Today I subbed in a middle school cooking class. It's in my new district -- and yes, it's the same teacher whose class I covered back in my May 7th post. She teaches at two different schools -- one of which is the one where I completed my long-term assignment from September to January.
Subbing as late as Day 179 on the blog calendar is rare. Two years ago, I subbed on Day 176 -- until then, I'd never subbed past Day 175 before. There are usually no subbing jobs available. But this year, I've received calls from all three districts today. The suspicion is that it's due to the pandemic and distance learning schedules, including hybrid -- in the past, teachers would gut it through the last few days of school, especially when those are final exam days (as opposed to entrusting them to a sub). This year, teachers are so tired that they feel that school needed to be over a month ago, and these days in the 170's are just dragging on. So they take days off, even if it's finals -- at least one of the calls was for a English class that presumably has a final.
Today's teacher is in fact taking two days off, Days 179-180. Tomorrow's reason is simple -- her son is graduating high school and she wants to attend. As for today, it's because she's the ASB director at my long-term school -- she wants to spend the entire day on the field with the activity rather than spend time with her cooking classes. Keep this in mind as we go through "A Day in the Life" -- I always do this for multi-day jobs like today's:
8:10 -- I arrive at the first school, which isn't the one from my long-term.
Both schools are having special activities, but since the regular teacher only does ASB at my long-term school, she's less familiar with how the activity works at the other school. Indeed, my long-term school is having activities only for eighth graders as a graduation celebration, but this first school has something special for all middle school grades. And the seventh grade activity is right away, while the eighth grade day of fun doesn't start until after I depart this school.
All activities at both schools involve carnival games out on the field, with classes rotating so that they can play all of them. My job is essentially to deal with the students in whichever grade is not having an activity at a particular time.
Second period (and I explained in my May 7th post, as well as one from an earlier visit in February, why the periods are numbered strangely) is an advanced course, so most of the students are eighth graders. The handful of seventh graders depart for their activity. To avoid passing periods (which may be confusing as some teachers have eighth grade one period and seventh the next), the eighth graders remain in Period 2 until their own activity begins (around lunchtime).
Even those these eighth graders don't have an activity, they do have a special eighth grade graduation video to watch. But I can't get the sound to work, so I summon a tech guy. He works on it, but the sound is still on the quiet side.
After this. the regular teacher has set up some videos for them to watch. The assignment is to watch a video on an old Food Network competition on food trucks (from six years ago). Today's video is the semifinal round while tomorrow's is the finals. The students comment on which food truck is their favorite and submit it to Canvas, where it automatically receives a score of 10/10.
The day is confusing for other reasons. Yearbooks are distributed today, and some students still need to turn in textbooks to the bookroom. I have them do so while the tech guy is working on the video. I tell them that they can sign yearbooks while the eighth grade video is playing, but when the food truck video begins, they must put them away.
Another problem is what students who have opted out of hybrid are doing at this time. In this second period there is only one online student, who happens to be a seventh grader (all others are absent). But I already know in advance that the regular teacher is using the same Google Meet link for online students at her second school who aren't attending that school's activity (that is, my long-term school). This school starts later than my first school, so at first the seventh grade girl is alone in the Google Meet until those from the second school arrive -- and as soon as they do, she logs out. She's clearly confused by what's going on here. An argument can be made that since she's a seventh grader, she doesn't need to stay online (since if she were in-person rather than online, she would have attended the activity).
Then another teacher from the second enters the meet -- it's the head Math 8/Geometry teacher. She starts to play some online game with the online students from her second school, and even invites those from my first school to join in. But this is right around the time that the eighth grade video ends, and so I tell her that it's time to start the food truck video.
And then one in-person girl refuses to put her yearbook away and gets into an argument. She claims that she's already finished the video, even though Canvas doesn't show 10/10 for her (oh, and she also uses the problems with the sound system as an excuse). I tell her the story of my own days as a young eighth grader -- I was working in the school library, assigned to stack textbooks returned at the end of the year. When the librarian had to take a phone call, I stacked the books nearly to the ceiling. When he returned, he grew angry and threatened to prevent me from attending the eighth grade graduation ceremony. So meekly, I unstacked the books -- and I tell this girl that just as I nearly got in trouble at the end of the year, so can she (that is, we can prevent her from being allowed at the 8th grade activity).
While all of this is going on, another teacher arrives in the room. She's there to take over to watch this second period as it's almost time for me to depart for my second school. She can already tell which girl she needs to watch out for.
By the way, the song for today is another one from Ghostwriter (not Square One TV). It comes from the series finale, when the main three characters are about to have their eighth grade graduation (since these are, after all, eighth graders). The song doesn't really have a title, but I'll name it for the line that repeats in the pre-Chorus:
NOTHING'S GONNA STOP THE LOVE OF FRIENDS
10:00 -- Second period takes a snack break, and I leave the first school.
10:40 -- I arrive at the second school. where it is now third period. This is a regular cooking class with mostly seventh graders, who attend while the eighth graders have their outdoor activity.
The sound is much better here, and so it's easier for me to get these kids to work. Also, there is no yearbook distraction -- at this school, they don't get their yearbooks until after summer break begins (a problem at many schools during the pandemic).
Since these are seventh graders, I sing "Benchmark Tests" instead. Last week, the seventh graders took a district placement exam to determine whether they should take Algebra I or Math 8 next year.
11:35 -- Third period leads directly into tutorial, where these students remain. I take requests for extra songs during the tutorial, including "All About That Base and Height" (2D version) this time and "The Why of Pi" (even though Pi Day has long past).
12:10 -- The students leave for lunch.
12:50 -- Fourth period arrives. This is an eighth grade advanced cooking class -- by now, their activity is over for the day.
I go back to "Nothing's Gonna Stop the Love of Friends" for this group of graduating eighth graders.
1:40 -- Fourth period leaves. Fifth period is ASB -- which the regular teacher is running herself. The students are out on the field taking down the outdoor activity games. Thus my day ends here.
Today is Sixday on the Eleven Calendar:
Resolution #6: We ask, what would our heroes do?
In cooking class, the heroes are the ones who are running the food trucks on the video. Students write down which group is their favorite, so they are finding out what their culinary heroes are doing.
Day 179 is the post in which I typically link to other members of the MTBoS. And with my subbing today being in a cooking class, let me find sites related to both math and cooking.
John Rowe mentions a book called Classroom Chef, where teachers learn how to cook up lessons:
https://mrrowe.com/2016/07/28/exps-logs-the-mtbos-way/
And now that I'm on Twitter, I need to embrace the T part of the MTBoS, Math Twitter Blogosphere. In fact, a tweeter named Kathy H. wrote the following about two years ago:
https://twitter.com/kathyhen_/status/1155976351175725058
Ummmmmm.... we need a math cooking hashtag!! #mathandfood #MTBoSCooks #iteachmathandcook
It doesn't appear that these labels have caught on yet. Oh, and I can't write about math and cooking without mentioning Eugenia Cheng, whose first book How to Bake Pi is about math and cooking. She's not technically a member of the MTBoS, but she does have a Twitter presence:
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