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.

Ceiling Darts

Take one staple. Unbend the corners so it's as straight as you can make it. Fold a sticky note into a triangle thingie. (Here's a helpful tutorial.) Place the staple at the sticky tip of the triangle...

It's an ingenious device. Alas, its only purpose is goofing off in class...

Eighth grade English. They were doing a one-pager book project. Basically, it's a poster about the book they read.

But eighth graders...

Fourth period. They came in, climbed up on the desks, and retrieved the ceiling darts (a quick internet search yielded that term) that were stuck in the ceiling.

I only noticed these at the end of third period when one boy pointed them out to another. (Period three worked quietly all period, so they had been in the ceiling since before.)

I was glad to have the darts removed, but I kind of knew what would come next.

The boy tossed the dart at the ceiling...  and it bounced off.

To get them to stick takes a bit of skill. Throw them too hard and they bounce off. Too soft, and there's not enough force for them to attach. There should be a bit of spin on it, but if it hits the ceiling at the wrong angle, it won't stick.

It's the sort of activity that only goes unnoticed when the class is already difficult. Because the sound of the darts hitting the ceiling is kind of distinctive. (Although, if they go in, it might not be too loud.)

I know to shut this sort of thing down quick.

After the first one didn't stick, I retrieved the dark and tossed it in the trash.

As luck would have it (although, probably not luck), that boy had an appointment to do his work elsewhere that day. The teacher had several students going out, probably because they'd given previous subs issues. With him gone, I'd hoped the game was over.

Unfortunately, I had to throw out three more darts (and one of those twice) before the game was truly over.

Then they got to work? Nope. They still avoided the assignment, but at least they did it without throwing things at the ceiling.

Too Fast

Friday. Middle school. Fundamentals of engineering.

Their assignment was to sketch out an alphabet that looked roughly like this:

I projected the alphabet on a screen at the front of the room. But I could only get two to three rows on screen at the same time, so periodically I'd have to scroll.

About half the class was diligently working. The other half of the class was playing. (This is typical in middle school electives. This is typical in middle school required subjects, too.)

At about the middle of the room, there were two girls who were all about the games. They started off by finishing off their lunch. (The diligent workers confirmed that they weren't allowed to eat in class.) Then they were gossiping, checking out their phones, chatting with the others in class, and pretty much doing things that were not on task.

But they remained in their seats, so while I kept an eye on them, I didn't do much more than periodically remind them that they had an assignment.

As the workers finished up the first row of letters (after like 20 minutes), I moved the screen up...

"Hey, wait. I wasn't done yet."

One of the girls wanted me to move the letters back. She had only finished the "A". She told me I was moving too fast.

Hmmm... So, scroll back so the goofing off girl can get caught up. Or keep things moving forward for all the students that were making progress. Difficult decision...

When I wouldn't move the letters back, the girl asked if she could go to the library to print out a copy of what she needed.

(The letters were on the teacher's website. Those who had phones could access the example that way. The teacher didn't trust them with Chromebooks when she wasn't in the room. After seeing the classes, I completely understand why.)

She returned without the hard copy. The library was "too crowded" and she couldn't get access. Her friend then decided to try... And also returned without a hard copy.

Now, they could have worked ahead. So what if they missed A-D? They could still continue with the other letters on the screen instead of wasting their time...

Oh, what am I saying? It was all about wasting their time.

I went ahead and signed up for the A to Z Challenge starting April 1st. (I'm #514 on the sign up list as I write this.) Not that anything is really going to change. You'll just notice how each day goes one further in the alphabet.

And... Happy birthday, Chris. (Feel free to wish my little brother a happy birthday :)

Too Much Fun

The chemistry classes I covered last week fell into a rhythm. They turned in homework. I gave the lesson via Powerpoint. And then most days they had time to work on their homework for the evening.

As is usual in a high school class, many of them got right to work. I would not be surprised if some of them finished all their work in class. However, there were others...

This one group of boys over to my right were having way too much fun. Laughing. Throwing paper at each other. I approached.

"While chemistry should be fun," I told them, "I rather doubt it's the chemistry you're finding fun."

High school boys *shakes head*