Shop Handmade

Christmas shopping is hard. At least it is for me. (That's why I try to make most of my gifts.)

I get bored with all the mass-produced stuff out there. When I give a gift, I want it to be unique. Sure, that t-shirt sports a pithy one-liner, but then I see it in several different stores, and it no longer seems special.

But if you know where to look, you may end up with something that you can't find just anywhere.

I know I've mentioned my Etsy shop before. Etsy is a great place to find some unique items. (I've gotten my brother a couple t-shirts from different sellers. He seemed to like them. Although, I can never be sure with him.)

The point of this post isn't to promote my shop (again!), but rather to point out the importance of buying handmade this year. The news is filled with stories about the dire state of the economy. But when you support an artist or a small business, you are helping the economy. And you end up getting something unique to boot.

(You remember my ereader cozies, right?)


Support your local craft fairs. If you don't have one near you, check out crafters online, like on Etsy or the Handmade Craft Show or Cafe Handmade.

Do you know of any good places for Christmas shopping? Please share.

Public Conversation

School is back in session after the Thanksgiving break. Today I covered a middle school art class.

Third period. Two girls were having a conversation about Thanksgiving and what they ate. Then one of the girls mentioned that her excesses gave her constipation.

A boy chimed in with, "Ewww!"

The girls turned on him: "Why are you listening to our conversation?"

It might be because you're talking across the room. Maybe?

One girl was seated at the front of the room. The other girl sat in the back. At one point they attempted to sit next to one another, but I put the kibosh on that. (I find that if I enforce the seating chart, I have fewer problems.) So, they had their conversation anyway.

I pointed out the obvious. They changed topics.

Did this stop the conversation? No, of course not. (At least they got their assignment done.)

Remembering Anne McCaffrey

I gasped when I saw the news on my Twitter timeline.

I was first introduced to Anne McCaffrery when I made the jump from the kids' section to the adults' section in my local library. Dragonriders of Pern, of course. After reading her books, I knew I wanted to write.

I'll never write about dragons, since she did that so brilliantly that I have nothing to add, but before I ever wanted to go to Hogwarts, I wanted to Impress my very own dragon. Even though I'm so afraid of heights I could never actually ride one.

I once stayed up all night reading The Rowan. (Mistake. I shouldn't stay up all night reading. I pay for it in the morning) I just couldn't put it down. All her books sucked me in like that. And most didn't disappoint (still pissed at the ending of Moreta).

I think it might be time to revisit Pern. It's been a while since I read those...

I Said Yes

We're off school for the whole week for Thanksgiving. Since I'm sure you don't want to hear about how my cleaning is going (I've been rearranging furniture), and since the editing of my novel is about as interesting as cleaning, I thought I'd repost something from the old blog. This first appeared on October 12, 2006.  

Middle school band. Those three words, used together, should be all the explanation I need.

Need more? Well, I can talk about the time that one of them chased another around the room wielding a music stand as if it was a baseball bat and the other kid was the baseball.

I've written other posts about them here, here, and here.  

But I'm not here to talk about the horrors of that assignment. I guess I'm just setting the scene. I was not in the best of moods, and so I was not as kind as I would like. And that's when I did something that was not very nice.

I had a kid ask if he could go and get a drink of water. Now, allowing kids out of class is not something that we are supposed to do. But I know the school pretty well, and I know that the drinking fountain is just outside the band room door, nearly next to it. So, for most of the day when a kid would ask to get a drink, I'd say fine. He/she would return in a minute or less, and I have no problem with that.

So, to the kid who asked, I said sure. I don't know if it was the noise in the room (it was a bit loud) or if he was just expecting to get a no, for he went directly into the explanation phase of the question. This is where they explain that the water fountain is close or that they're really thirsty or they come up with some other reason why I should say yes.

I don't know if it was just because it was late in the day, if it was because I was tired, if it was because I was having one of my miserable headaches, or if it was because I was tired of not being listened to, but what I did was walk away. "What did I say?" I had said yes. I guess the kid couldn't take yes for an answer.

Free Computer Time

Last Monday, I did not expect to get a call. Last school year, I had most Mondays off. But I was not about to turn down the assignment. Even if it was economics.

(I'm fairly comfortable with most high school subjects. Economics is not one of those.)

I got to class, and the teacher had left me nothing. As panic set in, I reminded myself of my own advice. I know of this teacher, and he was not the type to leave a sub hanging. The lesson plans were going to show up.

(I'm writing a book on subbing. I figured, why not? And my advice on finding no lesson plans is to not panic as most of the time the teacher will find a way to get the plans to the sub.)

Then the phone rang.

Turns out, the students were finishing up their stocks project. They were making charts, and they had time booked in the computer lab. Score! Easy day for me.

I know enough about computers to fake it most of the time. And the teacher told me that detailed instructions were on his website. I figured I had enough information for the day. The biggest concern was to make sure the students weren't goofing off online. The teacher said that any students who finished their project could do his online homework, so they should have had plenty to do.

Of course, some managed to finish everything and have time to spare.

I expected them to get onto inappropriate websites. Instead, several checked their grades (the school has an online system for grades now). A couple found video of the last varsity football game (I assume they were football players). The rest ended up on college websites.

It's November. They're seniors. It's college application time. And they're feeling the crunch.

Some worked on online applications. Some checked out various programs at the colleges. Some logged off the computers and worked on other homework.

I had nothing to complain about.

Graduation Surprise

For the past three days I've been at the continuation high school (again). This was the time to be there, as the last two days were short (out at noon).

Graduation works differently at the continuation high school. When a student finishes his credits, he graduates. There is a whole procedure to checking out at this point, and one of the things they do is announce the student's name over the PA system.

On Wednesday, the PA came on and Pomp and Circumstance started playing. I stopped to hear. The principal came on, and the first thing he said was, "I would like everyone to sit down for this."

Then he announced the name. I dropped my pen.

If my chin hadn't been attached to my face, I think it would have landed next to the pen on the desk.

The principal said Dane's name*. (I've been searching my archives. I thought I mentioned him more than this.)

The last thing I ever thought he'd do is graduate. Apparently, I was wrong.

The next day, the school paper came out. In it, they list the students who have graduated. I expected Dane's name, but I was shocked to see Kayla's*. Kayla graduated?

I guess when they said that they do their work, they were telling the truth.

Don't get me wrong. I'm happy for them. I'm pleased that they put in the work and completed their high school educations. I just didn't think I'd ever hear of them graduating. (And I'm glad that I won't be seeing them in the future.)

*I don't think I mention this enough, but all student names used on this blog are not their real names.

Roving Around

Yesterday, I got called at the usual time. The sub caller assigned me an art class. But when I got to the school, there was no art class. I was given a roving assignment.

It was very strange. The vanishing assignment used to happen to me all the time, but ever since it's been all early morning wake-up calls, I thought this sort of thing was over. Ah well.

I don't mean to rant. It's been that sort of week. (And I'm not ranting about the thing that's really bothering me right now, so if I sound angry, it's actually over the other thing.)

First period I got sent to the library. That's the go-to assignment when they want to give us subs something to do. It's our make-work. They usually have something that needs doing. Yesterday I got to put away books.

It was fun. The library was empty except for adults and one library TA. I got a chance to peruse the library's fiction selection.

It wasn't a vast collection. The Harry Potter section was well stocked as were Stephen King and Goosebumps. The Twilight books had a spot, but it looked like most of them were checked out. (I reshelved one.) And various classics were well represented.

I managed to finish the reshelving before the end of the period. And then I was off.

I kind of like roving days. It breaks things up. I got to cover two periods of special ed, two periods of math, and a period of oceanography. It was an interesting day.