Before I get started I have a few announcements. First, NoFouls has left the building. With approximately twenty three days left in the school year his parental unit decided to move into an apartment outside our school district. Why move with so little time left in the school year? I have no idea. As a result of the move, NoFouls will be entering a new school for the third time this school year. If that grabbed your attention you'll really like this. When River left our school and went to a new school it will be his fifth school of this school year. Next, EM's Parental Unit, who directed him to act badly in school because she was going to apply for supplemental social security on the grounds that she can't work because of her poorly behaved scholars, has been awarded supplemental social security for now and on into eternity. Just so you know, EM did not act poorly and he continues to be one of the nicest scholars in the school. Last, after almost a month, The Collector and his family are no longer homeless. I'm not exactly sure where they stayed except that it was one those cheap motels and some of the stories The Collector told Gnu were scary. I'll share one, The Collector's parental unit was told to watch her scholars closely as there was a convicted and released child molester staying at the same location. I'm not sure if The Collector currently resides in a house or an apartment but he did share one interesting fact about his new place. When they first moved in he said the toilet didn't work. I thought about asking a follow up question but decided not to.
With NoFouls and River moving on I'll update our scholar score card.
The Collector - 4th grade
Wide - 4th grade
EM - 3rd grade
Uh-Uh-Uh - 2nd grade
MiniJ - 2nd grade
Grrr! - 1st grade
I'm feeling somewhat confident that the scholar comings and goings will stop but then again, the majority of our scholars are products of P.P.P. so who knows.
I've had a Twitter account for some time now but I haven't used it for the better part of a year. Apparently the people that operate Twitter must have changed something because all of a sudden I stated getting Twitter notifications via my email account. That's bugging me a little bit because now I'm getting what I consider spam mail on a regular basis. Despite the spam designation I did get one tweet that caught my attention. This tweet came from a local TV station and was just one sentence long and read kind of like this, a teacher called my scholar the N-word. After reading this tweet I went directly to both the hardcopy and e-version of the newspaper to see if I could find the story. My search came up empty. As I thought about this tweet for a while a few things came to mind, racial slur, term of endearment, and Mr. Leroy. For the record, I hate that word. For the record, in my opinion this word is not a term of endearment. To prove my point on the term of endearment designation I'll refer you to a post I wrote quite some time ago entitled, "Mr. Leroy Versus the NFL Players" that is dated April 20, 2014. If I would force rank all of my posts this one would be in my top five so if you haven't read it, check it out. After a few days thinking about this parental units comment to the local television station I thought about sharing what I've been called by scholars at my school. So far, I haven't gotten the nerve to do it. If I did I'd share this conversation I had with a first grade scholar that took place about a week ago. This scholar, by the way, not one from my classroom, was sitting outside the Big B's office when I spoke to him. "Good morning Tourette, how are you doing today?" "Not too good." "Well, maybe tomorrow will be a better day." "Shut up you stupid f-ing b-word, c-sucker." When I turned around and looked at him he stood up and gave me the double middle finger salute and said, "f-you." To tweet or not to tweet the local television station? If a teacher calling a scholar the N-word drew little interest I doubt if an obscenity laced tirade by a first grade scholar would draw any interest so I think I'll move on to Indiana's STUPID Testing and Evaluation Process (ISTEP).
On the first day of round two of ISTEP testing Gnu decided to work with our fourth graders, Wide and The Collector, and I'd work our third grader EM. While testing, all of our other scholars would camp out in Oreo's office. After the Big B dropped off our testing material Gnu game me the instructor's guide and EM's test booklet. The weight of the two books immediately caught my attention. The instructor's guide was sixty nine pages long. EM's test booklet was one hundred and twenty five pages long. Please keep in mind all that EM is doing is taking a math and language arts test and it requires a test booklet that is one hundred and twenty five pages long. As I went through the instructor's guide I was looking for the time allotted for the various sessions. When I didn't see any I asked Gnu about it. She said she didn't have the information so off I went looking for the Big B to get the information. Finally, with all parts in hand we could begin. By the way, the total time EM had to complete the math and language arts test was just a couple minutes short of six hours. If that sets you off you'll like this even better. The Collector and Wide will take both math and language arts tests and they also have to take a science test. The total time they had to complete all of the tests was right at seven and a half hours. To put your mind at ease, all of this testing does not take place in one day.
The testing went as we anticipated. Although I could read the directions and in some instances the questions to EM he still had to read the remaining parts. Because he can't read he did poorly. Is there any chance that he will pass either math or language arts? None! The Collector's test results will also be poor. Not as poor as EM's but still poor due to his inability to stay focused for any length of time plus his reading level is well behind fourth grade reading. Is there any chance that he will pass either math, language arts, or science? Slim to none! Our only hope is Wide. During the entire testing period he pretty much stayed focused and he was always the last one to finish. At no point did he get upset, at no point did he asked for an explanation of something which is good as we were not allowed to tell him. He just kept working and that is the one positive Gnu and I took away from the testing process. Is there any chance that Wide will pass either math, language arts, or science? Yes, and hopefully our prayers will be heard and he passes one of the tests.
I've had a number of conversations with my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse about ISTEP. These are pretty good talks and I'm often tempted to share these conversations but choose not to for various reasons except for today. Our topic was ISTEP and the actual amount classroom time interrupted to administer both ISTEP tests, the one that took place before spring break and the one we just completed. The number we came up for practicing to take ISTEP plus the amount of time it actually took to take the ISTEP test was right around forty five days. That's five weeks and for those of you outside education a grading period is nine weeks. What does this mean? Five weeks of classroom academics was interrupted because politicians and pointy headed intellectuals mandate that the Indiana STUPID Testing and Evaluation Process must be administered. For five weeks EM's time spent, one on one, with a teacher specifically trained to work with scholars with dyslexia was lost. For five weeks scholars that are in the general education classrooms and are struggling to meet their grade level requirements lost time in smaller group settings with inclusion teachers so that can get the help needed to stay at grade level. For five weeks academics took a major hit so that this STUPID test could be administered. And what happens if you don't administer this STUPID test? The school may be at risk for loosing funding and worse yet may loose it's accreditation.
That's it. I'm out. It's the weekend and I think I chug down a couple Coke Zero's because they don't require an explanation.
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