Missing the Mark

We had a little dust-up in second period today. The kids used to call this "shootin'," but I'm sure the term has changed since the 7th grader explained that it meant hurling insults back and forth. Travis started, and Kevin responded in kind. They talked about each other's hair, clothing, and other stuff I didn't catch. I focused on getting them to stop.

It ended. I insisted. Travis told Kevin that he would "get him" at snack. This was 10 minutes away. I didn't want to encourage fighting outside, but I was happy that the whole thing was over.

When I passed the two boys outside (on my way to the restroom), I found that they had drawn a crowd. Their "fight" remained verbal. Whew.

Third period started. The students had all witnessed the dust-up in second period and the resulting show outside during snack. They discussed.

Derek explained to the class that Travis was an idiot. Travis thought that when people laughed at him, they were laughing at his jokes. Derek said that what people were really laughing at was Travis, but Travis hadn't figured that out.

Derek then told me that when the video got posted to YouTube I would see what he meant. (I didn't see any cameras, but Derek said it was recorded.)

I'm not sure if I'm comforted by this or not (the the-other-students-think-Travis-is-an-idiot part, not the incident-got-recorded part). At least I'm not the only one who thinks that Travis is way over the top. I hope that Travis will soon figure out that he's not as cool or as funny as he thinks.

Self Awareness

I was yet again at the continuation high school today. Orientation classes. These are the students who are brand new to the CHS. They have only just left a traditional high school due to not being on track to graduate on time. 

After they finish the orientation coursework, they can get started earning credits for any classes that they failed. Many in the class were to this point, so they were working on health or geography. 

Boy: "Geography is a sophomore class?" 

Girl: "Freshman." 

Boy: "Of course. I f***ed around freshman year." 

Girl: "Me too." 

Hence, why they are now at the CHS. 

I should have gotten on their cases for the dropping of the f-bomb, but I let it slide due to the context of the conversation. The next thing they said, however, was that they shouldn't have used that language. 

This bodes well for them. I hope they plan to take advantage of the opportunity the CHS affords. Others in the class did not make such good use of their time.

During the Test

"This is an open book test."

Most of the students got up to get a book. Since notes were allowed as well, they got those out. I passed out the test, and they got to work.

I was back at the continuation high school today. English class. The test was on an excerpt from The Red Badge of Courage. Multiple choice.

It was about halfway through the period. Several students had finished. There was this one boy in the front far corner. He looked around.

"We can use our books?"

Way to pay attention, dude!

The Internet Is Not Working

I used to have a MySpace account. I started my blog there. But after I had a few too many technical difficulties, I moved the blog here. I have since closed the MySpace account. I hate to lose all of my blogs from that time, so from time to time I repost them here.  

This was originally posted May 7, 2007.  

Computer class. Continuation high school.

They were supposed to be working on their typing. For the most part they were. I'm not really talking about them anyway. I had two students from other classes come into 4th period to use the computers. They needed to look something up on the Internet. Sure, I said.

I probably should have mentioned that the Internet went down at the end of 3rd period. That would have been the right thing to do, don't you think?

Near the end of 3rd period the teacher from next door came in to ask if our Internet was down as well. It was. It wasn't something that bothered me too much. The students were supposed to be working on the typing program or Word. Having the Internet offline helped out immensely with this.

So, first the girl comes in to "get a picture". She turns on a computer. Waits for it to boot up. Logs on. (Understand, the log on takes a bit of time too.) Then tries the Internet. She tries a different computer. Then comes up to me to ask.

Yeah, I should have told her up front that the Internet was down. That would have been the nice thing to do. Though, honestly, I didn't even think of it. I must be tired.

Excuses, Excuses

I had planned on participating in the last Crusader Challenge. Really. But this week has gotten away from me.

I have been thinking about it, but I haven't had time to sit down and work on it. The last one took me something like three drafts. I expect this one will take a couple more. I'd like to think that I'll still get around to it, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen*.

(*I'm writing this Thursday night and scheduling the post to appear Friday. I'm anticipating a rather busy Friday.)

Now that that's out of the way, you should go and enter JEFritz's contest on her blog Still Writing... Tell her I sent you. (Actually, if you're not following her blog, you should be.)

I hope everybody's going to have a lovely holiday weekend!

Nook Issues

I have a nook. When researching the various eReaders, I decided that an important factor was being able to borrow eBooks from the library, and the Kindle doesn't do that. (I looked at the other eReaders on the market, but ultimately decided to go with something that had a major retailer behind it.)

It takes me a while to do anything new. I found a great sewing pattern for outdoor chair covers. I have the pattern. I bought the material. I even have thread. I just have to set aside some time to do the sewing. Who knows when I'll get to it? It's one of my quirks.

It took me a while to get a library card. (The county libraries check out eBooks, and I had never gotten around to getting a county library card.) Then I sat on that for a while. I only got around to checking out my first eBooks on Tuesday. On Wednesday, while waiting for my car's routine service, I pulled out my nook to dive into that library book.

"User not authorized."

Oh great! Of course, there was nothing I could do about it then. (I had other books loaded on the nook, so I wasn't stuck watching CNN.) I had to wait until I could get back home to my computer.

I love the Internet. All I had to do was search "authorize nook adobe" and I found my answer. It was pretty simple, too, but I wouldn't have figured it out on my own.

Am I the only one with a nook? Anyone else out there checking out eBooks from the library? Any recommendations?

A Light Problem

I used to have a MySpace account.  I started my blog there.  But after I had a few too many technical difficulties, I moved the blog here.  I have since closed the MySpace account.  I hate to lose all of my blogs from that time, so from time to time I repost them here.  

This was originally posted March 26, 2007.  

I covered a physics class today. Kids who take physics tend to be fairly self-reliant, so I was more in babysit mode than anything else. Though, I did get one interesting question.

Two students were working on the assignment (book work). They started arguing about one of the problems. The girl called me over to mediate.

They were working on a light unit. The question had to do with a three-way light bulb, the power output, and the luminosity. The boy explained that their teacher had told them to do it this one way. He worked out the luminosity of each setting of the three-way bulb and matched it to what that problem was asking for.

The girl explained that she figured the problem out on her own. She calculated the power output that the problem asked for and matched it back to what they had been given.

So, who was right? They both were. They both got the same answer. Each of them just did it a different way.

I explained this. It took some time before I could convince the boy (and explain to him what the girl had done--he didn't understand). Finally the (excuse the expression) light bulb went off over his head. He got it.