Five Down and One Hundred and Seventy Five To Go

God is going to die today.  Those are not my words.  That is a statement made by a 1st grade scholar to a member of the school staff and was relayed to me.  Not exactly how I wanted to start the year.  I thought after three years at this school I might be a little thicker skinned and those odd to totally bizarre statements would not affect me. This one did.  Man, what could possibly make a 1st grade scholar say something like that.  Hopefully our school psychologists, social worker, behavior therapist, behavior specialist and teacher can react quickly and help this young scholar.

A new school year has started and I feel the need to remind people that the events that are talked about are real but the names are totally made up.  If your imagination runs wild and you think you know someone you are mistaken.

That huge, really big desk with the gold trim is now occupied by Gnu.  Phd?Sparty has been replaced by IvyL and I couldn't be happier.  The man cave that I was part of last year has dissolved as we have a female in the room this year.  I still have my view from the back of the room and I'm happy to be there.

Here are the scholars.

• The Collector has returned and takes on the role as the elder statesman of the room and is now in the 4th grade.
• Yo! has returned and is in the 4th grade.
• EM has returned and has been promoted to the 3rd grade.  If you read my last blog you will know my disappointment in his promotion,
• Uh-Uh-Uh is new to the classroom and is in the 2nd grade.

The other staff members.

• The Big B is still in charge.
• IvyL supports both of the Emotional Disability classrooms.
• Oreo also supports both of the Emotional Disability classrooms plus numerous other scholars with behavior issues.  She may have the most challenging job in the school and that is why I support her every time she calls.
• Duck is a teacher that supports all the Emotional Disability scholars and other teachers that have scholars that present serious challenges.  
• BaseG is now part of the elite staff with a big office downtown.  I'm glad to mention that he has been on site and involved with the beginning of the school year.  That has helped tremendously with the transition that took place at the front of the room.
• The In School Suspension position that was filled by Gee last year is not occupied.  In fact our school staff plan does not even show the position as vacant. 

All though this may be premature I think I'll introduce a couple scholars that I probably will get to know real well by the end of the year.  Keep in mind these scholars are not assigned to my room but may enter on occasion for time outs and if necessary get to meet the inside of the time out room.

• WhiteE is a kindergarten scholar.  I've met him three times in the last two days.  Any angry scholar who has kicked me in the shin several times.
• Grrrrr! is in the 1st grade.  I've met him twice.  On the first encounter he was with Oreo and she called me for some assistance with him.  He was so angry that he was practically rigid.  Fists clenched, jaw set so tight his teeth had to hurt and he'd just growl at me.  He also kicked me twice which led to his being introduced to our time out room.  While in the time out room he got to meet the Big B.  My second encounter with Grrrr! was today (Friday morning) as Oreo again contacted me for assistance. When I arrived Grrrr!'s parental unit was in the room.  The parental unit was meeting with Oreo to put together a plan to work on Grrrr!'s issues.  As the parental unit tried to leave Grrrr! insisted on going home with her so my job was to keep him in the room so his parental unit could leave.  When I walked in he immediately went into his angry looked.  I said good morning to him.  He proceeded to back up against the far wall.  He then grabbed Oreo's office chair on wheels and banged it into other chairs in the room.  I stepped up between him and the other chairs so he decided to bang the chair into my legs.  I mentioned that he needed to make better decisions or he would end up in the time out room again.  He decided to ram the chair into me one more time and then retreat to the far back wall. He then proceeded to use all of the chairs in the room to build a defensive wall to hide behind so I couldn't get to him.  His wall was a little ragged so I pointed out a few gaps in the wall where I could get through.  He walked up and adjusted there chairs per my instructions.  When I mentioned that there were chairs on my side of the wall that he could use he came around his wall and started to push the chairs into position.  They were a little heavier and on carpet so I helped him move them.  When he realized that he was on the wrong side of his defensive wall he retreated.  Right after that another teacher (Duck) arrived to help Oreo and I returned to my classroom.  One last time, I don't make this stuff up.

Here are a few highlights from the week.  On a daily basis the scholars will have Yoga lessons from either IvyL or Oreo.  The computers are still in the room but they have not been turned on.  Not once and that will not change for the foreseeable future.  Why?  Yo! got caught trying to log on.  The keyboards have mysteriously disappeared.  I like that as the computers were nothing but a source of irritation last year.  The afternoon choice time is fifteen minutes and the activity has been a board game called Life.  Our Group Social Skills session that is led by IvyL and Oreo has been expanded from one day a week to five days a week.  I spoke with The Collector's parental unit.  She informed me that he is out a medication and she can't find the prescription.  That caught me off guard as so far this week The Collector has been a pretty good scholar.  In the past when he was off his medication he was very active/disruptive and could not focus on anything for more than a minute.  So his good behavior without medication makes me wonder what changed. EM has started to write his complete first and last name on his papers.  That is a first for him and he seems pretty pleased with himself for being able to do that.  Now if we can just get him to read.  Uh-Uh-Uh who we thought was going to be a handful has been quiet and on task all week.  In fact if we had a student of the week it would be Uh-Uh-Uh.  We'll see how long that lasts.

That's it.  I'm out.  Thank you again for visiting my blog.