What's So Special About Tuesday?

I did not know this...

Book - Capture the Flag...

A new book titled "Capture the Flag" by Kate Messner arrived in the mail last month. After a busy few weeks, I had time to sit down and read. It is less than 300 pages, so the story has to move along at a good clip. The basic plot centers on the theft of the "Star Spangled Banner" from the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

  

During a private museum party attended by three seventh graders and their parents, an amazing lapse in security in this post-9/11 world allows the bad guys to make off with the national treasure.

The setting then moves to the regional airport where the weather has grounded all flights for the duration of the story. The kids and a dog are then off on a real life "Scooby-Doo" meets "National Treasure" mystery. An adventure to locate the flag they believe might be at the airport hidden as checked luggage.

Continuing lapses in airport security (for plot and storyline purposes of course) allow the young "Scooby" gang to investigate, at will, the internal workings of the complex airport luggage handling system as suggested by the book jacket artwork.

The mystery is eventually solved, the treasure recovered and a final surprise is revealed in a link that involves the parents of the "Scooby" gang and tangentially the kids.

Overall, it is a fun, fast-paced story that I think might appeal to 4th-6th graders.

Easy Short Day for Full Day Pay...

My roving assignment schedule for today was to cover nine classes starting at 08:00am for some kind of company sponsored individual insurance/investments review. Sponsored means that the company reimburses the school district for a "roving" substitute.  

By 10:45am with the first six classes complete, there was a

 90min break in the schedule before the start of the afternoon assignments.

After a nice long unexpected lunch period, I covered the first of remaining three assignments. The office then called to let me know that I was done for the day as the last two teachers cancelled their appointments.

I was home before 1:00pm.

I am on the schedule to do roving again at the same school come Monday & Tuesday.  

Can lightening strike twice or thrice? 

Homeworkcula...

Halloween season is already in the air and the 3^rd graders are anticipating the big event.  They even had a suggestion for me.

...at least I appear to be a happy "vampire substitute teacher "

Group work?

In almost every class the question arises: "Can we work in groups?"

My first inclination is to say "no" unless it's specifically stated in the lesson plan.  From personal observation I find that, in group work, one person ends up doing all the work, while the rest just copy but there are exceptions.

In a project like this, I can see group work making sense...

See what 600hrs and a passion for LEGO's can do!

Sometimes I Forget How Old I Am...

My 2-day assignment was a 4^th grade class for Thursday and Friday.

In Social Studies, they are studying the geology, climate zones and famous people of our home state, California. Thursday's lesson plan naturally included earthquakes.

"If you remember our last big earthquake in 1989..."

As soon as I said it, I realize that these little people didn't even exist yet.

I had to back track and explain what it was like when the earthquake happened. I told them how building I was working in seemed to bounce up and down for what seemed like a long time but was actually only a few seconds.

I looked out the 2^nd floor window of my office to see people parked on the side of the street. They were walking around their cars looking for the flat tire or something they hit that made their car swerve so suddenly.

All the power was out and no telephones or radio stations were working. It took me 2hrs to drive home when the normal commute should have been 20mins. All the traffic lights were out and everyone was trying to get home.

They listened intently and asked many follow-up questions. It was an ideal topic for a homework assignment. I assigned the writing assignment to interview a parent for their recollections to share on Friday. Imagine my surprise when more than a few came back saying that their parents did not remember much of anything and instead asked a grandparent for the interview.

Since my own granddaughter is currently a 3^rd grader, I should have realized how outdated anything before the new millennium actually is.

Roving Is AOK...

The first week of school is usually the time for school principals to schedule individual teacher planning meetings. I am busy "roving" this week and next.  Four days total at two different schools covering meetings for 8-9 teachers per day for 30mins each.

Since the teachers do not know who will be covering for their meeting time, the usual "plan" is pretty much monitoring the class while the kids continue work on their current assignment, outside P.E, silent reading or some other individual class work.

When roving, I take only a hat, whistle, pen, pencil, and my Kindle. The heavy subbing bag stays in the car.

The meetings themselves rarely last the full 30mins and that sometimes allows me time for the short restroom break or time to read the next couple chapters of my current Kindle book.

A usual single class subbing assignment starts 30mins before the school bell and ends after the end of day report is complete and the kids are gone.

 A roving day starts about 15mins after school bell and ends after the last meeting is complete which can be as much as 10-15mins early.

That extra bit of sleep in the morning and avoiding the parent traffic jam in the parking lot in the afternoon makes "roving" an AOK day.