Time to Find Out

Thursday. Eighth grade math, third period. They had a test.

Since the first day I was in this class, I told them when the test was. For every example, I reiterated what they would need to include in their answers on the test. I went over examples, gave them time to try problems on their own, and I answered all their questions about how to do the problems. 

(Their test was how to find the volume of a cylinder, a cone, and a sphere. The formulas were included on the test, which I also repeated daily.) 

But eighth graders. 

There were three boys in the middle of the room who spent more time goofing off and talking to each other than paying me any mind. 

"Colton! Adonis! Russell! Do you know how to do this?"

They assured me that they were on it. It was easy. They were caught up on the homework.

So, Thursday rolls around, and I started off with a warm up. They had four problems that looked exactly like the questions on the test. I gave them time to do them. Then we went over them together.

I got questions. I answered the questions. I solicited more questions. They assured me they were ready for the test.

I passed out the test. 

Colton raised his hand.

He pointed out the first question. "How do I do this? I don't even know how to start."

Um...

It was exactly like the first question in the warm up (with only the numbers being different). 

"That's what the question is asking you," I replied. And I walked away.

Why do they goof off until the test? (Don't answer that. I know.) 

But it was rather satisfying to walk away and not answer his question. If he had asked me how to do it five minutes prior, I would have told him. But no. So I left him to the "find out" portion of that well known phrase.

Misfiled

Wednesday. Third period. Government.

Of all the classes, third period is the one I'm concerned about the least. While a couple of them have had their grades drop (due to missing the last assignment), there are no F's in the class. And I anticipate each one of them passing the class at the semester.

It was a weird day with Ms. P, the instructional aide, out sick. They came in a little bit more wound up than usual. (We had our weather warm up, so the bright, sunny day might have been part of it.) And Sabrina asked if she could not work that day.

Uh...

The assignments need to be completed at some point. And I don't want to encourage slacking off when semester grades are so close. 

But, Sabrina's grade was fine. Wasn't it? I went to check the gradebook, just to make sure.

Sabrina was missing an assignment. It wasn't one of the big packets that are worth major points. It was one of the "quizzes". 

Mr. B gives them the book's quizzes at the end of each section, but he counts them like an ordinary assignment. Because they aren't weighted as a test, they don't hurt their grades too badly. (Most don't do very well on them, and that's even with the quizzes being open book. This is one of the differences in a special ed class.) 

So, instead of telling Sabrina she could take the period off, I told her she should complete the missing quiz. 

All the assignments are filed in a filing cabinet, clearly marked. I went and found the folder for quiz 2.1 and gave it to her. 

A while later, she returned it. When I went to grade it, I discovered that it said 2.2 on it. I double checked the gradebook. I had a grade for quiz 2.2. 

What had I done?

Upon further examination, I found that the folder for quiz 2.1 contained the quizzes for 2.2. And the person who had been putting things away was me...

(Although, now that I'm writing this, I do recall Ms. P had filed something in the government drawer, so I might not be to blame...)

While I was pulling the quiz, I should have double checked the page. So, my mistake. 

But, it was the wrong quiz. I apologized to Sabrina, but she would have to do the correct quiz. (There were 10 questions. True/false. Multiple choice.) While she did, I graded 2.2. If she got an extra point... She did not. She missed one more than before. I did not change her score.

Sabrina finished. 8 out of 10. I added her score to the gradebook.

And that bumped up her grade from a C to a B.

Sabrina then proceeded to work on the day's assignments. So, I guess getting her to work on something got the momentum going. 

(And now I'll be extra careful when giving them makeup work.)

The Expected Chaos

Back in the day-to-day subbing trenches, on Friday I covered a middle school math class. If you notice the above picture, the teacher (who is about my age) had a chalkboard installed in his room. 

I... do not like chalkboards. And, of course, I was to go over problems with them. Sigh.

In the lesson plans, at the end, Mr. T had written, "Sorry about period 2 :("

So, I knew I was in for it.

Eighth grade support and enrichment. It's an extra math class for students who are bad at math. Which means all the math behavior problems are in one group. 

Did you know that paper airplanes have made a comeback? Yep. And two girls would not stop making them. Or throwing them. After I repeatedly asked them to stop. (I mean, paper airplanes? Substitute teacher? How cliché can you get?)

There was one boy who would not sit still or stay seated. And he got into everything.

Several students were fixated on the classroom decorations. Trying to get to them and play with them. The thing is, Mr. T hasn't really changed his classroom décor in ages. Nothing was new. So, they were just getting into stuff to get into stuff. 

I had dancers. (It's a TikTok thing. Kiddos dance at random times for no reason.) I had loud. I had arguments. 

Oh, and they had a quiz...

Sometimes testing conditions aren't. I let the teacher know this, and I move on.

(What was their quiz on? Problems like -237 + 100.)

Then I had to do this two more times...

But, fourth period walked in, and I could take a deep breath. (They're on block schedule, so I only had periods 2, 4, and 6.) 

Seventh grade math. (Not support and enrichment.) Completely different behavior. Lovely group. 

It's good when I get the awful class out of the way first thing.

Merry Quizmas

As this is a holiday week for us (my subbing stories from last week will appear next week), that makes today a Random Quiz Friday. And as this is the OG Black Friday, I thought I'd repost "a nearly impossible holiday character challenge": 

Merry Quizmas

I have posted this several times in the past, but it'll be new to newer followers. 

How it works: you click on each character and your task is to identify them. The quiz is very forgiving, though, so you can name the character, the movie/book/myth the character is from, or the actor who played them. If you're close, it gives you the point. 

It's hard, though. I would suggest doing this with a partner or a group. (And a Reddit group cobbled together the answers here if you wish to cheat check your answers when you finish.) 

Pop Quiz

The freshman geography teacher was out Monday through Thursday. My last day with them, they had a quiz.

On Monday, I passed out the main assignment, a map of the U.S. and Canada. I informed them that there would be a quiz on Thursday.

On Tuesday, I reiterated the instructions for the map. I reminded them of the due date. I again announced the quiz, even mentioning it as they packed up at the end of each period.

On Wednesday most finished the map. They had an essay, also due Thursday, to then work on. Oh, you should have heard them whine when I pointed out that yes, all the Canadian provinces needed to be labeled (and were fair game for the quiz).

At the beginning and the end of the period, I reminded them of the quiz that was tomorrow.

Thursday. First period...

Me: "Everybody ready for the quiz!?!"

Them: "Quiz? What quiz? You never told us we were having a quiz..."

via GIPHY

Freshmen... If they weren't listening, it's not my problem, is it?

Pencil War

It was one of those classes that I'm only grateful for because it's good for the blog. Freshman math. On a Friday. With a quiz.

Girl: "Give me back my pencil."

Boy: "It's my pencil. I was using it in first period. Everyone here will back me up."

And sure enough, those around the pair did agree that the boy had the pencil in first period. To which the girl asserted that she had lent him that pencil in first period...

All I wanted was for them to stop talking and work on their quiz. This was the latest distraction to keep the kiddos from behaving. (I demand silence until all the quizzes have been turned in.)

It was a light blue mechanical pencil. Very nice. And if they couldn't decide between themselves whose pencil it was, I was going to take that bone of contention and let their teacher decide. On Tuesday.

(I believed the girl. In these situations, the person with the item who claims it's theirs is generally lying. But, the liar gets very vocal, and at this point all I wanted was silence.)

Once that was settled, there were other issues to demand my time. The day was bad. And in a bad day, this class (second period) was the worst.

So, of course, as they're leaving, the boy said to the girl: "Did you get your pencil back?"

Because, naturally. To my face he swore up and down it was his. Just to mess with the girl, I suspect.

Big Hint

Special ed. middle school science. Friday. They had an open book quiz.

About halfway through first period, the instructional aide (Ms. S) noticed that the four blood types were listed on the board. Identifying them was one of the questions on the quiz. Oops.

Since erasing them would have drawn attention to them, we decided to leave them up. It was an experiment. Would the students notice?

The students who finished early enough had the opportunity to fix wrong answers. (They get docked a point.) Many had found the blood types. They were in the book. What wasn't in the book but was a question was, "What's the universal donor?" And they all missed that one.

Ms. S pointed out that their teacher Mr. M had gone over that with them. But still, they couldn't recall it.

Towards the end of the period, Mr. M came by. (He was out due to a field trip, but the group hadn't left yet. He was checking in.) We pointed out the blood types listed on the board. We also mentioned that the class didn't remember what the universal donor was.

Instead of erasing the blood types, Mr. M made a slight modification to the board...

So, the rest of the day saw this right away and got the answer correct, right?

Eh, not so much.

We basically had to hint rather strongly to get them to notice. And still...

There's a reason they're in special ed. Although, I know plenty of regular ed students who would miss the obvious as well.

Okay with an F

I was back in Mr. M's class. (This is getting to be a habit.) It was Friday, so they had a quiz.

It's a special ed. class, so their quizzes are open book. When they finished, if there was time, the instructional aide corrected their quizzes. If there was time, and if they didn't do so well on the quiz, the aide gave the quizzes back to the students to fix.

(They don't get full credit, however. They only get the full points if they got it right the first time.)

It was first period. The aide handed back a quiz to the first student to finish. And he was not pleased.

You should have seen him. He flailed about. Rolled his eyes. Cried. Threw his head towards his desk. From across the room I could see his performance.

Even more impressive, he did this all silently (as the rest of the class was still working on their quizzes).

Later, I talked to the aide. Apparently he always does this. You'd think he'd be more grateful with the help on getting a better grade.

In a following period (period 4, I think), I was the one correcting quizzes. I gave a boy back a quiz with a bunch of mistakes. I got busy with other things, so I didn't re-collect his quiz until the end of the period. That's when I saw he hadn't touched his quiz.

He got seven wrong. Out of twelve. That's more than half. I don't need a calculator to know that's less than 50% correct, so that's an F. I told him so.

"I'm fine with that grade."

Um, really? Even when I told him he didn't get half right?

It's a middle school thing, I think. I hope.

If you had failed a quiz, and your teacher gave you back your paper with the opportunity to fix your mistakes, would you fix your mistakes? (I know I would!)

Not Testing

Yesterday I talked about the final story they read. (11th grade English class.) On Friday (before Thanksgiving week) they had the quiz.

Well, naturally not all students were ready to take it. One girl asked to be excused because she had been absent all week (and had missed reading the stories). Then a boy in the same class had the same reason. (I had access to the attendance records. Both had been absent all week.)

This happens from time to time. I figure they can work out makeup times with their teacher. All I ask is they sit quietly and not disturb the testers.

The girl asked to sit over in the corner so she could work on another assignment. The boy, however, chose to remain at his table. And communicate with his pal who sat next to him.

Okay, seriously? During a test?

You know, that didn't get a complimentary write up in the note.

(Even the boy who decided not to take the quiz because he was leaving for the continuation high school behaved better.)

Surprise Speaker

It was Friday, my last day in the 11th grade English class. They had a quiz on five more chapters of The Catcher in the Rye. I got class started, and we passed out the quiz. They got started...

Another teacher walked into the room. It took me a couple moments to catch up to what she explained. Turned out that the class was scheduled to get a talk about college stuff that day. Problem was, no one told me about it.

Oops.

I tried to wrap my brain around what to do next. Should we pause the quiz? That seemed like the wrong thing to do. So, instead, we just waited for them to finish. It wasn't an overly long quiz. Once they finished, there was still plenty of time for the presentation.

(Luckily, the teacher--who had a class of her own that period--agreed to wait until they finished. She had a sub that period and no other class to get to after ours. Whew.)

Well, now that I knew, I made sure to find out when the speaker would be arriving for the following periods. For the next class, she was coming at the end. So, that was easy.

I passed out their quiz. Got them going. And I told them nothing of the speaker coming later. They finished more that 10 minutes before the teacher arrived.

When she did, I let the class know, surprise, you've got a presentation to hear.

This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened to me. It is the first time that it interrupted a quiz.

Did you enjoy having speakers come into your classes (even if they were talking about college)? Did anything surprise you this week? 

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

Quietly Reading (or Not)

For all of last week, I covered an 11th grade English class. They're in the midst of reading The Catcher in the Rye.

Tuesday (or day 2) they had a quiz on the first 11 chapters of the novel. After they finished the quiz, they were to spend the rest of the period reading, either Catcher or a novel of their own choosing.

Oh, how they whined!

Much of the class had finished the quiz. And I was doing my usual continual shushing. Because they weren't reading. Like they were supposed to be. I stood over one boy...

"I'm sick of reading..."

Sick of reading? How does one get sick of reading? I can understand how one can get sick of reading the book you have in front of you, but there were other books to choose from.

Me: "You're telling this to someone who has been known to stay up until 4 AM because she can't bear to put down a book. I have no sympathy."

Because, if they had been reading quietly, like they were supposed to be doing, I totally could have pulled out a book of my own and been reading along with them. But nooooo. Nope, I had to pay attention and police them.

Oh, to have days where the only thing on the agenda is to read. Deep sigh.

Are you reading anything good at the moment? What is the latest you've ever stayed up because you couldn't put a book down? Or, do you agree with the student--you do get sick of reading? 

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

Math Quiz

Middle school special ed. math. They'd been working on menu math. (Wow, this really works for M-day!) It was quiz day.

The teacher and instructional assistant realized that the students might have issues with the format of the quiz, so they decided to address this with a warm up. That looked exactly like the quiz.

We took it slowly. We gave them time for each of the five questions. #1 listed the items they'd order. How much did that cost (the subtotal)? We checked to make sure every student got that right before moving on to numbers 2 & 3: How much for the tip (assuming 20%) and tax (assuming 8.5%).

Once those were correct (and that meant that they all calculated it and got the right answer), they were to find their total bill. And finally #5, they were to figure out how much change they'd get back if they used a $10 bill.

Everyone got there with us. We helped them figure out what to do for each question, and we checked to make sure every student got those questions correct. Then we passed out the quiz.

The quiz looked just like the warm up. The only difference: the items chosen from the menu.

And... Some of them bombed it.

One student who seemed to easily complete the warm up was completely flummoxed. She was adding 0.20 and 0.085 to the subtotal. (Well, at least she converted percent correctly.) Others stared at the questions, unsure what to do.

via GIPHY


Clearly, they're still not comfortable with the concepts. Sigh. It'll come. Eventually.

How are you at figuring percents? What sort of tip do you leave for your servers? We're at the halfway point this month--how's your April going? Is A to Z flummoxing you? 

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...

Too Much Fun

Algebra 1. They had an open book/open note quiz. And 6th period only had 10 students in class (of a class of 13).

The picture at the top of this post isn't the classroom I was in, but it is similarly situated. While most of the class was in the front two rows, there were three boys who were kind of isolated. One was in the seat nearest the door. One was dead center in the room. And the third was opposite the boy who was next to the door in the back. All three boys had no neighbors in any adjacent desk.

With such a small class, I didn't expect any trouble during the quiz, and there was none. After they finished, they were to work on a worksheet that the teacher said they already had.

I can be lax after quizzes. So long as they stay silent, I won't bother them. Some students do work for other classes. One girl pulled out a book and read. One boy took out paper and started drawing. Another boy put his head down on his desk and slept. I wasn't concerned about any of this.

But those three boys. They had nothing on their desks, and they were way too entertained. They weren't close enough to talk, so they weren't, but they were eyeing each other. And giggling. Getting up to "sharpen a pencil" (read: steal another's mechanical pencil so boy can't do work). Getting up for hand sanitizer.

I approached. Where were their worksheets? You know, the worksheet that was the assignment after the quiz, the worksheet that I told them about before the quiz. The worksheet I was again reminding them of.

Oh, that worksheet? They never got one.

Time to go looking...

The teacher's desk had a pile of various worksheets on it. I took a peek at another student's, and soon enough I located more copies. I pulled them out of the pile, turned around...

And suddenly the boys were in their backpacks, pulling out... the worksheet. I guess they did get one.

I approached the boy in the middle of the room. His worksheet was completely blank. Well...

"I already did it."

Me: "It looks blank."

"It's done. At home."

And he proceeded to spin a tale of how he had two copies and the copy at home was done. So he didn't have any work to do in class...

The other really good thing about such a small class: this whole incident (with student names) got documented in the note to their teacher.

Who to Pick?

I've been dithering about, trying to figure out who I was going to blog about today. And it's hard. Because I have two great candidates.

It was Friday in a biology class, and they had a test. Well, it was more of a quiz. And for the most part, the classes behaved well (except for 5th period, but they were awful in the usual way). So, I was stumped as to how I was going to make a blog post out of it.

But, there were two interesting students. I don't know that either of them deserves a full blog post, though.

In 3rd period there was Nia. When she saw the quiz, she announced loudly that she knew nothing on it. (It was 11 questions: 5 multiple choice questions, 4 true/false questions, and 2 short answer questions.) The class got to work, and I didn't think too much more about Nia.

Then, as I was walking the room, I found Nia stretched out across her desk, head down in a pose of one who is most put upon. There were sighs coming from her direction. I intervened when she started drumming on her desk.

About the time when half the class had finished, I found Nia rifling through her notebook. With her biology notes.

I took her quiz and walked away.

Nia protested. She wasn't finished. Then what was she doing in her notebook? She explained that she was looking for some homework to complete for when she had finished her quiz.

So many things wrong with that explanation I don't know where to start.

Then in 4th period I got into a conversation with Brandon. (This was after everyone had finished the quiz and they were supposed to be working on a worksheet which I gave them.)

It started out as what seemed like a joke. Brandon explained that all he wanted to do with his life was become a drug dealer. As the conversation progressed, I became more and more convinced that he was serious.

Just picture me shaking my head.

On the bright side, aside from 5th period these were the problems of the day. So, in all, not too bad.

How do you convince a 14-year-old boy that he can do more with his life than become a drug dealer?

Wait. I know the answer to this one...

Take a Deep Breath

Have you ever taken a drink of water and had it go down wrong? (I do this frequently enough that those who know me no longer react to the resulting coughing fit.)

Biology. They had a 22 question vocabulary quiz.

I gave them five minutes to "study". Then, I passed out the quizzes. The room fell silent.

I took a sip from my water bottle...

There's nothing quite like a coughing fit when you're trying to be quiet. Not only couldn't I catch my breath, I was in a silent room. With a captive audience.

Trying to take a quiz.

Just when I thought I was okay, I took another deep breath... And the coughing started up again.

I should have stepped outside. But they were taking a quiz. And I was supposed to be watching them to make sure they weren't cheating (or worse, talking).

Finally, in desperation, I pulled out a cough drop.

A student had the same idea. She went into her backpack to find one for me. (By that time I was sucking on my own. It was still thoughtful.)

I felt so awful. I didn't want to distract them. And yet...

Ah well. That's what I get for trying to stay hydrated.

Nap Time

It was one of those lovely days where the math class had quiz. I gave the class my usual warning at the outset. This consists of me explaining that I will have silence for the duration of the quiz. If any students finish early, they are to do something quietly at their desks until all quizzes are complete.

The quiz went fairly normally. When one girl who sat in the back finished, she asked me if she could now take a nap. As this is a quiet activity, I told her she could.

I didn't understand why she felt the need to stand up, but before I could investigate, I got sidetracked by another student issue. Once I was back to monitoring the whole class, I was back to shushing whisperers. Then someone pointed out the girl.

She had stretched out on the floor at the back of the room.

First, ick. I know the janitors occasionally vacuum, but I wouldn't voluntarily lie down on the floor. Second, the floor? Really?

Students ask if they can nap all the time. If they have work to do, the answer is no. But after a quiz, I don't have a problem with them putting their heads down on their desks. I repeat: putting their heads down on their desks.

Why would a student lie down on the floor?

She couldn't understand why I would have a problem with this. I had said she could nap.

Note to self: when asked if a student can nap after a quiz, tell student he/she can put head down on desk.

The freshmen are really strange this year. I think I need a new tag.

One More

It was a curious assignment. A group quiz. Um, okay...

Finals are rapidly approaching. The class had been divided into groups so they could review. They'd been working together on a study guide.

I was to pass out this quiz to the whole class. They could discuss but not copy. Each student got his/her own quiz, and the group would get a score consisting of everyone's effort.

They had 20 minutes.

It was a middle school class, so I told them they had 15 minutes. (The lesson plan said give them 15-20 minutes.) A few needed the push. (I found students goofing off rather than working even after I explained the time limit.)

After 20 minutes, I called time.

Many loudly complained. Many tried to finish "one more". Only one student held on tight to his paper as I went to remove it from him.

He should have put down his pencil when I called time. He continued to work, as did many in the class. But everyone else relinquished their papers when I held out my hand for them.

Even after I'd collected everything, this boy kept after me. He asked me to give him his paper back. He only had one more he had to finish. He needed more time. His teacher always gave the class as much time as they needed to finish quizzes. They were only studying for the rest of the period, so it wasn't like there wasn't time for him to finish the quiz in class.

And on and on it went. I don't know why he thought this would work. I explained that his teacher said in the lesson plan that they were to only get 20 minutes (she even typed this in all caps), and that by the time I picked up their papers, they had gotten closer to 22 minutes to work on the quiz.

It got so bad that the rest of the students in his group wanted to distance themselves from him. For fear of blowback, I assume.

I got a chance to see the teacher at the end of the day. She asked how things went. I told her about the boy.

She was surprised who had given me these issues. She said he was a good boy. A studious boy. And then it hit her--he was rather worried about his grade in the class. He's an 8th grader. End of the year stuff is coming up, and he's worried about being allowed to participate.

The other thing: the teacher didn't think they would finish the quiz.  

Ah well. I'm sure he didn't do as badly (or the quiz counted as much) as he feared.

Sneaking By

Last week was a very long and painful week. I was the stop gap sub between the 8th grade science class' second long-term sub and the return of their teacher from maternity leave. I got all of the responsibilities of a long-term sub with none of the benefits.

(If I had known any of this when the week long gig was offered, I would have turned it down.)

We covered a chapter's worth of material that week. On Wednesday, I warned them there would be a quiz on Friday. On Thursday, I reminded them of this. Yet still, on Friday, several of them begged me for more time.

One boy was especially pitiful. He just needed the weekend to study. But they all were told and they had time to study (the homework was pretty light all week). Still, I felt bad when I saw that he got 4 correct out of 20.

In fourth period, several students had been out the Thursday on a field trip. Even though they knew of the quiz, they had missed one day of the material, so I let those that missed on Thursday skip the quiz (to make it up on Monday).

Unfortunately, this announcement was heard by the entire class.

I noticed that I had way more answer sheets than I should have. Questioning some students on this, they explained that they needed more time. Even though they had been at school on Thursday.

I explained to them that they could take the quiz that day or they could take a zero.

Once they got underway, I did a double check. I had a feeling. Sure enough, I had an answer sheet for a student who was present in class on Thursday. When I questioned him, he explained that he needed more time.

Trying to sneak one by me...

Quiz...Surprise?

The lesson plan said: "Quiz. They may use their books."

Odd timing for a quiz--the Monday after spring break. Ah well. Whatever. If it's in the lesson plans...

No one batted an eye until 4th period. 4th period, however, was shocked. Shocked.

"He didn't tell us we had a quiz."

So, I gave my standard reply. "Surprise!"

(I'm pretty sure the teacher announced the quiz. The other classes weren't terribly surprised or shocked. Considering how period four acted, I kind of think them not remembering announced quizzes is a normal thing.)