The Get-Out-of-the-Test-Free Card

Thursday. Sophomore math. Third period.

I had been in the class since Tuesday as the teacher had some foot injury that meant he couldn't put any weight on it. I was supposed to start Monday, but I stayed home with a cold. 

On Tuesday, the students got the study guide for Thursday's test. (Block schedule. The classes meet every other day.) They had some time to work on it, and then Mr. Y, the co-teacher, went over the problems so the students knew how to do them. (They were studying solving quadratic equations.) 

Then Wednesday happened. (If you haven't seen yesterday's post, you might want to check it out.) 

As first period ended and third period began, I was not surprised at the arrival of the principal, an assistant principal, and three counselors. Because, you see, the student had been in this class, and their passing would be very noticeable. 

(The student sat in the back of the room, so maybe some of them wouldn't have noticed. But one tends to at least have a passing acquaintance with the students in one's classes.)

I mean, this is when it would hit you, if you didn't have the student in another class before this. And three girls huddled in the middle of the room, one bawling while two others held her. Mr. Y found the tissue and made sure to distribute it. 

The principal talked about where the students could go for support. There's a whole system in place currently. The others said a few words. And then, when none of the students had anything to say, they left. 

Test time? Nah. Mr. Y wasn't going to make them take a test. Not now. 

While some of the students weren't close with the student who was now gone, some were. And, it just wasn't the day for it. 

Many of the students spent the period on their phones. Some talked. Some cried. I assume some were avoiding thinking about it. I understand. 

After class, Mr. Y wondered about when he'd give the test. I advocated for just cancelling it for them. (All the other classes took it.) Giving it the next week would throw third period off the same schedule as the rest of the classes. They'd be a day behind. 

(And, it was hard for Mr. Y as well. The previous class he sat with the student and talked to them for a bit. Later, before I left school on Tuesday, Mr. Y told me the student seemed off that day.)

Ultimately, Mr. Y will discuss this with Mr. R (the teacher I was subbing for), and they'll make that decision. (It'll hit Mr. R hard, too. All the teachers who had that student are feeling this.) 

It's such a weird time. I think missing one test won't make all that much difference in the grand scheme of things. 

Taking Over

I've been doing a lot of co-teaching lately. That is, I've been covering in classes where there are two teachers, either covering the general ed teacher or the special ed teacher. And I've done a lot of days where both of those teachers were absent, so it was me and another sub running the class. 

My rule of thumb is if I'm covering the general ed teacher, I'll take the lead but if I'm covering the special ed teacher, I'll take a step back and let the other sub take lead. (If one of the regular teachers is there, they generally take lead.) 

Tuesday. English 10. 

I got to school at my usual time, but I had to wait outside the classroom as the sub covering the general ed teacher got the key to the room. Alas, he only arrived just after the warning bell rang. Deep sigh.

We got into the room with a bunch of the kiddos. I found Ms. B's desk and read through the lesson plans as the other sub did the same for Ms. U's plans. The plans were the same, of course, and we both needed to know what was going on. 

The bell rang to start the first class, and I waited. He would surely get things going, right? 

He kinda did? It... wasn't good. Or clear. Or... well, I guess I have high standards, or something.

After giving him a minute to do something I realized he wasn't going to, so... I just kinda... took over...

I am not proud of this.

I jumped in, introducing myself, and then giving a brief overview of what they needed to start. 

(They were reading Act V of Macbeth and then they had questions and a writing assignment.) 

I knew several of the kiddos. They had been in that ninth grade English class I started the year in last school year. 

Once the kiddos got to work, I waited to see if the other sub would take roll. We were both given seating charts and access to the online attendance. Again, this is generally the job of the general ed teacher, although we might discuss and come to some other arrangement (depending on the day and what the assignment is). 

The other sub did not take roll. So, I did it. 

I tried to engage him in conversation a couple times. He gave me monosyllabic answers. 

I circulated around the room, hovering over kiddos who were on their phones. (The lesson plan was clear on no phones and them on task.) The other sub? He got up a couple times in the first class, but not so much the rest of the day. (I did not circulate the whole class, but I did get up more than a couple times.) 

I mean, it wasn't a challenging class. We weren't having to deal with students off task. The room was pretty close to silent. 

But still... He could have done more than sit at the teacher's desk. 

Are my standards too high? 

The rest of the day I just assumed I was in charge, so I started off with my introduction (giving him a chance to introduce himself as Mr. T) and continued on. At least I know the kiddos knew what to do and roll got taken. 

The Game

I was not looking forward to this assignment. I had managed to avoid it the previous day, but this day I was not so lucky.

8th grade math. And the class was... not good. Not good at all.

So, when 1st period (which was going to be with me for 2nd period as well) finished the assignment, I knew I needed to do something with them so they didn't go crazy. I just happened to know of a little game that might work.

I learned that the best way to conduct the game is to let the class get into teams. Each team gets one spokesperson for their turns. And I let each team name themselves. The names...

The final tally...

Seriously, the names! Turns out that SMA means something not appropriate for school, which I now know but didn't at the time (look it up on Urban Dictionary if you're curious, but it's NSFW), but the rest of the names are just... 

In case you can't read my writing, they are: Rainbow Unicorns of Awesomeness, Sidemen, LlamaCorns, and Sneakerheads. The girls in Sneakerheads were oh so close several times to getting a point, but they missed it by thatmuch. Until they finally gave up.

In the end the game lasted too long, but at least it gave us something to do. You should never give 8th graders free time. Just a little tip from me to you.  

The Names They Choose

12th grade English class. They had a guest speaker. The Marine Staff Sergeant had presented to many of the same students before, so he divided the class into two teams--the group that had heard him speak and the group that hadn't.

He made it into a game. He asked questions that anyone who had heard him speak before would have known the answer to. If they had been paying attention. Because of this, he gave the group who hadn't heard him speak first shot at answers.

The two teams ended up tying.

But that's not why I mention this.

He had the teams name themselves. Team heard-him-speak-before: White Lightning and Black Thunder. The team that hadn't: Ebola Gang.

Where do they come up with these things?