Repeat Performance

I was kind of blindsided by the assignment. I probably could have declined, but part of me was curious. It had been about six months since I'd see them last. Well, not all of them. Let me back up a bit...

Those of you who have been with me for a while may recall #That8thGradeSciClass. They're the group I had for two days in October, but they generated 10 blog posts that I ran one a week until almost Christmas. This was that class. (In case you want to revisit those posts, they're here.)

I have seen many of them in other classes throughout the year. I've covered their math classes. Their English classes. Their history classes. I even ran into a few of them in P.E. And art. That's how things go when you sub at the same schools for any length of time.

But all together in this group... Yeah, not looking forward to it.

So, I was so grateful when I saw the lesson plan was a video. Whew. Easy enough. I knew I'd have to keep after them to keep them settled, but at least they didn't have a project to go crazy over.

Only, the video wasn't there.

via GIPHY

It was supposed to be on the laptop. But I could not find it. And, knowing what I was in for, I panicked.

Then I did the right thing. I called for help.

The secretary sent me the tech guy. And the tech guy (who is a total rock star!) managed to find the video under the teacher's log on, and he retrieved it for me.

via GIPHY

He totally saved my butt. Because 8th graders (especially these 8th graders) with a thrown together by me assignment on a Friday...

I don't even want to think about it.

So, yeah, they were their usual selves. Two periods didn't have enough time to finish the 46 minute video in a 58 minute period due to taking that long just to settle down enough so I could explain that they had to take notes and they had to watch the video and pay attention. (You'd think this would go without saying, but it doesn't.)

Deep sigh. At least the day went better than I anticipated. Perhaps they've grown up a little? Nah...

Need a Ticket

And this is it. The last one of the posts from that 8th grade science class. Since no one is around the blogosphere this week, I considered holding off. But, I did promise to have these finished by Christmas. So here it is. The last one...

Last week I mentioned that In-n-Out was catering lunch on the second day of this assignment. To get a burger (and chips, not fries), the students had to purchase a ticket. I learned of this from the 1st period T.A. She was selling tickets, and several students hit her up for them.

Wednesday. 4th period. Right before lunch.

"Can I go and buy an In-n-Out ticket?"

As in, she wanted to leave class to do this. When she had days to go and get a ticket.

"But if I don't buy a ticket, I can't get In-n-Out. Ms. O. would let me go..."

Maybe. Unlikely, but maybe. Still, she'd had days, and...

 

She grumbled. "...Mom only gave me the money today..."

So, she waited until 4th period? When she could have gone before school. Or at snack. (Or asked any of her other teachers to let her go. Because I'm sure they would have let her *sarcasm*.) I had no sympathy.

But she was mad. She'd miss out. And it was my fault.

An Early Lunch

Guess what? This is the penultimate post in this series. Yep, we're nearing the end. I had this 8th grade science class near the beginning of October, and I've finally gotten most of the stories that class generated posted. Hooray!  

In-n-Out was catering lunch on the second day of the assignment. The school had lengthened the lunch period so everyone could get their burgers. They took a minute from each passing period.

I'm generally understanding to students who barely make it on days like this (unless they give me reason not to be).

Unless they run into the room way after the bell. Laughing.

"Can we leave a couple minutes early for lunch?"

Normally, the answer would have been no. This group? It was more of a "hell no" (with a silent "hell").

"But Ms. O would let us go..."

Possible, but unlikely.

Besides, we were probably the closest classroom to the line. They already had a head start.

Also, this is my week at Unicorn Bell. I'd love it if you'd stop by. I'm talking about social media marketing.

Hidden Supplies

It was near the beginning of October when I covered this 8th grade science class. And only now am I seeing the bottom of these posts. Just a couple more now, and we'll be done with them... until the next time I'm called to cover for this teacher. Probably.

Giving 8th graders a project with a sub is not a great idea. Apparently, the teacher realized this after seeing my note from Tuesday. (She stopped by in between Tuesday and Wednesday to change the lesson plan and update the board.) Because they were insane.

And then Wednesday... Ah... They weren't great, but there was marked improvement in their behavior.

I think the missing supplies helped.

On Tuesday, there was a project example, scissors, and glue sticks. Since they needed none of those Wednesday, they mysteriously disappeared.

(Not really. I found the project example in a drawer. And the other supplies were probably locked in the closet. Which I had a key to. But I left everything put away and played dumb. "I don't know where they went.")

They had all period Tuesday to set up their projects. Cut the flaps. Glue down the graph paper. And many did. Yet, on Wednesday, several students who had been present Tuesday had projects with none of this done.

So, they went looking for the supplies. And whined that they needed to work on their projects. Even though Wednesday they were supposed to work on a vocabulary assignment instead.

Some of the students who had set up their projects continued to work on them, and I let them. And many of them finished their projects and managed to start their vocabulary assignment. (The project was due Thursday. The vocabulary assignment was due Friday. What they didn't get done in class they had to finish for homework.)

But the ones who had been playing around, the ones who made Tuesday hell, were the ones who had nothing done.

Yeah, I felt no sympathy for them. Maybe this will teach them to make better use of their time.

It won't. But I'd like to pretend it will.

A Choice

Back to the 8th grade science class. We're getting to the end of these stories. I should finish them before the end of this year. This particular technique works in all sorts of classes, but it was particularly helpful here. 

"This isn't my seat."

Turns out a boy was in her seat, so she took another girl's seat, displacing her, too. I only got the boy to move by letting him know this was a punishable offense. (Detention.)

Naturally, this incident made it into my note.

Wednesday, there was a new warning on the board about assigned seats or detentions.

Yet, I still got the questions. They wanted to sit next to their friends. (Obviously, this was not a good idea.)

Instead of a flat no, I gave them a choice. Sure, they could sit there. But the payment was a detention.

I got no takers. I guess the price was too high.

Not John

And yet another tale from that science class from early October. (You didn't believe me when I said these posts would take until Christmas to complete, did you?) 

"What are we, in kindergarten?"

The 8th graders were not pleased that Ms. O had asked that they check out the pair of scissors they needed for their projects. All they had to do was write their names and the color of the scissors' handle. And then scratch their name off the list when they returned the scissors.

Simple enough, right?

Near the end of first period, I took the list and the box of scissors and went around the room, collecting. They replaced the scissors and crossed off their names.

"John Smith... I'm John Smith..."

And if that hadn't been red flag enough...

"Psst, John. I crossed off your name. I'm John Smith."

Have I mentioned that they're really bad at lying about their names?

The students around "John" called him Chris. And I had a semi-accurate seating chart with pictures. So I confirmed that his name was, in fact, Chris.

He hadn't done anything name-in-note worthy, so I wasn't sure why the name lie. Especially since as I was collecting scissors, I wasn't paying attention, really. I was just making sure I got a pair of scissors back and a name was crossed off. But the fact he felt the need to lie...

Yep. Name-in-note. For lying about his name.

The next day his name was on the board. He'd earned a detention. And why was explained on the board for everyone to see.

Look at Me

Last week I ended up covering the classes that I started the year off covering. And I ran into the "star" of today's story. And he was just as impossible in the science class as he was in his math class. So, I've learned another student name, and not in a good way.

"I think I broke my toe."

Something to worry about, right? Not really. See, context is everything. And at that exact moment, I was trying to get them all to stop talking so I could start class. This was the same problem I had with them in the math class last week. 

Besides, Blaine didn't appear to be in that much pain. Especially considering how many times he was out of his seat that period. And he wasn't limping.

But at that moment, when apropos of nothing he announced to the whole class his imaginary ailment, I attempted to inform him that perhaps that was not the time for such things.

Which was the main problem with the math class. I attempted to explain what they had to do, but they wouldn't be still long enough for me to get more than two words out. It was frustrating in the extreme. 

That's the thing about 8th graders. They don't get the whole waiting-for-the-appropriate-moment thing. They have to tell you exactly what they're thinking and feeling right now. Never mind that other things may be going on in that moment.

They had all of Tuesday to get started on their assignment. And many did. But on Wednesday, Blaine was in search of materials. Because on Tuesday he did nothing. But he had no cast on his foot Wednesday...

Calling him Blaine is just my snark here. (I don't use their real names.) If you've seen Pretty in Pink, you'll get the reference. Because his actual name...

Broken Ruler

It's that time again. Time to share a story from that 8th grade science class from a month ago now. Since I talked about Brian last week, I thought I'd share what he got up to on the day he was in class. And his partner in crime was one of the students from my first week of school. (Several students in these classes I knew from the first week. I don't know if that made things easier for me or harder.)

I was doing something else when I heard the commotion. Brian and JD were tussling over a ruler. Each had both hands on it, trying to claim it for himself.

I was across the room. Naturally. (They were in the last two desks in the top right hand corner of the picture.) I headed for them immediately.

I also called out for them to stop. Which they didn't hear or ignored. (Considering the noise level in the room, "didn't hear" is a likely option.)

I tried to get to them, but couldn't. It's like one of those dreams where you're walking in water or stuck in quicksand. Five different students got in my way, either physically as they were up and roaming or just with questions. Stuff I had to ignore if I was going to...

CRACK!!!

The ruler broke in half. (I was going to take a picture, but it didn't show up very well. It wasn't a clean break. The wooden ruler was kind of bent, but splintered, so dead ruler.)

That's when I got to them. Took the broken ruler from them. Informed them they had detention and just lost all "ruler privileges". (The teacher said any names left by me got detention, so at bare minimum that's what they got.)

"But we need a ruler to do the assignment."

Tough. They just broke one of the few that were left.

The Missing Student

A couple weeks ago now, I covered an interesting 8th grade science class for two days. There were just too many stories to not share...  

Perhaps I was just irritable. Perhaps I was being unfair. I don't know. You tell me.

Brian asked for and was granted a restroom pass on Tuesday. I usually don't notice how long someone is gone. But once ten minutes passes, I start to wonder. And when a student is gone over a half hour, only returning at the end of the period to collect his stuff...

Wednesday he called me over. He asked me how to set up Tuesday's assignment...

On Tuesday they had a "foldable". They folded a sheet of paper "hot dog style", cut it so it had three flaps, and then put specific information on each part of the project. All of this was explained in the handout they'd been given. It was written on the board. There was an example they could look at. And I explained everything at the beginning of the period on Tuesday.

Brian didn't leave class until after I had completed my instructions. Plus, he was in class at least ten minutes after.

But on Wednesday I saw that Brian had done none of the foldable the previous day.

How come he'd done nothing? Why did he ditch class on Tuesday? Where did he go? I wasn't much in a mood to explain the assignment to a student who had been in class. (The three students who had been absent--I had no problem explaining the assignment to them.)

Brian didn't get why I was upset. He told me he hadn't been feeling well.

So, why didn't he ask to go to the health office? I totally would have understood that (and not kept other students from the restroom waiting for him to get back).

"What help would they be?" Nope, sitting in the restroom for most of the period was better. Apparently.

The way Brian looked at me, he thought I was being unreasonable. *shakes head*

Ripped the Example

Earlier this month I spent two days covering an 8th grade science class. And things got... um... hairy... The crazy was too good not to share.

On day one, they were to work on a foldable, which is kind of an art project illustrating the concept they were studying. In this case, it was graphing and relationships between data: direct, inverse, or complex. They had to define and then show a graph.

(It sounds more complex than it was.)

The teacher left an example of the foldable assignment for the students to see. They could come up and look at it, but they could not take it back to their desks.

Two reasons for this: (1) So it doesn't go missing; and (2) So the students don't just copy it.

I explained the example needed to remain up front. And I had to remind them a few times. So, when the boy took it back to his desk, I was going to retrieve it and put it back where it belonged. When I got there.

(I was in the back of the room dealing with another issue at the time. The boy was at the desk just above the desk covered with my tag in the picture.)

Before I could get there, Britney got up, snatched it off his desk... He grabbed for it... RRRIIIIIPPPPP...

(I've written about Britney before. She was the "sweet girl" who I sat next to Abraham.)

Britney and the boy traded recriminations. But the girl seated next to them, Bobbi, really lit into Britney.

By that time I got there, retrieved the pieces of the example, and tried to calm the situation. But Bobbi was angry. Really angry. Britney knew the example had to stay up front. The boy didn't think she should snatch it off his desk. And Bobbi thought Britney didn't need to butt her nose into it in the first place.

It took some time to calm them down. It took less time to tape the example back together.

There was only one class after them, so it wasn't a big problem. But when the yelling started, that made it an incident that needed to be noted. (It would have been noted anyway, but now Bobbi was part of the incident.)

I was so glad the example "disappeared" the next day. (The teacher put it away. I managed to find it easily, but I didn't need to tell the kiddos this.)

An Embarrassment of Riches

If you notice the tags at the end of my blog posts, you might have seen my "8RE". It's an abbreviation for "8th graders are evil". Because they are.

There is something about that age. 13. Kiddos go a little crazy. Not every kiddo. And it doesn't always hit them at 13. But get 35 thirteen-year-olds in one room, and chaos happens.

8th grade teachers deserve hazard pay.

This past week I covered two days of an 8th grade science class. And the crazy...

Normally, I seek out the best story of a given day and that's what I post on the blog. Some days I have more than one story, so I find the one that I think is funnier and go with it. (Of course, there are some days where nothing blog-worthy happens, and those days don't get posted about at all.)

However, with these groups over those two days, I had a hard time choosing. Really hard. So, I decided not to.

I've had several days of late that haven't made it to the blog at all. The kiddos were on task. Silent, even. I expect this will keep up, at least one day of the week. So, for those days, I'm going to bring out another story from this class. By my estimation, if I post one of these a week, it'll take me until nearly Christmas to get through them all.

You'll know it's one of those classes by the picture at the top and the tag "that 8th grade science class".

I don't know which one I'll start with. Perhaps it should be the one where one of the "good kids" from the math class got into trouble...