A Workday Companion

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. 😉

What if you could always have your pet with you at work? (I do mean at work, not working from home, which they'd be at with you every day anyway.)

Mystery Project Reveal

The mystery project finally looks like something: 

...although, it's not quite how the finished product is going to look. 

What is it going to be? An octopus hat. 

I have four nephews. One of the twins asked me for an octopus. While looking up patterns, I ran across this hat. And I just had to make it.

After texting my brother and sister-in-law, I learned that the other twin and middle nephew were all octopus mad. So, all three are getting octopus hats for Christmas. If I finish them in time. Which, at this rate, I should.

(Will eldest nephew want one? Probably not. He's in high school now, so this is probably too kiddish for him.)

While researching this pattern, I found that there's a video that goes through the instructions. After viewing it, I knew there was nothing I wasn't familiar with, so I felt comfortable purchasing the pattern. 

So far, so good. I'm in the process of making the suckers. Then the tentacles get attached to the suckers. Finally, there are eyes. We'll see how far I get on this this coming week.

Rollin'

Yorik has been consistently late, especially for the last week. This is notable as while the school starts at 8:30 AM, we'll wait a few minutes to make sure everyone arrives. We've been starting at 8:40, 8:45, 8:50. So, Yorik has been later than that. 

On Tuesday he was clearly altered. 

Yorik was giggly and distracted. He would ask me a question and then talk over me when I attempted to answer. He'd put his head on his desk. He'd go from one thought to the next, and trying to keep him on task was a losing proposition. 

Yorik was high.

Although, Mr. T wasn't so sure. He said he'd seen Yorik like this in the past. And when his mother was called, she said that he had had a waffle for breakfast. (Yorik is diabetic.) 

Then, on Friday, Yorik showed up to school in a similar state. 

As his grade was in the 20% range, I decided to do some of Yorik's assignments with him. 

Have you ever attempted to get a high person to focus on schoolwork? It was not fun. It was a constant battle to refocus him along with his humming and talking over me while I tried to guide him to answers.

(And trying to get him to keep his mask on... High and masks do not mix.)

Oh, and he knew where the key could be found, so he kept trying to get me to open that so he could see it. When I ignored him, he pressed harder. Even when I told him I wasn't going to do it, he persisted. 

We did not get very much work done. Unsurprisingly. 

The Comeback

Second period English. Tenth grade (although the boys in the class are officially in twelfth grade). It's summer session, so they're making up credits they're missing. 

It was day seventeen of the eighteen-day summer session. We had been reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and doing assignments that went along with the reading. I had been doing a daily edit activity where I give them two sentences with errors that we'd correct together. And they had a daily writing assignment (three to five sentences on a topic I provided). 

They had work. They had largely ignored it.

So, on day seventeen I gave them a peek at their grades. I had done this a couple times before, but it wasn't making an impact. But on this day, their forty-ish percents finally made an impression on them. On day seventeen, both Vincent and Brandon got to work. 

They were missing several of their daily journal topics. They completed them. Various online assignments got done. And I barely kept up with the grading as one after another after another assignment was turned in.

By the end of the period, Vincent was in C territory, and Brandon had just gotten into the Ds. Brandon even did some work that evening, and by Friday he had pulled his grade up to a C. 

I'll take it. (I did tell them at the beginning that I accepted all late work.) I had been worried that I would be giving out only Fs, and I did not want to do that.

Fight the System

Wednesday. Fourth period. It was just Brandon and me. 

As Brandon had finished the book on Nat Turner and no new book was forthcoming, I decided the only way to get him to do his work was to do it with him.

Halfway through the period, Ronan stormed in. 

I mentioned Ronan a lot last school year. He's still on campus, but he doesn't need English credits (he's current on them). 

Ronan was in PE. The campus is small, so PE was right outside the door. But Ronan had a project going, and Brandon needed to do his part. 

If you recall from week one, the students weren't allowed to get their phones back for the walking field trip. The principal had them write paragraphs with reasons as to why they should be allowed to have them for weeks two and three. 

As they explained it to me, Ronan and Brandon had plotted about getting their phones for lunchtime. They were going to write paragraphs about why they should be allowed to have them, and every student on campus had to contribute. But Brandon hadn't written his.

I gave Brandon paper. Ronan found a pencil. And we stopped working on Brandon's assignment so Brandon could complete his paragraph. 

I could have fought this, but I chose not to. Might as well let them have their fun. 

Are they going to get their phones at lunch? I highly doubt it. It would be too much trouble to distribute them just to get them back a half hour later. 

But that they were being proactive and trying to fight the system was something I could get behind. And writing is definitely good practice.

Brandon only took about five minutes to write his paragraph, and then we got back to the assignment at hand. 

Ronan went to talk to the principal, but she was busy in meetings all day, so he didn't really get a chance to plead his case. (The principal had mentioned her wall-to-wall meeting day to us adults first thing in the morning, so I wasn't surprised that Ronan only could drop off the paragraphs for her.)

As of Friday, they had no answer, only a "she'll look into it". That'll be a discussion for when the official school year begins, I imagine.

The Genie

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. 😉

I've been giving the kiddos a journal topic a day (to keep them writing), and the other day I used the prompt: What would you do if you could do anything? (I found it online somewhere.) But that got me thinking...

What if you had the power to give someone whatever they wanted? Would you? (The only limit here is that you have no control over what it is they wish for, so if you disagree with their desire...)

Not Quite There Yet

Last week was a bit challenging for me. My car trouble ended up being a major repair, and it's going to take the garage seven to ten days to get the part it needs.

So, I didn't get very far on the project I showed last week. 

This...

Only got as far as this...

Which doesn't give you a very good idea of what the finished item will look like. And I don't think this will help...

(That's kind of how it'll be worn when complete.)

The next bits that get added will make it look like something. And since the school summer session is over, I won't be as tired at night when I generally do my crocheting (or knitting). Maybe I'll get more work done?

I do still have subbing stories on Wednesday through Friday. The blog is always a week behind.