Motivation to Finish

Today was another CAHSEE day.  It was a small group.  That's a good thing.  It means that more of them have passed the beastie and have that graduation requirement satisfied.  

It was 5th period, and we only had a handful of students left.  Mostly they were working diligently.  I made a tour of the room just to see where everyone was at.  Most had a dozen or so questions left.  One student was on the last five questions of the questionnaire.

At the end of the test is this 15 question questionnaire.  It asks things like, "How did you study for this test?" and "Did you do your best work?"  It's the easiest part of the test, and it should take only a couple minutes.

After walking the room, I returned to the student who was on his questionnaire.  He still had four questions to go.  I stood behind him.  

My job was to pick up the tests and escort the students to the front of the room after the students had finished the test.  So, when a student was nearly finished, I would wait nearby so that I could do my job.  

I watched the student.  He stared into space.  He looked about the room.  Then he answered another question.  Clearly, he was stalling for time.

Normally, I don't hover over students who are testing.  But he wasn't testing.  So, I took a chair from the table in front of him (those students had already checked out), turned it around, and sat directly in front of him.  I didn't say a word.  

The boy sat up, appeared to wake up, and he bubbled in the last question.  He was done.

Apparently, proximity does work.

Cold

I have been cold for two days.

Remember back in January when we were having that nice warm spell?  When the temperatures were into the 80's?  That lasted about two weeks, and then the weather got cool again.  Well, about two days after the weather got cool again, the heat went out at one of my schools.  They said that it would be fixed in a couple weeks.

It is now March.  Certain classrooms still don't have any heat.  

For the most part, the lack of heat hasn't been a problem.  Most of the teachers affected now have space heaters that take off the chill in the room.  But the teacher that I've been covering for the last two days does not have a space heater, and there is no heat.  Of course, these have been the two coldest days of the past couple weeks.  And that room has been cold.

How cold?  Well, I'd say that we haven't seen temperatures above 65 degrees in the room.  It's probably been colder.

I usually run pretty warm.  I can be pretty comfortable at 65 degrees.  67 degrees would be better, but at about 72 degrees I need to be in short sleeves, and I'll probably be sweating if I'm doing any sort of physical activity.  So, the cooler rooms haven't been that much of an issue.  

Yesterday I wore long sleeves.  Today I did the same.  I was fine when I had classes, for I was moving about and doing stuff.  But during my prep period I was seated, and I was freezing.  It was an unusual feeling.  

Although, on the bright side, I had no complaints about the classroom temperature.  

A-Z Undefined

Today's assignment: A-Z definitions. What is that? I had no idea. I had to ask the students.

The idea: they were to take a dictionary and find one word for each letter. Then they were to define that word. So, they found a word that started with A, defined it, and then moved on to B, C, and so on. Pretty simple. They should easily finish that.

But I had middle school special ed. And the assignment was "too hard" or "boring". Therefore, they weren't going to have any of it.

First, I had to force the dictionaries on them. Then, I had to stand over them as they got out paper and a pencil. A couple times I even had to open the dictionaries to the A section (I even picked a word at random and told them to write it down).

They argued. They whined. They wrote down as little as possible.

I had one student claim to have done this assignment yesterday (he was lying). I told him to do it again. He could pick a whole new set of words. It was only after I threatened to leave his name as being uncooperative that he finally got out paper and wrote something on it (I left his name anyway).

If they had spent even half the energy working that they put into complaining and avoiding, they'd have finished in next to no time. But that would have been too easy.

Idle Minds

Things have gotten really slow lately.  I haven't been working all that much.

Today I was back at the continuation high school.  They had an assignment. They deemed it too hard (probably because they had to answer more than ten questions and, gasp, they had to look for the answers in the book).  So, they found other things to occupy their time.

Someone found a book on the '70's.  So, they spent the period perusing that.  I stood over them and told them that their time would be better spent if they were to do their work, but no dice.  They had more fun debating the merits of Charo.

Anointment

...was one of the words on the 10th grade spelling test.  I gave them a few minutes to cram right before the test.  I never understood why anyone would bother--you're either ready or you're not.  But I needed time to take roll and input it into the computer, so they might as well use the time to "study".  

"Does anointment have two N's?"

Thus began a discussion on the correct spelling of anointment.  One boy scratched out that second N, only to check the dictionary and find that it was spelled right the first time.  They had had enough time, so I forced the start of the test.

If I ask a class if they're ready for the beginning of the spelling test, they aren't.  But at a certain point, it is time to start the thing.  If they're not getting ready, I just kind of have to begin and hope the stragglers catch up.  

Anointment was the third word.  I read it out.

"Anointment has three N's."

Another student helpfully announced this while they were taking the test.  

They had been good up until then.  They were good after this.  I figured that if they didn't already know where the N's go, then that announcement wouldn't help.  I continued on with the test.

The boy who made the announcement is the son of a teacher at that school.  I wonder if I should go and have a talk with his parent.  Then again, I did leave a description of the incident in the note.  That should be enough.

Helicopter Student

It was 6th period.  I was covering 11th grade AP English.  They were reading and critiquing essays that they wrote previously.  It was kind of a brain-dead day for me.

Then, towards the middle to end of the period, one girl stood near the door.  As she stood there she was doing the pee-pee dance.  I didn't notice at first. Another student asked if she needed to use the bathroom.  She did.  The next question was: why don't you go?  

It was a reasonable question.  AP students.  11th graders.  I was allowing restroom passes.  All she had to do was ask, and I'd've let her go.  So, after the other student asked the question, I gave the girl a quizzical stare.

The girl explained that she was waiting for another student to finish reading her essay.  She wanted to see what comments this other girl was going to make.  

The restroom wasn't far.  She could have gone and been back before the other girl finished reading the essay.  I wasn't the only one to point this out.  I was the only one to tell her that hovering over the girl who was reading wasn't going to make her finish any quicker.  She saw my point and went to stand somewhere else.

Another student needed to use the restroom, so she went.  She got back.  Then the girl finished reading the essay.  My hovering student took back her essay, and then she went to the restroom.

Why she needed to wait?  I have no idea.  It's not like she would have missed anything.

Not So Free Time

Last week I covered a science class (biology, anatomy/physiology, and environmental science) at the continuation high school.  Their assignment was to write a half page paper answering a specific question (different question for each group).  They were to use the Internet to complete their research.

Being the continuation high school, I expected a certain lack-of-work ethic. Those that did the assignment mostly copied the first website that had the right keywords in the google search.  Most weren't even close to answering the question.  Then they did what everyone else had been doing from the start of the period--they surfed the Internet.  

I watched this from the teacher's computer.  I figured it would be interesting to see what they got up to.  I thought I'd share.

First, they got onto myspace and the like.  These are actually blocked on the school's server, so they needed proxy sites like this.

Mostly, though, they played games: Crazy Taxi, this, this, and Hexa puzzle.  I was most proud to see them working on the Hexa puzzle.  It challenged them, so at least they were learning something.  Too bad they didn't devote that kind of energy to, say, doing the assignment.  

But the oddest: who's getting married?, this shouldn't surprise me, and another that shouldn't surprise me.