participate) is to write their three sentences. You may add more words than assigned, but you must have one of each of the words listed, and in this order:

1. subject, helping verb, predicate, adverb, prepositional phrase, punctuation
2. subject, conjunction, subject, past tense predicate, prepositional phrase, adverb
3. subject, helping verb, predicate, article, adjective, noun, adverb

(They'd been doing this sort of thing for days. I even pointed out what the sentences should look like. I had them write sentences on the board and helped them "fix" them. But the playing around...)

Blind Final

End of the year means end of the year IEPs. The special ed. teachers are busy.

The teacher of the visually impaired classes had one IEP third period. Her English student had a final to take.

Ms. D gave me the test in Braille, a typed copy of the test, and the original page (from some published book). She told me that I'd need to help Kelly with her reading.

I gave Kelly the Braille test. She put her paper into the Braille machine and we got to work. She read the first sentence...

And I understood why my assistance was required.

In case you've ever wondered, hearing a student who's visually impaired sound out words is exactly the same as hearing a sighted student's reading attempts. Although, some letter confusions were not the letters I'd expect.

She'd read the sentence. I'd nudge her towards getting the correct pronunciations. Then I'd leave her to figure out her answer, and she'd Braille it in. (So, I have no idea if she got it right or not.)

This took the entire period.

(That's why she's in special ed. If she didn't need the extra help, she'd be mainstreamed out to the regular ed. classes. They can accomodate students who are visually impaired.)

All Over the Place

It was the penultimate week of school...

(Keep in mind that my posts generally appear the week after the week in which they occurred. And I only do subbing stories Wednesday through Friday, so I'm cherry-picking the most blog-worthy events.)

(Yes, this is still late, comparatively. But in my part of the country, this was normal. I say "was" because next year we're joining you all. Our first day of school for the 2018-19 school year is August 20th. Which is way early for us. I guarantee whining will occur, especially with our shortened summer this year.)

...and I was kind of all over the place. Three days of middle school. Two days "roving" (well, one actual roving day and one that turned into a roving day). One day with a severe special ed class. Well, one and a half. The roving day had a couple of those classes as well.

Yet, I've been struggling to come up with blog posts.

I could tell you about Monday's severe special ed. class. But the most interesting thing about that day was how badly sunburned one of the instructional aides had gotten over the weekend. (It's a long story about him working on a historical ship.)

Tuesday had one awful period (out of five). Awful, as in I had to keep them from talking over the movie. Yup, a video day. What's more boring than writing about a video day? Working one.

Wednesday was one of my roving days. And I was able to pull a story out of it. You'll see that one tomorrow.

Thursday I covered a teacher who works in three different classrooms. And since I covered an extra period in the time between the two classes in the same room, I spent the whole day travelling. It's not as bad as it sounds. Alas, the drama class had little drama. The leadership class did as they were told. And the ELD classes... Well, I'll have a story from them on Friday.

And finally, Friday I had a lovely day with well-behaved seventh graders preparing for their finals. Seriously, they were actually working. And asking questions. That were relevant. There was one period with two students, but that was because the eighth graders were on their end-of-the-year excursion to Knott's Berry Farm.

Some weeks finding things to write about is hard.

Happy birthday to my niece, Olivia. She's 17 today. I will ask her what she wants me to make for her at some point today. What do you think she should ask for?

Unenforceable Consequences

My internet woes continue. You probably haven't seen me on your blogs since Wednesday, when I snuck some time on the work internet and still had some data left at home. At the moment, it looks like I've exceeded the month's data allowance. Again. Hopefully, things will get cleared up this weekend, so I should get caught up by next week. *fingers crossed*

It was the penultimate week of school and the last Friday of the year. (The room no longer looks like it did above. The teacher had taken all the work off the walls.) The last week of school is all end-of-year activities for the 8th graders, so they were done with class. So done that the teacher had already submitted their final grades.

Friday was their field trip to Knott's Berry Farm. But not every 8th grader could go. If they failed classes or had discipline issues, they could not go. (And a few chose not to go--they didn't want to, didn't have parent permission, or could not afford the ticket.)

The teacher I covered that day was chaperoning. As she had all 8th graders, the only students I had in class were those who did not go. Small classes, but the ones left behind...

Ms. R gave them an assignment to keep them busy. An assignment that she would not grade. She said some of them might figure that out.

Ahem!

Giving 8th graders a do-nothing day is one way to trash a classroom, so I played it like it was an actual assignment.

"I'm not going to do it," one boy informed me. Then he logicked it out. He knew all their work had been turned in. In fact, Ms. R was not accepting any more late work. They had turned in all extra credit. And he knew that his final grade for the class was already recorded with the school.

I did not confirm nor deny.

At least he just sat there. I didn't have to keep after him, like I had to keep after the boy doing backflips onto a beanbag. (I did mention giving 8th graders a free period was a bad idea.)

This was the class with The Visitors. I got a chance to ask. Turns out, the boys did actually belong in that class. They had been suspended for a while (not a month). But they weren't due back that day. Not sure why they came back early. But I didn't encounter them on this day as they had been suspended. Again.

World Cup Bargaining

10th grade world history. They were to watch a video on 9/11. (Note: They were about 3-years-old in 2001. Feel old? I sure do!)

They wanted to watch the World Cup matches instead.

Apparently, other teachers had the games on in their classrooms. (Well, it's the end of the year. Some teachers are pretty much done.)

Period 4 tried to convince me to turn on the game instead of showing the video. They did the usual wheedling. They didn't really need to see the video on 9/11 (even though they have no memories of that day). When I reminded them that their teacher wouldn't be pleased, they told me that I didn't have to tell her.

(Even though they wouldn't have the notes that she was requiring of them. And I wouldn't have a time that we left off to give her as she said she'd finish the video with them the following week. Like she wouldn't notice.)

The class went according to lesson plan. The video was pretty grim. (But well done. By National Geographic. Actually, I just found the first half hour of it on YouTube, if you're interested.) But once they knew I wasn't going to back down, they fell into line easily.

I considered putting the bargaining in the note. Normally, I'd mention something like this. For color if nothing else. It is kind of funny.

But I kind of knew how their teacher would react. And considering that they were well-behaved the rest of the period, I didn't feel it necessary to get them into that kind of trouble.

It was a few years ago, now. I was subbing for this same teacher. One girl had some teenage issue. (She wasn't going to tell me what it was, but she was in tears.) Her friend wanted to help. The two sat outside that period.

It's rare, but these things sometimes happen. I let the teacher know that they were both out of class (so she wouldn't penalize them for not having a paper in the pile of collected work). And I thought nothing more of it.

Some time later, I encountered the consoler in a different class. She told me she had been punished for the incident. Because her teacher believed her and her friend to have been lying to me.

I felt awful. If I had known it would get her into trouble... I told her that. She said she didn't blame me. This teacher is strict. (An excellent teacher. Well-behaved classes. Well thought out lesson plans.)

Yeah, I didn't see the point in getting that class into hot water. So, I left that detail out.

I guess I did actually not tell their teacher something.

Champion Librarian?

It was a very bizarre day. We had the farewell assembly for the seniors. The schedule was all askew (to accommodate that farewell assembly), and the school was a bit unsettled. (This happened the same day as the class described in yesterday's post.)

But as per normal, I was asked to cover an extra period that day.

I opened the door to the classroom, and I ran smack dab into a ping pong table. Where the teacher and the librarian were playing.

It took a minute for the teacher to remember that he had a meeting to get to (he wasn't sure why I was there initially), but the two men kept playing. The librarian won. And the teacher got ready to go to his meeting.

I was directed to a seat. There were four students in the class. (More were enrolled, but the rest of them were seniors. After the assembly, the seniors were off on their end-of-year activities. The seniors are effectively done for the remainder of the school year, and they won't be in class again.) The students all had seats--strewn about the corners and edges of the room. And they were actually working.

I learned that there is an end-of-year staff ping pong tournament. There were brackets taped to the classroom door and everything. The librarian was the two-time defending champion. And the government teacher was up next.

But he hadn't arrived yet.

They tried calling him. On the phone. But he wasn't picking up. Someone wondered about his class--to be reminded that he taught a senior class. The students were gone. But his classroom was about five doors down, so the librarian stuck his head out and called. But still nothing.

They decided he got 15 minutes before he forfeited.

As soon as they set the timer, the government teacher arrived. Followed shortly by the head janitor.

The librarian defeated both easily. He's on his way to a third championship. But the other bracket needed to be decided, so they were done. They all left us.

And the kids continued working (they were doing makeups for stuff they hadn't completed yet).

Yep, it's the end of year crazies...

Not Quite the Lesson Plan

It was a very bizarre day. We had the farewell assembly for the seniors. The schedule was all askew (to accommodate that farewell assembly), and the school was a bit unsettled.

The class was AP physics. Almost half the class was missing because they were seniors. (After the farewell assembly, the seniors were done. They won't be in class again.)

Their teacher left a video or "go to YouTube and look up Vsauce..."

So, I went to YouTube, looked up Vsauce, and the students directed me to click on something else. Vsauce3.

Which is not Vsauce. But it's the end of the year. And it didn't look inappropriate. Sure, the topics were video game related, but it's not like we were doing any physics...

Some of the videos we watched:














If you checked any of those out, you might notice something. Not physics related? Um, no. Not really. They are very physics related.

The Pokemon one? They're talking terminal velocities and acceleration due to gravity. The Superman one discussed the speed of light and how hard a punch like that would be.

So, I guess we were kind of on task. Sort of. Even though they were done.

I wonder if they realized how much physics they were seeing. I bet they did.