The Tardy Boys

Friday. Passing period to eighth period. 

I was outside, greeting students. The room is a bungalow, and it is up a couple steps. Years ago, they installed a ramp over those stairs, and there's a railing along the ramp. I leaned against it. 

Oscar and Russell arrived. (I can't remember which showed up first, but one was waiting for the other.) They both parked themselves on the railing to get the "fresh air". (The kiddos don't like how I blast the air conditioner, but it was 90℉ outside.) 

The bell rang, and I headed inside. As I got class started, I noticed that neither Oscar nor Russell were in their seats. 

Initially, the boys both sat together at the same table. They, along with a third boy, made eighth period difficult. I had separated them the previous class period, and the whole class mellowed. It was lovely. (They had begged for "one more chance" the period before that. I informed them that that had been their "one more chance" and they blew it.) 

I poked my head out the door. Oscar and Russell were both still sitting on the railing. Um...

"You know you're both now late, right?"

They protested. They had gotten to their railing before the bell. I explained that they needed to be inside and in their seats at the bell. Sitting outside getting "fresh air" is not in class ready to learn. 

I had explained to the class in the first week that on time meant in their seats at the bell. I would, of course, give them a bit of grace if they were in the room and heading for their seats at the bell. But sitting outside and not coming in until I retrieved them? Nope, that's not how this thing works. 

Those two boys... Once I separated them, they mellowed. Once they get going, they're fine. But this is the moment where if I let them get away with stuff, they'll be trouble the whole school year. I won't do that to the incoming teacher if I can help it. 

Hopefully that's the only time I have to mark them tardy. We'll see...

Quiet Coyote

One of the first week activities for this middle school art class that I'm covering until they hire a teacher was to create a "social contract" of rules the kiddos agreed to follow. (I mentioned this last week.) We started with them making a list, and then "together" we whittled it down to five rules. 

(So, it was more me going over the list they generated with them and then suggesting five rules that kind of hit upon what many of them said. I didn't have a lot of student participation.) 

While we did this, I decided I needed to add in one final bit. What signal would they prefer me to use when I needed to get their attention? 

This is an art class. My plan is to give them projects to work on, and then they can listen to music on headphones or talk while they're working. (Silence is great for some things. I don't think art is one of them.) 

I have a few of these in my toolbox, but I thought it might be nice to see what they preferred. I listed a few I know. 

The first class then suggested "waterfall". I knew of this one, but I hadn't used it before. Cool. Then all the classes that day decided they liked "waterfall" the best. 

The next day, "waterfall" wasn't as popular. But then eighth period suggested one I had never heard of before. "Quiet coyote". 

And that overwhelmingly won the vote. Okay then... 

We'll see how that goes. 

Procuring a Desk

Armani did not attend the first day our class met. (The school is on a block schedule, so each class meets every other day.) On the second day, I was surprised to find the kiddo in a wheelchair. 

I only had the kinds of desks where the chair part is attached to a desk part. (See the picture above.) There was no way Armani could get into a desk. He had a brace attached to one leg, so this was a temporary predicament. I asked him how long he'd be in the wheelchair, and he said a couple months. 

We made do that day. But for the long haul, this wasn't going to work.

One of the school administrators sent out an email about finding desks to accommodate wheelchairs. She was asking if anyone had one. I sent her a separate email mentioning Armani and that I'd need a desk if she found enough. 

The very next day I found a new desk waiting for me in the classroom. Woo-hoo! 

I found the perfect spot for it. 

In discussion with the new teacher next door, I found out that she was also in need of a wheelchair desk for a student who won't be getting out of his wheelchair. I told her who I contacted, and she contacted her as well. But to no avail. 

The next day that Armani was in class, he was still in the wheelchair, but his brace was gone. He got into the room, and then he stood up out of his wheelchair and sat at one of the student desks. Uh... 

Armani is mending. And so now he can put some weight on the leg, but I imagine he'll be using the wheelchair for a bit longer. 

But, now I had a wheelchair desk that I absolutely did not need. I gave it to the teacher next door. (Naturally.)

The next time the class met, Armani got into his seat again. We did not miss the wheelchair desk. 

So, how did the desk work in the other class? Ms. C told me that the desk just mysteriously disappeared from her room right before the class where it was needed. 

Deep sigh. Seriously? 

The joys of the public schools. 

Catching On

This past Friday I logged into Bluesky before going to sleep, and they were having a grand old party there. And this is the reason I'm there, for this sort of thing that used to happen on the now dead Twitter. It took a while to get the gist, but once I did, it was kind of fun in a weird way. 

No, I'm not going to explain, but I will give you some sample posts... 

They all get very creative without specifically saying anything. It takes a bit to catch on, but once you do... Sometimes you just need a good laugh. And some wishful thinking. 

A few articles from the past week: 

• Mapping Community Defense and Care in Our Neighborhoods
• Customs and Border Patrol agents interrupted two crews of firefighters working to control the Bear Gulch wildfire. They lined them up, checked IDs, and ultimately arrested multiple men
• Now free, the Venezuelan men the Trump administration sent to El Salvador want the world to know what they lived through.
• Inside the USAID Fire Sale
• We have become an authoritarian state, and our top newsrooms are in denial
• How to report ICE zines

The Next Projects

And I had yet another non-yarn week. It was too hot. I was too busy (and tired). And I got sucked into the show Shining Girls on Apple TV Plus, which took the only mental energy I had. 

So, at the risk of not having anything to show you next week, I'm going to catch you up with some things I had done a couple weeks ago. 

Remember Random Beanie? I started another: 

I haven't gotten very far, but it'll go quickly when I have some time to devote to it. 

Then, I never mentioned my sister-in-law when I gave the rundown of what family had requested for Christmas. She requested a purple version of niece's eye sweater. I found the perfect variegated purple for it:

Luckily, I wrote down exactly what I did for niece's sweater. But SIL is a different size, and she wants hers longer as well. I'm putting off starting on this for a while, but at least I have the yarn. 

How's the weather where you're at? Is it knitting weather yet? 

The Demands

Ah, the joys of middle school... 

Before school started, the teachers all had this training about connecting with their students. One of the things they learned was about social contracts. The idea being that if the kiddos listed what they felt was appropriate behavior for the classroom, then they were more likely to buy in and behave appropriately in class. 

Or, at least that's the gist I got from the brief overview from the other teachers. I, of course, did not get to attend the training. (Not that I really wanted to. Besides, I got the gig too late to be included.) 

School administration told us that we were to go over social contracts and come up with the class "rules' by the end of the second week. 

So, in my second day's classes, I introduced the concept, and I had each group come up with five things that they'd agree to in class. For the most part, they listed things like "be kind" and "be responsible". Some repeated rules I went over with them. 

And then I looked over eighth period's lists... 

Some choice entries: 

• Use phones in class
• Have more time for lunch
• Longer snack time
• No dress code
• Start school at 11:00
• Pick our own seats

I mean, I'm totally down for starting school at 11 AM. But I don't think they get that school would then end at 6:30 PM. 

Yeah, some of them didn't quite understand the assignment. 

It should be an interesting conversation when we go over the full list and narrow it down. Because, yeah, they can wish for those things, but it's not like I have the power to change those things. 

(The school has a new cell phone policy this year. No phones. And they're giving us a spot where the phones can be locked away during class, although I haven't gotten the one for my class yet. Should be fun.)

Fortuitous Mistake

Last Monday was the first day of school. 

Because I got a long term in a vacant art class, and because I got to start a day before, I had prepared a first day of school ice breaker assignment. A scavenger hunt. 

I listed a few things that I knew would be true for some kiddos. Find a student who has a first name that does not contain an A. Find a student who went away on a trip this summer. Find a student who has a family member at the school. (I often hear about kiddos with siblings at the school, so I knew someone would.) Find a student wearing black. 

First thing in the morning, I headed for the copy room to make copies of the scavenger hunt. I had four (slightly) different versions on two sheets of paper (half sheets for each kiddo). I also had a questionnaire that asked things like name they wanted to be called in class and what their favorite food was. 

I was not the only one who had things to copy to start the school year. And two of the copy machines were broken (naturally). 

When it was my turn, I first copied the questionnaire. I had taken a quick count of planned students and got something near 180. I made 180 copies of the questionnaire. Then it was time to copy the scavenger hunt. I had two sheets of those, so I'd only need half the copies. Half of 180 is 90. 

Did you catch my mistake?

I finished my copies, and then I left the machine to the next person in line. (The line kept growing. We were all kind of scrambling.) I headed for the paper cutter as the scavenger hunts were half sheets. 

As I started cutting, I realized my stupid. I was right to halve my number, but I should have halved it again as I had two sheets with two scavenger hunts each. I only needed 45 copies. 

The school opened two new art classes. The art teacher next door is new to the school, and we've been kind of leaning on each other. She's helping me with art stuff, and I'm helping her with other school stuff that new teachers don't necessarily know (like how to set up the online gradebook). 

We were comparing notes as to what we were going to do with our classes. I mentioned the scavenger hunt. She thought that was an excellent idea. And as I had double the copies I needed... 

They didn't go to waste after all. 

And the activity went surprisingly well. The kiddos got into it, but they didn't get crazy. I will totally use this again if the need arises.