#day eighty three

[daily-pearl-doodles]

A rare traditional pearl I drew a while ago to practice expression, sorry for how blurry it is my phone camera is awful

(day eighty three)

[187days]

Day Eighty-Three

Today was so weird. It's nearing the end of the semester, and usually that means students get super focused because they're trying to get their grades up. Instead, most of my freshmen lost all ability to focus because there's a storm coming and they might have a snow day tomorrow. And then there was a fight in the cafeteria, and they couldn't stop talking about that.

I did manage to teach a lesson, though! I had to stop to redirect students entirely too often, but I still made it happen.

First, I went over yesterday's assignment about different types of governments and economic systems. Then I showed them some maps indicating where those systems are found, and which countries are the most fragile. We also revisited a map they've seen before, which is the map of countries currently experiencing armed conflict. I backed up Mr. F's lessons without meaning to (but we will absolutely pretend I meant to, heh). He was teaching about correlation and causation; I was asking students to tell me whether there was a correlation between the type of government or economy a country had and its fragility (no), or a correlation between conflict and fragility (yes). So, y'know, that's some unintentional awesomeness right there.

In APGOV, I taught the last lesson I had to teach, which was about the media as a linkage institution. I'd been telling my students it'd be today (the remaining days are for working on their final projects, and taking one last vocab quiz and one last practice test), but it really sunk in when we wrapped up and I said we'd covered the whole AP curriculum (and then some). There was a collective "whoa," and a few smiles and nods of accomplishment.

After school, we had a faculty meeting. The Principal went over the expectations for remote learning (which we'll transition to after we have three snow days, if necessary), gave some updates about next year's budget, and then sent us off to various locations to meet in our advisory groups. Ninth grade advisors met in my classroom, so I ducked out quickly to get up there and get set up. Mr. N's reaction to that was to call me a wizard, which is COMPLETELY ACCURATE.

Heh.

We set our agenda for our PLC meeting on Thursday, and then- much like our students had been doing all day- talked about whether or now we're going to have school tomorrow. I said I wouldn't mind a snow day, or a delay, but I would mind having to drive into work in messy weather because I'm an awful driver. All my colleagues know this except the new ones. It got a laugh out of Mr. C, which- if you've been following along at home- is always a goal of mine. Life is better when folks think I'm funny!

[im-here-for-everything]

Todays reminder!

[yourpostisonpinterest]

@fartgallery

i found your post on pinterest! (again)

[sluttish-armchair]

Interior of the Ministry of Truth

I might change some colors so everything is more visible for any [sharp inhale] rotoscoping (good god) I’ll have to do. But this is the first of the many desks I’ll have to make. Making the set base and figuring out the desk (relying heavily on the source material at all times) took me about three hours. Before this I worked on the hallway scene for an hour. The Mountain Dew Slurpee hyped me up shsbsbsjsbsjsnjsjs

Oh, and just for you to understand the sheer size of this 3D model:

That’s how small the desk and little guy are in comparison to the base of the set. Yeah. I’m going to die lmaooooo

[mademoisellesarcasme]

we are having a Bad Paperwork Time in my household today (Husband and I are both on top of our paperwork but apparently everyone else in the world is fucking incompetent about it)

[darkblueboxs]

some of yall may not like this one but. those shows netflix keeps cancelling?

Stop trying to save them.

Stop getting hashtags trending, stop spamming twitter accounts, stop crowdfunding billboards outside Netflix HQ, stop putting your TVs on silent and playing episodes on loop to boost ratings, stop creating petitions and binging shows in one night to fit within the “renewal decision timeline”. PLEASE stop.

Maybe one time in a hundred, this will work. But every time you are guaranteed to be giving priceless free marketing, promotion, attention and screen time to a coorporation that may love having you beg on your hands and knees for their scraps of Entertainment (tm) but will never love you back.

If you are angry that Netflix cancelled something you like, cancel your subscription and tell them why. Taking to social media, streaming the show repeatedly and encouraging others to do the same might make them reconsider the cancellation, but it will definitely encourage them to keep following a business model of making controversial (RE: bad) decisions to gain free publicity and a user base increasingly willing to drop time and cash on broken promises.

Engagement and news coverage will never make Netflix reconsider their practices. No such thing as bad press, right? If you want to see real change, go silent, cut them off and take your money elsewhere.

[toestalucia]

this one is still ridiculous LOL

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Master post (my pinned post) has been updated for anyone who uses it :)

[cicadaland]

what did he mean by this?

[187days]

Day Eighty-Three

My APGOV students came in, crushed a vocab quiz- their very last one!- and then we did some test review. I addressed some common FRQ errors I saw on their last test- specifically, on the court case question and the argument essay- and practiced some questions with them. Then, I gave them the remainder of time to study independently, or work on other things. 

My World students continued to work on their multi-genre projects, and I did some planning and grading while they worked. I also answered questions, give research tips, and offered feedback on work when asked. One of the boys in my Block 2 class, who kept switching topics, finally found something he’s really interested in researching and blasted through half an essay. He even asked to switch into my room for his flex block so he could keep going because he “had the forward momentum, Miss M!” And then he had me read what he’d written because he was so proud of it (and rightly so- it’s good writing!), so that was awesome. 

It’s fun to watch my students soaring at the end of the semester. 

Also, not that I want to jinx it, but the vibe in my Block 3 class- which was awesome, at first, then abruptly became unsettled a few weeks ago- seems to have been restored. The attention-seeking behaviors that were so disruptive have largely ceased, there’s no argumentativeness, we’re having fun, the class conversations are positive... It’s such a relief to have that back! 

So, basically, what I’m saying is things are going well for me... which led to me causing some drama during today’s faculty meeting. 

Whoops. 

See, we’re supposed to write reflections on the first semester since it’s about to end, and The Principal gave us time to do that after making a few announcements. The prompt asked us to identify highlights and challenges, and I’ve definitely had both, but overall it’s been a good year. One of my colleagues at my table has NOT been having a good year, and it’s largely because she’s a department head, and the meetings between department heads and the administration have been pretty tough. I don’t know exactly what’s gone on, but I know they’re clashing. So this colleague kept saying she had no highlights to write about, and how could they think that anyone would, and I blurted out that I had plenty. Mrs. T told me that wasn’t a helpful comment, but... it was an honest one. Like, I’m not trying to be all toxic positivity over here- there are definitely things that need to be addressed, things we could be doing better, etc, etc...- but relentless negativity isn’t helpful either. 

I guess it was a “don’t rain on my parade” moment. Anyways, the moment passed, we all moved on. I’ll work on the brain to mouth filter in the future. 

[its--ali]

oh for FUCKS SAKE

[sillysanddweller]

UGRUIGHGJ do u guys ever finish an essay and feel like ur brain got put thru a juicer

[neverendingford]

.

[fruitbythefoot7]

some snow for u bc ik u guys don’t get much of it

SNOW!!!!! and ur right, the lowest it’s gonna get this week is 63 F :(