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.)

Playing Games

Occasionally, I'll take an assignment out of sheer curiosity. When eSports popped up, I just had to know. What was this class?

It turned out the class was exactly what I was expecting: they play video games.

(It's affiliated with an after-school occupational program that includes things like culinary arts, health career intro, cosmetology, and firefighting.)

The two days I was there, they were having a tournament. They had a bracket they were working off of. It appeared to be a double elimination. And beyond that, I'm clueless.

The teacher had appointed class leaders, and they directed the rest of the class on who was playing whom and on which computers they were assigned. I did my job by taking roll and supervising the room.

Third period. Tuesday. The class leaders put on background music.

I don't mind background music. It helps students work, usually. (Not me. I need silence to work. But when in a class, if they need music, I'm okay with them having music.) And instead of the usual inappropriate rap songs that they usually pick, the boys put on video game music. 

(You can look it up on YouTube. I had another teacher tell me that it's great for background music as it was composed with the idea that someone would be focusing on their game, and it won't distract from it.)

The only problem with video game music (as anyone who's played games for hours can tell you) is that it's repetitive. After a while it gets to be too much.

The boy in charge of the music switched it once during class, and he put on something that came from the Nintendo Wii. And then that got old.

When he got up to change it, a girl in class commented that it was about time. I concurred. 

But we only had about five minutes left in the period. He looked for something to play for a short time. 

"Kiwi" appeared along the sidebar. 37 seconds. He played it...

And I laughed.

It's not intrinsically funny. Not really. 

But...

Well, of course I had to share. The creator definitely deserves the views. And like I said, 37 seconds:

Too cute. (And it totally reminded me of the time I knit a kiwi. Eldest nephew is now 17, so I doubt he still has it.)

I know, I spend a lot of time on this blog writing about the kiddos' misdeeds, but most of the time, the kiddos are all right. 

Reshowing

Towards the end of the day, I like to muse aloud about what I'm thinking for the plans for the next school day. It was Thursday afternoon, and I didn't really have anything planned for Friday. 

So, I asked the class if there was something they wanted to do on Friday. 

Jennifer: We could watch a movie. 

That was kind of what I wanted, but I didn't want to inundate them with movies. But if the idea came from them... 

Then I asked what movie they'd want to see. Jennifer said she wouldn't mind seeing Sneakerella again. 

(Then we got off on a tangent as to why it wasn't called Sneakers. This is where I explained that it was a remake of Cinderella and how the title was meant to evoke that. Jennifer was unfamiliar with Cinderella, something I should probably rectify, so I explained the basic plot of the original, pointing out how Sneakerella used those elements. Jennifer didn't grasp the concept.)

This whole past week, Jonas has been using his free computer time to play the songs from the movie, so I wasn't surprised that he was okay with watching the movie again. 

On Friday, movie time, and I started the movie. Penelope had been out the prior week (on vacation with her family), so it was new to her. 

Jennifer took a count of the songs. (We thought there had been six songs. We were wrong. There were nine, with a reprise of the first song at the end. I explained what a reprise was to Jennifer.)

When the first song came on, Jonas got up to dance along. And it was clear he had been watching the songs all week as he was pretty close to the choreography of the dancers. (He's no dancer by a long shot, but for his ability level, his dancing was a match to what was on screen.) I even got him to put on his glasses (something he resists) so he could see the movie better. 

Because we have other things that we have to do as well, I had to pause the movie a couple times. (We have lunch duty on Fridays. And we had to break for lunch.) Each time, Penelope asked for her computer to watch videos to keep herself entertained. When it was time to start the movie again, she closed her computer. (She'll watch her own thing many times, so that she closed her computer herself tells me that she was into the movie.) 

All in all, it was a nice afternoon on a Friday. I may be leaning too heavily on movie days, but when you read this, we'll have three more days of school. We're almost there.

Dance Party

It was about an hour before the end of the day. Vera (instructional assistant) suggested we put on some music. I opened up the floor for requests. 

I'm not a fan of choosing music. I know what I like, but for the most part, I find no one else really enjoys my choices. And I'm generally quite content to sit in a silent room. So, when in a group, I let others pick what we're listening to. 

We started with a couple recent top 40 hits. We got Jayden up, although he was only reluctantly dancing. Vera danced with her student, and a couple students from other classes joined us. We even pulled Penelope into the fun, which is a bit different as she's wheelchair bound. (Jennifer and Jonas weren't interested, and ignored us.)

And, of course, we got Yohana in on the action.

I don't think I've mentioned Yohana before. She's pretty quiet. She follows where we lead. She goes where we tell her. And she's so quiet we sometimes forget she's there.

But, when left to her own devices, she'll dance. There doesn't have to be music. As she ambles around when we're on breaks, she'll dance to her own internal music. 

Various aides know what she likes, though, so we put on some music for her. And for the rest of them, actually. Songs that everyone seemed to like. 

New-to-me music, but old favorites for many of them.

YouTube Music

It was Thursday. We were watching CNN 10. They did a story on the sun's eleven year solar cycle (as we're reaching a busy time, solar-wise). 

And suddenly I thought of a song. 

I'm sure you know that you can find just about any song on YouTube. The students like to play their favorite songs when they have free computer time. I've discussed this before. 

As the story played out for the students to watch, I started humming this song to myself. And I realized that I just had to play it for them. I just had to. 

After we finished the day's video, we discussed what we saw. Mostly that's me asking, "What did they talk about?" and the students repeating something like, "The sun". 

(I'd welcome longer conversations, and with the news lately, I do go a bit more in depth on things. But they don't really understand nuances, so things stay fairly surface, and we can't really get into deep discussions.) 

So, this time, instead of talking too much about the sun, I pulled up the song and played it for them. 

I enjoyed it more than they did. But I enjoyed it a whole lot. (Jennifer was not amused.)

Garbage

The students like music. Jonas especially. His favorite band is Big Time Rush. 

Penelope likes One Direction. (Although, I introduced her to BTS, and she seems to like them now, too.) 

Keyla mentioned to the class that we  should do a "dance party", so first thing the next morning I plugged the computer into the classroom speakers, and I let each of the students choose a song. (Natalie chose "Skip to my Lou".) 

Jonas really enjoyed this. (There's a reason I'm choosing Jonas as his blog alias.) He likes to sing along to music on his computer when he has free time. 

Monday. It was raining, and the forecast was for rain all day. 

As soon as the day officially started (they came in early as they have no place to wait that would have been dry), I decided to put on a song that I think about whenever it rains... 

They weren't impressed. 

Ah well. At least I got on a song I liked.

Dance Party

Pretty much the first thing in the morning, the class exercises. One day is yoga. Another is weights. And a third day they can choose to dance. (Walking is the other option on these days.) 

So, it was dancing day, and half the class chose to go walking instead. The IAs both preferred walking, so I got to stay with the students who wanted to dance.

Oh, they were excited. They logged into YouTube and had the speakers and projector on before I had a chance to blink.

I let them each pick a song. (Well, I picked a couple, too.) I had to. Pizza was just so excited about this one song that he had to share with me and the class. 

I was dubious. Pizza has some interesting taste. It turns out I needn't have worried. Well, I didn't need to worry the song was school-appropriate. 

I did need to worry about one thing, though. I really couldn't laugh at Pizza's song. Luckily, masks hide all sorts of facial expressions at the right times.

The song: 

The other students' choices were ordinary by comparison.

Karaoke

On Wednesdays, the continuation high school has a thing called "advisory". Back in the day, it was when the "advisors" (read: the teachers) would pass out an itemized list of what credits the students had and what credits they needed. 

The "status reports" do still get passed out, but only about once a month. (If the students are curious as to how many credits they have on any given day, most of the staff can pull that up for them.) 

So, nowadays, the weekly advisory "period" (of about 20 minutes) gets filled with other sorts of activities. This past week, it was an ASB activity. (ASB is the student government.) They were playing Around the World for prizes (tickets to a local miniature golf course). 

While those that participated (a small percentage of the student body) played, a couple students in ASB manned the sound system. They had music playing. 

At the beginning, I wasn't too shocked at the choice of song. Nor was I that surprised that one of the students pulled out a microphone and began singing along. Then their friend joined, and the two of them duetted. As the rest of the students were either playing the game or ignoring the proceedings, it wasn't like they were really performing for anyone.

Then the song changed...

And I was rather surprised by their choices. Choices that they continued to sing along with. 

While they were singing, the ASB advisor came over and tried to get a picture of them. That's when they got bashful. (The advisor did get his picture, though.) 

Background Noise

Last week was Thanksgiving break, so this is from the week before last.

Chemistry. I was on day four of a four-day assignment. They had a review assignment (finals are coming!), so I had spent four days in silence. 

This distance learning thing can be very, very quiet. Teachers tend to leave independent work when there's a sub, and they still do. Virtually, that means the cameras and mics are off. I can check to see what got turned in, but I don't actually see them at work. 

Fourth period. I did my intro. I then turned off my mic and started taking roll.

As they log in, their cameras and mics might flash on for a moment before they turn them off. But Brian's mic remained on. 

Once I was done, I heard from Brian's mic various background noises. A dog. A sibling, maybe, making a passing remark. Keys on keyboard tapping. Then music started playing. (It sounded like The Beatles, but it was not a song I am familiar with.) 

Then Brian started singing along. 

I was torn. I totally could have muted him. It's a simple click. I could have told him his mic was on. 

But, I rather liked hearing him. I know some people work better with music in the background (not me, I need silence), so I'm a teacher who allowed them to put in their earbuds on independent work days in the before. To me, it sounded like Brian was doing what he was supposed to. It felt normal. 

This didn't last long. 

After a minute of me not doing anything, Brian's classmates chimed in. Two turned on their mics to let Brian know he was not on silent. 

Brian thanked them, and he went on mute. 

I was sad to hear him go. But the others needed the quiet. I'm sure his music clashed with theirs.

F-Bombed

On what ended up being my last subbing day for the school year, I was back in the math class at the continuation high school. It's been a while since I had seen the continuation high school, so it was nice to get there one last time before closing the year out.

It was third period. Jason walked in late. (I make no comment on tardy students as I'd rather they do show up to class. I do mark them tardy on the roll, though.) He immediately went to his computer and logged on.

I was doing my thing, and surprisingly getting called over to sign off on completed assignments for Brent. Brent is one of the well-known difficult students, so the fact that he was diligently working and not making waves was remarkable.

Jason had earbuds in and was listening to music. This is something that's so commonplace I rarely remark on it. If it helps them focus, great.

But, Jason got really into the music and started singing along. In the quiet classroom.

This would have only gotten a quiet nudge from me, except the lyrics Jason was singing along to were not appropriate for school. There was an f-bomb involved.

I informed Jason that he was using inappropriate language in the classroom, and he would owe "standards" (he'd have to write lines) as this is one of Mr. F's rules.

Jason protested. He hadn't said anything wrong. He was just enjoying Earvin's music.

This is where Brent chimed in. He confirmed that Jason had dropped an f-bomb. (Alas, by using the same word...)

Jason shrugged it off. There were only two days left of school. He wasn't going to write those standards.

Good luck with that, kiddo. Mr. F is rather strict about his rules, and arguing with him is like arguing at a brick wall. (Mr. F is a very even-tempered teacher. He doesn't yell. He doesn't get upset. But he slowly, steadily, and quietly enforces his rules.)

By the way, Mr. F is an author as well. You can find his author website here. 

Listening Skills

Eighth grade science. They were to watch a video on genetics and answer questions on a handout. (Here's the video if you're interested.)

Showing videos is one of the basic skills any sub needs. I know all the tricks from "press play" to how to set up the computer to hook up to the projector so everyone can watch. I've even figured out how to troubleshoot most of the audio problems that might crop up.

But this day we were doing things very differently.

Each student was assigned an in-class Chromebook. (This is a laptop computer with limited memory but easy connection to the school's wi-fi network.) They were to retrieve their computer, search for the video, and then watch it on their computer on their own.

This is actually kind of a great way to do a video. If they miss something, they can back it up. They listen to it on headphones, so they're locked into their own little world. And I don't have to watch the thing (especially over and over and over again), although I heard bits of it, kind of like a group singing in the round...

The students got their computers. I passed out the questions. I walked around to make sure they all found the correct video. Just as I settled in while they were working, a student raised his hand.

"Can I listen to music?"

Ummm...

I get this question a lot. And the answer is usually yes. When they're doing independent work, it helps some of them focus.

But they were watching a video. With narration. And people explaining things to the camera. They were supposed to listen to it so they could answer the questions.

I was so taken aback by the question that I sputterd a bit. The boy helpfully offered that his teacher sometimes lets them.

I asked how he could listen to music and watch the video. He didn't understand my question.

Flummoxed, I figured trying to explain why the music was a bad idea was just going to go over his head. So, instead I gave him a straight no.

Unless he has some mad listening skills and can listen to music and a video at the same time...

Nah. I'm clearly putting more thought into this than he did.

Did you know Bill Nye did other shows besides his Science Guy stuff? Can you listen to music and watch a show at the same time (and understand both)? Do you listen to music to help you focus?

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

How Not to Review an Album

When I took over the journalism class (because the teacher was retiring), I was told that hopefully the counselor wouldn't add any students for those last two weeks.

Alas, she did.

Jason needed something to do, but all the articles had been assigned. So, I flailed about for something to give him. I hit upon the idea of a review, as the movie reviewer had been absent for days. But he wasn't into movies. However, he was into music.

(I've read the school newspaper. Several issues, in fact. So, I know they occasionally have an album review. It wouldn't be out of place.)

Jason wanted to review his own music. He couldn't comprehend why I would object to that.

But eventually, I got him to understand that he could review any other album by any other artist he liked.

So, for three days he worked on his review. Once he finished it, he submitted it to me.

It had the usual grammatical errors. Those I was expecting. I was also expecting that I might not have heard of the artist or the album. (I hadn't. He reviewed Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho.)

What I didn't expect is that he didn't actually review the album. He put together three paragraphs that are obviously cobbled together from that Wikipedia page I linked to. Nothing about what the album sounds like. Nothing about what he thought of it. Nothing that sounds like an album review.

He had no idea what I was talking about when I gave him back my notes.

I attempted to explain what I meant by an album review, but it was like I was speaking to him in Greek. He didn't get it. So, I searched out some examples of album reviews. I gave him a link to Rolling Stone's page of album reviews. He balked until I explained I just wanted him to take a look and use those as examples.

A couple days later he resubmitted his article to me. He had added a paragraph on the end about the music.

While I would really like to just copy and paste what he wrote, copyright and all attaches, so I won't. Suffice it to say, he wrote a sentence saying what kind of music it was, and not saying a whole lot more.

Hopefully the new journalism teacher can get a better album review out of him. I tried. I really did.

Dropping a Mixtape

Apparently I've never written about Earvin before. Funny. He's been a thorn in my side for a while. I guess he's not done anything blog-worthy until now.

It was week two in the English 12 classes at the continuation high school. Third period was journalism. (Read: the kids that write the school paper.) Ms. M had dropped Earvin from the class before she retired to make things easier for me, but the counselor put him back in.

Ugh.

Earvin is one of those students who has no concept of proper behavior. Oh, he pays lip service to it, but when I actually want him to sit down and let me start class, he'll "do it in a minute". He just needs to finish whatever he's talking about right then. And that something is rarely, if ever, classroom appropriate.

On this day, Earvin was all about the rap song he had just released into the world.

He had to play it for everybody. Repeatedly.

And no matter how much I protested that it was inappropriate for school and that we had classwork to do, Earvin needed "just a minute" to "finish up".

Oh, the class was so enthusiastic about the song. They're sure he's going to be famous. And they told him how brilliant it was.

Personally, I thought the song was profanity-laced, misogynistic, violent, and rude. Of course, I'm not into rap music, and when every other word is either an f-bomb or that n-one, I'm left totally cold.

But Earvin was so proud. And he had to promote it. He needed a credit card. He asked me if he could use mine.

And then he was shocked that I wouldn't let him use it. (He only needed $5, and he was going to give me the cash.)

Some students are just so clueless...

Earvin seems to think I like him. I have no idea what gave him that impression.

Ambience

I dislike Christmas music. Eleven years of working for the evil toy store took much of my Christmas spirit. (And Christmas music... Burned out. So burned out.)

But when on the Wednesday before winter break during the other calculus class (the non AP one mentioned yesterday) a student started playing Christmas music via his phone, I let it pass. It wasn't too loud, and half the class was in the middle of a discussion about some anime show.

Some days are like that. It was a battle I wasn't in the mood to fight.

The girl in front of Scott wasn't so sanguine about it all, though. She told him that it was too loud. That perhaps he shouldn't by playing the music at all.

They were all the way across the room from me, in the opposite corner. And I heard all this. The room wasn't terribly loud even though everyone was talking. A fairly mellow day.

Scott replied that no one was complaining. He said it was days before Christmas and everyone wanted a bit of Christmas cheer.

The girl wasn't so sure. So, she started asking various classmates if the music was bothering them. After her fifth or sixth no, I figured it was time for me to jump in.

"Is the music bothering you?" I asked the girl.

Because I was totally ready to have that battle if she wanted the music off.

"No, it's fine," she said.

I rather doubt this. If she was actually fine with it, she wouldn't have started the conversation.

But that ended her questioning the rest of the class. And we were stuck listening to the Christmas music for the rest of the period. Well, I was stuck. I think the other students kind of tuned it all out.

Just Dance Party

After a day covering a completely different class, I was asked to cover a 6th period in the "functional academy". These are the really special ed. classes.

It was the last day of the week (Thursday, but they had Friday off) and the last period of the day. This is the time when the classes relax.

So, I was not shocked to walk in to find them all riveted to a movie. I sat down, got comfortable, and enjoyed the end along with them. But that only took half the period. Then it was time for them to dance.

There is this video game called Just Dance. And apparently, people have posted gameplay videos to YouTube. I was given the task of putting various videos up for them to dance along to. (The aides explained what I needed to search out.)

I found the videos. They stood up and attempted to dance along with the moves demonstrated on screen. It took me a bit to figure out how to search and such, and once I did, they called out requests. Their final request of the day: "YMCA"...

(If you want to play along, fast forward to about 30 seconds where the gameplay starts.)

Some classes are easier than others.

Listening to Music

Health class. Fourth period. A large group of mostly freshmen.

I passed out the assignment. They were doing it. There was a bit of a low rumble--a few groups were talking, but it was the talking/working volume of a group making progress on the assignment.

In other words, it was a perfectly acceptable class. A definite 4.

Days like this, I don't mind if they have their earphones in, listening to music while they work.

School policy on this, however... It's kind of a gray area.

Anyway, things are going well. I look up and see the principal heading our way.

It's nice when things are going well and administration happens to stop by. But those earphones...

"Mr. E is outside and heading this way..." I announced.

Several sets of earbuds disappeared just as the door opened. Silence settled over the room.

I have no idea why he came in. Perhaps he needed to see the teacher. He scanned the room for a couple moments, then left.

And there was a huge release of breath. As if they'd been holding it.

It was funny mostly because they hadn't been doing anything wrong in the first place. If I hadn't said anything, the visit would have likely gone the same way.

Ah well. It was a pretty good day all around.

Do you like music on in the background while you work? (Or do you prefer silence like me?) Did the principal of your school make you nervous, even when you weren't doing anything wrong?

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

His Soundtrack

In the chaos of passing period, I wasn't sure from where the blaring music came. Someone walking in playing music loudly via a speaker attached to his phone. Before I had a chance to investigate or protest, the music stopped and the bell rang. It was time to start class, and I had their attention.

It was Monday. 12th grade English. They had a day to read. And most of them got right to it.

(Most had physical books. A couple came in with ereaders. And a few read on their phones. Cell phones aren't totally evil. And yes, I did check to make sure they were reading and not goofing off.)

One boy asked to go to the library to check out a book. I didn't see why not...

I'm not sure why I followed him out the door. I might have been shutting it (to keep the air conditioning in the room. I prop open doors during passing so students know to come in). But I got there just in time to hear the music blaring from a speaker he held.

Um, classes were in session. And were probably disturbed by the noise.

The other students had no idea what to make of this, either. They said they'd never seen (or heard) him do this before.

Ah well. It spiced up the note a bit.

Anyone have any idea what he was doing? Any clue?

Singing in Math

Middle school math. Special ed.

It was a fairly straightforward assignment. I went over the explanation and gave them time to practice. Easy enough.

"Turn around..." (sung)


Yep, this was the tune. The lyrics... Yeah, they're not really that familiar with the song.

There were a couple boys who kept twisting around in their seats. But singing "turn around" wasn't really changing their behavior. The thing that got them to stop, though, was when I informed them that they had the lyrics wrong.

Then another boy started singing something a bit more contemporary. (No, I don't remember what. I deliberately blocked it from my memory.) Now this was getting ridiculous. So, I turned on the radio.

What? If they wanted music, perhaps listening would stop the singing. Because I didn't want to hear them singing. It's not the singing that bugs me. It's that they sing one lyric over and over and over again. And then it gets stuck in my head for the rest of the day. This was pure self-preservation.

Now they wanted to choose the station. And since the song on the station I chose wasn't familiar to them, they ignored it.

Ah well. I didn't get their song stuck in my head, so I consider this a victory.

Surreptitous Station Switch

I don't know why this is, but students seem to work better when they have music playing in the background. They're not allowed to listen to their mp3 players at school (school rule), but when they do, they tend to mellow and focus on their work. (Not that I've ever looked the other way when students surreptitiously slip earbuds in as they're doing their work or anything.)

Math class. Ms. P keeps a radio in the room. The students all asked if we could have it on while they were doing their assignment. (Algebra 2 class. The assignment was about arithmetic and geometric sequences.) As this wasn't the first time I'd covered this class nor the first time they'd asked for the radio, I figured this was a normal occurrence, so I allowed the music.

I turned off the radio for passing period, though. It's distracting to have commercials in the background as I do my normal intro and get the class going with the assignment.

After the intro in fourth period, a student walked over to the radio. I had almost forgotten it, so I didn't think anything of a student turning the radio on. But, he was there for an awfully long time. The power button isn't that hard to work.

So, I wasn't surprised when the radio was tuned to a different station. I walked over and found the radio tuned to Power 106.

I've done the radio on in the background before. It can turn into a battle between factions in class. My solution in this case was to leave it on the station that Ms. P leaves it on all the time. I worked the tuning button.

Another student observed what I was doing. He chided the other student for turning the station. "We normally listen to 102.7," he told me.

Nice try. But nope, they normally listen to Jack FM. At least, that's the station the radio was tuned to first thing in the morning. And the last three times I've covered the class. (I've met their teacher. She seems like a Jack FM person.)

Background Noise

"WHY IS IT SO QUIET IN HERE?"

Okay, he wasn't shouting, exactly, but it felt kind of like shouting when he spoke loudly in a silent classroom. Yep, the room was silent, and the student couldn't handle it.

It was that kind of day. Fairly mellow. I didn't go after the headphones.

A strange thing happens when teens plug in their music players. Or perhaps you won't find this so strange. They put on their headphones, turn on their music, open their books, and get lost in their own little worlds. And do their work. It's kind of miraculous.

I'm not supposed to allow them to listen to their music in class. But half the class was plugged into their mp3 players, and they were working. So, I let them be. It made my day much easier.

I wish those that make the rules would change this one.