Not Going to Move

Today was the first day of school at the continuation high school.  Most of the students in the opportunity class didn't get the message.

I had two students today.

I threw work at them, and they sort of did it.  As the day wore on, they got less and less motivated.

After snack they have PE.  Santiago was at least willing to grab a basketball and go outside.  Carlos needed a bit more persuasion.  After I got them outside, they sat on the concrete steps and refused to do anything.

I considered it a victory to have gotten them outside.  Santiago had refused to do his math assignment earlier.  Carlos took forever to get through his work.  I told Carlos that if he didn't finish it by snack, he'd be outside until it was done.  That got him moving.

I stood over them, trying to get them to move.  There were basketball hoops.  Santiago said that he hated basketball.  Okay then, why don't I get the football?  Nope, he said that he hated football too.

Of course, they had both spent the morning resenting the fact that they had to be at school.  At least they did it calmly.

After they had been outside for the requisite amount of time (I let them off 5 minutes early), we went back in and I gave them the next assignment.  They did it, sort of.

Calls were made to the students who did not show today.  It's likely that I'll have a bigger group tomorrow.  (Insert scream here.)

Gun-Shy

Back in the '80s when I was a teenager, we took a family vacation to Las Vegas.  It was spring.  There was a cold wind constantly blowing, and it was very dry.  Soon after arriving, everything I touched gave me an electric shock.

I could not touch anything.  Every door bit me.  Elevator buttons were treacherous.  If there was metal on it, I was going to be stung.

Ever since then, I get wary whenever it gets too dry.  I'm still cautious picking up cans in the grocery store.  I hesitate at doors.  It's better when I haven't been shocked in a while (like now), but after one shock, I'm careful for days.

On Friday I got a call from the district.  Was I available from Monday, July 19th to Tuesday, July 27th?  It wasn't until I got off the phone that I realized that there was something wrong with that assignment.  The continuation high school is starting school this week, but the first day of school is not on a Monday.

The first day can be Tuesday, Thursday, or even Wednesday.  But it's never Monday.  I was called on Friday, but I couldn't call the school to find out what was going on because no one was at the school.

There was nothing for it.  I had to go in even though I was pretty sure I was going to get stung.

Well, of course no one knew why I was there.  I had figured it right.  Today was the teacher check in day--no students.  As no one knew why I was there, I turned around and went home.

After I got home, I got a call from the school.  Actually, it hadn't been a mistake.  They wanted me there so that I could talk to the teacher who was going to be out (she's having surgery).  Could I come back?

(The principal and principal's secretary aren't there first thing in the morning.  They stay late because of reentry and the adult school.  But they hadn't left word with the staff that is there first thing in the morning that I would be coming in.)

I turned around and went back.

The point of all of this is that I'm back to work.  Sort of.  I'll have new stories.  Did I mention--I'll be covering the opportunity class?

Blog Improvements

I've been working on the blog a bit.  I've changed the background and added a couple things to the sidebars.  I also finally added the followers link, and I'd love to have a few followers (it looks kinda pathetic all alone with no followers).

I mention this in case you see this via the email subscription or on Facebook.  My changes won't be apparent there.  And, if you're seeing this on Facebook, you're probably seeing the rest of my blogs for this week too.  For some reason, Facebook only imports my blogs once a week.  (No, I don't write five posts in a day.)

If you are seeing this elsewhere, feel free to follow the link to the original feed.  (If you're seeing this on Blogger, then the link will take you right back here.)

I'm in the process of updating other things as well.  I just went through and added more recent "Previous Favorites".  If I missed one that you think I should add (or added one you think I shouldn't have), please feel free to tell me.

I hope you like what I've done.  Comments welcome!

Lending Supplies

"You came to class unprepared...?"

That's what I say to students when they tell me that they don't have paper or they don't have a pencil (or both).  Unfortunately, only once did the student appear worried after my statement.  The rest of the time, the students have some long, drawn-out explanation as to why they don't have their materials.

What to do, then, when a student doesn't have the required materials?  This is my problem, because if the student isn't doing the assignment, he will find a different way to entertain himself, and that usually involves some form of misbehavior.

After I utter the above phrase, many times a neighboring student will offer to lend the missing item.  I thank that student and make sure that the unprepared student thanks the peer as well.  Problem solved.  If only it was always that easy.

I don't carry extra supplies with me.  I don't make it a habit to lend out paper.  I don't want to become the sub that always has an extra pencil for the students.  Besides, my bag is heavy enough.  I don't need to lug around extra stuff for students.  And I don't want to constantly replace the stuff that I won't get back.

So, when they don't have their materials, it is a problem.

I also try not to lend out the full-time teacher's supplies.  Unless the teacher left out stuff with that intent, I have to assume that the students are expected to have their stuff.  But sometimes the students say that the teacher does lend out pencils.  They could by lying, but I can't know that for sure.

The next best thing is to make sure that I get the lent pencil back.

It's so easy to forget who has what.  At the end of a period, it's also easy to forget that something was lent out.  So, it's best to ask for collateral up front (or "something of value" to those that don't know what collateral means).

Some days I can get quite the collection.  Things like mp3 players (which they're not supposed to have at school), cell phones, and wallets are great.  I know they'll remember to return the pencil.  I've had students leave a whole backpack.  A student ID is okay.  They won't necessarily remember that they left it with me, but I know who left it, and I can remind them.

I think my favorite thing to ask for is a shoe.  The kid won't forget to get a shoe back.  But most middle school teachers don't like the idea.  Middle schoolers without shoes?  Middle school classrooms tend to stink anyway.  That makes it so much worse.  But most students balk at the shoe idea anyway.  They find something else for me.

Most days, the student without supplies finds a way to get the work done (or at least looks like she's working).  But not all days.

Sometimes I shake my head and walk away.  Sure, it's better to keep the student busy.  But when all else fails, I can always write up a misbehaving student and kick her out of class.  The referral starts with, "Student came to class without materials, and then..."

Luckily, most days this is only a minor issue.

A Cozy for a Cell Phone

Last week I talked about my bottle cozies.  There's another type of cozy that I knit that no one else seems to get.

I got the idea at school one day.  It was my lunch, and I was walking up through the school to the restroom.  I glanced into rooms with open doors as I passed.  (Doesn't everybody?)

In one class, I saw an instructional assistant standing.  She was adjusting her cell phone.  She had it folded over her lanyard, but it was very awkward, because the cell phone didn't stay latched shut.  The lanyard prevented the cell phone from closing completely, so it kept slipping.  She'd catch it before it fell and then she'd try to put it back over her lanyard.

I was by the room in a couple seconds, but an idea was born.

Using those clips that they use to secure ID badges, a cell phone cover could clip onto a lanyard.  Or a belt.  Or a shirt.

I made one for myself.  I use it all the time.

And then it occurred to me that the same concept would work for mp3 players.

I made them for my shop as well.

Perhaps I have too much time on my hands.  Perhaps I need to spend a little more time knitting sweaters or scarves or such.  I don't know.  But I think these are cute, and I think that they're a good idea.  And I don't care if I'm the only one to think so.

(Okay, I care.  Otherwise I wouldn't write a post defending the idea.)

Antagonize Me

I used to have a MySpace account.  I started my blog there.  But after I had a few too many technical difficulties, I moved the blog here.  I have since closed the MySpace account.  I hate to lose all of my blogs from that time, so from time to time I'm going to repost them here. 


I'm kind of going through the old posts randomly.  This one was originally posted on September 1, 2007. 

I mentioned that I worked on Thursday.  I was at the continuation high school.  At the end of July I was also there for the government class.  This time I was there for English, but again I had seniors. 

I mention that I had seniors because I had some of the same students in the English class that I had had in the government class.  Two specifically.  Anthony and Sarah.  (I am changing their names for my purposes here.)  Anthony is black, Sarah is white.  (I mentioned this pair before in my July 28th post.)

Anthony is a very entertaining individual.  But he gets on Sarah's last nerve.  This happened the last time I had the two.  Anthony was going on and on about various conspiracy theories (which I enjoyed), and Sarah was after him to shut up and sit down and do his work.  Eventually he settled.  I felt it was my duty to get Anthony working since that's what Sarah wanted to do.  If Anthony was talking, then Sarah didn't have a quiet classroom in which to do her work.

So, when Anthony and Sarah were in my 6th period class on Thursday, I knew there'd be trouble.  Sure enough, Anthony started talking, and it bothered Sarah.  Then he found another girl to bother as well.  So, I felt it my duty to intervene.  I told Anthony to go and do something else and to not bother the girls.  (The girls could take care of themselves, but as the teacher in the room, I needed to act like the authority figure and stop the harassment.) 

I got Anthony to move to another part of the room.  For about two minutes.  Then he went back to antagonize Sarah.  Sarah told him to stop antagonizing her.  So I chimed in with, "Anthony, come over here and antagonize me."  Probably not the best idea, but it was something.

The idea of being invited to antagonize the teacher stirred Anthony's imagination.  He actually pulled a chair up to the front of the teacher's desk.  I figured that I could probably take whatever he dished out.  But he didn't do anything.  He didn't say anything.  He quickly lost interest and went back to his other seat. 

Shortly after that I had to pass out their quiz (they were supposed to have 25 minutes to study for the thing).

I suppose I should not allow myself to be entertained by such antics.  But I am.  I admit it, I am.

Finishing a Scarf

Last Wednesday, I was knitting while watching "Pretty Little Liars" which I had recorded on my DVR.  Well, I wasn't so much knitting as stitching together the finished squares of the Chameleon Scarf that I started on July 1st.  Of 2008.

I'm not really that slow of a knitter.  I started the scarf, worked on it for about a month, and then I got distracted by other projects.  I only picked the thing up again a couple weeks ago.

(Oh, and about the choice of shows?  I'm ashamed.  I only started watching it because it was "from the producers of 'The Vampire Diaries'," another show I'm ashamed to watch.  I'm so done with vampires.  But "The Vampire Diaries" is really, really good.  It's twisty and surprising.  I liked that I didn't see things coming.  So, I was hopeful that "Pretty Little Liars" would be similar.  We'll see.)

So, I was sitting when I started to feel something.  Was I being paranoid, or was it an earthquake?

I dropped the scarf into my lap.  I hit pause on my DVR.  I sat still.  The room was swaying.  It was an earthquake.

It seemed to last for a while.  But if I hadn't been sitting, I probably wouldn't have felt it.  The earth stopped moving.  I hit play on the DVR.  I picked up my scarf.

I finished the scarf shortly thereafter.  Here's what it looks like:

And here's another shot:  

Okay, so enough with the earthquakes already.  It's beginning to feel like high school all over again.