Kahoot Denied

 

Last week I was still covering the vacant special ed position for co-taught classes. And last Monday the internet didn't go out. Yay! 

Mondays are our weird day. When we were in person, that was the day when we started late (so teachers can meet weekly). So, in the distance thing, this is the day where all classes meet for 25 minute periods. 

(The rest of the week, the classes meet for an hour, but only three classes a day. All six meet on Mondays. The rest of the "school day" is set aside for "asynchronous" work, a.k.a. homework, which is kinda awkward phrasing being as all their work is at home now.)

Because Mondays are short, Ms. S, the math teacher, has them play Kahoot to review. 

Kahoot? It's an educational website where teachers can create online quizzes that are played like a game show. It's fun. 

Fifth period. Ms. S brought up the Kahoot site, gave the kiddos the PIN, and had them sign in. 

When the kiddos sign in, they create a user name for that particular game. As they are eighth graders, they have a tendency to create some odd names. Ms. S was less concerned with that than being able to identify the students (she gives them points for participation), so she asked them all to use a name that she could recognize and use to link back to the student. 

One kid used KK, which were his initials. There were two possible Mickies (a Michael and a Michaela), but the other used his full name. One girl used letters and symbols to spell her name, but it was still recognizable as her name.

Ms. S can deny students entry by deleting names. The kiddo can resubmit so long as the game hadn't started yet. So, I wasn't surprised when Ms. S deleted a name and reminded the kiddos to use appropriate names. 

I wasn't watching the names, so I missed the name that made Ms. S explode. 

She's a fairly laid back teacher. It was game day. But one kiddo tried to use "Daddy" three times. 

They always try to sneak something by. She denied that kiddo once and warned them. Then they tried again. She deleted. At the third try, she stopped Kahoot and gave them all an assignment to do. 

Because seriously? No 13-year-old should go by "daddy". 

Ms. S has told them no Kahoot for the entire school year until the student in question fesses up. It's been a week. Still no confession. 

We have a suspicion of who it could be. There's a possibility of two students. Perhaps they'll come forward eventually. 

Luckily, sixth period went off without a hitch. 

Spelling it Out

The class was intro to health careers. I have discussed the specifics of this class before. It's the end of the year, and they were working on an end-of-the-year calender project.

Three girls approached me. They asked to go to the library to print out items for their project.

I grabbed a pass, filled out the bits I knew (date, room number, where they were going, period, time), signed my name at the bottom, and then I asked for their names.

The first girl said her name. Then, without missing a beat, she began spelling it. The second girl did exactly the same. As did the third.

I appreciated the consideration. All three had the kind of names I highlight on my sidebar under "Student Name of the Week". (One of their names may--or may not--be there right now.)

"Used to having to spell your names out?" I asked.

I recognize the habit. It is my own. Not my first name. I figure most people can handle that. But my last name is one that most people have never heard before. I often say it and then spell it out (when in a situation in which someone is writing it down).

I wonder at parents who give their children such "interesting" names. Don't they know the lifetime of hassle these names bring?

Ah well. I guess they get used to it at some point. Either that, or when they're old enough they change it to something easier to spell.

Doubled Name

A little over a decade ago, we had a glut of Jose Lopezes at one school. I'm not sure how many there were, but on multiple occasions I would have two of them in the same class.

(They were differentiated by their middle initial, unless they didn't have one. Then they would need their student ID numbers. It was confusing during roll call, but somehow we managed the rest of the time.)

I haven't noticed this issue in a while.

Last Monday. Second period. Eighth grade U.S. history.

I had a lovely little seating chart with which to take attendance.

Kaitlyn Hernandez's seat was empty. I marked her absent. I continued going through the seating chart and matching empty seats to names. And... Kaitlyn Hernandez was absent. Again. Different seat.

It took me a bit to catch it. First I assumed that Kaitlyn had been moved and one seat just needed to be fixed. But no. There were two Kaitlyn Hernandezes listed on the class roster. They had different student ID numbers. One did have a middle initial.

Just imagine... Having someone else in your same class with your same name...

I mean, I was not the only Elizabeth in my class. But at least my last name was always unique. To not even have that...

Since one of the Kaitlyns was absent (the other did arrive later with a pass), and the assignment did not require me to call on students, I did not see how this worked in practice. But it begs the question. How does this work for them? Do they share other classes? Do they like each other?

And the big one... They're in eighth grade. They have more than four years together when one includes high school. How do they navigate the next four years?

Hopefully there isn't a third Kaitlyn Hernandez hiding somewhere...

Did you have others in your school with your same first name? Did you get along with them?

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

Sydney is the New Brittany

School restarted last Monday. And I was working. All that week. Long story, and I'm not going to bore you with it. Suffice it to say that the new subbing stories start now in earnest.

I have a rule against using actual student names, but I'm breaking it today. Not to talk about a specific student, though. To talk about a naming trend.

Dear new parents of 2002, why did you all name your girls Sydney? Was it the Olympics? Was it Alias? What?

Because, seriously, I have two Sydneys in two different classes. And another Sydney or two sprinkled in the others. And they're not all spelled "Sydney". There's Sidney, Sydni, and a couple other spellings I forget. But since they sound the same... I even have two Sydneys with the same last initial in one period. (Who I stupidly sat next to each other...)

As times change, so do names. That name used to be Brittany. A couple years back I was shocked to find three Abigails in one class. (Although, I think those are the only three Abigails at that school.)

Of course, the big girl's name is Jasmine. I encounter at least one a day still. That name has staying power. I've seen it spelled a myriad of ways. Jasmine. Jazmin. Jasmyn. Etc.

Ah well. At least now I have a good general name for an 8th grade girl that won't single anyone out. Since there appear to be a lot of them.

Math Team Names

Before my subbing gig last week, I went through my school bag. Every so often I like to go through and clean out the detritus that I seem to collect, and it seemed like that would be a good opportunity to do it. I found a lot of trash and one treasure.

I'm not sure when this was, but I do remember it was a middle school math class, and they were doing review. For the state testing if memory serves. The teacher had them all get into teams, and those teams were in a sort of competition.

The teacher had each team name themselves.

I was going to blog about this at the time, but something more interesting must have happened to push this list from the blog (I don't recall what). But it's the middle of summer, and I found the list.

So, here is a list of some of the team names that these middle schoolers came up with...

1. The Lakers
• This is L.A. County. Even in an off year, the Lakers are still popular.
2. The Mafia
3. Batota
• Your guess is as good as mine.
4. Migrants
5. The Oranges
6. White Stripe
7. The Defs
8. The Real Ones
9. The Fries
10. Chunky Monkey
11. Team I
12. Team Pena
13. Tyweenies
• A play on the name of one of the students in the group.
14. Pinkie's
15. Team Math
16. Raiders
• Even after leaving L.A., the locals still like the team. Because, we no longer have football in L.A.
17. The Eagles
18. Miss A
19. The Mail People/Heavenly Smells
• They changed their name during the period. In fact, I think they did more discussing of what to name themselves than actual math review.
20. Pen 15
21. Craycrayhunnybuns
• Um, uh...
22. Red Vines
• I get the feeling they were hungry.
23. The Natives
24. Hawaiian Punch
25. Nameless
• Another team that spent more time debating names than reviewing math. I guess the first name they came up with was vetoed by the teacher.
26. Pro Era
27. Pro Club +1
28. Wonderland
29. Rainbow Moonshine

If you have any theories as to the other names, feel free to leave them in the comments. (Because some of them make no sense to me.)