Spinning Wheel of Doom

Tuesday. Film Studies. Seventh period. 

When I walked in the classroom first thing in the morning, there was a note projected on the screen. It said to leave the big screen down all day, and that the movie the class was watching would automatically start shortly after class started. Okay, then.

First period, things worked perfectly. The class watched Sisu. 

It was a pretty violent movie. The teacher said it was in the same vein as John Wick. If you like that sort of thing, I do recommend. 

Third period was sophomore English, which I wrote about yesterday. The screen projected a note to the kiddos, reminding them of what they were supposed to be working on. Then fifth period it turned into another note to me, saying not to touch anything. 

It was a little creepy, but I've heard some stories of what subs end up doing, so I understood. I did not touch anything. Why would I? Everything was working perfectly... 

Oh, you know what's coming. 

Seventh period walked in. I took roll. Explained what they would be watching. (They watch movies all year, so this was nothing new.) Then, as planned, the movie started. 

I got comfortable. We were about ten minutes into it when something blinked on the screen, we got the spinning wheel of doom, and the movie froze. 

Naturally. 

The teacher had left his phone number, so when things didn't right themselves, I texted him. When I got no response, I called. 

I explained the situation. He said he couldn't fix it from where he was, and he couldn't leave. (He was on campus.) The class would have to do something else... 

Luckily, this was a good class, so they found something to entertain themselves. 

Just before the period ended, Mr. A walked in. He did something on his phone, and the movie righted itself. He had Apple TV hooked up, and he had programmed the full day on it. Somehow it had lost connection. Mr. A had the remote on his phone. If he had left a remote with me... 

But, as I said before, some subs... Anyway, the kiddos had access to the film, so they could watch it at home. Not as good as on a big screen, but tech issues and all. 

I was kind of glad not to have to watch the movie again. But I know they would have rather had it. Ah well. 

It worked for almost the full day. 

Their Instructions

Friday. Halloween. Seventh grade science...

(If anyone recalls how I started last school year--long term for a maternity leave for a seventh grade science teacher--this room might look familiar. Yup, this is Ms. S's class, the class I covered last August/September.)

Because Halloween, Ms. S left a movie. Wall-E. Since the classes are 90 minutes long (block schedule), the kiddos started with a vocab assignment. 

The definitions were written on the white board. Then they were to illustrate the terms and use the terms in a sentence. They've done this before. Several wanted computers to look up images, but Ms. S said no computers. 

(I covered the class about a month ago, and I severely limited computer access per instructions. Those students who managed to find a good enough excuse to get permission to use a computer proved why no computers was the better way to go.) 

It was time to start the movie. But, while many of them had finished the assignment, many still had not completed copying the definitions of the terms. I warned them that I was going to pull down the screen, so they had only a couple minutes left for that task. 

Ms. S had left the movie on DVD and had that hooked up to her projector. 

The projectors were new technology a short time ago. They have been supplanted by the big TVs, but some teachers prefer the projectors. And in some cases those work better for some applications. 

I had not had a chance to test the equipment, but unlike with yesterday's post, I was sure this DVD player actually worked. But I wanted to have everything ready to go before I told a class of seventh graders that we were starting the movie. 

I turned on the projector. Then I turned on the DVD player. It immediately went into starting the movie... 

"You have to pull down the screen." 

"Turn out the lights." 

"I can't see the movie."

"Six seven..."

"We passed this part already." 

I didn't respond as they all shouted out instructions. Because really? I had it. Everything was working. And I was still waiting on one or two students to finish copying down the definitions before I pulled down the screen. 

So, I waited. I haven't quite figured out how to shame them into calming down. I can't compete with them all shouting instructions at me. But if I say nothing, they seem to think that I'm not hearing them or I don't understand what they're telling me. 

Eventually I was ready to get it all started. I explained that we were about ready to go, and that's when I pulled down the screen and fast forwarded to about the 20 minute mark (which was where Ms. S said they left off). 

That age just loves to explain things. They make sure the sub knows how things are supposed to go. Even though this sub did know what needed doing. 

As far as Halloweens go, this one was relatively sedate. 

Some previous Halloweens: 

• Bubble Gum Physics
• How to Address a Postcard
• A Gig on Halloween

Left Behind

So, um, yeah. Summer school... 

I was not expecting to work, but when a gig popped up in the app, I jumped on it. The adult transition center. That's the school I spent pretty much the 2021-22 school year at. So, while I did not recognize the name of the teacher, I still knew the drill. 

(The reason I spent that school year at the adult transition center was due to retirements, so of course they have new teachers now. And I had a whole week off with no work whatsoever when this popped up.)

Right at the start of the day the instructional assistants (IAs) informed me it was CBI day. That is, it was the day the students left campus to shop in the community (read: buy lunch at a restaurant). But, they were supposed to go grocery shopping as well. 

After a bunch of back and forth, they determined that one of the other teachers had the school credit card (they were buying food for the class with the school's money), and she would be around to do that. And, every single class was going out on CBI this day. 

But, a couple of my students couldn't go. Domingo doesn't go out. And June had forgotten her permission slip, so she couldn't attend. That meant that a teacher had to stay behind at the school to supervise. 

Well, it's not like I was really in the mood to go galivanting around town, anyway. 

(I've been on a bunch of CBIs. While I was a little disappointed not to go, I was also a little relieved.)

What does one do with one student left behind? Movie day. (June wasn't talking, so Domingo's one-to-one and I decided on the older Lilo & Stitch.) 

It was a quiet day with all the students gone. And it was a short day, only four hours. But I got a day of subbing this summer, which is more than I did last summer. 

(Will I sub more this summer? We'll see. If something pops up, and I don't have anything else planned, I will take it.)

Priorities

I finally got into the new building!

At one of the schools I work at, they just opened a new STEAM building. They started talking about this building at least a decade ago. They finally broke ground on it in 2018 or 2019. They tore down a couple wings of classrooms. It seemed like it took forever for them to tear down the old buildings. Then prepping the area took what seemed like a year. 

Anyway, they've been working on this thing for many years. I've watched the progress through the fencing that they put up. It was supposed to be done two years ago, then last year. 

It's finally open. It's been open since the beginning of this school year. And I was scheduled to cover a math class in the building on Thursday and Friday.

(This was my second time in the building. Last week I got to cover an art class, but there were other more interesting stories last week, so I didn't get a chance to write about it.)

Friday. Sixth period. Integrated math 2. (This is the sophomore-level math class that used to be geometry in the previous sequence. But now algebra and geometry are all mixed together in the integrated math sequence. Example: the day's topic was factoring quadradic equations, something that used to be in freshman algebra 1.)

They had a worksheet. As I know this topic is challenging when they first learn it, I was proactive in hovering over them, offering my assistance. And many students took me up on my offer. 

But not all of the students were in the mood to do work.

Aiden had taken a computer from the Chromecart and was attempting to set up the movie Avatar. (I don't know if it was the original or the sequel.) 

Mr. N had said they could listen to music while they were working. (If it's up to me, I let them listen to music while they're doing independent work, too. It helps some of them focus. More often than not, the students that have music on will be lost in their own little world, and they won't be stirring up trouble.) Is a movie like music? Can it be background? (I mean, it is for me. I love to have TV shows and movies playing while I knit.)

I was willing to give Aiden the benefit of the doubt. I warned him, though. He needed to be working, too.

But it turned out that the site Aiden went to for the movie was blocked by the school's internet. 

Aiden was determined to get that movie. He spent a good 20 minutes fighting with it until he found a site that would work.

Meanwhile, I was helping several students with the actual assignment.

Movie accomplished. I strolled back by Aiden's seat. Was he doing any work? (I think you already know that answer.)

I glanced meaningfully at his paper. I helped his neighbors who had questions. I made another circuit around the room.

Aiden was engrossed in the movie. (He told me that since it had taken him so much effort to get it, he was going to watch it.) 

He claimed he was working. Every time I happened by, he would mark something on his page. Too bad that I remembered where he was when I was there last, and nothing had been added while I was gone.

Well, I had warned him. I told him that if he didn't get the work done, his name went in the note to the teacher. (His eyes widened when I said that.) 

I didn't warn him again.

Why anyone would waste time in class and then be stuck with homework over the weekend escapes me. Teenage logic, I guess.

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.

Sneakerella Showing

First thing after the students arrive for the day, we do "calendar". I have turned this into almost an hour and a half of activities/lessons that include a bit of "current events". 

The software that the school uses has a breaking news feature. The language is simplified so they can follow along, and there are simple questions that go with each story so I can check for understanding.

The news stories are broken into news, sports, and entertainment. Last Thursday, under entertainment, there was a story about a new movie on Disney + called Sneakerella. 

We did the story. We did the questions. I led them to figuring out the movie was premiering the next day. And then I clicked on the link to the trailer. 

It's a live-action gender-flipped contemporary version of Cinderella. 

Keyla gave us access to Disney +. The next day was going to be a Friday. And I had an idea.

I asked the students: who wanted to see Sneakerella? Jonas was in. The rest of the class kind of indicated that they wouldn't mind. Jennifer was dubious. 

Jennifer doesn't really like new movies. She wanted to be sure that it would be school-appropriate. (A Disney + movie advertised on our news feed? A retelling of Cinderella?) I assured her it would be fine. She reluctantly gave her assent. 

So, on Friday, after our morning snack/break time, I put the movie on. 

It was cute. I'm a sucker for Cinderella stories, so it was in my wheelhouse. It was a musical, so Jonas was happy. 

Jennifer? She enjoyed it once she got into it.

Jennifer doesn't really take to new movies easily. She was reluctant to see Turning Red when it premiered, but she picked it when we did a different movie Friday. 

She asked a lot of questions and needed various plot points explained. (This is a special ed class, after all.) But once she realized that it was a "safe" movie, she was willing to sit back and enjoy.

So, I guess to a certain extent, I am helping Jennifer learn when we play movies. It opens her up to new things. And that's good.

I'm posting about this on a Wednesday as Wednesday is my "summer schedule" day to recommend TV shows and movies. And I do recommend it, with the caveat that it's good for what it is. If you enjoy Cinderella as a genre, give it a go. Here's the trailer: 

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. 

Choose a Movie

It's been a couple years since I was last at the adult transition center. After finishing up the long term geography/economics class, it was my next assignment.

There were a lot of familiar faces. I had had them in classes at the high school where the severe special ed classes are held. The only difference is that we were masked.

After lunch, they were to watch a movie off of either Netflix or Disney Plus. In cases like this, I prefer to let someone else choose the movie. I don't have a preference, and I don't want to push them to watch something they might hate. I called for a choice, and the students just stared at me. 

Finally, Jake approached. He liked Wish Dragon. 

Yay! We had a winner. No one else said anything, so I put it on.

And only then was when Andrew piped up. It took a few tries, but I finally understood that he was saying "Disney Plus". 

Um, he had said nothing when I was calling for a choice. And we had started the movie, so we might as well continue it.

But, apparently, Andrew was used to getting his own way in things. 

He made noises. Grunted. Did things to disrupt the movie.

The instructional aides weren't having it. They informed Andrew that he wasn't going to disrupt the movie for the rest of the class. They threatened to call his mom. He had to go and sit outside a couple times. 

Ah yes, I remember this sort of behavior. I'm back in the subbing trenches. 

Alas, we did not finish the movie (we didn't have enough time). But as it was on Netflix, I finished it up that night. Cute movie.

My Favorite Movie, Seventh Grade Edition

The topic for the day was writing a summary, so for the seventh graders' warm up, they were to write a summary of their favorite movie.

You'd think this would be easy, but several didn't have a favorite movie or didn't like movies, or some such. But once I took away the onus of it having to be their very favorite, most found something to write about.

I asked for volunteers to read out their summaries without telling us what movie. And for the most part we knew what the movie was just from the summary. There was Toy Story, X-Men, Spongebob Squarepants, The Lion King, and several other movies that weren't at all surprising.

I may have mentioned a time or two that sixth periods tend to be different. They can be wild. But I've got a good group, and I'm not allowing wild, so this group is just kind of strange. There are a couple girls who act way more mature (and seem to have a good head on their shoulders) than I generally get in a seventh grade class.

I gave the same warm up to sixth period. London hemmed and hawed.

"I'm not sure which movie to pick. I have two favorites. Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill."

Seventh graders are twelve years old. Generally. (Some may turn twelve in the next couple months, most will turn thirteen sometime during the school year.)

It's not my place to tell a parent how to parent their child. And this child acts way more mature than most of her peers. (Seriously. She seems pretty aware of social issues and current events.) But those movies...

I told her that either would work for the warm up as I wasn't going to hold her to that being her very favorite forever and ever. So, she wrote her summary on Kill Bill.

On the bright side, no one else in the class was able to guess what film she was describing.

Movie Friday

"Friday! It's movie day!"

Last block of the day. Second semester eleventh grade English.

Mr. G had been out Thursday as well. The reason was mysterious--confusing texts to the summer school principal.

Sudden absence. No plans...

Movie day? I'm down with that, provided that they're not lying. (If we watched a movie every time a kiddo claimed the teacher had promised them a movie, all I would do all day every day is watch movies. Seriously. At least one student every day claims this.)

But, even if I had wanted to, I could not do a movie. I did not have a computer to hook up to the projector.

(Once upon a time, every classroom had a TV and VCR. Then a DVD player. A couple years ago, all of them were removed. Now every classroom has a projector installed with speakers in the ceiling. One can hook up a DVD player to the projector--I've done this a couple times--but most of the time teachers just hook up a computer and stream something.)

I do not carry a computer with me to work. The student computer cart was locked. There was an old desktop computer in the room that might have worked, but only if I could hook it up to the projector.

However, we had HDMI cables (which don't fit in older computers) and they wouldn't reach anyway...

Let's just suffice it to say I know how to hook up the equipment, but it would have been more trouble than it was worth, even if I had had what I needed.

But teens...

When I said I could not hook up a computer, one boy said, "I know how. I can do it."

I probably should have let him tinker with it until he figured out I wasn't lying, but I wasn't in the mood.

Another student offered his phone. Alas, I have yet to find a cable that'll allow this to work. (One can play music over the classroom speakers via a phone, but that cable was not in the room.)

In the end, I told them to tell Mr. G he owed them a make up movie day. And then I told them to get to work. (Which they didn't do. They decided it was watch-your-own-movie day and streamed something on their phones. Which wasn't any different than what they did on Thursday...)

I wasn't too disappointed at the technology fail, though. If I could get it all to work, what movie would I show them? Deciding that would open a whole new can of worms.

A Wonky Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving.

For #ThrowbackThursday, I'm revisiting a post from November 18, 2010. It was Turkey Day at the continuation high school. Turkey Day takes place the Thursday before Thanksgiving. They serve all the students and many in the district a turkey lunch (although it's served between 9:45 AM and noon). I managed to make it to the school this year (I've missed the last two), but alas, nothing blog-worthy happened. 

It's that time of year again. Today was Turkey Day at the continuation high school.

The administration puts on a school-wide movie to entertain the students while we wait to be called. The TV in the classroom has to be hooked up to the in-school "network" for us to be able to see it. When I finished showing 1st period a video in the VCR, I had to switch the cable so that instead of connecting to the VCR, it connected to the in-school "network".

It's harder to explain than to do. When the teacher told me that he was going to send over the school's tech guy to do it, I told him that I could manage. I did. Unfortunately, there was some interference in the picture.

The students were annoyed by this (we could see the movie, it just wasn't completely clear). They wanted it fixed, so I called the office.

I told them: "The picture is a bit wonky. Could someone come and take a look?"

Michelle thought my word choice funny. She had never heard the word "wonky" before. She wondered if it was a real word.

I was startled. She'd never heard "wonky" before? I understand when these students haven't heard long academic words before, but "wonky"?

I spelled the word for her. Told her that it was indeed a real word. She took my word for it.

The tech guy did come, and rather quickly too. However, the problem righted itself just before he got to class, so he wasn't needed.

(This wasn't my first Turkey Day. I blogged about previous years here and here.)

It's amazing how the technology has changed in just seven years. The classrooms no longer have TVs. Instead, each classroom has a projector that connects to a computer. The "in-school network" is no more. If the school wants something shown to each class, they email the video clip to the teachers, and the teachers can play the video clip on the projector at their convenience. 

And they no longer house the students in one classroom for the day. Instead, they have the students go to each of their classes in the morning, and they call out groups of 30. The newer method works a whole lot better.

Video Bargaining

It's testing time. While not all classes test, the whole school was on block schedule to accommodate those that do. For me, this meant two hour classes.

Mr. W had planned things out well, though. His 10th graders were reading Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, so we started with 40ish minutes of listening to the end of Act III (with breaks for them to answer comprehension questions). Then they had some end of act questions, some vocabulary, and then we started Act IV. We were to finish with the last half hour watching a movie version.

Not that they really watched the movie (even though it was the part where the senate murders Caesar--go to about the 49th minute to see that scene if you're interested). Nor were they really following along with the audio. But they'd rather have the video so I wasn't hassling them about answering questions.

"Let's watch the video for the last hour of class," one boy requested.

The lesson plan was clear. "We'll watch it for the last half hour."

The boy would not be dissuaded. "But the last hour will be better."

Me: "We'll watch the video for the last half hour."

Still, the boy would not take my hint. "We'd rather watch the video for the last hour."

At a certain point, I lose patience with the argument. "Okay then. We'll watch the video for the last fifteen minutes..."

"Oh, ho, ho, ho..." He saw what I was doing.

"So, the last half hour, cool?" And the argument was finished.

I don't know why they think they're going to talk me down. Do they think I'm really going to negotiate? Well, when it gets to this point, I do negotiate. Just not in the direction they'd like. (This trick works every time.)

Have you ever tried haggling with someone? How did it turn out? Have you ever read Julius Caesar?

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

Repeated

It was the Friday before spring break. I had an Earth Science class. And I was dreading it. (This is the class for freshmen who didn't take biology. In other words, these are the kiddos most likely to be difficult.)

But, the teacher gave me an early present. She left a video. Trolls.

A fun video the day before a break? Score!

The only problem: I would have to watch the first 55 minutes of this video over and over and over again.

It's not a great movie. It has the usual kind of theme for an animated film, so while I was not going to get to see the end, I had a pretty good idea of what it would look like. (To see the ending, I would have had to stay after school. Since I didn't get a prep period--see Wednesday or Thursday to see where I was then--that would have been the only time I could view it.)

But then something surprising happened. It turned out that 6th period had started the movie on Thursday. So, instead of starting from the beginning, we got to start about a half hour in.

And so, something that never happens actually happened. I got to see a whole movie in class that day. I got to see the end.

The ending turned out to be just about what I expected. Ah well. At least now I'm not going to wonder how it ended.

Have you seen Trolls? What's your favorite animated film? Can you think of a movie that you pretty much knew the ending half way through?

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

Fishing for Answers

12th grade government. The teacher left them a movie, and then she did the genius thing of leaving them a "questionnaire" for after. That is, she left them a sort of/kind of quiz to make sure they didn't sleep through or talk through the whole thing.

Because I have had way too many instances of ignored movies, I enforced the "individual" part of the assignment rigorously.

Question one asked: Who was the attorney for the plaintiff?

I had gotten most of the papers turned in. One boy handed me his. Stopped and did a double take. Asked for his paper back. I assumed he had forgotten to write his name on it (a common occurrence).

He turned to me and pointed out question one. His was blank. I expected the "what is a plaintiff?" question. (It wouldn't have been the first time I'd gotten that question that day.)

Him: "It was either..." (he pointed to all four of the choices).

Me: "Yes, it was one of them."

Him: "His name was..."

Yeah, clever. He tried three versions of this, expecting me to fill in the blank for him. I kept dodging the question. I know this game. And he was on his own.

But in the end, I did help.

Me: "Who was suing? Right, and her lawyer was...?"

He made what sounded like a guess. Except, it was the right answer, and he seemed to sort of recall it. However, I did not confirm nor deny it. ("That's what you think? Then put that answer down.") Nice try, though.

Have you ever seen Runaway Jury? What sort of movie would you think a government teacher would leave for her class when she was out? 

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

A Student's Lament

I mentioned yesterday that I got to administer finals to a 9th grade English class. The teacher also taught honors classes. If you're unfamiliar with the term--honors are classes that are a bit more academically rigorous. Meaning, the classes tend to be filled with students who are a bit more... well, easier to work with.

The "regular" classes got The Wizard of Oz for their final. The honors classes had just finished reading Lord of the Flies, so the first part of their final was to watch the movie version.

Then they had a writing prompt...

They... Well, they hated the movie. This boy's paper was right on top, and some of what he said made me laugh. He didn't mince words...

And I just love this. He included a P.S...

(You can click on these to make them larger.)

This is why I hate showing videos to classes. I don't care if it's the best thing ever put to film. They'll hate it.

(By the way, he complained that the 12-year-old characters looked 7. No, they didn't. They looked 12. At least, they looked 12 to me.)

3:41

8th grade U.S. history. For a week. The teacher was chaperoning the annual Washington, D.C. trip.

His lesson plans were genius. For half the period, they had a packet on the chapter about the Civil War to work on. For the other half, we were to watch a movie on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

It was perfect. They weren't stuck doing anything for too long. Just about the time they'd had enough of the bookwork, it was time for the movie. And we never watched the movie for so long that it would tax their attention spans.

It would have been a perfect week. If not for the ubiquitous technical difficulties.

I thought I was prepared. I knew the sound trick. I got the projector working. I got the movie started. And everything was going swimmingly on Monday. Until we got 3 minutes 41 seconds in. That's when the movie froze.

I managed to get it going again. Then the same thing happened 2nd period.

Long story short: the DVD was scratched, and at that particular point the movie was broken. If I fast forwarded past the point, I was okay, but if I didn't get past that point before it stuck, I was stuck. As I learned the hard way.

There's nothing worse than having a group of 8th graders waiting for you to try to fix a movie. For 20 minutes. In the end, I had to restart the computer...

So, 4th period I was prepared. I stood over the computer before that point... And missed it by thatmuch. Seriously. I was going for the fast forward just as it hit 3:41. I'd get it right 5th period, you say. Not so much. In fact, I barely missed getting it right 6th period as well.

Sigh. Well, at least nothing froze after that point. Problem solved. Sort of.

Yeah, I had other issues. Sound issues. Starting the movie but it not starting issues. The whole week the DVD was glitchy. It wasn't playing well with the computer. But somehow, we got through the whole thing.

I kind of miss the days of insert tape, push play.

(Not really. Those days we had issues with rewinding to the right point, and the TV was small and sometimes hard to hear, so I'm not that nostalgic.)

Immediate Consequences

12th grade English at the continuation high school. They had a movie. (They had just finished reading Night, and this was a companion movie for them to compare and contrast in an essay that was upcoming.)

No technical difficulties. No major issues at all. Although, a couple students would not stop talking during the movie.

Fine, I can write down names...

The next day, I'm at the same school but a different class. One student storms in. He's really mad at me.

"You said I was talking during the movie."

Me: "You were."

"Ms. M wouldn't sign my buyout..."

Yeah, well, I told them they were to watch the movie. He wouldn't have been talking if Ms. M had been there, I'm sure.

Watching Movies

When I got the assignment the week prior, the sub caller said that the teacher wanted to talk to me. So, I called him. And I learned that the government class would be watching All the President's Men for much of the week while he was out. Score!

I like this movie. I thought it would be a lovely treat for the 12th graders.

(The teacher wanted to let me know that I'd need to use the DVD player that automatically bleeps out the inappropriate school language. I've used this type of player before, so that wasn't going to be an issue.)

So, on Monday I let them know what we'd be doing. I passed out the movie questions (like 30 of them, to make sure that the students watched the movie). And I got us started.

And I spent the rest of the week (well, we finished about 20 minutes into the period on Thursday) fighting them. Sigh.

I tried everything. I explained what was going on in the movie. I stood over them. I called out when various questions' answers were showing on screen. I turned up the volume.

But no. They would not let themselves get sucked into the movie. Why? "There aren't enough explosions."

It was a very long week.

Have you seen All the President's Men? What's a movie you enjoyed that your friends and/or family didn't?

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

W is available for the giveaway.
Giveaway is open for one more week! Make sure to enter.

The Next Line

It was one of those weeks where nothing exciting happened. Well, nothing worth blogging about. So, here it is, Friday. And that means I should find some sort of random quiz.

I went to last week's quiz. Clicked on the Sporcle. And found this.

It's been years since I last saw Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I'm not that big a fan. But I did buy this...

T-shirt from you-know-what...

...for my brother one Christmas. So I at least had to try.

I took my time. Skipped a couple and went back to them. And got 20/20.  

Try it: Follow That Line: Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Actually Watching?

A week ago we had Thanksgiving. A week before that was the continuation high school's annual Turkey Day. They changed things up a bit this year, calling out students alphabetically rather than by classes. And so, there was no need to keep them in the same class, so they got to attend all their classes.

This was good as it gave the students something to do besides sit and complain. But some students decided they didn't want to go and eat. (I spent some time convincing one girl she should go and just see what was there. Her name was called, and I urged her to go. She did. Upon her return, she said it was good and she was happy she went.)

The teacher I was covering left Planet Earth for them to watch. (It was a science class.)

I popped in the DVD and sat back. Much of the class seemed to be engaged in things other than watching the show. But then I started to hear things...

Things that related to the show. Things that made it seem like...they were actually watching the DVD.

Astounding.

Of course, this was one for one class, but still. Kind of a minor miracle.