Darn!!

Thursday, May 25, 2023

I loooooove to play in the fire hydrant water. I missed it. I was at work. Ah, work. It was an interesting day for me. I got the worst possible sub plan – have them work on the assignments that are due Friday/next Thursday. Some of them might be done. They don’t have any group projects, but they can move around and sit with friends, to bounce ideas off each other.

Yeah. None of that was going to happen. I knew it for sure. I was a little panicky. The clock was ticking closer to their arrival, and I had no workable plan. I was in 6th grade, where I knew no one at this school, so I went down to 8th grade and found people I know. I explained. They said noooooooo, do not let them move seats. They must stay in their assigned seats. (This was not a surprise and had been apparent to me.) One suggested handing out headphones and telling them to listen to music. Another said that I should look the other way when they started playing games – there was no doubt that that would happen, and I would be fighting a losing battle if I tried to stop it. The warning bell rang, and I scurried back.

Homebase starts the day for 20 minutes. It was…chaotic. There was a lot of pushing and shoving while trying to get a good spot to watch one boy play a game on his computer. There was a group of 6 girls who could NOT BELIEVE I wouldn’t let them go outside and walk around (there is a door to outside within the classroom). There were 4 people working on schoolwork. Two boys stood on lab tables until I convinced them to come down. There was a lot of milling around.

First hour started and I attempted to take attendance via the seating chart. Only 9 people were not in their assigned seats. It only took 3 minutes to convince them that their teacher had told me that they had to stay in their assigned seats because he was being nice to me, as a sub. I laid out the plan. Finish your one-pager on Volcanos and work on your plan for the course final next Thursday. A half dozen people said they were already done. I told them to do work for other classes (like there is work for other classes!). Chromebooks flipped open and games started. I focused on the people working on science. It went pretty well for ten minutes. Then it just slipped into chaos like homebase. I collected people who gathered around games. I refocused those who actually had the work to do. I used the classroom microphone to say shhhhhhh a lot. It wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t great. It felt like trying to hold a glass of water without the glass. Oh, how I like to have a glass. I asked two boys up front if this was a good class. “Yep – we are his favorite class – we are the best. Watch out for 6th hour. They are not the best class. They are horrible.”

First hour left and I had prep. I called Keith and whined. I called my friend, Louise, to get advice on how to proceed, but she wasn’t available. I decided I would go down to the office and ask for advice. A day full of trying to hold the water was just not going to work. As I was locking the door, a science teacher came down the hall and said, “How is it going?”

“First hour was a living hell. Thanks for asking. Can I ask you for some advice?”

She kindly listened and agreed it wasn’t going to work. She took me to another science teacher, and then they both took me to a third. The third was the charm. He found a movie about natural disasters (volcanos, earthquakes, and tornados). I was saved.

Third hour started and I laid out the plan. There would be a movie for those who were finished. Those who needed work time could work while the movie was on. There was a lot of grumbling about moving seats, but I shut it down. There was general grumbling about generalities. I started the movie. They talked loudly through the dramatic opening music. The narrator started and they stopped talking. They started working. They didn’t move around the room. They just worked. I circled the room, around and around. A couple people were playing games. I asked them about their one-pagers – already turned in – I just walked away and left them. The movie was only 40 minutes and classes are 56 minutes. I had done my opening monologue for about 6 minutes, so we had ten minutes after the video ended. That ten minutes was complete chaos, but it didn’t matter. Work had been done. We all had survived.

Fourth, fifth, and sixth hours followed suit. As long as the video was playing, they were working. Not ALL of them, because don’t be ridiculous, but most. Virtually no one actually watched the movie, but it didn’t matter, because I just made it up. I’m going back there tomorrow. I have a worksheet for them to do that is a sort of escape room. It should be fun-ish for them. I have 5 possible movies to show as background. It’s going to work again! I believe!