DVR Resident

Since I am officially on summer vacation, it's time for the "summer schedule". That means today should be a random quiz. 

But, I've found that finding a random quiz is much more work than I want to do right now. So, out of sheer laziness, I'm introducing a new blog "feature". The random question.

At the beginning of this year, I switched my TV provider. (This is a long story which I won't bore you with.) With the switch, I lost everything on my old DVR. The only thing I wanted to replace right away was one particular movie.

Luckily, it was on some channel pretty soon after the switch, so I was able to add it to the new DVR right away.

I don't know why I like this movie so much. I suppose I should buy a copy, but it's not the same as having it on my DVR. I can just pull it up and watch a bit of it when I have an odd moment, and then it'll be waiting for me later when I want to watch it again.

So, my random question for you today: 

Is there any TV show or movie you have on your DVR that you just keep there? Do you rewatch it frequently? 

That End of School Year Stats Post

It's that time of year again--the end of the school year. And this is where I list all the various classes I covered this past school year. 

(I do this post for me. I understand if you don't want to wade through all the numbers.)

I did something different this year. I kept my tally on a Google Sheet as opposed to the paper method I've been using since 2012. (If anyone wants details, I can do a separate post next week.) 

There are 180 days in the school year. I worked 174 of them. This is less than my all time high of 177 for last year (but last year was very unusual). Five of those non-worked days occurred in the last two weeks of school (three from the last week and two from the week previous). The other day was a day I took off in September for no good reason.

That total does not include the 19 days (2 professional development and 17 days of class) I did for the summer academy last June, nor does it include the 3 days I worked at the continuation high school the first two weeks of August (one in social studies and two in the computer aided drafting class) before the school year officially began.

I worked 115 days in high school classes, 35 days in middle school classes, 16 days at the continuation high school, 4 1/2 days at the alternative education center, and 3 1/2 days at the adult transition center. (Half days? Yeah, that was an unusual day.) 

On 57 of those days, I covered a different class on my prep period. (That's way up from the last couple years, but it's lower than what was normal in the before times.) Only four of those days I covered for teachers that did not have a prep period.

I did work the first day of school but I did not work the last.

More specifically, the list of classes I covered...

I reworked my definitions a bit this year. "Extra period" is specific to me covering a teacher's class for only one class. A "partial day" is when I covered the teacher for the whole day, but they didn't teach that class for the whole day. (So, "partial day" can be one period or more than one period.) I do way more "partial days" as most teachers don't teach the same thing all day.

So, the numbers listed are: covered full day/covered partial day/covered for an extra period only.

• As expected, my big "winner" for the year is English (it's almost always English) with 33 whole days, 18 partial days, and 12 extra periods.
• I covered 10th grade the most at 16 partial days and one extra period. 
• Then 11th grade comes in 2nd place with 8 whole days, 6 partial days, and 2 extra periods. 
• Next is ELD (or English language development--classes for students who are learning English) at 3 whole days, 5 partial days, and 2 extra periods.
• As for the rest of the grades:
• 7th: 4/3/2
• 8th: 2/5/2
• 9th: 2/4/7
• 12th: 0/6/1
• Yearbook: one partial day. (That teacher's rest of day was 10th grade English, which is why I'm including the stat here.)
• The next most covered subject is science. That's not surprising as I did a three-week assignment in chemistry in August/September. I did 31 whole days, 6 partial days, and 6 extra periods.
• The winner in this subject, naturally, is chemistry with 20 whole days, 2 partial days, and one extra period.
• Next is biology with one full day, five partial days, and two extra periods.
• The rest of the science classes:
• 7th grade science: 1/3/1
• 8th grade science: 0/0/4
• Health: 0/3/1
• Physics: 0/1/0
• Anatomy/physiology: 0/2/1
• Forensics: 0/1/0
• Environmental science: 1/1/0
• Intro to health careers: 0/2/1
• Then comes the social studies classes with 24 whole days, 1 partial day, and 3 extra periods.
• I've got a thee-way tie for first place here, so I'll just list everything:
• 7th grade world history: 0/4/2
• 8th grade U.S. history: 2/5/1
• Geography (9th grade): 0/8/0
• World history (10th grade): 1/7/0
• U.S. history (11th grade): 0/8/0
• Government (12th grade): 3/4/1
• Economics (12th grade): 0/3/0
• And math rounds out the required courses with 13 whole days, 5 partial days, and 13 extra periods. 
• The most covered class here is unsurprising as it's the class all high schoolers must take. Integrated math 1. (It's a combo of algebra and geometry. The harder components of algebra and geometry are a part of integrated math 2.) I had 6 whole days, 7 partial days, and 10 extra periods.
• As for the rest:
• 7th grade math: 0/2/0
• 8th grade math: 1/3/1
• IM2: 2/0/1
• IM3: 0/2/1
• Next I'm listing special ed, but some of these days overlap with the above. The RSP special ed teachers co-teach, so if I covered one of them, I tallied special ed plus the subject co-taught. I had 18 whole days, 1 partial day, and 23 extra periods. 
• Of those, I co-taught 5 whole days, 3 partial days, and 11 extra periods. (They tend to period sub co-teachers when possible as the other teacher can handle things and we subs are just in for crowd control.)
• Special day classes (where I was the only teacher and the classes were small) accounted for 5 whole days, 2 partial days, and 3 extra periods.
• The "severe" classes (these would be days at the adult transition center, but there are also some middle and high school classes) accounted for 4 full days and 7 extra periods. (Teachers who teach the "severe" special ed classes have the same group all day, so partial days don't really happen.) 
• This is rounded out with "learning center". The learning center is the one period a day when the special ed teacher covers a resource room where the special ed kiddos can go to take a test or work in a different room when needed. This is never a full day, but I covered 7 partial days (meaning on 7 special ed days, one of the classes I covered was this), and 3 extra periods. 
• Before I get into the electives as a whole, I must note the success seminar class. I covered about a month of it while the teacher was out on "baby bonding" with her 3-month old. That was 19 whole days. I also caught 3 extra periods of this throughout the rest of the school year.
• And finally, the electives. 
• Top elective: computer classes with 10 whole days, 5 partial days, and 3 extra periods. What are computer classes?
• Business (typing, accounting, etc.): 2/1/2
• Graphic art: 3/4/1
• Computer aided drafting: 2/0/0
• Esports: 2/0/0
• Then comes the art classes with 10 full days, one partial day, and one extra period. Included in this tally is:
• Photography: 0/1/0
• Ceramics: 6/0/1
• My third place in electives would be leadership with 9 partial days. Leadership classes are generally a one period commitment for the teacher, and most of those days were for the middle school leadership class I covered while doing those three weeks in April/May for the English teacher finishing up her maternity leave. Then:
• ASB: 0/8/0
• Link crew: 0/1/0
• As for the rest of the electives:
• Woodshop: 0/3/1
• Spanish: 6/0/2
• Drama: 0/0/2
• Athletics: 0/1/0
• Music: 1/0/2
• Band: 0/1/1
• Choir: 0/1/1
• TV/Video production: 0/1/0
• Credit recovery: 0/1/0
• Roving: 1/0/0

Sometimes people ask me what I teach. When I say, "I sub," they don't get it. I haven't figured out how to explain that list to people in few words. So, I tell them, "pretty much everything," when pressed. I think that's fairly accurate, don't you? 

So, now I have a bit of time off until it starts all over again. I wonder what next year will bring.

Previous years' stats:

• 2022
• 2021
• 2020
• 2019
• 2018
• 2017
• 2016
• 2015
• 2014
• 2013
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010

That's All, Folks

Summer vacation descended upon me like:

I was going along, working daily, and then there was nothing. Smash. Bam. Done.

The full time teachers filled all the summer school teaching positions, so there will be no summer school class for me. (Although, those teachers might need a sub to fill in for a day here or there, so summer school is not completely out of the question.) 

And I spent last week suddenly without anything to do.

(The last day of school was June 1st. My last working day was the prior Friday. My end of year stats post will go live tomorrow.) 

Whatever am I going to do with my time? I'm going to do my best to enjoy it.

Last Wednesday, I decided I needed to make a Target run. I mean, I didn't really need anything, truly. Although, I picked up a few things that would make a couple projects I was working on work better. 

As I was driving into the parking lot, I noted a restaurant nearby. Pizza enjoys this place quite a lot, and he was in Mr. G's class this past year. And Mr. G's class went to that restaurant on Wednesdays as their usual CBI. 

Nah...

While in Target, I hear my name called. I turned. And sure enough, it was three of the instructional assistants from the adult transition center with a couple students in wheelchairs. 

They told me some of the other students were in the Target. (I did not run into them.) We talked for a bit, and then they were on their way. And I was on mine.

I think I would have been more shocked if I hadn't realized it was Wednesday and knew that that class would likely be there. It was nice to see them. I'm sure I'll get back to that school next school year. 

Now I get to find other things to occupy my time for a couple months. The blog now goes on summer schedule for however long I'm not working. 

(Summer school starts this week, and I'm on the subbing list, so I could work. That ends the week of the 4th of July. Right after that, the alternative education center opens for the month of July. The continuation high school starts the last two weeks of July. And the first day of school is August 10th.)

A Thinking Universe?

What if? It's the basis of many stories. We ask. We ponder. We wonder. 

On Tuesdays I throw one out there. What if? It may be speculative. It may stem from something I see. It may be something I pull from the news. 

Make of it what you will. If a for instance is not specified, interpret that instance as you wish. And if the idea turns into a story, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements 😉

The other day, I was watching NOVA. The episode was "Your Brain: Perception Deception". And in it, there was a moment when they compared the number of synapses in the brain to the number of stars in our galaxy. 

(I looked for a clip of just that scene, but I couldn't find one. The link goes to the whole episode. It's fascinating if you have the time, but it is an hour long episode.)

And I thought, what if...?

What if the universe is actually a brain?

Coming Soon

Shadow Boxing

Friday. It was an eighth grade English class, but most of the class was missing as they were on an end of the year field trip. (They went to a local movie theater to see The Little Mermaid.) 

Not every student gets to go on these excursions, so I had a few students in every class. Their teacher left a video for them to watch. (Surprisingly, it did not go badly. I had one minor glitch. Maybe my luck has turned.) 

I turned off the video before the end of the period. The kiddos had enough time to engage in the newest fad.

The first time I saw this was maybe two weeks ago. (Not longer than a month ago.) And within days, it became a thing I saw daily. 

Two boys (it's always boys, at least so far) stand three-ish feet apart. One moves his hand. The other moves his head. It's rather innocuous, and it rarely lasts very long, so I'm not concerned. Just curious. But I never got a chance to ask the question.

Until that day.

"What are you doing?" 

Apparently, it's called shadow boxing. (Not the shadow boxing I knew of.) Or the finger pointing game. 

Now that I had a name, I could do a search online. And yep, it's a thing. I found a site with the rules. And there are videos.

I guess it's probably huge on TikTok right now. If you're into that sort of thing.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know about the newest fad floating around the middle and high schools. (I would not be surprised to find it happening at elementary schools as well.) We'll see how long this game lasts.

A Recurring Theme

A new week, a new showing video disaster story. 

(It's the time of year. More teachers leave videos as we finish up the year, and inserting tape and pushing play is not how it works anymore.) 

It was still the last Monday of the school year; same teacher's class I talked about yesterday. Ms. A had two periods as the co-teacher of a biology class and three periods teaching her own self-contained special ed science class. 

For Ms. A's two biology classes, we were finishing up a movie. The lesson plan stated that Ms. A's aide would set things up.

Cool. No problem.

Only, while in Mr. B's class, he got a text from Ms. A. The aide was also out sick...

Sure, I could set up the video. What could go wrong?

Well, Ms. A wasn't logged in. The video she had rented from Amazon Prime had expired. And I didn't have her password.

Luckily, Mr. B's prep period was the first period I had to show the video, so he came by to set things up. And everything worked great.

The following period, I just had to do it again. I left everything set up. But, unfortunately, between those two classes was lunch, and during lunch, Ms. A's computer went into sleep mode. 

(I really should have known better. I always go into the power settings and change the time out from the standard ten minutes to five hours, so it won't sleep on me in the middle of teaching. But Mr. B logged into her computer and started the video, so I never did that one little fix.) 

Well, it was lunch. I called Mr. B again... (I'm sure he was sick of hearing from me.) 

Once he logged in again, I immediately went into the power settings and fixed the time out. 

I guess I'm learning all things that can go wrong with showing videos to classes. Next year I'll be an expert.