All Wet

The assignment was for two days in a special ed middle school math class. During the rainstorm.

Did you hear? We had rain in SoCal. For two days. It was a nightmare.

(No, actually, it was kind of nice. We really need the rain, and so long as you weren't on the roads, near a burn area, near a potential mudslide area, or near an area prone to flooding, it was kind of nice to watch the water fall.)

Fifth period. The boys were all soaked.

Um, why?

Now, I get wet. Our schools are open to the elements, so when students go from class to class, they do so outside. No buildings. No hallways. Walkways. Open. With few overhangs.

But this wet was more than that.

"We were jumping in the puddles."

Of course.

A Magical World

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.

Apologies, but today's question is a rerun. I'm stuck. I came up with a couple really good questions, but stupidly I didn't write them down at the time, and now I can't recall what they were. Sigh. I'm sure it'll come back to me. Sometime after I hit "publish". Probably at about 3 AM.

So, this is from May 30, 2013:

What if magic was possible in our world--has been possible all along? What if the only thing keeping us from doing all those things depicted in books or pictured in movies is our belief that magic is not possible?

Hacking the System

9th grade honors geography. They had a project due the next day. But the lesson plan had them working on something else.

My general feeling is if the class is reasonably well-behaved, I don't much mind what they're working on. (Of course, if their assignment is due at the end of the period, I push for that. This wasn't the case this day.) And if they have something like a project due, sure, the project takes priority.

Rose asked if she could test her USB drive in the teacher's laptop. Her presentation was done, but apparently she's had technical difficulties the last three times she's had to present. And she wanted to make sure her PowerPoint would work this time.

Again, something I don't see an issue with. But she had to power up the teacher's laptop and log in.

Every student has an individual passcode to log in to the school computer system. Every teacher does, too.

The student passcodes limit them as to what they can access at school. Also, I was positioned in a spot where I could watch Rose and the computer. So, after warning her that she would have to log in, she booted up the computer.

And tried her password. Which she couldn't remember. But, she logged in with what she thought it was, and it didn't work.

A friend tried to help. Logging in with the password she knew worked. But it didn't.

So, the laptop was either not connected to the school network, or only the teacher could use his password to log in to it.

Rose wondered if she could guess the teacher's password.

It became a game. Several students joined in with their guesses. The teacher liked to wear Hawaiian shirts. Could that be it?

Rose tried several things she thought might be it. At one point, the computer took a while to deny her, so she thought she had it. But ultimately, Rose couldn't guess the password and gave up.

Where was I during all this? Watching. I didn't think Rose would actually guess the password, but if by some dumb luck she did, I wanted to let the teacher know he was going to need to change it.

I hope Rose's presentation worked the next day.

Actually Watching?

A week ago we had Thanksgiving. A week before that was the continuation high school's annual Turkey Day. They changed things up a bit this year, calling out students alphabetically rather than by classes. And so, there was no need to keep them in the same class, so they got to attend all their classes.

This was good as it gave the students something to do besides sit and complain. But some students decided they didn't want to go and eat. (I spent some time convincing one girl she should go and just see what was there. Her name was called, and I urged her to go. She did. Upon her return, she said it was good and she was happy she went.)

The teacher I was covering left Planet Earth for them to watch. (It was a science class.)

I popped in the DVD and sat back. Much of the class seemed to be engaged in things other than watching the show. But then I started to hear things...

Things that related to the show. Things that made it seem like...they were actually watching the DVD.

Astounding.

Of course, this was one for one class, but still. Kind of a minor miracle.

A Few Little Items...

I know I mentioned these before, but now that we're in full Christmas shopping mode (now that Halloween and Thanksgiving are over), I thought I'd put these out there again in hopes that I might entice you to do a little of your Christmas shopping with me...

Monogrammed Gift Card Holder
Can be made in several different colors and with any initial you choose.

EOS Lip Balm Holder
Available in 14 different colors.

Cell Phone Pyramid Pillow Prop
A little something for a cell phone. It sure beats holding it!

Lacy Fingerless Texting Gloves
Because they're fun. And not too heavy.

Water Bottle Carrier
This one's in blue, but I have multiple colors in the shop.

Small Tablet Cover/Cozy
These fit most mini tablets and larger ereaders.

And for you, my blogging buddies, I'm offering $2 off any purchase over $10 (which only excludes the EOS Lip Balm Holder, and only if you buy one). Use the coupon code GIFTCARDLOG. 

So, how's your Christmas shopping going? Have you started? (I haven't...)  

Roll Up the Sidewalks

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.

Did you brave the Black Friday madhouse? Did you join the throngs looking for deals on Thanksgiving itself?

If you like the Facebook page of my shop, Zizi Rho Designs, you already saw this link to the Slate article about why you shouldn't shop on Thanksgiving. (What you should do is shop online. Like in my shop. Where I have all sorts of wonderful presents for you to buy. Okay, blatant self promotion over.)

This all got me to thinking. And as this is my what if day, I thought I'd put the question to you...

What if the government could pass a law to make it illegal to open stores for a holiday? (For argument purposes, let's say that they can pass the law, but only if it's for one holiday.) Which holiday should it be? Which holiday should they "roll up the sidewalks" for?  

Bargaining

It was a 7th grade world history class. The lesson plan stated that the students were to read the chapter individually and then fill in a worksheet I passed out to them. Simple enough.

To me, reading a chapter individually means no talking. Because, you can't talk and read at the same time. Sure, you can read out loud, but that's not what students do. They claim to be reading while discussing the cute boy over there. That's not reading. That's hoping to absorb the words through osmosis while having them in front of you (which doesn't work. I know, I've tried it).

But 7th graders don't do silence. Not without a big ol' fight.

By 6th period I had had enough. I tried everything with earlier periods. (I knew that it was doable because 1st period read silently. The rest of the day, however, only gave me moments of silence. Which I had to fight for.) So, I just started taking down names of talkers.

Once I let them know what I was doing, they all wanted to know if their name was on the list. And then they wanted to know if I'd take it off.

The next student to ask me if their name is in the note will get their name in the note. (Thing that got 6th per to stop asking.) #subfiles
— Elizabeth Arundel (@ZiziRho) November 19, 2014

Hmmm....

Normally, the answer would be no. But it was the beginning of the period. And these were 7th graders. So, I made them a deal. I'd take off the names but only if they worked quietly the rest of the period.

And you know what? It almost, kind of worked. Well, they were much better than before (and much better than the previous classes excepting period 1).

Must remember this technique for next time...