It Happened On A Thursday at 3:05pm

Just when I think the classroom is event free this happens.  Leftside, speaking to Gnu, "my grandma has been sleeping for two days."  As a reminder, the court system removed Leftside from his parental unit for reasons that are not clear but probably related to P.P.P.  On the day of the final court proceeding Leftside's parental unit didn't even show up in court.  Once Leftside made his statement Gnu and I made eye contact.  I don't know what she was thinking but I'm thinking I hope she is not dead.  Gnu walked over to him and started asking questions.  In the end we find out that Leftside made the decision to call 911.  He said he told the 911 responder that his Grandma is not waking up, gave the responder his home address, and hung up the phone.  The EMT's arrived and took his Grandma to the hospital.  Upon further questioning by Gnu we find out that Leftside's Grandma was sick enough that she couldn't get out of bed and not that she had died.  As Gnu and I talked about this incident we wondered who fed and clothed this scholar for the two days his Grandma didn't get out of bed.  As far as we know, there are no other adults in the house so we guessed that he just took care of himself which I'm sure you'll agree is unusual for a scholar in the fourth grade.  At the end of the school day Gnu asked Leftside how he was getting home.  He said he was going to be a car rider        instead of walking home as his Grandpa, who does not live with his Grandma, was picking him up.  That got a sigh of relief from me as seeing him go home to an empty home was not a good visual.  For the next couple days Leftside arrived at school without incident, meaning no funeral.  When Gnu asked him how his Grandma was doing, he said she was back home.  Crisis averted for the time being because Leftside calls her Grandma but she is actually his great Grandma.    

As we slowly approached the end of the school year I was wondering when it would happen.  Well, I can now tell you it happened on a Thursday at 3:05pm.  Gnu just completed a reading block and was deciding what to do next.  At the time, she was standing in the front of the room and after a moment of silence she said to the scholars, "just go play hangman."  This statement was made at 3:05pm and it was the first time after approximately one hundred and seventy of our one hundred and eighty day school year that she just said to the scholars go play a game.  When she said it I just looked at her.  I thought about saying something but decided against it.  After all, I'm working with a really good teacher and if she wants to have the scholars just play a game for approximately fifteen minutes as Pope Francis would say, "who am I to judge?"      

With the end of the school year approaching there is a lot of paper work that needs to be completed as well as conferences that need to be held with the parental units.  Gnu has been diligently working through the paperwork.  The items that need updating are the behavior plans, the individual education plans (IEP's), and the cumulative folders.  The Cum folders, as they are called, are always a fascination to me.  By the way, that is a long "u" in Cum and not a short "u".  As you might have noticed there is a big difference in the word depending on how you pronounce the "u".  What fascinates me about these Cum folders is the shear size of them.  For example, The Collector's, who is in the fourth grade, is approximately six to seven inches wide and contains all of the minutiae of stuff that has to be kept for a scholar in a special education classroom.  The folder used to be much wider but Gnu told me that she purged the folder of all of the duplicate items to get it down to a manageable size.  I also like to read the IEP's and the hot topic IEP for the year belongs to EM.  Caution, I might get a little testy talking about EM's IEP.  Gnu had updated EM's IEP and went over it with me for feedback.  She had him listed as reading well off of grade level, somewhere between kindergarten and first grade.  So you have an understanding of where he is reading wise I'll refer to Fry's First One Hundred Words that you need to easily recognize.  The first time EM went through the list he knew four or five of the words.  The second time he got twenty four correct.  On the last reading he got thirty nine correct.  Progress, yes, but these are words that first graders easily recognize.  For math she also had him off grade level as he has difficulty reading numbers.  For example, if you put hundred count chart in front of him and point to different numbers he'd have a hard time telling you what they were.  He also struggles with the addition, subtraction, division, and multiplications signs.  After discussing EM's IEP I concurred with the academic assessment Gnu came up with and it was submitted to one of those overhead personnel. 

The next morning when I walked into the room and before I could even put my lunch away Gnu said, "I'm so angry."  Not exactly how you want to start the day and when I looked at her to say something she just continued venting.  "How can she just return EM's IEP and tell me that it needs to be changed."  "I'm the teacher of record and I know what's good for my students so what right does she have to say I have to change it."  As I wait patiently for an opening to speak I know who Gnu is talking about and my anger is building.  Finally I say, "what are you supposed to change?"  "I have to have fourth grade academic goals for EM," Gnu said.  My response was "he can't do fourth grade work so why do that?"  "Because if another overhead person in a much higher overhead position reads an IEP for a scholar going into the fourth grade and it has academic goals for a first grader these higher overhead personnel are going to wonder what is going on," Gnu said.  Oh, now I get it so beware because after this last statement from Gnu I got pretty hot.  Succinctly, this is nothing but a cover your ass situation to avoid tough questions and the person doing the CYA is not the teacher or instructional assistant.  The question that I believe is feared most by the overhead person is how is it that a scholar can reach the fourth grade but have an IEP with first grade goals?  The question I'd like to ask the overhead person as well as the higher up overhead person is how is it possible that you are not aware of what is going on academically with a scholar is a special education classroom.  IEP's have been submitted in the past.  Gnu didn't deviate too much from what others wrote so why and the hell don't you people know what is going on?  Do you read these IEP's or just file them?  You think I have an attitude.  You're damn right I do because Gnu looked at almost an entire year of EM's academic work and wrote an IEP with goals that are attainable and now she is being requested to change it to placate some overhead person who is just doing the CYA.  Bull!

EM's IEP was resubmitted with slight adjustments and it was approved.  The school year continues to advance with the end in sight as we are inside five days.  Key decisions need to be made and when a teacher has to put up with the crap that she does from overhead personnel it makes you wonder what decision she will make.  Here is one thing I know for certain, it's the weekend.  I think, after the EM IEP episode, I'm going to double the amount of Tanqueray in my gimlet.  I'm out, thanks for continuing to read my blog.