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.
AMEN BROTHER
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