I have to take a few minutes to recognize my colleagues Oreo and IvyL. Like Gnu, IvyL is about to wrap up her first school year as a behavior therapist. She was in the classroom last school year as an intern working with PhD(?)Sparty but this year she is on her own. For those not familiar with PhD(?)Sparty she is a friend first but also my nemesis as she attended that green and white university and I preferred blue and gold university. During the last school year a gentleman caller worked his way into her life and they were married just a short while ago. I'm really happy for her as I met the gentleman caller and he is a real nice young man despite his green and white affiliation. While I gave the gentleman caller a thumbs up, when The Collector saw a picture of the two of them together he thought the gentleman caller was too tall. Back to IvyL and her role in the classroom. She is responsible for working with the scholars on their behavior and social skills in what is referred to as "group sessions." She also leads the yoga class for our scholars as well as the scholars in the 5th and 6th grade emotional disability classroom. During our group sessions all of the scholars gather at the front table which usually increases the degree of difficulty during group because too many scholars are too close together. While it increases the degree of difficulty it puts the scholars in a setting that can improve their social skills. From my view at the back of the room it's been interesting to watch IvyL lead group. There were a few incidents earlier in the year when she got pretty animated trying to control the scholars and keep them on track. As the year progressed the animation decreased and to get the scholars back on track when needed she would just go silent. One of my challenges working in this environment was to avoid getting animated and that was something that I struggled with during my first two years in the classroom. It was during year three that I finally got a handle on it so for IvyL to be able to do that in less than one school year is admirable. With the school year winding down Gnu gets a break from the scholars but IvyL continues working with them as she is a year round contracted employee. I'm not exactly sure what her role is during the summer but I do know that she maintains contact with the scholars and their parental units and that is critical to working toward the end goal of improving behavior and social skills.
Oreo, a behavior specialist, also supports our classroom as well as fills in during group sessions when IvyL has a schedule conflict. In addition to working with the scholars in our classroom Oreo also supports the teacher in the 5th and 6th grade classroom. Supporting these two classrooms is challenging enough but in her role she also supports several other general education classrooms when scholars have behavior issues. Oreo's task is huge as there are several scholars in the general education classrooms that are consistent disruptions. Her office is just a few steps from our classroom and its pretty rare to walk by her office when she does not have a scholar or two with her that comes from a general education classroom. I like working with Oreo because she has another role that I particularly enjoy and it doesn't involve academics or poor scholar behavior. Instead, it's more of a running banter between the two of us. Usually the banter is about totally stupid things that happened or was said but are welcomed because they are often humorous can take the edge off a bad day when you are having one.
I'm sitting on the screened in back porch of my house as I write this blog and I'm thinking about IvyL and Oreo. I'm not sure if I've given you an accurate enough description of what these two individuals bring to my classroom and it bothers me a little. Although my description of what they contribute daily is lacking in my mind I can say this about them with no uncertainty. Both Ivy and Oreo have committed themselves to working with some of the most challenging scholars in our school. They both excel in a school setting and our scholars future is brighter because of the work they do.
I'm drawing a blank as to how this came about but one afternoon Wide said something about our Little Red Pen reading theater. Almost immediately, the others joined in the chorus and it was agreed that we would do our little play. If you recall, our reading theater was to take place during parental unit day but it didn't work as planned so the audience we wanted will not to be in the room. IvyL and Oreo are in the room and as happens so often with Oreo she has with her a couple disruptive scholars from the general education classrooms. To have adequate space for our play furniture had to be moved and the scholars gladly helped move tables, chairs and desks so we could have a stage area. The rest of the chairs and desks were arranged in theater style and every one in the audience took their seat. Just before the play started The Collector chose not to participate. That left a hole in the cast so we decided to ask one of the scholars that was with Oreo if she would like to participate. She quickly said yes and took over the role of the Green Highlighter. Her position in the play was right next to EM and I told her he has trouble reading so when it was his turn to speak I told her to lean towards him and tap him with her elbow. That worked out perfect and EM got to participate. The performance was a little shaky but considering we haven't practice in a couple weeks everyone participated and there were no eruptions. When the play ended the audience applauded and the actors took their bows. After a very short period of time all the scholars wanted to do the play again so it was agreed to do it one more time. After the second go through there was quite a bit of improvement and I even think the scholars knew they did a better job. When the final curtain fell they were all so excited that they just start running around jumping on top of desks and tables. Although it got a little wild it was fun to watch them as they were so excited.
Academically it's decision time for Gnu as report cards are due and so is the decision to pass or failure the scholars. There was one incident when she said to me I'm not sure I have what I need to make decisions about report cards. All I could offer was that you gave them tests in language arts, they had to pass exit worksheets in math, you heard them read out loud all school year and you saw first hand how much they contributed in the classroom. Even if you don't have a huge stack of graded papers you knew how they did academically at the start of the year and the end of the year and that is really all you need.
Before I wrap this up I'd like to tell you that so far Gnu has not been approached by the Big B about next year. That's a little surprising to me as we only have a few days left in the school year. As I mentioned in the past, my continued view from the back of the room hinges solely on what Gnu decides to do so I guess I'll stay on hold about next year.
As always, thanks for returning and I'm out.
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