posted
Ok, so I was the king of this until this year... in the last 2 years I'd skipped 73 times and not gotten caught once... This year I've skipped twice.
The first time I went out to get a burrito with my best friend Marry Ellis... We had fun... but I had to go back to school to pick up my little sister... so I pull into the parking lot about 2:15, park my car... and Mr. Doyle one of the assistant principles parks right next to me. I say a few choice words to myself and open my door and try to talk my way out of it... The talking got me an extra two Saturday schools.
The second time was yesterday... Kyrie is in town, so I skipped 5th period to go out to lunch with her. We were having a lovely time when my cell phone went off. I picked it up. "hello" I said "hello, this is the grandma squad" answered the voice. It was Mrs. Ryser, my 74 year old, 5th period teacher. someone in the class (Blacwolves brother) talked Mrs. Ryser into call my cell phone to see where I was. So I chatted with Mrs. Ryser long enough to tell her that I was out to lunch with my mother (which was a complete lie) and describe to her what I was having for lunch...
Due to my being caught skipping yesterday, It looks like I'll be taking a 3 hour break from camping with you guys this weekend to serve my Saturday school. I'm trying to get them to let me serve it next weekend, but there is no telling if they'll let me get away with that.
So... Does anybody else have any good stories?
Posts: 1094 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
I'm sorry, that's not funny, but it really is... wow. That's impressive. You should feel honored to get such special attention!
Posts: 7877 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yes, she called my cell... Thats what I get for entertaining her class everyday... And yes it is funny, thats why I posted it here.
Posts: 1094 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've asked about ten south people (yesterday when someone told me you skipped), and they said that there is thursday school this week, not saturday school, so either they are missinformed, or you don't have saturday school.
Oh and I called all three cell phone's last thursday, but ramsey's was off.
quote:I always answer my cell, even in classes....
*stabs you repeatedly*
DON'T DO THIS!!!!!!! IT MAKES PEOPLE WANT TO KILL YOU!
Seriously. Wow. Regardless of how you feel about a teacher, don't do this. It's just...really, really rude.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I skipped class once in all of high school. Senior year, last period, my teacher wanted to leave so he had us go to other teachers. I technically went to the classroom, but immediately went to Wendy's.
Posts: 3446 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Shipping class in college is different. You (yes You) are paying to attend that college.
My dad was did poorly in science classes in high school (I saw his old report cards), but when he went to college.... He always said that it makes one heck of a difference when you are paying for it. Makes you want to get your money's worth.
Posts: 2208 | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I never skipped a class in high school either. And in college, um, so far I only skipped once by accident when I was really tired, and I slept through all my classes by mistake.
Posts: 7877 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I skipped occasionally in high school, and I always got away with it. It pays to be nice and respectful to the attendance window ladies. They're much more willing to overlook absences. It also helps if you make something good up, like "I was taking AP tests those five days..."
As for college, I've had one semester (of six+) where I haven't skipped a class. Not even in Greece did I make all my classes (alright, I was hung over as heck, sick, and my vision was blurring. I had a good reason!). It's not hard to get up and go to classes, really, it'd hard to justify going to first-semester Latin lecture where you spend all hour chanting the third declension over... and over... and over... when you could learn it just as well at home. Besides, it's at 8:50 in the morning!
(Edit because really, I do know how to make plural nouns.)
posted
The only time I ever skipped class in high school was right after AP tests, so I had a good excuse. I skipped SRT (student resource time) a bunch, but since that was depressingly easy I don't count it.
Of course, my mom was really good about calling me in sick. She understood that sometimes you just really need a mental health day and was cool with that.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I skipped SRT lots but usually said I was going to practice cello, so I got by with it really easily. And whenever I felt tired or something but not sick my mom would call me in. I skipped a college class yesterday, my throat was really sore and I hadn't finished the paper.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Your assistant principal is Mr. Doyle? That's so Norman Rockwell.
In college I started having dreams that it was the end of the quarter and it turned out that there was a class I had been forgetting to attend, and there was no way to drop it or salvage the grade. :shudder:
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yeah Doyle is one of 4 assistant principals at Stryker's school. He's about 30, has young twin daughters and is the tennis coach. The other assistants are Mr. True who had a weird video going around the internet last year, Mr. Veach who once asked me what color the napkins at his wedding should be (he was a councelor then) and Mrs Stork who I think is pretty normal.
Not quite a norman rockwell painting school is it?
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I skipped once and that was to go to a movie with my brother who was going on a mission. But other than that one time I never skipped. I didn't see the point because you would have to make up the work anyway.
Posts: 747 | Registered: Aug 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:In college I started having dreams that it was the end of the quarter and it turned out that there was a class I had been forgetting to attend, and there was no way to drop it or salvage the grade. :shudder:
Most of the people I know report having had these dreams in college, and many continue to have them occasionally as an adult. I know that I still have them occasionally. The difference between my dreams of this sort and those of everybody else I've spoken to about it, is that in my dreams I always somehow skate by, managing to turn the impossible situation around in some ingenious way.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Wow. Until now, I didn't think anybody really shared those dreams with me. Although mine were a little different. I don't remember exactly when they started, perhaps grade school, but definitely by high school. I would have a variation on the same dream a few weeks or days before the beginning of the term at school. It didn't matter if it was the end of summer vacation, Christmas vacation, Spring Break, whatever.. I always had a dream like this. I would dream that I somehow missed the first day or first few weeks of school and I would be hopelessly behind. I would panic and go to talk to my teachers and try to work something out desperately.
This happened at the end of every vacation all through high school and college. THEN, I started teaching and I kept on having the dreams. That I missed pre-planning and when I showed up for the first time, there were all my students and I wasn't ready for them. Or that I missed several weeks. Anything like that. Before my second year, I dreamt that I again missed preplanning and I showed up on the first day and my class was populated with the worst kids from my first year. That was horrific.
I don't have those dreams anymore, but I bet they start up again once I'm offered a job.
posted
I am the master of skipping class. I am currently skipping my second class of the day, having skipped the first one and half of this one to print out my assignment for the third one. I see college as being a lot like juggling, and at any given time at least 75% of my credits are up in the air.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Oh, and the thread creator.. Stryker, I think. You're the kind of student that as a teacher I'd want to wring your neck. Answering your phone in class! Indeed! You wouldn't be in my class for long with behavior like that. Grrr.
That kind of behavior makes me WANT you to skip so I can report it and have a few extra days of peace in class.
posted
You know, it's funny--in college I skipped all the time. I think I've talked about this here before, but if not, I basically only went to class when it suited me, most of the time. The cool part was that that meant that when I was in class, I was there because I really wanted to be there, and I paid lots of attention, had good input, etc.
When I was teaching ESL, I had some students who would skip, and when I would invariably see them out somewhere that day, they'd be all embarassed and either avoid me or stammer around. I never minded at all; I would much rather have a student not show up than show up and spend the hour wishing they were somewhere else.
As for the cell phone thing, as a teacher I expected students to silence their phones, or at least set them to vibrate, and leave the class if they needed to take a call.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
How do you skip so much and still get credit for the class? My students go to truancy court after three unexcused absences and don't receive credit after nine excused or unexcused absences.
Posts: 862 | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
The skipped day in high school I remember the most was ironically not a day I skipped. It was the last day of classes, traditionally cut by the majority and attended by the cheerful few who enjoyed their teacher's company as friends. If you looked around the room your peers were the ones who went with you to play Risk at your teacher's house in the evening and who would be, years down the road, the ones visiting the school to say "hi" to the teachers they still fondly remembered.
On this particular Skip Day, though, word came on the news over lunch (when even more people left) that someone from our school had died in a car accident. A frenzy that can only occur in high school ensued as people ran around trying to locate their friends to reassure themselves that it wasn't someone they new. Eventually the student body was called together in the theatre and Jason Allen was named, to the horror of those who knew him and guilty relief of those who did not (myself being one of the latter). A few days later it was exams and business as usual.
What a strange day to remember.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
My wife, when she was in high school, was one of those goody-goody two shoes that worked in the office and never got in trouble.
In her senior year she met a real trouble maker and very brilliant kid who was on the verge of dropping out. No, it wasn't me. I show up later.
Cindy took this guy under her wing and worked on straightening him out. They became best friends and his absenteeism dropped from several times a month to months without missing a day.
Cindy graduated and this friend, call him Joe, started his senior year. By now Cindy and I were an item and all three of us became good friends.
Another friend of ours was a young lady we will call Tammy. (Changing her name to protect then not-been-innocent-for-way-to-many-years).
Now you may think it odd that I was dating a girl who's best friend was a guy, and that guy became one of my good friends, but then this other young lady, who became a good friend of Cindy's, was the girl I dated before I met Cindy.
Confused?
Tammy was going away to college, but was in town for spring break. Her spring break corresponded to mine and Cindy's so we three decided to take the day and go to the zoo.
Cindy mentioned this to Joe, who had done remarkable in school all year, not skipping a single day that semester.
He decided to skip this day and join us at the zoo.
Tammy was between boyfriends at the moment. This was not an uncommon occurance with her, but that state was rarely held for long. It wasn't that she was astonishingly beautiful. She was passionately aggresive. She enjoyed love and dove into it with all her heart and often body.
Joe was aloof and protective and very very careful. He worked at a stable where bored rich girls flirted and more with the help out of boredom. He had had his heart broken, stomped on, and shredded on several occasions. He was passionate in his way, as a noble warrior is passionate about honor and duty.
Tammy was a larg-ish woman of Italian descent with dyed blonde hair.
Joe loved petite asian woman more natural in their appearance.
So the four of us arrive at the zoo on a bright spring day.
Tammy was on the prowl.
Joe was on the defensive.
And every where we went, cages full of animals were following the natural dictates of spring and nature. The zoo would have a bumper crop of baby animals later that year.
Tammy was getting ideas.
Joe was getting nervous.
Tammy kept trying to manuever Joe into some romantic embrace. Joe kept running.
By the end of the afternoon, Joe was half way up a street light post, barely out of Tammy's reach, and swore off ever skipping another day of class again.
After 2 more months of high school, 4 years of college, 2 tours of duty in the army, and several years on several different jobs, he has yet to skip again.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Mrs. Ryser didn't write me up.... she Finds it funny that I'd answer my cell while skipping and have a conversation about what I was having for lunch...
quote: I would much rather have a student not show up than show up and spend the hour wishing they were somewhere else.
I'm one of those students... If I'm in class.. it's because I want to be... I mean any moron who can just read from the text books and learn enough to pass with flying colors (now I if could just find my book)
quote: Stryker, I think. You're the kind of student that as a teacher I'd want to wring your neck. Answering your phone in class! Indeed! You wouldn't be in my class for long with behavior like that. Grrr.
I usually do leave my cell on vibrate and leave the room as I answer it... But Since I amuse my teachers to no end... I usually can get away with just about anything...
quote: How do you skip so much and still get credit for the class? My students go to truancy court after three unexcused absences and don't receive credit after nine excused or unexcused absences.
Here is the Truancy policy as it reads on our web site.
quote: Unexcused Absences (Truancy) A. Defined: unexcused absence of more than 5 minutes from class. B. Penalties: • The following are the suggested levels of discipline for truancy. • Administrators will use multiple means of discipline to correct behavior with attendance violations. **Flagrant attendance violations could result in the student being immediately expelled from school** Offense Level Description Additions 2 periods or less After School Detention In School Suspension Room 2:40 – 3:30 PM 3 or more periods Saturday School Cafeteria 8:00 – 11:00 AM 2nd offense Saturday School Cafeteria 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM Loss of driving privileges at BHS South. Possible referral to truancy court. 3rd offense 1 Day Out of School Suspension Out of School Suspension Program Revoke drivers license through BMV. Revoke work permit. Refer to truancy court. 4th offense 3 Days Out of School Suspension Out of School Suspension Program Pre-Expulsion hearing with assistant principal may be required before returning to school. 5th offense Expulsion The student may not attend any other state public school for the period of expulsion C. Truancy Court: • The Juvenile Judge and Prosecutor have a commitment to make education the highest of priorities with Monroe County students. • If a student is truant for more than a day and a half, they could be referred to truancy court.
The administration likes me for some unknown reason... So they tend to look the other way... Except for Doyle... I'm on his "shit list"..
quote: JT, you're kind of like a much less talented Ferris Bueller.
No, I'm rather talented... You guys just hear about the failed exploits...
quote: I skipped SRT lots but usually said I was going to practice cello, so I got by with it really easily. And whenever I felt tired or something but not sick my mom would call me in.
You never skipped, you always showed up and then left, which is what I did, which is legitimate. (She and I were in the same SRT class, for those who were wondering if I stalk her).
And btw, Veach isn't an assistant principal, Mrs. Earle is... and she's even worse than he is (if that's even possible).
Posts: 7877 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
I skipped my first two classes to finish the blasted project for the third class, and then when I finally made it through the malfunctioning printers and got my assignment ready to hand in, I went to class.... only to find a note on the door that it was cancelled.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged |
But isn't that also good, in a way? I got the email today that my class was cancelled. Did I stay at the high school and work instead? Nope. I ran out of there early, letting everyone think that I was going to class as usual.
Mmm. That's nice.
I can't wait until I'm done with college. *counts months on fingers*
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
In six years of college not only did I never skip a single class, but I also missed only 2-3 class sessions total.
I figured it this way -- if I'm paying for college -- and actually the taxpayers paid for some of it -- then I want to get my money's worth. And the taxpayers deserve a good return on their investment. Skipping class is wasteful. That's why I also hated it when professors cancelled classes -- at least have the decency to round up a replacement. Even if it's not on topic for the course, it shouldn't be that hard to find a grad student or faculty member who could come in and present on their work and/or lead an interesting discussion.
I guess one could argue that sometimes going to class is a waste, but most of the time I think that argument is a cop out.
Sure it was tempting to skip class sometimes. But when I was completely honest with myself, it was pretty clear that my reasons for not going were always pretty selfish and pathetic.
Not that I'm condemning Annie for her decisions. I just think that sometimes it's good to present counterexamples. So that all those out there who feel the pressure to skip class can feel validated by their strict class-going tendencies. Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Raia, Earle is on sick leave and Veach is filling in for her. Has been that way all school year, and I was listing stryker's assistants, not ours.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Honestly, I think it depends on the class and the instructor.
I can think of one instructor whose only contribution to the class was playing 30 different variations of the "name game" and wheezing after every other sentence.
Did I mention she lectured directly from the book and her degree was Electrical Engineering and this was an "intro to management" course?
posted
"No, I'm rather talented... You guys just hear about the failed exploits..."
JT, don't take this the wrong way, but from what I've seen of you on this forum, you don't seem to understand that there's a difference between "smooth," "slick," and "greasy."
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
I am by no means a saint... but in my definition... "greasy" is something that dileberatly hurts someone or proves how little class you have... To my knowledge I've only done one "greasy" act and if you choose to overlook all of my other adventures... Then you are a sad person who believes that one act of pure stupidity is an example of a persons entire character... I don't mean to bite your head off... but I kinda want to...
And yes I took it "the wrong way"
[ October 20, 2004, 11:16 PM: Message edited by: J T Stryker ]
Posts: 1094 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
My 'senior skip day' in high school I wasn't allowed to skip. I had to go to school.
However, the senior teachers gave twenty bonus points for those that showed up to class.
Then we had parties during class.
The only class I actually had to do work in that day was World History, which I had a certified A in and read during the entire lecture. God, I hated that class.
[Allow me to elaborate: The first month we began learning about Ancient Egypt, and she said--totally serious--"The Egyptians built these pyramids, but no body really knows what they were for..."]
The teacher got pissed and asked me a question twenty minutes into the class and I gave a ten-minute response on the myths of Ancient Greece.
quote: In college I started having dreams that it was the end of the quarter and it turned out that there was a class I had been forgetting to attend, and there was no way to drop it or salvage the grade. :shudder:
Cor has this dream from time to time. I don't, but I do get the underwear dream.
-o-
I'm sort of skipping class today. I got a call before second period from the nurse at my daughters' school telling me to pick up Banana, because she has pink eye. I'm fairly certain she does not, because she has eye allergies and has been mistakenly sent home by school nurses many times before, but I need to either get a doctor's note to that effect or keep her home tomorrow as well. I signed Mango out too while I was at it, because she's been sick for a while, and we've just been trying to survive it. But if I'm going to take one kid to the doctor, I might as well take the kid who's legitimately sick as well, in addition to allowing them both to get plenty of rest today during the day.
-o-
Nobody ever skipped at my high school. My high school was a very vigilant Catholic, Jesuit, all boys prep school. Some of the things kids get away with these days were just unheard of to us. Then, senior year, I discovered a way to skip and get away with it, and I felt like I was king of the world. I was one of the yearbook editors, and if I said I had to cover something, nobody ever questioned me on it. They figured I could not possibly be cutting, because one of the priest disciplinarians would bust me if I tried to leave campus for anything, or if I was wandering the always-empty-during-class hallways. However, I was also president of the computer club, and the computer club had its own room in the library, to which I had a key. So I hung out there playing Lode Runner or Paratroopers or Risk all period, and nobody really knew I was there, and nobody ever caught me. Now, some of you veteran class cutters might think that's small potatoes, but for my school, that was freaking amazing.
-o-
I don't think skipping class is necessarily a waste. I do think that there's an age in life when society clearly expects you to take responsibility for your own actions, and there's an age in life when you are considered a child, and not mature enough to decide for yourself whether sitting in a lecture is a waste of time or not. What we may not all agree on is where that line is, as with a lot of lines between children and adulthood. So instead, we set it arbitrarily somewhere: in high school, you generally suffer a consequence if you are caught skipping, and in college, the consequence is generally just the risk you take of doing worse in class. I'm okay with that arbitrary placement. I wouldn't condemn anybody for skipping class at any level, but I also don't have a lot of sympathy if you fail your college class because you weren't there for the teaching, or if you get a Saturday detention because you got busted. No condemnation, no pity, just a "hey, them's the breaks, and you knew that it was possible when you made that decision."
-o-
I do not allow students to answer cell phones in my class. That absolutely does not fly. If a student's phone repeatedly rang in class, I would take it away. Usually, though, I just give them the mock threatening look, they give me the apologetic look, and turn it off, and we're all happy. The other day, though, I asked a student (with whom I have a good relationship) if she wanted me to answer her phone, and boy did her eyes light up. "Could you?!" she asked, and I had the following conversation, with her boyfriend (names changed to protect the guilty):
quote:"Hello?" (confused male voice)"Um, can I--" "Who is this?!" "This is Mike. Who is this?" "Whom are you trying to reach?!" "Um, Stacey." "Well, I don't think Stacey wants to talk to you. Not after what you pulled." (Much muted/suffocated laughter among my students, including "Stacey.") "Oh, so she told you her side of it, huh?! Well, maybe I should tell you my side of it, then you'll know what kind of a girl she really is!!" O_O (rapid back-pedalling) "Look, I don't care what your side of it is! It sounds to me like you guys have some issues to work out between yourselves. I don't want to be in the middle of it." (I hang up)
I ran into "Stacey" in the hall the other day and asked if everything was okay there, or if I had done any damage. (I did not). She said when she told her boyfriend it was me, he said I had been "rude" to him, and she told him, "chill out--get over it. Nobody disses Mr. I!"
quote: if you get a Saturday detention because you got busted. No condemnation, no pity, just a "hey, them's the breaks, and you knew that it was possible when you made that decision."
Yes those are the breaks... I'm just used to not getting caught... It's more fun then...
Posts: 1094 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm always amused by the use of the phrase "Don't take this the wrong way", since it basically means "brace youself, you're about to be insulted".
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm with you Noemon... I might have just thought him careless and been a little irritated... but by saying "Don't take this the wrong way" I can be positive that he knew very well what he was implying and felt it to be true enough that it was worth saying...
Posts: 1094 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Ya know, Tom makes one hell of a damsel in distress...
But anyway, the phrase "now, don't take this the wrong way, but..." could also be translated as, "I know this has the potential to be offensive or seem unduly critical or even harsh if you choose to view it that way; however, I simply want to give you an honest answer and not launch a personal attack or offer grievous insult to you."
posted
Well, perhaps Tom will tell us how it was meant to be taken.
Until then, I suppose we can all forget about it. I mean, it's not like Tom and J T were going to go bowling this weekend.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Monkeys]](graemlins/monkeys.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Embarrassed]](redface.gif)
