Not a Cell Phone

      I have mentioned before that I have somewhat banned cell phones in a couple of my classes. It doesn't work out perfectly, and I won't fight it constantly if they are actually doing their work, or have finished their work, but I did provide them with lots of things to do that are not playing on their phones. There are wordsearches, coloring sheets, books of both word searches and coloring sheets, card games, and several puzzles. Yesterday one of the kids tried to tackle the Jurassic Park puzzle. This was one of the dollar store puzzles I picked up, and even with only 100 pieces, it's a pretty hard puzzle. There is just SO much green! But he was working at it. He said he thought some pieces were missing and I came to look, found the rest of the edge pieces, and then stood there helping him with the puzzle, upsize down, for probably a solid 10 minutes. It may have been one of the most relaxing times I have had since I started teaching. I am sure someone is wondering why we have 10 minutes (or more) of down-time. But I really do need to give these kids their work in pretty small doses. They do seem to be learning the stuff this way, some faster than others. And for the ones that finish quickly, there are lots of things to do that are not playing on their phones. 

     So yesterday was the first day back at school after 4 and a half days. Mostly it was a good day, though I did have a confrontation with a kid who was doing something in the back of the class that they thought they could get away with because I was in the hall for a second. It resulted in a search, the student calling me a liar (not much sets me off more than being called a liar, which I am not) and then me overhearing a couple of them talking about knowing where to hide it because they can't be searched there. They seem to forget I am not deaf. So when they again tried to call me a liar I said that I knew that they had it, and just because they knew to hide it where they couldn't be searched, you know you did wrong, and don't try to say I made it up. I got the head down " I don't know what you're talking about". Teaching is hard enough without dealing with this crap. 

    I came home and got to work on the medieval fantasy doll again. I have to say, I really like how she is coming out. But I will share more about her tomorrow. And I will pick a winner for the set of boots sometime soon. Maybe tomorrow, or Friday, or this weekend. I need at least a few minutes to do it.