At the end of the last blog post I mentioned that I was meeting Gnu for lunch at one of my favorite locations, Vino Villa. The weather was a little shakey as rain seemed eminent but that didn't keep us from meeting. I arrived first and despite the cool weather I decided to sit on the front porch. Shortly after my arrival Gnu showed up and she was carrying stuff. The fact that she was carrying stuff didn't surprise me because we were meeting about school and if you recall she was pretty excited about the upcoming school year and wanted to show me what she was working on. Before conducting official business drinks and food were required, after all, it was lunch time. I knew Gnu like chardonnay so we order a couple glasses from a winery called Seven Falls. Gnu ordered the asparagus wrap and I ordered the lobster macaroni and cheese and we split a Greek salad. As I sit here thinking about my menu selection I had to laugh as I'm sure people that know me very well are probably wondering what the hell was I eating.
On to the academics. Our talk centered on two topics, EM's dyslexia and Gnu's end of the school year evaluation from the Big B. She pulled out a three ring binder that she prepared specifically for EM and another scholar with dyslexia, Grrr! As she leafed through the pages of the binder it was easy realize that she planned to attack the dyslexia issues with full force. That made me feel pretty good as EM, who wants to be able to read so bad but can't, may finally make some great strides in his reading ability. When the conversation switched to her evaluation I got a little animated. Using Gnu's words, the evaluation "didn't go very well." As I listened to what she had to say I kept thinking to myself how could this teacher, who just did this wonder job of teaching, get an evaluation that didn't go very well. And then it came out as the state and/or school corporation mandated test scores were a big part of the conversation and I got a little hot. So that's what it's all about, test scores. No matter how much you excel as a teacher it is all for naught if the scholars fail the tests. There was an article in the Indianapolis newspaper about a shortage of teacher applications. According to the article, The Indiana Department of Education reports the state issued 16,578 licenses to first-time teachers in the 2009-2010 school year. That number dropped to 6,174 for the 2013-2014 school year. That is a drop of over 10,000 licenses issues to first year teachers over four years and now people are getting nervous. When you consider that pointy headed intellectuals and politicians will judge a teacher solely on how well scholars do on a state mandated test and disregard all of the good things that a teacher accomplishes it's no wonder that college age students are avoiding teaching profession.
Ok, did they pass or fail. Because a number of you have been around for a while I'm going to incorporate the fifth and sixth grade classes into this review. I'll start with the upper grades and work backward.
6th Grade
AromeA - graduated and is moving on to middle school. Although I didn't get to speak to him after graduation, I was told that he will be going to a charter school for the next school year. I started working with AromeA when he was in the third grade so it was a good feeling to watch him mature and manage his ability to control his anger. While there were still incidents where he thought he was in charge and could do what he wanted to during the day, the aggressive outbursts where he'd tear up the classroom declined significantly.
5th Grade
CorP - was promoted to the sixth grade. CorP is as close to a success story that you can get. Back around Thanksgiving he was placed into a general education classroom. That's a huge step and he remained there for the rest of the school year. Later in the school year he got a little lost emotionally and that caused some concern but he got himself back on track. Red flags went up right at the end of the school years as I got word that CorP's behavior at home took a turn for the worse as he showed signs of getting particularly aggressive with his parental unit. That troubles me greatly as this is one of the scholars I really like and I guess I'll see how he is doing should if he returns to our school next year.
Straw - had a pretty uneventful year and was promoted to the sixth grade. I can't think of any incident where he had a violent outburst and that is good news. There were a few incidents where he'd just show up in my classroom and when he did I just say to him, "you need a timeout?" He'd say "yes" so I'd let him sit by me in the back of the room until he got himself under control and then he'd go back to his classroom.
Floss - continues to be a time bomb waiting to explode but was promoted to the sixth grade because he does well academically. He did not have a good year behaviorally. In fact, it was so poor that he was placed on half days and I'm not sure that helped. Right at the end of the school year his teacher, Knew, mentioned that he is just like his male parental unit. When I asked what that meant she said, just like his male parental unit, he can't control his anger. Right now I believe his male parental unit is in jail because of anger control issues.
4th Grade
Wide - promoted to the fifth grade and rightfully so because he did well academically. At the same time being in the fifth grade makes me nervous as Wide is an instigator. His target this year was primarily The Collector and there were times he paid the price and got smacked up the side of the head by The Collector. Next year he will be with Floss and if he starts agitating Floss he has the potential to get hurt. Although Floss and Wide are only one grade level apart, Floss is twice the size of Wide so hopefully Wide will recognize the size difference and keep a safe distance from him.
Yo! - despite the fact that he literally did nothing academically for the majority of the year he is going to the fifth grade. As a reminder, Yo! started the school year in our classroom but due to bullying issues with our second grade scholars he was transferred to the Knew's classroom with the fifth and sixth graders. Like Floss, Yo! is on a path to self destruction in my opinion. Although I don't see him having serious anger control issues like Floss, he has a defiant disposition especially when it comes to female school teachers and I suppose females in general. There were a number of incidents during the school year that the respect he showed for Gnu changed dramatically when I left the room. During one incident he intentionally threw an object at Gnu that just missed her head. When I returned to the classroom during this incident he was still up and in his defiant mood until he saw me standing in the room. He looked at me and immediately shut is defiant attitude down and returned to his seat as I know with no uncertainty that the look on my face was all he needed to see. Like Floss, Yo! only came to school half day. Floss arrived in the morning and left at lunch and Yo! arrived at lunch time and went home at the end of the school day. Next year they will be together all year and that is a scary thought.
The Collector - will be going to the fifth grade despite his mediocre academic performance this year and this bothers me a little. I spent two years with The Collector and did a lot of one on one work with him. This was particularly true when he was in the third grade and I felt good about his ability to accomplish academic tasks. This change progressively during the fourth grade as the longer the school year went on the less work he did. I believe this occurred for two reasons. First, there were too many scholars in the classroom and while I worked a lot with The Collector I also had other scholars at my desk. That didn't set well with The Collector as he had to share our time together with other students. The second reason his academic work dropped off was the arrival of Wide as these two just were not compatible in the classroom plus it was usually Wide who sat with The Collector and I at the back table doing academics. The Collector and Wide are not compatible and just think, they'll be in the same classroom next year.
Leftside - although he was only in our classroom for the last three or so weeks of the school year he is moving on to the fifth grade. Academically he did a decent job for the three weeks he was with us and behaviorally he wasn't much of a problem so hopefully he will continue to do well next school year.
3rd Grade
EM - frustrating, frustrating and damn frustrating that this very nice young man is stuck in a Catch 22 situation. He has no business being in a classroom with scholars with emotional handicaps as he has none. He has no business being in a general education classroom because he can't read. EM clearly has a dyslexia problem that is seriously holding him back reading wise but despite this, he is going to the fourth grade. Yes, I'm aware that a scholar who can't read is getting promoted to the fourth grade and I know that is just wrong. At the same time how do you hold back a scholar because the school corporation has failed him, the special education overhead department has failed him, the school leader has failed him, and the two individuals in the classroom charged with educating him failed to do their job when it came to this particular scholar. Frustrating, frustrating and damn frustration and it gets worse. Gnu told me when we had lunch the other day that the special education overhead department is considering a move for EM to another school. And why are they doing that? We don't know except that someone thinks he should go to another school where people totally unfamiliar with him will be given the task of educating him. Hopefully someone with some sense will put a stop to this and EM will be with us in the fourth grade where Gnu already has a plan to help him improve his reading.
2nd Grade
MiniJ - promoted to the third grade and rightfully so as his reading ability jumped three levels and is just about reading at grade level. From a behavioral standpoint I believe MiniJ made the most progress. When he first arrived in the classroom he would get like a raging bull when he was angry. During one of his worse anger episodes he tried to flip over Gnu's desk at the front on the room. He came close as he actually had one complete end of the desk up in the air but couldn't quite flip it over. At the end of the school year, while he still got angry, it was nothing like the beginning of the year. This progress was the result of a team effort by IvyL, Oreo, and Gnu working with him closely when they recognized he was about to erupt. It was also very help that MiniJ's nemesis, NoFouls, transferred to another school at the end of the year.
Uh-Uh-Uh - promoted to the third grade and I believe rightfully so. For a good portion of the year she was not very inclined to do the academics but as the year progressed she got more involved in the academics and was a pretty good scholar. From a behavior standpoint she was not much of a problem. Sure, she'd get angry, stand very rigid with her arms folded across her chest, and have the I'm mad look on her face but that was pretty minor when you consider the anger level of some of the other scholars. It wouldn't surprise me when the new school year starts that Uh-Uh-Uh will be placed in a general education classroom.
1st Grade
Grrr! - this is an interesting scholar and to be honest I'd don't know if he was promoted to the second grade. Ya, I know that is pretty sad commentary coming from an instructional assistant that just spent the majority of the school year with this scholar seated right in front of him. Grrr! came to us after the start of the school year as he started out in a general education classroom. That didn't last long as his anger control issues resulted in him being transferred to our classroom. Due to his anger issues he only attended school for about an hour a day. Even with that little time in the classroom it was very difficult to get him to do any academics. Like EM, Grrr! has a dyslexia issue and probably reads even less than EM and if he looked at an academic assignment and didn't like what he saw he would just shut it down and say, "there is no way you are going to get me to do any of the work," and he just wouldn't. No matter what grade Grrr! is in next year he will be a challenge as anger control issues and dyslexia plus some anxiety issues will be tough to overcome.
That's it. The school year is over. Unless parental units decide to relocate over the summer Gnu and I will start the new year with EM, MiniJ, Uh-Uh-Uh, and Grrr! Gnu was already informed that we will have a new scholar coming from another school and possibly one of the first grade scholars from our school will join us. That will put us at six scholars and only two grade levels. I can live with that.
In case you are wondering, the new school year will start on July 30th but there will not be any scholars in the classroom until August 3rd. Thanks for continuing to stick around. I'm out.
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