An Overlooked Detail

The very special ed class, Friday. 

The last time I subbed for Ms. H, the class was going on a field trip. This day, same. This time they were going to some event hosted by the LAUSD for their special ed classes. Something about a dance performance? 

Why was I needed? Some of the kiddos weren't going, so someone had to stay behind to supervise them. 

I had two students. And then a third joined us as her whole class was going as well as the teacher. (Why book two subs for two different teachers? I was sufficient to cover all the kiddos not going.) 

It was a fairly chill day. Alice was wheelchair bound and only spoke in grunts and cries. Nate arrived and put his head down on his desk and slept. Apparently, this was his usual. This was good as Alice does not like Nate. Nate has a tendency to (when awake) hover over Alice and bother her. (When Nate awoke near the end of the day, he hovered over me, and I had to make it very clear I did not want to be touched, and he still touched me.) 

Angela was from the other class. She took a seat and asked for paper so she could draw. 

I suggested a movie. Alice's one-to-one suggested Encanto. 

So, things were mellow. But then I noticed a problem. 

Ms. H's prep period was the last period of the day. Usually her students would join the other teachers' classes for the last period. But the other teachers were gone, too. What to do? 

I called Allie (the secretary I check in with). While I had looked forward to getting to leave early for the day, I was fine with staying and supervising the kiddos. But, I wasn't going to do it for free... 

Once I explained the situation to Allie, she readily agreed to credit me with the extra period. 

And so, once we finished Encanto, Angela suggested Lilo & Stitch (the original version). 

We were barely fifteen minutes into the last period when the field trippers returned. 

It had been a long bus ride. The kiddos had been outside. They'd been in the sun. They were wiped out. 

Which was fine. It wasn't like we were going to be doing work or anything. Movie and computer time. 

Some days, my job isn't much more than this. It balances out the more difficult days. 

Out to Lunch

As I mentioned yesterday, Monday and Wednesday I was back at the adult transition center. It's been a while since I got to be there, so it was nice to see the school again. The students, however, are ones I met at the high schools now. The ones who were there when I was there for practically a school year have since aged out. 

On Monday we were supposed to go on Community Based Instruction, or CBI. Basically this means we leave school to go out to lunch. But, with the last minute call out of the teacher and with several of the students having not brought money, it had to be cancelled. Which was a disappointment as we were supposed to go out to celebrate the birthdays of two of the instructional assistants. (Yes, both of their birthdays were March 9th.) 

But Ms. J left us stuff to do, so we did that. 

Then I went back on Wednesday. And Ms. J told me they were going to go out to Chili's. So, I headed to the school, expecting us to go out for the day. 

But, of course, things did not go smoothly. 

First, a couple students hadn't brought money (even though this was their usual CBI day). Then, they thought about changing our destination, but we couldn't do that without principal approval (and she wasn't on campus at that moment). 

Eventually, it all got straightened out, and we headed out. To the bus stop. It wasn't a long distance, but we had a student in a wheelchair, and the bus was easier. Then we had a half hour to wait until the Chili's opened. We took over one whole section. 

I sat with two students. Josie had brought a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She had money, but she didn't want to spend it on lunch. 

After we ate, we headed across the (busy) street to the Dollar Tree. There, Josie spent her money. On nail polish and lip balm. As one of the instructional assistants said she would. 

I mean, that's impressive. I would have wanted lunch. But no, Josie knew she'd rather have something else, so she made sure to bring other food from school so she wouldn't be tempted. 

Then to the bus and back to school. 

It's good practice for the students. And it was fun to get out again during the school day. It's been a while since I got to go out for CBI. 

Sophomore Meltdown

Wednesday. Tenth grade English, special ed. Seventh period.

It's district writing assessment time, and that includes the special ed students. Ms. C gave me very specific instructions on what to do. 

Their routine is to grab a Chromebook, log in, and do a warmup. But we were switching things up so they'd have more time to write. As I got class started, I informed the class they wouldn't need their Chromebooks, so would they please put them back. 

Adrian was not pleased. While the rest of the class put their computers back and I passed out the packets they'd need for their writing, Adrian wailed. He did not want to give up his computer. 

Luckily (or maybe obviously), Adrian had a one-to-one aide. Mr. J went over to Adrian and pointed out that Adrian was disrupting the class. Adrian needed to put his Chromebook back. 

Adrian? Laid on the floor. Wailing. 

One is not often treated to a fifteen-year-old throwing a toddler temper tantrum. At least he wasn't flailing his limbs and screaming. 

While the rest of the class looked on, Mr. J calmly pointed out that Adrian was disrupting the class, and maybe Adrian needed to take a little walk to calm down. Adrian didn't like that idea. He didn't want to be in trouble. And somehow that got Adrian off the floor. He put away his computer. And we continued class. 

Of course Adrian complained about the essay. And the topic. (They had an argumentative essay. Topic: the space program--continued funding, yea or nay.) And he objected to how they spelled "center" in the articles they were to use as their sources. (Apparently Adrian is obsessed with English spelling and said it should be "centre". Well, if he wants English spellings, fine.) 

Did Adrian finish the essay? Nope. But he did actually write something. So, that's a win. 

All Excuses

Friday. Period three, study skills.

Study skills is just a fancy way of saying study hall. I mean, technically the teacher is supposed to have curriculum that teaches skills for studying, but most of the kiddos who really want that are in AVID or success. (Or even if they don't but have someone urging them in that direction.) Study skills is the special ed equivalent, and most of the time, the teacher gives them time to work on missing assignments. 

This is a very long-winded way of saying that I had a class that had nothing to do. They were allowed to be on their phones once they were done with all their work. They were done with all their work. 

Except...

I had an instructional assistant, and she warned me of Nick. In semester one, Nick had claimed that he was doing all his work and he had no homework. Alas, his semester grades showed these claims to be lies. Miss B no longer trusted him. 

Miss B then told me that Nick would have many excuses. His work would be on paper, but the paper would be at home. And as it was homework, he'd do it at home. 

Nick arrived. Miss B asked him what he had to work on. He told her he didn't have anything. But Miss B wasn't having that.

It came out that Nick had some maps to complete for his history class, but he had left the papers at home. Miss B sent him to his teacher to get another copy. Upon his return, Miss B sent him to his math teacher to get work from her. 

And then, while he was out, I got a call from the speech therapist. Nick was needed for speech therapy. 

Naturally. 

Miss B set up his computer so the map he'd need was on the screen. She made sure he had everything he needed to complete his work. And when he returned, he did work. Kind of. 

I looked down at his map of the Middle East, and on the Arabian Peninsula he had written "France". He did get Africa and Asia in the right places, though. (My knowledge of geography is pretty terrible, but I can locate France.) 

When I pointed out where various of the list of places he needed to label were, he immediately wrote those down. But he was slow walking the looking up and figuring out where the places were on his own. I wasn't going to do it for him, so I walked away.

If you want to get something done, you find a way. If you don't, you find an excuse. Nick was all about the excuses. Sigh. 

One would hope that at some point he'll want good grades. Until then, he's going to fight us about doing his work. 

He's young. He may grow out of it. 

Old Broken Technology

In February, I took a long term gig covering a class that had lost its teacher at the semester. It was a mad scramble. 

At that time, the library was clearing out its old technology. They were throwing out all their old DVD players as most teachers now stream video to their big TVs or have the kiddos watch things on their Chromebooks. The aide for the class snagged one of those DVD players and left it for the classroom. 

At no point did we ever use that DVD player. 

Wednesday. Freshman math, special ed. 

New teacher, but familiar classroom. Mr. R arrived, admitting that he had forgotten he was out of class, so his lesson plan was kind of thrown together. The kiddos had a couple worksheets, and then they could watch a video. (He left three choices.) That DVD player, that Ms. S acquired in February was connected to the TV. 

We got through the worksheets and "Good Things". (Every day they do a thing where the kiddos talk about one good thing in their lives.) And then it was time to watch the movie. I let the kiddos pick which one, and I went to start the DVD player...

Only it wasn't plugged into the wall. We searched for an extension cord... 

I turned on the player, put the DVD in, but the TV wasn't getting a signal. I switched out the cable. Nothing. I tried a few other fixes. Again, nothing. 

I grabbed a Chromebook, figuring I could stream the movie. Only, the Chromebook didn't have a spot to plug in the HDMI cable to plug into the TV. 

Finally, after a good half hour of troubleshooting, I cast the Chromebook to the TV. Only, the picture worked, but the sound did not. Sigh. (The sound worked from the Chromebook, so I turned that up as high as it would go.)

For the next class, the aide called a neighbor teacher who is tech savvy to see if she could figure out the problem. She plugged in a different DVD player... and that worked. (Well, the drawer for the DVD wouldn't open, but the TV got a signal from the DVD player.) 

So, the DVD player, that Ms. S "rescued" from being thrown out, didn't work. Sigh. 

If only Mr. R had tested the thing before setting that as the lesson plan... 

Left Behind

So, um, yeah. Summer school... 

I was not expecting to work, but when a gig popped up in the app, I jumped on it. The adult transition center. That's the school I spent pretty much the 2021-22 school year at. So, while I did not recognize the name of the teacher, I still knew the drill. 

(The reason I spent that school year at the adult transition center was due to retirements, so of course they have new teachers now. And I had a whole week off with no work whatsoever when this popped up.)

Right at the start of the day the instructional assistants (IAs) informed me it was CBI day. That is, it was the day the students left campus to shop in the community (read: buy lunch at a restaurant). But, they were supposed to go grocery shopping as well. 

After a bunch of back and forth, they determined that one of the other teachers had the school credit card (they were buying food for the class with the school's money), and she would be around to do that. And, every single class was going out on CBI this day. 

But, a couple of my students couldn't go. Domingo doesn't go out. And June had forgotten her permission slip, so she couldn't attend. That meant that a teacher had to stay behind at the school to supervise. 

Well, it's not like I was really in the mood to go galivanting around town, anyway. 

(I've been on a bunch of CBIs. While I was a little disappointed not to go, I was also a little relieved.)

What does one do with one student left behind? Movie day. (June wasn't talking, so Domingo's one-to-one and I decided on the older Lilo & Stitch.) 

It was a quiet day with all the students gone. And it was a short day, only four hours. But I got a day of subbing this summer, which is more than I did last summer. 

(Will I sub more this summer? We'll see. If something pops up, and I don't have anything else planned, I will take it.)

Keeping an Eye on Him

Last Friday was my last day in the special ed math/history class. It was also assembly day. Ugh. 

Third period. This is the same group I wrote about yesterday. 

First, I passed out leis to the kiddos who had made the honor roll last semester (had a GPA of 3.0 or higher). That was basically the whole class except for the two students who managed to disappear on the way to the counselors the previous class. 

Before we left, I questioned Elian on what had happened. I mean, it wasn't like it was a distance, but somehow he disappeared. He hemmed and hawed, but he didn't have a great reason for vanishing. I pointed out that he missed his chance to register for classes. He said he'd already done it. 

We headed out to the gym for the dreaded assembly. But this time, I was going to keep an eye on Elian. (The girl who disappeared the previous day was absent.) 

And I did, up until we were almost at the gym. My mind wandered, and I took my eye off Elian. And he was gone.

Crap!

I backtracked, looking around. I was just about to talk to one of the security personnel when Elian appeared. Phew. 

They weren't letting us into the gym yet. I knew where Elian was, but the rest of the class wasn't in sight. Ms. S said she'd seen them, but she didn't see them anymore. 

Me: "Yeah, but I trust them."

And sure enough, when we finally got let into the gym and found the section where the sophomores were supposed to sit, the entire rest of the class was sitting there, together. 

My trust wasn't misplaced. 

Elian? I'm not sure where he got to, but I did see him enter the gym. So, at least he was nominally where he was supposed to be. 

After the assembly, the rest of the class got back to the classroom in a timely manner. Elian? He took his time, but he eventually returned. 

It's too bad my time with them was over. I had just gotten to the point where Elian was on my radar. Although, considering how many days he had been absent, that might not have been much of a consequence for Elian. 

Grading Concern

Wednesday. Fourth period. 

Tyson strode in the room, upset. "You told me not to worry. You told me I wouldn't get an F." 

Tyson is new to the class. He only started it a couple weeks ago. He transferred from another school. (I presume he just moved.) 

When he arrived, we were in the middle of a unit. Since this is a special ed math class, our unit consists of graphing one kind of problem. As we were going to be doing more days on this, I figured that Tyson would catch on and catch up. I wasn't going to make him responsible for the worksheets he missed before he joined the class, but he could start where we were at. 

The worksheets that Tyson had done had many errors. Ms. S (the instructional aide who's been doing all the grading) informed me that the kiddos were missing many problems on their assignments. So, on this day, as luck would have it, the plan was to give the students a day to redo the problems they missed to improve their scores. 

I attempted to calm Tyson down. He was in a panic about having an F in the class. I explained that once he made the corrections on his assignments, his grade would rise. Tyson was stuck on the F and how that would effect his ability to play football. 

He had lots of questions. Ms. S sat with him a while to help him. By the end of the period, he seemed way more confident. 

And, as he finished his corrections, Ms. S graded and input his new scores. His grade went from an F to a C-. And it's only going to go up from there. 

It's hard to come in mid semester. But I knew that Tyson's grade wasn't going to be an issue. 

And, we kind of want him on the football team. That kiddo is huge. 

Of Streaming and Screenshots

For second period, I sort of co-teach with another special ed teacher. (The "sort of" is doing a lot of heavy lifting. It's a complicated story that I don't want to spend the time explaining.) 

When I started the class, they were finishing up their World War I unit. For a final, Ms. L is having them write an essay about the movie they watched: All Quiet on the Western Front, the 1930 version. 

Because they're special ed eighth graders, this was not something they're used to doing. So, it has taken a lot of pushing to get things going. 

The plan was for them to write about certain portions of the movie. But, of course, they were having trouble recalling the scenes. Then somehow I ended up looking up where it could be streamed, and sure enough, it's currently streaming via Tubi. 

Which they could access via their in school Chromebooks. 

Suddenly, all the kiddos were rewatching the movie. 

"So, I can actually watch movies at school." 

Yeah, probably shouldn't have clued the eighth graders in on the fact that they can stream movies on their computers. (If you look, Tubi has a lot of content. Some of which the eighth graders would like.) 

With me and Ms. L and our two instructional assistants in class, the kiddos couldn't really sneak in other movies. But they do have other classes. 

One thing Ms. L wanted the kiddos to do was to find a photo from the scene of the movie they're writing about. There are a ton of images they can find. But one kiddo wasn't finding the precise image he wanted.

I reasoned that one could take a screenshot from the movie on their Chromebooks.

I explained this to the kiddo. He knew how to take a screenshot. And he managed to capture the image he wanted. 

Ms. L isn't very techno savvy, so when she saw what the kiddo did, she had him instruct another classmate so he could get the image he wanted. 

Yeah, I think I just created some problems. For later. And likely for other teachers. 

But they were actually writing essays on the movie. And about World War I. So, maybe it's a good thing? 

The Rose

As Friday was a holiday, our Thursday became the Valentine's celebration on campus. In the pouring down rain. 

I didn't think much of this. I tend to not think of the day at all. 

It was third period. World history. We were reading out of the textbook. There was a knock on the door.

It was the singing Valentines. Every year, the choir does a fundraiser thingy. Various kiddos form groups, and they go and sing for students. They sing a snippet from an appropriate song. Give a card and a rose. Students can choose which group they want to sing for their sweetie or friend. I don't remember how much it costs, but it's not very expensive. Five dollars? Something like that. 

They asked if they could perform. I always say yes. No reason not to. I wondered which student it was for.

It wasn't for a student. It was for me. 

I was stunned. 

I've never gotten one of these before. I looked at the card. It wasn't signed. 

Hmmm. 

One of the students in the group was one of "my" students. (They get permission to be out of class on this day.) 

Later, Ms. S told me she had sent it. She realized she had forgotten to sign it. 

That was so nice of her. No one's ever sent me one of these before. (Usually I'm day-to-day subbing, so no one would know where to find me, anyway.) 

And we all got to see our student (and their classmate) perform. 

I may not be around today or this weekend. I'll catch you all next week.

Missed Deadline

I started a new long term assignment on Wednesday. There are a few things that I have to do right off the bat with these assignments. Get keys to the classroom. Figure out what I need to teach. Check out a teacher computer. And get access to the gradebook.

This school has a whole new administrative team, so I did not know who was in charge of adding me to the online gradebook. I asked around. Found out. Sent him an email. 

I had to do something in the main office, so I dropped by the assistant principal's office. Mr. R was not there. Since clearly he was busy and perhaps not on campus, I figured I'd circle back the next day. 

(I did get keys and a teacher computer. I was scrambling for lessons, but that's pretty normal for a new gig.) 

For reasons I do not know, the previous sub had not gotten access to the gradebook. Ms. S, the instructional assistant (who's been working at that school for many years), had been keeping up with the grading and had a paper gradebook for the kiddos. So, while there were grades, the kiddos could not see them. 

On Thursday, while in the main office on other errands, I managed to find Mr. R in his office. I asked about gradebook access. He had gotten my email and was going to take care of it. Since I was there, he did it right then. (And I had other questions for him.) 

And, because I knew, I asked the question. When were progress report grades due? 

4 PM. That day. (We were having this conversation at about 2 PM.) 

Yeah. Not going to happen. 

(First I had to set up the gradebooks. Then input the assignments. Then the grades. While I know how to do this, I don't know how to do it well. There's a lot of searching for things and going back to make sure I didn't leave anything out. Grade ranges have to be entered. And that's all before entering their progress report grades into the system.) 

Seriously, the previous sub should have taken care of it. They open the report cards four to five days before they're due, so he could have totally finished that on his way out. But again, he never got the gradebook access, so...

While I felt bad, I knew this one was beyond my control. I let Mr. R know those grades weren't happening. And he understood. 

(How did I know grades were due? Because they always seem to be due when I start a long term. I wrote about it five times in the last three years: one, two, three, four, and five.)

On Friday Ms. S input all of the outstanding grades. It took her all day. She's a rockstar. (Seriously, getting up to speed on this assignment is so much easier with Ms. S there to handle a lot of the administrative tasks that I'm usually scrambling to get under control.) 

Memory Lane

Monday. Auto shop.

(Yes, one of the schools I work at still has an auto shop class. It's been years since I had a chance to cover it, but last school year I had a chance to interact with them when my car door's lock broke and they installed a new one.) 

It actually was a pretty chill day. Because sub, the kiddos were assigned bookwork. (Auto shop 1 was studying the cooling system while auto shop 2 was dealing with wiring schematics and circuit testing.) 

Shop classes tend to have bookwork with a sub because a sub isn't trained on all the safety concerns, so it's just safer and easier to not have them work with equipment. Which is fine with me. (Although, you should have seen their book. It's huge. I don't know how they lifted that monster, it was so big.)

The auto shop 2 class had a couple familiar faces. Remember Adriel from the math class I covered in the spring? He was there. 

And there was a girl (well, there was more than one in the class...). And she just seemed familiar. I did a quick calculation, and yup, it had to be her. See, I recalled this now senior from when she was in seventh grade. It seems London is all grown up. Time flies... (Click on the links for the posts where I talked about her at the time.) 

But not only did I know many of the students. The class also has an instructional assistant that's been with the class for years. She also works with the district's occupational program. She's also made the blog before, as Ms. E is the IA who Harmony threatened to trip a couple years back. Whether my warning helped I can't say, but I can say that Harmony never managed to make good on that threat. And since she's left the district, I think Ms. E is safe.

(Ms. E brought up that incident. We talked about Harmony. I asked if she graduated. She ended up on independent study towards the end, so maybe? Probably? Some day I might ask, but I likely won't think of her next time I'm around the people who would know.) 

This is what happens sometimes. I run into students (and staff) who I have history with. It's nice to see the kiddos grow up. 

Catcalls

Friday. Beginning ELD.

(ELD stands for English language development. This is the class for recent immigrants. Beginning means they don't speak any English yet, so they're very recent immigrants.) 

Mr. F had left a jam-packed lesson plan, and I was struggling with the technology. And, of course, the instructional aide was running late.

(For reference, Mr. F is the teacher who took over the vacant middle school English class in 2019 that I started the year in. He's still in the same classroom. And the instructional aide, Ms. R, is the IA I had when I did the summer academy in 2022. In other words, they both know me, and I know them.)

By the time Ms. R arrived, I had gotten the technology going, had gotten their notebooks passed out, and was just getting into the lesson. Ms. R kind of took over as she knew the routine and could slip into Spanish to help the kiddos understand what they had to do.

(While the majority of the class were from Spanish speaking countries, there were a couple students who spoke Arabic and a couple who spoke Vietnamese. I can't recall what the fourth language was, though. It's always a mix in these classes.) 

As Ms. R was discussing something with them, half the class broke into whistles...

Ms. R stopped what she was doing to explain to the group why whistling was inappropriate. 

She does this from time to time. One time in the winter she explained why even though the sun was shining, they needed to wear a jacket. (Our climate is weird.) And she'll point out things that they might not know as newcomers to this part of the world.

The whistling discourse hit on how disrespectful it was to women and the sorts of things you'd want boys to learn. And then Ms. R turned back to the board to get back into the lesson. (They were writing sentences like, "The third day of the week is Wednesday," and "The seventh month is July".) 

Just as Ms. R turned around, another student whistled...

Oh, she wasn't having that. She sent that student out for that.

Because, seriously? The first time, sure. They don't know better. But the second time? Nope.

Later, Ms. R had a serious conversation with the student. Mostly in Spanish, so I wasn't listening. (And it was snack time, so I went in search of a restroom.) But later, she talked to me about it.

The big question was, what's going on in that seventh grader's life that he felt the need to call attention to himself like that? Which is a very good question.

Beginning ELD classes can be tricky. Behavior issues crop up. We wonder what sort of schooling they had prior to ending up here. But kids are kids, and they'll do the sorts of things you'd expect.

A Job Change

The room I was in last week was between two co-taught math classes. I have covered both classes in the past, and I am familiar with the teachers, enough so that we had brief conversations during the week. (They were kind enough to offer up their rooms if I needed to send any kiddos out.) 

In passing, Ms. W mentioned that she'd be swapping periods with Ms. S's sub that day (the sub would cover her learning center so she could cover Ms. S's credit recovery). And then later, I saw Mr. H entering the room...

I have not mentioned Mr. H before, but I have worked with him many, many times. He was an instructional aide. As he's fluent in Spanish, he would work the ELD classes. Sometimes he would work in other classes, but it was usually so he could translate for students who didn't speak much English.

So, Mr. H going into the math class got me wondering. He was not in the areas I was used to seeing him. Was he a sub now? 

A couple days later, I managed to encounter him at the right time (beginning of the day), so I asked. And yep, he was no longer working as an IA. He was working as a sub.

I have had conversations with IAs before about the requirements to sub. In some cases they don't have a bachelor's degree, so subbing is out. But some of them are working their way through school. And some of them do have their bachelor's. 

I sometimes wonder if becoming an IA would be a good move. Regular hours. Steady assignment. Paid days off. Benefits. 

But as the IAs look to the subs and some make that transition, I wonder. I guess this is a case of grass-is-greener. Maybe? 

(Mr. H was a great IA, and I'm sure he's great as a sub.)

A Special Ed Day

I was back in Ms. H's moderate to severe special ed class. (When I was last there, I had some car trouble.) 

The first block. Ryder was punching in the air. I was far enough away that I didn't get hit, but I was close enough that one wrong move and I could. I gently mentioned maybe not punching the air. But Ms. S, one of the instructional aides, informed me that Ryder used to punch walls. Punching the air was way better. Agreed.

Ryder had a pretty constant monologue going. Sometimes I could follow his train of thought, sometimes I couldn't.

Ryder wanted to write "superhero" on his paper. Ms. S said he could write it on the back. Later in the day, he wrote it as his last name (although he knows his last name and could spell it when he was prompted to put it on his paper). 

There were worksheets (on the calendar, on telling time, etc). There were activities. Ryder was a little hard to direct, but he eventually got his stuff done.

At lunch, he disappeared into the bathroom and returned in a Batman costume. I had seen him in this costume on previous occasions, and as no one commented on it, I gathered it was a usual thing. Ms. S later told me Ryder gets to have lunch in the costume. Whatever works.

But by math class, Ryder was kind of done. There was a coloring worksheet that he was in a hurry to complete, but I could not get him to do it properly. I directed as best I could, but he wouldn't slow down enough to follow directions. But it was the afternoon of the Thursday before a four-day weekend, so we were all a bit burnt out.

After that, we got to do "fun Friday". (We had a science lesson in the lesson plans, but the IAs said Ms. H had texted them to shift us to a wind down for the weekend. That was fine by me.) Ryder got to hum along to whatever songs he was listening to on his computer. (They got out a Nintendo Switch and connected it to the big screen TV in the classroom. Several students enjoyed that.) 

It was a pretty standard day in that kind of classroom. I've definitely had worse. 

You want to see a bit of their math lesson? We started class with two videos. These were the same two videos I showed the last time I was in class. (They do a lot of repetition. It helps them learn certain concepts.) After the videos, they had other work. But the tunes are kind of catchy. 

Day in the Life of a Sub

Last Friday was a day...

As I drove to school, the sun was shining. And the rain was falling.

The rain wasn't supposed to be falling. The weather report had said we were done with rain (for a bit). 

Once I parked, I double checked the weather app on my phone (to determine which umbrella I'd bring from my car) to discover that the sub desk had called me. I called her back, and she let me know that my job for the day had been cancelled. 

But, they were going to switch my gig to another teacher whose scheduled sub had cancelled the evening before. As it was at the same school (two doors down from the teacher I was expecting to cover), it wasn't a major issue.

The teacher I was now covering was leaving on a field trip for a flag football tournament. These are the moderate to severe special ed classes, and the districts in the area have begun a "unified" thing where some special ed kiddos and some general ed kiddos play on various teams and compete against different schools. 

This, of course, meant that the classes would be light some students. I also gained a couple students (Zena...) due to them remaining behind while their teacher didn't get a sub. 

Once the dust settled, the first class went pretty smoothly. Then, instead of getting a prep period, I was asked to cover a class over in the new STEAM building. 

I found someone to open the door for me (they don't give me keys when I'm covering an extra period), and he had trouble finding the room. (I do not know my way around the STEAM building as it's new this year. I've subbed in there a few times, but every time I have to consult a map to figure out where I need to go. In a couple years, after I've been in the building several more times, I'll be an old pro.) 

What class was I covering? It was called BioAnimaker. Apparently, they're eventually going to learn how to make lifelike robots or something. The students explained that at the moment the class was more playing with 3D printers. (The new building has spaces for things that the school hasn't quite instituted yet. It's coming, though.) 

This is how I learn about some of these things. I cover the class.

After that class, it was time for art.

Ms. A co-teaches an art class with a general ed art teacher (who I've subbed for a couple times this school year). It's a mixed class--some of Ms. A's special ed kiddos along with Ms. G's general ed kiddos. (It's more of the unified stuff. They integrate the special ed kiddos into the general population, and they expose the general ed kiddos to students who are different.) 

As luck would have it, the art class was also in the STEAM building. I didn't have far to go at all.

After art was lunchtime. I got to sit and eat. I was enjoying the moment of not traipsing all over campus when... EARTHQUAKE. 

An instructional assistant was in the room with me (supervising her one-to-one student), but she didn't feel it. I immediately consulted my earthquake app to learn it was a 4.7 on the Richter scale. (I heard it was downgraded to a 4.6 later.) The epicenter was roughly 45 miles away. 

The earthquake was about ten minutes before the end of lunch. I had three students in the next class. And then I had two when one of them got called into speech. (A speech therapist has half hour classes with some of the kiddos from time to time.) 

Then the field trippers returned. (They got first place in the tournament.) Some remained in class while others went off to different classes. And Ms. A returned, although she was in and out finishing up things from her day off campus.

After all that, I needed the weekend. Although, some days are like this. I go all over the place and do various things. It helps that a lot of this was stuff I was accustomed to, so I just rolled with it. That's the gig.

Locked In

Wednesday. I had accepted a gig covering a moderate to severe special ed class, so I was prepared for a certain kind of day. It's not that I have to mentally prepare myself or anything as I've covered those classes enough times in the past that I'm not worried. But I do go in with certain expectations.

I arrived at the school. I parked. I attempted to get out of my car...

I have an older car. It has a manual lock. I flipped the lock open, and it snapped. My door remained locked and I couldn't unlock it. I couldn't open the door.

I managed to climb out via the passenger side. But now I was in a panic. What was I going to do now?

I attempted to focus on the job. I was at school. I could work. 

For the first block (second period) we had "unified cheer". The school has been doing more inclusive things with this population, like having intramural basketball tournaments and such. They can't do all the intricate tricks and gymnastics that the general population cheer squad does, but they can do the basic cheers. So, they practiced those.

The class is mostly special ed, but it has a few general ed students, and they helped the kiddos along. It's a PE class for all of them.

I was the co-teacher in this situation, so the main PE teacher ran the class while I "assisted". (Read: hovered at the perimeter of the class while inwardly panicking about my car.) 

Yeah, I wasn't much of an assistant.

It turned out that I had a prep period after this. After one of the instructional aides suggested Auto Club, I attempted to call and get a person to see if they had someone that could help. But, alas, it's all automated now. But, during the block of my prep period, I managed to meet with a tow truck driver only to discover that I could unlock the driver side door from the outside with my key, so I could get in and out.

Well, that's something. 

Apparently, I need an auto body shop to make that particular repair. Which is something I need to do now.

But, until I find that, I can get in and out of the car and drive it around. So, I was able to get home. And to work the next day.

And I had some time to calm down so I could be of some use to periods six and eight. 

(The classes went pretty well. We had the usual behaviors, but nothing too terrible. I've had some days with some doozies of behavior, so it was a pretty decent day.)

Last Day

It was the last day of the regular semester. (The following week was finals week.) And I caught an extra period in the classroom three doors down--the "opportunity" class. 

(It's no longer called opportunity. It's now called BEST or something. Basically, it's a self-contained class of kiddos who were behavior problems on the general middle school campus, and now they've been isolated into one class. It's a step or two before the alternative education center.)

As it turned out, it was also the last day for the student teacher, and festivities were planned. 

The class had an instructional aide and another adult (whose duties were unclear) as well as the teacher. So, I sat back and followed their lead.

First, the class did a thing where they listed what they were grateful for. But they focused on what they were grateful for about the student teacher. This was a surprise for him as well as a tribute. 

Then it was game time while the IA attempted to make s'mores in the classroom's air fryer. The s'mores actually turned out pretty well. An air fryer gives the marshmallows just the right light brown color, although the IA had to play with the timing a bit before she got it right.

The game was Avocado Smash. It was new to me. The IA said they had never finished it before, but this day they did. They actually got a winner.

And that took us to the end of the period. The next period (with a different sub) they were going to watch a movie. (I was able to set up the movie for them. I know what a nightmare it can be to get that working, so I was quite happy to make sure it would work.) 

Not what I was expecting for my extra period assignment, but it was a pleasant surprise. Usually I have kiddos bouncing off walls. (It's been a long time since I covered an opportunity class.) 

The Absence

The special ed social studies class I've been covering has an instructional assistant, Ms. P. She does all the grading, and she assists various students with their assignments. (Some need more help than others.) She also is the person the students are used to, so it wasn't so weird having a sub when they still Ms. P.

On Monday, Ms. P wiped down all the surfaces in the classroom. She sprayed Lysol on everything. Occasionally she'd do that, but she hadn't in about a week. 

Tuesday morning, I awoke to a text from Ms. P. She had the flu. 

(And suddenly the cleaning of the classroom made sense.)

While I would miss her presence, I was now familiar with the rhythms of the classes, so I knew I could run everything with her gone. 

On Wednesday, they sent me a sub.

There are substitute aides. When I was at the ATC, they were vital whenever one of the aides was out. For this class...? Ms. P asked if I wanted her to get a sub, and I said no. Because I knew.

But, this aide is a one-to-one, and his student was absent that day. (I encountered this frequently at the ATC. Those one-to-one aides would fill in someplace when their student was out.) 

As I had his student for two periods, Mr. C was familiar with the routines of the class. I told him to assist students who needed assistance. He took Ms. P's desk.

What I expected to happen happened. Not one student asked for help.

There are certain students who always work with Ms. P. I specifically offered them assistance. I specifically pointed out that there was an aide who could sit and work with them all period. They declined the help.

(It might be the whole stranger thing. It might be that Ms. P insists that they work with her. But I can understand why these students might not wish for help while Ms. P is out.)

At least Mr. C had brought a book. (His student tends to not need him for long stretches of time, so Mr. C is used to dead time.)

When they didn't send me a sub on Thursday or Friday, I wasn't terribly concerned. While Ms. P is necessary to the running of the classroom, her absence didn't cause a disruption. (Well, I mean, me grading their work isn't ideal, but I can manage if I have to.)

Took the Gig

It's gotten to the point that I don't look too closely at assignments when they pop up in the scheduling software. If I see it, I grab it, and then I examine it after. 

(Although, I can stop complaining about how hard it is to get jobs. It's a challenge, sure, but I've only missed a couple working days so far, and I'm currently booked until December. Of course, I'm booked because I accepted a long-term gig, that I'll talk about when it starts, but still, I'm good.)

It was Monday, and I had nothing booked for Tuesday and Wednesday. Then, within about twenty minutes, a gig for Wednesday popped up followed by a gig for Tuesday. I grabbed them as soon as they alerted on my phone. Then I looked at them.

When the teachers input their absences into the system, they can add notes. Usually it's the lesson plan. Sometimes, though, they add other things, like if the class is co-taught or if something weird is happening that day. 

For this assignment, the note read: "This will be period subbed by Special Ed teachers on campus". 

Huh? If the day was going to be period subbed, why put it into the system? If it's in the system, someone, like me, will pick it up. (It's not like the last couple years when there weren't enough subs to go around. They hired a bunch at the start of the school year. That's why getting gigs has been a bit dicey.) 

I debated. I could always cancel the assignment. But, would something else pop up? I wasn't willing to risk it.

As it was a special ed class, there was an instructional aide. And she was quite surprised to see me. The teacher hadn't bothered to write out a lesson plan as she had told the special ed teachers who she thought would period sub the class what was happening.

I guess me picking up the job threw a wrench in the whole plan.

(It wasn't a hard day. The government class learned about the Magna Carta and other ideas that got incorporated into the Constitution, and the world history class read a thing about the French Revolution.)

Ah well. I guess the sub shortage has changed the way teachers approach days out. But things are turning back around.