Alien Visitors?

My Thursday posts consist of random questions. The only purpose of these is to generate story ideas. I'm not sure where this idea came from, but make of it what you will:

What if intelligent alien life has found us and is visiting us, but we can't perceive it (because the aliens are too small, too large, too fast, or otherwise outside our limits of perception)? 

Do It Again

8th graders. In groups they can be...well...interesting.

I was only there to cover one class period (during the prep period for the teacher I had been called to cover for the whole day). After waiting five minutes to get someone to open the classroom door to let us in (five minutes after the bell rang) the entire class was so wound up that it took a while to get them seated and settled. And there were no lesson plans to be found.

Luckily, that's when the phone rang.

The teacher told me to assign them work from chapter 9.  I repeated back, "Chapter nine". I wanted to make sure I had it right. Then I got up in front of the class and explained their assignment.

They told me that they had already done that assignment. Loudly. Repeatedly.

Okay, I must have misunderstood. I asked if they had done chapter ten. Eleven. We settled on chapter twelve, but still half the class insisted that they had done this.

At this point I should have told them to do it again. It was busy work. (This was one of those instances where the original plan went awry, and my job was to keep the class busy.) But the idea of becoming one of those subs bothers me, so instead I looked for a different solution.

I'd almost gotten them settled when their teacher showed up. I told him about the issue with chapter nine. He turned to the class and told them they needed to prove to him that they'd done it. Show their completed work to him.

(One student claimed that they had turned it in. The teacher gave that student such a scathing look!)

Turns out, they had skipped chapter nine, and now was the time that they go back to it.

That's what I get for trusting them.

No Right Answer

"Do you work here?"

I don't understand the question. This is a problem, because it comes up. A lot.

I work for the district. They contract me to fill in for a teacher for the day. Do I work for the particular school? Well, on any day: yes. Generally: no. I go where I'm sent.

Every time I get the question, I hesitate. How am I supposed to answer?

This time, the student clarified a bit. Enough so that I could clarify:

"If I had other duties, I would not be free to cover all of Mrs. N's classes today."

I said this straight--no sarcasm implied or intended. It was as honest an answer as I could give.

And the student was offended.

I wasn't making fun of her. I swear. But she took it as such.

Sigh.

Perhaps I should just ignore the question?

Keeping My Hands Busy

This one's Wanelo's fault. (I can't blame them all on Pinterest.)

It started when I saw this. (Not sure the legalities of posting pics of things that are not my own, so I'm hedging and just giving you a link. Go look. I'll wait.)

I thought, "I can do that." Well, not actually. I'm not sure what technique was used, but I figured I could crochet something like that. First, I went on a web search, and I found all sorts of interesting ways to cover a cord in yarn, but they were all the ways I could figure out on my own (although, I did get some interesting ideas).

I got to playing, and this is what I came up with...

Covering the earbuds

Covering the power cord

And I added a button so that I could keep the cord bundled

Yes, I know. I have too much time on my hands and no new project ideas. I even covered the power cord for my nook.

Newfangled Notes

It was the third time I'd covered for the AP US history teacher this year (since January). And a couple of those times I was the sub on the second day of her absence. This is unlike her. I hope she gets better soon.

This time, the class was supposed to prepare for a test the next day. They were a bit bewildered. They hadn't gotten the official notes on these two chapters.

As the absence had been unexpected, papers were strewn about the teacher's desk. A student noticed one of these--the Power Point slides for the current chapters. The chapters on the test.

"Can I take my phone out and take pictures of these?"

I've gotten such requests before. In most cases, the students should just copy the notes. But this time I had no projector or computer, and I wasn't about to write all those notes on the board (there were a lot).

In next to no time, the rest of the class got wind of the found notes. And many wanted pictures. But photo sharing is easy, right?

Turns out, the class has a Facebook page. So, the one student shared those photos to the page. Now everyone had access, or at least everyone who had a Facebook.

Technology. Ain't it grand?

(I also noticed the test on the teacher's desk. That I hid away before anyone got wind that it was there. Pics of notes is one thing. Pics of test--not happening on my watch.)

A Question in Time

Are you watching Continuum on SyFy? I'm not sure if I like it. I don't hate it, so I'll keep up with it, but it's not a favorite.

Anyway, something happened a couple weeks ago that threw my mind for a loop. I can't make sense of it. So, I might as well turn it into a what if...

What if we could go back in time and change something? What if it didn't change us? What if it didn't change our present/their future? How would that be possible? 

A Little Crochet

I've been making new things for my little shop.

Shamrock Earrings just in time for March

And...  

A little something to keep your lip balm wrangled

I have no idea what to make next. Any ideas?

Oh, and what do you think?