Picture Day

Friday was picture day.

I've never before experienced picture day. The English teachers usually aren't out for it, I suppose. I can't imagine why...

I vaguely knew we had to go to the cafeteria. I thought I knew the way. As I had first period line up outside, I saw another English teacher leading her class. I told my kiddos to follow them. Turned out, I would have totally gone to the wrong side of the building if that other teacher hadn't been there.

Then she clued me in that I had to pick up cards to distribute to the kiddos. (The teachers are so helpful. They really are.) These cards had bar codes on them that the photographers scanned. That gave the computer enough info so the students' ID cards could be printed out immediately.

After that, I became an old pro fast. By sixth period I knew the drill. I instructed the two kiddos that didn't have cards (the card system was great, but these things are never perfect) to bring their schedules as the photographer just needed their student ID numbers. (The 8th graders know theirs, but the 7th graders have had these ID numbers for a total of seven days at this point.)

When it turned out the girls' schedules didn't have their ID numbers on them (deep sigh), I knew where to send them.

It was sixth period when the system went off the rails. They were short a couple photographers, so it took us all period to get through that line. Yikes.

During that time, one of the boys was in tears. Uh oh. Was he being bullied?

Then I got the full story. He had touched a fellow student on his shoulder. That boy didn't like being touched. He reacted. And the first boy got upset. But the two of them had worked it out, so they were friendly again.

Whew. (7th grade drama.)

But the one that is the real reason for this story...

I warned the kiddos a couple times during the week that picture day was on Friday. So, several of them had their order forms for their school pictures ready. Alaina was unsure if her mother had paid online or not. She asked if she could call her mom. As we weren't in class (the cafeteria was on the other side of campus), I told her to go ahead. She popped back into the room to grab her cell phone, and then we headed out.

When we got to the cafeteria (Alaina's mom said she had submitted her credit card info to where it needed to go), Alaina realized she had left the bar code card in the classroom. Deep sigh.

Well, no, she couldn't go back and get it. I had locked the classroom before we left. I had the kiddos leave their backpacks in there.

Alaina, of course, didn't know her student ID number. And I suppose I got busy and didn't think to send her to the office to have someone look it up.

By the time we finally left the cafeteria, Alaina was in tears. She thought she wasn't going to get her picture taken.

But I knew differently. Once we got to the classroom, I told her to grab her bar code card and go back. Considering the lines behind us, I knew she'd still have time. It's not like they were checking who belonged to which class. And we weren't doing anything in class that she couldn't miss.

It wasn't the first time that day that a student had to go back after we had finished in the cafeteria.

Crisis averted. Alaina and the other two girls retrieved their stuff from the classroom a good ten minutes after school had ended.

Considering that line, I'm surprised it didn't take them longer.

Bad Timing

I'm slowly getting up to speed in this middle school English class. During the first full week (the first week of school was just Thursday and Friday), one of the major things I worked on was establishing some sort of routine.

I don't have a lot of resources. There weren't many supplies left in the room from last year. (I've been slowly acquiring things. I learned who the keeper of the dry erase markers and paper clips is. So, I've gotten a few necessary supplies thus far.)

The one thing the room did have is a working projector. And the teacher in there from last year left behind his laptop. Well, it's the school's laptop, but he didn't return it, so I commandeered it.

But the laptop was buggy. There was some antiviral software that needed to be renewed, and getting logged in was a trial. I got help from the technology person, and things seemed to be working.

The first couple days the computer asked for a restart a few times. I suppose since the computer was in a drawer all summer it needed updates. But by the first full week I thought I had the issues sorted. I could use the thing.

I've been creating slides for each class. The stuff I need the kiddos to see, like examples and notes, are easier to project.

The kiddos had a writing assignment. I had a slide with an example of what they were to do, and I had it projected while they worked. Then I got busy doing something else.

One of the kiddos got my attention. The computer was doing a restart, and it was way too late for me to make it stop. But it was the middle of the period, and middle schoolers need examples in front of them while they work.

What to do?

Luckily, I had been using a student Chromebook as well. On the first day, I needed to project the school-wide slide show, so an assistant principal got me the cable I needed to connect it. But once I got the laptop working, I switched to using that.

But in that moment, I needed something.

Instead of taking an hour to restart as it had the prior week, the laptop finished its restart in a couple minutes. I switched the projector back to the laptop.

Only to have it decide it needed to restart. Again.

Somehow, the kiddos didn't seem to notice that second restart. They kept working. Miraculously.

Silly technology. It creates as many problems as it solves.

Red Ink

It was the first full week of school. I am covering a "vacant class" until they are able to bring in a teacher for the rest of the year. I have three periods of seventh grade English and two periods of eighth grade English.

Because of this, I got to do something I've never gotten to do before. I got to go over the syllabus with the students.

The next day, the eighth graders had a writing assignment. (The seventh graders did too, but they are way more cooperative than the eighth graders. Good for me, bad for the blog.) They were to write a letter of introduction. It's their first writing assignment of the year.

Every day I've tried to have a list of what they'll need for the day written on the board for them. (Some days I'm able to, others not so much.) On this day I had that list up. They needed a piece of paper and a pen or pencil.

I explained the assignment. They got to writing.

Only about half way through the period, one boy said he was finished. That's when I noticed he had written his letter in red ink.

The previous day, while going through the syllabus, I made sure to spend some time explaining how if they were going to use ink, it had to be black or dark blue ink only.

The boy, who has already distinguished himself as one of the challenging students in a difficult class, explained that I did not specify the pen couldn't be red.

Um, I thought that was implied. It was in the syllabus. I spent a couple minutes going over their supply list.

At this point, the girl seated next to him (also trouble, but for different reasons) got on his case. Why would he have a red pen anyway? She said she was going to start calling him Red Ink from now on.

As he still had half the period, I told him he could recopy the letter in the proper color of ink. He did, but not until he had grumbled about it.

Can't Get Rid of Me That Easy

At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements. 😉

Have you seen the show Flip or Flop?

What if you had to work with your ex?

I Has a Ceiling!

Oh my! What a week I've had.

You may have noticed that I wasn't around much last week. I got slammed. With everything. And next week doesn't look to be too much better. Apologies in advance. Things should settle in another week or two, but until then, I'm just trying to keep my feet under me.

First things first. I went from this...

...to this...

...to this...

...to this...

...last week. They started on Tuesday and finished on Saturday. And so, now it's finally done. Whew.

(You may remember this all started in January.)

But, as all of this is right above my bed, I spent most of last week displaced in one way or another. The first night I slept on the couch in the living room. The rest of the week I could sleep in my bed, but I had to strip it first thing in the morning and remake it when I got home from work, so the contractor could flip it up towards the wall and out of the way during the day.

All the while, half of my bedroom was in the living room and out of the way. Including my TV. Sigh.

At least I was out of the house while they were working on the ceiling. You may remember I mentioned that vacant English class I was covering all week. Yeah, that kept me from experiencing the full effect of having workmen in the house. I'd leave in the morning and return in the evening to visible progress.

While working has been great, it is tiring. I'd get home with barely enough energy to get that bed remade. And then it was time for my homework. Lesson planning. (If I had the energy to look for a gif, it would be one of someone cheering with no enthusiasm whatsoever.)

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad to have the work. And the other teachers have been way supportive in sharing their lesson plans with me. But that doesn't mean I can totally rely on them. They give me the plan, but I have to figure out how to execute it. I have to teach the class. And I have to figure out how I'm going to set up other things, like the classroom, and how to keep up with papers and grading until I hand this class over to someone more permanent.

I've been scrambling with seating charts, classroom control, and getting the basic supplies. The staff has been so helpful. I managed to locate books. I learned to make copies. I got the kiddos their syllabus to start the year off right. I even have a computer and working projector, so I can make slides at home and use them in class.

What I'm saying is, it's been a lot--way more than I'm accustomed to. I'll have posts for this week, but again, I'm going to be very lax in my visiting. I'll get there. But it's going to be late. I hope you understand.

I promise, no more whining this week. I do have a couple good stories to share.

Introductions

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.

The Vacant Class

When I write next year's end of year post, I get to write this sentence: I did cover the first day of school (and this time, it definitely does count).

The thing about the first day of school is, teachers tend to not miss it. There are very few events that would pull a teacher out of class on that very important day. (One year a teacher took her daughter to start college. Another teacher missed because she was on maternity leave. Those are the only events I can think of.)

This means, when one is covering the first day of school, one is generally covering a vacant class.

Vacant means there is no teacher assigned. No lesson plans. Nothing set up. Thrown in on the first day with no support...

So, when I got the call the day before the first day of school, I asked. "Is this a vacant class?" I was told it wasn't.

Okay, so technically it wasn't. In actuality...

The official teacher is on a leave of absence. His replacement (long term sub) couldn't start until Monday. So, I had all the joys of a vacant class. Whee!

On the bright side, the school was doing a thing for all students in all classes on the first day, so I had a lesson to teach.

And, work on the first day. This is good. Things don't usually pick up for a couple weeks into the school year. Unless one is covering a vacant class...

(Although, I did see teachers already submitting requests for time off. For the second week. So, it has started.)

(Oh, and spoiler alert: the replacement long term sub flaked. Guess who is covering this class for the next two weeks? Well, at least the summer blogging schedule is now at an end 😎)