Running Late

It was Friday morning, and I was having a Friday Late. 

But I wasn't too concerned. It was already going to be an odd day. I had gotten an email the prior day about how the teacher I was scheduled to cover wasn't going to need me all day, so they had modified my schedule so I'd be roving rather than covering one class. 

(Yeah, so Ms. M had seniors, and Senior Seminar--a day when all the seniors do a thing together out of class--got moved to this particular Friday. Ms. M only had one period of sophomores. I love roving days, so the switch wasn't going to bother me.)

I left home at the usual time, but I got on campus about ten minutes later than normal. Then, while checking in for the day, I took some time to talk to the secretary. Stuff about the roving day. The schedule she had emailed me had been altered as two of the teachers no longer needed me, but a third did. 

By the time I left the office to head to the classroom, the warning bell had rung. (Usually I have ten to fifteen minutes before the school day starts to get set up.) And I had to get from the main office to the back of the school. I had time, but I was going to have a crowd of students waiting.

Only, I did not. Weird.

I got to the classroom a good two minutes (at least) after the warning bell, and there were no students in sight. 

Uh oh. Did I make a mistake? Was I at the correct room for the period? 

I double checked my book. Yup, I was in the right place.

I opened the door. I almost went in to put my bag down when a student arrived. And then another. Whew. They were just cutting it close.

When the bell rang to start class, I had seventeen students. Out of thirty-four. Over the first twenty or so minutes of class, eight more students arrived. (Yeah, they've got a tardy problem at the school. Which is funny as the school day now starts at 8:30 AM. Before 2020, school started at 7:30 AM.) 

Well, at least they weren't waiting on me. And I was there before the bell.

There's just something about Fridays...

Locked Down

Some days are just weird.

I had taken the gig fully aware that it was a roving situation. When I inquired further, I was told that several teachers were being filmed for a video promoting the career and technical classes. The teachers would need time out of class for their interviews, but not a whole period, and especially not a whole day.

I do love a good roving assignment.

When I arrived on Friday, I learned that the interviews weren't starting until noon. (School starts at 8:30.) I was given a class to cover for one period, but I would have the second block off.

So, second block, sitting in the teacher's lounge, I was waiting. And then an announcement...

We were going into lockdown. 

(Later I learned that there was a robbery nearby. The suspect fled. In an abundance of caution, the sheriff's department locked down us and the nearby elementary school. The suspect never entered either campus.) 

Students go a bit nuts when they hear lockdown. Suddenly half the class has to use the restroom. And they know we can't send them out of class, so they misbehave more than normal. (I know this from experience.) 

Luckily, I had no students. I had a nearby bathroom. And I had comfortable couches to sit on. 

Yeah, I don't mind this sort of lockdown.

The lockdown lasted almost an hour. Of course, that meant that the interviews would start late as we weren't allowed out until after noon. (It was just after noon, though. Maybe five minutes.) And the teachers I relieved were a bit frazzled as they had had full rooms of students during said lockdown.

I lucked out.

All Over the Place

It was the penultimate week of school...

(Keep in mind that my posts generally appear the week after the week in which they occurred. And I only do subbing stories Wednesday through Friday, so I'm cherry-picking the most blog-worthy events.)

(Yes, this is still late, comparatively. But in my part of the country, this was normal. I say "was" because next year we're joining you all. Our first day of school for the 2018-19 school year is August 20th. Which is way early for us. I guarantee whining will occur, especially with our shortened summer this year.)

...and I was kind of all over the place. Three days of middle school. Two days "roving" (well, one actual roving day and one that turned into a roving day). One day with a severe special ed class. Well, one and a half. The roving day had a couple of those classes as well.

Yet, I've been struggling to come up with blog posts.

I could tell you about Monday's severe special ed. class. But the most interesting thing about that day was how badly sunburned one of the instructional aides had gotten over the weekend. (It's a long story about him working on a historical ship.)

Tuesday had one awful period (out of five). Awful, as in I had to keep them from talking over the movie. Yup, a video day. What's more boring than writing about a video day? Working one.

Wednesday was one of my roving days. And I was able to pull a story out of it. You'll see that one tomorrow.

Thursday I covered a teacher who works in three different classrooms. And since I covered an extra period in the time between the two classes in the same room, I spent the whole day travelling. It's not as bad as it sounds. Alas, the drama class had little drama. The leadership class did as they were told. And the ELD classes... Well, I'll have a story from them on Friday.

And finally, Friday I had a lovely day with well-behaved seventh graders preparing for their finals. Seriously, they were actually working. And asking questions. That were relevant. There was one period with two students, but that was because the eighth graders were on their end-of-the-year excursion to Knott's Berry Farm.

Some weeks finding things to write about is hard.

Happy birthday to my niece, Olivia. She's 17 today. I will ask her what she wants me to make for her at some point today. What do you think she should ask for?

Forgot Something

As I was planning out this week...

Yesterday, while planning #AtoZChallenge posts, I jotted down a title. Forgot Something. And now I can’t remember what I was planning for that post.

— Elizabeth Arundel (@ZiziRho) March 30, 2018

It was a weird day at the middle school. I had a "roving" assignment. I was only covering periods 1-3 for Mr. R, so I had arrived before 1st period, and he was telling me what his classes were doing. His phone rang...

After writing the student a pass and putting it on his empty desk, Mr. R went back to telling me what I needed to know. He left for his meeting before the students started arriving.

A student approached me. He had found his pass. But where was he to go?

I looked over the pass. Everything was filled out except for the destination. And I hadn't thought to ask Mr. R when he got the call.

Oh well. I knew whoever wanted the student would eventually call back. I told the student to wait.

Less that two minutes after the bell, we got a call. Sure enough, they were calling for the student. (They needed him in the discipline office.) I sent him on his way...

Then, a few minutes after that, a student brought in a call slip from the office. It was a pass for the student.

I guess they really, really needed to talk to him in the discipline office.

(The student returned to class. He didn't look stressed. So, whatever was up, it wasn't too terrible for him.)

As I was planning out this week, I was jotting down posts when I had free time in class. I had had time to jot down the title for this post before getting called away to deal with other things. When I got some time the next day to start sketching out this post, for the life of me I couldn't remember what the title referred to.

I wracked my brains. I went through each and every class I covered for the whole week. It wasn't coming to me. I gave up and scratched out the title from my list.

Upon arriving home, I went through my pictures to get them ready for my posts. And in the picture for this post was that pink pass. And it all came back to me. Whew.

What was the last thing your forgot that drove you crazy trying to remember? Did you eventually remember? Did any of your post titles inadvertently come true in a bizarre way?

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

A Forced Computer Restart

Friday was a weird day. I got what is called a "roving" assignment. It was a training day for the English teachers. But instead of having them out all day, they split the group in half so half were out for the first half of the day while the other half were out for the second. And since the teacher I was covering the first half of the day had a 1st period prep, I was sent elsewhere for that period.

Which is why when I walked into the class I was covering 2nd period, I was not surprised to find the computer set up with the class' assignment.

The class had vocabulary words to copy down. This is something they do every day. All I had to do was turn on the projector.

Well, ideally that's how it would have worked out.

When I got into the room, I found a countdown clock on the computer. I had less than ten minutes before it was going to shut down.

I know this drill. The computer uploads updates. Then it tells you it needs to shut down. But you can postpone that. So, that's what I did. I told the computer to postpone shutting down for four hours.

Only, that didn't stop the countdown clock. Nothing would stop the countdown clock. I tried the exit button. I tried CTRL-ALT-DEL. I tried the escape button. I clicked on everything I could. But the countdown clock kept ticking away.

The only other trick I know is to shut down the computer. Which is what it was going to do anyway.

Unfortunately, it was going to take the vocabulary words with it. And I didn't have the teacher's log in, so when the computer restarted, I would not be able to access the teacher's files.

Ah, technology...

In the end, I could not stop the forced shut down. The students had maybe five minutes of the eight to ten that they needed to copy down the words. And with no other choice, I then just started them on the assignment for the rest of the period.

It was a freshman class, so I had the usual freshman problems. The teacher's computer finished restarting. And then I could log in to the computer under my log in.

And it turned out that the teacher had a back up for me. She had printed out the words (as well as the words for the next class), and her document camera was connected. So, I set that up, and about halfway through the class, we were able to complete the vocabulary that should have been done at the start.

Better late than never.

With that technical difficulty out of the way, I had no issues with the computer for the next class.

These are the joys of subbing. Unexpected issues always seem to crop up.

That's My Job

It was a weird roving day at the middle school. The 7th grade teachers were meeting with the 6th grade teachers from the elementary schools, but only for a period at a time. So, several subs were dispatched to cover, meaning I covered four different teachers that day.

I love roving days.

Third period I covered a reading class. The teacher had written out her lesson plans, and she had listed all fourteen students enrolled, highlighting the six who I needed to keep an eye on.

Half the class worked on a computer program while the other half read books. Half way through the period, they switched places. Two boys on the computers could not get their computers to hear their microphones. (They read out loud for the computer.)

Liz (not me, but one of the students on the watch list) came over to "help". I shooed her away. Yes, I knew the whole restart the computer thing. I knew to try to switch out the mic. Eventually, one boy got his to work, but not the second. Liz returned to tell him to use Internet Explorer rather than Google Chrome. (Which, sadly, did the trick.)

Now it was time for Liz to get to work. She was in the reading-a-book group. But, she was more interested in other things. Like, one boy had his monitor turned away from her. She informed me he could be doing something he shouldn't. (He wasn't. I noticed that earlier and verified he was on task.)

Then, Liz needed to remind me that they were only reading for 25 minutes and then they'd switch. And she needed to know when the period ended. And on and on.

I calmly explained that she had a job to do. Read. Taking care of those other things? My job.

I explained that I was keeping an eye on the clock. I was keeping an eye on the class. I was doing my job.

Liz only settled once she got to go on the computer. (The second half of the class was much calmer than the first.)

Ah, the joys of middle school...

A Roving Day, Part 2

I tend to pick and choose amongst my days, highlighting the "best" incidents from my week. Subbing is a very variable gig, and today I thought I'd show a not-so-typical-but-kind-of-indicative day--my one day roving to different classes all day. Because this has gotten rather long, I've broken it up into two parts.

Yesterday I left off with my not looking forward to 4th period. Because it was PE.

I don't voluntarily take PE gigs.

They're not really bad days, or so I'm told. But I avoid them because

• They take place outside
• In the sun
• Where I have a tendency to burn (I have very fair skin)
• And I'm never sure where to go, what to do, etc...

I do get sent to cover the occasional extra period outside, though.

The teacher was there to give me the rundown before he left. He even gave me a student to act as my "assistant coach". But the class was on sub behavior, and another student attempted to take over (when I indicated my "assistant coach" was to do the warm up, he still tried to lead it).

Somehow we got to their activity. They were to run around the baseball field, do 5 sit ups and 5 push ups, and then give me their numbers so I could record it. Then they'd repeat. In all, their goal was 5 laps, 25 sit ups, and 25 push ups.

My assistant was great, making sure no one neglected their push ups or sit ups while I got bogged down recording numbers as students passed. (I learned later that this student had certain issues which was why the teacher singled her out to help me. It kept her involved in the class.)

The student who tried to take over? He noticed I had circled his number on the tally sheet, and he kept asking why (while I took down a dozen numbers as the students passed. I was not about to stop and explain and make the others wait, but he kept pestering until he finally got me at a lull between rushes).

I was sweaty and pink by 5th period. And looking forward to sitting in a cool classroom. For 5th period was a math class. Special ed, but RSP special ed, so more like a regular algebra 1 class, only with fewer students.

Only I get to class to have the teacher explain that they were doing an outside activity.

Internal groan. (I plastered a pleasant expression on my face, though.)

It was a good day for it, though. Yes, it's November, but our high was in the 80s (Fahrenheit), and it was sunny and nice out. (The nights have been cool.)

I remained in the shade while the class took five two-footed jumps apiece and wrote down how far they'd flown. Later they'd take this data and construct graphs from it. Mr. L explained that this good group could do this assignment with a sub. His other classes wouldn't have been able to handle it. And he was right, they did very well, and they took down their data easily.

Then I had one more period to go. I arrived to 6th period a little early only to surprise the teacher. I explained that I'd been roving, and he told me he hadn't been notified, his email was down, and he couldn't be out of class as they had a test the next day.

Okay, then.

I went to the office to explain the situation. Phone calls were exchanged. Ten minutes later I was sent back...

Roving days. Always an adventure.

A Roving Day, Part 1

I generally like roving assignments. They have variety, and if one period is awful, I'm likely to have something completely different the next.

Last Wednesday I was called in for my second roving assignment in as many weeks. It was an interesting juxtaposition of classes. It made for a strange, crazy, almost typical day.

Period 1 I had a CAHSEE math class that was more interesting for who taught it. I needed Ms. V's help with a project, and until this day I had been unable to to get to her class. But this wasn't going to be the day as she would be out of her class while I was there.

Then something funny happened. I got to the room, and Ms. V said I needed to call the front office. My 2nd period assignment had been cancelled, and I was getting a prep period that day. Which meant I could stick around, wait for Ms. V to get back to her class, and get the help I needed. Hooray.

1st period was a typical CAHSEE class. These were the students who had not passed the CAHSEE yet, so they were getting some extra help in hopes that the next time they take the test, they'll pass it.

The students weren't all that into the assignment, but other than being rather talkative (which I had been warned about), they were fine. Most of them I had met in some place or other, so it was just me listening in on their conversations and joining in where appropriate.

I left for 3rd period in a good mood. (This project had been hanging over my head for 3 weeks!)

Period 3 was interesting because I had been in that class all day the previous day. So, I knew exactly what I was in for.

It was a severely handicapped special ed class. There were roughly a dozen students. Two of them had one-on-one aides who worked with them all day. A couple of them could not be enticed to do much of anything. The rest I spent the day interacting with.

When I worked with Happy, she'd parrot back what I said to her, but when directed, she could, for example, circle most of the UPs on the page on her own. Getting her going was the challenge. Then she'd finish, get some free time, and put together 45-piece jigsaw puzzles like a champ.

The next day I was remembered. All the students who spoke said, "Hi, Ms. A." They were surprised to see me again. I explained that their teacher would return for the next period, and Isaac repeated this several times.

For 3rd period, I worked with Isaac, Frank, and Pedro. They were going through a grocery ad and answering questions like, "Find something priced per pound. How much is 4 pounds?"

Each boy grabbed my arm because they each needed my help right now even though I was helping someone. I had to find the items needed in the ad so that I could direct them to them (and prompt them as to what they needed to write down). They were able to do the writing down of it all, but the finding was hard for them.

Watching Isaac write was fascinating. He wrote every letter backwards. That is, he starts his letters where I end mine. So, to him, I write backwards.

I don't cover SH classes too much. Mostly extra periods here and there. Those that are with these kids daily are amazing people, and they do wonderful things with a very different population.

While period 3 wasn't awful, I was glad to move on to period 4. Even though I wasn't looking forward to the assignment. Which I'll continue tomorrow...

Stalker

I mean me.

"Did we have math homework?"

6th period. 7th grade English. They had a packet on verbs and adverbs to work on. We spent a lot of time going over it with me giving examples.

It had been a strange day. Roving assignment. The schools have been doing these teacher trainings for about a month or so now. It's on campus and part day. They pull a bunch of teachers for a couple periods at a time--some for three, some for less than that.

For us subs, it means that we cover a couple different teachers in a day. This day I covered 7th grade history for three periods, pre-algebra for one period, and 7th grade English for one period.

The 7th grade history classes were fine. A bit loud. But on task.

Then the pre-algebra class was right next door. And about a third of the class had been in one of the history classes.

The English class was a bit farther than that. Not next door, but the rooms were within sight of each other. And, of course, I had a handful of students that I had encountered earlier in the day. It's like I was following them.

Bwahahahaha!

Stalking students. Another service I offer.

(By the way, the answer to the math homework question was no. She was asking me. Because I had been there.)

Teacher Roulette

Last Monday I got called for "school business" and the school was going to need ten subs. Sounds like my kind of day!

I love roving-type assignments. You're not stuck in one classroom all day. It's more likely that you'll get a chance to see the teacher and give verbal notes (rather than the written down kind). And it just feels less like work somehow.

Turned out that two groups of teachers were having meetings, one group for periods 1-3 and the other for periods 4-6. The secretary assigned us subs to a teacher for periods 1-3 in kind of the order that we arrived for the day.

After 3rd period, we turned in our key for the first three periods. The secretary had a pile of keys for the remaining classes. She dug in and pulled out a key at random.

And the winner was...room 710.

To a certain extent, my assignments can be a bit luck-of-the-draw. This day more so than others, though.

(For the record, all were English classes, and only one class was difficult. The difficult class settled nicely once I warned them that names would be taken.)