The Water Bottle Toss

The first time I saw this (or, perhaps the first time I was aware of it) was during summer school. Apparently, it's the big new thing. It was ridiculously easy for me to find videos of this on YouTube.

Of course, all the videos I found were of successful attempts. Unfortunately, that's not what I've been seeing.

If you didn't watch the video, allow me to explain. They take a partially filled water bottle. (Usually of the half liter size.) Holding it at the top, they toss it so that it flips end over end once. The goal is to get it to land upright.

But, the students who do this in class end up failing more than succeeding.

There's nothing wrong with this, per se. No one gets hurt. It is sort of a skill. And there are much worse things that they could be doing.

However, it gets on my last nerve. When they fail, it makes a kind of loud wet splat. And they do this over, and over, and over again. (They do this when they're finished with their work. Yes, I check.)

Deep sigh.

Is it unreasonable for me to ban this from the classes I cover? I just hope it's a passing fad. Of course, the next passing fad could be so much worse.

Whoops

11th grade U.S. history. The teacher had found several video clips on YouTube that showed what life was like at the turn of the Twentieth Century. She left shortcuts on the main screen of her laptop, and everything was plugged in and ready to go.

In preparation, I opened each video in a new tab. And then... I shut the laptop...

...thus engaging the automatic lock.

Did I mention that the computer was logged in under the teacher's name? With a password I did not have.


via GIPHY

I realized the stupidity of closing the laptop the instant after I did it.


via GIPHY

(Why did I close the laptop? I'm not sure. I think I was trying to engage the blank screen. But who knows? I think I'll blame it on the cold I was coming down with.)

At least I had the brains to do this right before the prep period the period before I needed the videos. So, I had time to piece something together.

Some days I have it all together. And then other days I'm the stupid sub who screws it all up.

Misnamed

"I'm Hannah."

"I'm Kyle."

"I'm Andrew. What's your name?"

It was passing period. As the students trickled in to their math class in the fourth week of school, my attention was caught by this exchange. When the kiddos noticed my interest, they explained.

"There's this kid who doesn't know anyone's name, so he just uses any name," via "Hannah".

And, apparently, they've adapted themselves to this.

"Kyle" did kind of look like a Kyle. (If this post was about him, that'd be a possible pseudonym for him, since I always change student names.) "Hannah", however, did not. When pressed, I couldn't tell her what name she did look like, only that it wasn't a Hannah.

Meanwhile, I'm so careful to use their correct names...

A Magical Child

At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements ;)

What if you had the care of a young child (age 7 or under) with magical powers? How would you handle saying no to them, considering that they might be able to overrule you using their powers?

Do Over

A little over a week ago I got a special request. Could I make my phone cozy...

...fit a larger phone? (I designed that cozy for my iPhone 4s, before there was a plus size.)

Sure, I said.

The depth part was easy. I just needed to knit more rows. But the width... Well, if I added a couple stitches...

No. Just no. I can't put my brand on that. That looks terrible.

The customer requested one done in cobalt blue. My go to yarn for this project had several blues, but none a brilliant shade near cobalt. A similar yarn that I had never worked with before had a royal blue. Close enough.

Since I had never worked with that yarn before, there were bound to be some differences.

So, the first go around was kind of like making a test swatch. I figured out that I needed to use a smaller sized needle. And to make the thing wide enough, I added a cable along both sides. Those changes made a world of difference...

A side by side comparison...

I can put my name on that. (The second one. Not the first.)

(And now I need to make one for my bigger iPhone. In orange.)

Heard it Before

"It's the pipes. They need to fix the plumbing."

I had no idea what the boy was talking about. I was busy getting class started. They had a warm up. I was taking roll. Then I was going over what we were going to be doing for the period. Pipes? I hadn't heard anything.

Then I heard it. And I immediately knew what it was...

Really? This old chestnut? And I'm supposed to not know what that sound is? I know exactly what that sound is. 

I can't tell you how often some kid tries this. 

I wish I could tell you I had some great line to shut this down. I don't. I looked at the kid who gave me the excuse and told him to stop it. 

"It isn't me." 

Sure it's not. I hadn't even heard the ringing until he brought it up. 

He protested his innocence, even showing me that his fingers were dry. 

But funnily enough, that was the last I heard the tell-tale ringing. 

This is the point where I'd shake my head and say something about immature freshmen. Except these were sophomores. In name only, I suspect.

False Alarm

It was Monday morning. I had gotten this particular assignment more than a week ago. She's a teacher I've subbed for many, many times, so I wasn't anticipating too much when I walked into the office.

I got the usual question. When I said I was in for Ms. M, I got perplexed looks. "But the field trip is Thursday."

It used to be a regular occurrence. I'd show up to a school only to be told that the teacher wasn't out. Or worse, I'd go to the classroom and the teacher would be there, no absence planned. But that hasn't happened for a while now. It hasn't happened in a good, long while. (We're talking a few years.)

They checked the teacher's mailbox. Sure enough, she had left lesson plans.

And that's when one of the administrators joined the conversation. She had talked to the teacher on Friday, and this teacher's absence on Monday had come up.

So, I was in the right place. Whew.

Geez, guys! Don't scare me like that.

(The teacher was out on that field trip on Thursday, too. Which I also covered. And considering this is the most interesting thing I have to write about those two days tells you how much trouble I had with them.)