Learn To Read Then Read To Learn

The Sunday edition of the Indianapolis Star had a nice article entitled Our Children Our City that mentioned a volunteer program called ReadUp.  There was a picture of a ReadUp volunteer reading together with a scholar that brought a smile to my face as I started my second career as a volunteer.  The ReadUp program is seeking volunteers to spend one hour a week reading with third and fourth grade scholars.  The article stated that so far seventeen people have come forward as volunteers but more than two hundred scholars are waiting for someone to read with them.  As you can see the need for volunteers in our schools is great but what gives me cause for concern is that some of the grade levels being supported by ReadUp are third and fourth grade.

At the end of the last school year I did some teacher biography data entry into out school's website.  While doing this one of the teachers put in her bio the following statement, first you learn to read and then you read to learn.  The learn to read process runs from kindergarten through the second grade.  The read to learn process begins in the third grade and goes forward for life.  Knowing this I find it a bit disappointing that ReadUp is reading to third and fourth grade scholars when in fact these scholars should not be learning to read but reading to learn.  Sadly I know why ReadUp is working with third and fourth grade scholars.  In the state of Indiana every third grade scholar must take and pass an IRead3 test.  In theory if the scholar fails the test she/he is supposed to repeat the third grade.  Well, for the majority of third graders that fail to pass the test that does not happen.  A conservative estimate of the number of third graders that fail IRead3 at my school is thirty percent.  With approximately twenty five third grade scholars in each of the three third grades you're talking at about twenty two scholars who should be repeating third grade.  Sorry, but that is enough scholars to require the school to start another classroom and hire an additional teacher and that is not going to happen.

I checked with my part time consultant and part time editor and full time spouse to see how long the IRead3 testing process has been in place.  She thinks it's been four or five years.  If you do the math that means that somewhere between eighty and one hundred scholars are in my school right now that are not reading at grade level.  I'm not an education expert but with the high number of scholars in my school not reading at grade level something is broken.  So what's broke?  I'll start with IRead3.  This testing process has clearly identified scholars who do not have the ability to read but at the cost of a few million dollars a year.  If the state of Indiana wants to spend millions of dollars to identify scholars that haven't learned how to read and then ignores the results and promotes the scholars to the next grade level something is seriously wrong.  It's my opinion that it is time to abandon IRead3 and find a better use for the millions of dollars that is wasted on this program every year.

Here is the other part of the reading process that I believe is broken.  Just a short distance down the hallway from my classroom are the three second grades.  On average each classroom has twenty five scholars with a teacher who gets no support from an instructional assistant or even a volunteer.  That's twenty five scholars and one teacher and this is the last grade level where you learn to read so you can begin reading to learn. Given the failure rate of third grade scholars who take the IRead3 test something is wrong with what goes on in the second grade.  I'm going to say it right now and say it strongly, don't even think about blaming the teachers.  I know all three of the second grade teachers very well and we do not have a teacher problem.  In fact, four years ago when I was a volunteer the first classroom I stepped into was with one of these teachers. As I do today, I had a nice view from the back of the room and I recognized immediately that there were too many scholars in this classroom.  So what's broke?  A teacher can't spend the required time to teach each scholar how to read with twenty five scholars crammed into the classroom.  Testing history shows that at some point thirty percent of these scholars will fall behind in their reading ability and the teacher simply can't divide herself/himself into enough parts to help twenty five scholars that are at different reading levels.

So what is the fix?  IRead3 results plus results from the state mandated ISTEP testing in reading and math clearly indicate that a class size of twenty five or more is not working.  Knowing this the first thing to do is downsize the classroom especially in the kindergarten through second grade classrooms.  What is the ideal amount of scholars in these early grade levels, I'm thinking twelve.  It would be much easier for a teacher to manage and as soon as a scholar gives indications that she/he is struggling the teacher can focus a lot more attention on that scholar. Will the class sizes in kindergarten through second grade be downsized any time soon?  No!  Why not?  Money!  The sad situation is that there is money but that would require risk takers to say enough with the millions of dollars spent on IRead3 and enough with the tens of millions of dollars spent on ISTEP testing.  It will take a risk taker to step up and redirect that money so that class sizes in kindergarten through second grade can be cut in half which would give a teacher a real opportunity to put all these young scholars on an immediate track toward a successful education.

I've been living in Indianapolis for over thirty years and during all that time education has been at the forefront.  It's time for a change.  It's time for a risk taker to step up and take education by the horns and move it in a new direction and here is the proof that what is happening now is failing.  A frequent visitor to the editorial page of the Indianapolis Star wrote an article entitled: Give yourself the gift of learning.  The author is a Abdul-Hakim Shabazz.  In his editorial piece he makes reference to the 7,300 jobs that go unfilled here in the immediate Indianapolis area.  These are jobs that pay from $14 to $16 per hour but are not filled.  Why?  There are not enough candidates coming out of our schools with the required skills to fill these jobs.

First you learn to read and then you read to learn.  Unfortunately thirty percent of the scholars in the first you learn to read part of the previous sentence have not learned to read.  We can't continue going down that path.  It's time for a change.  It's time for that risk taker to step up.  Hopefully I will not have to wait another thirty years before that change happens. Yikes!  That means I'll be ninety five.

Counting Down Until Winter Break

I missed my first day of school this past week.  I was doing my best all year to get to the classroom because if I didn't Gnu would receive little help and that is not good.  Whatever ailed me started on Sunday afternoon as I slept all afternoon and then went to bed early.  Come Monday morning I new immediately I wasn't going to make it.  I sent a text to Gnu about being ill and missing the day.  Her response was quick, "Oh no!"  As I sit here thinking about her response I wonder if the "oh no" was sent as a sympathy comment about being sick or an "oh no" as I'm stuck in this chaotic classroom by myself.  I suspect it was a little of both.

I felt a little better on Tuesday and went to school.  As I was preparing the attendance form for Tuesday I asked Gnu about Monday's attendance.  She responded The Collector is still suspended, Uh-Uh-Uh had a temperature of 103 degrees and was sent home early but everyone else was her.  She then told me River was suspended for three days.  Why?  He tried to stab me with some scissors.  Are you serious?  Yes, it happened in art class.  The scholars were working on an art project that required cutting.  River took a pair of scissors from a tray of scissors in the classroom and was using them.  When the art teacher reminded the scholars to return their scissors to scissor tray at the end of the class River didn't return his.  Gnu reminded him to return the scissors and he responded, no these are mine.  Gnu said no they are not yours because you just took them from the scissor tray a few minutes ago.  River, now getting agitated, no these are mine.  Gnu moves to take the scissors and he tries to stab her.  Fortunately she got a hold of his scissor hand and eventually removed them.  A short time later River's parental unit arrives at school to pick him up.  This parental unit arrives without a belt, pants unbuttoned at the waist and zipper all the way down and removes his scholar from the building.  As a reminder, the names are fictitious but the events are real.

Health wise I wasn't feeling my best on Tuesday or Wednesday but after what happened on Monday I wasn't going to miss another day.  Tuesday was an uneventful day but Wednesday was pretty rough.  IvyL was leading our daily group session that is designed to improve the social skills of our scholars and things were not going well.  Normally during group I hang out in the back of the room as there are usually two or three adults in the front of the room.  Today Oreo was elsewhere and Gnu was in a special education conference so I moved to the front of the room.  The scholars were instructed to draw a shield and then write some goals for themselves for the year 2015 on the shield.  It sounds simple enough except colored markers are needed and the squabbling over who got what colored maker was getting very animated.  IvyL decided to shut down the animation by collecting all the makers and said to the scholars when you can sit quietly we'll start again.  With everyone quiet IvyL says to MiniJ pick a marker.  MiniJ picked blue and that is all it took. NoFouls erupted over the color of a marker that he wanted.  Note, there were two blue markers but he had to have that one.  The first desk that got flipped over was Yo!'s, followed by his own, then River's and finally Uh-Uh-Uh's.  I was sitting near Uh-Uh-Uh's and turned to keep an eye on him.  So far no one was at risked of injury so IvyL and I just let him vent his anger.  After he flipped over Uh-Uh-Uh's desk he started sliding it toward me.  He then picked it up off the ground about a foot and a half and tossed it directly at me. I made it known to him in no uncertain terms that you don't pick up a desk and toss it at either an adult or a student.  He was then quickly guided to the timeout room as he was about to break an anger rule, don't hurt others and don't hurt yourself.    

Within a few minutes of this eruption Gnu returned to the room and an explanation was given to her as to what happened.  The group session was over so everyone was told to return to their desk and sit quietly as it was almost time to go home.  Prior to going home each day Gnu fills out the scholars behavior sheet.  The color choices are blue, green, yellow, orange and red.  Blue is on the good end of the spectrum and red is on the bad end.  When NoFouls saw his red designation he erupts again.  This time he heads to his cubby to get his jacket and backpack and is storming out the door with MiniJ directly behind him.  They both are heading for the bus but it's not time to go to the bus.  I'm following them with Gnu following me.  When we get to the gym she redirects them back to the classroom as they are interrupting a class that is using the gym.  On the way back to the classroom I stop to use the restroom.  When I do get to the classroom Oreo is standing at the door.  She tells me that Gnu is restraining NoFouls as he shouted at her to "shut up you stupid bitch" and then charged directly at her.  Gnu asks me to help restrain him as he is doing his best to kick her.  I assist as Oreo is calling for additional help.  Duck arrives as she is the acting Big B today.  Her first directive is to hold the bus until we can get NoFouls settled down.  When she is off the phone I call her for assistance as NoFouls is doing his best to ram the back of his head into Gnu's face.  In about ten minutes it's over and NoFouls is heading to the bus as if nothing happened.  He is also suspended for the next school day.

Despite another challenging week Gnu continues to do her best at improving the lives of these troubled scholars.  During the first part of the week she brought in gingerbread house kits for them to decorate.  Later in the week we took time to watch a Christmas themed movie and everyone one go to participate in various other fun activities. In the afternoon of the last day of school we had a little party.  There was cake and cookies and Gnu purchased a new toy plastic building set that they can use when they earn their choice time for good behavior. The new building set was a huge hit and it was fun to watch them assemble it without getting into arguments.  Over the past few weeks Gnu has been taking pictures of the scholars.  At times the picture was of an individual scholar.  At other times the picture was of a couple scholars working together on a project. As the scholars were preparing to go home for the winter break I found out why she was taking the pictures.  When behavior folders were handed out so were the pictures that were framed.  The scholars were told that they could give the picture to their parental unit as a Christmas gift.  The looks on their faces when they saw their picture was priceless.  The first year teacher that I'm working with is also priceless.

For seventeen consecutive days I do not have to enter the classroom.  Can I have an amen?

One final comment.  I was disappointed about a week ago when the page view statistics for my blog indicated that a long time follower from the Ukraine stopped viewing.  Do I know anyone in the Ukraine? No, but this individual has been viewing my blog for quite some time so her/his disappearance was a little disappointing.  However, when I logged in today she/he was back.  That put a smile on my face.  

Introducing River

My daughter mentioned that I need to use pictures so the blog will have some color.  Ok!  This picture was taken at 8:30am before the scholars arrived.  I can assure you the classroom will never look like this again until I leave to go home at 4:00pm.

As a reminder Gnu received an email message about the arrival of River to our classroom in the middle of last week.  The email instructed Gnu to set up a case conference with River's parental unit(s) so decisions can be made about River's future at our school.  Despite given very little time to get this accomplished Gnu set the conference up and got confirmation from all parties that they would be in attendance.  Does anyone care to venture a guess as to how the conference went?  Please keep in mind that all parties confirmed that they will attend the conference.  Ok, who should I start with as more than one person who confirmed her/his attendance didn't show up.  Dear parental unit(s) a case conference that will determine the educational future of your scholar is taking place so where are you?  That's correct, a no call, no show, just blow off the meeting.  Dear overhead person you committed to attend a conference that you insisted had to take place in a very short period of time and you cancel due to a schedule conflict.  You said you will attend and then say maybe you can participate via a conference call.  Brilliant!  The two most important participants attending this conference don't show up.  The problem is that the conference can't be delayed as the scholar needs to be placed in either a general education or special education classroom quickly or the school corporation is in violation of a state law.  How did the conference end?  River was transferred from a general education classroom to a classroom for scholars with emotional disabilities.  For the foreseeable future River is now labeled SpecEd. A pretty sad situation but there is more or as Paul Harvey would say here is "the rest of the story."  I wonder if I should explain that?  Naw!  You can use your device.

Day one and I have to turn in our attendance report but there is no River.  Shortly after morning announcements River's current teacher walks down to tell us he is in her classroom and she will send him down when he finishes his breakfast.  Twenty minutes or so later the teacher returns.  I'm sorry but River just vomited in my classroom so he is in the first aid room.  Approximately seventy five minutes later River makes his appearance.  Gnu welcomes him to the classroom, shows him where his cubby (locker) is located and directs him to his desk.  The plan was to have our scholars introduce themselves but that plan is put on hold. Gnu speaking, "River what is that on your shirt?"  Puke!

Still on day one.  It's the end of the day and the scholars have gone home.  Gnu walks up to me and says "I can't understand a word he is saying."  I know and not only am I having a hard time understanding him he's a low talker.  Gnu speaking again.  "When I tried to explain to him he had to do a worksheet I'm not sure if he understood a word I said."

Two items standout at the end of day one.  First, no parental unit(s) showed up on his first day of school in a special education classroom.  Apparently River's parental unit(s) had other plans.  Second, academically I'd say he hasn't advanced passed first grade.  So you know, River is in the second grade.

Day two.  He arrived wearing  a hooded sweatshirt that was probably to big for me.  He was wearing a well worn Joseph Addai (former Colt player) shirt and a pair of workout pants that were are least six inches to long and badly torn at the bottom of the legs.  Keep in mind we have a school uniform policy.

Day three.  He arrived wearing most of the correct school uniform but he had an odor.  After lunch Gnu has the scholars standing outside the cafeteria waiting for me to take them to recess.  Just as I arrive River starts vomiting in the hallway,  Gnu is grossed out and turns away.  I stand a safe distance away and watch chocolate milk exit his body.  So you know, Gnu does not do well with vomit, odors or bugs.  We also find out later in the day he isn't wearing socks or underwear.  Gnu purchases sock, underwear, tooth brush and tooth paste in the evening after school.

Day four.  Gnu takes him to our first aid area to take a shower.  She then hands him the tooth brush and tooth paste.  He takes the tooth brush and tucks it under his arm and then tries to put the tooth paste on the tooth brush.  Gnu takes the tooth brush and puts the tooth paste on it for him.  There are indications that this may be the first time he has brushed his teeth.  Later in the day EM says to Gnu that River took a rubber band from him that he was using to roll up a completed art project to take home.  River insists that it is his.  I check EM's cubby as I was the one that put the rubber band on the art project and it is gone.  Gnu takes the rubber band from him and he drops on the floor and just starts screaming.

Day five.  We are in PE for the first time with River in attendance.  The PE teacher gives the instructions then breaks the scholars into groups of four.  Today's PE activity is very popular with the scholars.  There are stations set up so you can jump rope, hula hoop, play tag, and stack cups.  Each group of four is assigned a starting station and then the whistle blows.  After two minutes the whistle blows again and you stop what you are doing and rotate to the next station.  I'm watching River closely as I know this is his first day in PE. When his group ran to their first station he ran with them but in a most awkward way.  As I watched him running I'm thinking has he ever ran before.  When he arrived at the first station, jumping rope, he stood at the station and did nothing.  He just had this look on his face that said what is going on.

At the initial case conference on where to place River one person made the decision.  He will be placed in the room for scholars with emotional disabilities and not a life skills classroom.  Sorry, but in my opinion that was the wrong decision.

Here is an abridged version of my week.

1. River arrives.
2. The Collector is removed by the School Corporation police and is suspended for five days.  Why?  He bit a teacher multiple times.
3. NoFouls is suspended for two days.  Why?  Fighting to include putting another scholar in an aggressive choke hold.
4. MiniJ is suspended for one day and this happened before he even stepped into the building.  Why? School bus incident.  
5. Em was required to take a language arts acquity test on a laptop.  He can't read.
6. Yo! was required to take a language arts acquity test on a laptop.  "This is too hard" and he clicked on any answer just to get done.
7. Wide was required to take a science acquity test.  He got very active and refused to take the test.  He eventually took the test but just click on answers without reading the text.

Politicians and pointed headed intellectuals are the driving force behind these acquity tests and the ISTEP test.  These same individuals also use the results of these tests to determine how well a school is performing and if a teacher should be retained. And these politicians and pointed headed intellectuals wonder why so few people choose to enter the teaching profession.

Despite the challenges of the week Gnu put together a very nice reading/social studies lesson on how Christmas was celebrated around the world.  The countries were Australia, Israel, Italy, Germany, and Mexico.  She discussed one country a day and the scholars enjoy learning about the different ways Christmas is celebrated.

By the way, I got to read "The Polar Express".  I'm pretty sure I mentioned previously that I like to read.  I'm out.

 

It Brought Tears To My Eyes

Crap!  Gnu met the parental unit of our new scholar today.  This is not the scholar we were anticipating but very shortly our count will go up to nine.  That means by the first of the year our tenth scholar will arrive. Although I have not personally met our new scholar I've decided on a name.  I'm going to call him River. Below is an updated scorecard.

The Scholars                                                The Staff

The Collector - 4th grade                               Gnu - teacher
Yo! - 4th grade                                              IvyL - behavior therapist
Wide - 4th grade                                            Oreo - behavior specialist
EM - 3rd grade                                              Duck - inclusion teacher
Uh-Uh-Uh - 2nd grade                                   Big B - principal
MiniJ - 2nd grade
NoFouls - 2nd grade                                      Staff Emeritus
River - 2nd grade                                            BaseG - teacher
Grr! - 1st grade                                               FillyFill - teacher
                                                                       PhD*Sparty - behavior therapist

Gnu called all of our current scholars up to the front of the classroom to discuss River's arrival.  When she finished talking she asked if anyone had any questions.  The first question was, what is he like?  Gnu's response was he is shy and slow.  The next question came from Uh-Uh-Uh, does he have problems controlling his anger?  Gnu's response he hasn't shown any signs of getting angry yet, he's just slow.  That response piqued my interest and I'm thinking to myself if he doesn't have any anger control issues why is he being placed in a classroom for scholars with emotional disabilities?  We will have ten scholars in our classroom soon and I'm frustrated.  Am I so frustrated that it brought tears to my eyes?  Nope!

Gnu was informed by email that River was about to arrive.  That sounds simple enough except that the email also said she was required to contact River's parental unit and schedule a case conference and this conference needed to take place by the end of school on Friday.  So you know Gnu was given three days to set his conference up.  When she mentioned this email message to me her frustration level was rising quickly. "How am I supposed to get all of this done with such short notice?"  "I'm not even sure what to do to coordinate this conference as I've never done this before."  "And I'm told that if I don't get this done on time it will be recorded as a negative on my evaluation."  I'm going to do my best to avoid profanity as it is now my turn to speak.  "Why is a first year teacher put into such a challenging job with no support from our school corporation?"  "Why is a first year teacher who is frustrated and sends out emails asking questions have to wait multiple days to get a response and it some instances never get a response?"  "Why did overhead personnel make a commitment to take a first year teacher to another school to observe and question a veteran special education teacher who is successful and fail to follow up?"  "Why was a first year teacher told the number of scholars in her room will be capped at five and then keep adding scholars to the room?"  This is soooooooo frustrating but is it enough to bring tears to my eyes?  Negativa!  But I am a little pissed. Opps!  I wasn't supposed to use a word like that.

He continues to get lost in the shuffle and is falling farther behind.  Who am I talking about?  EM, a third grade scholar who is stuck in no man's land.  I've wrote about him in the past but as a reminder he is well behind academically and should be in a general education classroom and not a special education classroom. The problem is that he is so far behind academically that he would be totally lost in a regular third grade.  So rather than get him the help and attention that is required to get him caught up academically they decide to place him in a special education classroom because of the smaller class size.  Dear overhead personnel, are you serious?  How can Gnu and I spend the required amount of time needed to help EM?  We presently have eight scholars in the room.  They range in grades is first through fourth grade but academically the range is kindergarten through fourth grade.  That's five grade levels and two people.  When we do academics the scholars are divided into two groups of four.  When I have EM he always sits to my immediate right as he will need the most help.  The problem is I can't spend the appropriate time helping him because three others need help.  When EM doesn't understand something and is told to wait for help he gets upset.  He'll walk away from the table and go into the timeout room, walk away and crawl under Gnu's desk, walk away and leave the classroom all because I can't divide myself into fourths.  Why does he walk away?  Because he is starting to understand that everyone in the classroom does better at academics than him and he so badly wants to get better.  It's so frustrating for me because some overhead person decided to leave him in a smaller sized special education classroom so he can get the required help and he is not getting it.  Is this enough to bring tears to my eyes?  Nyet!

I first met CorP when he was in the third grade in a classroom with only three other scholars.  For those of you who are new to the blog CorP spent two years (third and fourth grade) in my classroom and he is now in the fifth grade.  When I first met CorP he was a very poor reader and he knew it.  Getting him to read out loud was a challenge and if he actually read out loud it didn't last long and it was not uncommon for him to get angry and throw his book across the room.  Two teachers in particular took an interest in Corp with a determination to get him to read.  One you've met as it was BaseG my teaching partner from last year.  The other I'll call FillyFill who was a permanent substitute teacher at our school.  Both of these gentlemen were determined to get Corp to read and just as important improve academically in math.  While CorP's academics were improving so was the work of PhD*Sparty who was tasked with improving CorP's social skills and anger management skills.  These three individuals worked for two school years with CorP and I'm real excited to make this announcement.  About three weeks ago CorP was transitioned from a special education classroom for scholars with emotional disabilities into a general education classroom.  Is this news what brought the tears to my eyes.  Not quite yet.  With the news of CorPs transition I sat at my desk and took out my cell phone.  I addressed the text message to three people; FillyFill, BaseG and PhD*Sparty.  As I started texting this wonderful news the tears started.  I had to stop twice as I couldn't see clearly the screen on my cell phone to finish the text.  Within just a few minutes my cell phone started vibrating.  First it was FillyFill.  Then I heard from BaseG.  Lastly, I heard from PhD*Sparty.  I can tell you right now I was not the only one with tears in my eyes.  Who else shed a few tears?  I'll keep that private.

This blog is longer than I wanted it to be but I've worked with fifteen or sixteen different scholars in this job and never has one of them transitioned to a general education classroom until now.  Corp was a first for me and hopefully there will be many more.  Thanks for your continued reading about things that I see from my view at the back of the room.  I'm out.

They Looked Like A Pretzel

On the top right side of my screen there is a series of icons. For over eight months I've basically ignored them until today.  The icon shaped like a bell was lite up and had the number one in a red circle.  What is that I'm thinking?  So I click on the icon and it says I have one notification.  Ok, what am I being notified about? I'm curious so I open the notification and it says you (and I'm assuming my blog) have been invited to the senders circle.  I think about what happened and decide it's a good thing as maybe more people will read the blog. Then it hits me right between the eyes as I think of something the sender once told me quite a while back. So you know, the sender has been attending my Monday evening cycling class for quite some time and is a real good friend.  The sender is also a member of the English Department at one of the universities here in Indianapolis.  In fact he teaches English.  Some time ago the sender told a story about grading freshman essays.  In his frustration with the quality of work he received from university students he decided that students that wrote extremely poor papers would receive the appropriate letter grade and attached to their paper was an application to apply for work at McDonald's as they will not make it as a writer.  Great! Now he and his circle are reading a blog that I know has grammatical errors.  Dear Professor I Do No Sweat, if you bring in an application for McDonald's to the cycling class and hand it to me the resistance on that cycling bike will be going up incrementally for entire forty five minute cycling class.

Grrr! has arrived for his first day in our classroom.  I mentioned this to my wife and she gave me this look of disappointment.  I asked her about the look and she said the following.  "Do you know what this means?"  "When he steps into your classroom he will now have a label and this label will stick with him throughout his schooling."  "This young first grade scholar has been labeled as special education and that is so sad to think about."  "Image how his parental unit feels now that she made the decision to put her scholar into a special education classroom."  Her comments really hit home.  It makes me want to push even harder to reach the objective we have for everyone of our scholars.  That objective, as I mentioned in my last post, is to get the scholar to the point where she/he can reenter the general education population.  The challenge to do this will be great.  We now have eight scholars with emotional disabilities that require a great deal of individual attention.  Can we give them the attention they need with eight scholars in the room?  NO!  Can we give them the attention they need with seven or six scholars in the room?  NO!  Can we give them the attention they need with five or less scholars in the room?  Probably!  Do you think the powers that be in the high levels of my school corporation will reduce the number of scholars in my room anytime soon?  NO!  The fact is scholar number nine is on the horizon.

Back to Grrr!'s first day.  He was the first to arrive and was assigned a desk and he sat down.  Wide was the next to arrive.  He made it into the classroom but stayed only a short period and then ran out into the hallway.  Gnu followed him but returned without him.  When I inquired as to his location she said he is outside standing on the top of his parental unit's car and is refusing to get down.  About fifteen minutes later Wide arrives.  He is being carried by his parental unit with assistance from Oreo into the classroom.  When they have him in the room he is placed standing on the floor and his mother backs out of the room as Oreo blocks the door.  Wide is now aggressively trying to get to the door.  I move towards the door to relieve Oreo and go into my blocking mode.  After multiple attempts to get past me I look at Oreo and say we can't do this all day and I nod my head toward the timeout room.  She has the door open and I'm moving Wide in that direction.  He is now wild.  When I get him to the far side of the timeout room I try and back my way out.  No deal as he charges at me and his anger is escalating.  I move him back and try again.  I'm not quick enough to get to the door and close it as he continually charges at me.  Again, I move him to back of the room.  This time he charges with his fists up high.  I grab him by the forearms to prevent him from hitting me. As I hold him he sinks his teeth into my arm right by the wrist.  I immediately release his one arm to avoid a serious bite.  As I release his hand he grabs my glasses and twists them into the shape of a pretzel.  I tell him to give me my glasses and he does.  I then pick up one of he lense that is on the floor and walk out of the room.  I'm not a happy camper as my visibility is limited and my glasses have been destroyed so I leave the classroom.  The Big B is nearby and I show her my glasses.  Her immediately comment, "who did this."  I explain and tell her I need to leave so I can get them repaired.  As I grab my coat to leave Wide is in the timeout room and is seriously banging his head on the glass window.  Gnu, Oreo, The Big B and Wide's parental unit are in the room when I leave.  I'm about thirty feet down the hallway when Wide's parental unit calls to me so I stop.  "Mr. Schultz I will do everything I can to scrap up the money to pay for your glasses."  I tell her that is not necessary as things like this happen in our classroom.  She insists she will pay me.  Again, I say it is not necessary and tell her to go back and be with her son.

I caught a break on the glass as the lenses were not damaged.  The optical shop had the exact frame in the store and popped the lenses into the new frame and I was on my way back to school.  When I returned to the classroom Wide was gone.  He was sent home for the day.  I then checked with the Big B about getting reimbursed for the cost of the frames.  Her response was "I'll see what I can do."  That was not exactly what I wanted to hear.  What I wanted to hear was yes the school corporation will reimburse you for the $144.00 frames.  About thirty minutes later our classroom phone rings and it is the front office and I need to go to the office.  When I arrived there is a school security officer waiting for me.  In order to start the potential reimbursement process I need to file a police report.  Great!  I have to file a police report against a fourth grade scholar with an emotional disability who when he actually calms done won't even remember what happened.  I file the police report and show the officer a copy of my receipt.  He photographs it and then gives me a tracking code to follow as my case is reviewed.

As of this post I'm still waiting to hear if I'm going to be reimbursed. I'll yet you know how it ends.

The Staff At My School - An Amazing Group Of People

It's Friday and the last day of school before Thanksgiving break.  There is an all school assembly in the gym at 2:00pm and our scholars are going.  Gnu, IvyL, and Oreo are escorting them to the assembly.  After making butter, eating cornbread and pumpkin pie in the classroom I decide to stay in the room to clean up and put the room back in order.  Our classroom is on the opposite side of the school from the gym so when I hear a real loud roar from the gym I'm wondering what is going on.  Twice more I hear this roar and can't imagine what is getting several hundred scholars so excited.  MiniJ is the first to arrive back in the room which is fairly typical as he is totally incapable of walking without someone holding his hand.  "Mr. S, the principal got hit in the face with a pie".  Within in a matter of a few seconds the other scholars come in the room and they are all wound up.  "Mr. S, Mr. S, the principal got hit in the face with a pie."  I don't know what the Big B's message was to the students but I have to believe that in the one hundred plus year history of our school there was never a louder roar from our gym.  The Big B is an amazing leader.  No, not because she was hit in the face with a pie but because when she first arrived we were an F school and after two years of her leadership we are a B school.  Will we rise to the level of an A school?  It's just a matter of time.

I met the two sixth grade teachers about four years ago when I was a volunteer.  You should have a little familiarity with them as they have the Poet Tree outside their room.  If you need to refresh your memory read the post titled Ladies It's A Dead Stick.  A few weeks ago these two teachers organized a Veterans Day program for our school.  The opening involved the ROTC carrying in the colors and placing them in a stand at the front of the gym.  Their precision in doing this was amazing to watch.  There were guest speakers that were veterans.  One of the gentlemen that spoke spent twenty four years serving our country.  He arrived in his full dress uniform.  My experience in the military told me that the ribbons on this gentleman's uniform indicated that he risked his life a number of times defending our freedoms.  The students played a role speaking, singing and playing musical instruments.  Another ROTC group completed a very precise drill using their weapons that was truly impressive.  To honor all of the fallen veterans a member of our school staff played taps.  His trumpet permeated the gym and the entire student body plus guests were dead silent.  The program these two teachers put together after school was out for the day made me proud to be a veteran and a colleague of theirs.

We have a school running club.  As a reminder this is a PreK through 6th grade school centered in a low social economic neighborhood.  We don't have a track surrounded by elaborate athletic fields.  When the scholars were training for the 5K (3.1 mile) run they run the school hallways and when weather permitted they run laps around the school building.  Not one scholar was wearing high tech running clothes or shoes, they run in what they wore to school.  Through the concerted effort of teachers this running club of forty four scholars trained and then participated in the 5K portion of the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon.  On the day of the race the running conditions were poor.  It was cloudy and cold, not ideal conditions for any age group runner.  Forty one of the fourth four runners showed up for the race.  Forty one runners finished the race.  Forty one runners came into school the next Monday with their participants medal hanging around their neck.  Forty one runners had huge smiles on their face when they were asked to show someone their medal. By the way, I don't think any of the teachers are avid runs but day after day they spent their free time after school working with our scholars so they could participate in this running event.

I was going to stop with the runners club comment but decided to add one more.  Hopefully this isn't too lengthy.

The school Parent Involvement Liaison in conjunction with our school Social Worker decided to start a food pantry with the Thanksgiving holiday approaching.   Emails were sent to the entire staff and flyers were sent home with each of the school's scholars seeking donations.  The donation request was for either food or if a parental units finances allowed, cash.  The food pantry was set up in a vacant classroom right next to where I have my view from the back of the room so I watched daily to see what donations arrived.  Slowly, the food pantry inventory grew.  Daily I watched scholars arrive at school with one or two food items.  Weekly I watched teachers bring in significant amounts of food.  A church that a staff member worships at supported the pantry.  About a week before Thanksgiving arrived our Parent Involvement Liaison was in the food pantry so I walked into the room.  "Isn't this just absolutely wonderful," she said to me.  I agreed as I looked around at all the food donations that came from school families that are predominately from a low social economic background.  The morning after the food was donated I looked into our school's makeshift food pantry.  The food was gone and the room sat empty.  The huge commitment of time put in by our Parent Involvement Liaison and our school Social Worker turned into a real positive for many of our school families.

On Monday, December 1st, school will be back in session and the next challenge will face our Parent Involvement Liaison and school Social Worker, Christmas.  It will be interesting to see if they take on such a huge task again with so little time.  If they do I'll be there again to provide as much assistance as I can.  I you are interested in..........

It's Thanksgiving evening.  The meal has been consumed, dishes cleaned and now Christmas decorations are being removed from storage.  My wife and I have a lot to be thankful for; good health, employment, a wonder family and so many life long friends.  I also would like to thank the people who have continued to read my blog.  The fact that so many people continue to read it is absolutely amazing.  In a few minutes I'll hit the publish button for the seventy fourth time in the past eight months.  I'll say it again, thanks everyone for reading my blog.          

Dear Parental Unit What The Hell Were You Thinking #3

I haven't done one of these in quite a while so here we go.  Keep in mind I don't make this stuff up.

1. Dear parental unit your scholar came to school today and he was real excited and wanted to ask me a question.  When I spoke to him he asked me if I knew what a machete was.  I said yes.  He then proceeded to tell me that he had a real full sized machete and was out chopping up pumpkins with it.  Dear parental unit are you even aware that your scholar, who has anger control issues, is playing with a full sized machete?
2. Dear parental unit are you aware that your scholar arrived at school today with two extra large Hersey chocolate candy bars.  As he entered the room he had already consumed half of one of them.  Dear parental unit should I take the candy away from he or just continue to let him eat the breakfast you prepared for him.
3. Dear parental unit your scholar arrived at school today with a stuffed frog that measured approximately twelve inches wide and eighteen inches high.  Dear parental unit if your scholar told you the teacher said it was ok to bring it to school your scholar is lying.
4. Dear parental unit your scholar arrived at school today with six one liter bottles of water in his backpack.  Dear parental unit I'm going to tell you how you can save your money for something more important than a grossly over priced bottle of water.  We have a drinking fountain in our classroom.
5. Dear parental unit are your aware that your scholar walked into the classroom at 9:00am and had already consumed a half of a medium sized bag of Nacho chips.
6. Dear parental unit are you aware that your scholar took a $5.00 bill out of his pocket this morning and showed it to me.  Dear parental unit your scholar has been in the classroom with me for two school years and never once did he arrive at school with even a penny in his pocket.
7. Dear parental unit are you aware that your scholar arrived at school today with a remote control car in his backpack.  Dear parental unit are you aware that your scholar got very upset because I wouldn't let him take it out into the hallway and drive it around because the hallways were crowded with students.
8. Dear parental unit are you aware that your scholar arrived at school today with a squirt gun and a pocket knife in his backpack.
9. Dear parental unit are you aware that your scholar arrived at school today wearing only a sweat shirt and shorts when the outdoor temperature was nineteen degrees.
10. Dear parental unit are you aware that your scholar arrived at school today with a stuffed monkey and one of your bed sheets in his backpack.  Dear parental unit just so you know our timeout room is not available today because your scholar has it set up as a bedroom for his pet monkey that is now sleeping on the floor in your bedsheet.
11. Dear parental unit your scholar was suspended from the bus today for inappropriate behavior.  That means you will have to drive him to school tomorrow.  Dear Mr. S, I'm sorry but I made plans for the day so my scholar will not be at school.

Dear parental unit do you even bother to get up out of bed in the morning to see what your scholar is putting in her/his backpack or are you just plain ignorant.

Good Things Do Happen In Our Classroom

First things first.  With Grrr! now in the classroom I need to update the scorecard.

The Scholars

The Collector - 4th grade
Yo! - 4th grade
Wide - 4th grade
EM - 3rd grade
Uh-Uh-Uh - 2nd grade
MiniJ - 2nd grade
NoFouls - 2nd grade
Grrr! - 1st grade

Note - we are expecting one more scholar but his arrival is on delay.  He may arrive around winter break.

I've written so much lately about the volatility of our classroom that I hope no one gets that idea that it is all bad because that is not the case.  Here are a few of the good points.

Gnu

Despite the volatility that happens and the frustration she feels when academics takes a back seat to chaos, Gnu continues to impress me with the effort she puts forth.  For a number of weeks now she has had a theme for the week.

• Sequencing and cooking - the scholars learned about baking ingredients and where they came from plus the importance of doing things in the correct sequence.   On Friday of that week all that was learned was put into motion as the scholars made chocolate chip cookies from scratch.
• Johnny Appleseed - applesauce made from scratch to include slicing and tasting three different kinds of apples.  The apples were then put in a crock pot and cooked for four hours.  They all complained about the taste of the applesauce but they all kept eating.
• Nate the Great - the detective story I wrote about a couple posts ago.
• The Great Pumpkin - yes, the Charlie Brown story.  The pumpkins the scholars painted and decorated were impressive to see.  When Gnu put them on display in the hallway for all the school to see you should have seen the smiles on their faces.
• Thanksgiving - the scholars had to create a poster board about the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth. They then had to bring their poster to the front of the room and show and tell what they discovered about the pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock.  The scholars then made their own butter to put on cornbread and ate pumpkin pie.  Surprisingly they didn't eat the whole pie so I finished it up.  

Gnu and reading

The scholars found a bed sheet and wanted to make a tent.  When reading started they wanted to read in the tent.  That's fine when you are little but not when you are 5'8" tall.  I have a picture of this event.  Her head and shoulders are under the tent but her legs are sticking way out.  She looked ridiculous but she's reading and they are listening so the objective was met.

Speaking of objectives I don't think I've ever mentioned what the objective is for our scholars.  Sure academics is important and so is improving their socials skills but our number one task is to put them in a position to move back into a general education classroom.  With the help of IvyL and Oreo we've had some success.  The Collector has been going to a general education 4th grade class now for about four weeks without incident.  On occasion he has asked for permission to stay with this class for a longer period of time. That is a huge step for The Collector.  Uh-Uh-Uh has been venturing into a 2nd grade general education class but for a shorter period of time and with some degree of inconsistency.  Recently she has been asking for permission to eat lunch with this class as she has made some friends.  That is very important for two reasons.  First, hopefully making friends will encourage her to go daily without having to be coerced. Second, she is the only girl in our room so making friends with other girls at school is huge for her.  There is one more that I'm going to mention that might be a bit obscure but I feel is important for a couple readers of this blog who are no longer staff members at this school.  CorP, who is in the 5th grade, has been going without incident, to a general education classroom.  That is a big step for Corp because in the past he'd just refuse to go.  That is progress BaseG and PhD(*)Sparty.

IvyL and Yoga

Yes, that yoga and with IvyL as our leader we do yoga daily.  The class lasts from twenty to thirty minutes and includes both of the emotional disability classrooms.  The objective is to teach the scholars a calming technique when their anger is escalating.  It's been a very position experience and IvyL has taken the scholars to the point where they can recall all the yoga positions and do them.  All the scholars are pretty successful doing the various yoga positions except MiniJ.  As hard as he tries he struggles because he has practically no flexibility so the scholars have to help him get his body into the correct position.  It's been interesting to watch as none of the scholars make fun of him or ridicule him about his lack of flexibility.  They just patiently help him move his body into the correct position.  

4th Grade Math Acquity Test

Although some may be stunned by this statement here goes, Yo! actually passed an acquity math test and with room to spare.  Two things contributed to this amazing feat.  First, his individual education plan now reads that he can use a calculator.  Second, someone can read the test to him.  This person is not allowed to help solve the problems, just read the text.  Guess who sat with him as he took the test, me.  The use of a calculator helped for the first couple problems but then it got interesting as the first story problem appeared. Yo! looked at me and said, "you can read this to me right".  I said, "yes so pay attention."  After I read the problem he immediately went into his defiant mode saying, "this is too hard".  Doing my best to keep him focused I said, "let me read the problem again."  Here is where it gets interesting as I may have broken a rule.  Buying some time, I said, "let me turn the laptop a little so I can see the problem easier."  As I'm doing this I thinking to myself I have no idea what the story problem said so I read it silently.  What I read was a bunch of totally unnecessary words that were well above fourth grade level and did nothing but complicate a simple math problem.  So the next time I read the problem I cut out all of those unnecessary words.  When I finished he said to me, "Mr. Schultz's it's a division problem."  I looked at him and said, "you know I can't answer that question as it will be cheating."  I then watched him complete the problem and saw that he got it right.  Did I break the rules by simplifying the question?.  Not sure.

I've had conversations in the past with my wife about all of the statewide testing that is required and when I mentioned the acquity test I helped Yo! with she said now you know the reaction of both scholars and teachers when they see these tests.  The wording in this question was ridiculous.  At what point did the citizens of Indiana allow this nonsense to happen?  I'm not sure but here is what I know needs to happen. The politicians and pointed heading intellectuals responsible for this crap should be required to sit in a room with scholars who are trying their best to answer story problems with wording that is so convoluted that they break down and cry.  Maybe then they'll stop focusing on their self importance and eliminate this disaster waiting to happen that they created.

I'm on Thanksgiving break.  No school for a week.  Thanks again for reading my blog.  I'm out.      



 

I Told Him If He Didn't Feel Safe To Sit By Me

EM speaking a few weeks ago and again last week,  "Miss Gnu I don't feel safe in this room."

"EM if you don't feel safe you can come sit by me or go by Mr. S."

On two separate occasions, EM says to me, "Mr. S I don't feel safe in this room."
"EM if you don't feel safe just come and sit by me."

It's recess and it is too cold to go outside.  When this happens the PE teacher lets me bring the scholars into the gym for about fifteen minutes.  Basketball is the game of choice but not for Yo!.  because he is in his defiant and disruptive mode.  When I inform him his behavior is inappropriate and he doesn't get to play basketball he heads for the door.  Rather than going out the door on his right which leads to an inner hallway of the school he goes out the door on the left.  Once out this door he is one exit door from being outside.  Knowing this I head across the gym.  When I get to the door, he sees me and heads to the exit door.  I look back to check on the other scholars and everything is fine so I step outside the door to check on him.  He is standing with his back to the exit door and is pushing on the door so it is slightly open.  I take a couple steps back to look in the gym and I see NoFouls on top of EM and he is punching him.  I know NoFouls punched him three times but I don't know how many times EM was hit before I noticed what was going on.

The next morning at approximately 8:30am the classroom phone rings.  I recognized the ring as an outside call.  Good morning Room ****, Mr. S speaking.  Parental unit on the phone, why did my scholar come home from school with a bump under his eye?

By far EM is the least volatile scholar in the room and he got punched.  I know I can't be in two places at once but when EM was in an unsafe situation there was no adult close to keep him safe.

This Scholar Could Cost A Teacher Her/His Job

It's now Friday in what may have been the worse week I've had in three years sitting with my view from the back of the room.  I wasn't going to mention Friday's activities but I figured what the heck I'll share with everyone how my week ended.

1:10pm - Yo! is upset because he has to do a reading assignment.  He walked into the time out room and is aggressively pounding on the window with his fists.  So you know it is a wire meshed glass window that may crack but it will not break.  Seeing that he is being completely ignored he walks out of the room but runs into Oreo who takes him to her office.

1:43pm - We are starting a writing/proofreading assignment and Yo! has a worksheet to complete.  He is assigned to work with me.  His first task is to proof read and make the two corrections to a nine word sentence. Here are the two corrections he needed to make.  The first word in the sentence is "did".  It is spelled with a lower case "d".  At the end of the sentence there is no period.  He needs to rewrite the sentence so there are no mistakes.  Yo! says to me I need help writing the word "did".  I say no.  He starts slapping himself in the face saying this is to hard and I need help.  As a reminder he is in the fourth grade.  I say to him I will not help you.  Do your own work.  He then gets up and walks away from my table whining it is to hard.

1:55pm - Yo! is still in his work avoidance mode.  He now informs me that the sentence is too long for the paper.  I reply, use the next line to finish the sentence.  He again says this is too hard.  His next comment is I hate this school.  All of this because he has to rewrite a sentence with nine words in it.

2:00pm -  He still has not rewritten a nine word sentence.  All I get from him is whining, moaning, and groaning.  He is basically doing nothing.

2:03pm - He walks to his desk and picks up his backpack and said he is leaving.  Good, I have the perfect destination for him, the in-school suspension room and that is where he stayed for the remainder of the day.

For twenty minutes Yo! could not rewrite a nine word sentence.  Nine stinking words and you know what really irks me, he has to pass a statewide language arts test in the spring.  What are the chances of his passing this test?  Well, if he can't rewrite a nine word sentence over a twenty minute period of time I'd say NONE.  And do you know what is scary about the word NONE?  Teachers are evaluated based on the pass/fail rate of their students on this statewide test.  Principals are evaluated on the student bodies ability to pass this statewide test.  Our schools letter grade can drop if the fail rate is to high.  Even scarier, teachers can loose their job because a young scholar gets an attitude and refuses to work.

An after the students left the classroom for the day meeting took place recently in my classroom.  In attendance was Oreo and Gnu and I got to listen.  The topic of conversation was Yo!'s parental unit. Apparently this parental unit is considering have Yo! placed back into the general education population.  If this happens then Yo! would have to change schools.  I've already started to say my Our Fathers and Hail Marys.

Suspensions - One Down & Three To Go

It's Wednesday morning and the room is quiet.  MiniJ was suspended on Tuesday for putting a major hit on NoFouls chest so he is out.  Hopefully with one of the two major combatants missing the day will be peaceful.

During my first year as a paid employee the school received its first letter grade from the state of Indiana.  I remember the looks on the faces of the teachers when it was announced that our school is an F school. While my time at this school as a paid employee was limited when this letter grade came out, I did spend a lot of time the previous year as a volunteer.  As a volunteer I worked with teachers from the third through the sixth grade and I met some truly great teachers.  I can say this in no uncertain terms, this is not an F school. Now I'm going to tell you what I think of the letter grading system used by the state of Indiana.  Caution as I will be very blunt.  This letter grade system is a bunch of bull shit made up by politicians who are only concerned about getting re-elected and pointy headed intellectuals who are so full of self importance they lost touch with reality.  With that said I now feel better.

We were informed of our most recent letter grade a few weeks ago.  I'm happy to report we are now a B school.  I'm even happier to report that our improvement has caught the eye of one of the local television stations and they will be in the school today to interview the Big B and visit some classrooms.  In case you haven't figured it out, this is a huge day for our school as we will be on television.

9:34am - Yo!, in his best defiant behavior is disrupting the classroom and not following instructions.  He decides to walk out of the room and slams the door as he exits.

1:45pm - Yo! again leaves the room.  He avoids adults who were trying to redirect him back to the classroom for several minutes.  He is eventually trapped in a corner of the gym.  A quick thanks to Duck for helping me out.  He is taken to the Big B's office for a conversation and returns to the classroom at 2:00pm.

The local television station is now in the building and are interviewing the Big B.  They are on the second floor.

2:30pm - Yo! and NoFouls leave the room and go sprinting down the hallway, turn the corner and head up to the second floor.  I'm following them.  When I reach the second floor they are already halfway down the hallway but run into an obstacle called Big B.  They reverse direction and head back toward me.  I choose not to stop them on the second floor so they sprint past me and head back to the classroom.  Then enter the classroom and promptly disrupt IvyL's group session.  She is highly animated and ejects them from the classroom.  They are escorted to an empty classroom next to ours by Oreo.  Both were launching chairs across the room as I walked into the room.  With two angry scholars in the room with only two adults the numbers are not right so I call for assistance.  The chair launching continues for a short time with me in the room but stops.  Oreo then separates them to opposite sides of the room and goes into her animated conversation and then calls the parental units for both scholars.  The adult help I requested arrives and it's the Big B.  She is not a happy camper.  One day suspension for Yo! and a one day suspension for NoFouls plus their parental units are at home awaiting their arrival.

It's now Thursday.  Yo! and No Fouls are out but MiniJ has returned. 

10:50 - MiniJ blurts out for no apparent reason and at no one in particular "I hate you" and then says "your mama."

10:55am - Wide is on overload.  He leaves the room heading toward the cafeteria but sees a teacher and returns to the classroom.  He is climbing up on the top of desks and chairs and finally stops moving when he is standing on his desk.  Oreo is in the room and with a concern for his safety moves toward him to get him off the desk.  As she nears him he kicks at her and just misses her chest and face. He is now on Gnu's front table.  As I approach he threatens to hit me in the face with a book.  Oreo is behind him and distracts him just long enough for me to get control of him.  He is then placed in our timeout room to settle down.

1:08pm - It's right after lunch and recess and Wide is very active again and is disrupting the class.

1:09pm - MiniJ uses inappropriate language.  He told another student to shut up N-word.

1:19pm - Wide is on the run again.  He tries to hide in our parent lounge but I find him and he heads back to the classroom.  Now back in the classroom he decides to throw some paper airplanes around.

2:10pm - Wide is again agitated and starts throwing Expo markers in the direction of MiniJ.

2:15pm - EM is irritated with all the noise and commotion and heads for the door.  He stops, picks up a plastic file folder holder and tosses it on the floor and leaves the room.

2:17pm - MiniJ decides he also needs the plastic file folder holder and picks it up and promptly slams it on the floor and it breaks apart.

I'm now looking for EM.  I find him and return to the room but Wide and MiniJ are out of the room.  EM has settled down and he helps me reassemble the plastic file folder holder.  As we are doing this Oreo walks in and said I'm needed next door where Wide and MiniJ are located.  I'm greeted at the door by Gnu and she says to me that MiniJ hit Wide so hard he knocked him off of his feet.  I move MiniJ back to the classroom and he goes and sits at his desk.  Because of what happened to Wide his parental unit had to be contacted. Because a parental unit was called about a potential injury to their child the Big B also needed to be informed.  MiniJ is suspended again for a day.

That makes four suspensions in three days.  Sadly, an all time high.

You'll love this.  We were informed that a new student will arrived on Monday morning.  The new student is Grr! and he is in the first grade.  We have seven scholars with emotional disabilities in the room right now. Guess why Grr! is joining us.  Right, he is labeled as emotionally disabled and can't control his anger.

A Grand Entrance and A Volatile Exit

It's Monday and I say good morning and welcome to Room 106.  We're doing math and after you hang up your coat you can stop by my desk and pick up your work sheet.  The scholar stops at my desk and picks up the math worksheet and says to me, there is no way I'm doing that work it's to hard.  My response, you are allowed to us a calculator.  His response, that's cheating.  Ok, I say but we need to get started.  The scholar responds to me, there is no way you can get me to do that math.  Well you just can't stand there and do nothing we have to get to work.  You don't think I can't just stand here? Just watch me, I can stand in this exact spot all day and there is nothing you can do about it.  You just met Wide our new fourth grade scholar and a truly wonderful addition to our already intense and over populated classroom.  Lord, please give me the strength to carry on.

In addition to his presence in the room Wide brings an additional complication.  He has a speech impediment and a very unusual voice.  One of the scholars, Yo!, picked up on it immediately and said out loud he talks funny.  Gnu shut that comment down  quickly and aggressively.  Fortunately Wide did not hear the comment as he also has limited hearing in one ear.

Tuesday of this past week was a frustrating day.  First our special for the day was PE but the gym was occupied as it was Election Day and our school is a voting site so no PE.  That stinks as PE is a running outlet for our scholars and they have energy to burn.  No running today.  Fortunately the weather was decent and we could get outside for recess.  The scholars pick up a couple basketballs and before we head outside I give them instructions.  People are arriving to vote so don't dribble the basketball until you enter the playground area.  I might as well give those instructions to the brick wall we pass on the way to the playground.  After twenty minutes of constant bicker as we have two basketballs and four scholars we head back in for our reading block.  I have control of the basketballs but in doing so I can't get to my ID badge that is clipped to my shirt collar.  I get EM's attention and tell him to take my ID badge from my collar and scan open the front door.  He does as directed and you hear the door click.  Immediately MiniJ and NoFouls start pushing and shoving for the right to open the door.  MiniJ gets in first and NoFouls body language tell me bads things are about to happen.  Sure enough the fight starts just inside the front door.  Why?  Because in NoFouls mind he is in charge of everything.  It is done his way only, no questions asked.  If he doesn't get what he wants he my charge someone.  As a reminder he is in the second grade.

Fast forward about eighty minutes and we are in the classroom in our reading block.  Yo! and the collector are working independent.  Gnu has MiniJ and NoFouls.  I'm with EM and Uh-Uh-Uh.  There is commotion in front of me as MiniJ and NoFouls are at it.  From what I hear MiniJ is upset because NoFouls moved his desk.  How upset?  He attacks NoFouls and lands a punch that hit NoFouls so hard in the chest I heard the thud.  The classroom is evacuated.  I'm blocking NoFouls to keep him from attacking MiniJ.  Gnu is quickly moving everyone else to our safe room.  I'm alone in the room with NoFouls.  That is not supposed to happen when a scholar erupts.  I hit the intercom button that goes to the front office and I request a crisis team member for support and to be a witness as NoFouls is so volatile I moved him to the time out room.

A few minutes pass and the Big B walks into the room.  She looks at me and calmly says what happened.  I explain what happened and find myself defending NoFouls a little as I don't know why hit got punched.  I then do something I rarely do, I called the Big B by here first name and tell her this.  The volatility in this room is excessive.  If we want to keep our scholars safe either MiniJ or NoFouls needs to go.  The Big B asks me if she needs to stay.  I say no, NoFouls has tears running down his cheeks and that means the anger subsided.  As she is leaving she says to me I'm emailing downtown and let them know what this room is like.

One suspension down and it's MiniJ and there are three to go.  To quote Arnold, "I'll be back" soon to tell you about the next three.  Any takers on who they will be?

Fireballs, Gentlemen Callers, Wide and My Guardian Angel

Fireballs

I went out for drinks a few Friday's ago with the teachers and a group of individuals from a behavioral services organization that employs IvyL.  While I've been invited to attend these functions on a number of occassions I rarely do.  Why?  In most cases I'm old enough to be everyone's father and in a number of instances I'm old enough to be their grandfather.  The first time I joined the teachers was last year when I met BaseG, Gee, Mr. C. and his significant other Jade and PhD(*)Sparty at a Mexican restaurant in the historic Fountain Square District here in Indianapolis.  I had a couple Sun King Wee Mac's and really enjoyed the time with my colleagues.  The last invite I received came from IvyL and at first I politely declined.  A couple days past and I thought the request to go out for drinks was over.  Wrong!  Sitting on my desk was another invite to attend the event that was being held at a place called the Ice House.  This invite was in writing and at the bottom was this comment, "you better be there".  It was signed by IvyL.  I decided to go and found myself sitting at a table with a bunch of women; Gnu, Knew, Oreo who did bring her husband who is not really her husband (it's a long story that I'll save for another time), IvyL and some of her female colleagues. The first order of business, let's do some shots.  Whoa!  This could be an interesting evening.  I agreed to do a shot.  I immediately hear Schultz you're going to do a shot?  Being polite I say "I'm Catholic and Polish, I grew up doing shots and PBR's so what are we drinking?  The response, Fireballs.  Oh my God, girl shots. For those not familiar with the drink I'll refer you to Wikipedia, a flavored Canadian whisky liqueur with a cinnamon flavor.  I had two shots plus two Sun King Cream Ale's and some nachos.  The truth be told, I had a real nice time.

Gentleman Callers

So as not to confuse anyone this is not the same gentleman caller that I mentioned last year.  That Gentleman Call who I will refer to a Gentleman Caller #1 is an acquaintance of PhD*Sparty.  Both of them now reside in another state.  The new Gentleman Caller #2 arrived at the Ice House about an hour after everyone else. When he arrived he was greeting by IvyL who then escorted him to a seat right next to her.  At first I thought he was a colleague from the same organization that employs her so I went about my business listening to the chatter of the hen festival.  A few minutes later I notice some movement to my right and notice that IvyL is holding hands with Gentleman Caller #2.  To quote Arte Johnson from the original Live from New York It's Saturday Night, interesting, very interesting.  At an appropriate time I will ask IvyL some follow up questions.  Assuming I won't get smacked up side the head for asking I'll keep you posted.

Wide

For the first time since my arrival in the classroom a couple years ago I'm worried about a scholar's safety. Although he is in the fourth grade Wide is short and thin.  There is nothing about his stature that would indicate to someone not familiar with him that he is in the fourth grade.  Given the volatility of MiniJ and NoFouls who regularly throw punches at each other I can seem them going after Wide the first time he erupts and starts yelling at them.  I can also see Yo!, the stealthy bullying specialist, taking an interest in someone much smaller that him while outside on the playground or in large group activities like gym.  Starting Monday morning the intensity of my job will increase so my guard will be up.  We will have seven young scholars with serious anger control issues in the same classroom.  Here is an even scarier thought.  In less than two weeks we will have nine young scholars with serious anger control issues in the same classroom.
      
My Guardian Angel

I can say with all honesty that this year has been my toughest year.  In previous years there was just one scholar erupting at a time.  This year we've had two and three erupting on the same day.  In previous years I'm having to think real hard to come up with a scholar who threw a punch.  This year punches are exchanged just about everyday.  Last year I made some pretty stupid mistakes that I was told were not stupid but simply human errors.  The human errors comment came from PhD*Sparty and her timing in coming to my rescue when I was struggling was and still is greatly appreciated.  Well, PhD*Sparty has moved on and is in pursuit of a PhD degree at a university in Michigan.  So I wondered who would come to my rescue when I was struggling this year?  Thankfully that person arrived at just the right time a few weeks ago when I thought the mix of scholars in the room was at its worse and my thoughts were turning to towards work in another area.  Who might that be?  Oreo, who is a behavior specialist at our school.  Twice recently she walked in and sat down next to me to chat.  "You can't leave" is what she said to me.  You can't because of the value you bring to these very troubled young scholars.  You can't because there is a first year teacher in the room who really relies on your judgement when dealing with the challenges these young scholars present. You can't leave because the academic level of these young scholars is so varied that one teacher can't teach all of them at the same time.  This teacher needs another teacher in the room and that teacher is you.  You can't leave, end of conversation.

Although you don't know it because all you see is text there was a long pause before I started this paragraph. I was rereading the last few sentences and thinking how wonderful it is to work with talented people like Oreo.  I don't know how she knew it but she knew that I was struggling and on two separate occasions quietly approached me for our little pep talk and it worked.  Because of her I'll continue on with my view from the back of the room.

The bar is open and I just cracked open a Blue Moon.  Thanks again for reading the blog.



  

Promoted To A Detective

I need to get this off my chest real quick and then I'll proceed.  Dear Overhead Person in my school corporation, you are seriously starting to tick me off for two reasons.  First, you are receiving email messages from a teacher that I work with who has questions and needs information.  Will you please explain to her first and then to me why you absolutely refuse to respond to her emails.  Second, you told us to expect two new scholars in our classroom.  Why on a Friday morning, with no notice at all, do you inform us that one of our new scholars will arrive on Monday morning and the name of this scholar is not one of the two you gave us? Dear Overhead Person do you know the difference between the number two and the number three?

A new scholar arrives in our classroom on Monday morning.  He is in the fourth grade and I've decided to call him Wide.  Below is an update to the scorecard.  There will be more on Wide in the next blog post.  If you are interested in a brief description of him here it is, volatile.  Image that.

My Scholars

The Collector - 4th grade
Yo! - 4th grade
Wide - 4th grade
EM - 3rd grade
Uh-Uh-Uh - 2nd grade
MiniJ - 2nd grade
NoFouls - 2nd grade

The Support Staff

IvyL - Behavior Therapist
Oreo - Behavior Specialist
Gnu - Teacher
Knew - Teacher for 5th and 6th grade EH scholars
Big B - Principal

For several weeks now on Monday morning Gnu picks out a book to read to the scholars.  She takes her time reading and explaining the story line so that the story takes up the whole week and then on Friday of the week she does a hands on project with the scholars.  When Friday arrived Gnu finished the story and then reviewed the material with the scholars and then moved on for the day.  I'm thinking there was no hands on project but what can you do for a project with the story line is a detective named Nate the Great.  Right after lunch I take the scholars outside for recess.  It's a twenty minute process that sometime lasts twenty five or thirty minutes depending on how animated the scholars have been during the day.  The worse their behavior the longer we stay out hopefully so they can burn off some energy.  On the way back to the classroom MiniJ and NoFouls couldn't contain themselves and go sprinting down the hallway.  Out of sight but still in hearing range I hear a shout, what the......?  I'm thinking that can't be good.  As I near the classroom I see black and yellow caution tape running across the entrance to the classroom.  Gnu is standing at the door telling the scholars not to go in the classroom as a crime has been committed and she is waiting for the police to arrive. Please make a note of this, I have no idea what is going on.  When the scholars enter the classroom she immediately tells them to stay away from her desk.  Ya, right!  They immediately head for the desk and sure enough their is a clue.  On the floor is some flour with a foot print in it.  Sadly they didn't recognize it as a clue, just some white stuff on the floor.  With the scholars starting to go into high energy overload she convinces them to sit at their desks so they can settle down.

She then tells them that someone was in the classroom but she is not sure who it was.  She then asks them if they want to help solve the mystery.  They promptly all agree to help.  She says great but before you help me you have to become detectives.  She then hands each scholar a small wallet.  When you flip it open the bottom half contains a detectives badge.  The top half contains a blank card where the scholars can write their name. She also hands them a small spiral notebook for keeping track of clues and suspects.  The scholars are now moving toward total overload and again she gets them settled down.  Next there is a list of suspects on the white board.  She tells the scholars that they have to go and talk to each suspect to see if they can figure out who was in our room.  She also tells them that they can use our cell phones as we need to talk pictures of the bottom of the suspects shoes to see if their footprint matches the one in our classroom. Gnu takes one half or the scholars and I have the other half.  Remember she says, when we are in the hallway we have to walk.  Ya, right!  Let the sprinting begin.

My detectives first stop is Oreo's office as she is a suspect.  No waiting at the door, no knocking on the door, they just barge in.  They show their badges and ask Oreo to take off her shoes so they can take a picture.  Oreo played her role perfectly and denied doing anything and looked extremely nervous while denying her involvement.  Next up is IvyL.  The sprinting continues.  Up the stairs they go to her office. Doors locked.  Mr. Schultz where is she?  Rather than keeping it simple and say I don't know I suggest that they head to Knew's classroom as IvyL may be in their doing a group session.  Zoom, down the hallway they go.  No waiting at the door, no knocking at the door they again barge in right into the middle of a group social skills session.  IvyL plays her role perfectly and I apologize to Knew for the disruption.  With the picture taken we are off to the next suspect who is a life skills teacher with the lower grade levels.  The routine is repeated and we have all the pictures we need and head back to the classroom.

With everyone back in the classroom Gnu asks the scholars who they think is the guilty person.  They don't have a clue.  She then says to compare the pictures of the shoes they took with the footprint on the floor. They compare the two and say there is no match.  What?  Give me my phone and lets take another look. Finally with some help from me they all agree it's the life skills teacher.  Mystery solved.

To all interested parties I am working with a truly talented first year school teacher in a classroom for scholars with serious anger control issues.  This teacher's name is Gnu.

Dear Overhead Person, if you continue to ride on your high horse and refuse to respond to my colleagues emails then you will be hiring a new teacher for my classroom next year.  Dear Overhead Person, if Gnu does not return then you will be hiring a new instructional assistant for my former classroom.

I'm getting to really dislike overhead personnel.  I'm out.  Thank you again for reading the blog.







    

Confined To Six Square Feet of Floor Space For 4,500 Miles

A few blog posts ago I mention that a trip to Italy was in the works.  Well I went and I'm now back.  My wife and I spent eight days in Italy and we had a great time.  I hesitate to say too much about the trip because this blog is primarily about my view from the back of a classroom and not a travel brochure but maybe I'll mention a few things about the trip at the end.

It's been a while since I posted the scorecard of who is who so I think I'll do that now as people I met on the trip to Italy expressed an interest in reading the blog.

My Scholars

The Collector - 4th grade
Yo! - 4th grade
EM - 3rd grade
Uh-Uh-Uh - 2nd grade
The King - 3rd grade
MiniJ- 2nd grade
No Fouls - 2nd grade

The Support Staff

IvyL - Behavior Therapist
Oreo - Behavior Specialist
Gnu - Teacher
Big B - Principal

It was fall break and the scholars did not have to attend school for eighteen days.  That is a real long stretch of time and while in Italy I wondered how the scholars would act on their first day back in school.  Between IvyL, Oreo and Gnu a lot of time is spent with the scholars working on their social skills as well as there anger management skills.  Given the amount of time spent working on these skills a measure as to how successful they've been could be determine once the scholars returned to the classroom.  So on Monday morning, our first day back in school, I was curious as to how the scholars would behave.  I'm happy to announce that the scholars were well behaved for the first forty minutes.  I'm sadden to announce that just past the forty minute mark MiniJ and No Fouls we're at each other and the first punch was thrown by NoFouls.  It was frustrating for me to watch the first punch get thrown because I know how great an effort IvyL, Oreo and Gnu put forth to improve the lives of these young scholars and they just don't get it.

The King has disappeared.  He missed a three week period prior to fall break and then the first full week after fall break.  So basically we have not heard from his parental unit for six weeks.  The last contact we had with his parental unit was that The King's grandfather passed away and they were heading out of state to attend the funeral.  Numerous attempts were made to contact the parental unit via the many cell phone numbers we had listed put none were answered.  It's a pretty frustrating time for everyone involved in The King's education.  He came to our school from a behavioral specialists organization that ran a charter school. When he arrived in our classroom we were informed that he had both emotional and psychological problems so he came with a mentor.  All totaled there were five adults working with The King in the classroom to do what was necessary to improve his social skills and get an education.  To have his parental unit to take him out of school and not tell anyone and then just disappear is disappointing.

If you recall, just before break I mentioned that EM's family lost their place of residence and were homeless. I'm happy and relieved to announce that he has a new residence and has returned to school.  I'm not sure how stable his housing situation is because his two brothers that were with him at our school are required to attend a different school.  That's disappointing because he was always talking about his big brothers and was real excited that they were all in the same school.  Now he's alone in our school again.

A while back I received an email message from a friend wondering if EM and his family was evicted because of EM's behavior and that he was causing damage to the homeowners property.  I'm certain that is not the case as EM was not the destructive type.  Sure he'd get angry but he is not a thrower of objects and did not attempt to cause damage like the other scholars.  What I believe happened is his parental unit got behind in the rent and was evicted.  It's a sad situation as the parental unit has five children with the youngest being about six months old and from what I can tell there is no male presence in the household.

One final comment on EM for now.  He's changed since his homeless period.  Now when he walks into the classroom in the morning he looks sad.  In the past he always had a smile on his face and he was talkative. Now he walks into the room and just sits at his desk.  Hopefully is family life will remain stable and he can get back to his old happy and smiling self.

Just a few comments on my first ever trip to Europe.  We were in Italy for eight days.

The Highlights

1. St. Peter's Square and the Basilica.  My wife told me that just standing in the middle of the square caused her to get a little teary eyed.  
2. Baruna which is a small island off Venice.  A beautiful fishing community with considerably less tourists.
3. The food.  Sitting down at a true Italian family dining situation was amazing.  The food kept coming and coming and so did the wine.
4. We met a couple women from Utah and we spent a lot of time together just wandering the side streets of the various cities we visited.  While seeing the big ticket tourist destinations was great walking on the quieter side streets to get a better feeling for the Italian lifestyle was more to my liking.
5. I was going to stop at four but this one just popped into my head.  We went on a gondola ride with our friends from Utah plus one other couple.  The other couple as I called them were an interesting pair.  He was from Scotland and she was from Cuba and they presently live in Canada.  Back to the gondola ride.  One of our friends from Utah is not real comfortable with water craft.  She insisted that she will not get on a boat let alone a gondola.  Well peer pressure won out and she stepped onto the gondola.  She sat leaning in toward the middle of the gondola with her eyes closed and a panicked look at first.  About ten minutes into the ride she was leaning out of the gondola trying to take pictures. I have a picture of her on the gondola and every time I look at it I think to myself, I'm not getting on a boat or gondola.  Ya, right!  

  The Low Points

1. We both agreed on this one, The Sistine Chapel.  The chapel is a big rectangular box with very high ceilings and is poorly lit.  The works by Michelangelo were so high up you couldn't look at the details. The Vatican security was on site and was constantly telling everyone to remain silent and to keep moving which I can understand as it was crowded.  Given the crowd and security trying to move you along there was no time to sit somewhere quietly and look at the art.  
2. The plane flight.  Either from Toronto, Canada to Rome or from Frankfort, Germany to Washington, D.C.  Nine hours confined to a floor space of six square feet was uncomfortable.  If I'm ever elected Czar of the United States I'm going to pass a law that states all executives that work for an airline are required to have an office work space that occupies just six square feet like they make their customers do who choose to fly on the airline.  The seat I occupied for nine hours was nearly inhumane all in the name of maximizing profits and bonuses.

That's it for now.  Again, I thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

A Wanna Be School Board Candidate Attacks My School Corporation.

In the Saturday edition of The Indianapolis Star there was a letter to the editor that was written by the next in line naysayer who is criticizing my school corporation and has no idea what the hell he is talking about. This naysayer is of particular interest to me because he is running for an open school board member position in my school corporation.

The letter to the editor was entitled "Hold (my school corporation) accountable for graduating more students."  Yes, I changed the title by deleting the actual name of my school corporation as that is private. As you've read this school board candidate is attacking graduation rates and doing so by blaming the school corporation for the low graduation rates.  That is pure nonsense and is nothing more than a politician's attempt at getting attention.  Unfortunately this school board candidate got my attention and I'm not a happy camper.

Every year my school corporation names a valedictorian and salutatorian.  Every year my school corporation has scholars that are recognized by the National Honors Society.  Every school year my school corporation has numerous scholars on the academic honor roll.  Every year numerous graduates of my school corporation go on to technical schools, community schools or four year universities.  To the best of my knowledge my school corporation has repeated this academic success story for the thirty or so years that I've lived in the metropolitan area of Indianapolis.  For me to pick up the newspaper and see a school board candidate claim that my school corporation needs to do more to get scholars to graduate is pure uninformed nonsense.

To help set this uninformed school board candidate straight I'm suggesting that he do a few things.  First, seek out the scholar and her/his parent(s) that graduated with honors and speak with them about what they did as scholar/parent team to achieve the success that they had at school.  Second, seek out the scholar and her/his parents(s) that did not graduate and speak with them about what they did as a scholar/parent team for the years prior to graduation.  After meeting the scholar/parent teams compare the notes you took and determine if my school corporation has a problem graduating scholars or a sizeable portion of the non-graduates have priorities other than academic success.  In anticipation of the school board candidate becoming defensive and stating that the scholars come from different families with different problems I say bull.  Scholars attend primarily their neighborhood school and I believe that the majority of the scholars at a particular school come from the same basic social economic background.

After speaking to the scholar/parent team this school board candidate now needs to seek out the teachers and speak to them.  As a word of advise for this school board candidate, Scholastic Reading  Inventory results, Acquity Testing results, IRead3 results and I.S.T.E.P results are classroom time wasters and cause millions of taxpayer dollars to be wasted.  If you want to know how a scholar is doing in school just ask her/his teacher.  What will a teacher say about an honors student?  Hard worker, loves to read, comes to school everyday, parent is active in the scholars educations and shows up at parent teacher conferences. What will the teacher say about the non-graduate?  Does little if any academics, rarely participates in class, a poor reader, parent shows very little involvement in the school unless the scholar is about to be suspended and has never attended a parent teacher conference.  Now that you've talked to the teacher do you really want to tell this teacher that the school corporation needs to do more to get more scholars to graduate.  I'd advise against bringing it up as the teacher may just laugh in your face.

So Mr. School Board Candidate you want to get elected to my school corporation board by making nonsensical statements about the school corporation doing more to get students to graduate.  That didn't set very well with me and probably every other teacher or parent in my school corporation that read your letter. As it stands right now Mr. School Board Candidate and an Instructor at Butler University you do not have my vote.  Sorry, not even close.

Here is an update on EM.  That last you heard from me was that his family is homeless.  As of this date his status hasn't changed.

Here is another scholar update.  The King has missed the last three weeks of school and we've lost contact with his parental unit.  As of right now we don't know where he is.

Such is the sad state of affairs for these two young scholars.

I'm presently on fall break and will be out of the classroom for two whole weeks.  Woohoo!  Believe me when I say this, I need a a break.