Today, three people tried to pull a fast one on me. They didn't get away with it.
Part of last night's homework assignment was to get the students' quiz grade signed. This is part of my mission to communicate better with families, and to set the precedent early that families are included in their children's education, rather than waiting until February to call and complain about something or other. On each quiz, every other Friday, there is a space at the top of the page for me to write the quiz grade, the current marking period grade (now, quarter 1), and comments. Immediately below this is a line for parent signature. The students knew when they sat for the quiz that they would be getting it signed. No unclear expectations here.
Yesterday afternoon, when I handed back the quiz, a student pointed out to me that I had made a grading error. He had an 80% on the quiz, a B for the quarter, and no comments. I fixed the mistake, crossed out the 80%, and replaced it with an 84%.
This morning, the signed quiz was handed in -- but the B was crossed out and replaced with an A. I knew for sure that I didn't do that, and even checked my gradebook to confirm. I immediately called the student's mother, and told her that he did, in fact, have a B. Using the advice from Relay last night, I used words like "we" and "we'll let him know he can't pull this on us". I then spoke to the student took some dollars, and let him know that this wouldn't happen again. One.
We have a new system for cell phone storage in detention. Last year, students dropped their cell phones in plastic bins designated by homeroom in the morning. In the afternoon, phones were handed back out. Those students in detention left their phones in the bins, which were taken to the detention room and handed out again at 5. As a result of some inconsistencies in the system, a cell phone went missing. Now, we use lockboxes. I know the code for my homeroom's lockbox. The only way this works is if detention students get their phones back in homeroom, and then put them in the detention lockbox. This requires some degree of honesty from the students.
About halfway through detention today, a cell phone rang once, then stopped. The sound wasn't coming from the lockbox, and no cell phone rings only once without a human cue. I saw the girl that jumped, but didn't see the phone. I decided to give her an out. I asked if anyone forgot to put their phone in the bin. One kid raised his hand, and I took his phone, which was off. I didn't take dollars, because it could've been an honest mistake. There was still a phone out.
I pulled the allegedly-guilty girl aside, and asked her point-blank if she had a phone. I gave her another out - I asked if she wanted to check her bag to see if she forgot she had her phone in it. She loudly shuffles through her bag - "I have my lotion, and my chap stick, but no cell phone. I bring it every day, but I left it in my room today." Yeah, uh huh.
Inspired, I sent an email to her homeroom teacher, asking if he had given her a phone in homeroom, because she was claiming she didn't have one. Once the email was sent, I realized I wasn't sure if I had sent the email to the right place. While I was busy trying to open up the schedule, to confirm her homeroom teacher, the aforementioned teacher stormed into the room, waved the girl over, and I heard the fallout for several minutes. She got in some good trouble for that one. Two.
After school, I had a really, really great run. I ran pretty quickly, although I don't have an exact time because I didn't track it. The big difference was my partner. My partner and I had a calendar entry for this run, so when we both didn't want to go today, we had to anyway. We did, and the minutes flew by. We did a swift 3 miles, while catching up on summer stories.
I was pretty proud about outsmarting 12-year-olds, at least in the sense that they now know that they can't get away with anything in my classroom (I don't want to think about what was going on last year, when I was new to North Star). True to my PD goal of relationship-building, though, I started to feel guilty that I probably took several steps backwards in building relationships with these students. I then realized that it was an improvement that I felt guilty about this, and was okay with that.
On the way home from my run, I had about 1/4 tank of gas, so I stopped to fill up at one of those old gas stations that has mechanical, not electronic, pumps. I get filled up, the attendant takes my card inside, and brings out a receipt.
I usually reset the trip odometer when I fill the tank, so I can calculate gas mileage and get proud whenever I hit 28-29 mpg. I took a look at the receipt today, and saw that I had purchased 10.5 gallons. I was expecting more like 8-9 gallons, since I still had a quarter tank left. Suspicious, I took a glance at the pump: 9 gallons. And exactly $5 less than the amount on my receipt. I called the guy over, who apologized profusely and claimed that he had no idea what happened, and that he needed to call the guy who did the pumps, and that he was so sorry. I accepted a $5 bill and raced out of there. Don't go there (Getty on Somerset St in Watchung, just off the roundabout). Three.
I hope that today was an anomaly, because I don't know if I have the energy to live this meticulously every day.
I'd like to end by saying that my second class today started off so fantastically that I awarded a team dollar within the first 5 minutes of class, then pulled out the video camera and started taping in case anything happened that would be useful for a Relay assignment. It was an awesome class.
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