I haven't had a lot of energy lately. That's one of the reasons the eye sweater took as long as it did. And now that it's finished, I've had issues figuring out what to work on next.
I finally pulled out an older project...
Back in January, I had to frog a project that had gone awry. This one:
I managed to restart it and get it to here:
It may not look like a lot, but those rows are tricky. I'm giving myself the space to do it slowly. I've got the time.
October 30, 2024. The Los Angeles Dodgers win the World Series. The next day was Halloween. And I had a middle school assignment.
Let's just say I was anticipating the worst.
And... It turned out that I had two periods of advanced math of eighth graders. Which was helpful.
(Eighth graders, so a bit crazy. And Halloween, so hopped up on sugar. And the whole World Series thing, which meant many not in Halloween costumes were in Dodger gear. But advanced, so better behaved than the usual eighth grade class.)
And then the last group of the day walked in...
This was a co-taught, grade level class. Of twelve students.
The co-teacher took over (as usually happens; when one of the teachers is out, the other, who knows the class and the routine, takes lead). She attempted to explain the work. They weren't having it.
They were working on combining like terms. This can be tricky, but it's so important (as it pops up in math classes after this), so we want to make sure the students understand. Unfortunately, when kiddos are in play mode, it's hard to tell if they understand the concepts being taught.
I had students on their phones. I had one boy whistling. When I asked him to stop, he denied he was doing it. (It was him. I saw him.) Two students wouldn't stop talking (about something unrelated to the assignment).
Only one boy in the class seemed to understand the assignment. It was too easy for him.
Mrs. F (the co-teacher) told me that this boy was supposed to be in the advanced math class, but unfortunately the previous year he hadn't done his classwork, so he got a D in his math class. One can't get a D in the class and get put into the harder class the next year.
Mrs. F shrugged. It was his own fault, really.
I was quite happy when class was over.
Mrs. F told me the class was usually like that. She and Mrs. G (the teacher I was subbing for) are having the worst time with the group. I could see why.
Halloween could have gone worse, I suppose. Next year it'll fall on a Friday.
On Wednesday of last week, I happened to catch the choir class. I have not subbed for Mr. S in a very long time, so I wasn't sure what to expect.
When I arrived, I looked for lesson plans but did not find them. Before I had a chance to panic, the student teacher walked in. Whew. That made things very easy for me. All I really had to do was take roll.
(The choir teacher is also the golf coach. One of his golfers made the local playoffs, so he was with that student there.)
The last class of the day was the very good choir (called Ensemble). And they were to run through some music for the upcoming season, especially something called Candlelight.
There were a bunch of plaques hung in the room proclaiming Candlelight at Disneyland for the last decade and more. So, I did an internet dive to find out more info, and apparently this is a thing. It's a super secret annual event that if you don't know how to get tickets already, you can't get tickets for it. Okay, then...
I found a video on YouTube of the event last year:
Anyway, all of this is to say that what the student teacher ran through with them was a bunch of Christmas music. On October 30th.
And me? I sat over in a corner and listened. Student teacher days are easy days for the sub.
Going into the weekend, I had nothing booked for Monday, so I was glad when something popped up Sunday evening. Then, Monday morning I got a call from the sub desk asking if I could switch from that assignment to the alternative education center. Sure, why not?
I was told that I would have one seventh grade student. I'm used to going with the flow when it comes to that school, so I figured all would be explained when I got there.
Basically, this seventh grade boy, Walter, was being isolated from the other students for reasons, so he had his very own teacher. But, that third teacher at the school had taken a new position at a new school, so they were getting various subs to watch Walter. I was sub number five. Although, I was the last sub as they were planning to move Walter back with the other students the next day.
With that kind of build up, you'd think that working with Walter would have been difficult. It wasn't. Of course, my bar is low as there was no throwing of chairs...
We started with science, and I managed to find a plate tectonic simulation, and Walter enjoyed playing with that. (That was where he was in the science textbook.) Then we switched over to math.
Walter knew how to do the math. He finished it very quickly. And then I checked his answers. Um, nope.
So, I made him slow down, and we did it together.
At some point, I pointed out that his arithmetic was off. We were adding together two odd numbers, so our answer should be even.
And that's when I found out Walter didn't know the difference between odd and even.
It's always interesting to find gaps in a student's knowledge. That was one I wasn't expecting. I took the time to explain. Did Walter grasp it? I have no idea. He rejected the idea that five wasn't an even number for a while. I hope this lesson comes up again to reinforce the concept, but I have no idea if it will. At least Walter accepted that I might know what I was talking about.
After lunch, we rounded out the day with art and reading. For art class, I found a how-to video. This one:
(It was Halloween week. I decided to go with the season.)
Walter wasn't having it. He wanted to trace something easy. I urged him to give it a try. Finally he found a step by step video of something else and did that.
(It's a middle school thing. They want things perfect. I push for them to allow themselves to make mistakes.)
And then finally, we were at the last hour of the day. He'd been reading The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and was on the last three chapters. Knowing this was his last day solo, I pushed to finish the book. Walter said he was only reading one chapter a day.
Eventually, we did get to the finish. I don't know if Walter appreciated this, but at least we finished something in his time in a class solo.
That's the thing about subbing. Every day is different, and I never know what I may step into. This could have been such a difficult day, but it wasn't, really. I hope Walter is doing well with the other kiddos at the school. One of these days, I might even get a chance to see for myself.
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 😉
Ah, election day. The day I am reminded how little my vote in California matters on the national level. (Which sucks, frankly. We're the most populous state. We have a huge economy that financially benefits the country as a whole. But in national elections, we're figuratively sneered at.)
Did you know there's already a plan in place to get around the Electoral College? It's called the National Popular Vote, and unsurprisingly, California is on board. Is your state?
What if we got enough states on board to do away with the Electoral College?
I finally did it. I finally got that video I'd meant to get uploaded uploaded.
A few years ago I decided that I wanted to create a YouTube channel of me making various of my yarny projects. But, I have no real video-making skills. Well, the best way to learn something is to do it, even if I do it badly, so I began.
(My brother has been kind enough to do the editing, so at least they're put together well.)
Summer 2023 I had some time to make some videos. Three of them. The first two were uploaded over this past summer. And the third is here, now.
What am I making? I call it the tablet buddy (you can purchase the pattern either on Etsy or on Ravelry). It's a thing to prop up your cell phone, your ereader, or your tablet. They look like this:
At least, this is like the one I made on camera. This is the small size. The phone can be leaned against the pyramid, and there's a line of bobbles to keep it from sliding down.
Anyway, here's the video:
It is an hour and thirteen minutes long, so I don't expect anyone to watch the thing all the way through (unless you plan on making one of these).
The next thing I need to do is to create a good title image as none of my videos have one right now. Little by little I'm getting this channel up and running. (I have started shooting a new video, but at the rate I'm going, it'll be a while before I get it finished, let alone uploaded.)
It was Friday morning, and I was having a Friday Late.
But I wasn't too concerned. It was already going to be an odd day. I had gotten an email the prior day about how the teacher I was scheduled to cover wasn't going to need me all day, so they had modified my schedule so I'd be roving rather than covering one class.
(Yeah, so Ms. M had seniors, and Senior Seminar--a day when all the seniors do a thing together out of class--got moved to this particular Friday. Ms. M only had one period of sophomores. I love roving days, so the switch wasn't going to bother me.)
I left home at the usual time, but I got on campus about ten minutes later than normal. Then, while checking in for the day, I took some time to talk to the secretary. Stuff about the roving day. The schedule she had emailed me had been altered as two of the teachers no longer needed me, but a third did.
By the time I left the office to head to the classroom, the warning bell had rung. (Usually I have ten to fifteen minutes before the school day starts to get set up.) And I had to get from the main office to the back of the school. I had time, but I was going to have a crowd of students waiting.
Only, I did not. Weird.
I got to the classroom a good two minutes (at least) after the warning bell, and there were no students in sight.
Uh oh. Did I make a mistake? Was I at the correct room for the period?
I double checked my book. Yup, I was in the right place.
I opened the door. I almost went in to put my bag down when a student arrived. And then another. Whew. They were just cutting it close.
When the bell rang to start class, I had seventeen students. Out of thirty-four. Over the first twenty or so minutes of class, eight more students arrived. (Yeah, they've got a tardy problem at the school. Which is funny as the school day now starts at 8:30 AM. Before 2020, school started at 7:30 AM.)
Well, at least they weren't waiting on me. And I was there before the bell.
There's just something about Fridays...
