Special End-of-Year 2022 News Quiz

Since it's the end of the year, I sought out an end-of-year quiz. I found this one from the New York Times:

Special End-of-Year 2022 News Quiz for Students

It's a good overview of the year, but there are a couple caveats. First, it's from the New York Times, so it's very US-centric. Second, it's 45 questions long. It's multiple choice, and the answers are given after you choose, but if you don't have time for a 45-question quiz, feel free to skip it.

I managed to get 41 out of 45. I'm impressed with that score. I did guess on a couple that I got right, but mostly I did remember most of these.

If you get a chance to take it, let me know how you did in the comments.

2022 in 13 Posts

I did this for the first time in 2020, and I liked it so much I repeated it in 2021. I guess it's an annual event now.

For this week's Thursday 13, the last one of the year, I'm listing 13 posts from this year. I wouldn't call these the best posts. It's more of a retrospective of the year told in links. It's my blog year in review. In order of posting:

1. January 27th: Disappointing Via Email

My year began in Ms. S's special ed class for young adults at the adult transition center (Ms. S suddenly retired in October 2021). January was when that Covid surge hit, and our outings got canceled, which I got to communicate to Pizza via email as he was out recovering from his Covid booster.

2. February 17th: The Shrine

In February, I was back to day-to-day subbing. The 10th grade AP world history students were taking a test, and they had a ritual for test days. They set up a shrine in the classroom.

3. March 16th: The Streaker

My day-to-day subbing was short-lived as another teacher at the adult transition center decided to retire at the end of February, and I covered that class until the end of the school year. This class was decidedly more challenging, typified by this post about Doris and her bathroom issues.

4. April 14th: Leaky & April 15th: Molar, Cracked

This might be cheating, but these both happened at the same time. I just broke them down into two posts. I had to go to the dentist for another cracked tooth the day after there was a water emergency at home, so I stayed in a hotel overnight. 

5. May 26th: Paper Airplanes and the Substitute Teacher

We did have some fun in that class at the adult transition center. They had never made paper airplanes. I thought it was time they learned how.

6. June 13th: Happy Birthday, Niece

On my niece's 21st birthday, I posted pics of the tank top I knit her. (She chose it.) It seems like I didn't do too much knitting/crocheting this year, but I did manage to complete this project.

7. July 6th: Illustrating the Lesson

After a crazy busy school year, I agreed to teach a summer school class. I learned how to post gifs to Google Slides. I think I enjoyed these more than the kiddos did.

8. August 18th: The Soft Opening

And then the new school year began.

9. September 5th: And Then It Was Done

This was my big project of the year: a unicorn hat. This was the post where I showed off the finished object. 

10. September 15th: The Sandwich Incident & September 16th: The Mommy Option

Again, cheating, but again, this is one story told over two blog posts. Colton fought me on eating in class. I emailed his mother. His mother took his punishment to a whole 'nother level. (I wouldn't normally follow up like this, but I was covering the chemistry class for three weeks.) 

11. October 13th: The Visitor

After finishing in the chemistry class, I took a month covering a class called success seminar. It did not go well. Having a student who was not enrolled in the class did not help matters.

12. November 10th: About Time

The schools got nifty new clocks. The bells are synched. This should be a good thing. But, of course, the kiddos have found the bugs in the system.

13. December 2nd: Watch Out

In which a student throws chairs. Yes. Chairs. In the classroom. 

I feel like I'm leaving so much out. But this gives the gist of the year. How was your 2022?

Swapping Names

I am on winter break this week. As is my custom, I will save the stories from last week for when we return to school in January. And so normally I'd be on the "summer schedule". 

But, as luck would have it, on the day of the chair throwing incident, I happened to have written a whole other blog post earlier. Obviously, a student throwing chairs is way more interesting. Rather than deleting this post entirely, I figured it would keep until school was on a break. 

It has been a while since I worked at the alternative education center. The kiddos I knew are now gone, replaced by a whole new batch of students. 

It was the Friday before Thanksgiving break. I had certain expectations going into the day. So, none of what happened truly surprised me.

First period. U.S. History. The students had a chapter to read and questions to answer. I was supposed to read the chapter with them, but immediately upon them entering the classroom, I knew that that wasn't going to happen. They were shouting out insults at each other, and I wish they had been just using F-bombs. The terminology they used was much ruder.

And then a couple of the boys were playing sounds out of their computer. It started with the Taco Bell bong, but it was soon audio clips of people speaking. Over and over a woman said something about her chest. There was some swearing as well. 

I was irritated. 

It didn't take long for me to figure out who was playing the audio clips. The boy who was doing it said his name was Ubaldo. His "friend" nearby was Verne. ("What kind of name is Verne, anyway?" he asked.) 

For other reasons, I went and looked over his shoulder. I was checking out the questions he was supposed to be answering.

In Google Classroom, the assignments posted automatically attach the student's name. So, I glanced at the title for the doc the boy was on, and it said his name. Verne. 

Yup, he was trying to confuse me by swapping names with his classmates. 

This is a very old trick. And, as I've noticed many times, they are very bad at it.

The next time Verne played an audio clip and I growled at him, he made some comment about himself being Ubaldo. 

Me: "Uh huh, okay, Verne." 

And then he knew. He had failed at getting me to believe he had a different name. 

I doubt that he really cares what I wrote in the note to his teacher. And I'm pretty sure Mr. T will not be surprised at what he got up to during class. But it's a little win for me, anyway.

A Viral Sensation

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 😉 

What if your most embarrassing moment went viral? (And aren't we all glad that social media didn't exist when we were teenagers?)

Nearly Finished

Christmas day I tested positive for Covid. Sigh. My posts for this week were pre-scheduled, so they'll go out as planned. I'll probably be around as normal. Tale care, everyone. 

The last time I blogged about the Calash was on November 7th. 

I've been plugging away on this off and on, but I haven't been writing about it because there isn't much to say.

It's a scarf/hood. I started off casting on a few stitches. Then it grew until I got to the head part. At the top of the head I did some short rows. Then I knit back down the other side. 

Because this is a pattern with a hood, there is an ending point, unlike when one knits a scarf until one feels it's long enough. 

And, as of this writing, I'm about a dozen rows away from that ending point.

Finally.

Of course, I don't really have any other projects going at the moment, but I'm on winter break, so allegedly I'll have some time to put something together and start it.

But as with how I've been knitting lately, I don't have a lot of confidence that that'll actually happen.

Hopefully I'll have a finished project to show off next week. 

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

That's Not the Math Assignment

The class was called "math support and enrichment". Officially it's an extra period of math for students who are struggling so they can get some extra help.

In practice it's a class of the worst behaved students who really don't want to be there. 

The following week was finals. They had the period to do some studying. Did they? Of course not.

"Could you sign something for me?"

I couldn't imagine what the boy needed me to sign. He handed me the page.

After a quick scan, I got the gist. It was the assignment from his health class. He was to interview an adult in his life, and the signature was the proof that the interview had taken place. 

The boy was going to fill out what he needed to fill out, but he needed an adult to sign off. It was due that same day. 

It was one of those "a lack of planning on your part doesn't constitute an emergency on my part" type of situations. 

I pointed out that he was supposed to interview someone. He asked if he could interview me.

No. Absolutely not. 

I already had my hands full with the class. One girl was yelling at just about everyone in class. They were picking on her. Then a group of boys was doing something on social media. And that was along with the other misbehaviors that I was just trying to keep a lid on.

But that's not the main reason I wasn't going to consent to an interview.

It's the end of the semester. The health classes are in their last unit. The sex ed unit. 

There's no way that goes any way but sideways.

(It was quite the treat to listen as the boy and another girl in the class went over material for the class. They mispronounced chlamydia and syphilis.)

Pajama Days

Yup, believe it or not, we have school today. But it is the last day before the winter break. As it is my habit to write about the prior week, I will save the events from this week for after the break. Next week I'll go on my vacation schedule.

All of the schools I was at last week did "spirit weeks". But, as they are different schools, their dress up days weren't in the same order, although they did pretty much the same thing.

As a sub, I don't always know about these things in advance. I showed up to "red and green day" wearing purple and brown. But spirit days don't enjoy 100% participation, so I'm rarely alone in not participating. 

Lately, the most popular dress up day is pajama day. 

Wednesday, I was at a middle school. Pajama day. And about a third of each class were in their pajamas. There was even a kiddo in a robe and slippers with his pajamas. (They usually wear sneakers on their feet, and they don't usually come in their robes.) 

Some teachers even wore their pajamas. I mean, if I had known about it in advance... Nah. I don't have a decent pair of pajamas to wear in public. Not happening. (I actually wore my seven-and-a-half-year cardi.) 

The next day, Thursday, I was at the continuation high school. And what day was it? Yup, pajama day. 

Dress up days are far less popular at the continuation high school, but a few of them did come to school comfortable. Mostly the student leadership (the ones who set up the week). 

Me? Again, I wouldn't have dressed up even if I knew about it. 

Although, I have the perfect Santa hat for hat day. Alas, that was not the day I was at any of the schools. And I was at one of the schools for ugly sweater day, but I do not own any ugly Christmas sweaters (nor do I have any intention of acquiring one). 

This is one of the downsides to not having one school site I work at. Or, rather, this is one of the upsides.