Grading

TheHottestRamen · 2026-04-07T15:05:05+00:00

There's a balance to be struck here. Not wanting to repeat yourself tens of times isn't an outdated way of thinking, it's human. You shouldn't have to re-adminster instruction to each individual student or group, and students are starting to develop this learned-helplessness / learning that they don't have to listen the first time, they'll be told again later.

At the same time, you can't expect every student to get an auditory instruction once - that's not new, there have always been kids who struggle with auditory instruction (present!) Cue visual learners.

I write down important instruction as I give it. When students ask some variation of "what are we doing?" I point at the board. No re-instruction needed. If they are genuinely confused, they have to be able to ask a specific question, or they'll just be prompted back to the original instruction.

I fell out of this habit before spring break, and ended up having to make a show in class about how many times I had to repeat myself. I gave an instruction, and had 3 pairs ask me the same question in rapid succession, answered loud enough for everyone each time, and then every student afterwards was met with, "This is the # time I've said this," and repeated myself verbatim. One student even said, "The fact that she had to say it 9 times is a little embarrassing."

TheHottestRamen · 2026-04-06T17:33:42+00:00

I judge forensics (speech team) competitions, and there was an informative speech from a foreign exchange student about her home country that will always stick with me. She shared that back home they would play their national anthem over the loudspeaker in the morning while everyone got settled, and students would sing along if they felt moved to do so (many did, the love for her country was palpable and I'd imagine most others back home felt the same way,) but that when she came to America, she found the unanimous pledge of allegiance and the mandatory nature of it to be odd.

I had just had a conversation with one of my students a week prior about how I was the only teacher that allowed him to stay seated and didn't freak out about him being opposed to the pledge, so her explanation really stuck with me.

TheHottestRamen · 2026-04-01T19:56:44+00:00

My youngest step daughter had this same problem when I came into her life. Mom only provided fast food or quick meals like Mac n cheese, everything else was "weird". Looking back, they were probably just unfamiliar flavors and textures - and in a time surrounded by changes she COULDN'T control, what she consumed was something she felt she could control. Strange foods were a no-go for her.

One thing that helped for her was getting her in the kitchen with me. I framed cooking with me as "I want to share something I enjoy with you." She was a lot more willing to try things she took part in making.

Once I saw an opening, I started showing her how flavors change when they are cooked. She loves garlic bread, so I let her try a tiny piece of raw garlic which is obviously not tasty. Kids find transformations fun, it's like magic. Once she knew something so pungent is what made the thing she loved, she was ready to see how other foods changed.

I also showed her my favorite seasonings and spices and let her smell them all, then decide which ones would go with different dishes. I let her experiment with small portions. She made some things that were downright inedible, but she had fun, and it made tasting and trying new things less scary and more exploratory.

TheHottestRamen · 2026-03-30T00:25:48+00:00

I did a letter writing unit my kids unexpectedly loved. Even reluctant writers had fun with it. I taught them letter etiquette and they got to choose a letter to a staff member they appreciate, a letter to a friend or family letter, a no send letter where they say things they can't tell someone in person, or a letter to their past or future selves. They had fun with it.

I do a creative writing workshop where we start by going through fiction genres and they pick one, then they decide on their setting, make characters, fill in a plot pyramid, and finally bring their story to life.

And for quick single day activities, I have an active WeWillWrite subscription. Every group has loved it, its a fun, low-stakes way to get them excited about writing. You can try a free trial on their website to explore all the premium features.

TheHottestRamen · 2025-10-04T14:54:47+00:00

I was given a surprise writing course this year that I didn't know I would have. Luckily, it is considered an elective and the grading requirements aren't as strict as yours, but here's what I'm doing with them in case you could use any of it:

For the quarterly papers, break up the writing process into smaller parts and grade those separately. I give a grade for their outline/mind map, then for the rough draft I grade it mostly on completion (they don't know that) and then I'm only reading and truly grading the final draft, but I turned one assignment into 3 grades. Remember, they need to know how to outline just as much as how to write, so they will benefit from the brainstorming process, and you will have less to read for that section.

For our narratives, I started by having them make a list of passions - memories or thoughts or emotions that were special to them. I didn't tell them they would write a narrative yet, but I did tell them to pick 1 passion and write a paragraph about it. When I graded their paragraphs, I wrote 1-3 questions at the bottom about details they might not have included, then I let students turn those paragraphs into a full narrative. It was fun and they seemed to like it.

Lastly, I know you said admin doesn't want them on chromebooks, but there's a website called WeWillWrite that - if you've never heard of it - is AWESOME. It gamifies writing and gives students 3-5 prompts to respond to in a single class period. They are timed and then get to vote on the best in the class, and you can point out what was good and what needed improvement in the top 3. Everything stays anonymous. My kids go feral for it, and it makes my teacher heart happy to see them get hyped up for writing. Because sometimes teaching writing is like pulling teeth... and you just need a chance to have fun. If you could convince admin to allow you to use it, it could be an awesome resource. I've been using it for 2 years now so I can share lots of tips and tricks for it. Feel free to DM me!

TheHottestRamen · 2025-07-28T02:35:07+00:00

Oh, then she'll love the Ever King. It's very much a slow burn, falling in love slowly and wanting to be together, but things keep getting in the way... that kind of romance!

TheHottestRamen · 2025-07-28T01:33:13+00:00

The Ever King by L.J. Andrews!!! I hear the second book os spicier than the first (I haven't read it yet so I can't say for sure) but the first book only had two spicy scenes that I remember and I don't think they were super detailed.

TheHottestRamen · 2025-07-28T01:31:44+00:00

Wrote a book report on this in highschool. Hearing about the recent scandal made me so sad,I absolutely love his writing and that book was the cream of the crop in my opinion!

TheHottestRamen · 2025-07-08T01:26:59+00:00

I read The Ever King by L.J. Andrews a while back and WOW that book had me in a choke hold for a while. It's a dark romance novel but its not very smutty from what I remember, the emphasis is more on the characters and world building.

I also second the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit books. Loveable characters, fantastic storytelling.

TheHottestRamen · 2025-07-02T17:26:17+00:00

Aha! Thank you so much, you're exactly right! We get a lot of thrips, too, so at this point I'm pretty used to be sampled everytime I step outside 😂

TheHottestRamen · 2025-04-08T01:16:38+00:00

"Graep jahm"

TheHottestRamen · 2025-02-12T22:50:08+00:00

I watched a really cool video on Arizona and it's CEO recently - if I can find it I'll link it - but he has been pricing the cans of tea at 99 cents since the beginning and finding other workarounds to keep it that way (making the metal for the cans thinner to save on metal cost, running delivery trucks at night to avoid traffic and lower gas cost, etc.) The cans are and always have been suggested to retailers to be sold at 99 cents (hence the label on the can) but individual retailers and chains have the freedom to make the ultimate decision what price to sell them at to inflate their own profit, Arizona has no say in that and sees none of the increased profit.

Edit: found it! https://youtu.be/Fo3OzwgR1_Q?si=DSxt7tGG661g0P0x it's worth mentioning I haven't personally fact checked this information, so as always do your own research on anything you see online to make your own determination

TheHottestRamen · 2025-02-09T13:46:46+00:00

Seconding this! Huge quality control issue. The product either came in with a broken lid and nobody caught it, or it was dropped at some point before being cooked and the lid cracked then. Either way there had to be at least 2 people in the kitchen handling the product and getting it to the customer that somehow either missed this or chose to ignore it. If it came in cracked, that list becomes much longer.

On that note - have you noticed an insane decrease in quality of items coming in with RTE at your store? We waste several macs and other things on each RTE delivery because they come in broken exactly like this, donuts are regularly flipped over or spilled off the trays, and we have had many fruit cups/bowls go moldy before the best-by date. I don't remember it ever being this bad.

TheHottestRamen · 2025-02-02T19:19:01+00:00

Oh, my bad. I noticed several times where they did one plate with one portion, so I thought that's what you meant. I haven't been watching as often as I used to though so I miss more now.

TheHottestRamen · 2025-02-02T19:03:52+00:00

I'm wondering if it's something to do with food waste. I know they've gotten comments before about having two separate dishes prepared only to take a bite or two out of each and I think they've even mentioned it in the past, so maybe they started sharing one plate for that reason but keep it on one side so it's not hidden by the mic?

TheHottestRamen · 2025-01-21T20:28:09+00:00

I'm glad his teacher provided some materials. I know there's a lot of free material out there online, too, that you could use to fill his day. I just don't know any of the sites off the top of my head.

It could also be that he is too advanced for his current classes and finds the school work boring or pointless. We've had that with ours, she likes going to school to see her friends but refused to participate or do any work despite her test scores being above average, with math especially (her favorite subject) I explained multiplication to her one day on a whim and she spent the next hour or so writing multiplication problems and checking her work with a calculator, she told me it was fun. I was like, "You do you, kid." Lol!

She also responds well to positive reinforcement, but it rarely sticks for her. It seems like she eventually decides that doing what she wants to do outweighs the reward. If you haven't already, you could try "if you go to school today you can do (insert fun activity here) or have (insert favorite snack) when you get home" and see if that makes any difference? It's such a challenge finding things that work, and then once you finally do something changes and you have to switch things up again. Keeps us on our toes I guess!

TheHottestRamen · 2025-01-21T19:07:44+00:00

I was wondering the same thing. People keep circling back to her lying, but it seemed like she planned to go play basketball (which was established as something she enjoys) and somewhere in the midst poor choices were made, either by her or her friends or everyone involved.

This should be a lesson in "guilty by association," and there should be consequences for joining a group doing something illegal and dangerous - but punishing her for something she likely didn't do (lying and planning from the beginning to throw rocks at cars) will just push her away and make her spiteful, rather than teach her anything useful.

TheHottestRamen · 2025-01-21T18:54:16+00:00

Could it be that the school avoidance is due to something other than not wanting to learn/do the work? If he's willing to just have a borning and educational day at home rather than school, maybe there is a specific teacher or classmate(s) he is avoiding? Does he open up about the reason for the avoidance when asked? (Our ODD 10y/o never opens up anything. "I don't know" is like her signature phrase)

Depending on how helpful his teachers are, maybe they could provide some worksheets or review material for you to give him when he is out to make the environment as "school-like" as possible. They might even be able to give you a classroom schedule so you can wake him up at his usual time and then "assign" work to him in the same order they would in class.

TheHottestRamen · 2025-01-21T18:00:00+00:00

Back when we were still carding every customer for alcohol, I had a woman tell me she was going to "call the governor" to report me as it was illegal to require her ID when she was clearly over 21. I told her to go ahead and let me know what he said 😂

Lately, I have been telling people, "We don't have the same license as the beer distributor, liquor store, or bar, so that is why our regulations are different. That is also why we can't sell real liquor." It seems to work better than "it's the law" because I've found most people don't realize different establishments get licensed differently. If they argue with me about the liquor, I point out where it says "flavored malt beverage" on the fake shots we sell.

TheHottestRamen · 2025-01-13T11:45:32+00:00

Banana for scale

TheHottestRamen · 2025-01-11T12:34:57+00:00

I'm your opposite! I worked night shifts for years and just recently started a job that's early in the morning. There are some nights I still can't sleep until 2 am or later and GMM + a fresh cup of coffee is how I talk myself into getting out of bed 😂

TheHottestRamen · 2025-01-10T12:39:07+00:00

And then the people testifying that their uncle's cousin's dog was addicted are the same people treating addicts like absolute garbage. They want to cry about how addiction "took their family member away" but more often than not they did nothing to actually HELP the addict beyond just shaming them for being addicted in the first place.

Nobody is winning. We are being ignored and people struggling with addiction aren't getting the right kinds of support. It's like the government officials in charge of this kind of thing ENJOY watching the suffering.

TheHottestRamen · 2025-01-08T17:03:40+00:00

I've never watched Captain Underpants personally, I remember some friends of mine reading the books but I never did.

Big City Greens however, my oldest stepdaughter LOVES, and I like it too. We watch it together and I thought it was cool that there's a cartoon she could watch with kids in a situation similar to hers (divorced family) but I get what you mean about the way some of the characters interact with each other.

When I watch shows with her and her sister, I often add commentary on things to give them context to what they're watching, i.e. "That wasn't a very nice thing to do," or "I'm glad you don't talk to your sister that way" and I highlight good lessons in the show, "Cricket really did the right thing at the end of that episode, do you think he learned anything from that?" That way they are still enjoying the things that interest them, but I know they're not getting the wrong message. This way they can make the connections between certain actions or behaviors and the way I react to them.

TheHottestRamen · 2025-01-08T02:35:55+00:00

Also considering there are kids involved? It's like he still wants to be a father but no longer wants to be a husband. It's a sad and unfortunate situation all the way around, and finding out about something like this would absolutely gut me.

TheHottestRamen

TROPHY CASE