Who Pooped In The........

Did I mention that I really like to read out loud?  Did I mention that while reading out loud I will thoroughly make a fool of myself if that is what it takes to get a scholar to pay attention?  Well I do and I have and I've been doing it for over a week.  It even gets better because if you read our class schedule that is posted in three different locations in the classroom it states that at 1:00pm Mr. Schultz reads.  That is so cool.  I wasn't sure what the scholars reaction would be so I choose books that I thought would interest them.  Here are a few that I've read.  "Salt In My Shoes" that was written by Michael Jordan's mother with help from his sister.  "Mr. Peabody's Apple" that was written by Madonna (yes Elaine that Madonna) is a story about a man who is falsely accused of stealing an apple.  "Owl Moon" is a story about a father who takes his daughter on a midnight walk in the woods to search for the Great Horned Owl.  Yes, I imitated the owl call.  Do you want to hear it?  You do!  Whoo, whoo, who, who, who, whoooooo.  Pretty good hey!  All three books are fairly short but have great illustrations that I like to show and talk about.  After I finish each book I ask for a thumbs up or a thumbs down on the book. So far I've received all thumbs up.  Gnu joins the group when I read and one day she decided to test the scholars recall about the story.  She took a piece of art paper and folded it in half long way and then cut out four tabs on the top fold and labeled the tabs Characters, Setting, Problem and Solution.  She then met with the scholars and told them to write down the information requested on each tab on the second page of the folded sheet of art paper.  I was fully prepared to hear whining but was pleasantly surprised that each scholar started working on the task.  Gnu and I had to help a lot with writing complete sentences and correcting spelling but each scholar completed the task and then enjoy talking about the story and what they wrote.  This may should pretty trivial to some but let me tell you this.  The reading and book summary writing kept the scholars on task for over forty five minutes and given the challenges our scholars face staying focused and having to write anything that is a huge block of time.

Before moving on I think I'll tell you about the most popular book I've read.  This book was so interesting that the scholars had to get up from where they were seated and stand behind me to see the pictures.  So every one knows I have a copy of this book at home and I've read it to my daughter so don't go getting in a huff.  "Who Pooped In The Park?" is a story that takes place in Yosemite National Park and yes, it is about poop identification.  It is also about paw print identification, animal identification and determining what direction an animal is walking so you can avoid contact.  Twice while reading and looking at pictures of poop we were delayed.  The first time was when we were looking at "buffalo chips".  When I told the scholars you could throw them like a frisbee when they were thoroughly dried out they didn't believe me.  The second time was when we were looking at a comparison picture of deer and rabbit poop in comparison to jelly beans.  So you know the jelly bean display was in color just like jelly beans are supposed to be.  I identified the rabbit and deer poop first and then asked if anyone had any idea what the third poop was.  No one ventured a guess.  I had to tell them it was jelly beans.  Pitiful!

Time to change the subject.  This week was a week of firsts.  The first scholar, Uh-Uh-Uh, was absent.  The first object was thrown, EM.  For the first time a scholar used a somewhat aggressive behavior towards himself by hitting himself in the head with a small white board, also EM.  Gnu put a reward mechanism in place that uses play money and we had a scholar steal some of the money and put it in his envelope, Yo! Twice!  We had our first seizure, Yo!  We had a scholar turn in a writing assigned and when Gnu tried to read what was written the handwriting was so poor she crumpled up the paper and tossed it in the wastebasket.  She then told the scholar to rewrite the paper so it looks like something written by a fourth grader, The Collector.  This action really put a smile on my face.  Did I mention that so far I really like this teacher?  We had our first bus incident on Wednesday morning, Yo!  We had our second bus incident on Wednesday afternoon, Yo!  We had our first bus suspension, guess who.  We had our first announcement that we will be getting a new student, Monday or Tuesday of next week.  As I sit here thinking about the past week I'm thinking behavioral issues are increasing but it doesn't bother me as my view from the back of the room is of scholars with behavioral issues.  As you've read about the behavioral issues I don't want you to get the impression that we had a bad week.  We didn't.  We had an excellent week academically and the reason I returned was to do academics so I'm feeling good.  Opps!  Quick delete "good" and enter "great" as after all "good" refers to how food tastes and we are talking about feelings and not food.

I hope my wife doesn't read this next paragraph as she will cringe.  So you know she has never and will never step foot into this restaurant.  Occasionally on a Friday I'll stop on my way to school and have breakfast.  I don't have a lot of time so I stop at a fast food joint that I'm sure everyone has heard about.  It's called White Castle.  During this visit I was immediately told as I stepped up to the counter that I had to pay cash only as the computer (cash register) was down.  No problem as the underwear fairy stopped recently and left me some cash in my dresser drawer.  So I placed my order for two breakfast sandwiches, a medium hash round and a small coffee.  Before I go any farther I have to mention that I am wearing a shirt with our school name and mascot on it.  The person taking my order turns and walks to a chart on the wall and quickly scans her finger down the list.  She then turns to me and says how does $3.50 sound?  I said it sounds great but to be honest with you I think you should charge me $5.50 as I've ordered this meal before.
She agrees and then notices my shirt and says, hey I graduated from that school.  The only thing I could think of to say was really.

There is a big push nationally to get workers in the fast food industry a raise to $15.00 per hour.  The argument is that people can't make a living making minimum wage.  I'm thinking if you think you are worth $15.00 you sure as hell better be able to add four numbers together and then add a percentage for sales tax when your cash register breaks.  If you can't then when your paycheck arrives it will contain your pay check with a pay rate of around $8.50 and an application to go back to school so you can learn how to simple math.

Thank you again for reading my blog.  By the way, I've had readers from twelve different countries visit my blog so far.  I wonder if there are White Castle's in Central American and Europe?