Winter Break?

The politically correct crowd has been annoying me quite a bit lately so this is the price you pay for doing that, it's not winter break, it's Christmas break and if you don't like it, oh well.  Actually, I had to censor that comment as my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse was looking over my shoulder as I wrote it.  Because of my advanced stage of evolving, as Keith Richards of the Rolling Stone calls the aging process, I'm not certain, but I think my first year of schooling started in 1955.  I'm a product of a Catholic and public school education beginning in 1955 through 1967 and the break from school we got in December was called Christmas break.  And even better, my friends from the public school systems also called it Christmas break for one simple reasons, they are all Christians.  So, I'm resurrecting Christmas break but will also recognize those that celebrate different holidays in December, To my Jewish friends, Happy Hanukkah, to my Swedish friends, Happy St. Lucia Day, to my Latino friends, Happy Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to my other Christian friends, Happy Saint Nicholas Day, to my Muslim friends, and I worked with several of them in my first career and I'm proud to call them my friends, Happy Ramadan, Happy Eid al-Fitr, and Happy Eid' ul-Adha.

Despite Gnu's best efforts, academics took a bit of a break during the week due to the many school activities that took place.  We had a Just Be Kind Choir event, a PreK and Kindergarten singing production, a first through third grade singing production where Grr! and Uh-Uh-Uh were positioned front row center, a Grinch fun day, pictures with Santa Claus, live music in the cafeteria thanks to a fellow instructional assistant and his wife playing saxophone and piano respectively, individual classroom celebrations that, despite the politically correct crowds attempt at destroying fun in the classroom, included cookies, cup cakes, cinnamon buns, hot chocolate and candy.  I'm pretty sure at this point I can feel the First Lady of the United States cringe as all this politically incorrect food was consumed.  Academically, we continued learning about frogs in our reading block.  In this particular instance we read about and discussed the poison dart frog and the assortment of colors they come in.  Using the iPads when discussing these frogs continues to be a real asset as the scholars can zoom in for close up pictures, go to YouTube to observe these frogs in videos and also to hear the various frog calls.  It continues to amaze me when I observed the differences in the scholars wanting to learn when using the internet to study a subject rather than just looking at a picture in a book.

I have a few more item to discuss and then I'm out, after all, it is Christmas break.

• You were introduced to Knapper and his posse during the last blog post.  I have an update on Knapper's posse and I'm pretty impressed.  Knapper's parental units, both of them, are committed to getting him the help he needs.  Because of this commitment Knapper gets what is called "wrap around" service.  This essentially is a service that visits Knapper at school and at home.  During these visits behavioral specialist coach both Knapper and his parental units on how to deal with the anger issues.  I've been in this school for three and a half years and this is the first time that I've encountered a parental unit this committed to getting their scholar the help that is needed.
• EM and the basketball team finished the year undefeated with a record of 5-0.  I spoke with EM's coach in the gym following the last game and he told me for the first time EM positioned himself in an open area on the court and a teammate passed him the ball giving him his first shot of the season.  As the ball left EM's hand the coach was sure it was going in.  Sadly, the ball rattled around the rim for a short time but didn't go in.  The coach told me he was so upset that the ball didn't go in that "he wanted to toss a chair."  Despite not scoring a point EM did get a lot of playing time and that brings a smile to my face for one huge reason, EM has that label, special education, attached to him and "those" scholars don't get opportunities to play organized sports that often.  Well, EM just proved them wrong and he did so with the help of all these individuals, former teacher BaseG, current teacher Gnu, former behavior therapist PhD*Sparty, former behavior therapist IvyL, behavior specialist Oreo, and one instructional assistant who has sat side by side with EM longer that all the other individuals listed.
• While I knew in advance that Santa Claus was going to be in the school during the week I did forget one critical item, MiniJ is scared to death of Santa Claus.  I was made aware of this last school year by IvyL as she took MiniJ for a weekend trip that included a stop at a shopping mall.  As IvyL told me, when MiniJ saw Santa Claus at the mall he practically freaked out.  At first IvyL didn't know what was going on but eventually realized it was Santa Claus and she immediately left the area.  When it came time for our class to go and have their picture taken with Santa Claus, MiniJ declined.  Not only did he decline, he absolutely refused to even leave the classroom.  I know, that is pretty sad but there is an upside.  Despite his fear of Santa Clause, MiniJ still hopes Santa Claus with bring him some presents.
• The BigB's advisory committee decided, a few weeks ago, to start an "act of scholarship" program.  Briefly, if a scholar at any grade level does something exceptional academically they can earn an act of scholarship.  The teacher submits the form and the BigB reads the academic accomplishment over the public address system to the whole school.  After the announcement is made the scholar being recognized is then given an act of scholarship certificate.  So far, Uh-Uh-Uh, Grr!, and MiniJ have earned academic recognition.  The program was off to a great start until one morning as the BigB was reading the acts of scholarship this one was mentioned.  "The following scholars received an act of scholarship for math mastery."  So far, so good, but then in order to reach mastery a scholar needed to score about seventy five percent.  Sorry, but that mastery level needs to be raise to a much higher level.
• For the last several school years each classroom is assigned a buddy classroom during the holiday season.  This year our class was matched with the PreK scholars.  Gnu did all of the legwork to make this work and on Friday morning we visited the PreK scholars in their classroom.  Gnu was told in advance that the PreK scholars were discussing reindeer and they even sampled pretend reindeer food.  To continue the theme Gnu or someone besides me decided to bring reindeer poop to the PreK scholars.  Again, I don't make this stuff up and this was not my idea.  Gnu originally wanted the scholars to sing "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer" to the PreK scholars but decided that it was too risky so I got to read.  My book of choice, one that I've read at Christmas time going back longer than Gnu is old is "The Night Before Christmas."  When I told my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse what I read she said to me, "did you read the story the way the author wrote it or did you read you version of the story?"  I told her there were too many people in the classroom that I didn't know very well so I stuck to the author's version.  The reading session went quite well and so you know, the reindeer poop was miniature Hersey's chocolate kisses. 

That's about it for today but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention two more items.  During the live music session in our cafeteria the musicians played Oh Little Town of Bethlehem.  Take that politically correct crowd.  While sitting at my desk with my view from the back of the room I read one of my favorite books to our scholars, "The Clown of God."  Take that politically correct crowd.  And one last thing, I'm on Christmas break so MERRY CHRISTMAS everybody.

Is It Broke?

Things are rapidly changing but before I provide you with an updated scholar listing I have to tell you about a comment made by MiniJ a few days ago.  MiniJ speaking, "I have a lizard.  He's little and I let him out of his cage so he can run around.  When he runs around, he eats the bed bugs."  As a reminder, I don't make this stuff up.

EM - 4th grade
MiniJ - 3rd grade
Uh-Uh-Uh - 3rd grade
Grr! - 2nd grade
Prophet - 2nd grade, I think
Short Time - 4th grade
Knapper - 3rd grade

If you've been keeping up, you can see that we added another scholar and Gnu has also been informed that we have the potential to add two more scholars.  The latest addition is Knapper and he is the most unique addition as he comes with a posse.  I haven't figured out why yet, but Knapper has a mentor that made an appearance shortly after he arrived in the classroom.  This mentor asked to speak with Knapper privately in the hallway, Gnu agreed, and out the door they went.  The conversation between Knapper and his mentor lasted less than five minutes and Knapper returned to the room.  What did they talk about?  Who knows?  Knapper has a second posse member that has not made and appearance, but and don't hold this to me, this person may be responsible for seeing that Knapper gets all of the services that he is required to get from our school corporation.  This posse member is making Gnu nervous as she is concerned that this person may be monitoring her to be sure she is providing the services that she is supposed to provide.  To put Gnu at ease I said, "you manage the classroom very well and your focus on academics has more than double that of any other classroom teacher that I've seen in this room so relax."  Gnu thanked me for the words of encouragement but went on to say that she thinks the special education program provide by our school corporation is "broke."

Right after the "broke" comment the academic day began and I let the matter drop.  A couple hours later I brought up the subject.  The conversation between Gnu and I got a little animated, actually, she got a little animated, I did my best to stay calm.  For the record, her getting animated was not directed at me be at our school corporation.  I'll try and give you the abridged version.  "Schultz, how long have we been waiting for a decision on what to do with Prophet," Gnu stated.  "Weeks," I say.  "Correct, and why do you think it is taking so long?" she says.  "Either it's not a priority," I say, "or maybe the overhead personnel are waiting for our winter break and will deal with it next year."  "Exactly," Gnu said, "and that is the problem."  "Prophet has been in this school for approximately two and a half years and this school does not have the ability to provide him with the services he needs," she continued.  "That is why I say it's broke.  Prophet needs help now and all we get are delays."  "Schultz, do you know why Knapper practically appeared in our classroom out of no where?" "Yes, his behavior in a general education classroom was a problem," I say.  Gnu states, "exactly, and just because Knapper has been disruptive in a general education classroom they move him to our room so the other scholars in his room will not be disturbed.  What does that say about our classroom.  Do our scholars deserve an education without disruptions?  Apparently, not at the same level as a general education classroom and keep in mind, my future as a teacher, and my salary increases, all depend on our scholars doing well on the state mandated tests.  Knapper is in our room.  The general education teacher is probably doing cartwheels and we are handed another scholar with anger issues and it happened in a matter of days while Prophet waits weeks."  That's crazy, and Gnu is right, the system is broke.

It's fun Friday or as I like to call it, Mr. Schultz gets to clean up the mess day.  The morning announcements just ended and Gnu has listed on the white board at the front of the room today's class schedule.  She lists our math block and our reading block and then in position three it states in big bold letters in alternating red and brown colors, BROWNIES.  The scholars all respond, "are we having brownies today, Momma D?"  Gnu responds, "only if you get all of your work done."  A couple hours later all the work is completed and the scholars want to know when they can eat the brownies.  Gnu responds, "the brownies are in these two boxes and you can eat them right after you make them."  EM responds, "we don't know how to make brownies."  "Everything you need to make brownies is on my table and the instructions are on the boxes.  I'll break you into two teams and you can get started."  In an instant, EM, MiniJ, and Knapper are at my desk in the back of the room.  "Mr. Schultz, can you help us make the brownies?"  "No!"  "The directions are on the box, read them and hurry up so I can eat a brownie," I say.  Less than a minute later, MiniJ is next to me.  "Mr. Schultz, how do you know how much to put in this measuring cup?"  "You need one quarter cup of vegetable oil, fill it to this line," I say.  MiniJ takes the cap off the vegetable oil and promptly pours some in the measuring cup, some on my hands, and some on my table.  EM is in charge of water.  "Mr. Schultz, how much should I put in this measuring cup?"  Take it to the sink, fill it up with water to this line and while you are at the sink, bring me some paper towels so I can clean up this mess you made on my desk," I say.  Knapper has the egg.  "Mr. Schultz, can I put the egg in now?"  "Yes, but be sure to get the egg in the bowl and not on my desk."  The egg was successfully opened.  EM speaking, "Mr. Schultz what should be do now?"  I say, "maybe you should add the brownie mix."  MiniJ speaking, "where is the brownie mix, Mr. Schultz?"  Oh my God, give me the strength.  "Maybe you should look inside that box you are holding," I say.  Finally, the brownies are ready for the oven and I'm off to our kitchen.

It's 2:30pm and it's brownie eating time.  Both batches turned out just fine.  Gnu has everyone at the front table and the scholars are taste testing the brownies.  All the scholars are satisfied with the brownies and then Gnu pulls out the chocolate frosting and M&M's to add to the brownies.  "Mr. Schultz, Mr. Schultz, we have frosting and M&M's for the brownies," and now the scholars are going into overload.  "Really!" I say.  "Great!  Put some of each on a brownie and bring it to me."  "Don't forget to wash your hands before you touch my brownie."

That's it.  Another week in the books.  I'll leave with you with two things.  First, over the last seven days my blog had fifty-two page views from Russia.  Second, and I'm pretty sure I mentioned this before, and in case I didn't, I'm working with a really good teacher and I couldn't be happier.

I'm out.  Thanks for continuing to follow along. 

She Doesn't Deserve This

Basketball Update:  EM and his teammates are still undefeated at 3-0.  The last game was a blowout so EM got to play an entire quarter of the game.  It's been interesting to watch him.  Prior to getting selected to the basketball team he didn't speak very much to others scholars outside our classroom.  Now, when we are rotating to our specials classes and he sees a teammate in the hallway he'll call his teammate by name and say "hi."  It may not sound like a big deal to you, but this is a pretty special moment.  While academics is Gnu's main focus, improving the scholars social skills runs a close second, so watching EM advance socially is pretty exciting stuff.  Sadly, however, this was the only good news of the week. 

Prophet, a scholar from a Life Skills classroom, joined us a few weeks ago on a trial basis.  While in his assigned classroom, Prophet was much larger than the other scholars and was essentially bullying all the scholars in his room.  To provide a safe environment in the Life Skills classroom Gnu agreed to allow Prophet to attend classes in our room.  This was strictly a trial to see how well he'd fit in and not a permanent situation.  Well, with a few weeks of Prophet in our room, it's obvious to Gnu and I that this is not working as he is a huge distraction.  Prophet's IQ, I've been told is very low, and right now his academic abilities are limited to simple number and letter identification along with coloring.  Prophet's math skills are pretty much non-existent and his reading ability is limited to just a few words.  Gnu and I both agree that there is little we can do for him because the services he needs are well outside what we can offer.  Knowing this, Gnu started the process of having a case conference with Prophet's parental unit, the overhead staff that supports our classroom, plus the overhead staff that supports the Life Skills classroom.  Getting this conference schedule was an effort in frustration for Gnu as Prophet's parental unit seemed to have disappeared as this parental unit would not answer the phone or return messages left on the phone.  To add to the frustration, some of the overhead personnel that Gnu contacted about the conference completely failed to even respond to the email messages she sent to them.  Gnu's frustration is growing, I'm getting agitated and then while passing Prophet's teacher of record in the hallway this teacher asks for a minute of my time.  "Mr. Schultz," he says, "I don't know if I should tell you this, or tell Gnu, but you're here now so I'll tell you."  "Prophet's parental unit was shot and killed a couple days ago.  A few hours later, Prophet's teacher of record walked into our classroom and told Gnu the news.  Her reaction was similar to mine, silence with the head shaking in a way that said, Oh my God! why did this have to happen.

With all of the parties to the case conference aware of what just took place, the case conference was quickly scheduled.  All the invited school corporation personnel attended as well as Prophet's grandmother and an aunt that lives out of state.  Prophet's remaining parental unit was not even invited which should give you an idea of what a wonderful parental unit this is.  As Gnu relayed to me after the meeting, she was pretty frustrated with the proceedings.  Apparently the school corporation overhead personnel were mostly focused on maintaining the status quo.  Gnu, out of frustration, stated the following to this group of people, we can't keep doing the same thing as it is not working.  She went on to say that Prophet has been in our school corporation for at least three years and he is not getting the services he needs to address the issues that he has.  Considering that Gnu's superiors were in the room she made a real strong statement that may have ruffled a few feathers but what she said was dead on accurate and I'm proud of her.  The meeting ended and little was accomplished as who gets or wants custody of Prophet needs to be resolved before we can move forward.  The person given custody, probably the grandmother, will now be the parental unit of record for Prophet and the decision maker going forward.  Unfortunately, this will take a while as the government and court system will need to be involved and who knows how long it will take these entities to make a decision.  For the record, I'm thinking months.

It's 9:15am and all the scholars are sitting around my table at the back of the room.  Gnu is with us as we need to go over some rules as we are about to get a new scholar.  The first rule, introduce yourself to the new scholar and be nice as you can probably recall how you felt on the first day you walked into this classroom, Gnu told the scholars.  The second rule, and the one that is of most importance to Gnu and I is the location of a safe place if something bad should happen in the classroom.  With everyone listening to Gnu, she asks the scholars for the location of our safe place.  They all respond immediately, Oreo's office.  "Good," Gnu says, "and remember when you are told to leave the classroom, do it quickly and take any worksheets you are working on with you."

ShortTime is our new scholar.  He is in the fourth grade and according to his individual education plan (IEP) he has a track record of being very aggressive.  He also falls into the oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) category and neither Gnu nor I deal well with ODD scholars. 

Thursday morning, Gnu speaking to me, "ShortTime will be here today.  He will arrive late as his parental unit put him on the wrong bus and sent him to the wrong school."  Dear lowest life form and the pointy headed intellectuals that fill the heads of the lowest life forms with worthless drivel, stop beating up the teachers and start challenging the parental units who have managed to royally screw up their scholars lives.  ShortTime arrived a little after 10:00am and we caught a bit of a break as he only goes to school half days so he leaves at 12:00 noon.  At 11:40am I take him to lunch before he leaves for home.  At 11:55am we are at the exit door awaiting the arrival of the bus.  ShortTime and I are standing between the two exit doors at the west end of the building as the bus is late.  With nothing but time on his hands ShortTime decides to start climbing up the window ledges between the two doors.  Three different times I ask him to stop and true to his ODD issues he does the opposite and continues to climb.  While standing on the window ledge he tries to walk across the door handles on the exit door to the other side of the entryway.  While doing this ShortTime pushes the switch on the door that automatically opens the exit door.  Twice I tell him to stop.  As you can guess, he continues.  Finally the bus arrives and ShortTime gets on without incident.  While talking to the bus driver, as this is ShortTime's first day at school I can hear him speaking to the bus monitor.  I hear, quite clearly two words, B-Word and F-Word come from ShortTime's mouth.  I look at the bus driver and say to him, "you might want to make your first stop at his house so you don't have to put up with him."

It's Friday at 4:10pm.  The scholars have been gone for approximately twenty minutes.  All the chairs, except one, have been picked up so the custodians can clean the classroom.  Gnu is sitting at her table in the front of the room and I'm sitting in Grr!s chair, it's real quiet.  "What are we going to do?" she says.  "With Prophet staying for who knows how long and ShortTime arriving, I'll have to redo all my lesson plans."  I don't have a response.  For the first time in three and a half school years I don't know what to say to a teacher that asked me for an opinion.  My official title is Instructional Assistant but I preferred to be called obstacle remover.  Today I couldn't fulfill my role as an obstacle remover.  I stood up, place Grr!'s chair on his desk and headed for the door.

When Prophet arrived Gnu had an agreement with the overhead personnel of our school corporation that stated that no new scholars will be admitted into the classroom as long as Prophet was in the room.  Despite this agreement, ShortTime arrived, thanks to the overhead personnel.  There is a term to describe what the overhead personnel just did. I'm thinking of one particular word and I'm thinking some of you may be thinking of the same word.  I don't like what happened one bit and there is no damn way this should have happened to Gnu.  She doesn't deserve this.

Thanks for your continued reading.  I don't think the next few weeks will be a picnic in the classroom.  Keep Gnu in your prayers as this is going to be difficult.  I'm out.