Friday at 4:00pm conversation #3. As a reminder I don't make this stuff up.
The scholars are gone and Gnu is moving about quickly. She says to me I have to be out of this room by 4:05pm as I have things to do. So I say to her you must have a date with your gentleman caller. She turns to look and me and says with a big smile on her face yes but not until later in the weekend. So I say what could be so important that this gentleman caller gets put on the back burner? I have university friends coming to town for a reunion and one of them is even flying in from Arizona. That sounds like fun, what's on the agenda. Well, first we are going to the monster truck rally. You're kidding! No, I like the monster trucks as she lists her favorites trucks. After that we are going to see the Chippendales and then I'm taking my new bow out to a shooting range. Let's see where should I go next? I'll start with the bow as I knew she likes to hunt and fish and when hunting she uses a bow and arrow so I realize at some point you have to practice. That was the easy one so I don't bring it up. You're going to see the Chippendales? Yes, my girl friends from university are in town and so are the Chippendales so we thought it would be fun. I tell her to have a good time at the Chippendales but warn her that I'll have follow up questions on Monday morning. She laughs and we both head out the door as the day is over.
Let's see now. Do I have to explain Chippendales to those that are unfamiliar with the word and if I do how can I explain them. I know, if you have no idea what a Chippendale is do a Google search for Chippendale Tour and then click on images.
When I arrived home one evening a few days ago I mention to my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse that I was invited to a case conference. She looked at me and said that's pretty unusual as instructional assistants don't get invited to those meetings. I said I know as I've never been invited to one and have never even been asked to provide any information on how I felt an individual scholar was progressing. My wife then asked me which scholar was involved and what was the purpose of the meeting. So I told her the scholars name and then thought about what to tell her next. After giving it some thought I told her this scholar was a major pain in the backside, is defiant, excels at manipulating the younger scholars in our classroom to make bad decisions and enjoys using his size to get in the face of smaller scholars that are not in our classroom but are in classrooms that are on the same floor as ours. Whew! That's a lot of verbiage. I then told my wife what my opinion was on how this scholar is doing. I said he is not advancing academically.
A couple days ago I attending the first meeting regarding this scholar and his upcoming case conference in Oreo's office with Gnu joining us. The meeting was mostly organizational to be sure we all stayed on message when meeting with the parental units and the school corporation overhead personnel takes place. Gnu and Oreo knew that I took home our behavioral logs so I could put together an overview of this scholars activities in the classroom so they asked me to discuss my notes. Prior to starting I asked if they could tell me exactly what is wrong emotionally with this scholar. Oreo responded with an acronym that meant nothing to me so I asked her to explain what that meant. She stated it's like being placed in an "other" category. Hold on here I say, our classroom is set up to work with scholars with emotional disabilities so if this scholar is in an "other" category why is he in our classroom? The response I received was shrugs. Oreo then said his parental unit thinks our scholar has an anxiety issue. Really is say. So when this scholar said directly to Gnu, shut up bitch, dropped the F-bomb on her, flipped her off and threw an object at her it's a result of his anxiety issues. Sorry, but I'm thinking a label of oppositional defiance is a much better description of this scholar's actions. I then reviewed my notes on this scholars behavior with Gnu and Oreo stating that I put them in four categories; defiant behavior, disruptive behavior, physical aggression and academics. I had bullet points for each category and proceeded to go over them. All was fine until I got to the academic section and I stated this scholar is not advancing academically. Stop said Gnu. You can't say that because it is an opinion. You can only talk about facts. She went on to say that when all the parties are together at the case conference they will listen to the facts and then come up with an opinion. Duly noted I say and make a note to myself to stick to the facts and offer no opinions. For those of you that know me personally you realize how tough it will be for me to keep to the facts and then shut my mouth.
As of this writing it's been almost a week since our meeting took place and it appears that putting the case conference on the fast track has been put aside and we are moving at a much slower pace. That's a little disappointing to me as since our meeting this scholar has continued his defiant behavior and spends about an equal time out of the classroom as he does in the classroom. So at this point I'll have to say this conversation will be picked up at a later date. Sorry, but I'm probably like you and hate to hear the words to be continued at a later date.
I was just about to say thanks for continuing to read my blog when this thought entered my head. We are quickly approaching that time in the school year when mandatory statewide testing will begin. This is a very stressful time of the year for teachers so I'm wondering if I'll even get to attend my first ever case conference anytime soon.
It's the weekend. I'm out.
Saturday, January 31, 2015
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Suspensions and School Letter Grades
Friday at 4:00pm conversation #2
In case you had a memory fade the first Friday at 4:00pm conversation centered on pole dancing and lap dancing. It was quite entertaining to listen to representatives of the opposite sex discuss jiggly room activities but for the most part I remained silent. We have now advanced to the next Friday. With the scholars safely on the bus Gnu and I were preparing to leave when Oreo walked into the room. The conversation between Oreo and Gnu centered on a general education scholar who recently went through a series of evaluations that indicated that this scholar would be better off in a special education classroom for scholars with emotional disabilities. Although I was not actively involved in the conversation I was aware that it was getting pretty animated. As I understand it, Gnu will be assigned as the teacher of record because of the emotional disabilities diagnosis and will be required to write an education plan. Keep in mind that Gnu has never even met this scholar and now she is the teacher of record and has to write an education plan. This is not sitting well with either Gnu or Oreo and I notice that Oreo started to fan herself with some papers. I notice this and ask if she is alright. She says yes, I'm just overheating. Oh, oh! The conversation just moved in a direction that says you better shut up. Unfortunately my mouth was running faster than my brain and I say to her you know there are some oils that you can purchase to address that issue. She looks at me and says what? I repeat myself and say there are oils specifically designed to lesson your overheating issue that you can apply to the back of your neck. She responds that her problem is more of a hormonal problem. When a guy is taking part in a conversation with two women and overheating and hormones are being discussed it's time to go so I gather my stuff and head out the door.
The two Friday conversations included discussions about pole dancing, lap dancing, overheating and hormones. We'll see what happens on Friday #3.
If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you are aware that I don't think fondly of pointy headed intellectuals. For the record, a pointy headed intellectual is a person that has a fancy title either before or after their name that wants to dictate the direction that education takes in the state of Indiana. While I really don't have a problem with the title MD or PhD I do have a real problem with pointy headed intellectuals that are taking control of education in the state of Indiana that a lacking one key title, classroom teacher. To date, these pointy headed intellectual have given us IRead3, ISTEP, and school letter grades. The first two items have costs the citizens of Indiana tens of millions of dollars and in my opinion have been a complete failure. However, I'm not on my I hate mandatory statewide testing bandwagon today but will instead talk a little about the school letter grade.
Over the last couple of weeks or so something has changed at our school and I think there is a direct link to the school letter grade and this change. Although I'm not one hundred percent certain I believe a school's letter grade can be negatively impacted by the number of suspensions a school hands out. Knowing this I have a feeling our school may have completed a projection that showed that our school letter grade will be lowered if we continue suspending students at the rate that we are. So why am I thinking that our school letter grade is at risk? The following events happened over the last couple weeks. While at recess MiniJ and NoFouls get into an argument about a basketball. Punches are flying and MiniJ loses his balance and falls. NoFouls continues his attacked and is so aggressively kicking MiniJ that EM steps in between them and actually lays on top of MiniJ to protect him. In PE, in a span of five to eight minutes MiniJ has hit either with his fist or a jump rope three girls. At recess, MiniJ goes into a storage room to get a kick ball. As he exits the room Yo! is waiting for him. Once Yo! sees MiniJ he fires a kick ball directly at him and hits him in the face. Yo! is directed out of the gym to our classroom. When he enters the room he next directs his aggression at Gnu that included throwing an object, directing a few F-bombs at her and flipping her off. In our classroom an incident occurs between The Collector and MiniJ. The end result is that The Collector scratched MiniJ in three locations on his face. Those are some pretty serious rule violations that involved injury and the end result was nothing happened and that is what got me to thinking something changed.
When I first started working at this school our letter grade from the state of Indiana was an F. I can recall clearly the look on the faces of the teachers when they received the news. I also recall that during our F year our suspension days numbered at ninety or just little above that number. Our school's latest letter grade today is a B and I'm certain one of the contributing factors to this jump in letter grade was the drop in the number of suspension days. Right now we are just past the mid-point of our school year and given that nothing happened following the four incidents of aggression that I mentioned previously I thinking our suspension days are trending in an unfavorable direction and they need to be curtailed. If this is what is needed to maintain our letter grade I'm fine with it but just tell me so I know what is going on.
It's a frustrating time right now. Gnu and I work in an environment where physical and verbal aggression is common and scholars from other classrooms, scholars from our classroom and adults are at risk of injury. I don't like being in this position but I realize that a drop in school letter grade can result in the state of Indiana taking over complete control of a school, it can cost a principal her/his job, it can cost a school teacher her/his job and that is ridiculous. And do you know what really irritates me about being in the ridiculous position where violent behavior takes a back seat to a letter grade? Pointy headed intellectuals in conjunction with politicians put together a letter grade evaluation system that failed to consider the physical aggression that takes place in a special education classroom. And why did this happen? Because very few if any of these pointy headed intellectuals have a title before or after their name that says classroom teacher.
It's the weekend and I'm out.
In case you had a memory fade the first Friday at 4:00pm conversation centered on pole dancing and lap dancing. It was quite entertaining to listen to representatives of the opposite sex discuss jiggly room activities but for the most part I remained silent. We have now advanced to the next Friday. With the scholars safely on the bus Gnu and I were preparing to leave when Oreo walked into the room. The conversation between Oreo and Gnu centered on a general education scholar who recently went through a series of evaluations that indicated that this scholar would be better off in a special education classroom for scholars with emotional disabilities. Although I was not actively involved in the conversation I was aware that it was getting pretty animated. As I understand it, Gnu will be assigned as the teacher of record because of the emotional disabilities diagnosis and will be required to write an education plan. Keep in mind that Gnu has never even met this scholar and now she is the teacher of record and has to write an education plan. This is not sitting well with either Gnu or Oreo and I notice that Oreo started to fan herself with some papers. I notice this and ask if she is alright. She says yes, I'm just overheating. Oh, oh! The conversation just moved in a direction that says you better shut up. Unfortunately my mouth was running faster than my brain and I say to her you know there are some oils that you can purchase to address that issue. She looks at me and says what? I repeat myself and say there are oils specifically designed to lesson your overheating issue that you can apply to the back of your neck. She responds that her problem is more of a hormonal problem. When a guy is taking part in a conversation with two women and overheating and hormones are being discussed it's time to go so I gather my stuff and head out the door.
The two Friday conversations included discussions about pole dancing, lap dancing, overheating and hormones. We'll see what happens on Friday #3.
If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you are aware that I don't think fondly of pointy headed intellectuals. For the record, a pointy headed intellectual is a person that has a fancy title either before or after their name that wants to dictate the direction that education takes in the state of Indiana. While I really don't have a problem with the title MD or PhD I do have a real problem with pointy headed intellectuals that are taking control of education in the state of Indiana that a lacking one key title, classroom teacher. To date, these pointy headed intellectual have given us IRead3, ISTEP, and school letter grades. The first two items have costs the citizens of Indiana tens of millions of dollars and in my opinion have been a complete failure. However, I'm not on my I hate mandatory statewide testing bandwagon today but will instead talk a little about the school letter grade.
Over the last couple of weeks or so something has changed at our school and I think there is a direct link to the school letter grade and this change. Although I'm not one hundred percent certain I believe a school's letter grade can be negatively impacted by the number of suspensions a school hands out. Knowing this I have a feeling our school may have completed a projection that showed that our school letter grade will be lowered if we continue suspending students at the rate that we are. So why am I thinking that our school letter grade is at risk? The following events happened over the last couple weeks. While at recess MiniJ and NoFouls get into an argument about a basketball. Punches are flying and MiniJ loses his balance and falls. NoFouls continues his attacked and is so aggressively kicking MiniJ that EM steps in between them and actually lays on top of MiniJ to protect him. In PE, in a span of five to eight minutes MiniJ has hit either with his fist or a jump rope three girls. At recess, MiniJ goes into a storage room to get a kick ball. As he exits the room Yo! is waiting for him. Once Yo! sees MiniJ he fires a kick ball directly at him and hits him in the face. Yo! is directed out of the gym to our classroom. When he enters the room he next directs his aggression at Gnu that included throwing an object, directing a few F-bombs at her and flipping her off. In our classroom an incident occurs between The Collector and MiniJ. The end result is that The Collector scratched MiniJ in three locations on his face. Those are some pretty serious rule violations that involved injury and the end result was nothing happened and that is what got me to thinking something changed.
When I first started working at this school our letter grade from the state of Indiana was an F. I can recall clearly the look on the faces of the teachers when they received the news. I also recall that during our F year our suspension days numbered at ninety or just little above that number. Our school's latest letter grade today is a B and I'm certain one of the contributing factors to this jump in letter grade was the drop in the number of suspension days. Right now we are just past the mid-point of our school year and given that nothing happened following the four incidents of aggression that I mentioned previously I thinking our suspension days are trending in an unfavorable direction and they need to be curtailed. If this is what is needed to maintain our letter grade I'm fine with it but just tell me so I know what is going on.
It's a frustrating time right now. Gnu and I work in an environment where physical and verbal aggression is common and scholars from other classrooms, scholars from our classroom and adults are at risk of injury. I don't like being in this position but I realize that a drop in school letter grade can result in the state of Indiana taking over complete control of a school, it can cost a principal her/his job, it can cost a school teacher her/his job and that is ridiculous. And do you know what really irritates me about being in the ridiculous position where violent behavior takes a back seat to a letter grade? Pointy headed intellectuals in conjunction with politicians put together a letter grade evaluation system that failed to consider the physical aggression that takes place in a special education classroom. And why did this happen? Because very few if any of these pointy headed intellectuals have a title before or after their name that says classroom teacher.
It's the weekend and I'm out.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Jiggly Rooms, Education Reform and Quoting Richard Nixon
Friday at 4:00pm conversation #1.
It appears that Gnu has a gentleman caller. He popped up in an earlier conversation and it appears he made the first cut. With the weekend approaching I casually mention the gentleman caller and she responds quickly that they are going out on the weekend. NoFouls overhears the conversation and starts laughing and says Miss Gnu has a boyfriend. So far his commentary is safe but then he asks "do you lay down next to him in bed?" Yikes, and I'm doing my best to avoid laughing out loud and wait for Gnu's response. There was none.
About ten minutes after this conversation the school day ends and Gnu walks the scholars to the bus pick up area. I'm in the room straightening up furniture when she returns. I can't recall how our conversation started but she said to me that NoFouls mentioned pole dancing on the way to the bus. She said to him you don't know what pole dancing is and his response was yes I do. He then said it's when girls are holding a pole and take all their clothes off. As a reminder NoFouls is in the second grade. During our conversation Oreo walks into the room and says what are you guys doing? I state we are talking about pole dancing. Her response was what? Gnu took over the conversation and I just sat quietly. The next thing I hear is the word lap dancing. So now we've progressed from pole dancing to lap dancing. At this point one of the second grade teachers enters the room and now we have three women talking about pole dancing and lap dancing. There are three women and one guy in the room and the conversation is about jiggly room activities so I'm definitely avoiding this topic as I guy could get in serious trouble. The tough part for me was to remain silent when Oreo mentioned she did not know anything about lap dancing. At this point Duck walks into the room. Now we have four women and one guy in the room and given the topics being discussed I stand up and say it's the weekend and I'm out of here. As a reminder, Duck is a special education teacher and she is also the person who encourages me to return year after year.
During our second quarter grading period we had a student teacher in the school and I was pretty excited as I knew her through my daughter. She worked with our sixth grade scholars and all the comments that I heard about her teaching abilities were excellent. With the start of a new grading period she is off to a different school but we've kept in touch. When I heard that she was up in one of those hoity toity neighborhoods and will be student teaching in a special education classroom I contacted her. She informed me that she was at an academy and I could check it out by visiting the academy website. So I checked it out and one key phrase I read doing research on the school was "education reform movement". Curious about the academy I decided to check it out and this is what I read. First, this academy does not have a Principal but instead a Head of School. Yup! Definitely in a hoity toity neighborhood. Next, I checked out the academy philosophy and found it most interesting. I'll share it with you. The academy offers a child centered education founded in constructivism. I'm not sure what that means so I'll continue. We engage in education as a process, balancing our two main objectives, remediation of deficiencies and constant extension of current skill levels. Then we determine if gaps in foundational knowledge exist and remediate resulting deficiencies when necessary. To quote Richard Nixon, "let me make this perfectly clear", I have no idea what any of that means. To get help understanding the school academic philosophy I consulted with my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse. After reading the statement twice she stated I think it's a school that doesn't place scholars into grades. For good or bad I guess that puts this academy into the category of education reform movement.
We didn't have school on Wednesday and Thursday as the morning temperatures were too cold. With the wind chill in the negative numbers it was deemed to cold to wait outside for the school bus. I wasn't too happy with the decision but who am I. The Indianapolis Star ran a column on why various school leaders cancelled school. Here are a couple of them. Students often don't have winter coats, hats or mittens unless the schools can provide them. Some neighborhoods lack sidewalks and their is a concern that on a snow day students will be standing in streets or snow piles when then are not dressed warmly enough. Just so you know the snow accumulation during these two cold days was less than two inches. Interestingly, although there was no school, our school was a designated location to serve lunch to any scholar of any school in our corporation that could get to our school. When you consider that approximately ninety percent of the scholars in our school corporation ride the bus I'm not sure why our school leaders would think anyone would either walk or be driven to school for a free lunch with a lack of proper winter clothing.
The weather was still cold on Friday morning but school was not cancelled. Instead of cancelling school the school leadership opted for the two hour delay. While I don't like school being cancelled I do like the two hour delay. Why? With a two hour delay the scholars don't arrive until 11:00pm. What made this even better is when our scholars starting arriving at 11:00pm only three of the eight arrived. If you think that's bad, a second grade with twenty six scholars only had nine arrive for the day. Unfortunately two of the three that arrived were MiniJ and NoFouls. As you aware that is not a good combination and by the end of the day it wasn't at they both went after each other aggressively. Fortunately no major injuries were sustained.
All in all, the amount of academics covered during the week was minimal due to the school closings and the two hour delay. With the IRead3 and ISTEP testing requirements slowly approaching it's going to start getting interesting. Keep in mind, teachers can loose their jobs over the test results and so can principals. Also keep in mind I think these two tests are worthless and a waste of millions of dollars but who am I but a guy with a view from the back of the room.
Thanks for your return visit. I'm out. It's the weekend.
It appears that Gnu has a gentleman caller. He popped up in an earlier conversation and it appears he made the first cut. With the weekend approaching I casually mention the gentleman caller and she responds quickly that they are going out on the weekend. NoFouls overhears the conversation and starts laughing and says Miss Gnu has a boyfriend. So far his commentary is safe but then he asks "do you lay down next to him in bed?" Yikes, and I'm doing my best to avoid laughing out loud and wait for Gnu's response. There was none.
About ten minutes after this conversation the school day ends and Gnu walks the scholars to the bus pick up area. I'm in the room straightening up furniture when she returns. I can't recall how our conversation started but she said to me that NoFouls mentioned pole dancing on the way to the bus. She said to him you don't know what pole dancing is and his response was yes I do. He then said it's when girls are holding a pole and take all their clothes off. As a reminder NoFouls is in the second grade. During our conversation Oreo walks into the room and says what are you guys doing? I state we are talking about pole dancing. Her response was what? Gnu took over the conversation and I just sat quietly. The next thing I hear is the word lap dancing. So now we've progressed from pole dancing to lap dancing. At this point one of the second grade teachers enters the room and now we have three women talking about pole dancing and lap dancing. There are three women and one guy in the room and the conversation is about jiggly room activities so I'm definitely avoiding this topic as I guy could get in serious trouble. The tough part for me was to remain silent when Oreo mentioned she did not know anything about lap dancing. At this point Duck walks into the room. Now we have four women and one guy in the room and given the topics being discussed I stand up and say it's the weekend and I'm out of here. As a reminder, Duck is a special education teacher and she is also the person who encourages me to return year after year.
During our second quarter grading period we had a student teacher in the school and I was pretty excited as I knew her through my daughter. She worked with our sixth grade scholars and all the comments that I heard about her teaching abilities were excellent. With the start of a new grading period she is off to a different school but we've kept in touch. When I heard that she was up in one of those hoity toity neighborhoods and will be student teaching in a special education classroom I contacted her. She informed me that she was at an academy and I could check it out by visiting the academy website. So I checked it out and one key phrase I read doing research on the school was "education reform movement". Curious about the academy I decided to check it out and this is what I read. First, this academy does not have a Principal but instead a Head of School. Yup! Definitely in a hoity toity neighborhood. Next, I checked out the academy philosophy and found it most interesting. I'll share it with you. The academy offers a child centered education founded in constructivism. I'm not sure what that means so I'll continue. We engage in education as a process, balancing our two main objectives, remediation of deficiencies and constant extension of current skill levels. Then we determine if gaps in foundational knowledge exist and remediate resulting deficiencies when necessary. To quote Richard Nixon, "let me make this perfectly clear", I have no idea what any of that means. To get help understanding the school academic philosophy I consulted with my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse. After reading the statement twice she stated I think it's a school that doesn't place scholars into grades. For good or bad I guess that puts this academy into the category of education reform movement.
We didn't have school on Wednesday and Thursday as the morning temperatures were too cold. With the wind chill in the negative numbers it was deemed to cold to wait outside for the school bus. I wasn't too happy with the decision but who am I. The Indianapolis Star ran a column on why various school leaders cancelled school. Here are a couple of them. Students often don't have winter coats, hats or mittens unless the schools can provide them. Some neighborhoods lack sidewalks and their is a concern that on a snow day students will be standing in streets or snow piles when then are not dressed warmly enough. Just so you know the snow accumulation during these two cold days was less than two inches. Interestingly, although there was no school, our school was a designated location to serve lunch to any scholar of any school in our corporation that could get to our school. When you consider that approximately ninety percent of the scholars in our school corporation ride the bus I'm not sure why our school leaders would think anyone would either walk or be driven to school for a free lunch with a lack of proper winter clothing.
The weather was still cold on Friday morning but school was not cancelled. Instead of cancelling school the school leadership opted for the two hour delay. While I don't like school being cancelled I do like the two hour delay. Why? With a two hour delay the scholars don't arrive until 11:00pm. What made this even better is when our scholars starting arriving at 11:00pm only three of the eight arrived. If you think that's bad, a second grade with twenty six scholars only had nine arrive for the day. Unfortunately two of the three that arrived were MiniJ and NoFouls. As you aware that is not a good combination and by the end of the day it wasn't at they both went after each other aggressively. Fortunately no major injuries were sustained.
All in all, the amount of academics covered during the week was minimal due to the school closings and the two hour delay. With the IRead3 and ISTEP testing requirements slowly approaching it's going to start getting interesting. Keep in mind, teachers can loose their jobs over the test results and so can principals. Also keep in mind I think these two tests are worthless and a waste of millions of dollars but who am I but a guy with a view from the back of the room.
Thanks for your return visit. I'm out. It's the weekend.
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Thank You Jesus + An Uneventful Start To 2015
The last time I updated the scorecard was when River was introduced. At that time I mentioned that we will be adding a tenth scholar by the start of the new year. Apparently one of those overhead personnel finally realized that our classroom has a high volatility level and put a stop to the arrival of scholar number ten. Thank you Jesus!
He made it to the classroom for six consecutive days. He then got suspended for three consecutive days for aggressively trying to stab Gnu with scissors. Now he is no longer a scholar in my classroom as his parental units moved again. Thank you Jesus! Who am I talking about? River! His parental units moved which is why he arrived at our school. He was enrolled in our school for a total of nine school days and he is changing schools again. There is a bit of relief on my part as we are down to eight scholar but at the same time I have real concerns about River's well being. There is something not quite right with River and I'm not talking about his emotional disability or any psychological problems that he may have. What concerns me are his parental units as they appear to have some serious issues when it comes to raising children. What type of parental unit would send their scholar to school without wearing socks and underwear? What type of parental unit would send their scholar to school with pants on that are so small that the pants can neither be buttoned up nor zipped up? I have a true concern for River's well being and I'm going to pray for his safety. I hope that you do the same.
Here is an updated scorecard for our scholars.
The Collector - 4th grade
Yo! - 4th grade
Wide - 4th grade
EM - 3rd grade
Uh-Uh-Uh - 2nd grade
MiniJ - 2nd grade
NoFouls - 2nd grade
Grrr! - 1st grade
Our winter break last seventeen days and I was very concerned as to how the first day back in school would go. Usually, when we are out of school for any length of time the scholars return very animated and need an adjustment period to get focused on academics. Interestingly that did not happen as the first two days back in school were relatively uneventful. MiniJ was practically comatose and said very little on Monday. Of course it helps that he slept the first two and a half hours but even when he awoke he was really quite. Gnu and I speculated that he just went through a medication change and we are hopeful that the calm and quite MiniJ will be with us going forward. Even NoFouls, who mouth is constantly roaring, was quiet. This may be the result of his main nemesis, MiniJ, being nearly comatose. As I sit here thinking about our first two days in school after break I'm thinking this must be what a normal classroom is like. No screaming, no yelling, no throwing objects, no use inappropriate language, and best of all no fights. I could get used to this setting but in the back of my head I keep hearing enjoy the quiet as it will not last.
Winter definitely reared it's ugly head on Tuesday evening as temperatures, even without the wind chill factor, dropped below zero. With temperatures like this school was cancelled Wednesday and Thursday. I was pretty disappointed with the decision to close school. Sure, it's cold but we lost two days of school and we only have one snow make up day on the school calendar. The Friday before Memorial Day was our snow make up day so there goes the four day weekend. That leaves one more day to make up and I don't like the options. Option one is to add a day at the end of the school year. That one sucks. Option two is to go to school on President's Day which is scheduled as a holiday. Option three is to go to school on Martin Luther King's holiday but that will never happen. Option four is to reduce our spring break by one day. They can do that but I will not be there as it will occur during my wife's spring break. If I get a vote, I'd go with attending school on President's Day.
As you've read the start of the new year was pretty uneventful so I'm done for the day. A new restaurant opened recently and I'm joining my daughter and son-in-law for lunch. The restaurant is called Mini Blue and they serve meatballs. That's it, just meat balls.
I'm out but will be back shortly. That's for reading the blog.
He made it to the classroom for six consecutive days. He then got suspended for three consecutive days for aggressively trying to stab Gnu with scissors. Now he is no longer a scholar in my classroom as his parental units moved again. Thank you Jesus! Who am I talking about? River! His parental units moved which is why he arrived at our school. He was enrolled in our school for a total of nine school days and he is changing schools again. There is a bit of relief on my part as we are down to eight scholar but at the same time I have real concerns about River's well being. There is something not quite right with River and I'm not talking about his emotional disability or any psychological problems that he may have. What concerns me are his parental units as they appear to have some serious issues when it comes to raising children. What type of parental unit would send their scholar to school without wearing socks and underwear? What type of parental unit would send their scholar to school with pants on that are so small that the pants can neither be buttoned up nor zipped up? I have a true concern for River's well being and I'm going to pray for his safety. I hope that you do the same.
Here is an updated scorecard for our scholars.
The Collector - 4th grade
Yo! - 4th grade
Wide - 4th grade
EM - 3rd grade
Uh-Uh-Uh - 2nd grade
MiniJ - 2nd grade
NoFouls - 2nd grade
Grrr! - 1st grade
Our winter break last seventeen days and I was very concerned as to how the first day back in school would go. Usually, when we are out of school for any length of time the scholars return very animated and need an adjustment period to get focused on academics. Interestingly that did not happen as the first two days back in school were relatively uneventful. MiniJ was practically comatose and said very little on Monday. Of course it helps that he slept the first two and a half hours but even when he awoke he was really quite. Gnu and I speculated that he just went through a medication change and we are hopeful that the calm and quite MiniJ will be with us going forward. Even NoFouls, who mouth is constantly roaring, was quiet. This may be the result of his main nemesis, MiniJ, being nearly comatose. As I sit here thinking about our first two days in school after break I'm thinking this must be what a normal classroom is like. No screaming, no yelling, no throwing objects, no use inappropriate language, and best of all no fights. I could get used to this setting but in the back of my head I keep hearing enjoy the quiet as it will not last.
Winter definitely reared it's ugly head on Tuesday evening as temperatures, even without the wind chill factor, dropped below zero. With temperatures like this school was cancelled Wednesday and Thursday. I was pretty disappointed with the decision to close school. Sure, it's cold but we lost two days of school and we only have one snow make up day on the school calendar. The Friday before Memorial Day was our snow make up day so there goes the four day weekend. That leaves one more day to make up and I don't like the options. Option one is to add a day at the end of the school year. That one sucks. Option two is to go to school on President's Day which is scheduled as a holiday. Option three is to go to school on Martin Luther King's holiday but that will never happen. Option four is to reduce our spring break by one day. They can do that but I will not be there as it will occur during my wife's spring break. If I get a vote, I'd go with attending school on President's Day.
As you've read the start of the new year was pretty uneventful so I'm done for the day. A new restaurant opened recently and I'm joining my daughter and son-in-law for lunch. The restaurant is called Mini Blue and they serve meatballs. That's it, just meat balls.
I'm out but will be back shortly. That's for reading the blog.
Friday, January 2, 2015
"High Quality" Preschool Costs How Much?
The President is talking about "high quality" preschool. The Governor of Indiana is talking about "high quality" preschool. The Mayor of Indianapolis is talking about "high quality" preschool. Pointy Headed Intellectuals are talking about "high quality" preschool. With this much discussion about the need for "high quality" preschool I'm going to start my own "high quality" preschool.
I've already designated a room in my home as a classroom. In fact it's the same room that I do most of my work on this blog. This room is located next to the kitchen and is also near a bathroom. I figure if I'm going to provide a "high quality" preschool for four year old scholars they'll need snacks and once you feed the little scholars you need a bathroom for those "I gotta use it" moments. I also realize that I will need educational material so I did an internet search to make my purchases. Here is what I purchased.
The city of Indianapolis under the leadership of the Mayor and the City/County Council either have or are about to approved an expenditure of $40,000,000 over a five year period to begin a preschool program for young scholars. Their preliminary numbers indicate that they want to identify between 750 and 1,200 four year old scholars from low income families and place them into a "high quality" preschool setting. Why are they spending $40,000,000? To start with too many four year old's are so poorly prepared by their parental units to enter kindergarten that our city leaders have decided to take them from their home and place them into a preschool learning environment. Here is the second reason, our city leaders think taking four year old scholars out of their home and placing them in a "high quality" preschool learning environment will help reduce crime in Indianapolis at some point in the future. Yes, you read that correctly. This $40,000,000 expenditure is a crime prevention expenditure.
Here is a cost comparison between my "high quality" preschool program for $112.00 and the Mayor and City/County Councils "high quality" preschool program. Our city leaders want to spend $40,000,000 over five years or $8,000,000 a year for a "high quality" preschool program. There target enrollment over these five years if from 750 to 1,200 scholars. If they enroll 750 young scholars the cost will be $10,600 per scholar. If they enroll 1,200 young scholars the cost will be $6,600 per scholar. Now some of you are thinking that's an obscene cost for a preschool scholar so let me tell you this little tidbit. The present cost to educate a scholar in my school corporation is approximately $8,400 per scholar per year.
I'm sorry but why spend from $6,600 to $10,600 per scholar for a "high quality" preschool program when you can do it for $112.00. While it doesn't make much sense to me, I know that finding competent parental units from a low social economic background that will spend $112.00 for educational material will not happen in the majority of the cases. Why? Because there are hundreds and hundreds of parental units bringing either a child or multiple children into this world who do not have their priorities right. That may seem like a pretty strong statement so I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about. There are presently nine scholars in my classroom. I can say with confidence that it is rare that any of these scholars will arrive at school with their own pencil. It is rare that any of these scholars will arrive at school with a spiral notebook of their own. It is rare that any of the scholars will arrive at school and tell me about a book that they are reading at home. I can also say with confidence that six of the nine scholars have either a Play Station 4 or an XBox at home. The cost of a PS4 is right is around $400. Each game for PS4 is $35.00. When I looked at games for PS4 the advertisement I read listed ten popular games being purchased right now. One of them was a Disney game. One of them was a sports game. The other eight were killing and/or fighting games. As you can see, the parental units of these scholars are very good at buying violent video games for over $400.00 but not very good at purchasing educational materials for $112.00 and there in lies your problem.
So where do we go from here? From my standpoint I can say this, we don't need to start another grade level for four year old scholars. We presently have thirteen grade levels and that is plenty. It's apparent that something needs to be done about the parental units that are bringing forth a child into this world with no or very little knowledge on how to set priorities and raise this child. I have a few suggestions on what to do with these parental units but I'm not going in that direction as I will probably be viewed as some type of cold hearted nutcase extremist.
So what do you do with $8,000,000 per year if you don't spend it on a preschool program? I'd like to add it to the millions saved by cancelling that failure of a program called IRead3. I'd like to add it to the tens of millions of dollars that can be saved by cancelling that failure of a program called ISTEP. I'm then going to take all these millions of dollars and create a "high quality" kindergarten through second grade program that puts a cap on the number of scholars in each classroom at twelve. From there I'm going to do the simplest thing I can, I'm going to step out of the way and turn these smaller class sizes over to the true educational experts. No, I'm not talking about politicians and pointy headed intellectuals. I'm going to turn it over to the education experts that presently teach our kindergarten through second grade scholars and let them do their jobs. Will they be successful and raise the academic level of every scholar from learning how to read to reading to learn by the end of the second grade? There is not doubt in my mind.
Today is January 2, 2015 and I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I'd also like to thank all of you for continuing to read my blog. I'll be back in the classroom on January 5th and we'll see what the new year brings.
I've already designated a room in my home as a classroom. In fact it's the same room that I do most of my work on this blog. This room is located next to the kitchen and is also near a bathroom. I figure if I'm going to provide a "high quality" preschool for four year old scholars they'll need snacks and once you feed the little scholars you need a bathroom for those "I gotta use it" moments. I also realize that I will need educational material so I did an internet search to make my purchases. Here is what I purchased.
- Crayons - for $1.00. This is the standard eight color box.
- Pencils - for $8.00. This is a package with multiple pencils. I could have purchased cheaper ones but we use cheap pencils at school and I hate them.
- Flash Cards - for $3.00. This is the alphabet.
- Flash Cards - for $3.00. These are the numbers.
- Construction Paper - for $12.00. This is a multiple color package.
- Arts and Crafts Activity Book - for $14.00. A little pricey but it's a good sized book.
- Colors, Shapes and More - for $6.00. This is cut out material.
- Scissors - for $2.00.
- Glue - for $3.00
- Reading Books - for $60.00. I bought lots because I like to read.
The city of Indianapolis under the leadership of the Mayor and the City/County Council either have or are about to approved an expenditure of $40,000,000 over a five year period to begin a preschool program for young scholars. Their preliminary numbers indicate that they want to identify between 750 and 1,200 four year old scholars from low income families and place them into a "high quality" preschool setting. Why are they spending $40,000,000? To start with too many four year old's are so poorly prepared by their parental units to enter kindergarten that our city leaders have decided to take them from their home and place them into a preschool learning environment. Here is the second reason, our city leaders think taking four year old scholars out of their home and placing them in a "high quality" preschool learning environment will help reduce crime in Indianapolis at some point in the future. Yes, you read that correctly. This $40,000,000 expenditure is a crime prevention expenditure.
Here is a cost comparison between my "high quality" preschool program for $112.00 and the Mayor and City/County Councils "high quality" preschool program. Our city leaders want to spend $40,000,000 over five years or $8,000,000 a year for a "high quality" preschool program. There target enrollment over these five years if from 750 to 1,200 scholars. If they enroll 750 young scholars the cost will be $10,600 per scholar. If they enroll 1,200 young scholars the cost will be $6,600 per scholar. Now some of you are thinking that's an obscene cost for a preschool scholar so let me tell you this little tidbit. The present cost to educate a scholar in my school corporation is approximately $8,400 per scholar per year.
I'm sorry but why spend from $6,600 to $10,600 per scholar for a "high quality" preschool program when you can do it for $112.00. While it doesn't make much sense to me, I know that finding competent parental units from a low social economic background that will spend $112.00 for educational material will not happen in the majority of the cases. Why? Because there are hundreds and hundreds of parental units bringing either a child or multiple children into this world who do not have their priorities right. That may seem like a pretty strong statement so I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about. There are presently nine scholars in my classroom. I can say with confidence that it is rare that any of these scholars will arrive at school with their own pencil. It is rare that any of these scholars will arrive at school with a spiral notebook of their own. It is rare that any of the scholars will arrive at school and tell me about a book that they are reading at home. I can also say with confidence that six of the nine scholars have either a Play Station 4 or an XBox at home. The cost of a PS4 is right is around $400. Each game for PS4 is $35.00. When I looked at games for PS4 the advertisement I read listed ten popular games being purchased right now. One of them was a Disney game. One of them was a sports game. The other eight were killing and/or fighting games. As you can see, the parental units of these scholars are very good at buying violent video games for over $400.00 but not very good at purchasing educational materials for $112.00 and there in lies your problem.
So where do we go from here? From my standpoint I can say this, we don't need to start another grade level for four year old scholars. We presently have thirteen grade levels and that is plenty. It's apparent that something needs to be done about the parental units that are bringing forth a child into this world with no or very little knowledge on how to set priorities and raise this child. I have a few suggestions on what to do with these parental units but I'm not going in that direction as I will probably be viewed as some type of cold hearted nutcase extremist.
So what do you do with $8,000,000 per year if you don't spend it on a preschool program? I'd like to add it to the millions saved by cancelling that failure of a program called IRead3. I'd like to add it to the tens of millions of dollars that can be saved by cancelling that failure of a program called ISTEP. I'm then going to take all these millions of dollars and create a "high quality" kindergarten through second grade program that puts a cap on the number of scholars in each classroom at twelve. From there I'm going to do the simplest thing I can, I'm going to step out of the way and turn these smaller class sizes over to the true educational experts. No, I'm not talking about politicians and pointy headed intellectuals. I'm going to turn it over to the education experts that presently teach our kindergarten through second grade scholars and let them do their jobs. Will they be successful and raise the academic level of every scholar from learning how to read to reading to learn by the end of the second grade? There is not doubt in my mind.
Today is January 2, 2015 and I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I'd also like to thank all of you for continuing to read my blog. I'll be back in the classroom on January 5th and we'll see what the new year brings.
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