Old O Posts

It is spring break. And as per my usual "rules", I'm saving my subbing stories from last week for next week (when I'm back to work), and today I'm on my "summer schedule". Which means Thursday 13. 

Plus, it's April. And the A to Z Challenge. So, what to post that incorporates today's letter, O? Last year I had the genius idea of finding some old D posts (spring break Thursday fell on D day last year), so why not? 

As I found out last year, it won't take me all that long to find enough posts. So, where to start looking? I went to a random number generator, put in the years possible for my blog (2007-2024) and got back 2014. Okay, then. Let's see what I can find...

1. Only One, April 17, 2014

Ah, a prior A to Z post, back when I did my "what if?" day on Thursday. Back when I was doing "what if?" posts. This doesn't bode well that I didn't get an O post until A to Z. This may take more years than I thought. 

2. Old School Horror, May 13, 2014

Spoiler: the horror is the teacher had a chalkboard. Mr. T is still teaching in that same classroom with that same chalkboard. (His room is a time capsule of '80s artefacts. It feels so weird typing that as many of the things in his classroom are things I remember using in the '80s.) Although, I heard through the grapevine that he might be retiring the end of this year. 

3. Out of Focus?, June 3, 2014

A technical difficulties post. Where I attempted to project something to the kiddos and couldn't get it in focus. As I write this post, the co-teacher is using a document camera (like in this old post) to go over notes with the kiddos. Although, using the document camera is falling out of favor because one can do a digital whiteboard that gets projected to the in class big screen TV. Things change, but slowly. 

4. Ongoing, July 7, 2014

A roundup post of some crocheted (and one knitted) projects. I reference my niece's 13th birthday party. She's now 23. Wow, how time flies.

5. Outburst, July 8, 2014

Two O posts in a row! And I was worried about getting enough O posts for my list. This was a repost from March 3, 2008, back when I did reposts on Tuesdays. Some kiddos decided to test me and got a referral. Because 8th graders never change. 

6. Occupational Hazard, September 4, 2014

Oh, I'm so glad this one popped up. It's one of my favorites. It's a repost from May 29, 2009, where I whine about having to watch the first 50 minutes of The Outsiders five times. Because sub. And teachers (used to) always leave videos for the sub. 

7. Oblivious, December 26, 2014

Where I sent a student out of class for blatantly being on his phone in class. Cell phone use has only gotten worse since this.

8. Out of the Box, February 10, 2015

Well, I couldn't get all the O posts out of one year, so I'll keep going from here. This is a "what if?" post. 

9. Optical Illusions, April 17, 2015

Another A to Z post (does O day always fall on April 17th?), this one a Friday. The quiz (it was a Friday, so I posted a random online quiz) is now gone.😞

10. Oblivious, August 26, 2015

This is a different post than #7, but "oblivious" is such a great word to describe the students at the continuation high school sometimes. This oblivious student was playing a game rather than doing his math, and he did not notice me when I approached. 

11. One Song, September 22, 2015

Another "what if?". 

12. One World, October 13, 2015

And another "what if?". 

13. Other Uses, November 30, 2015

And I end this list with a knitting post. The knitted letters that I've been ending my A to Z posts with were made as gift card holders, and this post talks about the time a customer at the farmer's market I used to do asked for me to make one as a car fob holder. 

Wow, this has been an interesting trip down memory lane via the blog. How things have changed (and not changed). 

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

2024 in 13 Posts

For this last Thursday of 2024, I present my recap of the year, sort of. I've gone through and meticulously selected 13 posts that represented my year...  Um, not really. It was more of a "oh, I remember that," or, "that was funny," kind of thing. 

This is a Thursday 13. (I started doing this recap in 2020, so now it's kind of a tradition.) And so, for my year in review: 

1. January 18th: Performance Review

Where a student thought I was a terrible sub and told me. Of course, the joke was on her as she ended up being a student in the long-term assignment I had starting in March.

2. February 8th: Locked In

This was the day the manual lock on my driver side door broke. I eventually got it fixed at school by their auto shop. (For the record, not the school where it broke.) There was drama, as when I went to pick up the part, I fell, landing on my face. And one of the students who worked on installing the new lock was in that long-term assignment I had that I mentioned just above in #1. (This was done in April. The lock is still working fine.)

3. February 16th: Day in the Life of a Sub

This one? Was a day. Not all my days are this all over the place. This one was notable. But, this is the job, and things can be this kind of all over the place.

4. March 11th: Two Months' Work 

This was my first major project of the year: a blanket. It was for a birthday. In January. But as I knit it in front of her (and she picked out the color and had veto power over the stitch pattern), it wasn't a surprise. 

5. April 20th: Ruined 

I did A to Z in April. And, as usual, I wrote what I normally post about, just fitting the title to the letter of the day. Then a funny thing happened, and "interesting" things happened, and I included them on Saturdays. This was the post about the fire in a neighboring building in my condo complex. (The missing cats were found alive. Currently the units are being rebuilt. It's slow going, but they're making decent progress.) 

In April

End of December

6. May 24th: The Wrong Johnson

An eighth grader used ChatGPT to help him with his work rather than his textbook. It gave him a wrong answer. He was all about how his teacher knew he did this and didn't care. Although, when I had him in class a week later, he sang a different tune (being very careful not to make my note to that teacher). 

7. June 7th: Not a Freshman, Not a Senior

From my long-term in March through May and then at the end of May comes this story. The boy claimed to be a senior. This was the day that was proven a lie.

8. July 1st: How to Crochet a Water Bottle Carrier

I added three videos to my YouTube channel this year. This was the post introducing the first one. The channel is still a work in progress, and I hope to post some new videos next year. (One is currently in production.) 

9. August 29th: Collapsing

I started this current school year in a seventh grade science class (long term). This post was where I talked about flailing as there were more schedule changes than usual.

10. September 6th: The Dog Ate My Homework

That seventh grade science class had a kiddo actually tell me he couldn't turn in an assignment due to doggie influence. (The dog peed on it.) 

11. October 14th: Eyeing the Sweater

My second major project of the year, this one was a crocheted sweater with a big eye in the center. It was for my niece's birthday (in June), but I finished it in October. Sigh. (I wrote about it sixteen times this past year as I worked on it.) 

12. November 15th: Caught in the Lie

An eighth grader lied to me (about not having a bathroom pass). Hopefully he learned not to lie to me again, as I write things down, and teachers follow up on these things.

13. December 6th: Unremarkable

I blogged about a few earthquakes that I experienced this year. (See "earthquake files" in my tags for the collection.) This was the last one for the year. (Last earthquake post. Not the last earthquake.)

Delving into D-Posts 13

It's spring break, so my subbing stories from last week have been pushed to next week. That means the blog is open for a Thursday 13. But, it's also A to Z April, so what can I make a list of that corresponds to the letter D? How about thirteen previous posts that start with the letter D?

(I spent the better part of three days trying to figure something out, so this is just going to have to do.)

Just for fun, I started with the earliest posts on this blog. While these aren't the first thirteen posts with titles that start with D on the blog, they're probably in the first twenty. 

1. Duplicates, February 21, 2008

This is the day I had four Brittanys in class. Each one with a different spelling. 

2. Denied, February 27, 2008

Just when I thought I was going to get out of work early, an extra assignment popped up. Sigh.

3. Due East, April 6, 2008

The students had a different mnemonic to help them remember the cardinal points on the compass.

4. Designing on the Fly, May 3, 2008

I knit a sweater without a plan. This was me talking about it in progress. If I recall correctly, the sweater that resulted didn't feel right on to me, so I ended up giving it away.

5. Doin' Nuthin', May 9, 2008

A familiar story: student does no work and finds ways to continue to do no work.

6. Due Process, July 27, 2008

About another pair of boys who did no work in class. Sigh.

7. Drenched, August 4, 2008

This was a day when the air conditioning was broken--in the middle of the summer. This teacher did not remain working for this school for much more than a year after this.

8. Drinking Game, September 17, 2008

This comes from the days when we were having our kitchen remodeled, back in a home I no longer live in. Sigh. I don't miss the days without a kitchen.

9. Do Not Talk to Aiden, March 31, 2009

I instructed a class not to talk to the student who needed to hunker down and get some work done. This went better than expected (although not great). 

10. Deny It Like You Mean It, April 2, 2009

One in a long line of stories where I see a student do something, and yet they still deny it was them. (The school no longer does International Day. Although, they've now started something less international-y and more spring-y.)

11. Discombobulated, May 19, 2009

This day went sideways with a change in assignment and an earthquake. Just all in a day's work, really.

12. Dangerous Delivery, October 7, 2009

This is one entry in a series I called "skunk sightings". Luckily, I never got close enough to get to test whether tomato juice helps with the smell, but I was always worried about it.

13. Dreamy Hermes, February 9, 2010

While a 7th grade English class watched The Odyssey, a girl developed a crush on the actor playing Hermes. 

It's funny to read back through these old posts. Some of these days I remember. Some of them I do not.

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

2023 in 13 Posts

As has become my routine over the last couple years, today's Thursday 13 is a review of the year in blog posts. A not-quite best-of, if you will. (How was your 2023?)

1. January 26th: Catching Up

It's the old game of students using classmates' names. They are terrible at this, but they still make the attempt anyway.

2. February 9th: Consequences

A challenging class doesn't get the reward they were promised. They complain. Loudly.

3. March 30th: Flooded

We got a lot of rain last year. (Well, a lot of rain for our area.) The schools aren't built for that kind of rain.

4. April 27th: Wasps Nest

A student spots a wasps nest on campus, and it turns out that I'm the one who gets to figure out who to contact about it. Just in time for W day in the A to Z Challenge.

5. May 25th: This Again

It used to be a major part of a sub's job: insert video, press play. Now, with streaming and computers and big screens, it isn't so easy. I had quite a few issues playing videos for classes this year.

6. June 7th: That's All, Folks

I'd been going along quite nicely, working daily, until suddenly I wasn't working. But I got to visit some colleagues while out shopping.

7. July 10th: Leaving the Mistake

I started knitting this body pillow cover in January. I officially, completely (kind of) finished it in November. By July, blog topics were scarce, so here's one of the many posts I wrote about it.

8. August 16th: Newbies

The school district hired a bunch of new subs. Good news for the sub shortage. Bad news for subs. (Work's been harder to get this school year.)

9. August 25th: Hurriquake

Southern California got hit by a tropical storm. This is not usual for us. In fact, I can't recall a time we ever before got one. While hunkered down for that storm, in the midst of the rain, we had an earthquake. If that's not the most California response to a tropical storm, I don't know what is.

10.  September 1st: Not Quite Lunchtime

I started the school year in a 9th grade English class that did not have a teacher assigned. They hired a new teacher quickly, so I only covered the class for 3 1/2 weeks. During the first week, I got hit with the school's new block schedule (which I really should have known, but we'll blame the beginning of the school year). 

11. October 5th: Cursed 5th

With the district hiring a bunch of new subs, work has been more tricky to secure. And then there was this day where I kept attempting to book it, but the jobs kept getting cancelled. (Luckily, the 4th gig I booked stuck.)

12. November 9th: Forgeries

A group of 7th graders tried to make me think their hall passes excused their tardies. Luckily, they are really bad at faking me out.

13. December 1st: Trapped

This was the day the school went on lockdown due to a student hopping the fence and a passing motorist alerting authorities. Better safe than sorry.

Twins Turn Ten

Last week was just one of those weeks. Work got busy, so when I got home, I wasn't much in the mindset to do any knitting (or crocheting). 

So, I went through my picture archives on the blog. (I was looking for a specific project that apparently I never blogged about. Sigh.) And I stumbled across these. What are they? 

They'll make more sense modeled: 

So, I've mentioned that I have four nephews, right? They've gone by various names on the blog over the years, but lately they've been eldest (who's 17), middle (who's going to be 13 next week), and the twins. 

The twins turn ten... Tomorrow. Sigh. 

(Why couldn't T day fall on the 25th?)

So, anyway, I talked about the project here and I did the birth announcement (sort of) post here. Ten years ago. 

I'll spare you all a roundup of all the things I've knitted/crocheted for them over the years (mostly because I don't have the time to hunt them all down), and just leave up their baby pictures. 

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

2022 in 13 Posts

I did this for the first time in 2020, and I liked it so much I repeated it in 2021. I guess it's an annual event now.

For this week's Thursday 13, the last one of the year, I'm listing 13 posts from this year. I wouldn't call these the best posts. It's more of a retrospective of the year told in links. It's my blog year in review. In order of posting:

1. January 27th: Disappointing Via Email

My year began in Ms. S's special ed class for young adults at the adult transition center (Ms. S suddenly retired in October 2021). January was when that Covid surge hit, and our outings got canceled, which I got to communicate to Pizza via email as he was out recovering from his Covid booster.

2. February 17th: The Shrine

In February, I was back to day-to-day subbing. The 10th grade AP world history students were taking a test, and they had a ritual for test days. They set up a shrine in the classroom.

3. March 16th: The Streaker

My day-to-day subbing was short-lived as another teacher at the adult transition center decided to retire at the end of February, and I covered that class until the end of the school year. This class was decidedly more challenging, typified by this post about Doris and her bathroom issues.

4. April 14th: Leaky & April 15th: Molar, Cracked

This might be cheating, but these both happened at the same time. I just broke them down into two posts. I had to go to the dentist for another cracked tooth the day after there was a water emergency at home, so I stayed in a hotel overnight. 

5. May 26th: Paper Airplanes and the Substitute Teacher

We did have some fun in that class at the adult transition center. They had never made paper airplanes. I thought it was time they learned how.

6. June 13th: Happy Birthday, Niece

On my niece's 21st birthday, I posted pics of the tank top I knit her. (She chose it.) It seems like I didn't do too much knitting/crocheting this year, but I did manage to complete this project.

7. July 6th: Illustrating the Lesson

After a crazy busy school year, I agreed to teach a summer school class. I learned how to post gifs to Google Slides. I think I enjoyed these more than the kiddos did.

8. August 18th: The Soft Opening

And then the new school year began.

9. September 5th: And Then It Was Done

This was my big project of the year: a unicorn hat. This was the post where I showed off the finished object. 

10. September 15th: The Sandwich Incident & September 16th: The Mommy Option

Again, cheating, but again, this is one story told over two blog posts. Colton fought me on eating in class. I emailed his mother. His mother took his punishment to a whole 'nother level. (I wouldn't normally follow up like this, but I was covering the chemistry class for three weeks.) 

11. October 13th: The Visitor

After finishing in the chemistry class, I took a month covering a class called success seminar. It did not go well. Having a student who was not enrolled in the class did not help matters.

12. November 10th: About Time

The schools got nifty new clocks. The bells are synched. This should be a good thing. But, of course, the kiddos have found the bugs in the system.

13. December 2nd: Watch Out

In which a student throws chairs. Yes. Chairs. In the classroom. 

I feel like I'm leaving so much out. But this gives the gist of the year. How was your 2022?

A Small Costume

I still haven't been motivated to do much of anything yarn-y, but luckily, that wasn't the case four years ago. I have something to wear to work today: 

It's just that touch of Halloween that I like. Perfect.

Happy Halloween.

So Hot

Today's repost from December 5, 2018 is about current slang. Because I don't often really pay attention to the terms the kiddos use, but I do hear them. Enjoy.

World history class at the continuation high school. They're doing a unit on the Holocaust. They were working on a vocabulary assignment in Google Classroom.

Because it was the continuation high school, most of them weren't doing much of anything. I was doing my usual rounds, trying to get them to make some sort of progress.

I came up on one boy who was on his phone. I questioned what he was up to. He told me that he had started the assignment, but when he opened his Google doc, his assignment had disappeared.

I completely understood. Trying to troubleshoot the problem, I asked the usual questions. He opened the Google doc to show me his assignment wasn't there... And his assignment popped up. His work had saved.

"It made me so hot when it wasn't there. I wasn't going to start it over."

And my ears perked up. "Hot"? He meant angry. Mad.

I did not know that hot was now a synonym for mad. Okay, then.

And, wouldn't you know it, other students used hot to mean angry that same day. It came up a couple times. The usage makes a certain amount of sense.

So, as you go about your day, see if you hear someone using hot to mean angry. I'm curious as to how widespread this now is.

Whoops

Summer schedule means today is #ThrowbackThursday. Today's post is from September 29, 2016. And boy, do I remember this particular oopsie! What I didn't admit at the time (but it's been long enough now that I can say) was that how I actually fixed this was to scrounge in the teacher's desk and find her username and password for her computer. Cheating, sure. But it solved the problem.

11th grade U.S. history. The teacher had found several video clips on YouTube that showed what life was like at the turn of the Twentieth Century. She left shortcuts on the main screen of her laptop, and everything was plugged in and ready to go.

In preparation, I opened each video in a new tab. And then... I shut the laptop...

...thus engaging the automatic lock.

Did I mention that the computer was logged in under the teacher's name? With a password I did not have.

via GIPHY

I realized the stupidity of closing the laptop the instant after I did it.

via GIPHY

(Why did I close the laptop? I'm not sure. I think I was trying to engage the blank screen. But who knows? I think I'll blame it on the cold I was coming down with.)

At least I had the brains to do this right before the prep period the period before I needed the videos. So, I had time to piece something together.

Some days I have it all together. And then other days I'm the stupid sub who screws it all up.

Ideas

I have only added a few new rows to the scarf...

...since this photo was taken (there's now a yellow/green stripe), so it's not really worth talking about. 

What I am doing, though, is thinking. What do I want to knit (or crochet) next? 

Now's the time to be thinking about it. Now's the time to start new projects. Once upon a time, I had three or more projects going at a time, so I could switch between them. But lately I only have one. That becomes a problem when I finish the one, as the starting of a project and the working of a project take different types of mental energy. 

When I finish a project, my working-a-project mental energy is still going strong. So, it's nice to have another already-started project to pick up. 

But what to do? 

I still have the square I did back in January. 

I can finish that yarn up by making more of those and turn it into a pillow. Maybe. 

I'm also toying with the idea to either improve upon this or make something similar with the same yarn: 

It was made for holding my phone while I walk, but it bounced around so much that I went and bought a fanny pack for walking. So this piece is hiding away someplace, not being used. 

But neither of those ideas is generating much of an itch in me. 

I just don't know what to start next. I have a while before it'll become a big issue, but I'd kind of like to have some more things started before then.

Anyone have any ideas? 

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.) 

How to Make a Bad Impression

Since it's summer, I have no new subbing stories. So, time for the wayback files for #ThrowbackThursday. This one was originally posted on November 21, 2012. I have no memory of this kid or this class, just in case you were wondering how much these incidents bother me.

We had been in class for maybe 10 minutes and I was done with Kenneth. Already, he had been out of his seat and roaming the room three times. He interrupted other students who were answering my questions. And he was twisted around in his seat so he could bother the student behind him.

When Kenneth let it be known (loudly) that I was boring him ("Can I just start now?") I knew it was time for him to go.

(To be fair here, we were reviewing literary terms such as plot, climax, resolution, character, and point of view. They'd gone over these terms before. They made flash cards. But the lesson plan said to review the terms again so they'd be ready for a test on Friday, and they were 8th graders which means that they won't really study on their own.)

"Take your work. Go next door." I even pointed in the direction I wanted him to go.

"Outside?"

"Next door."

45 minutes later, I got a phone call from another sub. Kenneth had just arrived. Also, he slammed into a desk, laughed, and disrupted that class.

Two thoughts occurred:

1. Why was I directed to send students out to a class with a sub?
2. Where had Kenneth been for 45 minutes?  

Not five minutes later Kenneth returned to retrieve his stuff. I asked him where he had been all period.  

"Outside. There is no next door."  

The room we were in was at the end of a building. There was no next door on one side. But on the other, the way I pointed...  

(By the way, I later figured out that the room I sent Kenneth to and the one he went to were not the same. He disrupted the class at the other end of the hall.)  

At this point I tried to collect his assignment (the thing he was supposed to be doing in the other classroom), but he wouldn't give it to me. Because, of course, he had not done it.  

Kenneth was pleased with himself. I could tell. He had put one over on the sub.  

Of course, Kenneth doesn't know me very well. Because as he was playing this game, I was mentally composing my note. (I debated whether or not a referral would have been better, but I figured he would just toss it and go to lunch as lunch was five minutes away.)  

I spent half of the next class period writing all of this down. I got the impression that this teacher is of the strict variety. Yeah, I wouldn't want to be in Kenneth's shoes that next day.  

2020 in 13 Posts

It's the last day of the year. And it's a Thursday. So, why not a retrospective of my year via a Thursday 13? Sounds like a plan. 

So, 13 blog posts from this year. I wouldn't call them the best. It's more of a snapshot of each month during this very strange year. 

1. January 10th: Another Fall Day

Wherein I tell you all about another fall I had, this one in front of a class of 7th graders. 

2. January 22nd: Powerless

Miscreants stole the battery out of my car while I was parked at school. The nerve.

3. February 27th: Dancing Fool

He said he had a headache. And then he was dancing in class. Dancing!

4. March 12th: The Screamers

A reminder of some of the horrors that I don't miss in working from home. Boys screaming in class, as if in a porno.

5. April 9th: Hello, Neighbor

Now fully into lockdown, I encountered Minions during a walk nearby.

6. May 13th: The Long Wait

Cinco de Mayo fell on Taco Tuesday, so we had to get Mexican food for dinner. Obviously. It was so obvious, everyone did the same.

7. June 1st: Stash Shark

Because I have to do a project post for this year, and this one feels like it should be it.

8. July 2nd: Modern Problems

The problem with homemade masks is threads getting in your nose while out shopping. 

9. August 26th: Teaching to an Empty Room

Because school started, but here in California it started virtually. 

10. September 23rd: Offline

Having WiFi issues during distance learning is a bad thing. 

11. October 22nd: A Very Different Evacuation

Every year we do the Great California ShakeOut. We did it this year without students. 

12. November 11th: Disruptions

It turns out kiddos can disrupt online class. It took the continuation high school to figure it out.

13. December 7th: Laws of Gravity 3000

Where I hit post #3000. I couldn't not celebrate that, now could I? 

I think this is a pretty good mix for the year. Could I add more posts? Definitely. But keeping it to the 13 was a great exercise in whittling it down.

How was your 2020? 

Scenes from Turkey Day

Last Thursday was kind of a sad day for me. So many things have been cancelled this year due to the pandemic, but this one hit me hard. Turkey day. No students attending the continuation high school in person, so of course, no turkey day. 

So, I'm reposting last year's turkey day post that I posted on Thanksgiving of last year. Enjoy. 

Last Thursday was the continuation high school's annual Turkey Day. It's the day they serve a turkey dinner lunch brunch to the students and the school district community. I make sure that I have a gig there that day.

(I've written about Turkey Day before: 2008, 2013, 2015. Or just click on the tag "turkey day".)

The day is always rather catawampus. I've worked at the continuation high school long enough to know to go with the flow. Some of the crazy:

• Period 1: Jordan (no, not that Jordan--there happen to be three of them) came into class with a classroom exchange pass. Only, the pass was to go to PE. (I was in the woodshop.) Apparently I was the preferred sub (PE had a sub, too). I told him to get a pass to woodshop. He left instead. (The office was not pleased he was not where he said he'd be.) 


• They don't get to use the machinery with a sub, but I allowed painting. Elijah had painted his name plate blue. He went looking for red paint. While the blue was still wet, he painted over it with the red. (Me and another student warned him.) It came out a streaky purple. Which he tried to say was something he liked the look of. Sigh. 


• I had snack duty, so I didn't get my bathroom break until after the bell. Of course, another teacher darted in front of me. So, I was late getting to third period. I felt bad about this until the teacher next door arrived at the same time. Whew! Not that late, then.
• Oh, by the way, he's an author (the teacher next door). You can find his website here, and his books on Amazon are here. He writes fantasy.


• Bob arrived with a tardy slip half way into fourth period. He asked me to mark him present for third period. He claimed he had been in the office. When I called the office "to check", I was told he had only just arrived. I mean, nice try at fixing his attendance record, but perhaps actually attending would work better. 


• We adults didn't get to eat until after school. (We got out at noon that day, so not a hardship.) Another sub didn't want to go. (I mean, I get it. It was hard for me to join in when I was a newbie.) Me and Mr. G (he was the teacher for the class I covered in August last year when he got stuck on jury duty) did convince her to peek in. She was eventually convinced to take a to-go plate.

I guess it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a little drama. 

Bubble Gum Physics

Last week was kind of slow, so I went back into my archives for a #ThrowbackThursday post. I searched "Halloween" and found this post from November 2, 2007. Funny thing is, I remember this day. It was a cool assignment. And the kiddos behaved as eighth graders would for such a thing. 

As you know, Wednesday was Halloween. And I covered an 8th grade science class.

The teacher left them a lab assignment. "Bubble gum physics." The object was. . . Well, I think the ultimate object was to learn about speed (measuring it and figuring out how to find it) and all the calculations that go into it. What they actually did, though, was to chew gum.

Gum is not allowed in school. So, using gum in a class experiment was a treat. It's just that it would probably have been a better treat if the assignment wasn't overseen by a substitute teacher!

Well, all things considered, it went pretty well. I actually spent the day reminding them how to round numbers and how to take averages. And I had to make sure that they didn't take more than one piece of gum. Unfortunately, at that I failed. How do I know? I was given 380 pieces of gum. By the end of the day, I had four. 35 students per period, 5 periods. . . The math just doesn't work out, kind of like most of the math they were trying to do.

Introductions

As we begin a new school year, I thought it appropriate for today's #ThrowbackThursday to revisit the beginning of the school year last year. Which was a different world compared to our beginning this year.

Last year I ended up covering a middle school English class for about the first three weeks. This year I'm continuing with the alternative education center's classes for about two more weeks. This year I get to do a bit more planning ahead, so that'll be nice. Last year I walked in cold, but I had a contingency plan anyway... 

Yesterday I whined about getting stuck with a vacant class. But this wasn't my first rodeo. Even when the sub caller told me it wasn't a vacant class, I prepped for the day as if it was. And that saved my butt.

Because while there was a school-wide activity prepped for the first day, there wasn't one for the second.

I decided to have the kiddos interview each other.

It was a simple activity. I prepped ten questions for them to ask each other. Then I gave them a sentence frame to insert their partner's answers into. Finally, everyone got a chance to read their sentence frames out loud.

The seventh graders did very well. The most popular wish was to ask for more wishes. I was surprised how many students considered Alfredo their favorite food. One student told how his partner had gone to Ohio over the summer. The partner clarified that he had actually gone to Idaho.

The eighth graders...

Yeah. Um. They finished interviewing each other. That was cool.

However, we did not have time for them to read their interview answers. Because, um, yeah, it took that long to get through the interviews.

Did I mention last year how horrible the seventh graders were? I may not have. But let me just say, um, yep, horrible. And this year they're eighth graders.

On the bright side, that means we'll probably go through half as many lessons. And hopefully, the honeymoon period will last until they get a teacher in to cover the class for the rest of the year.

Last year's horrible eighth graders are this year's ninth graders. Oh joy. And they did hire a teacher to take over the class, as I think I mentioned in my posts last year. 

I got a chance to chat with Mr. F much of the year (until we shut down), and he was happy with the group. He managed to get the difficult eighth graders to accomplish something. (He had been hoping to get a middle school placement.) He came in as a long-term sub for the first semester, then he was asked to finish off the year, and then he got offered a full-time contract. (I had told him that the class was essentially vacant, and he proceeded accordingly.) 

Games Cheerleaders Play

My big excitement for last week was rearranging my yarn. Seriously. I removed it from a box containment system and put the various skeins in bags... Yeah, I won't bore you with details. That just means that today is a #ThrowbackThursday day. 

The new Blogger makes it harder to go back to older posts. Sigh. So, this isn't as way-back as I could go, but it'll do. It's from May 23, 2014, and it was an interesting day. 

It was a Friday near the end of the school year, and I ended up subbing for the cheerleading coach. She taught science the rest of the day. It was only for 6th period that I had the cheerleaders. All sitting in one classroom. With nothing to do.

(Well, technically, they had a "study hall". But rarely do the students in these types of classes, i.e. student government, the yearbook, the golf team, do anything on days like this.)

I managed to get roll taken, and then I sat back. One girl asked the others if they'd like to play a game.

Days like these I get to be a fly on the wall. They know I'm there, but quickly they forget all about me. And I get to see them in their natural habitat. What sort of game were they going to play?

The girl announced that they were going to play "Going on a Cruise Ship". Each girl got to take two items with her. And if she got the items wrong, she was booted off the ship. Now, the rules of the game were kind of unclear, because one girl said she'd bring her swimsuit but was booted off while another said she'd bring an alligator but could stay.

But that was the point. From playing the game and listening in, the girls had to catch on. (A girl near me explained the situation.) It was a puzzle. And it ticked a couple of the girls off.

(I've done a couple cursory Google searches, but I have been unable to find the games. So, sorry, I can't provide rules.)

Apparently, they played this game at cheer camp last summer. And there were other games, too. After they all figured out the cruise ship rules (or some just gave up).

The next game had to do with a bouncing ball. Not an actual bouncing ball, but a fictional ball that one girl threw to another, but that girl missed it, and it went... That's what they had to guess. Who had the ball? This one they figured out pretty quickly.

Then the first girl took three dry erase markers from the board. She arranged them on the floor in the middle of the group, saying that she was "drawing a picture" of one of the girls. (No vandalism took place.) Then the girls had to guess who she drew.

Now, for me it was hard to follow along as I didn't know the girls' names. I learned a few as they did all of this, but from my vantage point and where the dry erase markers were, it was hard for me to see the full picture. (I could have gotten up. They wouldn't have objected if I sat among them. But I didn't.)

The last game had them looking at the moon (figuratively) and having something with them. Again, no rules. They had to figure it out themselves.

It drove some of them crazy. One girl would think she had it, attempt to do something using the rules as she understood them, and find out that she had it wrong.

I thought it was a great mental exercise. Very educational. Of course, I didn't mention that. They were having too much fun. (Or maybe "fun". You know, the kind that makes you crazy because you want to know how it works. Kind of like magic tricks.)

The Wrong Site

Since Darla brought it up... 

Pretty much nothing happened last week in my little corner of the world. (The world at large was figuratively on fire, but it's been that way for a while now. Besides, you all already know this.) Which means it's a #ThrowbackThursday. 

I'm reposting the post from May 9, 2019. Darla's comment last week: "...I'd probably end up in the wrong school based on some substitute teacher's regular rounds in our state," reminded me of the day that *ahem* I ended up at the wrong school...

Considering how long I've been subbing, I'm surprised I haven't had this issue before.

I had called ahead a couple weeks prior for this assignment. "Mrs. Jones" at "school A". I've covered Cindy Jones' class several times, so I knew what I was in for. (Cindy Jones' room is pictured above.)

It was a pretty good morning, and I managed to get there fairly early. I went to check in.

"You're at [school B] today for [Rebecca Jones]."

Erm.

I was told "school A".

A couple things were working in my favor. I was running early. And "school B" starts a half hour later than "school A".

I got to "school B" easily and checked in. It was a bit of mentally changing gears. Cindy Jones teaches English. Rebecca Jones teaches intro to health careers.

I blame the sub caller. She's new. As in, she's had the job for about a month. Mistakes happen.

(I did actually get a chance to chide her for this. She called me for a gig for the next day. I mean, I wasn't going to call her just to give her a hard time about the mixing up of the schools.)

The Bed Saga

Thursdays are #ThrowbackThursdays around here (when I have nothing else to say). Considering how this year has gone, I wanted to look back to happier times--last year. And, well, I was dealing with this. From May 20, 2019: 

My bed is trying to kill me.

— Elizabeth Arundel (@ZiziRho) May 15, 2019

No, not literally. Although, the concussion screams intent.

It all started about three weeks ago, on April 30th. I sat on my bed to put on my shoes, something I do every morning.

Thunk.

The bed fell under me. In that moment, I wanted to figure out what had happened, but I didn't have time, not if I wanted to get to work on time. So, I finished putting on my shoes, and I was out the door. I didn't think too much about it, other than some generalized worry, until I got home. That's when I went about ascertaining what broke.

The bed is what they call a Hollywood frame. It's just a simple rail. I've had this bed for about five years without a lick of trouble.

It turned out that the wheel had snapped off. I was able to glue it back together and place it back on that leg.

But that was a temporary fix.

I searched online for a replacement wheel. No local retailers carried it, but it was available online. (From wheel break to ordering replacement wheel took two days. I had to go to work and such.)

Alas, the temp fix was very temporary. The wheel continued to fall off at least once a day. Anything would jar it loose. I was very careful with my movements, but still it would pop off with a "thunk" when I least expected it. Or when I did expect it. It was a pretty constant thing.

Tracking showed the replacement showing up the following Tuesday, May 7th. But on Saturday, when I had time, I needed to deal with another bed problem. The rail was creeping out. An easy fix...

I stripped the bed. Then, by myself, I flipped up the mattress and box spring to lean against the wall. Then the rails. I tightened them. I put the bed back to rights. Since I had stripped the bed, I figured that was a good time to wash the sheets and such. Once they were clean, I remade the bed, and all was good, except for that wheel. I was good for a couple days, until the wheel arrived.

Only, guess what came in the mail just after I had finished putting my bed to rights?

So, this next bit is just sheer laziness. I didn't fix the wheel that day. I figured I could wait another week. What's another week, right?

Then, Tuesday night, as I was nearly asleep (and not moving at all), the wheel fell off again, and I was DONE.

After work Wednesday, May 8th, I stripped the bed, flipped up the mattress and box spring, flipped up the rail, and went about removing the wheel. You'd think this would be easy, but the wheel was attached via a long connector that didn't remove easily. Pliers worked.

The replacement wheel fit perfectly.

Before returning the bed to rights, I went to tighten the rails again. Only, one of the brackets would not. It popped off the bed.

Upon further examination, I found that the bracket had bent, just a little. But that little was enough so that it would no longer fit on the bed. And the rail needed that to support weight.

The bracket on the left is the working one. The bracket on the left has been stretched out ever so slightly, just enough to no longer fit on the rail.

Over the course of an hour, I tried everything I could think of, including hammering the bracket to bend it back. It was enough. I was able to reassemble the bed.

It was so nice to sleep in the bed without having random thunks in the middle of the night.

However, as I walked by the bed the next morning...

Thunk.

The bottom half of the bed had collapsed. The bracket failed.

Again, I went online to order a replacement part. (I did go out to see if I could find it locally. I could not.) But what size did I need? What did I need to measure? That took a while to figure out.

While I was waiting, though, the frame would not hold. There was nothing else to do but remove the frame entirely and put the box spring on the floor, like a teenager. Sigh. (Plus, I store stuff under there. All of it had to be moved out and stored somewhere for the wait.)

The replacement bracket arrived on the following Monday, May 13th. I worked up the energy to put things back together on Tuesday. I stripped the bed, flipped up the mattress and box spring, and brought the rails out.

I propped the two parts of the frame up against the box spring as it leaned against the wall. I started by attaching a bracket to the bottom half...

I'm sure you can see what's coming. If I had been thinking...

Yeah, so one side fell over as I was doing this, landing on my head. Hard. No, I didn't pass out, but it hurt.

And... The bracket didn't fit. It turns out that I had ordered the wrong size.

The gold-tone is the proper size. The silver-tone is just a bit too big.

(I spent an hour trying to figure out which size I needed. I measured. I even tried it on the rails before flipping up the bed, and it seemed to work. But when it came time to actually put things together, big fat fail.)

So, everything had to go back to how it had been. Back to the internet to order the correct size. Hopefully.

This time I ordered the part right away, although I spent a lot of time looking at the smaller size. Was this correct? Was I going to screw up again?

Tracking showed that the package would arrive on Saturday. I was out, so I wasn't thinking about the package delivery. I pulled my phone out of my purse to check the time or weather or something to find a text from the delivery driver.

He couldn't find my place. And I had five minutes to respond. The text had been sent a half hour prior.

(I know, you all have your phones set so you can hear them when you're out, right? I don't. My ringer is set for a good volume to wake me for early morning subbing calls. Soft enough so that it doesn't jar me awake. As I get very few actual calls or texts, I don't think about raising the volume the rest of the time.)

Then I got an email saying the delivery had failed.

Grrr. Was I going to have to wait another week for another day off to finally fix my bed? Was I even going to get the delivery?

But then, I get home to find the package. I guess the delivery driver found my place after all. Whew.

These brackets were smaller than the ones I had already on my bed, but they actually fit. Hooray!

And on Sunday, my bed went back together. Finally.

So, fingers crossed. Because if this bed breaks again...

tl;dr: My bed broke. It took three weeks to fix. 

Alas, this was not the final fix. There is a part 2 to this story. The duct tape solution kept things together pretty well. But then, in August, the guy who put my ceiling back together was kind enough to fix the bed once and for all. He drilled holes and bolted the bed frame together. And that solution continues to hold to this day. 

I'm so glad I don't have room issues during this stay-at-home time. That was quite the ordeal last year.