I'm On A Collision Course

I'm going to open this up with a little Aerosmith, the "train  kept a-rollin all night long" and I'm on a collision course with August 1st.  Switching artists now, "so let us not talk falsely now the hours getting late" and I don't know what I'm going to do.  That would be Jimi Hendrix.  I'm on a collision course with August 1st and I don't know if I'm going to "break on through to the other side" or just crash and burn.  That would be Jim Morrison and The Doors.   Old school rock n roll at its finest and at no point did anyone utter an obscenity. Now that I think about it, in the The Doors song the lyrics also included "she gets high".  The word "high" was deemed inappropriate and censors took the word out when the song was played on the radio.  Today a cRAP artist can utter the f-word, the n-word, the b-word and any other string of obscenities they can think of and know one says a word. It makes you wonder at what point in time did it all go wrong.  Ok! Enough of that.  Opps!  Not quite. The Mrs. just read my opening paragraph and said wait a minute I have to show you something.  Sitting right in front of me from the Indianapolis Star and sponsored by BMO Harris Bank is a pamphlet about upcoming Indy events. Beware!  I'm going to enter it exactly as written in the pamphlet, "The Fucking Classiest Show Ever" where "pornography meets Shakespeare".  In my Sunday newspaper and sponsored by a major banking institution.

August 1st is my return to school date.  What happened to summer vacation.  You know the time from June to at least late August or early September that was called summer vacation.  Now you get six weeks.  And don't give me any of that you get the summer off "stuff".  I don't get paid during the summer.

PhD?Sparty is gone.  Gee is gone.  BaseG is gone.  On August 1st I will walk into a classroom and assume my position with a view from the back of the room and I have no idea who will be sitting at that huge desk with the gold trim on the side that is at the front of the room.  As I slowly approach the new school year thoughts run through my mind.

1. Will a teacher be in the classroom on July 31st which is the reporting date for teachers.
2. With both teaching positions open for our emotional disability classrooms will I even return to the same classroom with the same grade level scholars.
3. Did CorP and Floss get promoted to the 5th grade?  Yes!
4. Did Straw get promoted to the 5th grade?  This is an unknown as he did poorly on mandatory testing so he should return to the 4th grade.  We'll see.
5. Did The Collector and Yo! get promoted to the 4th grade.  Both did poorly on IRead3.  The rules state if you don't pass you don't get promoted.  We'll see.
6. Did EM get promoted to the 3rd grade.  That should not happen in my opinion.  While his math skills improved in the second grade he can't read.  His ability to read the pre Dolch site words is about thirty words out of the forty-two.  EM is the big mystery.  Something is wrong.  Dyslexia, I feel is a certainty, but what qualifications to I have to say that, none.  But I feel and so did BaseG and a first grade teacher that there is something else wrong with him.  This young scholar needs help.  That raises the question, who will step up and help him?  I have a suggestion.  How about a newly hired former teacher that now works in the special education department at the Education Center of the school system that I work for.  
7. While I have the potential to see The Collect, Yo! and EM I wonder if their parental units relocated. That happens with regularity and sadly screws up the scholars ability to get an education on a consistent level.
8. Will there be a female scholar in the classroom?  Although I've yet to work with one I've heard that you don't ever want a female scholar with emotional disabilities in your classroom.  I've been told that girls can make the male scholars look like little angels.
9. There will be a student teacher in the class with the six grade scholars.  She is a friend of my daughter's and I know her.  I'm looking forward to seeing her during the school year.
10. I want to be on the school leadership team.  It bugs me that this group meets with regularity and I don't know what was on the agenda.  It also bugs me that whatever was discussed and agree upon rarely gets communicated to staff at my level.
11. There will be pre-kindergarten scholars in the building this year.  A big shout out goes to the Big B for putting the school in the position to host one of the first ever pre-kindergarten classes in our school system.  However, a playground area that is perfect for pre-kindergarten scholars was dismantled last school year.  Will it be ready for the arrival and use of these new and very young scholars.  I'm thinking it's a long shot.
12. I wonder if that dead stick I talked about on June 4th survived the summer.  Will it be sitting on the stairwell landing by our 6th grade classrooms and be utilized as a Poet Tree?  I'll know soon.
13. We'll have a new receptionist/secretary greeting parental units and other visitors to the school this year.  Maybe a guy will fill that position.  Let's say one of the custodians.  That certainly will be a an eye opener.
14. Last one, will IvyL return as our Behavioral Therapist.  I sure hope so given all the other departures.

That's it.  Thank you for reading my blog.  And the 'train kept a rollin' all night long" and I'm on a collision course with August 1st.

Math In A Barn

I'd like to thank my wine drinking Wednesday at Vino Villa friend A.O'D for sharing an article with me entitled Math Camp in A Barn: Intensive Instruction, No-Nonsense Discipline. The article was written by Naomi Schaefer Riley on July 18th.  Ms. Riley is the author of "Got Religion: How Churches, Mosques and Synagogues Can Bring Young People Back".  It's a rather lengthy article so I'll give you the abridged version.

Ben Chavis lives on a farm in North Carolina's poorest county.  He previously was a principal at the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland, California.  Most of the 50 or so children who attend his camp are Native Americans.  There are also some who identify as African-American or Hispanic.  Close to half of the children live in families below the poverty line, most households are headed by single mothers and these are the lucky ones.  Several students at math camp are living in group homes, and their parents are often incarcerated or to strung out on drugs to care says Mr. Chavis.  The author, Ms. Riley states at a time when the rest of the country thinks about American Indians mainly for offending team nicknames, Mr. Chavis is addressing the real problems.

Ms. Riley goes on to say if Mr. Chavis provided only a disciplined, safe environment every day, it would be a public service.  But this three week camp is so much more.

• From 8:30am to 4:00pm Monday through Friday the children learn math, interspersed with some reading, physical education and lunch.
• Each student gets 120 hours of instruction during the three weeks, equivalent to what they get in a year at a typical public school.
• Mr. Chavis's farm students don't switch classrooms during the day: the rooms all have restrooms and drinking fountains.
• Teachers drill math concepts over and over.  They use flashcards, ask children to do problems on the dry-erase boards and to compete with one another to get the answers right.
• The closest thing these classrooms have to technology is an electric pencil sharpener.
• Students are given about two hours of homework each night.
• Detention (which can involve anything from washing windows and emptying the garbage to shoveling manure) is given for infractions such as tardiness, talking back to teachers or failing to turn in homework.

According to Ms. Riley the method, as old-fashion as it sounds, works.

In just a matter of a few days I will be back in the classroom and this article got me thinking.  Why is this math camp successful?  Mr. Chavis is working with scholars from a low social economic background and so does my school.  Mr. Chavis is working with scholars from a single parent family and so does my school. Mr. Chavis is working with scholars that have parental units that are either incarcerated or have a chemical dependency are so does my school.  So what is the difference?  It's just one item, he took the scholars out of a marginal to horrible home environment, took them to a farm and sat them in a self contained classroom and starting teaching math without any distractions.  No television, no computer games, no XBox or Play Station, no videos filled with violence like Transformers, no concern about gang activity and drive by shootings, no concern about even leaving the house and getting mugged or worse, no concern about the next meal and it's nutritional value.  There is just school and the incentive to get you homework done to avoid shoveling "stuff".

So now what?  Two things come to mind.  One is math related and the other has to do with Newt Gingrich. I'll start with math because even mentioning Newt Gingrich probably has already ticked some people off. Last school year our scholars spent quite a bit of time playing math related games on the computer.  There is nothing wrong with doing math on a computer except for one thing.  The scholars really didn't put an effort into getting the right answer on the math problem.  They just guessed with the probability that the got the wrong answer but so what.  There were no computer consequences for wrong answers.  Their answer was wrong but the game (a PacMan like game) just continued on to the next level.  The scholars would play for fifteen or twenty minutes and learned very little math.  Going into this school year I have the advantage over the new teacher.  I know where the computers are stored.  I know where the two keys are to gain access to the computers.  I could have one of those senior moments and forget where I placed the keys.  After all, it's been six weeks and I'm old.  Now where exactly did I put those keys.  This year I'm pushing for drill, flashcards, Expo markers and dry-erase boards.  From my view at the back of the room I want to see personally that a scholar can add, subtract, multiply and divide.

Back in 1994 Newt Gingrich riled up the masses by proclaiming that the country needed orphanages for children of welfare families.  His thought was that by removing the child from an unhealthy environment the child could get a proper upbringing and the welfare family, in a lot of instances a single mother, could get her life straightened out by finishing her education and seeking gainful employment.  The idea was vilified by the opposite political party and the news media and it drifted off into oblivion.  It's twenty years later and the welfare state has grown exponentially.  Hundreds of thousands of children that we not fortunate enough to be a member of the lucky sperm club are trapped in a desperate situation.  How much longer can this go on? Fortunately Ben Chavis has found the way to help these children.  He's taking them out of the home and placing them in a healthy learning environment.  He started with fifty children and he has been highly successful.  He has plans to expand his math in a barn to include building an entire charter school on his farm. If Ben Chavis can do this why can't any other city with a large number of children trapped in poverty do this? I suspect funding will be a problem but so will politics.  Too many players in the game of education have staked out their turf.  Public schools, private schools, charter schools and unions all are protecting their turf and no one is going to budge.  That is a sad commentary and maybe some serious thought should be given to removing children from an unhealthy environment.  Placing them in an orphanage like Newt Gingrich wanted to do still won't fly but placing them in a school with housing and run them like a college campus just might be the answer.  If nothing else this will guarantee a scholar one hundred and eighty days of learning free from babies raising babies, poverty, crime and gangs.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog I truly appreciate it.

Dang! And Now He Is Gone

It started out as a simple text message to BaseG and right now I'm not even sure what the message said.  All I know is that the return text message said I need to talk to you in the next thirty minutes will you be available. I didn't like the tone of the message and thoughts immediately began to run through my head as to what the conversation would be about.  When he called in less than ten minutes my thoughts were confirmed, he is leaving the classroom and teaching.

BaseG's decision to leave doesn't surprise me.  There have been a number of occasions where we'd talk about what lies in the future for two guys that work in a very difficult environment.  From my perspective I could leave anytime and I know he's heard from me a number of times that I really don't need to put myself through this.  His situation is a little bit different than mine.  I can depart at any time as I'm old but he is thirty years or more younger than I am and retirement is a ways off.  When we talked on the telephone I was put at ease a little because while he is leaving teaching he is not leaving special education.  His role starting soon will be in the school system education center.  I don't know the exact job description but hopefully he'll be in a position to support special education and the teachers who have committed their lives to educating young scholars with special needs.

So what's in the future for me with BaseG's departure?  Opportunity!  To continue to do what I really like to do, help young scholars with their academics and provide a male presence to scholars who struggle socially, emotionally and in so many instances without a father figure in their life.  As excited as I am about my opportunity I'm also concerned that obstacles may be put in my path as I will be working with a new teacher. What obstacles could there be?  One big one if the new teacher is a control freak who will only delegate to me minor tasks and gofer responsibilities.  So who is this person going to be.  It will be either be a current teacher transferring to our school or a newly graduated teacher and I'm going to add this to the list as I just thought of it.  With about two weeks before school starts it sure as hell better not be a procession of substitute teachers as that has the potential to be a deal breaker.

Do I have a preference for a new classroom teacher?  No, not really.  Well, maybe one.  Having another male teacher would be nice.  Please note this has nothing to do with the ability to teach.  It is based solely on the fact that there are so few adult males in the school.  What do I think is going to happen?  I'll be working with a brand new, recently graduated teacher.  And if I am I certainly hope this young person will not view this wrinkly, gray haired old guy who a certain parental unit once stated doesn't belong in a classroom but a nursing home as an obstacle.  If she/he does it will be a mistake as I've had my view from the back of the room for three years and I can really make the job of teaching much easier for a rookie.

BaseG's departure is disappointing as with him in the room we were truly a man cave.  Two adults and six boys always led to some interesting conversations especially with the scholars.  I'm not going to give you any specifics but I'll give you a hint, we talked about baloney and sausage on a regular basis.  It makes me laugh just thinking about it.  On a more serious note let me say this.  The scholars, all of them that came across BaseG as a teacher advanced academically.  Students that struggled with reading passed IRead3 testing. Students that struggled with math passed ISTEP.  Students that struggled with Language Arts missed passing ISTEP by one question.  Knowing the challenges facing a teacher who works with scholars with emotional disabilities these two accomplishments are huge and may be unprecedented in my school system or any other.

I'm going to miss my friend.  

Dear H.C. the Problem is P.P.P.

While pondering my options during the Medicare sign up process I took a break to read the letters to the editor section of the Indianapolis Star.  One letter was entitled, "More effort needed to keep students in school", was submitted by H.C.  After I finished reading the letter my first thought was H.C. you are neither a teacher nor work in a school.  The following is taken directly from the letter to the editor submitted by H.C.  "Perhaps there is a need for schools to do more to identify potential at-risk students during their early school years and institute special programs involving school administration, the community, the parents and the students designed to ensure the children's successful education."  Interestingly H.C. makes no mention of the teacher in his letter to the editor.

I'm in total agreement with H.C. that potential at-risk scholars need to be identified early in the education process and they are.  If you want to know who the at-risk scholars are don't ask administration, don't as the community, and for God sake don't ask the parents because most at-risk scholars are products of P.P.P., just ask the teacher.  Ok, here you go.  The acronym P.P.P is piss poor parenting.

My view from the back of the room sits right in the middle of the classrooms that teach kindergarten and first grade.  During the last school year I was introduced to five scholars that fall into the category called at-risk and they all came from a kindergarten classroom.  You met one of them, Little Dude, back on the April 16th post.  He was easily the most disruptive but sadly the other four weren't far behind.  It makes me smile a little when I think back to the first time I walked into the kindergarten room and observed the behavior of these five young scholars.  As I walked up to each of them with my best I'm serious and you better straighten up look I was actually thinking young scholar what and the hell is possessing you.  Interestingly when I placed these young scholars on their butts in a chair right next to me in my classroom the disruptive behavior ceased. Well, mostly ceased with the exception being Little Dude.

So the issue of identifying at-risk scholars as H.C. mentioned is not really necessary because the teacher can easily tell you who they are starting in kindergarten.  The real issue is once they are identified what do you do with them.  H.C. mentioned special programs and I'm fine with that with once exception.  Whatever the program is it can't have the word "special" in it as that will assign permanently the tag "special education" and that is a label no scholar deserves.  So, what are our options to get these five young scholars at my school and potentially thousands across the country back on track?  I have two thoughts and they have to be implemented simultaneously.

Here is my first thought, any scholar that is identified as at-risk needs to be removed from the general population and put into a small class size so that the proper attention can be given.  The way I see it this at-risk scholar has been the product of P.P.P. for at least five years.  She/he is way behind socially, emotionally and academically and being in a classroom with fifteen to eighteen other scholars makes it impossible for the teacher to focus on the skills needed to get caught up.  Ideally the class size for these at-risk scholars needs to be limited to five or six.  A class this size immediately causes a funding problem but I guess you have to answer this question.  Do I fund the classroom or just let the at-risk scholar continue to be totally disruptive, struggle in school, drop out in the ninth or tenth grade and then have the potential to turn into a menace to society by getting involved in criminal activities?  I'll let you decide if you are in favor of additional funding or just wash your hands of the whole situation.

Here is the second thought and the one that will be the real challenge.  As a good friend of mine in Michigan said "why don't we teach morals anymore?"  I suspect that it hit a nerve with a few of you but before you go off pontificating state your qualifications to disagree.  Here are my friends qualifications to bring the subject up, thirty five plus years in a classroom and has seen personally the damages caused to hundreds of scholars because a parental unit failed miserably at teaching self respect, having integrity, keeping self control, keep a promise, telling the truth, be tolerant of differences and treat others the way you want to be treated.  In addition to the matter of a lack of morals in school are these two comments from my friend.  I see with my scholars a "permissive parenting style...parents don't tell their kids no which causes a lot of problems." She went on to say I also see the same issues in Flint, MI that you see in Indianapolis, "babies having babies, or teaching girls that they don't have to submit to every guy that comes along and that men take responsibility for their actions."  I don't have nearly the classroom experience that my friend has but I believe see is dead on about the lack of morals being taught in school and that needs to change and quickly.  Still disagree about morals being taught in schools?  Fine!  Just answer these questions.  Do you think an at-risk scholar who is five years old will get lessons in morality from her/his nineteen year old single mother?  Do you think an at-risk scholar who is five years old with get morality lessons from his father who was great at planting his seed but has literally disappeared from the scholars life?

As I said at the beginning H.C. was right in stating more has to be done to identify at-risks students and special programs needs to be developed.  Fortunately the special program that is needed does not need to be developed as it already exists.  It calls Morals 101 and it will fit nicely with the other special programs at my school that we call P.E., music, and art and it needs to start with the 2014/2015 school year.

Tully, Monseigneur, Scholars, Guns and Societies Dregs

I started taking notes for this blog entry a couple weeks ago after reading an article by Indianapolis Star columnist Matthew L. Tully.  Mr Tully's column was about crime data and Indy's gun problems.  I got lazy and stopped thinking about the blog until I attended church this morning and listened to the homily by Monseigneur that was about all the men and women that lost their lives in battle defending our freedom.  That got me thinking about the blog again so here we go.

This is about guns and the potential that sometime down the road all of the scholars that I work with will have access to them.  As a reminder, the scholars I work with have emotional disabilities and can lose their temper real quick.  One scholar in particular (Floss) really scares me when I know from personal observation his obsession with guns, swords, knives, punching, hitting, shooting, stabbing and basically role playing about killing someone or something.  I also know that talking about guns runs the risk of either being attacked from the far right gun toting extremists or the far left nut cases who want to banish squirt guns.  Now that I've probably annoyed one side or probably both I'm good with that.  All I ask is that you use common decency when posting your thoughts in the comments section as well as posting your true identity.  Please keep in mind if you don't play by the rules I'll dump you into the category called societies dregs.

I'm going to start with Mr. Tully, my scholars and to tie this all together the parental units for my scholars.  In his column Mr. Tully wrote about Indy's crime data that showed a "deep Indy gun problem".  He stated that as of mid June there were 70 recorded murders with 61 that involved a gun.  The gist of his column was the "deep seated social problems" that plague our city.  Among the problems listed in our city were the following:

1. No or minimal family support.  From the scholars perspective the following have little or no father figure; CorP, Floss and The Collector.  EM does mention his father but I'm not certain to what extent he enters into his life.
2. A lack of positive role models.  The role model for Yo! is a parental unit that referred to BaseG as a fat ass and said I was to old to teach and belong in a nursing home.  The role model for Straw is a parental unit that uses the N-word with regularity.  I'm not aware of a role model for The Collector unless it's his parental unit or one of her siblings and both have spent time in jail.  Floss has no role model that I'm aware of.  EM plays little league baseball so hopefully his coaches are positive role models.  CorP has the best role model, his great aunt and he lives with her.  I've met her a number of times and she is the great.  Unfortunately, she is regularly battling CorP's dysfunctional mother for custody.  
3. Basic lack of conflict resolution.  Despite numerous discussions about anger management with the scholars conflicts quickly move toward confrontation.  This confrontation can be verbal, physical aggression, near fights or objects thrown.  Despite all of the conflict resolution discussions incidents such as the ones I just mentioned occur repeatedly.
4. A hair trigger mentality.  Fortunately we've avoided any real gun incidents with our scholars.  We've had toy guns a couple times and even a pocket knife but nothing to serious.  What bothers me about Mr. Tully's addition of the hair trigger mentality to his list is Floss.  So many of his actions revolve around violent video games or movies.  We've had numerous incidents with him using classroom art paper to make either swords or knives plus Lego's to make hand guns.  It's scary for me to think that this eleven year old scholar chooses to use he free time making these objects and then role plays using them.

As I review Mr. Tully's list I'm fearful for the scholars.  Why?  Because there is a free flow of guns here in Indy and there shouldn't be.  I'll provide you with an indication of how simple it is to buy a gun regardless of current city and state and federal laws.  Mary and I went to a patio show at the state fair grounds a few weeks ago.  Next to the patio show was the annual visit of the Rod, Gun and Knife Exhibit.  As we were walking across the parking lot I noticed two gentlemen having a conversation.  As we got closer I realized they were negotiating the price of a rifle that one gentleman was holding. The asking price for the rifle was $300 and not further questions asked.  You should also know that police officers directing traffic stood within one hundred feet of this transaction.  I've spent the last two school years with these scholars and to think that they will so easily be able to obtain a gun in five years or less makes me nervous.

Now I'm on to the Monseigneur at our church.  I like the Monseigneur as he keeps the mass short especially at 7:00am.  Forty minutes and done.  I like him for another reason, he doesn't chant the mass.  Thank you Jesus!  For some reason the newly ordained priests like to chant.  Listening to them is like listening to fingernails being scratched on a blackboard.  One of the new priests at our church also liked to use the incense.  This priest  likes blessing things so much with incense he swings the incense burner around like he was doing a loop da loop with a Duncan yoyo.  Sorry Sister Judine I'll do a few more Hail Mary's and Our Father's. Ok! Let's get back on track.

During his Sunday homily Monseigneur made a request to say prayers for the police officer killed in the line of duty and for the seven citizens that were shot while walking on a sidewalk over the weekend.  He then proceeded to thank all off of the veterans for their service to our country on this 4th of July weekend.  After that he made this statement.  I wonder if all of the veterans of all of the wars who sacrificed so much would step up again to defend our freedoms in today's environment where guns are so easily obtained and used so violently because someone bumped into you while walking on a sidewalk.  That caused me to pause and think and I suspect you may be doing the same thing.

The citizens of this country have the right bear arms but at what cost.  Seven people were shot and a police officer killed in Indianapolis this weekend.  Eighty two people shot in Chicago on the same weekend. All because some dreg with little regard for another persons life can obtain a gun in places like a parking lot at the state fair grounds.  All because this same dreg who spent his entire life making poor choices probably places little value on his own life.  Sadly nothing is going to change anytime soon.  Political action committees on both sides of the gun issue have crammed so much money into the pockets of politicians that they will do nothing to stop the violence rather than upset their cash cow which is needed to get re-elected.  Even sadder is the fact that in less than five years my scholars and thousands of others like them with serious anger control issues can easily buy a gun.  That scares me and I fear that one day when I open the newspaper I'll read the name Floss and next to his name are the letters DOA.