The Cassette Tape Confusion

I substituted again at school this afternoon.  I got to experience more of the children's day, including nap time and some of the intricacies of the various dismissals by age group and family need.  It's nice to see some of the same children again too; they remember me and they come to me and ask for help or talk to me and ask me questions.  I learned more of the routine, something I'll need to know soon because I'm substituting for one of the teachers when her granddaughter is born in a few weeks.

I had a technology flash-back this afternoon.  One of the students remembered there were books that had an audio recording of the book being read to accompany it.  This student isn't at the age he can read, but he can follow along to someone reading the story.  He got out a small cassette player, headphones and selected a book.

The other teacher helped him get the recording started and asked me if I could help him to put up the work when the book was over.  When the book was done, I helped him eject the audio cassette and then he tried to put it back into the cassette holder, only he had no idea how it worked.  He didn't know how to open it.  Once he got it open, he didn't know which half the cassette went into and then when I showed him that, he put it in upside down. 

It was then that I realized how old the books and tapes must be.   We've been using CDs for so long now, I can't remember when I last used an audio cassette.  But it still worked and he liked the story.  We don't need the latest technology to be a good teaching tool.

The Big Boy Update:  He isn't very friendly in some situations.  He's that kid that adults say, "hi" to that gives the frowny face back and doesn't respond, or responds in the negative if he does.  I'm not sure how to work on this; it seems to be a genuine reaction of how he feels, but socially, it's not considered polite to respond, "I don't want to play with you" when your neighbor says, "let's play together tomorrow." 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "Close it."  When she wants to be alone on the potty, she will either get off it and shut the door herself or she'll tell you to close it so she can have some private time.

Fitness Update:  Eleven miles, which may be my longest run before the marathon.  I had a twelve-mile maximum run scheduled for this week but we ran out of time and eleven was still a good workout.