She's Right There

It was the beginning of third period and I was doing the one duty I hate the most--calling out the roll.

Me: "Robert."

"Here."

Me: "Jason."

"What?"

Me: "I'm taking roll." I say this as I mark him present.

There's always one with the "what?" There are at least two who I have to call twice because they didn't hear me and didn't respond. (At some point I start muttering "Bueller, Bueller".) And there's at least one (but usually more than one) whose parents didn't think ahead to days like this when someone like me was going to attempt to pronounce the strangely spelled oddity without use of a pronunciation key (and all the subsequent snickers the mispronunciation always elicits).

So, I proceeded through the list...

Me: "Jasmine."

"Here."

Me: "Chloe."

"Here."

Me: "Jose."

No response. Jose was absent. And I was at the end of the list, but the two girls sitting in front of me had to say, "Chloe isn't here."

"Who's that over there?" I asked, pointing out Chloe.

I don't know why, but some names stick. I have had Chloe in many classes. When I see the name Chloe, I think blonde, blue-eyed, girly-girl cheerleader type. This Chloe is not that. Not that at all. Complete opposite, in fact. And that's why I remember her name.

"That's not Chloe. That's...that's...um...her twin!"

And what the two other girls could possibly get out of me marking Chloe absent? I have no idea.

Too Much Thinking

I'm back at the continuation high school, and the assignment is one of those busy work worksheets. It's keeping them busy, so there should be no complaints. They've been getting through the first four worksheets with minimal difficulties, but then they get to the 5th one, and they get stuck.

The worksheet is called "Some Even Harder Words in Washington". The idea is they are to use the letters W-A-S-H-I-N-G-T-O-N to make words, and they can even use the letters more than once. Clues are given. But this has been "too hard", and the students want to give up (and they want me to give them worksheet number six to do instead).

Some examples:
Grind the teeth.
....a bet on or...a war on.
A deep cut.
An overhead window shade to keep out the sun.
To lightly color.
A dish made from leftover meat.
The person who gives the party.
Getting older.
Win over; as a man might court or win over a lady.
A large male deer.
A mean old woman.
Another name for "country" where people live.
What trains pull into.

I was mean and made three girls work on this for an entire period (there were 25 words they had to find). I even gave hints (first letter, last letter, second letter...). The hints finally helped.

It's just sad sometimes when they won't try. It's "too hard", so they stop trying instead of buckling down and working that much harder. It discourages me sometimes.

Long Weekend

The district I work for was nice enough to give us Friday off as well as Monday. And I got a cold just in time for the four-day weekend. Nice, huh?

ASB Election

Today the school was holding its ASB election for next year. I passed out the ballots in 3rd period as instructed, and the students spent some time going over them deciding ASB president, vice president, secretary, commissioner of assemblies, etc.

Unfortunately, the students did not know the students who were running. We had a senior TA in class, and she tried to describe the students running for office (one does the morning announcements). This I did not mind as she was not influencing their votes (she didn't get to vote as she won't be there next year). But her descriptions weren't helping much.

So, as one boy was trying to decide between two candidates that he did not know, the TA looked at me and said, "Can you imagine him at the polls?" I thought that was funny. The boy didn't get the joke.

The conversation turned to voting, so I asked the TA if she was 18 yet. Since she was, I asked her if she had registered to vote. I do this frequently with the seniors. Especially in a presidential election year, I encourage them to register and vote as soon as they can legally do so.

The topic turned to presidential politics at that point, but since the rest of the class won't be of voting age come November, and since the class assignment had to do with the Cold War (and it was a long assignment) I had to stop this quickly.

By the way, the senior girl had registered to vote.

The Heckler

Today I covered 7th grade math (pre-algebra). The lesson plan instructed me to go over some problems about percents with them. No sweat.

Near the top of the period, a boy from another class came in. He was sent out of his class to complete an essay of some sort--probably a time out assignment. This didn't matter much to me. I gave him a spot in the back of the room and ignored him.

Then it was back to the class. And I had to figure out exactly how they were doing the percent problems. Sure, I could try to teach them to do the problems my way, but I'm only there for one day, and I'd rather not confuse them by teaching them a different method. By asking them the right questions, they gave me an idea of how they were doing the problems. It was a bit cumbersome, but I could deal.

The boy in the back of the room felt it was his duty to inform the class that there was an easier way of doing percents. Again, I ignored him.

We got through the six problems that we were supposed to. After we finished number six, one of the students stated that the answer I got was wrong. The boy had again commented, and the students sitting near him told me.

I asked what I had missed, and it turned out that the boy had missed one crucial thing--there was a decimal in the problem that he had not noticed. The class then came to my defense, berating the boy for questioning me.

These sorts of things don't bother me. I'd rather know if I made a mistake so I can correct it. But I think the boy thought he knew more math than me, and he was just looking for an excuse to correct me. Ah, such is the lot of the lowly sub.

Four Rows Too Many

I don't knit many sweaters. I tend to run warm most of the time, so I don't need many sweaters. But this one I just had to have.

As I do many nights, I was knitting while I was watching TV (the season finale of Bones). I'm nearing the armhole decreases for the left front of the cardigan, so I pulled out my tape measure and measured. And I found that I was a half inch too long.

I had, of course, already completed the back. I pulled the back out, and I put the left front up against it. The left front was four rows too long. There was no help for it; I had to rip it out.

I call these my "rookie mistakes". These are the things I do wrong that I shouldn't do wrong, but I do them wrong because I am tired when I am knitting. That's when it is time to put the thing away and stop.

So, of course I missed most of the end of Bones last night. I was a little busy ripping things out and putting live stitches back on the needle. But the sweater is fixed. And I should be able to post a picture soon (as now the sweater is starting to look like something).

Short-Term Memory Only

"Oh, I remember you. You subbed for my Spanish class. We talked too much in 6th period, didn't we?"

Spanish? Right, I did that weeks ago. I barely remember last Tuesday. How am I supposed to remember how 6th period behaved weeks ago. That's what my sub reports are for.