I have a few scholar adjustments to announce. First, Yo! is no longer in our classroom. After several discussions with our special education leadership group at our school it was determined that he should move to the emotional disabilities classroom with the fifth and sixth grade scholars. This came about for two reasons, as a fourth grader he was not advancing academically and his primary objective each day was to encourage two of our second graders to act inappropriately. Academically, Yo! has been doing very little and on some days nothing. His behavior in the classroom was disruptive and his disruptive behavior would increase when I was not in the room. His usual targets to encourage inappropriate behavior was MiniJ and NoFouls. There was one incident where he dropped the N-word on NoFouls and all hell broke loose. After enough of his antics a line was drawn in the sand. He crossed over it and now he is gone.
Yo! was only gone for a couple days when our classroom phone rang. I answered it and was told by an overhead person that we would be getting a new scholar and it could be as soon as the next day. Why this overhead person was telling this to an instructional assistant doesn't make much sense so I got Gnu's attention and handed her the phone. As I watched Gnu on the phone her facial expression changed for the worse and that was not good. When she hung up the phone she told me a former scholar that left our room was returning. His name is River. When she told me this I had to bite my tongue as the scholars were in the classroom and what I wanted to say but couldn't say was this, "what the ...... are these people thinking?" So everyone is current, River is a former scholar who, on the one day I was not at school, intentionally tried to stab Gnu with a pair of scissors. He was suspended for five days and while on suspension his parental units moved outside of our school corporation's geographic territory. Now this volatile scholar is returning to our classroom.
Here is an update to our classroom score card.
The Collector - fourth grade
Wide - fourth grade
EM - third grade
MiniJ - second grade
NoFouls - second grade
Uh-Uh-Uh - second grade
River - second grade
Grrr! - first grade
* Although Yo! is not physically in our classroom Gnu is still his teacher of record. That means that Gnu is responsible academically for nine scholars which is a personal high for the classroom where I have a view from the back of the room.
If you recall, a few posts ago I wrote about Gnu setting up a case conference with our corporation overhead person to discuss Yo!'s classroom behavior. Rather than hearing Gnu's story this overhead person flatly rejected, without any reason given, the plan to have this case conference. I mentioned this for a reason and I'll let you draw your own conclusions when I'm finished.
When River was in the classroom Gnu asked him what school he came from. He said he came from School X. Gnu then asked him how many scholars were in his classroom. He responded by saying four plus him. Please recall that Gnu is the teacher of record for nine scholars with eight of them in the classroom. So why would an overhead person transfer a scholar from a classroom with five scholars to a classroom with eight scholars? Remember, the overhead person blew up Gnu's original request to have a case conference regarding Yo! Rather than continuing to work with Yo! and his disruptive behavior a decision was reached at our school to move him. The overhead person was not part of the decision making process but was informed. Within a few days we get River, a scholar who was suspended for five days for trying to stab Gnu with a pair of scissors, from a school with only five students in the classroom.
A few descriptive terms come to mind when I think about what just transpired. I'll share with you two of them, retaliation and revenge. Of course, that is my opinion and not a fact. If you have a different opinion please feel free to share.
I'm out. Thanks for continuing to read my blog.
To my Ukraine readers,
Spasybi za chytannya moho blohu. I used a translation app. Hopefully I didn't just say something offensive. If I did, please accept my apology.
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Monday, March 23, 2015
The Surprising Reaction To Greek Mythology
On March 19, 2014, with encouragement from my daughter, I posted my first blog commentary. It's now three hundred and sixty five days later and to date I've posted ninety two items and have had just short of four thousand pages views. My blog has been viewed in thirteen different countries with people from Ukraine being my most frequent viewers from a foreign country. I've had a number of people post comments on my blog or have contacted me directly via email. The most comments that I've received came from as far west as Utah and that alone brings a smile to my face. To all of you I say a heartfelt thank you for reading my blog.
Before I discuss Greek mythology I have to let you know about a couple things. First, The Collector, to include his sister who is a year younger that he is are homeless. I'm not sure what brought this on but it was a tough day for me when I heard this announcement as he has worked with me more one and one that any other student except EM. Please keep him and his family in your prayers as he goes through this difficult time. Next, EM, who if recall is in the third grade and can't read, has gotten some help. For about a week now he has been going to meetings with one of our Title One teachers to learn how to read. He seems pretty excited about this and when told it's time to go he quickly gets up and goes. Our Title One teacher who is working with him very quickly contacted us to mention that he has a pretty serious dyslexia problem and said she will immediately begin working with him to compensate for this shortcoming. It took me fussing about this for the better part of two school years to get him some help and finally help has arrived. Gnu and I are both pretty excited about this development.
On Monday mornings, before the scholars arrive, Gnu informs me about our weekly lesson plans. Usually this doesn't get much of a reaction from me until this past week. "Schultz, I'm going to start Greek mythology this week." "Are you serious?" "Yes, it's going to be fun." She started with Zeus and then introduced Prometheus and Pandora. She did the reading using her laptop and projecting pictures of the various gods on an overhead pull down screen. It took them a little while to get focused on the readings but when they did it was impressive. After finishing the Prometheus and Pandora story she had a hands on project for them. She had six three by five card size pictures of the events that took place and asked the scholars to look at the pictures and put them in the correct order. I was working with EM at my table with the view from the back of the room as he put together the pictures. He looked at the pictures and then put them in the correct order in maybe a minute. He then raised his hand and said, "I'm done Mama D." Gnu walked back to my table and asked EM to explain his arrangement. He started with the picture of Prometheus and them hesitated and switched the pictures in position two and three as he knew they were in the wrong order. He then retold the story to Gnu by looking at the pictures. Keep in mind, EM can't read but he has real good listening skills. Keep in mind EM will fail ISTEP language arts and IRead3 because he can't read. If they would allow me to read to him he would have a pretty good chance of passing both tests. Sadly that is not allowed and the person grading his tests may draw the conclusion that this scholar is really dumb. That is not the case. This scholar has a serious dyslexia problem not an intelligence problem.
I know I've mentioned this before but do you know that I am working with a really good first year teacher? In fact, never mind the first year part, I'm working with a really good teacher and here is why. As part of the Prometheus and Pandora story she told them they were going to put on a puppet show. In order to do this Gnu had cartoon like pictures of the main characters to color and then cut out. She then had them glue the pictures onto tongue depressors to make the puppets. She then broke them into two groups, assigned each scholar a role and told them to rehearse their roles so when it came time to do the puppet show they'd be prepared. Keep in mind that these scholars don't work well in groups especially NoFouls who has to be in charge of everything and in his mind should play all the roles. Surprisingly both groups worked independent of each other and worked as a team to be sure they story was told in the correct order. There were literally no incidents.
Did I mention that I'm working with a really good teacher. After the Prometheus and Pandora project she decided to introduce them to the Greek alphabet. She had a copy of the Greek alphabet and then wrote each of their first names using the Greek alphabet. When she showed them their individual names they were at a loss for words. Why? They had no idea that other alphabets existed. It just wasn't registering with them. She then gave them a black piece of construction paper and told them to recreate their own name using the Greek alphabet and then they could paint any design on it they wanted. Again, it was amazing to watch them so carefully forming the letters of their name and then paint their name plate. The room was dead quiet during this project which is extremely rare given the type of students Gnu and I work with.
One more story as this is my favorite one and then I'm out. Gnu read to them the story of Athena and Arachne. In case you didn't know, this is a story about weaving and a contest to see who was the better weaver. At the end of the story Athena turns Arachne into a spider. After reading the story Gnu assigned each scholar a task. The task was to draw a picture of a certain scene from the story. With the exception of Wide, drawing is not one of the strengths of our scholars. In fact, their drawing ability is so poor they rely on me to help them draw. Believe me that is not a good thing. I gave it my best effort and then told the scholars just to trace my lines and then add some color. When everyone was finished Gnu took the drawings and three holed punched them. She then took some yarn and linked them together so it resembled a weaving. The were six panels weaved together and they looked really nice. So nice in fact, that we hung the weaving up in the corridor for all to see. Just one comment on Wide's panel. He had to draw Athena changing Arachne into a spider. His first part was to draw Athena, then he showed Arachne starting to turn into a spider. He then completed his panel by drawing Arachne as a spider and then added extra background details. It was a quite impressive drawing and it came from a scholar that hates to go to art class.
I am presently on spring break. Two weeks without any scholars and for that matter any kids at all. That's a good thing. I'm out.
Before I discuss Greek mythology I have to let you know about a couple things. First, The Collector, to include his sister who is a year younger that he is are homeless. I'm not sure what brought this on but it was a tough day for me when I heard this announcement as he has worked with me more one and one that any other student except EM. Please keep him and his family in your prayers as he goes through this difficult time. Next, EM, who if recall is in the third grade and can't read, has gotten some help. For about a week now he has been going to meetings with one of our Title One teachers to learn how to read. He seems pretty excited about this and when told it's time to go he quickly gets up and goes. Our Title One teacher who is working with him very quickly contacted us to mention that he has a pretty serious dyslexia problem and said she will immediately begin working with him to compensate for this shortcoming. It took me fussing about this for the better part of two school years to get him some help and finally help has arrived. Gnu and I are both pretty excited about this development.
On Monday mornings, before the scholars arrive, Gnu informs me about our weekly lesson plans. Usually this doesn't get much of a reaction from me until this past week. "Schultz, I'm going to start Greek mythology this week." "Are you serious?" "Yes, it's going to be fun." She started with Zeus and then introduced Prometheus and Pandora. She did the reading using her laptop and projecting pictures of the various gods on an overhead pull down screen. It took them a little while to get focused on the readings but when they did it was impressive. After finishing the Prometheus and Pandora story she had a hands on project for them. She had six three by five card size pictures of the events that took place and asked the scholars to look at the pictures and put them in the correct order. I was working with EM at my table with the view from the back of the room as he put together the pictures. He looked at the pictures and then put them in the correct order in maybe a minute. He then raised his hand and said, "I'm done Mama D." Gnu walked back to my table and asked EM to explain his arrangement. He started with the picture of Prometheus and them hesitated and switched the pictures in position two and three as he knew they were in the wrong order. He then retold the story to Gnu by looking at the pictures. Keep in mind, EM can't read but he has real good listening skills. Keep in mind EM will fail ISTEP language arts and IRead3 because he can't read. If they would allow me to read to him he would have a pretty good chance of passing both tests. Sadly that is not allowed and the person grading his tests may draw the conclusion that this scholar is really dumb. That is not the case. This scholar has a serious dyslexia problem not an intelligence problem.
I know I've mentioned this before but do you know that I am working with a really good first year teacher? In fact, never mind the first year part, I'm working with a really good teacher and here is why. As part of the Prometheus and Pandora story she told them they were going to put on a puppet show. In order to do this Gnu had cartoon like pictures of the main characters to color and then cut out. She then had them glue the pictures onto tongue depressors to make the puppets. She then broke them into two groups, assigned each scholar a role and told them to rehearse their roles so when it came time to do the puppet show they'd be prepared. Keep in mind that these scholars don't work well in groups especially NoFouls who has to be in charge of everything and in his mind should play all the roles. Surprisingly both groups worked independent of each other and worked as a team to be sure they story was told in the correct order. There were literally no incidents.
Did I mention that I'm working with a really good teacher. After the Prometheus and Pandora project she decided to introduce them to the Greek alphabet. She had a copy of the Greek alphabet and then wrote each of their first names using the Greek alphabet. When she showed them their individual names they were at a loss for words. Why? They had no idea that other alphabets existed. It just wasn't registering with them. She then gave them a black piece of construction paper and told them to recreate their own name using the Greek alphabet and then they could paint any design on it they wanted. Again, it was amazing to watch them so carefully forming the letters of their name and then paint their name plate. The room was dead quiet during this project which is extremely rare given the type of students Gnu and I work with.
One more story as this is my favorite one and then I'm out. Gnu read to them the story of Athena and Arachne. In case you didn't know, this is a story about weaving and a contest to see who was the better weaver. At the end of the story Athena turns Arachne into a spider. After reading the story Gnu assigned each scholar a task. The task was to draw a picture of a certain scene from the story. With the exception of Wide, drawing is not one of the strengths of our scholars. In fact, their drawing ability is so poor they rely on me to help them draw. Believe me that is not a good thing. I gave it my best effort and then told the scholars just to trace my lines and then add some color. When everyone was finished Gnu took the drawings and three holed punched them. She then took some yarn and linked them together so it resembled a weaving. The were six panels weaved together and they looked really nice. So nice in fact, that we hung the weaving up in the corridor for all to see. Just one comment on Wide's panel. He had to draw Athena changing Arachne into a spider. His first part was to draw Athena, then he showed Arachne starting to turn into a spider. He then completed his panel by drawing Arachne as a spider and then added extra background details. It was a quite impressive drawing and it came from a scholar that hates to go to art class.
I am presently on spring break. Two weeks without any scholars and for that matter any kids at all. That's a good thing. I'm out.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Making A Case For Duct Tape In A Classroom
Every now and then you can find an article in the newspaper about a teacher who either duct taped a scholar to a desk to keep him seated or taped is mouth shut to keep him quiet. When you read these types of articles you have to wonder just what the heck was that teacher thinking. Well, Gnu and I are about to finish up the third of our four grading periods and I'm thinking we may need some duct tape to survive the year. Actually we don't need the duct tape to punish a scholar who can't keep his mouth shut but to maintain our own sanity.
Duct Tape Example #1
Uh-Uh-Uh recently celebrated her birthday. When she mentioned that it was her birthday in the classroom NoFouls asked her how old she was so she told him. He responded that you can be that old. He then began arguing with her about her age. "You are wrong, you can be that old." "How can you be that old and be in the second grade? "You don't even know how old you are." The longer this conversation took place the angrier he became to the point that he was screaming at her. When it comes to NoFouls, in his mind he knows everything and will argue with anyone to prove he is right and you are wrong.
Duct Tape Example #2
A couple days ago one of the second grade teachers brought a math book to the classroom for Gnu. She informed Gnu that she was moving on to volume two of math and was giving the book to Gnu so she could keep her second graders on pace with her classroom. When NoFouls saw the book he asked the second grade teacher if he could have the book. She informed him that this was for his teacher to use. "Why can't I have the book?" "I never get anything." With each statement from him his voice and anger was rising. He then asked Gnu if he could have the book. Gnu speaking, "no, it's for me to use and not you." "But I'm in the second grade and I should have the book not you." "No, you can't have it." "How am I supposed to do my work if you I can't have my own book?" Finally Gnu realized that she is having a ridiculous conversation with NoFouls and ended the conversation abruptly by telling him if he keeps arguing about the book that he'll have to leave her classroom and he can plead his case with the Big B.
Duct Tape Example #3. By the way did you know that duct tape comes in multiple colors with fancy designs?
We are transitioning in the classroom. Everyone is told to go sit at their desk so we can switch from reading to math. I'll have the fourth graders for math and the first, second and third graders will work with Gnu at the front desk. Gnu tells the fourth graders to move to the back of the room and they do so quietly. Gnu then tells MiniJ to take a seat at the front table which he does. As soon as he sits down NoFouls starts. "You can't sit there because that is where I'm sitting". He yells, "get out of my seat." Gnu asks him to be quiet which he does but not for long. Gnu looks at EM and tells him to take a seat at the table which he does. "Why am I always last?" "I never get to go first." "Everybody always sits where I want to sit." Gnu tells him to take a seat at the table and he promptly walks up to MiniJ and tells him you are in my seat. He then tries to ease his butt onto the same chair that MiniJ is sitting on but Gnu puts a stop to that. With his anger building he finally takes a seat at the table but not before he pounds his fist on the table out of frustration because he is not in charge of the seating arrangement.
Duct Tape Example #4
The day is over. I'm putting the room back together and Gnu is walking the scholars to the bus. NoFouls was agitated when he left the room because he wasn't the line leader and as you know he insists he is in charge of everything and should be line leader. Gnu didn't agree with him and moved him back to the third position and off they went. After several minutes Gnu is back in the classroom and tells me of her wonderful walk to the bus. About half way to the bus NoFouls is still fuming about not being line leader so he does an end run on Gnu to move up front. She sees him and blocks him. He then erupts and starts dropping the F-word on her as he struggles to get passed her. Gnu directs the other scholars to continue to the bus and she moves NoFouls into our first aid room. As he continues his obscenity laced tirade he moves through the first aid room into the front office. That is a big mistake as Gnu now has plenty of reinforcements to contain him. Other member of our staff try and get him to settle down to no avail. He continues to drop the F-word on anyone in his way to include a number parental units who are in the office conducting business. He is finally moved to the Big B's office.
During our week of ISTEP testing I was sitting at my desk with my view from the back of the room when a thought entered my mind. Why don't I keep a log of some type on how often NoFouls talks out of turn in our classroom. The more I thought about it the more I liked it so I started the very next day. Because it was ISTEP testing week I couldn't start my count until 10:30am as NoFouls was out of the classroom and with Oreo while the testing took place. When NoFouls returned to the room after the testing finished I started putting a small dot on our daily behavioral log every time he started talking. So you know, the behavior log is broken down into thirty minutes increments and twice I had to make the dots smaller and move them closer together to get them to fit in a specific thirty minute block. At the end of the day when Gnu was walking the scholars to the bus pick up point I counted the dots. All total, I had one hundred and forty seven dots. When Gnu walked back into the room I told her what I was doing. She looked and me and said "how many?" When I told her the number all she said was "you're kidding." Nope!"
I tracked NoFouls inability to keep his mouth shut for two days. His dot accumulation for the two days was two hundred and sixty nine. Surely that should be enough justification for duct tape but even if it was it won't happen. In the midst of all this unnecessary talking Gnu said to me "I've figured him out, he's narcissistic. Not being a pointy headed intellectual I had to look it up. Narcissistic, having an excessive interest in oneself. That is a perfect description of NoFouls but a troubling one. As I read about narcissistic students I came across of sentence that gave me great cause for concern. Narcissistic students have a tendency toward anger and violence. NoFouls is in the second grade and for me to read that at some point he may turn violent is scary and like so many other scholars with some serious issues I wonder if he'll even see his sixteenth birthday. As much as he drives Gnu and I crazy with his endless talking I certainly hope he does.
That's it. I'm out. Time to watch a little NCAA basketball.
Duct Tape Example #1
Uh-Uh-Uh recently celebrated her birthday. When she mentioned that it was her birthday in the classroom NoFouls asked her how old she was so she told him. He responded that you can be that old. He then began arguing with her about her age. "You are wrong, you can be that old." "How can you be that old and be in the second grade? "You don't even know how old you are." The longer this conversation took place the angrier he became to the point that he was screaming at her. When it comes to NoFouls, in his mind he knows everything and will argue with anyone to prove he is right and you are wrong.
Duct Tape Example #2
A couple days ago one of the second grade teachers brought a math book to the classroom for Gnu. She informed Gnu that she was moving on to volume two of math and was giving the book to Gnu so she could keep her second graders on pace with her classroom. When NoFouls saw the book he asked the second grade teacher if he could have the book. She informed him that this was for his teacher to use. "Why can't I have the book?" "I never get anything." With each statement from him his voice and anger was rising. He then asked Gnu if he could have the book. Gnu speaking, "no, it's for me to use and not you." "But I'm in the second grade and I should have the book not you." "No, you can't have it." "How am I supposed to do my work if you I can't have my own book?" Finally Gnu realized that she is having a ridiculous conversation with NoFouls and ended the conversation abruptly by telling him if he keeps arguing about the book that he'll have to leave her classroom and he can plead his case with the Big B.
Duct Tape Example #3. By the way did you know that duct tape comes in multiple colors with fancy designs?
We are transitioning in the classroom. Everyone is told to go sit at their desk so we can switch from reading to math. I'll have the fourth graders for math and the first, second and third graders will work with Gnu at the front desk. Gnu tells the fourth graders to move to the back of the room and they do so quietly. Gnu then tells MiniJ to take a seat at the front table which he does. As soon as he sits down NoFouls starts. "You can't sit there because that is where I'm sitting". He yells, "get out of my seat." Gnu asks him to be quiet which he does but not for long. Gnu looks at EM and tells him to take a seat at the table which he does. "Why am I always last?" "I never get to go first." "Everybody always sits where I want to sit." Gnu tells him to take a seat at the table and he promptly walks up to MiniJ and tells him you are in my seat. He then tries to ease his butt onto the same chair that MiniJ is sitting on but Gnu puts a stop to that. With his anger building he finally takes a seat at the table but not before he pounds his fist on the table out of frustration because he is not in charge of the seating arrangement.
Duct Tape Example #4
The day is over. I'm putting the room back together and Gnu is walking the scholars to the bus. NoFouls was agitated when he left the room because he wasn't the line leader and as you know he insists he is in charge of everything and should be line leader. Gnu didn't agree with him and moved him back to the third position and off they went. After several minutes Gnu is back in the classroom and tells me of her wonderful walk to the bus. About half way to the bus NoFouls is still fuming about not being line leader so he does an end run on Gnu to move up front. She sees him and blocks him. He then erupts and starts dropping the F-word on her as he struggles to get passed her. Gnu directs the other scholars to continue to the bus and she moves NoFouls into our first aid room. As he continues his obscenity laced tirade he moves through the first aid room into the front office. That is a big mistake as Gnu now has plenty of reinforcements to contain him. Other member of our staff try and get him to settle down to no avail. He continues to drop the F-word on anyone in his way to include a number parental units who are in the office conducting business. He is finally moved to the Big B's office.
During our week of ISTEP testing I was sitting at my desk with my view from the back of the room when a thought entered my mind. Why don't I keep a log of some type on how often NoFouls talks out of turn in our classroom. The more I thought about it the more I liked it so I started the very next day. Because it was ISTEP testing week I couldn't start my count until 10:30am as NoFouls was out of the classroom and with Oreo while the testing took place. When NoFouls returned to the room after the testing finished I started putting a small dot on our daily behavioral log every time he started talking. So you know, the behavior log is broken down into thirty minutes increments and twice I had to make the dots smaller and move them closer together to get them to fit in a specific thirty minute block. At the end of the day when Gnu was walking the scholars to the bus pick up point I counted the dots. All total, I had one hundred and forty seven dots. When Gnu walked back into the room I told her what I was doing. She looked and me and said "how many?" When I told her the number all she said was "you're kidding." Nope!"
I tracked NoFouls inability to keep his mouth shut for two days. His dot accumulation for the two days was two hundred and sixty nine. Surely that should be enough justification for duct tape but even if it was it won't happen. In the midst of all this unnecessary talking Gnu said to me "I've figured him out, he's narcissistic. Not being a pointy headed intellectual I had to look it up. Narcissistic, having an excessive interest in oneself. That is a perfect description of NoFouls but a troubling one. As I read about narcissistic students I came across of sentence that gave me great cause for concern. Narcissistic students have a tendency toward anger and violence. NoFouls is in the second grade and for me to read that at some point he may turn violent is scary and like so many other scholars with some serious issues I wonder if he'll even see his sixteenth birthday. As much as he drives Gnu and I crazy with his endless talking I certainly hope he does.
That's it. I'm out. Time to watch a little NCAA basketball.
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Black Pants, I Need To Act Bad and Shut The......
On Saturday mornings my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse and I head over to Panera's for coffee and bagels with some of our friends. My standard coffee order is a hazelnut coffee in a mug. Sorry, but no I don't want my coffee in a paper or Styrofoam cup. My bagel of choice is a plain bagel with butter and peanut butter. For those of you that are interested, I don't toast my bagel. The topic of conversation at Panera's usually covers dysfunctional families, books, Wall Street Journal, and school. Just prior to leaving one of my friends asked me about my week at school. My response was "how much time to you have?"
When I walked into the classroom Gnu was already there. She was sitting at her huge desk with the solid gold trim working on the daily lesson plans. I sat down at my desk and started preparing my behavior log and attendance record for the day. As I was getting started Gnu walked by and said "I'm heading to the copier." "Ok." As she walked by I noticed that she was wearing black pants. I was going to say something about the pants but chose not to as she was passed me and saying something about someone's pants when you are behind them could be some sort of policy violation. Fast forward and it's now approximately 1:00pm and all the scholars are at the front table working with Gnu. Yo! speaks up. "Those pants you are wearing look like something you wear when you work at a restaurant." I am doing my best not to laugh out loud and wait for Gnu's response. "Oh my god, don't say anything about my pants because I was too busy to get my laundry done." For those of you that are not aware, don't ever think that scholars don't pay attention to what you do, say or wear when you are in a classroom. They don't miss anything. We are not going to jump forward to the next day. All of the scholars are working we me at my table in the back of the room. Gnu is finalizing a lesson plan and heads to the copier. When she is out of the room I ask the scholars if they would like to play a joke on Gnu. The response was quick, "yes." So I tell them when she walks back into the room I'll get her attention. When she stops I'll count down from three and when I say one you all say "you did your laundry." They are really excited now and can't wait for her to return to the classroom. Exhibiting no patience, they keep walking over to the classroom door to see if she is coming. "Please sit down so you don't ruin the joke" I say and everyone settles down. When Gnu walks in I get her attention and do my count down. When I get to one they all yell in unison "you did your laundry." That was pretty fun stuff and getting to do things like this to make school fun is why I do what I do. It also helps that Gnu has a sense of humor and can laugh along.
EM walks into the classroom and puts his behavior fold on my desk and heads up to the front of the room to talk to Gnu. "I have to start acting bad at school" is what he says to her. "What?" "Why do you need to do that" Gnu asks him. "Because if I act bad my mom can get more money and then she can get my dad out of Mexico," he says. Later that day Gnu speaks with EM's parental unit and she is requesting that Gnu send her all of the information on the bad things EM has done at school. With the phone conversation over Gnu asks me how many time EM has acted poorly in the classroom. I tell her "very little if any, why?" She then tells me that EM's parental unit is trying to collect supplemental social security and the only way she can do this is if she can demonstrate that her children act so bad that she has to stay home and not work. I look at her and say "you're kidding." I've been around long enough to see and hear some real strange things but having a parental unit tell her child to intentionally misbehave in school is a first for me. A couple days later EM walks into the room and sets his behavior folder on my desk and points at a picture. "That's my dad," he says to me. I take a look at the picture and recognize immediately that he looks just like his dad. He then picks up his behavior folder and head towards Gnu to show it to her. As he is walking away from me I'm wondering when is the last time the EM actually say his father. It's moments like this one that make me wonder why I keep doing what I am doing.
The day is nearly over and Gnu is recording the daily behavior on each scholars folder. NoFouls had a pretty bad day and Gnu places him on orange which is one color better than red which is the worse behavior color. As soon as NoFouls sees his color his anger rises rapidly and he grabs his coat, hat and backpack and is heading for the door. It's too early to leave for the bus so I block his exit from the room. When I do this he changes directions and charges into me trying to get to the door. I block him again and this time he yells at me to "get the F-Word out of my way." I continue blocking him and Gnu, realizing we are at risk for other scholars to get injured, moves everyone else into the corridor to stay safe. As she leaves I ask her to call the office and put a hold on NoFouls bus and then ask that she call for additional support. A short while later she returns to the room and as soon as she opens the door NoFouls makes another charge to escape. He can't get past me so he kicks me a couple times in the shin. Gnu is now calling is parental unit to inform her that if NoFouls doesn't settle down he'll miss the bus and she will have to pick him up. When the connection is made Gnu explains the situation and NoFouls parental unit she asks to speak to him. Gnu hands NoFouls the phone and I'm standing three or four feet from NoFouls when I hear, "shut the F-Word up." "You talk to much so just shut the F-Word up." NoFouls response was "yes ma'am." As this phone conversation was taking place the Big B entered the room. She spends a couple minutes talking to NoFouls and he finally settles down and the three of us escort him to the bus. As a reminder, NoFouls is in the second grade and he uses the F-Word a lot when he is angry. I wonder why that is?
There are days when we all can laugh as we did about Gnu's black pants. There are days when I think to myself that no young scholar, especially one that is as nice and pleasant as EM, should have such bad things happen so early in his life. Then there are days when I think of my P.P.P. acronym and think that some parental units are very good a procreating but are really lousy parents and sadly second graders pay the price for poor parenting.
That's it, I'm out. The state mandated ISTEP testing is rapidly approaching. I'll serve as a proctor again so I'll keep you posted on how well our third and fourth grade scholars do on the test. Thanks for continuing to read my blog.
Foot note: P.P.P. for those of you that forgot means piss poor parenting.
When I walked into the classroom Gnu was already there. She was sitting at her huge desk with the solid gold trim working on the daily lesson plans. I sat down at my desk and started preparing my behavior log and attendance record for the day. As I was getting started Gnu walked by and said "I'm heading to the copier." "Ok." As she walked by I noticed that she was wearing black pants. I was going to say something about the pants but chose not to as she was passed me and saying something about someone's pants when you are behind them could be some sort of policy violation. Fast forward and it's now approximately 1:00pm and all the scholars are at the front table working with Gnu. Yo! speaks up. "Those pants you are wearing look like something you wear when you work at a restaurant." I am doing my best not to laugh out loud and wait for Gnu's response. "Oh my god, don't say anything about my pants because I was too busy to get my laundry done." For those of you that are not aware, don't ever think that scholars don't pay attention to what you do, say or wear when you are in a classroom. They don't miss anything. We are not going to jump forward to the next day. All of the scholars are working we me at my table in the back of the room. Gnu is finalizing a lesson plan and heads to the copier. When she is out of the room I ask the scholars if they would like to play a joke on Gnu. The response was quick, "yes." So I tell them when she walks back into the room I'll get her attention. When she stops I'll count down from three and when I say one you all say "you did your laundry." They are really excited now and can't wait for her to return to the classroom. Exhibiting no patience, they keep walking over to the classroom door to see if she is coming. "Please sit down so you don't ruin the joke" I say and everyone settles down. When Gnu walks in I get her attention and do my count down. When I get to one they all yell in unison "you did your laundry." That was pretty fun stuff and getting to do things like this to make school fun is why I do what I do. It also helps that Gnu has a sense of humor and can laugh along.
EM walks into the classroom and puts his behavior fold on my desk and heads up to the front of the room to talk to Gnu. "I have to start acting bad at school" is what he says to her. "What?" "Why do you need to do that" Gnu asks him. "Because if I act bad my mom can get more money and then she can get my dad out of Mexico," he says. Later that day Gnu speaks with EM's parental unit and she is requesting that Gnu send her all of the information on the bad things EM has done at school. With the phone conversation over Gnu asks me how many time EM has acted poorly in the classroom. I tell her "very little if any, why?" She then tells me that EM's parental unit is trying to collect supplemental social security and the only way she can do this is if she can demonstrate that her children act so bad that she has to stay home and not work. I look at her and say "you're kidding." I've been around long enough to see and hear some real strange things but having a parental unit tell her child to intentionally misbehave in school is a first for me. A couple days later EM walks into the room and sets his behavior folder on my desk and points at a picture. "That's my dad," he says to me. I take a look at the picture and recognize immediately that he looks just like his dad. He then picks up his behavior folder and head towards Gnu to show it to her. As he is walking away from me I'm wondering when is the last time the EM actually say his father. It's moments like this one that make me wonder why I keep doing what I am doing.
The day is nearly over and Gnu is recording the daily behavior on each scholars folder. NoFouls had a pretty bad day and Gnu places him on orange which is one color better than red which is the worse behavior color. As soon as NoFouls sees his color his anger rises rapidly and he grabs his coat, hat and backpack and is heading for the door. It's too early to leave for the bus so I block his exit from the room. When I do this he changes directions and charges into me trying to get to the door. I block him again and this time he yells at me to "get the F-Word out of my way." I continue blocking him and Gnu, realizing we are at risk for other scholars to get injured, moves everyone else into the corridor to stay safe. As she leaves I ask her to call the office and put a hold on NoFouls bus and then ask that she call for additional support. A short while later she returns to the room and as soon as she opens the door NoFouls makes another charge to escape. He can't get past me so he kicks me a couple times in the shin. Gnu is now calling is parental unit to inform her that if NoFouls doesn't settle down he'll miss the bus and she will have to pick him up. When the connection is made Gnu explains the situation and NoFouls parental unit she asks to speak to him. Gnu hands NoFouls the phone and I'm standing three or four feet from NoFouls when I hear, "shut the F-Word up." "You talk to much so just shut the F-Word up." NoFouls response was "yes ma'am." As this phone conversation was taking place the Big B entered the room. She spends a couple minutes talking to NoFouls and he finally settles down and the three of us escort him to the bus. As a reminder, NoFouls is in the second grade and he uses the F-Word a lot when he is angry. I wonder why that is?
There are days when we all can laugh as we did about Gnu's black pants. There are days when I think to myself that no young scholar, especially one that is as nice and pleasant as EM, should have such bad things happen so early in his life. Then there are days when I think of my P.P.P. acronym and think that some parental units are very good a procreating but are really lousy parents and sadly second graders pay the price for poor parenting.
That's it, I'm out. The state mandated ISTEP testing is rapidly approaching. I'll serve as a proctor again so I'll keep you posted on how well our third and fourth grade scholars do on the test. Thanks for continuing to read my blog.
Foot note: P.P.P. for those of you that forgot means piss poor parenting.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
My Grievances - I Have Three Of Them
I'm finally going to air my grievances and I find myself a little hesitant because my grievances are with my school. I said from the beginning I really like my school because so many good people work here and so many great things happen. However, when I started writing this blog I committed myself to telling both the good and the bad that happens in the classroom. Well, I've certainly done that but never have I criticized the school or my colleagues until today.
Grievance #1
The scholars that Gnu and I work with do not have leprosy, the black plague, or some contagious disease so why are they treated differently? Gnu dropped off the scholars in the gym which is our bus pick up point and when they left the building to get on the bus she returned to the classroom. What Gnu did not know was that the busses were running late so two of our scholars had to reenter the gym. When in the gym, our two scholars picked up a basketball and started dribbling it. That is against the rules given that there can be up to fifty scholars in the gym waiting on busses. It's a simple fix, just tell them to put the basketballs down and sit quietly until their bus arrives. Unfortunately one of the responsible colleagues must have sense that these two scholars were contagious and just went to the front office and filed a complaint with the Big B. The next morning Gnu received an email message regarding this incident from the Big B. I'm sorry but common courtesy dictates that you address the matter with the scholars teacher first and not the principal. On Friday Gnu and I both walked the scholars to the bus. Interestingly the busses were running late and several scholars were in the gym. Our scholars were sitting quietly but others were running wildly yelling and screaming and dribbling basketballs. Not once did a responsible colleague do anything to stop this out of control activity. Why? Apparently these out of control scholars were not from THAT classroom.
Grievance #2
Our scholars, like all of the scholars in the school, are required to take state mandated tests. In this particular incident I had to sit with EM as he took a language arts acuity test. When he finished the test my colleagues involved in the testing process told him he did a good job. NO HE DID NOT. HE CAN'T READ. Did you not watch him? He just clicked on the answers. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, he click forty times and managed to get seven right. Even with seven correct out of forty that is not good. That is failure. I've asked the question ,"why do we even bother to testing him?" "Why don't we just give him a zero and move on?" "Because this is a mandatory test that he has to take" is the response I get. "But we are wasting our time if we don't get him the help he needs" I say. "Yes, something needs to be done about him." Well then do something. Nothing happens.
EM arrived at our school last year. I've brought up his lack of reading ability a few times to the people that can do something about it and nothing happened. I'm now working with Gnu and once again EM's inability to advance academically has been minimal. Another attempt to get EM the help he needs will be made. This time Gnu is taking the initiative to get a case conference schedule but we'll see how that goes. If you recall, the last time Gnu tried to get a case conference scheduled it was blow'd up before it even got started.
Grievance #3
Mandatory statewide ISTEP testing starts on Monday, March 2nd. Four of our scholars are required to take the test: The Collector, Yo!, Wide, and EM. Just before leaving school for the day Gnu said to me, "my stomach is in knots over the ISTEP tests." My response was, "it's going to be a tough process and we have to do our best to get everyone settled down and on task on test days". After some further discussion we set a goal of having one scholar pass at least one part of the test. Who is that one scholar, Wide. He has the knowledge, it's just a matter of keeping him calm so he doesn't go into some type of anxiety attack or hyper overload.
With all of that said he is where my grievance comes in. There are four classrooms on the second floor that are occupied by teachers who's responsibility is to help scholars that are struggling academically. I walk past these classrooms everyday and look inside and see either a small group of students or an individual student getting additional help. In doing so I keep thinking why don't they help our scholars? Every one of those teachers knows our scholars and knows they are behind academically so why don't they help them? That's the big unknown and what makes it even worse is that one of them is designated to specifically help our scholars. We are almost through the third grading period and as of yet this person has failed to make an appearance in our classroom. It makes me wonder why this is happening and I certainly hope it's not because our scholars are in THAT room.
There you have it, my grievances. There are just three of them but as I think about them I come to one conclusion and that is that my scholars seem to be treated differently. That really bothers me because none of my scholars chose to be the way they are. They are what they are because of one of three things. They are products of P.P.P. Their parental unit did stupid things with drugs and/or alcohol when they were pregnant. This is simply God's plan for them. The reality is I can't do a thing about any of those three reasons. The other reality is if I can prove that someone is treating them differently because they are in THAT classroom then I going to have a very serious and animated conversation with that person and if someone doesn't like it, so be it.
I'm out. It's the weekend. Thanks again for sticking around and reading my posts.
Grievance #1
The scholars that Gnu and I work with do not have leprosy, the black plague, or some contagious disease so why are they treated differently? Gnu dropped off the scholars in the gym which is our bus pick up point and when they left the building to get on the bus she returned to the classroom. What Gnu did not know was that the busses were running late so two of our scholars had to reenter the gym. When in the gym, our two scholars picked up a basketball and started dribbling it. That is against the rules given that there can be up to fifty scholars in the gym waiting on busses. It's a simple fix, just tell them to put the basketballs down and sit quietly until their bus arrives. Unfortunately one of the responsible colleagues must have sense that these two scholars were contagious and just went to the front office and filed a complaint with the Big B. The next morning Gnu received an email message regarding this incident from the Big B. I'm sorry but common courtesy dictates that you address the matter with the scholars teacher first and not the principal. On Friday Gnu and I both walked the scholars to the bus. Interestingly the busses were running late and several scholars were in the gym. Our scholars were sitting quietly but others were running wildly yelling and screaming and dribbling basketballs. Not once did a responsible colleague do anything to stop this out of control activity. Why? Apparently these out of control scholars were not from THAT classroom.
Grievance #2
Our scholars, like all of the scholars in the school, are required to take state mandated tests. In this particular incident I had to sit with EM as he took a language arts acuity test. When he finished the test my colleagues involved in the testing process told him he did a good job. NO HE DID NOT. HE CAN'T READ. Did you not watch him? He just clicked on the answers. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, he click forty times and managed to get seven right. Even with seven correct out of forty that is not good. That is failure. I've asked the question ,"why do we even bother to testing him?" "Why don't we just give him a zero and move on?" "Because this is a mandatory test that he has to take" is the response I get. "But we are wasting our time if we don't get him the help he needs" I say. "Yes, something needs to be done about him." Well then do something. Nothing happens.
EM arrived at our school last year. I've brought up his lack of reading ability a few times to the people that can do something about it and nothing happened. I'm now working with Gnu and once again EM's inability to advance academically has been minimal. Another attempt to get EM the help he needs will be made. This time Gnu is taking the initiative to get a case conference schedule but we'll see how that goes. If you recall, the last time Gnu tried to get a case conference scheduled it was blow'd up before it even got started.
Grievance #3
Mandatory statewide ISTEP testing starts on Monday, March 2nd. Four of our scholars are required to take the test: The Collector, Yo!, Wide, and EM. Just before leaving school for the day Gnu said to me, "my stomach is in knots over the ISTEP tests." My response was, "it's going to be a tough process and we have to do our best to get everyone settled down and on task on test days". After some further discussion we set a goal of having one scholar pass at least one part of the test. Who is that one scholar, Wide. He has the knowledge, it's just a matter of keeping him calm so he doesn't go into some type of anxiety attack or hyper overload.
With all of that said he is where my grievance comes in. There are four classrooms on the second floor that are occupied by teachers who's responsibility is to help scholars that are struggling academically. I walk past these classrooms everyday and look inside and see either a small group of students or an individual student getting additional help. In doing so I keep thinking why don't they help our scholars? Every one of those teachers knows our scholars and knows they are behind academically so why don't they help them? That's the big unknown and what makes it even worse is that one of them is designated to specifically help our scholars. We are almost through the third grading period and as of yet this person has failed to make an appearance in our classroom. It makes me wonder why this is happening and I certainly hope it's not because our scholars are in THAT room.
There you have it, my grievances. There are just three of them but as I think about them I come to one conclusion and that is that my scholars seem to be treated differently. That really bothers me because none of my scholars chose to be the way they are. They are what they are because of one of three things. They are products of P.P.P. Their parental unit did stupid things with drugs and/or alcohol when they were pregnant. This is simply God's plan for them. The reality is I can't do a thing about any of those three reasons. The other reality is if I can prove that someone is treating them differently because they are in THAT classroom then I going to have a very serious and animated conversation with that person and if someone doesn't like it, so be it.
I'm out. It's the weekend. Thanks again for sticking around and reading my posts.
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