Burn!
It's been too long. I need to get back into the swing of things, so I should start doing short, funny posts again. LJ should be fun, not a chore.
To maintain some degree of order in my classroom, I've moved away from punishment to rewards for good behaviour. They start each class with 10 minutes towards a movie (they choose, although I veto inappropriate material). Any time wasted gets taken off of that 10 minutes for the day. When they build up enough time for a movie, they get a movie day. This works relatively well, with some small hiccups still.
Last week, they earned a movie, and voted for I Am Legend. I rented it and brought it in. When I returned the DVD, however, I got a phone call from the Movie Gallery, claiming there had been some "burn damage" to the disc.
Last night I phoned them back. By "burn damage", they mean the copy protection causing the player's laser to damage the coating. Now, I hadn't put the disc anywhere near a DVD burner - we just watched it - so I had no idea what could have caused it.
"What do I need to do," I asked.
"Well, actually I'm not sure," she replied. "You see, no one ever phones us back about burn damage reports, so I've never had to deal with this before."
Curse my overpowering sense of honesty!
"My manager is in Edmonton right now, but she gets back tomorrow. You could phone her then."
I'm getting the feeling that they'd prefer it if I ranted and yelled at them, which would be much easier to deal with. Polite concern seems to throw them off.
So I phoned back tonight, introduced myself, explained the situation, and asked to speak with the manager.
"I'm sorry, she's not here today. She's taken the day off."
I think she's hiding from me! They're so confused by this whole thing, they're afraid to talk to me. I can imagine her ducking behind the counter when I phone, whispering "It's that burn damage guy! Tell him I'm not in! Maybe he'll stop politely calling us!"
I like to believe that, anyway. I'll try again tomorrow.
To maintain some degree of order in my classroom, I've moved away from punishment to rewards for good behaviour. They start each class with 10 minutes towards a movie (they choose, although I veto inappropriate material). Any time wasted gets taken off of that 10 minutes for the day. When they build up enough time for a movie, they get a movie day. This works relatively well, with some small hiccups still.
Last week, they earned a movie, and voted for I Am Legend. I rented it and brought it in. When I returned the DVD, however, I got a phone call from the Movie Gallery, claiming there had been some "burn damage" to the disc.
Last night I phoned them back. By "burn damage", they mean the copy protection causing the player's laser to damage the coating. Now, I hadn't put the disc anywhere near a DVD burner - we just watched it - so I had no idea what could have caused it.
"What do I need to do," I asked.
"Well, actually I'm not sure," she replied. "You see, no one ever phones us back about burn damage reports, so I've never had to deal with this before."
Curse my overpowering sense of honesty!
"My manager is in Edmonton right now, but she gets back tomorrow. You could phone her then."
I'm getting the feeling that they'd prefer it if I ranted and yelled at them, which would be much easier to deal with. Polite concern seems to throw them off.
So I phoned back tonight, introduced myself, explained the situation, and asked to speak with the manager.
"I'm sorry, she's not here today. She's taken the day off."
I think she's hiding from me! They're so confused by this whole thing, they're afraid to talk to me. I can imagine her ducking behind the counter when I phone, whispering "It's that burn damage guy! Tell him I'm not in! Maybe he'll stop politely calling us!"
I like to believe that, anyway. I'll try again tomorrow.