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.
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.
Keep up the GREAT work.
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