Waffles Radio

This class was the perfect example of why I don’t want to hear from the teacher about how bad the kids are.  I get it that they might not behave for the regular teacher.  And I really do appreciate that the she tried to warn the subs^[1] about the classes.  But the way she worded made it seem like if I didn’t have them follow the seating chart exactly and if I let a single word be uttered during class I’d wish I was in a prison riot instead.

I had no problems.  Not the violent, get kicked out of class kind anyway.  There were kids talking while they did the work.  Most of the talking was about the work.  There were no fights.  There were people who refused to do the work.  I’m not going to force high school kids to do the work, especially not this late in the year.

The last class of the day should have been the worst if the notes left by the teacher were any indication.  They weren’t bad at all.  Ir probably helped that the school was having a mini Relay for Life event and kids got to leave class.  I know that everyone who left mine wasn’t supposed to leave.  But since I didn’t have a list of who was allowed to go, I left a note telling the teacher who was still in the room when those kids left.

1. A different person was in the room the day before me. [↩]

If you haven’t read about the beginning of the day, you should go do that and then come over here.

I got to the new room and expected the worst.  It didn’t help that they had another teacher and the secretary in there watching the class in addition to the sub who was there first.  The old sub quickly told me what was going on, grabbed her stuff, and left.  She didn’t leave me a key.  I don’t know if it was because she brought it with her or if she never got one^[1].  The class was taking a test and the only issues were that some of the kids didn’t want to do the work and some of them wanted to ask me questions.

Both were perfectly understandable.  This was a lower level math class with juniors and seniors mixed in.  These kids aren’t your stereotypical going off to college in the fall crowd.  Knowing how to factor a polynomial isn’t going to be that important to them.

I had 3rd period planning now, and a teacher from next door came by to tell me that she didn’t understand why the first sub couldn’t handle it.  The class had been talking during a test, but nothing major.  They didn’t understand the work and were asking how to do it.  Some of them slept and just didn’t do the work.

I’ve had to deal with days a lot worst than that.  The fight, the 5th grade class who thought they could do whatever they wanted, the chemistry class where I got stuff thrown at me, the day a kid threatened to jump me because I wouldn’t let them leave early for lunch, and the 3rd grade class who behaved so poorly that a visitor to the school took time out of what he was doing to tell me that they were the worst class he’d ever had to deal with come to mind.  Hell, the Spanish class I had the day before was worse, and that was really only for 1 period.  This lady had nothing to complain about.  The only thing we could think of was that she was expecting perfect silence and couldn’t take the fact that she wasn’t going to get it.

If I had known that’s all it was I would have told them I didn’t want to switch and made her deal with it.

Advising time was nothing special at all.  Your basic Relay for Life presentation with someone telling a story about a loved one who died of cancer.  Not to belittle that at all, but when you hear basically the same script so often it really doesn’t work as well.  The only highlight there was that I had one of the kids from the Spanish class the day before who told me that those two guys get away with everything in there and thanked me for getting those two guys kicked out of class.

The last class came in and it was more kids I’d had before.  Some didn’t want to do the work because they weren’t there to get the notes which they were allowed to use on the test.  Some didn’t want to do the work because the teacher told them they were going to fail anyway.  The only work I made people do was put their name on the test and turn it in.

And you know what?  Everything was perfectly fine.  Yes, the kids talked during the test.  They played around instead of doing the work.  But they were polite about it, and they didn’t keep people who wanted to do the work from doing the work.  That’s really all I can ask at this point in the year.

The best part was that the sub I traded with was leaving a class of people who talked when they were supposed to work alone for another class of people who talked while they were supposed to work alone.  I think that’s hilarious.

I wrote two notes to teacher.  The first was to the teacher I ended the day with, telling her that I came in during 2nd and couldn’t understand why the other sub couldn’t take it since nobody was really misbehaving at all.  The second was to the teacher I started the day with telling her how 1st block was, how I expected 2nd to be since I’d had them before, and how I hoped to get a chance to spend a whole day with her classes.  In both notes I made the kids look better than they really were.  I was worried that the sub would go into the other class with a bad attitude and make those kids out to be little devils.  I was also worried that the teacher of the class I ended the day with would take things out on the first class when they (most likely) behaved just as well as the other two did that day.

On the way out I got a cupcake^[2] and heard from 3 other teachers that the class I ended the day with was great, maybe even better than usual.

That made me feel really good about myself.

1. As weird as that is, it does happen every once in a while.  Although at the high schools I’ve only had it happen when I was sent to the wrong room for some reason. [↩]
2. Yay for teachers not wanting to bring those home. [↩]

This was a weird day that I’m splitting into two posts since I was in two classes.

It was set to be a great day.  Another 4th block planning and honors classes the whole time.  Throw in the fact that I’ve had most of these kids before and it was pretty close to perfect.

The first class came in and did their work.  No phones coming out.  No complaining about working this close to the end of the year.  They were quiet during announcements.  That never happens.  They didn’t make a big deal about shorter classes due to a special thing in the middle of the day.  Even my friends who only sub elementary schools would have had a great day.

The worst part about the class was that they pulled out a Rubik’s cube and tried to explain to someone else how to solve it.  Which wasn’t bad since they were all done with the work.  The bad part was that I was listening and they completely lost me.  Really, if the kids confusing you about something like that is the worst part it’s a great day.

The second class was looking like it would be the same, except maybe a lack of colorful puzzle cubes.  But then I got a call on the classroom phone asking if I would switch classes with an older lady who couldn’t handle the class she was in.  I told them I could do that.

Then I told the kids what was going to happen.  They weren’t happy about it since they knew me well enough to know that I would let them finish their work and basically play around after that.  It probably didn’t help that I’d already told them I wasn’t going to take up the work either^[1].

So they started talking about different ways they would annoy the new sub.  Totally innocent things, so I didn’t try to stop them.  Besides, they were still working while they did that.  Finally, a principal came and told me where this other room was.  I grabbed my stuff, left everything in a nice stack (including the key to the room) and went to the new room.

1. The notes left for me said that anything not finished could be finished for homework.  I don’t like taking things up when that’s the case because I want everyone to have the same opportunities to do the work. [↩]

This was one weird day.  It started out innocently enough.  Once again I caught someone with a phone in class.  At least he was polite in telling me that he’d rather have the referral than giving up his phone.  Then after I sent the referral down he decided it wasn’t worth trying to hid it anymore and didn’t even try.  I had to send another note down to the office asking for someone to come take care of him.

The people sitting around him thought it was hilarious that he was so stupid^[1].

In the next class I caught 3 more people with phones.  One of them just had it sitting on her desk while she used it.  Another person said it fell out of his pocket and happened to land face up on his backpack.  Then he tried to show me and only proved that there was no way he was telling the truth.  The last just wasn’t sneaky enough.  At least they were trying and didn’t lie about it.

The last class was the most interesting.  I caught two more people in there.  Again, they were polite so it could have been worse.

What was worse however was the conversation that two guys in the class decided to have.  They were sitting in the back commenting on the sexual nature of classmates.  Mostly that certain girls in the class must be used to getting up off of their knees and things they wanted to do to/with people in the class.  The girls looked like they wanted to say something to me about it but didn’t at the same time.  People told them to stop and they didn’t.

I just wrote referrals.  No warning or anything.  Honestly, for that kind of thing I don’t think they deserve one.  I sent the referrals down with another student and made sure the office knew I wanted those last two gone.

They had no idea why they were called to go to ISS.  But they thought it was enough of a joke and came back right before lunch, telling me that it must have been a senior prank and they were coming back to class.  I told them to get a pass to show me they could come back, then the bell rang and they left for lunch.

During lunch I went to check on why they came back.  Turns out they weren’t supposed to, which is what I thought in the first place.  It also turns out that they principal who told them to go to ISS had lunch duty that day.  I don’t think I need to tell you that they didn’t come back.

During my planning period I got called to the office so a different principal could make sure that what I had written down was true and to get any more specifics about the conversation those two were having.  Sadly, she didn’t seem surprised or too shocked by any of it.

Later, one of those boys came back up to class to get his backpack.  He also tried to tell me that I had to go down and tell the office that I was wrong and that he was only using an iPod.  I’ve told people I was wrong before.  But I’m not going to do it for someone who, as a student, tells me what I need to do like that.  I’m also not going to do it for someone who’s big excuse/reason is that he’s a senior and can’t afford to miss the days that he’d be suspended for.

1. Their word choice there, although I have to say that I agree with it. [↩]

Different school this time.  Still not really PE.  Apparently PE means anything that a PE teacher teaches.  Which today meant health.

Not that health isn’t important or anything.  It’s just not exactly what I wanted when I signed up for a PE day.  So that’s 2 days in a row where I did PE without really doing PE.

It was almost 2 days in a row where I had 4 classes as well.  Thankfully that extra class got canceled on me.  Instead, I learned that someone else came and used the room so I spent the period with lunch outside.

The classes themselves weren’t that bad either.  I gave them 15 minutes to get notes together for a test.  I’m guessing it was because of a fire drill that was supposed to happen.  That got canceled too.  Then I gave the test.

I was supposed to show a video and have them write a paragraph about it, but I couldn’t get the VCR to work.  Neither could the people who came to help.  So we skipped that and played the favorite game of high school kids: don’t get written up.

It’s actually a brilliant game.  I relax my standards a bit, and out come the phones.  It’s kind of nice to take a break from the phone cops.

Hmm, speaking of phone cops…

Ok, let’s get back to reality.  In return for me letting them get away with things, they almost always behave better.  It’s not a game I play a lot.  Just when there’s really nothing for the kids to do and I’m feeling especially nice.  The past two classes are really the only ones who have gotten to play.

I know, it makes me a terrible person.  Honestly, I don’t like doing it all that much.  It makes me feel like nothing more than a warm body sitting there because someone has to do it.  But there’s only so much you can make a high school kid do.

At least there wasn’t a fight.

Alright, first surprise of the day was that I wasn’t really doing PE.  I was doing the classroom part of Driver’s Ed.  Which for this point in the year was study hall while some people in the class went out to drive.  Second surprise was that it wasn’t the normal 3 classes and a break sub day.  I had 4 classes because technically I was covering for 2 teachers.  Which sucks because I didn’t have that hour and a half break from kids plus lunch time, but it was study hall so it wasn’t like I was doing anything all day.

Ok, no, let’s be fair about that.  With the first class I watched the end of The Blind Side.  Now I need to finish watching it by catching the beginning^[1].  Then I let them play around.  Which was fine since the teacher came in at the start of class to get the people who were driving and told me that’s what they do.

As a sort of revenge aimed at the school for throwing me a 4 class day I didn’t care about phones being out.

The second class didn’t have a movie to finish, so they just played around the whole time.

The third class finished watching Radio.  Then sat around and talked.

The Fourth also finished Radio then tried to act like elementary school kids and play games as a class.  It was a failure.  But a funny failure since they were behaving while they did it.

Next up for me is another PE day.  I’m bringing The Ben Stiller Show with me in case there’s enough time to fill in any of the classes.  I would normally never do that, but if they’re just sitting around anyway and want something to do…

1. I think this is hilarious. [↩]