The Irritants - Hers Not Mine

On occasion I receive messages from BlogSpot.com about ways to improve my blog.  Some of the messages are helpful and some I just ignore mostly because I have no idea what they are talking about.  A few days ago I received this message from BlogSpot.com. 

Cookies Notification In European Union Countries

European Union (EU) laws require you to give EU visitors information about cookies used on you blog.  In many cases, these laws also require you to obtain consent.  What?  I'm not in Europe and to the best of my knowledge I don't use any cookies, I just type letters and occasionally add pictures.  There was another paragraph of mumble-jumble that I didn't understand and then I caught a break as the last paragraph was from BlogSpot.com.  As a courtesy, we have added a notice on your blog to help meet these regulations.  I'm glad this was resolved because plans to visit Greece in about a year are in the making and it would be real embarrassing to be arrested while visiting the country with say, as far west as Utah and her friend who is just as far west.

Here are the irritants, her's not mine, and the order they occurred.

1. During our literacy block there are four books that we will be using during the first part of the school year.  Each book discusses schools in different parts of the world; Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq, and West Virginia.  Gnu had purchased the books herself prior to the start of the school year and it cost her approximately $56.00 not including taxes.  We started our literacy block visiting Africa and Gnu stated "I wish we had a more copies so everyone could have their own book."  She then asked me to check the school library to see if there were any copies on the shelf.  When I inquired, I was told the school had purchased this book and the other three so that each scholar would have one.  I told this to Gnu and her response was, "I wish someone had told me that before I purchased my copies."  She then asked me to go and search for our copies of the book.  I was directed to the Title I teacher and was told by her that all of the books had been distributed to the teachers with copies for all of their students.  Although I was getting a bit agitated I politely stated, where then are the copies for our classroom.  The response was I'm not sure but you should be able to borrow a few copies from one of the teachers that received all of their copies.  When I return to the classroom I handed the copies of the book to Gnu with her asking "can we keep these.""  My response was no, they came from another classroom and there are no additional copies for our classroom."  I can't recall her exact words but it went something like this, "are we not a part of this school?"  "I just spent my own money to buy these books when I should have been given a copy by the school!"  "How is that possible?"
2. I'm sitting on the steps of the stage that is located in the gym as it is recess time.  Gnu is not present because she had to attend a meeting.  About five minutes into recess she arrived and sat next to me, "I'm so angry," she says.  "I was at a curriculum meeting and every time I spoke up with an idea the other teachers in the room either talked over me or did not even acknowledge that I had an opinion."  "I wanted to suggest that they do a lesson on Greek mythology as it went so well in our classroom."  "They wouldn't listen to what I had to say."  To say Gnu was a little hot is an understatement and fortunately the scholars were far enough away that they didn't hear this conversation. 
3. For those of you that are not aware, there is a teacher shortage going on and it's had an impact on my school corporation.  One area that has been impacted is special education teachers.  Keep that in mind as I move forward.  The scholars have not arrived and Gnu and I are in the classroom alone.  "You won't believe what I found out this morning," Gnu said.  "Our school corporation is having difficulty hiring special education teachers so they decided to raise the starting salary for new special education teachers to entice them to join our school corporation."  "So, as it stands right now, a first year special education teacher is making more money that I am and there is no plan to adjust my salary."  I shared this particular irritant with a good friend of mine from the Wine Drinking Wednesday group at Vino Villa.  Just before I got to the part about a first year teacher making money more than Gnu and Gnu not getting an increase he interrupted  said, "no, don't tell me that."  He then continued, "what the ..... are these people thinking?"  My sentiments exactly, how and the hell can they justify doing this?
4. Here is the last irritant, Week Three and it SUCKED.  I'm picking up from last Thursday.  The scholars are out of the classroom and are heading home.  Gnu and I are alone in the classroom and she is checking her cell phone.  She looks up at me and says, "I can't take this any more."  "The principal from another school district has been trying to convince me to join her team and I'm going to contact her and set up an meeting."  It's pretty rare that I'm at a loss for words but when she told me this I just sat there as I didn't know what to say.  When I gathered my thoughts I walked up to her and said, "it was a tough week and you need to do what is in your best interest and I'm good with that."  Just before I walked away I said one last thing to her, "you can't leave."

My part time edit, part time consultant and full time spouse always cautioned me to keep these post short so I have a dilemma, should I stop now to keep it short or continue?  I'm pretty certain that no one wants to wait another week to see what happens so I'll continue.

Week Four.  It's Monday and Gnu went about her business all day but not once did she smile.  Early in the day she was working with EM on his new vocabulary words.  She went through the words once with him and he read more than half of the words correctly.  When I saw how well he did the first time going through his new words I reached for a Post It note and wrote the following in cursive so the scholars couldn't read it, "his reading continues to get better, you can't leave" and I handed it to her.  At the end of the day I asked her if she was doing all right.  She said, "I'm fine."  I said to her, "something is different but I can't think of a word to describe what I thought."  I finally said you look "out of sorts" and then I left for the day.  About half way home the word I was searching for came to mind, "depressed."  Tuesday was not much different than Monday, no smiles and no laughter.  All I could do was to continue writing Post It notes and hand them to her when things went well.  As with Monday, the Post It notes were written in cursive and always ended with "you can't leave."  It's now Wednesday and finally a smile and a laugh came out of her.  Later Wednesday evening, when I was home, I recalled a quote that I read on an ESPN app for their new magazine called "The Undefeated."  It went like this, "You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.  In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it."  -  Maya Angelou.  It's now Thursday morning and I arrived at school real early as I had a project to complete and hopefully I could complete it before Gnu arrived.  With an ink pen in hand and one 3x5 lined card in front of me I recreated the Maya Angelou quote and sat in the center of her desk so she could see it when she arrived.  When she arrived nothing was said about the 3x5 card but she did ask me to make some copies of the worksheets she'd be using for the day so off I went.  It's now 3:45pm or so and I say to her that it was a pretty good day and she agreed.  On to Friday.  IvyL just completed her group session with the scholars and I'm straightening up the room.  As I walk by Gnu's desk I see the Maya Angelou quote and it was moved to a new location and scotch taped to her desk.  It took that as a good sign.  It's 11:25am and time to take the scholars to specials and today it is music class.  I take the scholars and Gnu stays behind as she has to finalize a lesson plan for the scholars.  As I'm sitting in the music class it pops into my head that I never left her a Post It note saying "you can't leave" on Thursday.  So out comes my cell phone and I send her the following text message, "I forgot to mention this on Thursday so I'm going to get it in early on Friday, you can't leave." About ten minutes later I get this response, and by the way, I hate texting shorthand but I'll write it as I received it.  "Lol!  I never even filled out the application.  I'm not leaving.  I love these kids too much despite the times they act like Satan's spawn."  Music class is now over and Gnu is in the hallway waiting for the scholars to exit the room.  I maneuver my way around the scholars and walk up to her and we exchange high fives, she smiles, I smile, and then we headed to recess.

I've learned a lot about myself in the three plus years that I have had a view from the back of the room and what I learned best on this particular day was how I could hide the fact that I had tears in my eyes while sitting in a music class.  That's it.  I'm out.  Thanks for continue to reading my blog.

Crap!  I just remember something.  We started using the iPads with great success.  As of this date, we are using apps about time, fractions, money, vocabulary, math, and story writing.  While all five of the scholars are involved, these apps have been particularly helpful for Grr! and EM our two weakest readers.  I'll get a little more specific in the next blog Kuerbs. 
           

We're Melting! Melting! Oh, What A Classroom!

It's not everyday that I get to paraphrase the Wicked Witch of the west but I thought it was the perfect title for this weeks blog.

It was a strange start to the week as a blog reader requested a name change.  Mout (it rhymes with ought) contacted me and asked to have his name changed to Jr.  I know Mout (it rhymes with ought) quite well as he is the second off spring of Schackie and Virg of Bay City, so I considered his request and offered a counter proposal.  "How about calling you Honest Jr" I suggested.  He agreed so I thought we were finished with our conversation.  Nope!  He then asked me "why didn't you have a fake name?"  I respond, "what do you suggest?"  He said, "The Fixer."  I'll consider it.  Some of you are probably thinking who cares but I felt it was an important event of week three and it offered me a chance at having a little fun and here is why I needed to have some fun.  Week three of our school year SUCKED! 

I don't even know where to begin.  I'm sitting in my favorite blogging place, the screened in porch on the back of my house, and the more I try and sort out what transpired this past week the more agitated I get.  It's pretty obvious to Gnu and I that we have scholars who just don't like each other.  The sides have been drawn, EM, MiniJ, Uh-Uh-Uh, and Grr! are on one side and WaxOn is on the other.  For reasons unknown, WaxOn's bus was seriously late every day of the week but Friday.  He has been walking into the classroom somewhere between 9:45am and 10:00pm.  All the other scholars are in the classroom by 9:05am and they are settled and academics have started.  When WaxOn arrives the reactions are negative to the point that Grr! will state "I'm out of here" and he will walk to the far side of the room.  EM, Uh-Uh-Uh, and MiniJ don't get as animated as Grr! but their facial expressions show their displeasure.  This is not a good situation and in my role as The Fixer I'm not sure what I can do so the challenge is for Gnu to resolve this conflict.  Gnu's challenge is to change the behavior of a scholar who is defiant, disrespectful, overly active, ridicules, if not out right taunts, his classmates, and according to one of our behavioral support team members "has the attention span of a gnat."

A scholar from last year, Leftside, had some sort of major eruption in his new classroom.  The anger was at such a level that there was a call for a Crisis Team to support the teacher.  I'm not a member of the Crisis Team that was called so I only have piecemeal information on the event and it goes something like this.  Due to Leftside's eruption the classroom was vacated and Leftside was left in the classroom alone with people monitoring his behavior through the window in the classroom door.  The Crisis Team, when they arrived, tried to contain him in the room but he essentially overpowered them and was out in the hallway.  While still seriously angry he was looking for his teacher and in order to avoid a confrontation with Leftside the teacher vacated the area with Leftside in pursuit of her.  That is an ugly, dangerous situation but everything ended well as additional support arrived.  A Crisis Team lost containment and adjustments were made by creating a new Crisis Team.  I am now on this new team plus remain on my regular Crisis Team.  So in the future, when Leftside and only Leftside erupts, I'm, along with another male teacher, required to respond.  Great!  We have enough chaos in our classroom and now I have to leave Gnu alone in the room to deal with scholars that are strong enough that I take my glasses off when I'm required to respond because I now have to deal with angry scholars much closer to my size.

We are at recess in the gym.  Everyone has their own basketball and it's calm.  EM misses a shot and the ball bounces toward WaxOn.  WaxOn grabs the ball and gives the one he is holding to EM and keeps EM's ball.  EM asks for his ball back and WaxOn refuses.  EM again asks for his ball back and now WaxOn is taunting him and making EM chase him around the gym.  MiniJ sees what is going on and is yelling at WaxOn to give the ball back to EM.  WaxOn's response was to fire the basketball and MiniJ.  Now MiniJ escalates and fires his basketball at WaxOn and I'm up and moving in their direction.  I check on MiniJ and he is fine.  When I look for WaxOn, he's left the gym.  Uncertain as to his location, I walk into the main office to check the security cameras that are monitoring all the hallways.  While in the office their is an overhead announcement,  it's a call for a Crisis Team, the Crisis Team that needs to respond when Leftside is angry.  The timing was terrible as I was already irritated as this was approximately the fifth time that I've had to search the hallways for WaxOn this week, so my response to the office people was a loud, "I don't have time to deal with that as I have to again look for the knucklehead from my classroom."  I lost my temper in the main office and that is unacceptable behavior for an adult.

Gnu has the scholars in PE and I'm with Grr! in the classroom as he is to angry to go with the class.  The friction between WaxOn and Grr! escalated to the point earlier in the day that Grr! said to no one in particular "I'm going to have to kill him."  While that sounds bad, this is a usual response from Grr! and once he de-escalates he probably will not even remember saying it.  While in PE, Uh-Uh-Uh walked up to a scholar and said something like this, "you are too fat, you need to go stand in front of a mirror so you can see how fat you are."  When Gnu asked Uh-Uh-Uh why she would say that she responded "he was in another school with me and bullied me all the time."  Later in the day Gnu made inquiries about this other school and found out that this other scholar had never attended school with Uh-Uh-Uh.  This caused red flags to go up everywhere as Uh-Uh-Uh made similar comments about other scholars while outside at recess on a number of occasions and Gnu and I believe her.  That will not happen again and this information was shared with our school Behavior Therapist who was totally surprised with what transpired.

Gnu is doing math with MiniJ, EM and Grr! at her desk.  Uh-Uh-Uh is working with me and WaxOn is essentially doing nothing with the math worksheet he has.  Gnu's attention is focused on EM and Grr! when I hear her say loudly, "MiniJ did you just staple your hand?"  Not only did he staple his hand he slammed the stapler on his hand.  Gnu is up and holding his hand and moving toward the hand washing sink near the back of the room that is also our first aid station.  She exams the hand with the staple in it and says "I can't get it out."  She tells me to stay with the class as she is heading to our official first aid room.  I call the office to inform them as to what happened so someone can support Gnu.  I'm in the classroom with the scholars for approximately fifteen minutes when I hear the siren.  A 911 call was made and the ambulance is arriving and so is the Indianapolis police department.  The EMT's attempted to remove the staple but then decide to transport MiniJ to the hospital to remove it.  When Gnu returned to the room you could tell she was distraught.  Gnu speaking to me, "I didn't know what to do."  "The whole time the EMT's were working on MiniJ's hand all I could do was sit there and hug him."  "I just couldn't let go of him."   So you know, the staple was removed and MiniJ was at school the next morning with no evidence of injury. 

There is a verbal exchange between WaxOn and EM.  I'm not sure how it started but I know how it ended.  EM, angry and looking at WaxOn, "I wish you father was dead."  After he said it EM turned and looked at me.  When I looked at him I could tell by his facial expression that he realized he made a mistake.  When we made eye contact he turned from me and put his head down on this desk and softly cried.  It wasn't long after this incident that the day (Thursday) ended.  Gnu and I are alone in the classroom and she said something like this, "that's it, he (WaxOn) has got to go."  "If he stays in this classroom than I can't continue doing this."

Ugly, ugly week.  I'm trying to think of a time during my three plus years in a classroom for scholars with emotional handicaps that both adults in the room lost them tempers in the same week.  It hasn't happened, not once, until this week.  I'm even more agitated now than when I started writing this blog.  I'm also nervous and a bit concerned that soon I'll write a blog post that will be titled, The Day the Music Died. 
      




  

Flopping Like A Fish Out Of Water

It's Friday, late afternoon, and we just finished week two. Since the arrival of a UPS package at school today, addressed to Gnu, I've been trying to figure out how to do this.  My problem is how do I recognize and thank people that requested anonymity when Gnu and I decided to use a website called donorschoose.org to seek financial help with the purchase of iPads for our classroom.  As of this writing I still haven't figure out how to do that so I will say this, to anonymous, thank you for your kindness and generosity for supporting our cause.  To Kuerbs, Staudy's mom, Mamma D's Mamma, and Mout (it rhymes with ought) thank you for your kindness and generosity.  The next few lines are for the donors.  We had about forty five minutes left in the day when Gnu picked up the two UPS packages from her desk and sat on the floor in the middle of the classroom.  Multiple scholars speaking simultaneously, "Mamma D, what's in the boxes?"  Gnu, "you'll have to wait and see but I think you are really going to like this."  Gnu barely had the first box open when the scholars started removing the bubble pack.  "We got iPads, look, we got iPads, they shouted."  MiniJ walking back to me where I have my view from the back of the room, "Mr. Schultz we got iPads, we got iPads Mr. Schultz."  "Did you see them?"  "Yes, I see them," I say.  "Are they for me." I ask?  "No Mr. Schultz, they're for the us kids."  The two boxes are unpacked.  "Mamma D, how do you turn this one?'  "Mamma D, how does this work?"  They are so excited they are getting careless and Gnu says "hand the iPads to Mr. Schultz and let's move to my desk so we can set them up."   The first task, log in to the school corporations WiFi.  We get the passcode and it is fifteen characters long and these fifteen characters repeat themselves for times.  Ridiculous!  Gnu is trying to enter the passcode.  So is WaxOn and MiniJ.  WaxOn and MiniJ are not successful.  Gnu speaking, "oh my God, will you all please be quiet so I can concentrate."  The first attempt at getting them quite doesn't work as they are just to excited.  Gnu speaking again, "that's enough, hand the iPads to Mr. Schultz and be quiet."  Finally the passcode is entered and we are on-line.  MiniJ takes the one that Gnu was holding and clicks on a app that records your voice and plays it back.  He says something and then he hears his own voice and he and the other scholars are laughing hysterically.  I'm pretty certain this is the first time any of them have heard their own voice and all they do is keep laughing.  Gnu again, "it's time to go home so hand me the iPads."  "Awww, can't we stay at school a little longer?"  "No, you're driving me nuts, go get your folders and back packs and go home."

The last blog entry left off with the mini volcano science project so I'll go forward from there.  Gnu had a second project that also involved vinegar, backing soda, water, plus a plastic water bottle and a balloon.  The project, if done correctly, was to blow up the balloon using the ingredients listed. The vinegar and water go in the water bottle.  The backing soda goes in the balloon.  The balloon is then fitted over the mouth of the water bottle and the baking soda is released into the water bottle.  The first attempt to inflate the balloon failed as the balloon ripped.  As Gnu was preparing another balloon, WaxOn had moved a small pile of baking soda directly in front of him.  He then said to the other scholars, "watch this."  He then bent over with his nose directly above and close to the baking soda and inhaled through his nose.  Hmmm!  I wonder if I have to explain that to as far east as Europe or as far west as Utah.   The second attempt is ready and is a success as the chemical reaction starts and pressure is building forcing the balloon to inflate.  The scholars are excited and watching closely.  As I approach the table I say, "that balloon is going to explode."  I was thoroughly impressed at how quickly they vacated the area and left their teacher to fend for herself.  So you know, the balloon inflated quite nicely and did not explode.

I think it is time to introduce you to WaxOn.  WaxOn wasn't real excited about his new surroundings.  He spent his first few minutes in the classroom just aimlessly wondering around.  Finally, Gnu asked him to take a seat as it is time to get to work.  WaxOn's response was, "I hate this school, I hate this classroom, I want to be in a classroom with a lot of scholars and not one with retards."  The term retards didn't set very well with Gnu and she responded quite quickly that you need to be quiet and take a seat.  WaxOn chose instead to go into his defiant mode and spoke very disrespectfully towards Gnu.  Now it's my turn as I'm up moving toward him.  "That is not how scholars speak to a teacher in this school."  "If you want to speak that way to an adult I suggest you talk that way to your mother or father or out in the streets in your neighborhood."  "Now take a seat."  For the next hour and a half or so he did absolutely nothing despite repeated attempts to get him to participate.  Finally, Gnu says to WaxOn "if you continue to just sit there and do nothing than you need to know that you don't get to go to recess and play basketball with everyone else."  I guess the terms recess and basketball got his attention as his participation increased.

Throughout the first two weeks of school he has been a challenge.  When he doesn't get what he wants he speaks disrespectfully toward Gnu.  Interestingly, while he speaks disrespectfully toward Gnu, he does not talk that way to me.  When he is told to get to work he often gets defiant and in some instances will do the opposite of what he is asked to do.  In one instance, when told to get to work, he stood up, walked over to his cubby (locker), sat down inside of it, and closed the door.  If he thought he'd get a rise out of me he was badly mistaken.  I'll quote something my mother said to me a long time ago, he can "stay in their until the cows come home from the pasture."  When he went to music class for the first time he just wandered around the classroom.  The music teacher, being familiar with the type of scholars in our classroom, new exactly what to do, ignore him.  At one point he dropped down on the floor and started flopping around like a fish out of water.  Again, he was ignored but I bet the rest of the scholars in the music room, who are from a general education classroom, were wondering what is wrong with this retard.  One day he was talking to the other scholars and he found out that MiniJ didn't have a mother.  Rather than showing some sympathy, he started to make fun of MiniJ for not having a mother.  During another conversation with our scholars I heard him say, "my father hasn't beat me in two years."   One more and then I have to move on as this post is getting a little lengthy.  It's Thursday morning of the second week of school and he is going through the breakfast line.  In doing, so he decided that he needed some additional food so he took some off of a kindergarten scholar's tray.  He got busted, as another scholar saw him and immediately reported him. 

That's enough for today.  Before I go I'll leave you with this.  Did you know that I'm working with a real talented teacher?  I'll fill you in later.  I'm out.  Thanks for continuing to read the musings of an old man with a view from the back of the room.

PS -  It's Sunday morning and I was informed that a late donation to purchase the iPads is in the mail to me. When I informed the donor that we raised all the money we needed the response was just use the money for the classroom the way you need to.  As written above, I did not use real names for the donors and that will hold true for this donor.  However, I can tell you this about this donor.  She was wearing the cutest little astronauts suit with the word SPACE written across the front of it and every now and then would say yippie skippie.   

The First Week

Day five is complete, one hundred and seventy five days to go but I'm not counting.  Here are the scholars that are with Gnu and I at the start of the new year.  Note, this is subject to change several times and usually with no input from Gnu or the Big B.

The Scholars

1. EM - 4th grade and a returning scholar.
2. WaxOn - 4th grade and a new scholar.
3. Un-Uh-Uh - 3rd grade and a returning scholar.
4. MiniJ - 3rd grade and a returning scholar.
5. Grr! - 2nd grade and a returning scholar.
6. New Scholar #1 - was enrolled but sadly his parental unit has apparently moved again so he is at another school. If my memory serves me correctly, Gnu informed my that this scholar would have been in the second grade and had already been in four different schools.   I'll remove this scholar from our roster shortly.
7. New Scholar #2 - is enrolled at our school but has yet to make an appearance.  Numerous attempts were made to contact the parental unit via telephone but it appears that all the telephone numbers the parental unit listed are not operational.  Our social worker even went directly to the mailing address listed on this scholars enrollment papers but could not get a response when she knock on the door.  Our social worker decided to leave a note attached to the door of the house asking that the parental unit contact our school.  A short time later the parental unit called our social worker to inform her that the scholar in question was enrolled at another school and had been at this school for the entire week.  If I haven't mentioned it previously, we have a real good social worker and she did her due diligence and called this school.  The response from this school was pretty simple, sorry there is no such scholar enrolled at this school.  It appears, and I'm saddened to say, that New Scholar #2 is a product of P.P.P. and is stuck with this failure of a parental unit for her/his life.  For those of you that are not familiar with P.P.P. is stands for piss poor parenting. 

As it stands right now, we are starting the year with five scholars and this is a great number because it can easily be managed by Gnu and I.

Academically and behaviorally it was a pretty uneventful week but that doesn't mean that odd things didn't happen or get said. On Monday Gnu had the scholars do an introductory project so that the scholars would know a little bit about each other.  They were give a huge stack of magazines and told to search through the magazines for pictures that would describe who they were or what they liked.  At one point, when working on the project, EM walked back to my desk and asked me for help cutting out a picture that he liked.  It was a pretty small picture and he was afraid he would cut into two pieces rather than one entire piece.  I agreed to help and when I finished cutting it out he got his glue stick and attached the picture to a piece of construction paper.   While EM and I were working together WaxOn walked back to my table with his project to include his glue stick.  EM and WaxOn were talking about their projects so I scanned the room to see if any of the other scholars needed assistance.  While doing so, I hear EM say a little loudly, ohhhhhh!  When I turned back in EM's direction WaxOn was holding his glue stick at about waist high and was emulating self gratification with it.  To quote Arte Johnson from the old Rowan and Martin television show Laugh In, "interesting, very, very interesting." 

From Tuesday through Thursday it really was pretty uneventful except for WaxOn.  EM, Un-Uh-Uh, MiniJ, and Grr! pretty much stayed on task.  In fact, they stayed on task so well Gnu and I were pretty much thinking the same thing, "this is to easy."  I suspect at some point those words will come back and haunt us but for now were are enjoying it.  WaxOn, however, is going to be a challenge.  He reminds me of Yo! because he has the same behavior trait, defiant.  Unfortunately, in addition to being defiant, he has an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.  So what we have here is scholar who is defiant and can't sit still while being defiant.  I'll discuss WaxOn's behavior during the first week of the school in the next post so you can get an idea of what challenges Gnu and I will face with this young scholar.

It's now Friday morning and IvyL arrives for our daily group session.  As a reminder the intent of these group sessions is to improve the scholars social skills and behavior skills.  I'm all in favor of that but this year group is first thing in the morning and right now I'm undecided if I like group at this time of the day.  Because it's Friday IvyL usually has a fun activity for the scholars.  To start the new year she is going to have the scholars make a flubber like substance that they can use as a stress release when they feel their anger rising.  As IvyL led the scholars through the creation of the flubber they all worked well with each other which is a real good sign.  On many occasions, when our scholars are in close proximity to each other, bad things happen but not today.  I can't recall exactly what ingredients were used to make the flubber but in the end the scholars each had their own piece.  Sadly, with their own piece of flubber in hand we now have objects that can be tossed.  The first projectile was launch by MiniJ and his target was Grr!.  Fortunately his aim was off as he was a little high and wide right of hitting Grr! in the face.  After a near disaster, the old guy that has a view from the back of the room stood up quickly and made the following announcement, "the next object that flies across the room is mine and it will be placed in the pit of no return (the trash can)."

It's now Friday afternoon and Gnu is going to do our first science project.  Before Gnu gets started she gets my attention and says, "Mr. Schultz, where are our safety glasses"?  Oh, Oh!  I'm getting nervous as I don't recall ever using safety glasses last year for any type of project.  As I'm retrieving the safety glasses Gnu announces the project, "we are going to make mini-volcanos."  As I hand out the safety glasses I see on the front table the following; seven lemons with the bottom cut off so they can stand and the top half hollowed out to hold the ingredients to make the eruption.  Also on the table is baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, spoons and tongue depressors.  The scholars are pretty excited about this project and are working quite well together.  As each ingredient is added Gnu explains the purpose of the ingredient and they listen carefully to what she is saying.  As she enters the final stage of the science project Gnu has everyone put on their safety glasses as they are about to put in the ingredient to make the eruption.  Knowing where we are with this project I ask Gnu, "how big will this eruption be?"  Her response, "I'm not sure" so I move closer to the front table.  As the scholar add the final ingredients the eruption begins as a bubbling, foamy substance starts flowing out of the volcano and the scholars are getting pretty animated as the project is working as designed.  As I watch the eruption I'm relieved as it is a small eruption, nothing that even closely resembles the Mount Vesuvius eruption.  Gnu also conducted a second science project but I'll tell you about that one in the next post as this one is getting a bit lengthy.  For the record, Gnu has labeled Friday's as "fun Friday" and I'm always in favor of having fun doing academics.  However, Gnu can call it "fun Friday" if she likes but I'm going to call it "Mr. Schultz gets to clean up the mess day."

That's it.  One week in the books and we did not experience any volatile chair tossing or desk flipping incidents.  I also wasn't punched, kick, scratched, or flipped off.  There were a few minor punching incidents but no knock down fighting.  Gnu had a solid academic agenda and for the most part the scholars completed their assignments. 

So you can keep track of the adults they are listed below.

1. The teacher - Gnu
2. The instructional assistant - Me
3. The behavior therapist - IvyL
4. The behavior specialist - Oreo
5. The leader of the school - Big B
6. Our new in-school suspension person - Long
7. We also have a new teacher in the EH room for the 5th and 6th grade that will appear occasionally in this blog - Knew2

Thanks for your continued reading of the musing of an old man that has a view from the back of the classroom. 

               

My First Convocation, Can I Have An Amen!

Over my many years as an employee of one organization or another I've attended in-service training, various seasonal conferences, seminars, training academies, and professional development days but I've never attended a convocation.  I can now officially add convocation to my list of knowledge acquisition sessions.  To be honest with you, I thought a convocation was an odd event to attend as a school group because I thought it would have preachers up front pontificating about scripture.  That thought didn't last long as I knew I was attending this convocation with every employee of my school as well as every employee of our school corporation.  The objective of the convocation was to get everyone fired up about the start of classes on August 3rd.  I won't bore you with all of the details of this convocation but just a few of the fabulous bragging rights for my school and school corporation.

1. IRead3 - my school had an 84% passing rate for our third grade scholars.  This passing rate just blew the doors off of our previous high.
2. My school corporation educates the largest population of scholars that have special needs.
3. My school corporation educates the largest population of scholars that are English as a second language learners.
4. My school corporation educates a population of approximately 1,700 certified homeless scholars.  Yes, you read that number correctly.
5. The valedictorian of one of my school corporations high schools was an English as a second language learner.
6. The salutatorian of one my school corporations high schools was certified homeless.

Despite all of the challenges my school and school corporation faces on a daily basis we have had huge successes that are worthy of the label fabulous bragging rights.  So I'm bragging about my school and school corporation and rightfully so because if I waited for the media to announce our successes I'd be long dead and gone.  You see, the media's best revenue generator is stories of death, dying, and destruction and not the huge successes of students that primarily come from a low social economic background.

July 30th and July 31st

Gnu and I are in the classroom together for the first time since June 9th and one of us is real excited about being back in the room.  That makes me feel pretty good especially when she sat down with me at my desk in the back of the room to shared her ideas and game plan to start the school year.  I won't bore you with the details but I will mention two items that she is pretty excited about.  First, she wants to do at least four field trips this year.  She mentioned going to a zoo, a baseball game, a pumpkin patch plus a day at a horse ranch.  Second, she is going to utilize a website called donorschoose.org to solicit financial support to buy either chrome books or iPads for our scholars.  When Gnu shared her beginning of the school years plans she expressed her disappointment with the lack of technology that is available to our scholars and I'm agreeing with her.  Ideally, we'd like to have one device for each scholar but that will be cost prohibitive for a lot of people so we'd be happy if two or three donors would each buy one device.  Right now we are playing the wait and see game.  I'll keep you updated should we have any success. 

Speaking of fabulous bragging rights, I already have one for the new school year and a scholar has yet to enter our doorway.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, we'll have six scholars in the room to start the year.  Three of them will be new and Uh-Uh-Uh, Grrr! and EM are the other three.  Gnu and I were both somewhat surprised that MiniJ was not on our list.  I figured his parental unit(s) moved again but Gnu was certain that was not the case so she made inquiries about his status.  Apparently it was decided by highly placed overhead personnel, that mainly occupy a cushy leather chair behind and a Mount Everest sized desk, that MiniJ should attend a different school this year.  When Gnu shared this information with me my response was "why and the hell would they do that?"   It wasn't long after our conversation about MiniJ that MiniJ's parental unit contacted Gnu via a text message.  I wasn't part of the conversation but I was told later how upset MiniJ was when told about this school change.  From my perspective he, as well as his parental unit, had every right to be upset as this change of schools was totally uncalled for.  Not knowing what to do, Gnu contacted one of our colleagues for advice and then shared the advice with MiniJ's parental unit.  I'm not sure about the amount of time that elapsed after the discussion with MiniJ's parental unit but the advice worked and MiniJ will rejoin us a scholar number seven for the new school year.

So what's the fabulous bragging rights.  Gnu just did the right thing.  She stepped up and fought for this young scholar and his parental unit to get him back to a school where he had successes both academically and behaviorally.  She didn't have to do that.  If fact, in doing so, she just increased the degree of difficulty for the next school year.  And you know what, I'm damn proud of her because she is a school teacher and teachers will always do what is right for a scholar. 

It's Sunday evening, August 2nd.  In approximately fifteen hours I'll get into my car and head into the twilight zone for another school year.  Guess what?  I'm excited!