The Soft Opening

The first day of school kind of feels like the grand opening of a restaurant or other business. Everyone is there. Everyone is on their best behavior. You've got crowds and new things and all the focus is on the beginning. 

The past couple years, I've felt like a brand new employee (with no prior training) on the first day of school. I've moaned about falling into "vacant" classes, that is, a class with no teacher assigned. And while I know that's mostly how one works on the first day of school, I wasn't really looking forward to having to do that yet again.

And then a gig at the adult transition center popped up for the first two days of school. For Mr. G. Who I know didn't retire. 

While I had never subbed for Mr. G before, I spent 117 days at the adult transition center last school year. I've met the students. While I might not know Mr. G's exact schedule, I do have a rough idea of what he usually does. 

So, instead of jumping right into the school year, I'm kind of easing into it, like having a soft opening before the official grand opening. 

Things were a bit of a mess, as the room hadn't been prepped and Mr. G's usual aides weren't there. (One was out and the other got moved to a different class.) But I had Pizza, Leanna, and Brittany. And I'd been around the other three students before. (We were supposed to have incoming new students, but they didn't show up.) 

Not a bad way to start the new school year. And this group was way easier than Ms. L's group. (Although I did get to see many of them as well. I just saw them before and after school.) 

Getting the Job

Most of the school districts in the area, probably in the state, use a computerized scheduling system to fill substitute teacher jobs throughout the school year. The district I work for, however, still used a sub caller--a human being who manually called subs to get jobs filled. Until now.

We have now joined the modern era with a subfinder app. Finally. 

Alas, because the system is new to us, there are a few kinks in the system. 

School officially started on Thursday. The teachers started on Tuesday. They had professional development days. No students.

However, the continuation high school is on a different schedule. They have been in session since mid-July. 

(Covering a couple classes at the continuation high school before school officially starts for the rest of the district is a good warm up for the school year.) 

The prior Thursday, the school's secretary told me she had a teacher out on Monday, but no one had taken the gig yet. I told her the job wasn't showing for us subs. For some reason the job kept popping up as "no sub required". 

The secretary worked the problem from her end. I kept an eye on the app on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It did not appear. 

On Sunday, the secretary called me. She wondered why the job was still vacant. I told her it still wasn't in the system. 

And then, the job popped up. Only, I had been assigned the job with no way to decline. (I had a rough weekend and had planned to not work. Although, once I accepted the job, I could cancel. But by that time I figured getting out of the house might be a good idea.) 

On Monday, the problem was diagnosed. Because the other schools didn't need subs, the system wouldn't let the one open school request any. 

(The secretary had to call the district and get things fixed as she had another teacher out on Tuesday, and the job wouldn't post.)

Problem fixed, I was able to catch the assignment when the teacher I covered on Monday requested another day out. 

It's always something, isn't it? School has barely started, and I've already had three different issues with the new (to us) app. Well, not me, per se. Let's just say I'm kind of enjoying watching the teachers figure out how this whole thing works.

Uneducated

Speculative fiction has a long history of taking the issues of the day and reframing them in a new context with the hope that people will look at them in a new way. Our "unprecedented" times are bringing all sorts of old ways and old thinking back to the forefront. On Tuesdays, I present "what if?" questions. Previously, the intent was as an idea generator. It still is. But now, I ask that you really think about all the repercussions that these ideas will have. If only these were just thought exercises. 

As school begins for the year for us...

What if they did away with public schools? (And did what? Either just left a child's education up to their family or turning all schools into private and/or charter schools.)

The Mane Event

I'm afraid I didn't make much progress on the unicorn hat this week. I went from this...

To this...

I blame the heat. And school started up last week, so I went and got busy again. 

I'm going to set this aside for just a bit. I had to order the right yarn for the unicorn's horn, and until it arrives I'm at a standstill. (I bought something local, but it didn't work up right.) But I can find other projects to work on until then. 

The hat thus far:

• The Big Tangle
• Linear Growth in Crochet

Word Ladder: Legen-wait-for-it-dary

I don't really know how random this quiz is, as it took me at least a dozen hits of the "random quiz" button on Sporcle before this one popped up. 

(Ones I skipped: sports puns, distance from Praetoria, characters on cartoons, geographic features of Canada, countries close to Brazil, most popular names that start with B, and several others I can't now recall.) 

A word ladder is where each "rung" is one letter different from the "rung" before (and after). So, if the first word is AND, the next word could be END. (This is good for when you get stuck. The next word only has one letter difference.) 

You can do the words in any order, so start with a clue you know. Only answer the ones you know. Then you can go back and fill in if you have time left. (Yes, this is timed. Sorry.)

Word Ladder: It's Going to Be Legen-wait-for-it-dary!

I got 39/42 for 93%. I'm rather pleased, as I never saw the sitcom on which this word ladder is based. 

Let me know how you did in the comments.

Denied

Today is the first day of school. But, I write my blog posts over the previous weekend, so everything I talk about happened last week. 

The only schools open last week were the alternative education center and the continuation high school. It was just a matter of time before a working day became available, this one at the continuation high school. (It has been a while since I was last there, but not much really changes.)

Second period. As the students entered class, I overheard Natasha ask the PE teacher (Coach M) if she could go to his class instead. Coach hesitated, started to say yes if she promised to join in the game, then changed his mind when he realized that she would just sit by, and he ultimately said no.

Twenty-five minutes into class (probably not realizing I saw the previous exchange), Natasha asked if she could join the PE class. She told me Coach said she could. 

Luckily, the PE class was shooting baskets right outside my door. 

So, we both went outside. I got Coach's attention. Natasha asked to join the class. 

Coach said he already had eleven playing the game (perhaps Horse, although I can't be certain), and she'd only sit, so no. Again.

I mean, she could sit inside with the air conditioning or outside in the (muggy) heat. (She wasn't even making a pretense of doing anything in class.) If she just wanted to watch, our open windows overlooked the game.

It must be a boy. Or boys. Otherwise, why give up the a/c? I must be missing something.

A Small Favor

Could you all do me a favor? If you're on Blogger, could you check to make sure my comments didn't end up in your spam folder?

Lately, I've noticed some of my comments have not been appearing on your blogs. At first, I assumed they were being deleted (as all blog owners totally can and should curate their comments), but it's happened way too frequently for that to be the issue.

And, I'm finding many regular commenters in my spam folder. 

Comment is not spam. Middle icon marks comment as spam.

Comment is marked as spam. Check mark takes it out of spam folder.

So, if you wouldn't mind, could you go and double check. Thanks.