Bigger

Wednesday. Second period sophomore math (again). 

Why is it always second period? Anyway...

Mr. Y had an IEP meeting, so it was just me and them. But no worries, as the topic was geometry, and I felt quite comfortable teaching it. 

Just after 9 AM, Alonzo left class. He had cleared it with me ahead of time as the band had a performance. I had seen the email, so I knew it was legit. But the boys were offended that he had gotten up and gone. (Before Alonzo left, he caught my eye and reminded me he was going. I nodded to indicate that was fine.) It was as if they were in charge, or something. 

I explained that Alonzo had left with permission, and it wasn't anything that the boys needed to be concerned with. Alonzo would be performing for the assembly for the sixth graders.

Sixth graders? 

Okay, so all the sixth graders from the local feeder elementary schools were going to be on campus for a kind of preview day. (The middle school is kind of attached to the high school. Long story.) They've only been doing this for a couple years, so it's a relatively new thing. Anyway, the high school band, color guard, cheerleaders, and choir were performing along with their middle school counterparts. 

The boys seemed to think that meant an assembly for the high schoolers. Yeah, no. Class was as normal for those not involved in specific activities. 

I continued on discussing how two adjacent angles could be added together. 

And then, the sixth graders appeared. 

This classroom is on the bottom floor of the STEAM building, and it has great big windows. 

We can see everyone who passes by. Mr. Y is fond of the view as he can see his students, especially those who arrive late. (I kind of feel like we're in a fishbowl, but I'm only there for a couple weeks.) 

So, of course we could also see the classes of sixth graders arriving and making their way through campus. 

I pointed this out to the class. They looked over. 

Some of the sixth graders waved. A few of the students waved back. 

(I had more time than material to cover, and I thought it was fun.) 

The students' main comment: "Why are they so small?"

Funnily enough, this is not the first time I've heard this comment. I assured the students that the sixth graders were normal sized for their age. They were just bigger now.

They weren't quite sure I was right. It just seems wrong to them, somehow. I'm not sure why. 

The sixth graders had passed us, so I went back to reminding them that all the angles in a triangle add up to 180°. 

And just like that, it's April. The only thing that changes around here is my titling. My personal game is to make my usual posts fit the letter of the day. Sometimes they just fall into place, like today. Other days I have to work a bit harder at it. 

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

A Surprising Reputation

Thursday. Second period. I was back at the continuation high school for the first time since March. 

It was a pretty typical class for this teacher. He teaches social studies, so the class is a mix of world geography, world history, U.S. history, and government. I have covered this class many, many times. 

There was one group near the back who were having some random conversations, but mostly the class was working (or appearing to work). They all have different online assignments, but some get so sucked into their phones. 

Towards the end of the period, one of the students asked me if I had subbed at one of the other high schools in the district. The continuation high school is where the students from all the district's high schools end up if they are deficient in credits and in danger of not graduating. When they first get to the school, they all recognize me from when I subbed their "home" school. 

So, of course I had subbed at this student's "home" school. 

The boy remembered me. He then told me that the students were scared of me. 

The boy explained that when he had me in class, one of the other students had told him that I was a strict sub and that I would kick misbehaving students out of class. 

I had no idea. 

I mean, I don't often send students out. I don't have to. 

Most days I feel like a pushover. I feel like I'm letting them get away with so much. But then again, most days they're doing what they need to do and aren't being a problem, so there's no need for me to get on their cases. 

So, to hear that students fear me? I'm dubious. 

But still, it was a nice thing for him to say. 

A Load of BS

Spanish IV. Tuesday. Fourth period.

The teacher's been out for a couple weeks (per doctor's orders), so the classes have kind of settled into "free time mode". (Not ideal, but I've dealt with worse.) They have assignments, but they aren't really doing them.

But fourth period was keeping themselves busy.

One girl was reciting the organs and diseases of the urinary tract. (She had an anatomy test later in the day.) The boys adjacent to her were comparing their astrological sun signs and figuring out what phase the moon was in when they were born. 

On the other side of the room, two boys were signing. They were looking down at their computers and making signs in American Sign Language. 

I know a smattering of signs. I recognized various letters, like X and J. They did the sign for "home" and "later" and "today". It looked like they were constructing sentences. 

Then they laid their left arms over their right. The left hand made horns out of the index and pinky finger. With the right hand, they extended their fingers...

A little over a year ago, I was at the adult transition center and we were waiting for the buses at the end of the day. The teachers were talking. Ms. L was complaining about something, and instead of swearing out loud, she made the sign for bullsh**. 

It was at this point in the conversation that Ms. L turned to me and explained the sign. Then she showed me a couple others. Special ed teachers learn to sign as some special ed students do better signing than speaking. Some non-verbal students can sign and communicate that way.

So, I knew what sign the boys were making. 

"No swearing in class," I chided. 

The boys had the decency to look chagrined. 

The rest of the class was confused. The room was pretty quiet, and no one was saying anything terribly inappropriate. (I mean, I'd argue that talking about preventing UTIs isn't terribly appropriate for a Spanish class, but it was curricular.) 

So, I explained. "I was telling them I knew what that sign was."

They kept to less controversial signs after that. 

(Why were they learning sign language? I noticed various students trying out disabilities, so the annual disability assembly must be coming up. The school has a large special ed population, and they do this to promote inclusion and understanding.)

I mean, I wish they were doing the actual Spanish assignment, but considering the situation, at least they were making a decent use of their time.

The Old in Coffee

It's time for a dive back into the way-back files. This post originally appeared December 8, 2009. 

12th grade AP English. They were working on some essay or other (I didn't have a lot of details, but they were AP kids and could be trusted to do their work without me having to prompt them). They were half working, half talking about random stuff.

One student started talking about coffee. He asked what people put in it. One of the girls mentioned cream and sugar. The boy said that no, that's what kids put in it. Adults put old in it.

That's not a typo. He said "old".

He continued with this reasoning. He said that coffee makes kids old. One girl complained that she drank coffee, but she wasn't old. The boy said that she might be 17, but the coffee made her older.

So, I asked what about older adults who did not drink coffee. He said that they just age normally, not extra aged because of the old in coffee.

It made only a smidgen of sense. Of course that was the point.

The stuff these kids come up with!

Wasting Class Time

It's been a while since I was at the continuation high school. Not much there has changed.

Graduation is fast approaching. To qualify for the graduation activities, including the graduation ceremony, the students have to have all of their credits posted by sometime this week. (The events of this post happened last week.)

Sixth period. History.

The conversation started with grad night. One girl had gotten her ticket for the festivities. (I'm not sure where they're going this year.) The other two girls in her group were discussing whether they needed to go to school that day.

Somehow, this segued into how many credits they had. To graduate, they must have 220. One was 20 short. One was 14 short. And the third girl whispered to the others how many more she needed.

They spent much of the period discussing how many credits they needed. Then they moved on to astrology (and whether the Aries was compatible with her Capricorn boyfriend--although they weren't certain he was a Capricorn). That led to sex (and which girl was a virgin and which girls were not).

What they did not discuss: the assignment. They spent the whole period, an hour, discussing stuff and not doing any work. You know, assignments that would give them points that add up to credits so they can graduate on time.

I did point this out.

"I only need two credits for this class."

"I'll get it done."

Deep sigh.

I will not be surprised if one or more of them fail to walk this year. But they did it to themselves.

Blocker

Today's post is NSFW. Apologies. I try to keep things PG around here, but I really want to tell you about this... 

"That's not what that means."

It was a rather weird Monday where I ended up covering four different classes. Fourth period it was a US history class. They were supposed to be perusing a chapter on the Cold War.

(It was next door to the class I covered the week before spring break.)

But if they were on task, this wouldn't be a very interesting post.

One girl explained to another the definition of the term "cockblocker". Or, at least, she thought it was the definition.

It was a rather literal interpretation, involving smacking/slapping a certain part of the male anatomy.

That's where I chimed in. I jump into student conversations when misinformation is being perpetuated.

"That's what it says on Urban Dictionary. I took a screenshot. Want to see?" she replied.

I did not. "Well, then Urban Dictionary is wrong." 

I trust Urban Dictionary, so I was surprised. I thought the term was fairly well-known.

Normally I would just shut this whole thing down, and I did, but I first provided the actual definition. Because they are 16 or 17 years old, and they really shouldn't get any older thinking what she said was true. (If this had been a middle school class, this whole thing would have gone very, very differently.)

Discussion finished, I pulled out my calendar to update. (I keep track of what classes I cover.)

"Are you writing this down?"

The girl then put on a brave face. She informed me that Mr. T wouldn't be surprised, and he wouldn't even need her name as he would know it originated from her.

(I hadn't planned on mentioning it, but since she asked, I realized Mr. T might enjoy the humor of the situation, so I did then make a point of including it in the note. Later.)

After school, I checked Urban Dictionary. I could not find the definition she cited. I did find several iterations of the correct definition. Check it out.

Not on the Vocabulary Assignment

"What does 'prostitution' mean?"

It was a seventh grade science class. They were supposed to be working on a vocabulary assignment dealing with erosion and weathering (earth science stuff). And mostly they were.

But seventh graders can be easily distracted by random stuff. And even though they weren't supposed to be on their cell phones (I had banned them as they had abused the privilege the day before), clearly something had caught the eye of a group of three boys sitting on the right side of the classroom.

I said something about them having an assignment to complete.

So, the one boy sitting behind the other two looked down at his lap and quoted, "Violators subject to prosecution..."

Oh, so the boy just misread something. Again, not on topic. And we didn't need to go down that particular rabbit hole. I again directed them to get back to work.

But you know they didn't. One of the three had to look up on his phone the word "prostitution"...

I'd've thought they would have heard the term before. Apparently not. Because suddenly all three boys were looking around with wide eyes...

And I made a note of this for their teacher. Because, well, it was that kind of day.

Shrinking Middle Schoolers

It's a ceramics class, so while the kiddos are working with their hands, they talk. About all sorts of things.

I don't know how they got on the topic of middle schoolers. (The classes are populated with 11th and 12th graders.) But, I also don't know how they got on the topic of God, of tweezing eyebrows, of Bob Ross, or of when their parents had the sex that produced them. They talk about all sorts of weird things.

I generally don't butt into the conversations unless they are factually incorrect or they're talking about something that isn't appropriate for a classroom. But this one...

"They're so small. The middle schoolers are shrinking."

Me: "No, you're just bigger. You were that size once."

"No. I wasn't..." She thought about this. "Are you sure they're not smaller than they used to be?"

Me: "The middle schoolers are the same size as they have been. You've just grown."

She took my word for it. But it kind of blew her mind. She didn't think she'd grown that much, but today's middle schoolers were much smaller than her.

The difference between 11th grade and 7th grade is four years. To them it feels like longer. (Oh, don't even get them started on "little kids". They really have no concept of age.)

He Likes Us

When I talked to the ceramics teacher's wife the day after his accident (where he broke his collar bone), she warned me that his period five was his difficult class.

They got the same intro as the other periods (namely, they were told what had happened to Mr. P and that he'd be out for longer than a couple days). Then we got into the lesson (which was busywork as Mr. P hadn't anticipated being out).

As I do, I strolled around the room. I overheard many interesting conversations.

"And he was just beginning to like us..."

After school, I got a text telling me that Mr. P was awake and wanted to speak to me.

He asked how his classes were. I told him things had gone smoothly, considering. (This was true.)

Then I related what I'd overheard in fifth period.

Mr. P laughed. Apparently, no, he was not warming up to them. But he was amused they thought so.

I felt no need to disabuse them of this notion, though. Perhaps they'll be on their best behavior upon his return.

A Yellow

Boy 1: "Why does your shirt say 'pink' when it's gray?"

Boy 2: "I see those shirts all the time, and they're never pink."

The girl, not sure what the big deal was, gave some sort of explanation. I figured I needed to jump in.

Me: "'Pink' is the brand name."

Boy 1: "Well, that's a stupid brand name." He flailed about, trying to come up with a good analogy. "It's like your name being..." He failed to come up with anything that made sense.

Me: "Brand names are brand names. A color is a perfectly valid name for something."

Boy 1: "No. It's like her name being... It's like this," and he indicated his orange, "was called 'a yellow'."

I pointed out that was a terrible analogy as the color was named after the fruit.

Boy 1: "Well, it's still stupid."

I don't disagree. (I have a bad habit of taking the opposite view when someone starts saying something that is not necessarily wrong is wrong. Even when I agree.) For a long time I couldn't figure out the "Pink" shirts. But as the shirts are innocuous, I stopped dedicating much thought to them.

I shrugged and walked away. Later, the boy called me over.

"Can I eat my yellow?" He indicated his orange.

Since eating in class is discouraged, I said no.

The boy continued to refer to his orange as his "yellow". Even the next day.

If that's the hill he wants to die on...

High

Period three. I was back at the continuation high school. A student bounded into class. High energy. And he told everyone why...

"I did so much Ecstasy, I haven't slept in three days...

"I am so high...

"I'm, like, addicted, but it's so expensive that I can't get addicted..."

To which another student replied, "I was there last week..."

My reaction:

via GIPHY

Gunning for Number 1

AP Calculus. It was the week before winter break. They had an assignment, but it was due upon their return from winter break, so they weren't doing it. Well, mostly not doing it. (A couple of them had books out.)

(I had the usual conversation with them. They were going to be busy being off, and they wouldn't even think about their homework until Saturday the 6th at the earliest. And it would be Sunday the 7th at 8 PM when they finally opened their backpacks and wondered about what homework they needed to do. They'd be up all night finishing work that they could have gotten done before the break.

This story is from a kid in a different calculus class a couple years prior. But I think it's likely what most of them do, so I pointed out that perhaps they should get some work done in class. Hey, at least I warned them.)

What did they do instead? Well, on Monday they debated who was ranked #1 in the junior class.

One of the girls in class was ranked #2. And she wanted to know who had the only GPA that was better than hers.

The class only had 13 students. (One was absent.) So, they all got into this discussion. Even the seniors. They posited ideas and shot them down. They knew it was no one in the class with them. (Apparently, they all knew each other's ranks.)

They thought it might be this one boy, but they had no way of checking. And apparently he wasn't telling.

The girl was trying to figure out how this boy could have beaten her. And how she could get a #1 ranking.

There are things to take into account. Certain classes are weighted, but one can't take a fully weighted schedule. (Things like P.E. and art classes aren't weighted but they are required.)

I'm not sure how, but this conversation took the whole period. And they resolved nothing. (Well, they did figure out #1 wasn't the boy they thought it might be.)

If you've ever wondered what it's like to be a fly on the wall around teenagers, kind of like this.

Not Overheard

The class was one of those leadership-type classes that isn't ASB. (It's a kind of character building thing that serves as an elective as well as some extracurricular stuff.) On this day, they were going over the behavior expectations (code of conduct and code of ethics stuff).

So, it was discussion time. And we were at the continuation high school. (The other schools don't start until this week.) The part of the code of ethics about reporting criminal activity didn't go over well. ("We're not snitches.")

The discussion meandered, as discussions usually do, and we were interrupted by the phone. A student needed to go to the office. He left, and then he returned in a bit of a worse mood.

"I got some bad news and some good news."

The class wanted to know. The bad news was kind of expected. As for the good news...

"I can't say," and he indicated that he couldn't divulge the good news in front of me.

The rest of the class protested.

"What's said in here stays in here," someone pointed out.

The teacher has set the class up as a safe zone, where the kiddos can talk out their issues. And they have to know that what they say isn't going to be used against them later on. I get that. So, after telling me I couldn't "snitch" on him, he let us know about his after school plans.

The class laughed. And they looked at me. Apparently, I had a good enough shocked face.

Great. Something I can't let slide?

Yeah, see, that's the problem. I had no idea what he said. He was turned away from me, and mumbling a bit (and my hearing isn't always the best, especially in these circumstances).

So, I played like I heard. Gave him a stern look. And we moved on.

I so shouldn't have let him say anything. Sigh.

(The next day I had the same class, and he repeated that he got to smoke a blunt after school. Sigh. I think I was better off not knowing.)

False Witness

It was the end of the period, and the kiddos were on their way out. One boy, who was in a group on one side of the room, called out to a boy on the other side.

Boy 1: "Am I in football?"

Boy 2: "Yeah."

Boy 1: "I'm in football?"

Boy 2: "Yes. I mean no. No, you're not. I thought you wanted me to lie for you..."

Now we all know who to call if we suddenly need an alibi witness...

Bygones

For the penultimate day of school, I was once again at the continuation high school. (I did not work the last day of school this year.) The kiddos had an assignment, but very few of them chose to do it. In fact, very few of them chose to come to school at all.

(I think this is why the traditional high schools give students finals. It keeps them coming to class and makes them try for those last few days.)

I was basically on crowd control. Well, if you consider a class of seven to be a "crowd".

2nd period. I pointed out the assignment. A couple of them even got out books and paper.

"Remember when you pulled that knife on me? I wanted them to expel you for that."

This is not the sort of statement that is usually accompanied with laughter. But there was no anger in Julio's voice. He seemed to be in instigating mode. Waiting to see if I'd have to intervene, I just listened in.

"You stole my pizza," Daniel replied.

This is when Julio noticed that I was listening, so he explained.

Back when the boys were in middle school, they were in home ec. together. One day the assignment was pizza. They cooked it. At the end of the period, they each got a slice.

You know when you take a slice of pizza how sometimes a bit of the tip of an adjoining piece gets stuck to it? Julio's slice had a bit of Daniel's slice's tip attached.

So, Daniel demanded that Julio give him back that little bit of pizza. Julio refused. Daniel grabbed a butter knife and held it to Julio's ribs...

They didn't tell me what happened after that. Apparently the teacher called for backup as it sounds like the issue got resolved with school administrators.

"If I could forgive you for that..." Julio said to Daniel.

Apparently, this is one of those funny stories that they like to remember. At least they can laugh about it. If they were still angry at each other...

The Better Topic

"I think I want to kill myself."

It was 7th period at the continuation high school, and there were four students in class. Jason had been talking to the girl next to him all period. He's a nice enough kid--he was in dark purple lipstick and had complained earlier that his foundation hadn't been applied quite right that day.

Considering the context of the statement (it was more of an "I'm so bored; I'm annoyed with the world" conversation), I wasn't actually concerned he'd do himself harm. (If this was that sort of incident, I would not be blogging about it.) But still, I wasn't going to let that just pass. I let him know that I report such things.

I thought he should probably go back to his previous topic.

Satanism.

This was not the first time I'd had him in class where this was the topic of the day. I had heard of this particular philosophy before, and what Jason described lined up with that.

In case you're unaware, this brand of Satanism is more of an anti-church stance. It's about atheism and using reason rather than blindly following a leader. (In case you're interested, here are some links: Official Church of Satan website; Church of Satan Wikipedia page; 10 Ways the Church of Satan Might Surprise You.)

The Satanism discussion was a fairly innocuous, actually. It was about the "church's" beliefs. So, I sat back and listened. (If it had been something inappropriate, like about sex or drugs or illegal activity, I would have jumped in.)

I think one of the reasons I do fairly well at the continuation high school is that I don't shock easily.

Quinceanera and Sweet Sixteen

"Isn't your dress purple?" 

"No, it's the color of champagne... Champagne. And silver." 

A prom conversation? It's the right time of year, but this was a freshman math class. (Same class I discussed yesterday.) Ninth graders don't go to prom. But why else would these girls be discussing gowns so obsessively at this time of year? 

Yeah, so I butt into conversations all the time... 

"I have to have a quinceanera and a sweet sixteen. My sibling had both. It can't look like my parents love her more than me, so I have to have the same thing she did." 

The wording on that explanation had me wondering, so I asked... 

"I know they don't love her more than me. (They love me more.) But in my family they may think..." 

Appearances are everything with the aunts and cousins, she explained. 

Well, alrighty, then... 

(I live in southern California. We have a large Latino population. Quinceaneras are a thing.) 

Did you have a sweet sixteen party? A quinceanera? Or did you have any big birthday party around those ages? 

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

Listening In

I was called in to cover a 12th grade government class. (17 and 18 year olds.) It's the time of year when they're almost done with high school, so unless the lesson plan says otherwise, I tend to find a seat and let them be.

(They had a bookwork assignment. Half of them did it.)

It's like being a fly on the wall.

"He only committed fourteen armed robberies..."

Apparently there was video, too. This guy was a cousin or boyfriend of the girl who was speaking. (At one point she talked of him like he was a relative. At another, she was sad he was going away for a long time like a girlfriend would be. So, I can't be sure.)

If I don't have anything to offer to the conversation (like, they're saying something that's factually incorrect), I just listen.

"Have you ever gone commando?"

It was a group of four, sort of. One boy was kind of in, kind of out of the conversation. (He was working on the assignment, but he contributed the odd comment.) But the main contributors were two boys and a girl.

"Yeah, it felt weird."

So, the question came up of how this came to be...

"I was in a hurry."

To which they replied that if one is in a hurry, perhaps it isn't the underwear that gets missed. Perhaps it's the pants.

But someone was waiting, and the car was started, and...

Yeah, it's fun to listen in when the kiddos talk. They come up with the strangest topics.

What is the strangest thing you've ever discussed with your friends? What is the strangest thing you've ever discussed in a high school classroom?

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

Old Age Debate

It was one of those days when the kiddos had work, and I could just sit back and watch them work. One boy decided to sit next to me to converse.

He touched on various topics. I contributed when called upon. Then he came up with the oddest idea.

"I don't want to live to be old and sick. I'd like to die before I reach 55."

They have some odd ideas about age. I commented that 55 isn't old, and there's still so much to do once reaching that age. But he wasn't having it. He figured that's when he'd be too sick to enjoy the rest of his life.

This went back and forth for a bit. Then another boy passed by.

Boy 1: "What age would you like to live to?"

Boy 2: "80."

At which point, a couple other students chimed in with more reasonable ages. So, it was just him.

Ah, the naivete of youth.

Yawn

Algebra 2. It had been a peaceful day. The prior classes had been working nearly silently (without being asked). But 5th period wasn't doing that silence stuff. Nah, they had stuff to talk about.

It wasn't a test, so I didn't really care if they were talking. I just kinda hoped it would be on task talking...

Nah. A girl seated nearly in front of me spent the whole period talking about how she didn't have a boyfriend, had never had a boyfriend, but kind of wanted one.

I gently nudged her with hints that perhaps she might want to, I don't know, do the math. But the students around her weren't helping. They were buying into the conversation.

Except for one boy. I could tell he was bored by the whole thing.

via GIPHY

Seriously, that was the exact look on his face. Mine too, probably.

I mean, the conversation wasn't even good enough for me to take notes on to use here. But that's how it goes sometimes...