Winter Break?

The politically correct crowd has been annoying me quite a bit lately so this is the price you pay for doing that, it's not winter break, it's Christmas break and if you don't like it, oh well.  Actually, I had to censor that comment as my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse was looking over my shoulder as I wrote it.  Because of my advanced stage of evolving, as Keith Richards of the Rolling Stone calls the aging process, I'm not certain, but I think my first year of schooling started in 1955.  I'm a product of a Catholic and public school education beginning in 1955 through 1967 and the break from school we got in December was called Christmas break.  And even better, my friends from the public school systems also called it Christmas break for one simple reasons, they are all Christians.  So, I'm resurrecting Christmas break but will also recognize those that celebrate different holidays in December, To my Jewish friends, Happy Hanukkah, to my Swedish friends, Happy St. Lucia Day, to my Latino friends, Happy Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to my other Christian friends, Happy Saint Nicholas Day, to my Muslim friends, and I worked with several of them in my first career and I'm proud to call them my friends, Happy Ramadan, Happy Eid al-Fitr, and Happy Eid' ul-Adha.

Despite Gnu's best efforts, academics took a bit of a break during the week due to the many school activities that took place.  We had a Just Be Kind Choir event, a PreK and Kindergarten singing production, a first through third grade singing production where Grr! and Uh-Uh-Uh were positioned front row center, a Grinch fun day, pictures with Santa Claus, live music in the cafeteria thanks to a fellow instructional assistant and his wife playing saxophone and piano respectively, individual classroom celebrations that, despite the politically correct crowds attempt at destroying fun in the classroom, included cookies, cup cakes, cinnamon buns, hot chocolate and candy.  I'm pretty sure at this point I can feel the First Lady of the United States cringe as all this politically incorrect food was consumed.  Academically, we continued learning about frogs in our reading block.  In this particular instance we read about and discussed the poison dart frog and the assortment of colors they come in.  Using the iPads when discussing these frogs continues to be a real asset as the scholars can zoom in for close up pictures, go to YouTube to observe these frogs in videos and also to hear the various frog calls.  It continues to amaze me when I observed the differences in the scholars wanting to learn when using the internet to study a subject rather than just looking at a picture in a book.

I have a few more item to discuss and then I'm out, after all, it is Christmas break.

• You were introduced to Knapper and his posse during the last blog post.  I have an update on Knapper's posse and I'm pretty impressed.  Knapper's parental units, both of them, are committed to getting him the help he needs.  Because of this commitment Knapper gets what is called "wrap around" service.  This essentially is a service that visits Knapper at school and at home.  During these visits behavioral specialist coach both Knapper and his parental units on how to deal with the anger issues.  I've been in this school for three and a half years and this is the first time that I've encountered a parental unit this committed to getting their scholar the help that is needed.
• EM and the basketball team finished the year undefeated with a record of 5-0.  I spoke with EM's coach in the gym following the last game and he told me for the first time EM positioned himself in an open area on the court and a teammate passed him the ball giving him his first shot of the season.  As the ball left EM's hand the coach was sure it was going in.  Sadly, the ball rattled around the rim for a short time but didn't go in.  The coach told me he was so upset that the ball didn't go in that "he wanted to toss a chair."  Despite not scoring a point EM did get a lot of playing time and that brings a smile to my face for one huge reason, EM has that label, special education, attached to him and "those" scholars don't get opportunities to play organized sports that often.  Well, EM just proved them wrong and he did so with the help of all these individuals, former teacher BaseG, current teacher Gnu, former behavior therapist PhD*Sparty, former behavior therapist IvyL, behavior specialist Oreo, and one instructional assistant who has sat side by side with EM longer that all the other individuals listed.
• While I knew in advance that Santa Claus was going to be in the school during the week I did forget one critical item, MiniJ is scared to death of Santa Claus.  I was made aware of this last school year by IvyL as she took MiniJ for a weekend trip that included a stop at a shopping mall.  As IvyL told me, when MiniJ saw Santa Claus at the mall he practically freaked out.  At first IvyL didn't know what was going on but eventually realized it was Santa Claus and she immediately left the area.  When it came time for our class to go and have their picture taken with Santa Claus, MiniJ declined.  Not only did he decline, he absolutely refused to even leave the classroom.  I know, that is pretty sad but there is an upside.  Despite his fear of Santa Clause, MiniJ still hopes Santa Claus with bring him some presents.
• The BigB's advisory committee decided, a few weeks ago, to start an "act of scholarship" program.  Briefly, if a scholar at any grade level does something exceptional academically they can earn an act of scholarship.  The teacher submits the form and the BigB reads the academic accomplishment over the public address system to the whole school.  After the announcement is made the scholar being recognized is then given an act of scholarship certificate.  So far, Uh-Uh-Uh, Grr!, and MiniJ have earned academic recognition.  The program was off to a great start until one morning as the BigB was reading the acts of scholarship this one was mentioned.  "The following scholars received an act of scholarship for math mastery."  So far, so good, but then in order to reach mastery a scholar needed to score about seventy five percent.  Sorry, but that mastery level needs to be raise to a much higher level.
• For the last several school years each classroom is assigned a buddy classroom during the holiday season.  This year our class was matched with the PreK scholars.  Gnu did all of the legwork to make this work and on Friday morning we visited the PreK scholars in their classroom.  Gnu was told in advance that the PreK scholars were discussing reindeer and they even sampled pretend reindeer food.  To continue the theme Gnu or someone besides me decided to bring reindeer poop to the PreK scholars.  Again, I don't make this stuff up and this was not my idea.  Gnu originally wanted the scholars to sing "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer" to the PreK scholars but decided that it was too risky so I got to read.  My book of choice, one that I've read at Christmas time going back longer than Gnu is old is "The Night Before Christmas."  When I told my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse what I read she said to me, "did you read the story the way the author wrote it or did you read you version of the story?"  I told her there were too many people in the classroom that I didn't know very well so I stuck to the author's version.  The reading session went quite well and so you know, the reindeer poop was miniature Hersey's chocolate kisses. 

That's about it for today but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention two more items.  During the live music session in our cafeteria the musicians played Oh Little Town of Bethlehem.  Take that politically correct crowd.  While sitting at my desk with my view from the back of the room I read one of my favorite books to our scholars, "The Clown of God."  Take that politically correct crowd.  And one last thing, I'm on Christmas break so MERRY CHRISTMAS everybody.

Is It Broke?

Things are rapidly changing but before I provide you with an updated scholar listing I have to tell you about a comment made by MiniJ a few days ago.  MiniJ speaking, "I have a lizard.  He's little and I let him out of his cage so he can run around.  When he runs around, he eats the bed bugs."  As a reminder, I don't make this stuff up.

EM - 4th grade
MiniJ - 3rd grade
Uh-Uh-Uh - 3rd grade
Grr! - 2nd grade
Prophet - 2nd grade, I think
Short Time - 4th grade
Knapper - 3rd grade

If you've been keeping up, you can see that we added another scholar and Gnu has also been informed that we have the potential to add two more scholars.  The latest addition is Knapper and he is the most unique addition as he comes with a posse.  I haven't figured out why yet, but Knapper has a mentor that made an appearance shortly after he arrived in the classroom.  This mentor asked to speak with Knapper privately in the hallway, Gnu agreed, and out the door they went.  The conversation between Knapper and his mentor lasted less than five minutes and Knapper returned to the room.  What did they talk about?  Who knows?  Knapper has a second posse member that has not made and appearance, but and don't hold this to me, this person may be responsible for seeing that Knapper gets all of the services that he is required to get from our school corporation.  This posse member is making Gnu nervous as she is concerned that this person may be monitoring her to be sure she is providing the services that she is supposed to provide.  To put Gnu at ease I said, "you manage the classroom very well and your focus on academics has more than double that of any other classroom teacher that I've seen in this room so relax."  Gnu thanked me for the words of encouragement but went on to say that she thinks the special education program provide by our school corporation is "broke."

Right after the "broke" comment the academic day began and I let the matter drop.  A couple hours later I brought up the subject.  The conversation between Gnu and I got a little animated, actually, she got a little animated, I did my best to stay calm.  For the record, her getting animated was not directed at me be at our school corporation.  I'll try and give you the abridged version.  "Schultz, how long have we been waiting for a decision on what to do with Prophet," Gnu stated.  "Weeks," I say.  "Correct, and why do you think it is taking so long?" she says.  "Either it's not a priority," I say, "or maybe the overhead personnel are waiting for our winter break and will deal with it next year."  "Exactly," Gnu said, "and that is the problem."  "Prophet has been in this school for approximately two and a half years and this school does not have the ability to provide him with the services he needs," she continued.  "That is why I say it's broke.  Prophet needs help now and all we get are delays."  "Schultz, do you know why Knapper practically appeared in our classroom out of no where?" "Yes, his behavior in a general education classroom was a problem," I say.  Gnu states, "exactly, and just because Knapper has been disruptive in a general education classroom they move him to our room so the other scholars in his room will not be disturbed.  What does that say about our classroom.  Do our scholars deserve an education without disruptions?  Apparently, not at the same level as a general education classroom and keep in mind, my future as a teacher, and my salary increases, all depend on our scholars doing well on the state mandated tests.  Knapper is in our room.  The general education teacher is probably doing cartwheels and we are handed another scholar with anger issues and it happened in a matter of days while Prophet waits weeks."  That's crazy, and Gnu is right, the system is broke.

It's fun Friday or as I like to call it, Mr. Schultz gets to clean up the mess day.  The morning announcements just ended and Gnu has listed on the white board at the front of the room today's class schedule.  She lists our math block and our reading block and then in position three it states in big bold letters in alternating red and brown colors, BROWNIES.  The scholars all respond, "are we having brownies today, Momma D?"  Gnu responds, "only if you get all of your work done."  A couple hours later all the work is completed and the scholars want to know when they can eat the brownies.  Gnu responds, "the brownies are in these two boxes and you can eat them right after you make them."  EM responds, "we don't know how to make brownies."  "Everything you need to make brownies is on my table and the instructions are on the boxes.  I'll break you into two teams and you can get started."  In an instant, EM, MiniJ, and Knapper are at my desk in the back of the room.  "Mr. Schultz, can you help us make the brownies?"  "No!"  "The directions are on the box, read them and hurry up so I can eat a brownie," I say.  Less than a minute later, MiniJ is next to me.  "Mr. Schultz, how do you know how much to put in this measuring cup?"  "You need one quarter cup of vegetable oil, fill it to this line," I say.  MiniJ takes the cap off the vegetable oil and promptly pours some in the measuring cup, some on my hands, and some on my table.  EM is in charge of water.  "Mr. Schultz, how much should I put in this measuring cup?"  Take it to the sink, fill it up with water to this line and while you are at the sink, bring me some paper towels so I can clean up this mess you made on my desk," I say.  Knapper has the egg.  "Mr. Schultz, can I put the egg in now?"  "Yes, but be sure to get the egg in the bowl and not on my desk."  The egg was successfully opened.  EM speaking, "Mr. Schultz what should be do now?"  I say, "maybe you should add the brownie mix."  MiniJ speaking, "where is the brownie mix, Mr. Schultz?"  Oh my God, give me the strength.  "Maybe you should look inside that box you are holding," I say.  Finally, the brownies are ready for the oven and I'm off to our kitchen.

It's 2:30pm and it's brownie eating time.  Both batches turned out just fine.  Gnu has everyone at the front table and the scholars are taste testing the brownies.  All the scholars are satisfied with the brownies and then Gnu pulls out the chocolate frosting and M&M's to add to the brownies.  "Mr. Schultz, Mr. Schultz, we have frosting and M&M's for the brownies," and now the scholars are going into overload.  "Really!" I say.  "Great!  Put some of each on a brownie and bring it to me."  "Don't forget to wash your hands before you touch my brownie."

That's it.  Another week in the books.  I'll leave with you with two things.  First, over the last seven days my blog had fifty-two page views from Russia.  Second, and I'm pretty sure I mentioned this before, and in case I didn't, I'm working with a really good teacher and I couldn't be happier.

I'm out.  Thanks for continuing to follow along. 

She Doesn't Deserve This

Basketball Update:  EM and his teammates are still undefeated at 3-0.  The last game was a blowout so EM got to play an entire quarter of the game.  It's been interesting to watch him.  Prior to getting selected to the basketball team he didn't speak very much to others scholars outside our classroom.  Now, when we are rotating to our specials classes and he sees a teammate in the hallway he'll call his teammate by name and say "hi."  It may not sound like a big deal to you, but this is a pretty special moment.  While academics is Gnu's main focus, improving the scholars social skills runs a close second, so watching EM advance socially is pretty exciting stuff.  Sadly, however, this was the only good news of the week. 

Prophet, a scholar from a Life Skills classroom, joined us a few weeks ago on a trial basis.  While in his assigned classroom, Prophet was much larger than the other scholars and was essentially bullying all the scholars in his room.  To provide a safe environment in the Life Skills classroom Gnu agreed to allow Prophet to attend classes in our room.  This was strictly a trial to see how well he'd fit in and not a permanent situation.  Well, with a few weeks of Prophet in our room, it's obvious to Gnu and I that this is not working as he is a huge distraction.  Prophet's IQ, I've been told is very low, and right now his academic abilities are limited to simple number and letter identification along with coloring.  Prophet's math skills are pretty much non-existent and his reading ability is limited to just a few words.  Gnu and I both agree that there is little we can do for him because the services he needs are well outside what we can offer.  Knowing this, Gnu started the process of having a case conference with Prophet's parental unit, the overhead staff that supports our classroom, plus the overhead staff that supports the Life Skills classroom.  Getting this conference schedule was an effort in frustration for Gnu as Prophet's parental unit seemed to have disappeared as this parental unit would not answer the phone or return messages left on the phone.  To add to the frustration, some of the overhead personnel that Gnu contacted about the conference completely failed to even respond to the email messages she sent to them.  Gnu's frustration is growing, I'm getting agitated and then while passing Prophet's teacher of record in the hallway this teacher asks for a minute of my time.  "Mr. Schultz," he says, "I don't know if I should tell you this, or tell Gnu, but you're here now so I'll tell you."  "Prophet's parental unit was shot and killed a couple days ago.  A few hours later, Prophet's teacher of record walked into our classroom and told Gnu the news.  Her reaction was similar to mine, silence with the head shaking in a way that said, Oh my God! why did this have to happen.

With all of the parties to the case conference aware of what just took place, the case conference was quickly scheduled.  All the invited school corporation personnel attended as well as Prophet's grandmother and an aunt that lives out of state.  Prophet's remaining parental unit was not even invited which should give you an idea of what a wonderful parental unit this is.  As Gnu relayed to me after the meeting, she was pretty frustrated with the proceedings.  Apparently the school corporation overhead personnel were mostly focused on maintaining the status quo.  Gnu, out of frustration, stated the following to this group of people, we can't keep doing the same thing as it is not working.  She went on to say that Prophet has been in our school corporation for at least three years and he is not getting the services he needs to address the issues that he has.  Considering that Gnu's superiors were in the room she made a real strong statement that may have ruffled a few feathers but what she said was dead on accurate and I'm proud of her.  The meeting ended and little was accomplished as who gets or wants custody of Prophet needs to be resolved before we can move forward.  The person given custody, probably the grandmother, will now be the parental unit of record for Prophet and the decision maker going forward.  Unfortunately, this will take a while as the government and court system will need to be involved and who knows how long it will take these entities to make a decision.  For the record, I'm thinking months.

It's 9:15am and all the scholars are sitting around my table at the back of the room.  Gnu is with us as we need to go over some rules as we are about to get a new scholar.  The first rule, introduce yourself to the new scholar and be nice as you can probably recall how you felt on the first day you walked into this classroom, Gnu told the scholars.  The second rule, and the one that is of most importance to Gnu and I is the location of a safe place if something bad should happen in the classroom.  With everyone listening to Gnu, she asks the scholars for the location of our safe place.  They all respond immediately, Oreo's office.  "Good," Gnu says, "and remember when you are told to leave the classroom, do it quickly and take any worksheets you are working on with you."

ShortTime is our new scholar.  He is in the fourth grade and according to his individual education plan (IEP) he has a track record of being very aggressive.  He also falls into the oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) category and neither Gnu nor I deal well with ODD scholars. 

Thursday morning, Gnu speaking to me, "ShortTime will be here today.  He will arrive late as his parental unit put him on the wrong bus and sent him to the wrong school."  Dear lowest life form and the pointy headed intellectuals that fill the heads of the lowest life forms with worthless drivel, stop beating up the teachers and start challenging the parental units who have managed to royally screw up their scholars lives.  ShortTime arrived a little after 10:00am and we caught a bit of a break as he only goes to school half days so he leaves at 12:00 noon.  At 11:40am I take him to lunch before he leaves for home.  At 11:55am we are at the exit door awaiting the arrival of the bus.  ShortTime and I are standing between the two exit doors at the west end of the building as the bus is late.  With nothing but time on his hands ShortTime decides to start climbing up the window ledges between the two doors.  Three different times I ask him to stop and true to his ODD issues he does the opposite and continues to climb.  While standing on the window ledge he tries to walk across the door handles on the exit door to the other side of the entryway.  While doing this ShortTime pushes the switch on the door that automatically opens the exit door.  Twice I tell him to stop.  As you can guess, he continues.  Finally the bus arrives and ShortTime gets on without incident.  While talking to the bus driver, as this is ShortTime's first day at school I can hear him speaking to the bus monitor.  I hear, quite clearly two words, B-Word and F-Word come from ShortTime's mouth.  I look at the bus driver and say to him, "you might want to make your first stop at his house so you don't have to put up with him."

It's Friday at 4:10pm.  The scholars have been gone for approximately twenty minutes.  All the chairs, except one, have been picked up so the custodians can clean the classroom.  Gnu is sitting at her table in the front of the room and I'm sitting in Grr!s chair, it's real quiet.  "What are we going to do?" she says.  "With Prophet staying for who knows how long and ShortTime arriving, I'll have to redo all my lesson plans."  I don't have a response.  For the first time in three and a half school years I don't know what to say to a teacher that asked me for an opinion.  My official title is Instructional Assistant but I preferred to be called obstacle remover.  Today I couldn't fulfill my role as an obstacle remover.  I stood up, place Grr!'s chair on his desk and headed for the door.

When Prophet arrived Gnu had an agreement with the overhead personnel of our school corporation that stated that no new scholars will be admitted into the classroom as long as Prophet was in the room.  Despite this agreement, ShortTime arrived, thanks to the overhead personnel.  There is a term to describe what the overhead personnel just did. I'm thinking of one particular word and I'm thinking some of you may be thinking of the same word.  I don't like what happened one bit and there is no damn way this should have happened to Gnu.  She doesn't deserve this.

Thanks for your continued reading.  I don't think the next few weeks will be a picnic in the classroom.  Keep Gnu in your prayers as this is going to be difficult.  I'm out.






  





      

More Nonsense and I'm Getting Agitated

I haven't done listed the scholars and staff for a while but feel the need to do so as there have been a number of new readers recently.  To help them avoid confusion here are the key players.

Scholars                                                                        

EM - 4th grade                                                               
MiniJ - 3rd grade                                                       
Uh-Uh-Uh - 3 grade grade                                                                                        
Grr! - 2nd grade
The Collector - former scholar
Wide - former scholar
Straw - former scholar
Leftside - former scholar
Floss - former scholar
Prophet - not sure of his grade, temporary scholar

Staff

Gnu - Teacher
Me - Instructional Assistant
Knew2 - Teacher
Oreo - Behavior Support
Duck - Behavior Support
Big B - In charge of the place
Open (replacing IvyL) - Behavior Support

The iPads that were purchased several weeks ago, by some very generous people, are really getting a workout.  During our reading block we've been reading hard copy chapter books with great success.  This past week Gnu switched to reading iBooks and now the scholars have to go on-line to read.  Gnu downloaded the book, Bullfrog on Magnolia Circle, by Deborah Dennard and Illustrated by Kristin Kest, onto the iPads.  When Gnu introduced the new book to the scholars they asked her for their copy of the book and she replied "you don't get a book this time."  You could see immediately the scholars disappointment as they like to have their own copy of the book when we are reading.  Gnu went on to say that in order to read this book you have to get an iPad so let's go get them.  MiniJ speaking, "Mr. Schultz, Mr. Schultz, we are going to read a book on the iPad."  "Great!" I say.  "Remember to be careful when you get one from Gnu so you don't drop it."

Gnu and I are pretty certain that this is the first time any of the scholars read a book on-line so it was pretty interesting to watch them using the iPad.  As we were reading the book they discovered the zoom in feature and their excitement escalated when they could zoom in on a picture of a bullfrog and other objects in the story.  I should note at this point that the illustrations in this book were very impressive and even I enjoyed the zoom feature.  The other item they learned about was Siri although we are having second thoughts about showing them how to use this iPad feature.  The first search was for a bullfrog calling to a potential mate and next thing you know this is a chorus of bullfrog sounds coming from the iPads.  The second search was for the size of a bullfrog and how long was it's tongue. I wish I kept track of the times I heard, "Miss Gnu or Mr. Schultz, did you hear that or see this" from the scholars.  Despite the scholars enthusiasm with using the iPads for reading I also learned a little something myself as I walked around observing the scholars as one of the scholars, probably MiniJ, figured out how to post a background picture on the iPad.  When I held up the iPad with a picture of an NBA player as the background I immediately got a "that's Stephen Curry, Mr. Schultz," from MiniJ and as he spoke he went into his best air-basketball imitation of Stephen Curry stepping back and knocking down a three.  The picture of Stephen Curry was harmless but my radar detector went up to remind me to keep an eye on these enterprising young scholars to see what else they have been getting into on the iPad.

Real quick, speaking of basketball.  EM and his teammates are undefeated at 2-0.  He got to play an entire quarter in the last game and he informed me that the referee's didn't know what they were doing because he was called for traveling and he insisted that he wasn't traveling.  It sure didn't take this young scholar long to learn how to complain about the referees.

A little while ago Gnu received a directive on how to properly record our daily attendance.  The directive came from the our school corporation but was initiated by the state department of education.  So you can see the nonsense that comes from pointy headed intellectuals at the highest levels of education in this state I'll outline the attendance policy for you.  Before I get started, a little background information.  We have six buses arrive every day.  The scholars cannot get off the bus until 8:45am.  From their they go immediately into the breakfast line and join all the car riders and walkers that are in line.  All totaled 400+ so scholars get breakfast so it takes time to get them through the breakfast line.

This attendance policy will be followed or you risk getting your hand slapped!

1. If a scholar arrives in the classroom at 9:05am or later, this scholar is tardy and you must record the scholar as tardy on your on-line attendance record. 
2. If this scholar that is tardy does not have a tardy pass from the front office you must send this scholar to the front office to get a tardy pass.  With a tardy pass in hand, the scholar can now return to the classroom.  When the scholar hands you the tardy pass you can throw it away.
3. The person at the front office that issued the tardy pass can also now record the scholar as tardy on your on-line attendance record.  Please check your on-line attendance record to confirm that this action took place. 
4. You must turn in your on-line attendance record for the first time by 9:30am.
5. At the end of the school day, between 3:30pm and 4:00pm, you have to revisit your on-line attendance record and confirm that your on-line attendance record is accurate.  If a scholar is listed as tardy but arrived at school you can now change the scholar to present.  Once you have finalized your on-line attendance record for the day you are complete.
6. As a reminder, this is how you will fill our your on-line attendance record every day of the year.  If there is a pattern of non-compliance you will get you hand slapped.

Signed, Pointy Headed Intellectual, who occupies an overhead position in an office in the heart of Indianapolis, who makes thousands of dollars a year, and contributes absolutely nothing to the classroom.

To add to this nonsense, every day I record our attendance on a hard copy attendance record.  It gets picked up daily by a scholar from our life skills class and it eventually gets dropped off at our front office.  I've been keeping this hard copy attendance record for three and a half school years and I have no idea what the office personnel do with it.  All I know is when I arrive at school the next day this hard copy attendance record is in Gnu's mailbox.  I then pick it up, take it to the classroom and repeat the process for another day.

The school week that begins on November 30th is going to be interesting.  First, their is a case conference for Prophet that will decide this scholar's future at our school.  Second, there is the potential that we will get a new scholar from another school corporation.  We've been told that this scholar has a pretty high volatility level and his present school corporation was going to move him to home bound (the scholar does not attend school, school work is delivered to the house is how I believe it works) because of his volatility level.  However, because the parental unit for this scholar relocated into our school corporation, the home bound process is stopped, and he may attending our school and sitting in our classroom.  Third, we may be getting a new scholar that will transfer to our classroom from our school.  Twice recently, the school corporation police have visited our school due to this scholar's behavior.   Fourth, a scholar from our school is being evaluated to determine if this scholar belongs in a classroom for emotionally handicapped scholars.  I have mentioned this scholar previously, I referred to him as Tourette.  Finally, another scholar from our school is being evaluated to determine if this scholar belongs in a classroom for emotionally handicapped scholars.  I also know this scholar, a charming individual when not angry, but an obscenity machine when he is angry. 

A case conference that will hopefully remove a scholar from our classroom and the potential for four new scholars in our classroom and please be advised that if you fail to properly maintain your on-line attendance record you will get your hand slapped.  Do you think I'm getting agitated?  You better believe it.

That's it for now.  Off to buy some new workout shoes.  I'll keep you posted on this week's activities.  Thanks for continuing to read the musings of an old man that has a view from the back of a potentially really crowded classroom. 

"Yes!" "Well, I Think I Said Yes."

It's Monday morning of what will be a short week.  This coming Thursday is Thanksgiving and we have Wednesday off to prepare for the holiday.  The bottom line is that I'll be away from my view at  the back of the room for five consecutive days.  Can I have an AMEN?  All of the scholars have arrived and are sitting at the front table waiting for the day to start.  Although we haven't had one since IvyL departed several weeks ago, Gnu decided to hold a community circle to start the day.  Today's topic is what did you do on the weekend?  Gnu usually starts with the scholars which is always interesting as there are times where they just make stuff up.  It's a sad commentary and it reminds me of how little life experiences the scholars gain given the social economic status of their parental units.  Once the scholars finish their turn Gnu asks me about my weekend.  I informed her that my weekend was pretty uneventful as I was feeling a little under the weather.  When the scholars and I finished with our weekend activities Gnu responded, "well, I just had the best weekend of my entire life."

Gnu speaking.  "I got a call from my other job this weekend and the manager told me he didn't need me at work so I could stay home.  I didn't understand why this was happening but the manager just said "I over schedule people and you don't have to come in."  I started to get nervous as I need this second job so I asked the manager if a still had a job.  The manager responded, "yes," so I felt relieved.  When I informed my gentleman caller of this bit of news he responded by saying we should take advantage of this and go out for a nice meal.  I agreed and we made reservations at a restaurant called The Rathskeller.  While in route to the restaurant we ended up by Monument Circle and I told my gentleman caller that we are going the wrong way.  He responded that "we are going in the right direction."  I said we are not but we continued walking.  When we arrived at Monument Circle he knelt down on one knee and he asked me to marry him.  I was so excited that I started screaming and jumping up and down.  While I was doing this I noticed that flash cameras were going off.  My gentleman caller arranged to have a photographer available to take pictures of his proposal.  I then looked around and saw several of my family members and friends around us.  When I saw my mother I was so excited that she was there.  I asked my mother if my sister was there and she said "no, she was home packing to move to South Carolina."  That was a little disappointing as being with family at this time seemed a bit more important than packing.  After everything settle down we all headed to The Rathskeller for our dinner.  When we arrived, we had to walk up two floors to private dining room.  When I opened the door my sister, who was supposed to be home packing, and even more friends and family yelled surprised when I stepped into the room."

After telling us about her best weekend ever, Gnu showed off her "bling" to all the scholars.  They were real excited for her and so was I.  When all the excitement settled down and there was a quiet moment I walked over to her to congratulate her.  When we talked she told me this, "I was so excited that I'm not sure if I even said yes."

One last item on the big proposal, the gentleman caller had contacted Gnu's other employer and explained what he was going to do the so manager made the phone call to do his part in this surprise.

It's now Thursday morning and I'm waiting the arrival of my daughter and son-in-law to the suburbs for the holiday.  HAPPY THINKSGIVING everyone. 

Game Day

It's Monday and the day is over.  The scholars are on their way home.  I'm on my way to the Professional Development Center to be recertified on how to put my hands on scholars who have erupted and are at risk of hurting themselves or another scholar.  Gnu is still at school preparing for the next day and then she is heading to the big game.  It's approximately 5:00pm when my cell phone starts to vibrate.  It's Gnu and she just sent me a text message.  "The game hasn't even started yet and I'm already crying."  I respond, "is this good crying or bad crying?"  "I think this is like the best day of his life.  He looks so cute!  I'm taking 1000 pictures, I'll show you tomorrow" is the response I get.
"So it's good crying," I say, "and now you have me started."  Gnu replied, "Lol,  Yes!  Sorry!"  Wearing a green and white jersey with the number 33 on the back of it and representing our school in his first ever organized basketball game is EM.  The texting you just read took place while I was in a professional development classroom so a cardinal sin, texting when you should have been learning, was just committed.  I'm guilty and if caught I would have admitted my mistake to the instructor.  Luckily, I caught a break because nobody in the classroom saw me texting as I was a bit isolated from everyone else which also means nobody saw me wiping the tears from my eyes.  Some may say "what's the big deal, it's just a game," but this is a huge big deal because over the four years that I've been at this school, no scholar, that I'm aware of, from a special education classroom, has ever been on a sports team.  People have asked me, numerous times, why do I continue to remain in such a tough environment?  For the moments that you just read about is why I stay and will continue to stay.  I work at a great school with a great staff!  I love my job!  I love working with Gnu!  I love my view from the back of the room and then Monday ends and it's Tuesday morning.     

We just finished the Pledge of Allegiance and recited our school motto when I heard some commotion at our classroom door.  In walks Uh-Uh-Uh with her parental units and she has her mad look going big time to include her usual foot stomping as she walks.  I have a school letter for the parental units so I'm getting up to hand it to one of them.  The female parental unit follows Uh-Uh-Uh into the room trying to settle her down.  Uh-Uh-Uh turns and stomps back toward her parental and takes two swings at her plus two attempts to kick her.  I'm now heading toward the classroom door but I'm a bit uncertain as to what I should do.  I have two choices, either stand aside and let the parental units address the behavior or step between Uh-Uh-Uh and her parental units and take the necessary steps to reduce the tension.  Being uncertain, I look over at Gnu who is close by and make eye contact with her.  She nods her head and gives me a small hand signal to proceed.  I then step directly in front of the parental units, say good morning to them, and ask them to close the door as they leave as I'll take it from here.  They both step back, close the door, and walk away.  When I returned to my desk I thought to myself that I just took a risk intervening between an angry scholar and the parental unit as there have been incidents where the parental unit would have erupted and directed their anger at another adult who just told them, politely, to close the door and leave.  Tuesday got off to a rough start but we survived all the way to Thursday and then our next adventure began.   

A text message just poured in and again it's from Gnu.  "Scholar #2 gave his speech like a champ," the text message said.  What?  Initially I was totally lost.  What the heck is she talking about?  Then it sort of registered and I responded, "Who?  Grr!?"  "Yes!  He had to go up to the microphone and give a speech about his artwork," Gnu said.  Damn!  Another one of those teary eyed moments and this makes two in one week.  Back in the first quarter of the school year our scholars completed an Art assignment, to draw the skyline of a city.  The Art teacher displayed a few completed skylines from another class to our scholars and gave them the supplies to get started.  For the most part our scholars are pretty poor artists who spend a lot of time in Art class bugging me to help them.  This is not the case with Grr!  He likes to draw and immediately got started with the project.  When he finished he brought his project over to me so I could look at it.  "How does it look Mr. Schultz?" Grr! said.  "Great!" I say, "but you forgot one thing.  Put your name on the paper so you get credit for all of this work, and then turn it in."   I'm not sure who the judges were for this Art competition but they selected Grr!'s skyline and he was invited to the recognition program that was held in our school after hours.  Gnu attended the recognition program and informed me that there were several scholars being recognized for both their drawing abilities and for their poetry writing abilities.  In addition to the scholars in attendance, there were a lot of parents as well as representatives of our school in attendance.  As each scholar was recognized for their work, they were placed in front of a microphone so they could explain their project to all in attendance.  As you read in the first sentence, "Scholar #2 gave his speech like a champ."  So you know, this Scholar #2 has a pretty series anger control issue, dyslexia, and some pretty series anxiety issues, so for him to step up to a microphone in front of a fairly good sized audience and speak is amazing and I couldn't be prouder of him.  Again, people have asked me a number of time why I do what I do.  I believe you're starting to catch on.

Back to the morning of game day.  The busses arrive and EM and his little sister step off.  Both of them head into the school to get their breakfast.  As EM is nearing the cafeteria our PE teacher/basketball coach sees him, walks over to him and hands him his basketball uniform.  With his breakfast and basketball uniform in hand, he heads to the classroom.  When he arrives he is the talk of the room as the other scholars see his basketball uniform.  After a few minutes EM asks Gnu if he can put on his basketball uniform over his school uniform.  Gnu hesitates a little while and then says to him, "you can put your uniform on but before you do remember that once you put it on you become a school leader in our school and you have to act as a role model for all of the other scholars."  The uniform is on in an instant and the smile on his face is priceless.  When he walks over to me to show me his uniform I ask him if he knows what famous basketball player from Indiana wore number 33.  He responds, "no!".  So I say to him, "Larry Bird wore number 33 for the Boston Celtics and like yours, the uniform was green and white."  I'm sorry to tell all of you Hoosiers that EM has never heard of Larry Bird.  Obviously I have my work cut out for me when it basketball in this state.

It's cold outside.  It rained and then snowed on Saturday so I'm going to do the best thing possible during such lousy weather.  I'm going to take a nap.  Have a good weekend.  Bye! 

Je me tiens avec la France

This will be my one hundred and twenty eight blog post with page views slowly approaching six thousand.  By far the most page views come from people here the United States but the second most page views have been from France.  While I have no idea who or why someone from France would follow my blog I do appreciate the fact that she or he has been following for a long time. It is with this in mind that I titled this blog post, in French, and hopefully this is the correct translation with everything spelled correctly, the following, "I Stand With France" during this tragic time.  To my French follower(s) I offer my prayers during this most difficult time and ask that all world leaders unite and destroy, once and for all, the evil that could do this.  Vive la France!

Although you can't tell, I'm struggling getting this blog started.  After all what can one say following my opening paragraph about the barbaric act that took place in Paris.  I have my notes right in front of me, in a somewhat orderly fashion, but I just can't think of how to transition to a discussion about my view from the back of the room.  My part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse just walked by so I asked her for an opinion.  She looked at me for a second or two and then said, "you said what you wanted to say to your French reader(s) so just go with what you planned to write about."  As usual, as she has for thirty seven years, she pointed me in the right direction.

Behaviorally, this had to be the most uneventful and quiet week that I think I've ever had over the past three and a half school years.  If there was one standout highlight I guess it would be this one.  On Tuesday, Uh-Uh-Uh arrived in the classroom in a bit of an angry mood.  She had her angry look going as she entered the room, arms folded across her chest, angry facial expression, and walking with a slight foot stomp to her desk.  She then sits down, arms still folded across her chest looking mad and occasionally kicking the leg of her desk.  Grr! and EM are in the room and they do the right thing, ignore her, and stick to their business.  For some reason EM chose not to eat the breakfast he picked up in the cafeteria so he placed it on my desk.  Knowing that Uh-Uh-Uh arrived late and was not carrying a breakfast when she arrived I picked up EM's breakfast and walked over to her desk and asked her is she wanted something to eat.  Initially I just got a "NO!" but that changed to a yes before I could get back to my desk.  She started by opening the white milk and then proceeded to the six waffles that were wrapped in plastic to keep them warm.  For clarification the waffles are round, about this size of a silver dollar and maybe one quarter of an inch thick, and not the full size that you would get at a real cafeteria.  After Uh-Uh-Uh consumed half of the first waffle she announces to no one in particular, "how can something that looks so good taste so bad?"  That got a reaction from everybody in the room and it also got Uh-Uh-Uh distracted long enough that she forgot she was angry and Gnu began our academic lesson.

"Schultz, where do we keep the masking tape?" Gnu says to me.  I retrieve the masking tape from the same location it was in the last time she asked me for it and hand it to her.  She then tells the scholars to use the masking tape to mark out a square on the floor that has sides that are four feet long.  When the scholars finished placing the tape on the floor she tells all four of them to sit on the floor inside the square that they just made.  A couple scholars have parts of their anatomy outside the square so Gnu nudges them over a little and tells them that at no time can any part of their body either be outside the tape or even touching the tape.  Within everyone properly position in their own spacious four square feet of floor space she begins the lesson.  "You are passengers on a ship called the Mayflower and you are heading to America.  There are ninety eight other passengers on this ship so it is important that you remain in your assigned seating area for the entire journey from England, across the Atlantic Ocean, and eventually to Plymouth Rock in America.  This journey will take sixty six days so try and get as comfortable as you can as it's a long journey."  Gnu continues, "I know that you may be a little concerned about this long journey but you can be at ease because your daily meal is about to be served."  Gnu walks over to her desk and picks up a bag that contains today's meal and starts to pass out the food.  As she does so, she reminds them that this is all you get to eat today so don't waste any food and don't start eating until I give you all of your food.  The first item on the menu was a saltine cracker.  This was followed by some cheese, in this case Colby, and then finally the dried meat which I picked up on my way to school from the BP gas station.  The dried meat was Beef Jerky in it's original flavor in case you were wondering.  With each scholar in possession of their daily food allowance she again reminded them that this is all you get to eat for the day and that they can now eat their meal.  

The book is titled "Thanksgiving On Thursday" and it is a chapter book from the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne.  Gnu had to update her lessons plans plus update the scholars individual education plans (IEP's) prior to case conferences with the parental units so I got to do the bulk of the reading during the week.  As we worked through each chapter there was a multiple choice test to take at the end of the chapter.  There were only five or six questions per chapter and as we worked through the questions I was and continued to be amazed how much our scholars remember.  While I'm amazed at their recall abilities I'm equally frustrated with them when they are required to take a state or school corporation mandated reading test as they always do so poorly.  When the scholars finished the final chapter Gnu informed them that they now had to do an art project about the story.  As anticipated, that didn't set well with them for one reason, they are not very good artists.   Despite the groans and whining Gnu told them about the project.  "You will now recreate the pilgrim village at Plymouth Rock.  You can do so by creating a setting that the pilgrims lived in or a setting that the Native Americans lived in.  I have all the material you will need to include shoe boxes, different colored cloth so you can create roads, grass, and water.  I also have different colored construction paper that you can use to create your background and various paint colors that you can use to paint your houses, fences and other objects that you wish to place in your setting."  Gnu had barely finished her last comments about this project when the scholars quickly moved to the front table to get started.  As I have been so many times before, I'm amazed at Gnu's ability to keep them engaged in an academic lesson.  She pushes and pushes academics all day long.  There are occasional brain breaks but they are short as she just keeps moving forward.  And just when you think the scholars are reaching their breaking point she changes directions and gets them reengaged in academics with these wonderful projects.

The lowest life form, the politician, and the pointy headed intellectuals that feed into their heads the verbiage that comes our of their mouths, have reared their ugly heads and it's going to get interesting between now and the end of the year.  The Indiana Stupid Testing and Evaluation Process (ISTEP) preliminary results are coming out and it's not good.  A first look at the scores indicate that our schools reading and math scores dropped by thirty percentage points.  During a conversation with a teacher from another school corporation I was told by this teacher that approximately twenty scholars in her school, who have NEVER failed an ISTEP test, failed one or both parts of the test this year.  Elections are on the horizon and principals, teachers, and parental units are about to see ISTEP scores so it's going to get real interesting here in Indiana as the lowest life form and the pointy headed intellectuals try and weasel they way out of this disaster they created.  I'll keep you updated as we move forward.

That's enough.  We need to unite as one and support our friends from across the pond.  Vive la France!  

     



   

She Was Punched and He Made the Team

Fall break ended three weeks ago and I've been in a funk since returning to the classroom.  I've kept it to myself as best as I could so as not to discourage Gnu but on Thursday of this past week I spoke up.  The school day was over and as usual Gnu and I were in the classroom alone after returning from bus duty.  There is usually not a lot of conversation at the end of the school day as we are both drained from seven hours in a classroom. The normal end of day routine was going on.  Gnu was placing her "stuff" into piles on her front table that eventually get transferred to the piles of "stuff" that are on her desk.  I'm putting the room back in order prior to the custodians arriving to do their daily sort of cleaning.  With all the chairs up on top of the desks I sat down at my desk with the view from the back of the room and said to her, "I'm frustrated."  She looks up at me and said, "why?"  "I sit back here everyday watching how hard you work, I watch the effort you put in to give our scholars the best education possible and right now I'm frustrated that these scholars can't grasp some of the simplest concepts," I said.  "You're right.  Something has changed as they've lost their focus and maybe I'm not doing a good enough job," she said.  When Gnu said what she said I knew immediately that I made a mistake.  My response to her was quick, "don't get down on yourself as you are doing a great job in a very difficult environment."  One of my classroom goals this year, that I shared with the Big B at the start of the school year, was to do everything I could to be sure Gnu was successful.  I slipped up on a Thursday and put doubts into her head and that is not why I'm in the classroom.  Going forth, I think I'll vent some of my frustrations with a different teacher, one that always finds the right words to say to keep me on track, my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse.

So what caused my frustration besides the scholars loosing their way academically.  I'll tell you a few.

1. An announcement was made that a crisis team was needed in a general education classroom.  Two of my crisis team colleagues arrived before I did.  When I tried to enter the classroom the door was locked.  A non-crisis team member that was in the room saw me and unlocked the door.  When I walked in the scholars in this classroom had vacated the room to their safe place.  My two colleagues were trying to restrain a scholar who was in a real rage.  Prior to my arrival, he trashed the classroom to include causing two hundred dollars worth of damage to text books, hit his teacher and was strong enough to keep two adults from controlling him.  Now that I'm in the room the two adults trying to contain this scholar say they are loosing control and ask me to take a hold of him so they can recover.  I do and this scholar immediately tries to avoid my hold by raising up his legs and feet thinking I won't be able to hold him.  Nice try but young scholar that will not work.  I'm eventually asked to move the scholar out of the center of the room and towards a wall to better contain him.  When I get him there his first reaction is to try and bite me.  That didn't work so he decides to bang his head against the wall.  I reposition my body to contain him and then place my hand on the wall where his head is hitting it.  Now it is a matter of trying to deescalate him.  Another twenty or so minutes later the scholar is moving toward de-escalation.  My time lost from academics in my classroom, about forty-five minutes.  The lost academic time for the home room teacher about ninety minutes.  The number of scholars displaced for about ninety minutes despite doing all the right things in a classroom, about twenty.  The repercussions for the scholar that caused all this mayhem, minimal.
2. A scholar in my classroom walks off the bus one morning wearing a t-shirt and pants with an outdoor temperature of approximately forty-five degrees.  When he arrives in the classroom Gnu asks him where his hoodie is as it's cold outside.  He replies, "my brother spilled something on it so my parental unit threw it away."  I look over at Gnu and she says, "his parental unit does not own a washer and dryer."  So I say to her, "rather than washing clothes she just throws them away."  I didn't get a response.  Twice this scholar has been invited to go to an organization that provides clothing to scholars in need.  This scholar was twice fully equipped with clothes to include, winter coat, hat, gloves, sweat shirts, school shirts and pants and shoes.  When this scholar is questioned about the whereabouts of these clothes the response is, "I don't know." 
3. A scholar in my classroom is getting ready do go outside for recess.  It's cool outside so he is putting his hoodie on.  He walks over to me and says "Mr. Schultz, my zipper is broke can I go to the office and get a new hoodie?"  This is not the first time this scholar has had a clothing issue and every time he has had one there is not one thought of having his parental unit solve his problem, he just expects the school to give him a new hoodie.  This scholar is in the fourth grade and already has the mindset that others are to provide all of his basic clothing needs and not his parental unit.   
4. It's early in the morning and Gnu and I are alone in the classroom.  "I met with another teacher yesterday after school to look at the Facebook page of a parental unit for one of our scholars," Gnu says to me.  "Who?" I asked.  Gnu tells me the scholars name and then said the picture of this scholars parental unit was "scary."  "The parental unit was doing his best gangbanger, thug pose and while doing so was holding a joint in his hand," she said.  Dear Lowest Life Form and other Pointy Headed Intellectuals, you seem to go to great lengths to hold a teacher totally responsible for the education of a scholar.  Maybe it's time you started to focus on the location of the real problem.   
5. I get a call to go to Knew2's classroom to assist with a disruptive scholar.  When I arrive, two other crisis team members are in the classroom, and they are doing their best to avoid having The Collector scratch them.  As I approach The Collector I can see in his eyes that he is really angry so I'm careful as I stand in front of his and try and talk to him.  My calming attempt is not working so a decision is made to move him into the time out room.  The two crisis team members are having difficulty moving him in the right direction so I assist.  Once we have The Collector in the time out room I ask what brought this behavior on and Oreo filled me in.   Dear Parental Unit, I just had to physically move your scholar into a time out room because he is angry.  Dear Parental Unit, do you know why your scholar is angry?  It's your scholars birthday and you promised him that you would come to school on his birthday and bring something that he can share with his classmates.  Dear Parental Unit, you don't have a job so what the hell could be so damn important that you chose not to honor your promise to you scholar on his birthday? 
6. Gnu is eating lunch with the scholars in the cafeteria.  As they are leaving the room one of our scholars is upset because they are leaving to go back to the classroom.  This scholar walks up behind Gnu and slugs her in the back and takes off running.  Gnu, frustrated with what just happens, lets the scholar run off and returns to the classroom.  A phone call is made to get help retrieving this scholar and eventually the scholar is returned to our classroom.  The scholar is in the room less than fifteen minutes when he starts breaking crayons and throwing them at the other scholars in the room.  I move toward him to get him stop before someone gets hurt.  He sees me coming, runs across the room, picks up a plastic container holding sliced apples and throws the container at me and is again running down the hallway.  So you know, there is a direct link between this scholar and the parental unit mentioned in item number four.

It's now Friday morning and I'm sitting in the classroom with Gnu just trying to survive the week.  All the scholars made it to school on Friday and are sitting quietly in the classroom.  Just before we get our academic day started the Big B comes on the overhead speaker to make an announcement.  She starts as follows, "may I please have the attention of all of the fourth through six grade boys as I have an announcement about our boys basketball team."  Gnu and I look at each other and know that this is a big moment for one of our scholars.  Actually, big is an understatement, huge would be a much better word as this could be a life changing moment for this scholar.  The Big B continues, "I will be announcing the names of the scholars that have made our boys basketball team.  If I call your name please report to the gym.  As a reminder, not all of the boys that tried out for the team will make the team."  He's sitting within four feet of me at my table and for the first time I think he realized that he may not have made the team.  At the start of this announcement he had a big smile on his face.  Now, that smile is gone, and the classroom is dead silent.  After a delay on the part of the Big B, she starts to read the names.  "Scholar #1 report to the gym.  Scholar #2 report to the gym.  Scholar #3 report to the gym.  The room is still dead silent and I'm starting to think about what to say to him if he is not chosen.  Scholar #4 report to the gym."   The classroom erupts with shouting and hand clapping and EM's smile is huge.  He made the team and Gnu and I both realize that this could be a real life changing experience for this fine your scholar.  Despite all of my frustrations, all of my venting, this announcement has made my day.   I think I'll stick around just so I can see how this story will end.

That's it.  I'm out for another week.  Thank you again for hanging out with an old guy with a view from the back of the room.  Did I mention that EM made the basketball team?  Words cannot describe how happy Gnu and I are for him.    

              

Bus Captain and Revisiting Being Defenseless

It's the last week of October, trick or treat.  Well, technically it's trunk or treat but I'll get to that a little later. 

My blog post, We Are Defenseless, caught the attention of as far west as Utah.  As a reminder, the names I use in this blog are totally made up for the scholars, staff, and those who read the blog.  So, if you haven't figure it out, as far west as Utah is a friend of mine and as you might guess, she is in Utah.  As far west as Utah is a retired teacher who appears to be more protective of jack rabbits that intruders and she shared with me the defensive strategy used in classrooms in her former school corporation. Like my school, they do intruder lock down drills where the door is locked, lights turned off and scholars are moved into areas in the classroom that are out of sight of the classroom door.  However, in Utah, their lock down drill training carries it a couple steps further.  The scholars are told to use desks, chairs and any other item available to block the door.  The scholars are also instructed to grab books and any objects that can be thrown as a means to protect themselves.  Now I know some of you may be getting a bit agitated and think this is stupid but these are delaying tactics and hopefully they will delay a gun carrying intruder long enough until the police arrived.  If you are already agitated at this defensive strategy then this next one will probably set you off.  Interested teachers in Utah can sign up for gun safety classes and guess what, they do.  And even better, these interested teachers can and do carry weapons into the schools and classrooms.  I have one final comment on being defenseless in an Indiana school.  I did an internet search about school shootings in Utah and there haven't been any.  Maybe Indiana should merge with Utah.

Oreo, our behavior specialist, was out for a couple days and that meant I get promoted to bus captain for arrival of the morning buses.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to be a bus captain which is probably why I'm qualified but like any other position at my school it's always an adventure.  Here is an overview of my two days as morning bus captain.  Day one, one bus discipline referral form handed to me for a female scholar who absolutely refused to sit in her assigned seat and a fight between two male scholars, one of which was Straw, a former scholar that I worked with in the third and fourth grade.  Day two, three male scholars were overly animated on the bus distracting just about everyone.  Interestingly, there was no bus dismissal referral form to go with this incident.  Also on day two, I was contacted by our administrative czar, who guards the front door, about a scholar on a particular bus.  The administrative czar informed me that there is reason to believe that this scholar, who has a green backpack and is wearing a red shirt and khaki pants, may be carrying some brass knuckles to school.  As a reminder, I don't make this stuff up.  Fortunately for me, no one getting off the bus fit that description.  Although I'm not the bus captain, I also have bus duty at the end of the school day so if you think my bus captain duties in the morning were interesting just wait until you read this.  One second grade scholar, I believed I mentioned him last year (Tourette is his name) was in a major eruption spewing forth a string of obscenities that would rival any of the worse language I have ever heard.  The bus monitor and bus driver demanded that he be removed from the bus and suspended from the bus.  Working with the evening bus captain, we managed to get him off the bus and into the school office. With our bus captain, as well as the Big B, talking to Tourette, they managed to get him settled down so off to the bus we go for a second time.  Tourette is not on the bus for thirty seconds when the obscenity tirade resumes.  The bus captain, after almost ten minutes, gets Tourette to settle down and the bus finally departs.  The next day, a third grade scholar, goes off on the bus and is in a major anger outburst all because he didn't like his assigned seat.  The bus captain, after about fifteen minutes of de-escalation talk, settles this scholar down and the bus leaves.  One final comment about buses.  At some point in the future you will hear on television or radio or in the newspaper stories about bus incidents that question the decisions of the bus monitor or bus driver.  Before you come to a conclusion about the bus incidents ask yourself this question, were you on the bus?  All those bus incidents that I just wrote about happened in two days and I can tell you this, I'll side with the bus monitor and bus driver every time until I see definitive proof otherwise.

Our reading block starts with the song, "Oh My Darling, Clementine" for the last time as we are down to the last two chapters plus it's Friday and we have work to do before the Halloween festivities start.  Gnu gets out the cowboy hats for the scholars to wear and then pulls out a large plastic bag from behind her desk.  She announces to the scholars that, like the characters in the story who are settling down for the night, we'll have to settle down for the night.  So she pulls from her plastic bag authentic western blankets that her gentleman caller acquired while he was in Texas.  With everyone properly covered in their blank the reading begins.  In the penultimate chapter the scholars are told about a song called "Red River Valley" that is mysteriously heard on a player piano in the ghost town's hotel.  As I expected, out comes Gnu's iPhone and the next thing we hear is "Red River Valley" playing on the iPhone as the final pages of the story are read.   

So much for academics as now we move on to Halloween.  Our first assignment is to make sugar cookies from scratch with the scholars actively participating in the making of the cookies.  As in the past, my role is to sit on the sidelines until the project is completed and then clean up the mess.  At around 10:30am the dough is prepared and the scholars are now using a rolling pin to smooth out the dough before using cookie cutters to shape their cookies.  At around 11:20am the cookies are prepared and are on their way to the oven.  After recess, lunch, and music, the cookies are cool and it is decorating time and also time for round two of making a mess for me to clean up.  By 2:30pm, the cookies have been consumed and now it's movie time so out come the western blankets, that I just neatly folded about an hour earlier, as the scholars plus Gnu settle down on the floor to watch "Casper the Friendly Ghost".  I know I've said it before but I'll say it again, I really enjoy working with this wonderful teacher and if she wants to make a mess in the classroom, I'm fine with that.

Although it's been quite some time I need to tell you again how lucky I am to work at this school.  Under the leadership of the Big B, the school is hosting a trunk or treat after school at 6:00pm in our school parking lot.  Many of the teachers and other staff members have agreed to stay after school to decorate their personal cars in a Halloween theme and then hand out candy from the trunks of their cars to our scholars and their parental units.  After trunk or treating, the scholars and their parental units will go back into school for pizza and drinks and then watch a scary Halloween movie.  These after school activities, where no one is getting paid, that took place until 8:00pm on a Friday evening.  Please keep this in mind the next time you hear one of the lowest life forms, their pointy headed intellectuals that fill their heads with nonsense, and other naysayers who criticize our schools and our teachers.  I work in a great school and I will defend it against uninformed attackers all day long.

One quick Halloween story and I'm out.  My part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse and I went out to dinner on Halloween evening to a local family owned restaurant for a burger and a beer or two.  As we arrived we saw Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz" entering the restaurant ahead of this.  I'm thinking what a great costume until I realize that Dorothy was smoking a cigarette.  I know I'm getting old and maybe my memory is slipping a little but I pretty certain that Dorothy did not smoke a cigarette while on her way to Oz.  That's it.  I'm out.

      


          

We Are Defenseless

Although it dates back a ways, a Facebook post on my Facebook page from a Vietnam veteran friend went something like this.  I'll paraphrase, "this country needs to stop worrying about terrorists and start worry about what the guy that lives next door is doing."  So you know my friend lives as far west as Washington, which, if my memory serves me correctly, is even farther west than Utopia (Utah, as most people spell it).  The post to my Facebook page was made shortly after the school shooting that took place in Washington.  My friends post got me thinking about the seemingly non-stop shootings that are taking place in our country and I decided to reply to his post with this response.  "I have not had a weapon in my hands that I can call my own since I left Vietnam in 1971, maybe it's time to rethink that."  Sadly, the state of Washington was not the last of the school shootings and I wondered what would happen if the next school shooting took place at my school.  After thinking about it for a short while I realized that we, the staff and scholars at my school, are totally defenseless.  Not only could we not defend ourselves against an intruder with a weapon, we couldn't defend ourselves against an intruder with a knife, long pipe, baseball bat, or for that matter large rocks.  Knowing this, while sitting at my desk with my view from the back of the room, I looked around the classroom for an object that I could use to defend myself, plus the scholars and Gnu and finally I thought of one.  Inside of the cubbies (lockers) that are in the classroom is a wooden shelf.  If you hit this self aggressively from the bottom it will pop loose and you can remove it from the cubbie.  It's wood, it's solid, it's has some good weight to it, and if you have the element of surprise you can hit someone over the head with it and cause serious damage.  Unfortunately, you have to get very close to the intruder with a piece of wood and for me personally I'd like to attack the intruder from a much safer distance with an object that fires a projectile.  So where does one find an object in a school that fires a projectile?  That's easy, in the gym where, at least in our school, you will find bows and arrows.  And best of all, according to our now retired PE teacher, I'll call him The Poet, you can adjust the tension on the bow and it will then serve our purpose.  Before all you naysayers chime in let me say this.  We have, in our school, someone that is very familiar with the bow and arrow.  This person possesses one and takes it to a practice range with some regularity.  This person also uses to it hunt.  So who is this person you ask, Gnu.  You heard this correctly.  She owns one, practices with it and hunts with it.  There is only one problem, the bow and arrows are in the gym and not our classroom so can we get to them quickly?  No!  Will we be able to use them to defend ourselves even if we placed the items in our classroom?  No!  So do we remain defenseless with an intruder in the building?  Yes!  For the record, I'm against being defenseless.

One brief item about me and weapons.  I can recall quite clearly the last time I had a weapon in my hand.  It was 1975 and I was talked into going hunting in West Branch, Michigan by my college roommate.  When we arrived at his parents house he brought out two shotguns.  He tried to hand me one but I refused saying I don't think I can shoot anything.  He replied, well, at least take it and walk with me while I hunt for rabbits.  I agreed to that and off I went with my loaded twelve gauge shotgun.  We weren't out in the field long when we scared up a rabbit.  It bolted straight out in front of me.  My weapon was up, the rabbit was in the crosshairs, I couldn't pull the trigger.

One brief item about Gnu and her bow and arrow and I'll move on to the scholars.  Please keep in mind, I don't make this stuff up.  Gnu was telling me about taking her bow to a sporting goods store because she wanted the tension of the bow reduced because she was having a hard time pulling the bow string all the way back to it's full velocity position.  With the adjustment made to the bow tension she was testing it using a special trigger release.  When she pulled back on the bow string the trigger release malfunctioned causing her hand to release quickly from the bow string in the direction of her face resulting in her hand hitting her on the nose giving her a bloody nose right there in the sporting goods store.  Maybe I'll rethink my defensive strategy with a bow and arrow.

Gnu introduced a new chapter book on Monday.  The book is from The Magic Tree House series and is titled, Ghost Town at Sunset.  As Gnu was sitting at her front table handing out the books to the scholars she told them that in order to read this book correctly there needed to be background music.  The scholars quickly offered some suggestions but they were rejected because Gnu had already selected the song, "Oh My Darling, Clementine."  Just before MiniJ started reading the first sentence in chapter one, Gnu stopped him saying "I forget to give you something."  She reached under her table and picked up a bag.  She opened the bag and said to the scholars, "if we are going to read a story about the old west then everyone needs to be wearing a cowboy hat."  She promptly placed a cowboy hat on the head of each scholar and then MiniJ was allowed to begin the story.  Have I mentioned previously that I really enjoy working with this teacher.

We needed some hallway bulletin board material so Gnu drew, on a huge poster board, a tree.  It started with roots at the bottom, then a trunk in the middle, and at the top was tree branches minus the leaves.  The scholars were told they were going to make their Life Tree. On the roots at the bottom the scholars were to make notations about their early years beginning at birth.  On the trunk they were to make notations about where they are right now in their life.  On the branches they were instructed to talk about what they wanted to do in the future.  Once the branch section was complete the scholars were instructed to draw one leaf on each branch where they talked about what they wanted to do in the future.  When the leaf drawing was completed the scholars were told to right down the name of the person that they thought could best help them meet their future goal on the leaf.  At one point during this project Grr! asked me for some help as he didn't know what to write on the branches.  As he sat next to me I asked him what he wanted to do or be in the future.  His response really took my by surprise as he said he wanted to be a paleontologist.  I told him that was an excellent goal but he had to wait a minute before he wrote it down as I needed to get the dictionary so I could spell it correctly.  With paleontologist now on a branch I asked him what he needed to do to be a paleontologist.  His response was to shrug his shoulders.  I said to him do you think you need to graduate from high school.  He said yes, so I told him to write graduate from high school on one of his branches.  I then asked him if he needed any other education beyond high school to be a paleontologist.  Again he shrugged his shoulders.  So I restated the question.  What school do you go to after you graduate from high school.  Again, the shoulder shrug.  As I sat there working with him it became apparent that he had no concept that education continued past high school.

The Collector's sister was talking to Gnu on the playground at recess when I approached them.  So you know, The Collector's sister is in the fourth grade and is in a general education classroom.  As I approached them I heard The Collector's sister say that she didn't get any sleep the night before.  When Gnu asked her why not she said because the police were all over her neighborhood in the middle of the night.  Gnu asked her what happened and she responded, there was a killing in the house across the street from my house.

EM was talking to Gnu about his new house that he recently moved into.  He was telling her that there were bats in the house.  Apparently there is a hole in the window of a second story room and bats have been seen flying in the house.  EM even went as far as to say that his dog was chasing the bats trying to bit them with his mouth.

Gnu, MiniJ, and EM were talking at the front table.  MiniJ was telling them about the water bed that he sleeps on at night.  EM said he'd like to have a water bed as he had to sleep on the floor.  Gnu asked for clarification by saying you mean you sleep on a mattress that is on the floor.  EM said he don't have a mattress, he sleeps on the floor.  Gnu then said do you have a pillow?  He responded, no.  She then asked him if he had blankets.  He said yes.  The conversation ended and again I found myself saying a little prayer for this young scholar.

I'm in my favorite blogging spot, the screened in porch on the back side of my house.  The sun is setting and the temperature is dropping so I'm going to call it a day.  Thanks again for following along and if you don't mind, please keep the scholars in your prayers as they have so many obstacles to overcome in their life that I'm fearful that they will not be around long enough to fulfill their goals that are on those three branches.








  



              

And Now She Is Gone

Damn!  Another person gone, another change in the lives of our young scholars that have so many obstacles to overcome.  Just once, and I don't think I'm asking a lot, I like to go through an entire school year without someone unexpectedly leaving.  It ridiculous, frustrating and the worse part is I found out via a text message in the middle of fall break so I didn't even get to say goodbye.

Come to think of it, I received two text messages during fall break.  You just heard about one of them and now I'll tell you about the other one.  The final decision from the case conference that took place regarding The Collector is in.  As a reminder, The Collector has really been struggling this school year, mostly as a result of a lack of medication, will not be going into some type of residential facility as was requested by his parental unit.  The final decision was to change his medication to see if that will help.  In addition to the medication change there is the possibility that The Collector will go to a reduced school day.  That is an interesting option given that his parental unit earlier recommended that he be removed from home and place in a residential facility.  I'm sure this parental unit will be thrilled to death that her scholar may soon be spending more time with her rather than less. 

Fall break down in Panama City Beach, Florida was interesting.  I got to talk to other teachers about their school and the issues/challenges they face.  What was of particular interest was the conversations about those high and mighty private schools that so many people think are the best thing going.  After our somewhat lengthy conversation I've drawn the following conclusion about the difference between the hoity toity private school and the whipping post of the lowest life form, the public school.  It's pretty simple actually, one set of parental units has a lot of money and no sense and the other set of  parental units have little money and no sense.  I'm sure you are curious about the conversations I had with other school teachers from other parts of the country so I'll share a few.

• One young scholar has one of the best scams going that I've ever heard about.  So as not to hurt the scholars feelings, self esteem, embarrass or whatever the current buzz word is, you can't call on this scholar to answer a question in the classroom.  Should the teacher have a mental lapse and actually ask this scholar a question and the parental units or their paid professions that are hired to protect the parental units prized trophy find out they turn into pit bulls and threaten lawsuits all because their scholar was asked a question.
• Due to the very intense classroom environment another young scholar, who starts to get stress during the school day, can request a time out.  When given this time out the scholar has two choices, eat a snack to relax or take a ball to the overhead area of the school and play catch with someone in an overhead position until the stress level drops.
• I really like this one as it has to do with sports.  The parental units of this fine young scholar decided that they needed to change schools as the school their scholar was attending didn't have enough athletes to form a sports team.  So off they go to a new school solely so their scholar can play sports.  Unfortunately the parental units picked a new school that has some pretty high academic standards and guess what?  Their scholar was well below the academic standard and can't play sports.  So what do they do, go postal, threaten lawsuits, insist that all meetings taking place regarding their scholar academic standing be tape recorded to see if they can find a weakness in the school's position so they can sue the school. 
• Last one.  This school had a bullying incident.  The incident involve several scholars of one race and one scholar of another race.  Unfortunately for the several scholars of one race, they got caught.  This will now get a little interesting because this straight up incident of bullying/racism resulted in a one day in-school suspension for the guilty parties.  It makes me wonder if the punishment, which is nothing more than a slap on the wrist, would have turned into an expulsion if the bullying/racism roles were reversed in this incident. 

The text message came on Wednesday while on fall break.  Gnu sent me the text message and all it said was that IvyL was being moved to a new location.  This initial message was immediately followed by a second text message from Gnu.  All the second text message said was, "ridiculous."  For those of you that are not familiar with IvyL, she is a behavior therapist that visits our classroom at least once and sometimes twice a day to work with the scholars on their social and behavior skills.  With the exception of academics this is the single most important event taking place in our classroom and now all the relationships IvyL built up with our scholars is for nothing as she is gone.  Earlier in the school year I was aware that IvyL was struggling, especially with the scholars in Knew2's classroom, and that she lost her composure a few times.  Although that is not supposed to happen it does.  I'm living proof that these scholars can get to you and you lose your composure as I cracked a window in the classroom a couple years ago.  I also know that every person that I've worked with in my classroom going back over three school years has lost their composure at one time of another with the scholars.  It can be a very stressful environment to work in and to use a term used by PhD(?)Sparty a few years ago when I cracked that window you made a "human error."   IvyL made a human error and for some reason she was moved.  Gnu described this event as "ridiculous."  I could use a much stronger word to describe what happened but I think I'll just stick with RIDICULOUS!

I'm on my last full day of fall break.  In about eighteen hours I'll be back in the classroom.  Thanks for sticking around and reading the musing of an old man who just lost a colleague and a friend as a result of a human error.            

It Started With John Punch and Escalated

The first quarter of the school year is in the books.  Gnu is celebrating the occasion by attending a concert with some of her lady friends.  She told me the name of the artist but I forgot it.  Despite not recalling his name I do know this much about the artist.  He plays country music and she has tickets in the front row and is practically drooling in anticipation of being so close to this male singer.  I'm celebrating in a completely different manner as my part time editor, part time consultation and full time spouse left me the list.  Do the laundry, vacuum the carpets, go to UPS and mail this package, go to the license bureau and get out license plate tags, take the recycling to the recycling station, do the laundry, blow the leaves out of the garage and off driveway, and blow the pine needles off of the back deck and it is only Tuesday.  One of these days I'm going to get up the nerve to put my pants back on and say NO!

The last week of the quarter was a bit of a mixed bag.  Mandatory testing took place as the third (MiniJ and Uh-Uh-Uh) and fourth grade (EM) scholars had to take the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) tests.  This is the first time I've been involved with the NWEA testing so I know little about it except for this.  Our scholars took a reading, language use, and math test.  I also am aware of this.  Now that the testing is over the scholars have a base line test score.  From this point forward they should be showing improvement in their scores.  That sounds reasonable but from a teachers perspective stress levels will increase as pressure from the lowest life form and the pointy headed intellectuals that support the lowest life form, in combination with school administration, will expect the scores to show improvement and a failure to do so may result in no salary increase and even worse, no job.  On a lighter note, our scholars didn't do that badly and Gnu felt pretty good about it.  EM, for the first time that I'm aware of, has a reading score and we were both pleased with that.  All three of the scholars now have a math base line score and all three were in close proximity to where they should be score wise.  That definitely put a smile on our face.  While Gnu and I were pleased with the scores, behavioral issues reared their ugly head toward the end of the week and put our feeling good mood on the back burner.  For reasons that I'm not sure about, EM is relocating again.  At some point in the preparations to move his parental unit seemed to have misplace his medication.  As you might anticipate that is not a good thing.  Twice during the week he got verbally aggressive and physically aggressive.  During the verbal aggression, you could visibly see the anger in his face before he erupted.  During the physical aggression, he picked up a desk and tossed it across the room.  In combination with this behavior he tried, unsuccessfully, to injure himself with pens, pencils and a broken plastic ruler.  So you know, this particular behavior was duly reported to the appropriate personnel at the school.  These were scary incidents for me.  I've sat within eight to ten feet of EM for the past two school years and the first nine weeks of this school year and have never seen behavior like this. When I inquired about his behavior I was told it was an anxiety issue due to a lack of medication.  The other behavior incident involved a former scholar, The Collector, and again, it is medication related.  The Collector has been off his medication in the past but something has changed and not for the good.  Now, when he is off his medication, he physical aggression increases to the point of causing injury (minor) to adults.  Due to his physical aggression a case conference was scheduled to determine what to do with this troubled scholar.  His teacher, Knew2, came down to talk with me about The Collector as I've had more experience with him and she wanted to know what I thought should happen.  My initial response was that he was off his mediation which is not entirely his fault.  At the same time I told her that his physical aggression has increased significantly this year and this type of behavior was well beyond my knowledge level so I didn't want to offer an uninformed opinion on what to do with him.  On the day of the case conference events took an interesting turn.  Apparently, The Collector's parental unit is going to lobby to have her scholar placed into a residential facility.  That caught me completely off guard and at first I was at a loss for words.  Dear parental unit, you are giving up on your scholar, you are recommending placement in a residential facility all because you failed to properly administer his medication.  Dear parental unit, if you had a thirty day supply of medication how did you run out before the thirty days were up?  Did you lose some, use some, sell some or what.  That's nuts!  I sent a text message to Gnu on Monday inquiring as to what happened at the case conference.  She texted me back stating that Knew2 had tried to call her but they didn't connect so as of right now she don't know what happened.  I'll keep you posted as to what happened and as we wait I'd like to ask you to say a pray for The Collector.  With the exception of a former scholar I called CorP, I've thoroughly enjoy working with The Collector.

So far this year I've been to a convocation, professional development and recently an institute.  That's a lot of time and effort to put into an old guy that just passed his sixty sixth birthday but as Henry Ford said, "Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eight.  Anyone who keeps learning stays young." 

John Punch and two other gentlemen were indentured servants (not slaves) who decided to run away back in 1607.  Unfortunately, they got caught.  Two of the indentured servants had their time in servitude extended by four years.  The other indentured servant had his time in servitude extended for life.  Two of the indentured servants were eastern European.  The other indentured servant was African.  According to our day leader at this institute this was the first know case of discrimination against an man solely due to his race.  I'll let you figure out which of the three indentured servants was John Punch.

I spent two days at a racial equity institute with teachers, instructional assistants and other staff members of our school corporation.  During the lead-in to this two day presentation there was discussion about the academic gap between races.  That peeked my interest as I work with scholars of multiple races and if I was doing something wrong in the classroom to cause this academic gap then I wanted to stop doing it.  The two days started with the John Punch incident and then proceeded from 1607 through the election of President Obama.  For two days, incidents of racial discrimination were highlighted during this four century time period.  In the afternoon of day two I was getting a bit annoyed as I kept thinking I wasn't even born during the worse cases of discrimination so why do I have to hear this.  It was a this point that the discussion mentioned that the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) was created to help GI's from World War II purchase a home.  This agency was created so that all of the WWII veterans would be given an opportunity to purchase a home with no money down, low interests rates and thirty years to pay the loan back.  Mysteriously the rules changed.  White GI's were eligible for these loans as the law was intended.  African American GI's had to come up with fifty percent of the home value as a down payment.  The conversation then changed from the FHA loan to the GI Loan.  The GI Loan was established for all GI's who wanted to further their education but financially couldn't afford the cost of tuition.  And as with the FHA loan, the rules for African Americans changed when it came to applying for a GI loan.  I remember clearly applying for admission to college way back in 1973.  The Registrar speaking, "I'm sorry Mr. Schultz, your high school grades do not meet our minimum requirements for admittance."  "I realize that my grades fluctuated based on my interest in the class but can't you give me a chance as I'm older now and a Vietnam Veteran, I said."  Back to the Registrar, "your a Vietnam Veteran, we'll let you in but you will immediately be on academic probation and have to pass two ninety level classes (English and Algebra) to stay in school."  "If you fail either of these classes you are out."  I passed both classes and eventually graduated from Central Michigan University with a degree in Business Administration and the only way I could afford to go to college and earn a degree was the GI Loan.  To be told at this racial equity institute that men that I knew while in Vietnam were eligible for a GI Loan but could not gain admission to a college because the academic rules mysteriously changed for them really upset me.  Just because an African American had poor high school grades is no reason to deny admission because my high school grades were poor and you let me in immediately because I'm a Vietnam Veteran.  Right after this discussion about the FHA and GI Loans I had what I called a re-awakening when it came to racial discrimination. 

At the start of this two day racial equity institute I thought I'd hear about ways to reduce the academic gap between scholars of various races.  Unfortunately that didn't happen and even though that was disappointing I did have this re-awakening about discrimination and going forward I can do my best to continue working towards it's elimination.

That's it.  I'm on fall break for two whole weeks.  Time to kick back, eat some sea food, consume a few adult beverages and watch the sun set in the west.  Thanks for sticking around.  I'm out.