End of School Year Review

To end the school year, I have two annual posts. First is "Graduation Daydream", and second is this one, where I tally up all the different assignments I had this year.

(This post can be a bit dry, so I understand if you skip it.)

There were 178 school days this year. I worked 131 of them. This is slightly up from last year. Of those days, I covered teachers without prep periods on 27 of those days, and on 37 other days I was asked to cover another class on the teacher's prep.

I worked both the first day of school and the last day of school. This is unusual. Usually I may work one or the other. Sometimes neither. But both?

I covered 83 days in high school classes, 32 days in middle school classes, and only 17 days at the continuation high school (although I did get to cover that school for 6 days during August). That's an all time low for the continuation high school, but there were extenuating circumstances that curbed my continuation high school days.

The highlights:

• English: 31 days
• 12th grade English: 12 of those days
• Science: 27 days
• Physics: 5 days
• Social Studies: 16 days
• Math: 53 days
• Algebra 1: 31 days
• Geometry: 19 days (although some of those days were for teachers that taught both algebra 1 and geometry)
• Calculus: 3 periods (that teacher only taught one period of calculus, so those days were also math analysis and algebra 2)
• Special Ed: 19 days (and 7 extra periods)
• Severely Handicapped: 10 extra periods 
• (This is way up from previous years.)
• Misc: 11 days
• Art: 3 days
• Photography: 1 day
• Testing proctor: 3 days
• Opportunity: 4 days

I only covered one period of band all year (woot!) and didn't cover choir once. I also didn't cover any specific computer classes (although computers were used in some of the other classes) or business classes. Strange.

And now the summer blogging schedule is officially underway...

Role Playing

It's Thursday, so it's time for my my weekly random question...

I saw this article in io9 last week. It has links to four of these. Here's one to give you a taste and entice you go click on the link...



And that got me thinking...

What if fantasy worlds had some sort of role playing games? Would the players be the nerds of the realm...or the leaders?

Graduation Daydream

In what has now become an annual tradition on LoG, it's time to repost my graduation daydream. Several years ago now, I was subbing a class on the last day of school... Actually, I think I told that story better the first time.

Anyway, this is the daydream I had, and I think it's apropos for this time of year...

It starts with a stage filled with teens in caps and gowns. A graduation ceremony. The new graduates look over the audience filled with proud parents. They're excited. They've finally finished school, and they're looking forward to the next phase of their lives.

The new graduates exit at the side of the stage. They hug each other. Many are in tears. They meet up with parents, take pictures, and gradually leave the area.

The stage is empty, but not for long.

Off to the other side of the stage is another group of students a year younger than those who just exited. They climb the stairs and claim the stage for themselves.

The new senior class surveys its domain. Some look in corners. Others go to the edge of the stage and peer out at the audience. Many are cheering, fist pumping, and bouncing up and down. Two boys run at each other and bump chests. They have arrived.

While the new senior class celebrates, the area just off the stage that was just vacated starts to fill. This group looks around in awe and wonder. A few look up the steps, itching to join the new seniors. Several look out over the line that stretches out behind them. It's a long line and it seems to disappear into the horizon.

As each group moves up to the next position, they look over their new surroundings. The new freshman class, however, is so busy celebrating and laughing at the group just below them that they don't notice how trashed their new position is. Then again, their old spot in the line wasn't much better.

The newest middle schoolers carefully take up their new position. They are all wide-eyed wonder. The more adventurous pull their peers along. They take their time looking around, acclimating to their new position in line. There's a demarcation behind them, and they thought they'd never get beyond that border. Now that they are, they're not sure what they're going to do next.

Each elementary grade moves up one. As the former kindergartners take their first grade spot (and make themselves right at home), an empty spot is left at the end of the line. But like all the other spots in line, this one doesn't remain empty for long.

Off in the distance, family groups start to arrive. The parents push their little ones into their spot in line. Some of these children run to take over their spot. Others cling. The families stand there, watching their little ones for some time, not sure what to do next.

One mother shakes her head as she watches her little one acclimate to the line. "They grow up so fast," she says.

Nearby, various people are on their way out of the area. One woman hears the kindergartner's mother, so she turns to her and says, "You have no idea." The woman looks off into the distance where her graduate is off with friends.

"You have no idea," the woman repeats.

School ended for us last week. How's your summer going?

Lost and Found

Last week was the last week of school. And this year I actually picked up some days. Amazing.

On Tuesday, I only had periods 1 & 2. It was finals week. They were on a block schedule. But these classes took their finals the prior week, so the class was pretty much done.

Jacob was not happy to see me. It wasn't me especially that he didn't like. He just really needed to see his teacher.

See, back in December, Mr. D confiscated a set of Uno cards from Jacob. And Jacob wanted them back.

We searched the room for them, but we were unable to find them. I gave Jacob Mr. D's email address so he could get in touch with him (every teacher's district email address is similarly constructed, and this address is readily available to the parents) and I let him know that Mr. D would be back on the last day of school. While Jacob wouldn't have to attend Mr. D's class, he would be on campus and could touch base with him then.

Towards the end of 2nd period, a senior came by to return some things to Mr. D. And she had a book to return to a student in 4th period. (If we weren't on a block schedule, it would have been 4th period and she would have seen him.) So, I put a Post-It note on the book and labeled it "James: period 4" so I wouldn't forget to return the book.

Sure enough, on Wednesday I remembered the book. James gave me the strangest look when I handed it to him. I explained that the senior girl had found it in her backpack and wanted to get it back to him.

James then explained his reaction. He had just paid for that book. (It was a library copy of The Catcher in the Rye.) He thought it was lost.

The other students urged him to return it anyway. Maybe the library would give him his money back. And as we weren't actually doing anything in class, I gave James permission to go right then.

James returned 20 minutes later. Yes, they would issue him a refund. In a couple days. Well, that's better than being out the cash, right?

On Wednesday I learned that Mr. D needed Thursday off as well. So, Jacob was not pleased to see me again bright and early before school Thursday morning. We did another search of the room.

Mr. D had never responded to the student's email. Sigh. I guess he was busy with other things.

Mr. D had left me a cell phone number. So, I texted him. (I don't like to bother teachers when they're out, but this seemed like the thing to do considering the circumstances.) Jacob went to his 5th & 6th period classes. I got a text back sometime during 6th period (which I didn't see until after school--I keep my cell phone put away during class time).

I located the Uno cards. They were under the sink, under a dust bunny. Ick. Ah well.

Jacob returned after school, and I had something to return to him. He was very happy. (Apparently, he had a "vintage" set of cards. From the '80s.)

It's nice when I can return things to their rightful owners.

World Cup Bargaining

10th grade world history. They were to watch a video on 9/11. (Note: They were about 3-years-old in 2001. Feel old? I sure do!)

They wanted to watch the World Cup matches instead.

Apparently, other teachers had the games on in their classrooms. (Well, it's the end of the year. Some teachers are pretty much done.)

Period 4 tried to convince me to turn on the game instead of showing the video. They did the usual wheedling. They didn't really need to see the video on 9/11 (even though they have no memories of that day). When I reminded them that their teacher wouldn't be pleased, they told me that I didn't have to tell her.

(Even though they wouldn't have the notes that she was requiring of them. And I wouldn't have a time that we left off to give her as she said she'd finish the video with them the following week. Like she wouldn't notice.)

The class went according to lesson plan. The video was pretty grim. (But well done. By National Geographic. Actually, I just found the first half hour of it on YouTube, if you're interested.) But once they knew I wasn't going to back down, they fell into line easily.

I considered putting the bargaining in the note. Normally, I'd mention something like this. For color if nothing else. It is kind of funny.

But I kind of knew how their teacher would react. And considering that they were well-behaved the rest of the period, I didn't feel it necessary to get them into that kind of trouble.

It was a few years ago, now. I was subbing for this same teacher. One girl had some teenage issue. (She wasn't going to tell me what it was, but she was in tears.) Her friend wanted to help. The two sat outside that period.

It's rare, but these things sometimes happen. I let the teacher know that they were both out of class (so she wouldn't penalize them for not having a paper in the pile of collected work). And I thought nothing more of it.

Some time later, I encountered the consoler in a different class. She told me she had been punished for the incident. Because her teacher believed her and her friend to have been lying to me.

I felt awful. If I had known it would get her into trouble... I told her that. She said she didn't blame me. This teacher is strict. (An excellent teacher. Well-behaved classes. Well thought out lesson plans.)

Yeah, I didn't see the point in getting that class into hot water. So, I left that detail out.

I guess I did actually not tell their teacher something.

Boring Evil

It's Thursday, so it's time for my my weekly random question...

So, I was perusing Facebook like I do from time to time, and one of my friends linked to this:



(Yeah, it's a bit long. I'll wait...)

This stuff is important, but that's not why I'm posting it. (I hope you saw it somewhere else by now. If not, you really should take a look.) You may have noticed that it's Thursday. And it's time for one of my questions. This one comes from the video.

John Oliver said (and I'm paraphrasing): If you want to do something evil, make sure to bury it in something boring.

And that got me thinking.

What if politicians made government boring precisely so that we wouldn't pay attention? (Then again, this might already be true.)

Champion Librarian?

It was a very bizarre day. We had the farewell assembly for the seniors. The schedule was all askew (to accommodate that farewell assembly), and the school was a bit unsettled. (This happened the same day as the class described in yesterday's post.)

But as per normal, I was asked to cover an extra period that day.

I opened the door to the classroom, and I ran smack dab into a ping pong table. Where the teacher and the librarian were playing.

It took a minute for the teacher to remember that he had a meeting to get to (he wasn't sure why I was there initially), but the two men kept playing. The librarian won. And the teacher got ready to go to his meeting.

I was directed to a seat. There were four students in the class. (More were enrolled, but the rest of them were seniors. After the assembly, the seniors were off on their end-of-year activities. The seniors are effectively done for the remainder of the school year, and they won't be in class again.) The students all had seats--strewn about the corners and edges of the room. And they were actually working.

I learned that there is an end-of-year staff ping pong tournament. There were brackets taped to the classroom door and everything. The librarian was the two-time defending champion. And the government teacher was up next.

But he hadn't arrived yet.

They tried calling him. On the phone. But he wasn't picking up. Someone wondered about his class--to be reminded that he taught a senior class. The students were gone. But his classroom was about five doors down, so the librarian stuck his head out and called. But still nothing.

They decided he got 15 minutes before he forfeited.

As soon as they set the timer, the government teacher arrived. Followed shortly by the head janitor.

The librarian defeated both easily. He's on his way to a third championship. But the other bracket needed to be decided, so they were done. They all left us.

And the kids continued working (they were doing makeups for stuff they hadn't completed yet).

Yep, it's the end of year crazies...