I Was A Proctor and I Wrote A Letter To the Editor

The Office of Student Assessment, Indiana Department of Education mandates that certain grade levels take an acuity assessment yearly.  The following comes from the Department of Education's website.  The purpose of the Acuity assessments is to provide diagnostic measures for grade 3-8 students.  Assessment reports provide standards-aligned performance data, which support an educator's ability to inform instruction at the student, class, school, and corporation level.  Whew!  It's apparent that the Department of Education has a plethora of pointy headed intellectuals on it's staff to come up with the wording in the previous sentence.  I put you through all of that because I was allowed to take a few of our scholars up to our testing room and sit by them while they took the test.  While doing this, I was filling the role of proctor.  I even had to sign a legal document that stated that if I saw any cheating on this test I had to report.

EM was the first one to take the math acuity test.  In fact, he volunteered to go first which is interesting because he can't read.  Although he can't read it's not to be a problem as he has an individual education plan that states someone can read the math acuity test to him.  You need to pay attention now as I'm about to change roles from proctor to writer of a letter to the editor of the Indianapolis Star.
 

Letter To The Editor

Indianapolis Star

With both political parties at war over the director of education and mandatory testing in our state, I'd like to share with readers my observations about what is happening at my school.  I was asked to serve as a proctor during our school's recent round of mandatory math acuity testing.

About a third of the way through the math test, my student tapped me on the should and pointed at the laptop.  It was a story problem, and I quietly said to him let's read the question carefully.  When we finished he looked at me and said I have no idea what to do.  Having read the problem myself, I wanted to say to him "neither do I."  Instead, I told him let's read it again carefully.  Within seconds the screen changed and he was on to the next question.  Just past the halfway point, his head is on the desk.  I tapped him on the shoulder.  He looked at me and said, "Mr. Schultz can I go back to the classroom?'  I reminded him that it was a very important that he finish the test before we leave.  Click, click,click, "Mr. Schultz, I finished the test."

Later that day a conversation took place between three teachers with master's degrees.  The conversation was about a math acuity test problem  After much discussion these three teachers could not agree on how to correctly answer the problem.

The next morning, another teacher told me about one of her scholars who was determined to do well on this test.  As she was telling me her story, I could see the emotions building up in her.  She told me when her scholar clicked the finished button on the screen, he saw his score.  He then quietly stood up, walked to a corner in the testing room, sat down and started to cry.

The required mandatory math acuity testing is now complete at my school.  Taking this test, our scholars have been emotionally abused and mentally drained.  In a matter of weeks, these same scholars have to take the ISTEP test.  At this point, our political leaders can't decide on what the final test will look like.  From what I'm hearing, the test will be longer and more difficult thnt last year and teachers will be asked to get out scholars fired up to do well on this test.  After what happened to them during the math acuity test, our teachers have a huge obstacle overcome.  That is a sad commentary.

A.M.S.

Indianapolis

It was after my day as a proctor that I was going to write the Airing My Grievances post.  I still plan to air my grievances but not today.  Today, as you are about to read, I have another matter to discuss.

My letter to the editor first appeared in the on-line version of the Indianapolis Star.  I emailed a copy to my sister in Michigan to read.  A short while later I got a message from her stating, "did you see what that jerk had to say about your article?"  My response was "no" but it got my curiosity up so I took a second look at my article and noticed that comments about the article were made by readers of the Indianapolis Star.  So I clicked on the comments and then saw what my sister was talking about as I apparently made a new friend.  For now I'll call him Hermie.  To start with, Hermie must have a limited reading ability as he referred to me as a government teacher.  Yo Hermie, I clearly stated I was in the room as a proctor.  I did not say teacher and I'm not even sure if there is such a thing called a government teacher.  In fact when I see the word government teacher here is what I think.  Hermie is one of those far right, never move an inch off my position even if it means destroying our country, nutcases.  In addition to calling me a government teacher Hermie made a reference that the scholars at my school needed to toughen up when taking tests.  That's a reasonable statement except that Hermie was not in the testing room so he has no idea what was on the test.  Yo Hermie, if you are going to take a shot at third through sixth grade students and not have the slightest idea what was on the test then you need to shut your pie hole.  Here is my favorite part.  Hermie, in all of his best adult manhood, stated that he was willing to take a math test at any time and could pass it.  That is a powerful statement for someone talking about taking an elementary school math test.  Yo Hermie, for the last time.  Mr. Herman, in about five minutes I'm going to hit the publish button.  When I do your name will be seen as far west as Utah and as far east as the Ukraine.  So hopefully you'll contact me again with another demonstration of your serious verbal dysentery after you read this blog.                       

         

Airing of Grievances Day

Festivus Day is normally celebrated on December 23rd but I need to change the date to February 20th so I can get a few things off my chest.  Before doing so I need to talk a bit about Valentines Day.  I'm sure that everyone is familiar with the Christian saint so I will only say one thing about this day.  I can't believe the ACLU and/or ICLU hasn't filed a lawsuit against all of the public schools for allowing scholars to bring candy to school on this religious icon's day.

With Valentines Day falling on a Friday Gnu worked the holiday into our fun Friday theme in the classroom. Shortly after lunch she introduced to the scholars the activities that will take place.  To start out she told the scholars that they had to guess what she was going to make in the classroom.  One by one she listed the ingredients on the whiteboard and asked the scholars to guess what she was going to make.  The list included bananas, blueberries, strawberries, ice, a little bit of milk and a blender.  The scholars were absolutely clueless as to what she was going to make so finally she told them smoothies.  "What?"  "What is a smoothie Mama D?"  Time out for clarification.  The scholars have decided to start calling Gnu Mama D.  Why?  I don't have the slightest idea.  Gnu speaking to the scholars, "you've never had a smoothie?"  "No!"  "Well, you're about to get to taste one."  Everyone headed to the front table as the smoothie building process was about to begin.  One by one the ingredients were added with no arguing about the correct order to put the ingredients into the blender.  This in itself was a small victory as normally NoFouls would be trying quite loudly and sometimes aggressively to tell Gnu that she was doing it wrong and he should take over. Everything was smooth until all of a sudden I heard this loud grinding sound and I was standing up quickly and looking toward the front table as I thought one of the scholars did something stupid with the blender.  I sat back down as Gnu just put the ice into the blender.  A short time later the smoothie making process was completed and it's taste testing time.  Success!  They all like smoothies.  Yo! speaking, "Mr. Schultz would you like to try one?"  "No thank you."  Yo! now walking toward me with a small smoothie in his hand, "come on Mr. Schultz try one, they're good."  He hands me the smoothie and my first response was "I'm not drinking this it's purple."  At this point all of the scholars are standing at my desk trying to convince me to taste one. "No, it's purple and looks nasty."  "Aw, come on Mr. Schultz it's good."  I'm now going into my finest wine drinking Wednesday wine tasting routine as I give the smoothie the nose test.  "It smells like fruit but it has little black specks in it."  "Just taste it Mr. Schultz."  I take a small sip and start swishing it around in my mouth and I'm making all kinds of distorted facial expressions as I go through the tasting routine.  Finally I say "that's not too bad, can I have another taste?"  "Sorry Mr. Schultz but we drank it all."  "You drank it all, that blender is huge and all I get is one little taste."  "We told you it was good Mr. Schultz."

Fast forward and it's time for Yo! to leave for the day.  "Yo!, your bus is here so gather your things and let's head to the bus."  As we are walking down the corridor he stops and says to me, "Mr. Schultz I forgot something" and he turns around and heads back to the classroom.  When he enters the room he walks up to Gnu and says, "Mama D that was a lot of fun, thank you and have a nice weekend." Gnu and I make contact and we are both smiling.  Why do Gnu and I do what we do?  Because of moments like this one.

It's at this point that I was going to air my grievances but I'm going to forego doing that for now.  If you been reading this blog long enough you know that there have been a lot more posts about what went wrong in the classroom rather than what went right.  That often bothers me so rather than put a damper on a great day by airing my grievances I'm going to stop now and to quote Forrest Gump, "that's all that I have to say about that."  

I wonder if I have to explain Forrest Gump to the blog readers in the Ukraine?   It's the weekend, I'm out. Thanks for continuing to read my blog.      

P.P.P. And Poop

As a reminder I don't make this stuff up.

P.P.P. is an acronym for Piss Poor Parenting.  To keep things in chronological order I have to discuss Poop before P.P.P..  By the way my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse just looked over my should, read the first two sentences in this paragraph and slugged my in the arm.

Gnu informed me one morning that a first grade scholar would be joining us for our afternoon group sessions a couple times a week.  As a reminder IvyL and Oreo hold group social skills sessions daily with our scholars.  The goal of these sessions is to talk about ways to control your anger plus how to act in group actives such as games and sports without getting angry and starting fights.  Being curious I asked Gnu why this was happening.  She informed me that this scholar has anger control issues but not bad enough to be a permanent member of our classroom.  I was good with the addition of a part time scholar so I asked her what his name was.  She told me and as with all of our scholars no real names are used so I'll call him Big.

A couple days later it was getting close to our group session time and Gnu tells me that she was going to get Big.  A couple minutes later she returns to the room empty handed.  "Where's Big," I ask.  "He's changing his clothes and apparently he changes his clothes regularly around this time of day."  A few minutes later Gnu makes a return visit to the first grade and this time returns with Big.  Rather than have Big join the whole group at the front table she places him at The Collector's desk and sits next to him as group starts.  With three adults in the room I walk out of the room and head to the high powered pencil sharpener that is in Oreo's office.  With sharpened pencils in hand I return to the room and as I walk in I sense an aroma.  I look around and see Gnu sitting next to Big and she has the scarf she is wearing pulled up over her nose.  So you know, Gnu does not do well with pungent odors.  I sit at my desk which puts me right behind Big and Gnu and think about what to do.  Being a top notch instructional assistant I have a plan and decide to take one for the team.  I get up, walk over to Gnu and suggest that she move to the front table with everyone else and I'll sit with Big.  Without hesitation she moves.  About twenty minutes later group ends and I take Big back to his classroom.  When I return IvyL and Oreo are still in the room talking to the scholars.  When seated at my desk I get Gnu's attention and wave her over.  As she approaches I tell her to have a seat.  Once she is seated I say, "you owe me big time for rescuing you."  "Oh my God!  When I was sitting next to him I noticed that his hands were dirty so I asked him how he got chocolate all over his hands.  He told me it wasn't chocolate but he pooped his pants earlier in the day."  I'm up quickly and heading for the Saniwipes.

So much for Poop so let's move on to P.P.P.  Oh, I forget to tell you my fee for taking one for the team was three candy bars.  They were on my desk when I arrived the next morning.

The day is over and the scholars are on the bus.  Gnu and I are in the room putting things back in order when Oreo walks into the room.  "There was a bus incident" she says.  "NoFouls and his brother got into a fight with each other and the bus monitor kicked them off the bus".  "I'm trying to call there mother but I'm certain she is either ignoring my calls or blocking my calls."  Gnu speaks up saying to Oreo, "how are they going to get home?"  Oreo responds that IvyL was going to take them home but when the two of them were in the back seat of her car they starting arguing so she brought them back into the school.  Oreo continues that as of right now we are waiting for the school corporation police to arrive and take them home.  Despite all of this drama I'm tired and decide to head for home.

It's the next day and as I walk past our school office czar he informs me that NoFouls and his brother have been suspended from the bus for three days.  I then ask the office czar what happened when the police arrived.  He stated that NoFouls was still angry and was yelling at anyone and everyone.  In the midst of his anger NoFouls let forth a string of F-bombs directed at the police officer who was about 6'4" tall and somewhere near 300 pounds.  With all of that said I can now get to the P.P.P. part.

After placing an X in the box next to my name at the sign in station so I get paid for the day I headed to the classroom.  As I entered the room Gnu was already there and informed me that NoFouls was suspended from the bus for three days.  I tell her I just heard the news.  She then says to me "do you think he will be at school today?"  "No, as the last time he was suspended from the bus his parental unit informed us that she had made other plans for the day and taking her son to school was not one of them."  "But he is suspended from the bus for three days this time" Gnu states.  "Yes, but I still think it is a long shot that he will be here."

You were just given an example of piss poor parenting at it's finest.  Gnu and I, for whatever reason, have chosen to work with some of the most challenging scholars in our school.  We've been cussed out, flipped off, bitten, punched, kicked, scratched and have dodged flying objects that were intentionally thrown at us and for our effort were have to deal with a parental unit whose priorities are herself and not the education of her offspring.  When NoFouls finally returned to school Gnu asked him what he did for the three days he was not at school.  His response was to play video games all day.

A parental unit totally ignores her responsibility when it comes to the education of her offspring and suffers no consequences.  If this young scholar does poorly on an acquity test and/or an ISTEP test Gnu's teaching ability comes into question.  Such is the life of a classroom teacher and an instructional assistant who has a view from the back of the room.

Humans of New York

Quite some time ago my daughter mentioned to me that I should take a look at a website called Humans of New York.  In case you didn't know my daughter lived in NYC for about eight years and taught school in Queens, NY.  If you think I have stories to tell, I've got nothing compared to some of her stories.  I've checked out this website intermittently and found it fascinating.  Last evening while dining with my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse my cell phone starting vibrating.  I took a quick look at it and there was a text message from my daughter stating to check out Humans of New York starting on or about January 19, 2015.

It took me a while but I eventually found a picture of a scholar by the name of Vidal.  He was standing in the middle of a sidewalk in the Brownsville neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY.  He was wearing his hoodie and had a black bag in his right hand.  Under his picture was a commentary between Vidal and the photographer.  It read as follows.  "Who influenced you the most in your life?"  "My principal, Ms. Lopez."  "How has she influenced you?"  "When we get in trouble, she doesn't suspend us.  She calls us to her office and explains to us how society was built around us.  And she tells us that each time somebody fails out of school, a new jail cell gets built.  And one time she made every student stand up, one at a time, and she told each one of us that we matter."

Does this blog post have anything to do with my scholars?  No!  Does this blog post have anything to do with my view from the back of the room?  No!  So why am I doing this?  Because you will be able to follow the impact that teachers, coaches and principals have on the lives of young scholars through a series of photographs.  You will see that even in one of the worst neighborhoods you can find a scholar and a principal, plus one photographer that can tell you about the great things are happening in our schools.

I haven't sat in an elementary school classroom since 1964.  I haven't sat in a high school classroom since 1967.  I haven't sat in a university classroom since 1976.  Starting in 1976, my main source of information on what was going on in a classroom came from the media.  Unfortunately, the media thrived on covering all of the negative classroom issues as bad news is what sells newspapers.  Now that I've been in my classroom for four years and met some wonderful teachers I can tell you this with no uncertainty, a classroom teacher is one of the most under appreciated jobs there is and that is a sad commentary.  With that said I hope you will visit the Humans of New York website and read the wonderful story about Vidal and Ms. Lopez.  As you are viewing the website keep this in mind.  This same story can be found in every school, in every city, in every state in our country and around the world.  So the next time someone starts criticizing a teacher please give this person the Humans of New York website address so the real story of teachers can be told.

The Case Conference - Blow'd Up

With two exceptions this was a tough, frustrating week.  I'll start with the two exceptions because both put a smile on my face.

IvyL, our behavior therapist, walked into the room on Tuesday morning and said to me "I don't think I'll be able to find my car in the parking lot when I leave at the end of the day."  "I'm driving a friend's car today and now that I'm in the building I can't recall the make, model or color of the car."  "I hate to be seen wondering around the parking lot at the end of the day and have people asking me what are you doing."  I was fully prepared to say something but chose to remain silent.  As she headed towards the door I said to her that "you really need to be careful what you say to a guy that writes a blog."  I'm not sure if what I said registered with her but it put a smile on my face.

I'm going to jump forward to Friday now.  I was the first one to arrive in the classroom which always makes me nervous.  When I'm first, my thoughts go immediately to substitute teacher and that means I do the teaching and the substitute watches.  Fortunately, she walked into the classroom about five minutes after I did so forget about substitute teachers.  As she walked in she was carrying two sleeping bags in her arms plus one more attached to her like a backpack.  I say to her, "you must be going camping this weekend."  Her response was "not this weekend but today and here in the classroom."  She then says to me "I'm running late so would you go to the grocery story and pick up a few items"?  "Ok!"  Off to the grocery store I go to get aluminum foil, graham crackers, a bag of marshmallows and four chocolate bars.  When I arrive back in the classroom the camping inventory grew as there are now six sleeping bags and an electric lantern sitting on the floor.  As I walked in Gnu's says "great you're back so you can now make the s'mores."  "What?"  "We started reading Hansel and Gretel in our campsite and it's a long story so you have to make the s'mores."  In ten minutes or so I'm back in the classroom.  The window shades are down, the lights are turned off and there in the middle of the room is an electric lantern and spread out in six sleeping bags are the scholars with Gnu reading to the them.  I'm pretty sure I've said this before but in case you missed it, I'm working with a wonderful first year teacher and I couldn't be happier.

My wonderful first year teacher is not a happy camper.  Despite all of her good intentions to get the overhead personnel to revisit a scholar's individual education plan the case conference was blow'd up.  The response she received was no.  No comments, no explanation, just no.  She sent me the news via a text message and I knew she would be disappointed so I called her.  "What are we going to do?'  I simply said "we'll wait a while and start the process over."  So right now we are in the waiting game.  So why are we going through all of this aggravation and frustration?  Because this scholar has been labeled in a certain manner and we believe it is wrong.  Here is where we are today with this scholar.  He has three labels attached to him.

1. The primary label says he has seizures.  I'm sorry but you shouldn't be placed into a special education classroom for scholars with emotional disabilities for seizures.
2. The next label is called learning disabled.  I could almost buy this one.  Let me explain myself.  If the classroom task at hand appears to be too hard or too lengthy the scholar objects.  If you give the scholar the exact same task and say there are rewards (food) for successfully completing the task there is a very good chance the assignment will be completed.  Given what I just said, should this scholar be in a special education classroom for scholars with emotional disabilities?  No!
3. The last label is ADHD.  Does he have an attention deficit issue?  Yes, unless food is involved.  Does he have a hyperactivity disorder?  No, in a normal day he is easily the slowest moving scholar we have in the classroom.  So, once again, does this scholar belong in a special education classroom for scholars with emotional disabilities?  No!

Is this scholar a pain in the gluteus maximus?  Yes!  Is this scholar the main instigator of trouble in
our classroom?  Yes!  Does this scholar exhibit the characteristics of someone with an oppositional
defiant disorder?  Yes!   So, is Gnu doing the right thing by trying to hold this case conference so this scholar gets placed in the best classroom setting possible so he can get the help he needs to succeed?  Yes!  So why did the overhead personnel blow up the case conference?  Who knows.

It's the weekend.

January 22, 2015 - I Heard It For The First Time

As soon as Gnu said it I quickly responded that will not happen so stop thinking that way.  When she continued and said they will not pass the test I responded I know that.  Up to this point I remained seated. To put some emphasis on what I was about to say I stood up and was moving toward her. Listen to me if for no other reason than the fact that I've been in this room for three years plus I'm old enough to be your grandfather.  You are the third teacher that I've work with in the last three school years and the daily lesson plans you put together to help these very challenging scholars get the best education possible has been truly impressive.  There is not a week that goes by that I don't tell someone what a wonderful job you are doing so any further concern about tests stops now.

Dear politician and pointy headed intellectual the nonsense that develops in that cavity between your ears and eventually turns into a law or education policy in the state of Indiana is really irritating classroom teachers and in the worse case is driving talented teachers out of the teaching profession. If you sense that I have an attitude you are right. Although I've said this before it's been a while so I'll say it again.  I do not have a teaching degree, I do not have a teaching license, I am not a member of a union, I am not a pointy headed intellectual and I sure as hell am not a politician.  All I am is a gray haired wrinkly faced old guy that has a view from the back of a classroom and I don't like what I see when it comes to education policy.  Now that I have that off my chest I'll continue.

Gnu has been preparing for a case conference with Yo!'s parental units for several days now.  There is a fair amount of paperwork that needs to be completed and quite honesty the colleagues that she works with have not been timely in getting her the information she needs to finalize the paperwork.  That has been pretty frustrating for her as she is preparing to participate in a conference like this for the first time and she wants everything to go smoothly.  It's also been an interesting process for me to watch as I know what pieces of information she is missing and you'd think this information would be readily available.  From my observations, the information on acquity and dibles tes results is readily available for the general education population but apparently the same information for special education students tends to get misplaced.  Why that happens is an unknown but all I know is that Gnu needs this information quickly so she can finalize the paperwork for this case conference.

Finally, after many attempt to get the information the test scores arrived on Thursday, January 22, 2015.  I'm sitting at my desk and the scholars have not arrived when Gnu states "I'm going to get fired over these scores."  I respond, "what are you talking about?"  She said "the ISTEP scores from previous tests for our scholars are really bad and no one was even close to passing the tests."  I respond that "I know about the test scores and you are not going to get fired."  Rather than repeat myself you can read the first paragraph again if you want.

As a reminder, this is Gnu's first year in the classroom so she has had no role at all with these test scores.  In actuality, the only adult in the classroom this year that had a role in these failing tests scores is me. Fortunately for me, instructional assistants are not held accountable for test scores as they are not the teacher.  With this in mind, I going to let you in on a secret so don't tell anyone or I could lose my job.  On any given day I am a teacher about forty percent of the time. When you work in a classroom with scholars in four different grade levels it is not possible for one individual to teach all these scholars.  So every day I'm assigned to a group of scholars and I teach the lesson.  Apparently, based on last years ISTEP and IRead3 test scores I haven't been doing a very good job teaching.

This whole conversation started because Gnu needed Yo!'s ISTEP scores to finalize the paperwork so she could be prepared for the upcoming case conference.  It was yet another frustrating time for a first year teacher and it concerns me a great deal because in a couple months Gnu will have to make a decision on whether to return to our school next year or move on.  Right now I'm sure if she'll return.

A simple request for an ISTEP score should not have turned into a major ordeal but it did.  Reviewing a scholar's ISTEP score for the very first time should not cause a teacher to say "I'm going to get fired over these score" but it did.  There have been many times when I marveled at the effort put in by my teaching colleagues and I'm proud to work where I do.  There are times like you just read about that make me wonder why anyone in their right mind enter the teaching profession.

I'll let you know how the case conference works out.  Thanks for your return visit to my blog.