On The Daily Show on Comedy Central, they end each episode with a "Moment of Zen". As we have reached the end of April and the end of the A to Z Challenge, I thought it appropriate to end my A to Z posts with my own "moment of Zen", mostly because this is a Sunday, and I don't really post on Sundays, so there's nothing in the schedule for me to do.
And here it is, your moment of Zen...
Today's final A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter
You know how when people know you collect something, everyone gets you that for your birthdays and Christmases? Well, I knit, so...
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| Links to yarn descriptions on Ravelry: purple, orange, light blue |
...I get gifted yarn.
As a project knitter, I tend to buy yarn with specific uses in mind. Gifted yarn... Yeah, I'm not sure what I want to make with this.
It's pretty. I love the orange one. I just don't know what I'm going to do with it.
Any ideas?
Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter
Yup, I'm cheating a bit with the title. It's X day. We all cheat on X day.
Friday. It was the end of my first week in Ms. A's classes. It was snack time, and I was sitting, waiting. Dr. T walked in.
Dr. T is one of the assistant principals, and he makes me feel really old. How old? I remember when Dr. T was a student at this school. I subbed for him when he was a teacher there. In the room where he took the history class that he then taught.
Anyway...
Dr. T had a question about the state testing. Of course, I wasn't present for the state testing, Mr. P was. Which Dr. T knew. As Mr. P was covering a new long term on campus, Dr. T could go to him directly to find out the answer to his question. Which is what he did.
But then Dr. T came to find me again during fourth period. (At which point I was on the other side of campus as that was the leadership class, and they were making posters for a lunch time activity.)
It turns out that Mr. P hadn't quite finished all the testing the eleventh graders needed to do. Rather than trying to get me up to speed by Monday, they came up with a better solution. I could exchange places with Mr. P for the classes that needed to be tested. As long as I agreed.
Why wouldn't I agree?
(Technically, Mr. P shouldn't be in the class as he's reached his maximum number of days, but in this instance he's proctoring a test, not teaching per se, so it's probably allowed. Just don't tell anyone, okay?)
So, my whole plan for the following week (including a quiz on The Great Gatsby), out the window. Sigh.
On the plus side, the plans for the week just got pushed back, so that's two fewer days of lessons I have to figure out for the kiddos.
It's the variety that I enjoy in subbing. This sort of thing is totally in my wheelhouse. Should make for an interesting week. (I'll tell you all about it next week. Probably.)
Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter
Wednesday. Fourth period. Or, well, not quite fourth period as I was standing outside, greeting the students as they entered the class before the bell rang.
A boy started to tell me how he noticed a wasps nest over on the other side of campus.
I've been subbing a long time. So, when a student tells me something, I immediately think of all the other people they should report this to. It's not usually something I can do something about.
I started to tell him he should report this to the custodial staff. But, they don't have an "office" out of which they work. I mean, they do have a phone number, but the students don't use the on campus phones. (Sometimes an administrator or teacher will ask to talk to a student in class, but that's not common.) Those phones are the classroom phones that we use to communicate with office staff and each other.
Then I started to say, "You could report this to your teacher..."
Uh. Yeah, so this was my third day in a three-week assignment. Technically, I am his teacher. And technically, he was reporting this to me.
That's when I realized that I could actually figure out who needed this information.
While I don't have to check in daily with the secretary in charge of subs on assignments like this (I get to check out my own keys! So, I get to come and go as I please), I figure she's the best person to ask questions like, "Who do I report a wasps nest to?".
So, I asked.
Turns out, she could radio custodial.
And so, a few minutes later, a custodian arrived in the room, looking for a wasps nest.
I explained kind of where it was. But, the boy was sitting right in front of me, so I referred the custodian to him.
The boy attempted to explain. The custodian asked if the boy could show him. I gave the boy permission to leave class.
I mean, wasps. At school. With teenagers. That's going to get ugly in a hurry.
During the A to Z Challenge, I keep the letters in mind during the week. So, last week I kept in the forefront of my mind V, W, and X. Because I knew whatever subbing stories appeared were going to have to fit under one of those letters.
And then a student says "wasps nest". Seriously, these stories fall into my lap (like the year that a girl right in front of me discussed how she had to have a quinceanera and a sweet sixteen on Q week). It's magic, I tell ya.
Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter
Back in October, when I finished four weeks of Mrs. B's success seminar class, I was done with "long term" assignments. I wanted to relish the day-to-day randomness of subbing. And it's been a nice run.
It was about mid March when the secretary asked if I would be interested in taking over a "long term" for another sub. The teacher's out on maternity leave, and the sub was going to reach his maximum number of days in the class.
I hemmed and hawed. Did I want a "long term"? (I keep putting it in quotes as it's only for three weeks. The previous sub has been in the class since January. So, not a day assignment, but not a month, either, which is more what I think of when I hear "long term".)
Ultimately, I decided, why not? It wasn't really going to be that long, and it'd be a nice break from day-to-day.
Mr. P (who I have mentioned before on this blog in a very similar context) gave me the rundown of where he was in Ms. A's lesson plans. (She left lesson plans for the semester.) We had a "transition day" the day we got back from spring break.
The eleventh grade English class was reading The Great Gatsby. They had read chapters one and two. But, then they had state testing. And spring break.
Immediately, I assume that there's no way the kiddos are going to remember what they had read.
But what to do? I don't want to reread chapters that they have read already.
Luckily, that class that I took over from Mr. P two years ago was also an eleventh grade English class at roughly the same time of year. Guess what we were reading?
While we were on distance learning, I couldn't be sure the kiddos were following along with the story, so I found some YouTube videos to help. Finding them again was a simple search.
My first day with them, I asked them what chapters one and two were about. And they couldn't tell me. Time for a video summary...
And then I gave them questions to do. *insert evil laugh here*
I leaned heavily on the videos during distance learning. Now, I don't need to do that. But now they know about the videos, so if they're needing the extra help, they can find the videos on their own.
It's much easier to teach a novel in person.
It's an interesting set of videos. I'm posting chapter two, mostly because it has a very interesting take on Nick, the narrator. I did not show that portion to the kiddos as it wasn't germane to what they needed to know. (I only showed them the five or so minutes of "summary".)
Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter
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 😉
Here's a sci-fi idea that I haven't seen discussed in a few decades:
What if they built a city at the bottom of the ocean? (It would be under a dome or something, so humans could inhabit it.) Would you want to live there? Would you go to visit?
Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter
Last week was just one of those weeks. Work got busy, so when I got home, I wasn't much in the mindset to do any knitting (or crocheting).
So, I went through my picture archives on the blog. (I was looking for a specific project that apparently I never blogged about. Sigh.) And I stumbled across these. What are they?
They'll make more sense modeled:
So, I've mentioned that I have four nephews, right? They've gone by various names on the blog over the years, but lately they've been eldest (who's 17), middle (who's going to be 13 next week), and the twins.
The twins turn ten... Tomorrow. Sigh.
(Why couldn't T day fall on the 25th?)
So, anyway, I talked about the project here and I did the birth announcement (sort of) post here. Ten years ago.
I'll spare you all a roundup of all the things I've knitted/crocheted for them over the years (mostly because I don't have the time to hunt them all down), and just leave up their baby pictures.
Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter
