Last week:
This week:
I'm feeling a bit more like I made some progress this past week. Last week I tracked the progress of the first octopus hat. For week 3, I was behind.
But this is now week 4. As you can see, I have finished all the suckers. And I just started attaching the tentacles to the suckers. For the first hat, I got to this point in week 6.
Finally, progress.
I should probably go and buy the yarn for hat #3. Optimistic? Yeah. But I think it's finally warranted.
I may have mentioned once or twice that there's a bit of a sub shortage at the moment. So, when I didn't have an assignment for Friday (on Thursday), I called the sub caller to see what was up. She told me it was going to be another day of her scrambling to cover as many classes as she could, and that I'd have to cover an elementary class.
Ugh.
Because elementary schools don't have teachers with prep time who can cover classes, they have to get covered by subs first. The subbing situation has gotten so bad that they don't have enough bodies to just get those classes covered some days.
But, she wasn't pulling me at the last minute (when I was starting a long term assignment someplace), so I resigned myself to doing what needed to be done. And she gave me sixth grade, so not too much of a difference from seventh grade.
How short were they subs this day? A class across from mine was also out a teacher, and the only person they could get to sub that class was the school's principal.
All in all, it was a pretty mellow day. The kiddos had tests all day. I was covering the English portion (but the math and science classes had tests, too). The sixth graders rotated through the classes.
When the second group came in, one boy immediately caught my attention. He couldn't sit still, had to go back to his homeroom to retrieve the book (the test was open book), and then returned without the book. He pretended to stutter, and then he proceeded to speak without that stutter for the rest of the time.
While he was out of the room, I asked another student his name. Cannon.
Cannon returned from a restroom break. As he was walking to his desk, he threw his Tech Deck at another student.
A Tech Deck is a miniature skateboard made to be scooted about using one's fingers. It's pictured above with a pencil for size comparison. They've been around since the time I worked at the evil toy store (now defunct). That's over 20 years ago now.
I asked the student to hand the Tech Deck to me. I placed it on the teacher's desk.
Cannon came up to me to ask for something, only he spotted the Tech Deck.
"That's mine."
Yup. I was aware.
"Can I have it back?"
He was not happy with my answer. When he asked why, I asked him why he had thrown it at his classmate.
But he hadn't thrown it at anyone, he protested. It had just fallen out of his pocket.
Yeah, it fell out so violently that it bounced off a desk and made a clatter.
I didn't get into the argument over whether or not he had thrown it. I informed Cannon he could have the toy back... from his teacher upon her return on Monday.
I like to employ this trick over disputed property. If the kiddos want to get into an argument with me over what was or was not done, they can take it up with an adult who is more familiar with them. And they can explain why there's a toy on the teacher's desk when the toy shouldn't have been at school (or at least out of the backpack) in the first place.
Cannon tried to get the Tech Deck back from me a couple more times. He did not succeed.
It's been a couple years since I was last at the adult transition center. After finishing up the long term geography/economics class, it was my next assignment.
There were a lot of familiar faces. I had had them in classes at the high school where the severe special ed classes are held. The only difference is that we were masked.
After lunch, they were to watch a movie off of either Netflix or Disney Plus. In cases like this, I prefer to let someone else choose the movie. I don't have a preference, and I don't want to push them to watch something they might hate. I called for a choice, and the students just stared at me.
Finally, Jake approached. He liked Wish Dragon.
Yay! We had a winner. No one else said anything, so I put it on.
And only then was when Andrew piped up. It took a few tries, but I finally understood that he was saying "Disney Plus".
Um, he had said nothing when I was calling for a choice. And we had started the movie, so we might as well continue it.
But, apparently, Andrew was used to getting his own way in things.
He made noises. Grunted. Did things to disrupt the movie.
The instructional aides weren't having it. They informed Andrew that he wasn't going to disrupt the movie for the rest of the class. They threatened to call his mom. He had to go and sit outside a couple times.
Ah yes, I remember this sort of behavior. I'm back in the subbing trenches.
Alas, we did not finish the movie (we didn't have enough time). But as it was on Netflix, I finished it up that night. Cute movie.
There are no stupid questions. Well...
Monday was my last day in the geography class as Mrs. O was returning Tuesday. The PowerPoint topic for the day was population.
Fifth period was the difficult class, and Monday they were worse than normal. So, there was lots of me pausing and waiting for them to settle so I could go over the information.
We were talking about the world population and how it is increasing, and we were talking about where in the world the population was decreasing and how that wasn't a great thing. That's when Alden piped up.
"What if there were only two people left in the world and they were brother and sister?"
At which point, other students chimed in with, "That's a stupid question," and "There's no such thing as a stupid question".
I mean... Really, questions are good. I don't mind explaining some things when questions come up. But fourteen-year-olds and that question. Nope. Not happening. Especially not on a day where we had more content than time.
At the end of the period I told them it was my last day. And they acted disappointed. I kind of shook my head at that, because the prior class period, they were asking when I was leaving and they straight up told me they didn't like me and would be glad when I was gone.
Kids. This is one strange gig sometimes.
What if you went into business with your best friend and the business failed?
Octopus hat #2 seems to be working up a bit quicker than octopus hat #1. At least, I think so.
Since I tracked my progress on the blog, I can actually compare.
On July 26th, I had barely begun. The next week, on August 2nd, I had the back portion and the hat itself done, but I hadn't yet explained what I was doing.
I revealed the project on August 9th, and it appears that the tentacles and a couple suckers were done. I'd only got a couple more suckers done by August 16th. I finished all the suckers by August 23rd.
I just started attaching the tentacles and suckers on August 30th. By September 6th that was finished. And the eyes were attached (and the whole thing finished) by September 13th.
I started hat #2 by September 20th. And now I'm not feeling so confident, because this would be week 3 of hat progress, and I'm just about where I was on August 9th with hat #1 (week 3).
I've only barely started one sucker:
Which means I need to get on this a bit quicker, or I'm going to be running up on my deadline.
That means my goal for this week is to complete all the suckers and get them attached to the tentacles. I already made the eyes (I made three sets of eyes at the same time), so that should make the finishing go a bit faster.
Fingers crossed. I'd like to get hat #3 started this month. It's doable, but only if I get more done this week. I'll keep you posted.
Friday. Fourth period economics. We were discussing shifts in the demand curve.
That I passed my high school economics class is a minor miracle. To this day, I'm convinced my econ teacher gifted me that C. So, covering this class has been just as much an education for me. Luckily, Mrs. O has supplied me with all of the lecture slides and assignments, so the kiddos haven't been at a disadvantage.
We spent a couple days on the topic. They had a chance to practice, and on this Friday, they were going to have a quiz (right after doing a practice worksheet that looked almost exactly like the quiz). So, I was spending some time going over more examples so that they'd be ready for that quiz.
The question that popped up on the PowerPoint was about peaches and nectarines...
And the song "Peaches" popped into my head.
Not for the first time. This was the third time I'd been through this example, so the song had been on a loop in my head for two days.
Do you think that earworms act like viruses? Do they want to infect as many people as possible?
In fourth period, I broke. I mentioned the song.
So, of course, now they were curious.
The song is older than they are. (They were born around 2004.) I was pretty sure they weren't familiar with it.
I warned them not to look it up. It would get stuck in their heads. But, I don't think my warnings were heeded.
At least now I'm not humming it alone.
I would recommend (if you are not familiar with the tune) to not click on the video below. You've been warned.
