Xing Error

Welcome to X day on the A to Z where we all cheat. Somewhat. (Although, I don't always cheat: "X Marks the Scarf" and "Ximena's Help".) 

Today's post title is "Crossing Error". See, if you mail something (through the USPS), the standard abbreviation for crossing is xing. (I can prove it. This is their webpage with all the standard abbreviations.) So, it's a cheat, but it's a mild one. 

I did manage to spend a little more time on the dragon swatch. 

The blue is the one I did a couple years ago. the neon yellow is my work in progress. 

The dragon is made via cabling. Each row is different, and I have to be very careful reading the pattern. It's not like the usual cable patterns where you can kind of read where things are and know if you're making a mistake. I didn't catch my mistakes (the last time, before I ripped this whole thing out) until I sat back and really looked at what I had done. 

Last week, while knitting along, I thought, "Wait." I couldn't remember if I had done the cable crossing correctly. But, with the way the thing is knit, going back at that point was going to be more trouble than it was worth, so I finished off the row. Then I looked...

Enlarge the image to see in the circles. The bottom circle has the cable crossing over the vertical line. The top circle (the correct one) has the cable going under. Oops. 

But, luckily, I was looking at this at the row after I did it. So, once I knit back, it was just a matter of recrossing the cable before knitting the next row on top of it. 

The cables in both circles are now the same. 

It was a good thing I had a funny feeling after I knit past this. I might not have stopped to look after that row if not. 

Of course, at this point I knew it was time to stop knitting for the night. When I make errors like that, it's best if I rest and come back to the knitting when I'm fresh. 

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter 

Wind Chime

I was out walking Buttercup the other day, as I do, and pondering blog posts. It was time to contemplate W and what I'd post for today. 

This is Buttercup

Buttercup and I have a little disagreement. I believe we should make a full circuit of the path. Buttercup looks for a shortcut. 

I had not let Buttercup take her usual shortcut. She wasn't pleased. So, she went in search of another shortcut. Only, it wasn't a shortcut unless I let her turn back the way we came. So, she's only making her walk longer. 

Anyway, while on our little Buttercup detour, I spied a wind chime someone had hung under the staircase. 

And that's good enough for today. 

I'm so glad the neighbors are decorating enough to fill my Saturday A to Z posts. They've been very helpful. 

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter 

Visiting Teacher

Friday. Sixth period. I got an email from the co-teacher, Ms. K. 

The eleventh grade English classes are all co-taught. (This means that there's another teacher, a special ed teacher, who is in class with me.) The ninth and tenth grade ELD classes are not. (ELD=English language development. Read: English for non-native speakers.) 

My day is: 1st block--conference period; 2nd block--11th graders; 3rd block--ELD; 4th block--11th graders. Ms. K is with my 2nd and 4th blocks. (We're on block schedule, so it takes me two days to see all the classes. Both even and odd days are the same, which is good and bad.) 

Anyway, I had seen Ms. K in fourth period and I would see her again in eighth, so getting the email was weird. 

But, the email explained that Ms. K wasn't feeling well and was going home. So, I wouldn't see her eighth period. 

No big deal. It was a minimum day, the Friday before spring break. We were watching a video (on F. Scott Fitzgerald--background info before reading The Great Gatsby). It wasn't like she really needed to be there. 

But, teacher contracts require all missing teachers have a sub. (I've been in classes where both teachers were absolutely needed, so I'm good with this.) Ms. K said there'd be a sub, and she let me know who it would be. (I wonder if she asked the teacher herself. I wouldn't be surprised.)

I was going to get to work with Ms. L again. Woo-hoo! 

Last year, exactly a year ago, I was in that math long term assignment. Ms. L was the co-teacher. 

And... Yeah, that's all the excitement there was. The class arrived. I explained the assignment. They whined a bit. I put on the video. While the video played Ms. L worked on her stuff. I got some grading done. 

(I mean, it's not like I haven't seen her around since then. We've run into each other.) 

It was a nice way to finish things off before our break. 

Of course, this week was our week back after spring break. (I saved the subbing stories for the week I'd be at work.) Next week I'll post about what happened this week (as is my custom). I hope you've had a wonderful week. 

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter

Under the Printer

It was the Thursday before spring break. On Wednesday, a kiddo delivered a couple paper Easter eggs with a note. Later, I saw an email which said the same thing. The student leadership had come up with a school-wide game. My job: hide the Easter eggs in the classroom. 

Okay, then. 

They looked like this:

On the back were the instructions. The finder could take the egg to the ASB office and exchange it for candy. 

I pondered where to hide them. It had to be someplace the students would be. I didn't want to make it impossible, but I didn't want to make it too easy. So, I hid this one behind that poster on the wall: 

And I put the second one on the other side of the room, under the printer:

For context:

(If you'd like more context, if you look at the classroom pic at the top of this post, the heart egg is on the left side, just beyond the picture, and this printer is on the right.) 

I had eleventh graders in third period, the period of the game. I wondered if they'd care. 

When, in the morning announcements, they talked about the game, I interjected that the eggs were hidden in the classroom. 

Nadine piped up. "I know where one of them is."

Me: "Go ahead and claim it." 

She jumped up and retrieved it. 

Then she looked around for the second one. I did not look in its direction. She did not see it. But Madden did. Again, I gave him permission to retrieve it. 

He got up, retrieved it, and headed back to his seat. On his way, he gave Nadine the egg. 

Me: "Uh... You found it. You can keep it."

Madden shrugged. He didn't really want it. But Nadine did. 

Um, well, okay. I mean, he earned it. But, that meant that he could do with it as he pleased. And he chose to give it to Nadine. 

There were also three golden eggs hidden, and the prize for those was a gift card to Raising Cane's. Nadine wondered where those were. I explained that they would be hidden for their lunch time, and it would be hidden outside. 

The game finished, we got into our lesson for the day, which was a documentary on F. Scott Fitzgerald. They'd be reading The Great Gatsby once we returned from spring break. (Which will be as you read this. I saved my subbing stories for when we're back at school.) 

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter

Text for Help

When Ms. A left for her maternity leave in February, she shared her online lesson plan calendar with both me and Ms. S (the sub before me). I saved the link someplace handy, and I didn't glance at it again. Until I started the long-term assignment. 

On the first day I was in class, I noted the pacing of the teaching of The Great Gatsby for the eleventh grade classes. I noted that the ninth grade class would be reading Of Mice and Men starting that week. (I've taught both these books before, so I was prepared.) 

However, the tenth grade class had nothing listed to do. Well, the first days I was there they were finishing up an argumentative essay, but for my second week, there was nothing in the plans. A big, fat blank. 

Um...

I didn't even know what Ms. A had intended for them. With the other classes, if something wasn't filled in, I could easily figure out how to fill some time as I had a topic on which to base things on. But not so for the tenth graders. Were they going to read a book? Were we going to do grammar lessons? A writing assignment? I had no clue.

Ms. A sent me a text saying she'd fill in the tenth grade plans. But she was cutting it pretty close. I mean, she's at home with a newborn and a toddler. I don't expect her to work. But I do need some guidance as to what to assign the kiddos. 

Then, Tuesday morning, a lesson plan appeared. Whew. Since my first block is planning time, I clicked on the links to get things set up for the day. Only, the links said I did not have access. Sigh.

But she had texted me to let me know to text her questions I had. So, I texted that I needed access to the material. Her response: "Oops. Geez." 

It's always the obvious things that slip through the cracks. 

Now I know what our unit is on. Short stories. So, now I have a topic with which to work. Yay! 

(We were reading "The Interlopers". I had not read it before, so it was new to all of us.) 

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter

Simple Sabotage Field Manual

I can't keep up. 

I write my blog posts ahead of time. I am writing this on Thursday the 17th. And what I'm mad about right now (the human trafficking to an El Salvador prison) probably won't be what I'm mad about when this post goes live. 

So, in the spirit of "what to do", I'm finally going to share some things I found that I kept meaning to share, but before I did I got distracted by the outrage of the day. 

First is the Simple Sabotage Field Manual. It's on Project Gutenberg, which is a website of ebooks that are all in the public domain. (Do a little look-see around there if you're looking for a classic book and you have an ereader.) A description of the book: 

Office of Strategic Services is a historical publication written during the early 1940s, amid World War II. This manual acts as a guide for ordinary civilians to conduct simple acts of sabotage against enemy operations without the need for specialized training or equipment. Its main topic revolves around promoting small, accessible forms of resistance that could collectively disrupt the enemy's war effort.

 You know, in case you might have use for information like this. 

The other thing I wanted to share was stickers. (I almost titled the post "Stickers" today.) It's a small way to protest things, especially if you have a printer. You can print various messages on stickers or flyers or post-it notes and leave them around town for others to see. If you wanted to do that sort of thing.

I found this idea on BlueSky, and I searched for a good summary of it. But alas, the person who was talking about it started a thread of various stickers that one could use, but it's not in any organized format. Let me know if you are unable to see the thread. (I might figure out a way to list some of these at some point, but it won't be today.) 

I found a couple articles that I think I've already linked to previously (as they are from February), but just in case I haven't: 

• Thirty lonely but beautiful actions you can take right now which probably won't magically catalyze a mass movement against Trump but that are still wildly important
• Soon, there will be a spark

And finally, I'm hearing rumblings of another national day of protest on May 1st. May Day. If you're a protesting kind of person. 

Stay safe. And remember we're all in this together. 

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter 

Rawr: Or Redoing the Dragon

Okay, so I was going through my old posts to give the review of this particular project when I stumbled across a previous title. Rawr. And I just couldn't not. It's R day, after all. (I mean, "Redoing the Dragon" is not a bad title, but Rawr? Come on!)

Right, so this is a project that I've been working on for a couple years now. And all it is is a swatch. 

Originally, I had bought the pattern (because how could I not?) and tried it out. So, since then I've had this knitted piece just sitting around with no thing to be. I decided to make another, and then I'll put the two pieces together. Only, the third try hasn't gone as smoothly as the first two. 

Last week I finally pulled it out again. And I made some progress: 

The last time I worked on this, I got to here: 

Progress. 

We'll see if I get any further this week. It could happen. (But I'm back at work this week, so less time.) 

In review, I pulled this out a while ago, got it almost completed, and then I had to rip it almost all the way out and start over. There were some glaring errors that I could not fix any other way. (I tried, but I made more of a mess.) But before I could really get to it, I got distracted by other projects. 

It's been sitting around, just waiting for me to give it some attention again. Fingers crossed. Maybe I'll get it done this time. Maybe. 

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter