Friday at 3:30pm. "Mr. Schultz, his grandmother is here, you can let him out," is what I'm told. I look into our time out room, make eye contact and say, "your grandmother is here, are you ready to go home?" He nods yes and I release the button that operates the magnet on the door to the time out room and he walks out. By the way, we recently had a magnetic door lock installed on our time out room. This door lock, I've been told, can withstand 1200 pounds of pressure, so all Gnu or I have to do to keep an angry scholar who is in the time out room from escaping is hold the button that engages the magnet.
Friday at 3:20pm. "Mr. Schultz, would you mind switching places as I have to get back to my classroom to get my scholars ready to go home?" "Sure," I say, "no problem" and I sit down outside our time out room and hold the button that engages the magnet on the door. Inside the time out room is a scholar who is seriously angry, pacing back in forth, and yelling as follows. I'll give you the censored version. "F-you you MFB." "I'm going to F you up you whore," "B, I going to kill you you MFB." I'll stop now even though this lasted for more than five minutes because I believe you get the gist of this one sided conversation.
Friday at approximately 3:00pm. There is some commotion outside our classroom door. Before I can reach the door, it is opened and incomes another teacher forcefully moving a scholar into the room and toward our time out room. Accompanying the teacher and the scholar is the BigB. The scholar refused to get on the bus to go home which has happened on several occasions is what Gnu and I are told. Because the scholar is so angry they bring the scholar back into the school until his grandmother can be contacted to come and get him.
Friday at 2:30pm. Our time out room is unlocked and the scholar is told it is time to go home. The scholar exits the room, gathers his jacket, hat, gloves, and backpack and exits the classroom with his mentor following.
Friday at approximately 2:00pm. His mentor speaking, "you need to stop walking around the classroom and bothering the other scholars. You need to return to your desk and finish this math worksheet." The scholar responds, "I'm not doing it!" His anger is escalating and all academics in the classroom comes to a halt. Again, the mentor says, "you need to sit at your desk and get your work done." The scholar pushes his carrel out of position and starts knocking books onto the floor. He then grabs a pencil and starts scribbling on anything in his path. Gnu is up and I'm now alert and observing as the mentor has the lead in this situation. The scholar continues his angry outburst by aimlessly walking around the classroom. As he moves towards the classroom door to leave I block his path. He grabs a small package of fruit that is on a cabinet and throws is at my desk and turns in another direction. I calmly say to Gnu and the mentor, "it's time to shut this behavior down." The scholar is now moving to the other side of the room. At about ten feet from our exterior window he forcefully throws his pencil at the window. The vinyl shades are down and as the pencil hits the shade, it sticks in the shade and stays stuck just like a knife would. Gnu is now moving in the scholars direction and I can tell she is about to shut this down. Just before she reaches him, he starts knocking books off of a book case. He then grabs a book and throws is like a Frisbee across the room. The book hits Gnu's personal printer that is on her desk and then bounces off the printer and hits a scholar in the back of the neck. Gnu and the mentor have control of the scholar and move him into the time out room and the mentor has her hand on the button to engages the magnet on the door and the scholar is contained so no one else can get hurt. Just as the situation gets under control, the overhead person walks into the room and sees the mess created by the scholar. When the overhead person asks me what happened I say the scholar became very angry and at one point threw a book and hit another scholar in the back of the neck. The overhead person heads to the injured scholar, talks to him for a short time and then escorts him out of the classroom to our first aid room to put an ice pack on the back of his neck. So you know, the injured scholar is fine.
Several days earlier. The overhead person speaking, "this scholar has made some improvements in his behavior and I'm recommending that this scholar be assigned permanently to you classroom."
Several days earlier. My part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse remained silent when I told her what I planned to do. I had a draft letter of resignation written and saved on my iPad. Before I could submit it, I was told that a mentor would be assigned to this scholar for the entire time he would be in our classroom. This mentor was responsible for this scholar's academics and his behavior up to and controlling his aimlessly wandering around the room disrupting all of Gnu's academic plans. Knowing what the plan was, and finding it acceptable, I'm still sitting where I have my view from the back of the room.
One last comment on this incident. This, from our school corporation, "we are making our schools safer with disciplinary policies that keep our kids in the classroom." So what disciplinary action was taken on the scholar who was in a rage, stuck a pencil into a window shade, and hit another scholar in the back of the neck with a book, he will remain in our classroom and as far as I know, nothing will happen. Enough with all of that as there continues to be some great things happening in our classroom.
A few weeks ago Gnu introduced a new book entitled, "Lon Po Po," that was written and illustrated by Ed Young. This book is a variation of the "Little Red Riding Hood" story that we read in our youth. The illustrations in the book are absolutely wonderful and often were the topic of conversation with the scholars. As I was reading "Lon Po Po" with Uh-Uh-Uh one day she asked me a question about a particular drawing of the wolf. "Mr. Schultz, why does this picture of the wolf have some many different colors? Every other picture of the wolf is in dark colors only." "Uh-Uh-Uh, that is a good question and I don't know the answer," I say. "Well," she says to me, "maybe you should ask the author." I think about that for a couple minutes and then say to her, "let's do an internet search and see if we can find the author's mailing address." After a couple minutes I find the author but there is no contact information. Uh-Uh-Uh and the other scholars were called to the front table by Gnu to continue discussing the book so I had time to continue my search. Although I never found the author's contact information, I did find the address for his publishing company that is located on Lexington Avenue, New York City. So with time on my hands I walk over to our supply cabinet, pull out a couple pages of three hole punched lined writing paper and using my No. 2 lead pencil write a letter to Ed Young, c/o his publishing company. With the letter completed I show it to Gnu and ask her is she would like to sign the letter. She responds, "you wrote it so you can sign it." So with my letter in hand, I head to the front office to find an envelope and a stamp. Prior to mailing the letter I decide it would be in my best interest to inform the BigB as to what I was doing. She responded, "that's a great idea, I love it," so I placed the letter in the outgoing mailbox and headed back to the classroom. As I'm walking back to the classroom I'm thinking to myself, this is a long shot.
I'm cutting though the front office one day and our administrative czar stops me and says, "Mr. Schultz, you have mail" and hands me a letter. When I look at the letter I immediately recognize that it is addressed to me in the same way I left my contact information on the letter I wrote to Ed Young. I then looked at the return address and all it shows is a certain street address that I will not share and the city is listed as Hastings on the Hudson, New York with a zip code that I will not share. I say quietly to myself, "holy shit, he wrote back." With the letter in my hand I walk past the BigB's office and show her the letter. "Oh my god," she says, "he wrote you back." I then head to the classroom to show the letter to Gnu and she says "he actually wrote back." I ask her is she wants to open the letter and she responds, "you open it." As I start to pull the letter out of the envelope I immediate know it was from Ed Young as his letter was written on stationary that had a picture of Lon Po Po on it. The letter started out, Dear Allan and ended with Your friend, Ed Young, 1/21/16. The scholars do not know that the letter arrived. They will be informed on Monday morning. I can't wait to show it to them. The letter is on the upper right hand side of the blog for your viewing.
On the lighter side, I have two more items and then it's quittin' time. Gnu and Uh-Uh-Uh are sitting at the front desk. "Miss Gnu, you need to stop picking at that cut on your finger." "I can't," Gnu responds. "The skin peeled loose and it's bothering me. I don't know why the skin came loose, I used super glue to hold it in place." Uh-Uh-Uh, "you put super glue on your finger?" Obviously I heard the conversation and wisely I chose to remain silent. Last one. All the scholars are at the front table with Gnu. "Knapper, why do you have a staple in your nose," Gnu asks. "I put it there," he responds. "You need to go over to the sink and remove that staple from your nose," Gnu states. As Knapper is walking towards the sink the other scholars are following. Knapper grabs a paper towel and starts digging in his nose. MiniJ is nearest to him and is observing. "Miss Gnu, Miss Gnu, Knapper has dug out four staples from his nose," MiniJ states. At least he didn't actually staple his nose, he just stuffed the staples up into his nose. For the umpteenth time, I don't make this stuff up.
That's it. Another blog in the books. It's Sunday at 3:52pm and my daughter and son-in-law will be arriving soon to share a meal so I'm out.
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Sunday, January 24, 2016
She Remained Silent
Our little science project about the amount of sugar in a food item has taken on a life of it's own. Now that the scholars know about the nutritional fact label that is on most foods, they've been reading the labels and reporting their findings to Gnu and me. EM came into the classroom one morning with a piece of paper with notes on it. He walked up to me and said this is what I drank at home yesterday and handed me the note. On the note was the sugar content for the two drinks he had at home the previous evening. On the same day, Uh-Uh-Uh also brought in a note. On it was the sugar content of a juice drink that she had consumed at home. Both were quick to point out the high sugar content in their drinks which brought a smile to my face. The smile was quickly removed when Uh-Uh-Uh showed me what her parental units packed for her lunch. In her lunch container was one Hostess ding dong, one two pack of Oreo cookies, a small bag of BBQ potato chips, and one Lunchable that contained a slice of pizza and a bite size candy bar. Dear parental unit, your scholar is entitled to a free lunch every day at school. In this free lunch there is always a fruit and vegetable offering. Please quit packing a lunch for your scholar as you are putting her on the path to obesity. Gnu had laid out her game plan for our science project and I'm certain the scholars would have enjoyed it. Unfortunately the science project had to be put on hold for two reasons. The first reason is so asinine that I wrote a letter. The second reason is just plain STUPID.
Before proceeding with the Indiana Stupid Testing and Evaluation Process (ISTEP) I have to correct an error on my part regarding the cost to implement this test. On the last blog post I listed the cost of ISTEP at $39m. That is to high as I read this past week the cost is $32m. I feel better now but not for long. This past week our state department of education and our newly anointed ISTEP test provider decided to do a load test to see if their hardware and software could manage the volume when the test is administered in February. The test was administered with a load capacity of 100,000 test takers and guess what? The load test failed and the owner of the hardware and software have less than a month to solve the problem. I'll keep you posted on this $32m taxpayer expenditure.
Since the start of the school year Gnu has been using two teacher guides for academics. Both guides are called EngageNY and academically it has been a pretty smooth year. With ISTEP approaching both of these academic books are now set aside to collect dust as we have to practice taking the ISTEP test. As I sat at my desk with my view from the back of the room and watched Gnu pass out the practice math tests I started to wonder just what was going on. For quite some time now overhead personnel in our school corporation have been monitoring the ISTEP process for trends. In doing so, these overhead personnel felt that there was a strong possibility that certain math questions will be on the test. Knowing this, the overhead personnel decided to put these same types of math questions on the practice tests to increase the likelihood that scholars would do well on the test. So, as I see it, it comes down to this. Are we practicing to take a test or are we cheating to improve test scores. I'll let you decide. No matter which option you choose it all comes down to this. The lowest life forms in the state of Indiana have placed teachers in a position to make choices in order to survive. And when you know that your career as a teacher is at risk because the lowest life forms insist on using this STUPID test you do what you need to do to survive. It's a horrible position to put teachers in and everyone is wondering why there is a teacher shortage.
I'm going to do my best now to avoid using obscenities as this past week was a challenge. To start with, on Monday morning one of our custodians was at the classroom door before our scholars had arrived. He was trying a manipulate a large carrel desk through the door. As I helped him move the desk through the door I asked him why he was bringing this desk into our room. He responded, "I was told to." When Gnu saw what the custodian was bringing into the room she informed me that it was a new desk for Prophet. Gnu went on to say that one of our overhead personnel decided this was what was needed to help keep Prophet from disrupting the classroom everyday. The logic was that this desk was so big that if we placed it in a corner and made Prophet sit behind it he would not be able too see what was going on in the classroom and the amount of disruptions that he causes would be reduced. As I looked at this monstrosity that was just delivered into our classroom I'm was getting a bit agitated. "Is the overhead person that made this decision aware that Prophet rarely sits at his desk and the only way you will be able to get him to sit at his desk for any length of time is to sit right next to him and not allow him to walk away," I say to Gnu. I continue, "who is going to sit with him? You can't because you are instructing the bulk of the scholars in this room. I can't because I have the remaining scholars. This desk is not going to keep Prophet at his desk and he will continue to be a major academic disruption all day." At this point I've been sitting at my desk but that changes abruptly as Gnu says to me, "this same overhead person is going to make the recommendation that Prophet be assigned permanently to our room." I'm up, "what?" "You can't be serious. Prophet does not belong in this room. His academic abilities are so limited that he hasn't progressed passed worksheets that are nothing more than connect the dots, coloring, and practicing the alphabet. Why is he being placed in this room?" Gnu responds, "because the overhead person likes that we have manage to improve Prophet's behavior as he is no longer is throwing objects at other scholars, cursing at other scholars, flipping over chairs, and slamming doors."
The day is over and I'm home. As soon as I walk into the house my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse realizes that something is wrong. "Bad day?" she says to me. "Yes," I say and tell her about the Prophet decision. "You can't be serious," she says to me. "Why would they do something like that," she continued. "I don't know. Gnu doesn't deserve this. She busts her butt every day to keep the scholars focused on academics. She spends huge amounts of time in the evenings and on the weekends working on lesson plans so that these scholar can advance academically. She doesn't deserve this, I don't deserve this. I'm really upset and I thinking if this is how they are going to treat Gnu then I don't want any part of a school that will do this to her. I think it is time for me to leave the school." In the past, when I've had a rough day and I share my frustration with her she would say to me, "if not you, then who will help these scholars." This time she just looked at me and she remained silent.
It's Friday morning, the case conference to decide Prophet's future is at 8:30am and my letter of resignation is in draft form on my iPad. When I arrive in the classroom Gnu says to me "you're in charge until I get back as no other teacher is available to support us." I tell her, "I'll be fine, just leave me the game plan for the morning and I'll follow it." It's 9:30am when she returns. I hand her the scholars completed worksheets and move my stuff from her desk to mine and tell her "you're in charge." Nothing is said about the case conference and they day moves forward. It's now 3:50pm and the scholars are gone for the day. Gnu is still at bus duty and I've straightened out the classroom and I'm sitting at my desk. When she walks back into the classroom she says nothing. The room is silent. After what seemed like an eternity she finally says, "so....." That's it, nothing else for another minute or so. I break the silence by saying to her, "I owe you an apology for the way I behaved during the Prophet decision making process, please accept my apology. You work to hard at what you do. You may be the best teacher these scholars will ever have and you don't deserve to have this happen to you." "They've decided to place him permanently in our classroom but they are going to assign a mentor that will sit with him all day." she tells me. Gnu continues, "what am I going to do? I don't have any academic material for him. I spend hours preparing lesson plans for scholars that are in three different grade levels. Where am I going to find the time to prepare another lesson plan for a scholar that I'm not sure I'm even licensed to teach."
It's around 4:10pm and I'm in the car heading home. The decision to assign a mentor to Prophet changed the whole scenario as this mentor will spend the entire day with him. Hopefully, Gnu can hand over the academic materials to this mentor and she/he can keep Prophet behind his carrel wall and keep him from disrupting the entire classroom. If she/he can, then there is a chance that this is doable. If she/he can't then I'll be placed into a position where that letter of resignation my have to change from draft status. I absolutely love working with Gnu. I thoroughly enjoy working with these scholars. I'm working at a wonderful school. Neither one of us should have to deal with such a poor scholar placement decision especially by someone who is rarely in our classroom.
It's been a tough week. I'm not sure what Monday will bring but I'm praying for the best. I'm out. Thank you again for continuing to read the adventures of an old man who has a view from the back of a classroom.
Before proceeding with the Indiana Stupid Testing and Evaluation Process (ISTEP) I have to correct an error on my part regarding the cost to implement this test. On the last blog post I listed the cost of ISTEP at $39m. That is to high as I read this past week the cost is $32m. I feel better now but not for long. This past week our state department of education and our newly anointed ISTEP test provider decided to do a load test to see if their hardware and software could manage the volume when the test is administered in February. The test was administered with a load capacity of 100,000 test takers and guess what? The load test failed and the owner of the hardware and software have less than a month to solve the problem. I'll keep you posted on this $32m taxpayer expenditure.
Since the start of the school year Gnu has been using two teacher guides for academics. Both guides are called EngageNY and academically it has been a pretty smooth year. With ISTEP approaching both of these academic books are now set aside to collect dust as we have to practice taking the ISTEP test. As I sat at my desk with my view from the back of the room and watched Gnu pass out the practice math tests I started to wonder just what was going on. For quite some time now overhead personnel in our school corporation have been monitoring the ISTEP process for trends. In doing so, these overhead personnel felt that there was a strong possibility that certain math questions will be on the test. Knowing this, the overhead personnel decided to put these same types of math questions on the practice tests to increase the likelihood that scholars would do well on the test. So, as I see it, it comes down to this. Are we practicing to take a test or are we cheating to improve test scores. I'll let you decide. No matter which option you choose it all comes down to this. The lowest life forms in the state of Indiana have placed teachers in a position to make choices in order to survive. And when you know that your career as a teacher is at risk because the lowest life forms insist on using this STUPID test you do what you need to do to survive. It's a horrible position to put teachers in and everyone is wondering why there is a teacher shortage.
I'm going to do my best now to avoid using obscenities as this past week was a challenge. To start with, on Monday morning one of our custodians was at the classroom door before our scholars had arrived. He was trying a manipulate a large carrel desk through the door. As I helped him move the desk through the door I asked him why he was bringing this desk into our room. He responded, "I was told to." When Gnu saw what the custodian was bringing into the room she informed me that it was a new desk for Prophet. Gnu went on to say that one of our overhead personnel decided this was what was needed to help keep Prophet from disrupting the classroom everyday. The logic was that this desk was so big that if we placed it in a corner and made Prophet sit behind it he would not be able too see what was going on in the classroom and the amount of disruptions that he causes would be reduced. As I looked at this monstrosity that was just delivered into our classroom I'm was getting a bit agitated. "Is the overhead person that made this decision aware that Prophet rarely sits at his desk and the only way you will be able to get him to sit at his desk for any length of time is to sit right next to him and not allow him to walk away," I say to Gnu. I continue, "who is going to sit with him? You can't because you are instructing the bulk of the scholars in this room. I can't because I have the remaining scholars. This desk is not going to keep Prophet at his desk and he will continue to be a major academic disruption all day." At this point I've been sitting at my desk but that changes abruptly as Gnu says to me, "this same overhead person is going to make the recommendation that Prophet be assigned permanently to our room." I'm up, "what?" "You can't be serious. Prophet does not belong in this room. His academic abilities are so limited that he hasn't progressed passed worksheets that are nothing more than connect the dots, coloring, and practicing the alphabet. Why is he being placed in this room?" Gnu responds, "because the overhead person likes that we have manage to improve Prophet's behavior as he is no longer is throwing objects at other scholars, cursing at other scholars, flipping over chairs, and slamming doors."
The day is over and I'm home. As soon as I walk into the house my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse realizes that something is wrong. "Bad day?" she says to me. "Yes," I say and tell her about the Prophet decision. "You can't be serious," she says to me. "Why would they do something like that," she continued. "I don't know. Gnu doesn't deserve this. She busts her butt every day to keep the scholars focused on academics. She spends huge amounts of time in the evenings and on the weekends working on lesson plans so that these scholar can advance academically. She doesn't deserve this, I don't deserve this. I'm really upset and I thinking if this is how they are going to treat Gnu then I don't want any part of a school that will do this to her. I think it is time for me to leave the school." In the past, when I've had a rough day and I share my frustration with her she would say to me, "if not you, then who will help these scholars." This time she just looked at me and she remained silent.
It's Friday morning, the case conference to decide Prophet's future is at 8:30am and my letter of resignation is in draft form on my iPad. When I arrive in the classroom Gnu says to me "you're in charge until I get back as no other teacher is available to support us." I tell her, "I'll be fine, just leave me the game plan for the morning and I'll follow it." It's 9:30am when she returns. I hand her the scholars completed worksheets and move my stuff from her desk to mine and tell her "you're in charge." Nothing is said about the case conference and they day moves forward. It's now 3:50pm and the scholars are gone for the day. Gnu is still at bus duty and I've straightened out the classroom and I'm sitting at my desk. When she walks back into the classroom she says nothing. The room is silent. After what seemed like an eternity she finally says, "so....." That's it, nothing else for another minute or so. I break the silence by saying to her, "I owe you an apology for the way I behaved during the Prophet decision making process, please accept my apology. You work to hard at what you do. You may be the best teacher these scholars will ever have and you don't deserve to have this happen to you." "They've decided to place him permanently in our classroom but they are going to assign a mentor that will sit with him all day." she tells me. Gnu continues, "what am I going to do? I don't have any academic material for him. I spend hours preparing lesson plans for scholars that are in three different grade levels. Where am I going to find the time to prepare another lesson plan for a scholar that I'm not sure I'm even licensed to teach."
It's around 4:10pm and I'm in the car heading home. The decision to assign a mentor to Prophet changed the whole scenario as this mentor will spend the entire day with him. Hopefully, Gnu can hand over the academic materials to this mentor and she/he can keep Prophet behind his carrel wall and keep him from disrupting the entire classroom. If she/he can, then there is a chance that this is doable. If she/he can't then I'll be placed into a position where that letter of resignation my have to change from draft status. I absolutely love working with Gnu. I thoroughly enjoy working with these scholars. I'm working at a wonderful school. Neither one of us should have to deal with such a poor scholar placement decision especially by someone who is rarely in our classroom.
It's been a tough week. I'm not sure what Monday will bring but I'm praying for the best. I'm out. Thank you again for continuing to read the adventures of an old man who has a view from the back of a classroom.
Sunday, January 17, 2016
STUPID Time Is Rapidly Approaching
Speaking of stupid, this just in from the Saturday edition of the Indianapolis Star. "Indiana's high school graduation rate dips." For clarification purposes, although I'm certain you don't need the clarification, dips means to drop. In response to this disappointing news one of our state wide lowest life forms responsible for the direction of education in Indiana was quoted as saying this, "we are pleased with the progress" the state's schools are showing.
The state of Indiana recently signed an agreement with Pearson Learning Services to take the lead on the Indiana STUPID Testing and Evaluation Process (ISTEP) for the next two years. In exchange for getting the STUPID testing contract, the state of Indiana is paying Pearson Learning Services $39,000,000.00 over the next two years. When I discussed Pearson Learning Services with my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse her response was, "Pearson doesn't have the best reputation." By the way, CTB-McGrawHill, who also was paid around $39,000,000.00, was unceremoniously dumped do to disastrous performance so they are being replaced with a company with a marginal reputation when it comes to administering the STUPID test. I believe this falls into the what the ...... category.
If you haven't figured it out, I'm not a big fan of ISTEP. Rather than go into a lengthy tirade on the subject I'll just tell you this. In February of 2015 (almost a year ago) the first round of ISTEP testing took place. We are now in January of 2016 and the final results of the test are still not available. During last year's ISTEP testing process there were computer hardware issues that disrupted the process, server issues that stopped the process, a difference in the test taken on the computer versus the hard copy of the test (apparently the hardcopy version of test was harder than the computer version), parents so upset that a couple hundred thousand parents demanded that their scholars test be rescored, and just this past week the lowest life forms decided to start all over on the grading of this test. Absolutely ridiculous and what did this disaster cost the taxpayers of Indiana? $39,000,000.00!!!
It's 9:00am and the scholars are walking into the classroom carrying their breakfast. EM walks up to may desk and places a carton of milk on it saying, "Mr. Schultz, I don't want this, you can drink it." I thank him for the milk but set it aside as some of the scholars have not arrived. When all of the scholars are in the room I'll ask them if anyone wants the milk. If there are no takers, I'll drink the milk. While waiting, I look at the nutrition facts label on this eight ounce carton of low fat white milk with vanilla flavoring. Because the vanilla is added I'm looking for one specific ingredient, sugar, and when I find sugar it states 22 grams. The sugar content seems high but what do I know as I'm just an old guy with a view from the back of the room so I look up daily sugar allowance for children on my device. I find what I'm looking for and it states 12 grams for children between 8 and 12 years of age. That age group is perfect as all of the scholars fall between the numbers. Before I go any farther let me tell you this. Our government, in particular the First Lady of the United States, started a campaign to address child obesity and rightfully so and you'd see why if you walked the corridors of my school. Our school corporation, being the good little soldier, followed along in the governments foot steps and are following their food guidelines. Let's get back on the subject of milk. Our school serves three kinds of milk, 1% low fat white, low fat chocolate, and low fat white with vanilla added. In the same order, here is the sugar content, 15 grams, 18 grams, and 22 grams. Here is the best part, our government can't figure out why our scholars are getting fatter given all of the low fat, low calorie food and drink items that are ordering them to eat.
Gnu and I discussed the milk issue at the end of the day and we decided we'd turn the subject into a science project for the scholars. Our task was to return to school the next day with food items that are routinely consumed during the day so we could have the scholars determine the sugar content in each item. The food items we brought in are in a picture on the upper right hand side of the blog if you are interested. Gnu's first assignment was for each scholar to choose the item that they thought had the most sugar and then the item that they thought had the least sugar. Not surprising, the Oreo cookies got everyone's attention when it came to sugar. Somewhat surprising, no one chose the bottle of water as having the least amount of sugar. The next assignment was for the scholars to divide all of the food items into two groups, those with high sugar content go on the left side of the table and those with low sugar content go on the right side of the table. From their Gnu went through each item and showed them how to read the nutrition fact sheet for each item. This was fun to watch as none of them ever looked at the nutrition fact sheet in their entire life. The comments they made were interesting, especially when it came to the high sugar items. Easily the most popular response was, "that's gross or I'm going to puke." Gnu's last assignment was thoroughly enjoyable to watch. She selected all of the items that were liquid and divided the liquids into two groups. She then divided the scholars into two groups and handed them their respective items. Then out came the scales and the scholars were told to pour the sugar onto the scales until the scales balance. I worked with Grrr! and Uh-Uh-Uh. They decided to start with the bottle of Coca Cola (16.9 fluid ounces/500mL). On the one side of the scale Uh-Uh-Uh put in the weights to represent the 65 grams of sugar. From there, Grrr! started pouring in the sugar. As he was pouring, Uh-Uh-Uh said to me, "Mr. Schultz, I don't think the scale works properly as it is not moving." I tell her, "the scale works fine, just keep watching Grrr!." Finally, the scale starts to move and eventually it is balanced. I then take the sugar and pour it into a clear plastic bag and label it as 65 grams of sugar. I then hand the plastic bag to Uh-Uh-Uh and say to her, "how does it feel?" "Mr. Schultz, that's a lot of sugar." she says I say to her, "yes it is and just think, some people drink two or three bottles of Coke a day."
That's enough for now about sugar as this is getting to be a rather lengthy blog. However, I do have one more item to mention. On Friday evening after school I was sitting at the kitchen table looking at the newspaper when my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse says to me, "does Gnu say please when talking to the students?" "Please?" I say. "Yes," is her response and she continues. "I was watching a morning talk show today and the conversation was about teachers and the need for them to say 'please' when telling scholars to get to work on their assignment." Apparently, the guests on this show were quite put off that some teachers don't say please. I looked over at my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse, laugh a little and tell her this. "Gnu's is very direct when it comes to scholars that are not doing what they are told. It's a three stage process. First, when a scholar is doing nothing she says, "you need to sit at your desk and get to work." The second time she sees the same scholar doing nothing she says, "you need to stop talking and get started on your work." The third time, and my personal favorite, "you still haven't done any work. If you are not going to do any work and just waste my time then pick up your worksheet and get out of my classroom. Go sit in the corridor outside the room and when you are ready to do some work you can come back in. Now get out." I'm sorry, but there is no "please" in classrooms when it comes to academics. "Please" leaves open the option to do nothing and there is no doing nothing in Gnu's classroom. I'm working with a great teacher who is busting her butt to give these scholars the best education possible and she is not a please person. I love it.
That was way to long. Good bye!
The state of Indiana recently signed an agreement with Pearson Learning Services to take the lead on the Indiana STUPID Testing and Evaluation Process (ISTEP) for the next two years. In exchange for getting the STUPID testing contract, the state of Indiana is paying Pearson Learning Services $39,000,000.00 over the next two years. When I discussed Pearson Learning Services with my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse her response was, "Pearson doesn't have the best reputation." By the way, CTB-McGrawHill, who also was paid around $39,000,000.00, was unceremoniously dumped do to disastrous performance so they are being replaced with a company with a marginal reputation when it comes to administering the STUPID test. I believe this falls into the what the ...... category.
If you haven't figured it out, I'm not a big fan of ISTEP. Rather than go into a lengthy tirade on the subject I'll just tell you this. In February of 2015 (almost a year ago) the first round of ISTEP testing took place. We are now in January of 2016 and the final results of the test are still not available. During last year's ISTEP testing process there were computer hardware issues that disrupted the process, server issues that stopped the process, a difference in the test taken on the computer versus the hard copy of the test (apparently the hardcopy version of test was harder than the computer version), parents so upset that a couple hundred thousand parents demanded that their scholars test be rescored, and just this past week the lowest life forms decided to start all over on the grading of this test. Absolutely ridiculous and what did this disaster cost the taxpayers of Indiana? $39,000,000.00!!!
It's 9:00am and the scholars are walking into the classroom carrying their breakfast. EM walks up to may desk and places a carton of milk on it saying, "Mr. Schultz, I don't want this, you can drink it." I thank him for the milk but set it aside as some of the scholars have not arrived. When all of the scholars are in the room I'll ask them if anyone wants the milk. If there are no takers, I'll drink the milk. While waiting, I look at the nutrition facts label on this eight ounce carton of low fat white milk with vanilla flavoring. Because the vanilla is added I'm looking for one specific ingredient, sugar, and when I find sugar it states 22 grams. The sugar content seems high but what do I know as I'm just an old guy with a view from the back of the room so I look up daily sugar allowance for children on my device. I find what I'm looking for and it states 12 grams for children between 8 and 12 years of age. That age group is perfect as all of the scholars fall between the numbers. Before I go any farther let me tell you this. Our government, in particular the First Lady of the United States, started a campaign to address child obesity and rightfully so and you'd see why if you walked the corridors of my school. Our school corporation, being the good little soldier, followed along in the governments foot steps and are following their food guidelines. Let's get back on the subject of milk. Our school serves three kinds of milk, 1% low fat white, low fat chocolate, and low fat white with vanilla added. In the same order, here is the sugar content, 15 grams, 18 grams, and 22 grams. Here is the best part, our government can't figure out why our scholars are getting fatter given all of the low fat, low calorie food and drink items that are ordering them to eat.
Gnu and I discussed the milk issue at the end of the day and we decided we'd turn the subject into a science project for the scholars. Our task was to return to school the next day with food items that are routinely consumed during the day so we could have the scholars determine the sugar content in each item. The food items we brought in are in a picture on the upper right hand side of the blog if you are interested. Gnu's first assignment was for each scholar to choose the item that they thought had the most sugar and then the item that they thought had the least sugar. Not surprising, the Oreo cookies got everyone's attention when it came to sugar. Somewhat surprising, no one chose the bottle of water as having the least amount of sugar. The next assignment was for the scholars to divide all of the food items into two groups, those with high sugar content go on the left side of the table and those with low sugar content go on the right side of the table. From their Gnu went through each item and showed them how to read the nutrition fact sheet for each item. This was fun to watch as none of them ever looked at the nutrition fact sheet in their entire life. The comments they made were interesting, especially when it came to the high sugar items. Easily the most popular response was, "that's gross or I'm going to puke." Gnu's last assignment was thoroughly enjoyable to watch. She selected all of the items that were liquid and divided the liquids into two groups. She then divided the scholars into two groups and handed them their respective items. Then out came the scales and the scholars were told to pour the sugar onto the scales until the scales balance. I worked with Grrr! and Uh-Uh-Uh. They decided to start with the bottle of Coca Cola (16.9 fluid ounces/500mL). On the one side of the scale Uh-Uh-Uh put in the weights to represent the 65 grams of sugar. From there, Grrr! started pouring in the sugar. As he was pouring, Uh-Uh-Uh said to me, "Mr. Schultz, I don't think the scale works properly as it is not moving." I tell her, "the scale works fine, just keep watching Grrr!." Finally, the scale starts to move and eventually it is balanced. I then take the sugar and pour it into a clear plastic bag and label it as 65 grams of sugar. I then hand the plastic bag to Uh-Uh-Uh and say to her, "how does it feel?" "Mr. Schultz, that's a lot of sugar." she says I say to her, "yes it is and just think, some people drink two or three bottles of Coke a day."
That's enough for now about sugar as this is getting to be a rather lengthy blog. However, I do have one more item to mention. On Friday evening after school I was sitting at the kitchen table looking at the newspaper when my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse says to me, "does Gnu say please when talking to the students?" "Please?" I say. "Yes," is her response and she continues. "I was watching a morning talk show today and the conversation was about teachers and the need for them to say 'please' when telling scholars to get to work on their assignment." Apparently, the guests on this show were quite put off that some teachers don't say please. I looked over at my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse, laugh a little and tell her this. "Gnu's is very direct when it comes to scholars that are not doing what they are told. It's a three stage process. First, when a scholar is doing nothing she says, "you need to sit at your desk and get to work." The second time she sees the same scholar doing nothing she says, "you need to stop talking and get started on your work." The third time, and my personal favorite, "you still haven't done any work. If you are not going to do any work and just waste my time then pick up your worksheet and get out of my classroom. Go sit in the corridor outside the room and when you are ready to do some work you can come back in. Now get out." I'm sorry, but there is no "please" in classrooms when it comes to academics. "Please" leaves open the option to do nothing and there is no doing nothing in Gnu's classroom. I'm working with a great teacher who is busting her butt to give these scholars the best education possible and she is not a please person. I love it.
That was way to long. Good bye!
Sunday, January 10, 2016
We're On The Downhill Side
January 4th was the first day back in school after the winter break which puts us on the downhill side of the school year. One of the first email messages that I read upon returning to school was sent by the school's administrative czar and it mentioned that our school added approximately 40 new scholars over the winter break. Just so you know, that is a lot. Despite being at the school for almost four years now it stills has me shaking my head as to why so many parental units feel the need to pick up the family and move during the school year. It's pretty obvious to me that these parental units either failed to consider their scholars education or just don't care about their scholars education when they decide to move. Of the 40 or so new scholars, two caught my eye. Scholar A and Scholar B both have the same last name. Parental Unit A and Parental Unit B are listed as the parental units for Scholar A and Scholar B but they have a different last name. Like the parental relocation issue, this issue with different last names for scholars and parental units also has me shaking my head. Sadly, this is more of the norm that people think and can be traced directly to the abandonment of the institution called marriage.
The start of the third quarter of our school year didn't begin well. Right out of the gate Gnu received an email message announcing the start of the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) testing process. As it has happened so often, our classroom was not on the list to take the test. Why? Who knows, as this has been the norm going back to my first year in the classroom and it is a real irritant for Gnu. On the upside, because those parties involved in the scheduling of this test screwed up, Gnu is placed in a very favorable bargaining position and she takes advantage of it. And because of the screw up, she requests to go first when taking the test and she gets what she wants because who can argue when, for the umpteenth time, our classroom is treated like it doesn't exist. There is a huge upside to going first, our scholars will be the only ones in the computer lab, and believe me, that is huge. No other scholars crammed into the room. No loud noises. No visual distractions. Just our scholars quietly taking the required reading test. And the results of the SRI College & Career reading test are in. MiniJ had a beginning score of BR (beginning reader). MiniJ raised his score by over 120 points. That is huge and it is about to get better. Uh-Uh-Uh took the test. Uh-Uh-Uh had a beginning score of 156 and an end of the year target score of 213. Upon completion of the test Uh-Uh-Uh's score was 407. I can't emphasize enough how huge this is for these two scholars. I can't emphasize enough how huge this is for Gnu. When the scholars returned to the classroom Gnu announced their scores. With each score announced the other scholars in the room began cheering and applauding their classmates. When Gnu mentioned Uh-Uh-Uh's score she made eye contact with me. The smile on Gnu's face was priceless. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but just in case, I'm working with an outstanding teacher and I'm really excited for her. The last scholar to take the SRI test was EM. The results were a little worse than expected as EM's score remained at BR (beginning reader). Despite the huge gains MiniJ and Uh-Uh-Uh made I could see Gnu's disappointment. "What more can I do," she said to me. "A few minutes earlier you told me that EM took a long time taking the test as he tried to phonetically sound out every word. He never tried to do that before. You told me your frustration when EM did not recognize a vocabulary word. You told me how pleased you were when EM read a word you didn't think he could read. A couple years ago, BaseG sat with CorP (former teacher and former scholar) during a reading test that took CorP an eternity to complete. BaseG told me that Corp tried to phonetically sound out every word but despite CorP's best effort he failed the test. However, it wasn't long after CorP failed his test that he passed IRead3 because he didn't give up and wanted to read. Well, EM's in the exact same position now as CorP, so let's hold our course as we both know that EM has made a lot of progress in his reading ability," is what I told her.
The other day, as far west as Utah chimed in on the blog comment about the city of Cleveland, Ohio, and how that city is dealing with scholars who constantly disrupt the classroom. For those that haven't read that blog post, the Cleveland, Ohio court system subpoenas the parental units of disruptive scholars and asks them, in a courtroom, why they continue to allow their scholar to be so disruptive. Well, as far west as Utah takes a different approach with their disruptive scholars. They fine the parental units and if the parental units fail to pay the fine, their graduating scholar does not receive a diploma. Two states are taking their classrooms back from the scholars of P.P.P. (piss poor parenting) maybe Indiana will be the next state.
We are in our math block. Gnu has EM, Uh-Uh-Uh, MiniJ, Knapper, and Short Time with her at the front table. I have Grr! with me where I have my view from the back of the room. We have a guest in the room from the special education overhead department. I'm not sure if our guest is observing the scholars or Gnu so I'm a little concerned. Gnu is doing a lesson on grams, kilograms, liters and milliliters. She has all of her material on the front table, beakers, cups, water, beans, worksheets and most important of all, five scholars totally engaged with what she is doing. It's approximately 10:15am when the classroom door opens and in walks Prophet with his teacher of record. As a reminder, Prophet is from our life skills classroom and he has joined our classroom on a "trial basis" to see how he performs. Prophet's teacher of record escorts him to his desk, places two worksheets in front of him, and promptly exits the room. Gnu reaches a point in her lesson plan where she can leave her front table and walk over to Prophet's desk to get him started. She wasn't gone from that front table for five minutes when it happened. The five scholars who were working so well lost their focus. Why? Their teacher had to leave them to help a scholar that does not belong in our classroom. Prophet was supposed to be a temporary assignment to see if he would be successful in our classroom. He is not, will not, and should have returned to his assigned classroom well before winter break. As you can see, he did not, and there is a total lack of urgency by the special education overhead personnel to address this issue. Gnu is stuck with him and our scholars are the ones that are suffering. As all of this is taking place, I'm writing on a Post It Note because there is an opportunity for me to make a point with the observer that is sitting within eight feet of me. As the observer rises to leave and is walking past me I hand the observer my note. The note said, "this is what happens everyday when Prophet walks into this room. We can't continue doing this day after day after day." When the observer finishes reading the note I'm told, "I'm aware and we will be discussing this at the main office of the special education department." My response was, "thanks for letting me know that but please do so with a sense of urgency as this 'trial basis' has been going on way to long." I was probably a little to aggressive with my closing comment to the observer than I should have been but when to much time passes by and nothing happens I guess it's time for me to shift toward my dark side (I saw the latest Star Wars movie over winter break) and say what needs to be said. I guess all that is left to do is wait and see what happens.
It's now Sunday morning and Indianapolis just experienced it's first major overnight snow storm of the year. If you are as far west as Utah or maybe as far east as France, Germany, or the Ukraine you may be curious as to what constitutes a major snow storm in Indianapolis so I'll tell you. It's a little less than two inches. I can hear as far west as Utah laughing right now.
Jumping forward, it's now 3:57pm and my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse just walked into the kitchen where I writing this blog. Earlier in the day we decided to have brats for dinner but as I'm observing her I'm think those are not the right kitchen utensils needed to cook brats. "Are we still having brats for dinner," I ask. "No, we're having chicken," is the response I get. "I like brats," I say. "Are you doing the cooking," she says. "No," I say. "Then we are having chicken," end of conversation. One of these days I have to try and find where she is hiding my pants and put them back on.
That's it. I'm out. Thank you for continuing to follow along.
The start of the third quarter of our school year didn't begin well. Right out of the gate Gnu received an email message announcing the start of the Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) testing process. As it has happened so often, our classroom was not on the list to take the test. Why? Who knows, as this has been the norm going back to my first year in the classroom and it is a real irritant for Gnu. On the upside, because those parties involved in the scheduling of this test screwed up, Gnu is placed in a very favorable bargaining position and she takes advantage of it. And because of the screw up, she requests to go first when taking the test and she gets what she wants because who can argue when, for the umpteenth time, our classroom is treated like it doesn't exist. There is a huge upside to going first, our scholars will be the only ones in the computer lab, and believe me, that is huge. No other scholars crammed into the room. No loud noises. No visual distractions. Just our scholars quietly taking the required reading test. And the results of the SRI College & Career reading test are in. MiniJ had a beginning score of BR (beginning reader). MiniJ raised his score by over 120 points. That is huge and it is about to get better. Uh-Uh-Uh took the test. Uh-Uh-Uh had a beginning score of 156 and an end of the year target score of 213. Upon completion of the test Uh-Uh-Uh's score was 407. I can't emphasize enough how huge this is for these two scholars. I can't emphasize enough how huge this is for Gnu. When the scholars returned to the classroom Gnu announced their scores. With each score announced the other scholars in the room began cheering and applauding their classmates. When Gnu mentioned Uh-Uh-Uh's score she made eye contact with me. The smile on Gnu's face was priceless. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but just in case, I'm working with an outstanding teacher and I'm really excited for her. The last scholar to take the SRI test was EM. The results were a little worse than expected as EM's score remained at BR (beginning reader). Despite the huge gains MiniJ and Uh-Uh-Uh made I could see Gnu's disappointment. "What more can I do," she said to me. "A few minutes earlier you told me that EM took a long time taking the test as he tried to phonetically sound out every word. He never tried to do that before. You told me your frustration when EM did not recognize a vocabulary word. You told me how pleased you were when EM read a word you didn't think he could read. A couple years ago, BaseG sat with CorP (former teacher and former scholar) during a reading test that took CorP an eternity to complete. BaseG told me that Corp tried to phonetically sound out every word but despite CorP's best effort he failed the test. However, it wasn't long after CorP failed his test that he passed IRead3 because he didn't give up and wanted to read. Well, EM's in the exact same position now as CorP, so let's hold our course as we both know that EM has made a lot of progress in his reading ability," is what I told her.
The other day, as far west as Utah chimed in on the blog comment about the city of Cleveland, Ohio, and how that city is dealing with scholars who constantly disrupt the classroom. For those that haven't read that blog post, the Cleveland, Ohio court system subpoenas the parental units of disruptive scholars and asks them, in a courtroom, why they continue to allow their scholar to be so disruptive. Well, as far west as Utah takes a different approach with their disruptive scholars. They fine the parental units and if the parental units fail to pay the fine, their graduating scholar does not receive a diploma. Two states are taking their classrooms back from the scholars of P.P.P. (piss poor parenting) maybe Indiana will be the next state.
We are in our math block. Gnu has EM, Uh-Uh-Uh, MiniJ, Knapper, and Short Time with her at the front table. I have Grr! with me where I have my view from the back of the room. We have a guest in the room from the special education overhead department. I'm not sure if our guest is observing the scholars or Gnu so I'm a little concerned. Gnu is doing a lesson on grams, kilograms, liters and milliliters. She has all of her material on the front table, beakers, cups, water, beans, worksheets and most important of all, five scholars totally engaged with what she is doing. It's approximately 10:15am when the classroom door opens and in walks Prophet with his teacher of record. As a reminder, Prophet is from our life skills classroom and he has joined our classroom on a "trial basis" to see how he performs. Prophet's teacher of record escorts him to his desk, places two worksheets in front of him, and promptly exits the room. Gnu reaches a point in her lesson plan where she can leave her front table and walk over to Prophet's desk to get him started. She wasn't gone from that front table for five minutes when it happened. The five scholars who were working so well lost their focus. Why? Their teacher had to leave them to help a scholar that does not belong in our classroom. Prophet was supposed to be a temporary assignment to see if he would be successful in our classroom. He is not, will not, and should have returned to his assigned classroom well before winter break. As you can see, he did not, and there is a total lack of urgency by the special education overhead personnel to address this issue. Gnu is stuck with him and our scholars are the ones that are suffering. As all of this is taking place, I'm writing on a Post It Note because there is an opportunity for me to make a point with the observer that is sitting within eight feet of me. As the observer rises to leave and is walking past me I hand the observer my note. The note said, "this is what happens everyday when Prophet walks into this room. We can't continue doing this day after day after day." When the observer finishes reading the note I'm told, "I'm aware and we will be discussing this at the main office of the special education department." My response was, "thanks for letting me know that but please do so with a sense of urgency as this 'trial basis' has been going on way to long." I was probably a little to aggressive with my closing comment to the observer than I should have been but when to much time passes by and nothing happens I guess it's time for me to shift toward my dark side (I saw the latest Star Wars movie over winter break) and say what needs to be said. I guess all that is left to do is wait and see what happens.
It's now Sunday morning and Indianapolis just experienced it's first major overnight snow storm of the year. If you are as far west as Utah or maybe as far east as France, Germany, or the Ukraine you may be curious as to what constitutes a major snow storm in Indianapolis so I'll tell you. It's a little less than two inches. I can hear as far west as Utah laughing right now.
Jumping forward, it's now 3:57pm and my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse just walked into the kitchen where I writing this blog. Earlier in the day we decided to have brats for dinner but as I'm observing her I'm think those are not the right kitchen utensils needed to cook brats. "Are we still having brats for dinner," I ask. "No, we're having chicken," is the response I get. "I like brats," I say. "Are you doing the cooking," she says. "No," I say. "Then we are having chicken," end of conversation. One of these days I have to try and find where she is hiding my pants and put them back on.
That's it. I'm out. Thank you for continuing to follow along.
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Searching for Post It Notes
It's Monday December 28th and I'm right in the middle of CHRISTMAS BREAK and I'm trying to decide what to write about. There are no good scholar stories as I haven't seen them since December 17th. Except to send Gnu a MERRY CHRISTMAS via a text message I haven't seen or talked to her. So as a last resort I'm searching through all of my school post it notes that remind me of items to discuss in the blog. So far I've resurrected four from the pile of assorted stuff I've accumulated in my interior blog writing spot.
Post It Note #1 is a food note. All during our CHRISTMAS BREAK my school is offering free lunch to any individual eighteen years old or younger. All you have to do is show up at school anytime between 11:30am and 12:30pm Monday through Friday and you will be fed. The school has been doing this for a while now and to be honest, I have no idea how many meals they serve. Maybe I'll ask when I'm back to school on January 4th.
Post It Note #2 is about Cleveland, Ohio. My school corporation has put out a directive to reduce the number of school suspensions as the latest in research indicates that repeatedly suspending scholars creates a pipe line that takes the suspended scholars from school to prison. We just completed the first half of the school year and so far Gnu has not suspended a scholar. I can easily state that this has not happened during the past three school years in the classroom where I have a view from the back of the room. This no suspension directive from our school corporation has resulted in a number of very animated conversations amongst teachers, especially those that have been either cussed out, flipped off, threatened, hit, kicked, bitten, or had their classroom destroyed with little or no disciplinary action taken. Fortunately, there is hope for the teaching profession as I read an article that someone posted on my Facebook page about a school district in Cleveland, Ohio and what this school district was doing about those scholars that repeatedly disrupt the academic day. Cleveland had a very simple process, subpoena the scholars parental units and have them stand before a judge and explain why they continue to allow their scholar to be so disruptive at school. According to the article seventy three parental units received this subpoena and if you ignore the subpoena an arrest warrant is issued. I like that idea and I can easily think of a number of scholars, none of which are in my classroom, that should have their parental units subpoenaed. In fact, I can think of six scholars that are in the general education classrooms and not special education classrooms that should have their parental units subpoenaed. Cleveland Ohio has had it with disruptive scholars and they are taking their schools back. Hopefully the school corporation that I work for will follow Cleveland's lead.
Post It Note #3 is about our school corporation's overhead personnel. My school corporation recently hired a director of special education and just before school ended for CHRISTMAS BREAK this overhead person sent out an email message about an upcoming special education department reorganization. Most of the email message discussed changes that are outside of the classroom so I was quickly skimming over the message. Then the word mentor appeared in the message and I got my focus back. For the record, Gnu has had a mentor since she arrived at this school and to be honest with you this mentor rarely steps into our classroom to see how things are going. That has bothered me quite a bit given Gnu's newness to teaching and the challenges that she faces dealing with scholars that have anger control issues. The email message from the new overhead person was short on details about mentoring but I'll be watching closely to see what happens. So far Gnu has managed to survive but I wonder how many new special education teachers left teaching because of a lack of a mentor during the challenging days.
Post It Note #4 mentions one of the lowest life forms and an idea he is proposing to the state legislature here in Indiana. Before I proceed I need to mention that I did an internet search on this lowest of life forms and as expected, he does not have a teaching degree, teaching license, has never taught in a classroom and it appears that the last time he actually spent any time in a classroom was years ago when working on a college degree. Basically, this lowest of the life forms is suggesting that teachers be allowed to negotiate their salary outside the various union collective bargaining agreements. The teachers referenced are those STEM teachers (Science, Technology, Math and Engineering) as well as Special Education teachers (that would be Gnu) and like most other states there is s shortage of these teachers. Coming from a business background that put me into negotiating positions numerous times I thinking I like this idea. There is a high demand and low supply of STEM and Special Education teachers so why not allow these teachers the opportunity to maximize their earnings. I'm not sure how far in the legislature this proposal will go but I do know one thing, the teachers unions are on the verge of going postal over this proposal. They are flat out against it for reasons that I think are pretty weak especially when you consider this. There are a number of other unions that make no attempt at stopping their members from actively pursuing the highest wage possible given the shortage of people with a specific skill. What unions am I talking about? The unions that represent professional athletes. If, say an awesome quarter back from the University of Michigan should chose to negotiate a wage with another team and succeed, he will make millions. So if a professional athletes union is good with this why are the teachers unions so adamantly opposed to it?
My last Post It Note. Several weeks ago one of the lowest life forms at the highest level of education in Indiana formed a Blue Ribbon Committee of forty people, of which nineteen had the title PhD, to address the teacher shortage. Well, they have determined why their is a teacher shortage and what they intend to do about it. Here is their plan to address the teacher shortage, pay them more money. Brilliant! Should teachers be paid more? Yes! Is the higher pay going to attract or retain teachers? Maybe. Is money the solution to a national teacher shortage problem? No! Why are teachers leaving in large numbers? Because they are treated like shit by parental units, the news media, the lowest life form on earth, the politician, and numerous other fools who rarely even enter a school or classroom to see first hand what a teacher goes through daily. If the aforementioned individuals would just stop hammering the teacher profession for no just reason we wouldn't have this shortage.
We just jumped from December 28, 2015 to Sunday, January 3, 2016. In the Letters to the Editor section of the Indianapolis Star newspaper there is an article written by an assistant professor of history, Indiana University, entitled, "Active-shooter drills in Indiana schools feed hysteria." The letter starts out "I was shocked to read that at least one local elementary school in my hometown of Bloomington has given into irrational hysteria by subjecting children to active-shooter drills." The letter goes on to state that "terrorizing children in this way can only be justified by employing paranoid reasoning." And finally it states, "requiring elementary-aged children to cower under their desks once a year in fear of an imagined killer is projecting wildly hysterical fantasies." Dear assistant profession of not history but lunacy, let me tell you a few things as I work in an elementary school in the state of Indiana. First, we have fire drills. Second, we have tornado drills. Third, we have lock down drills. Why? It's the reality we face everyday. During these drills approximately four hundred an fifty scholars plus teachers and other staff member participate in the drills. All the scholars, because of the practice drills, know exactly what to do and do so in a timely and orderly fashion. There is no terrorizing. There is no cowering under desks. There is just an well organized exit from the classroom or the building to reduce the risk of injury to hundreds of scholars. Dear assistant professor of not history but lunacy, I hope and pray that there is never an active shooter on the campus of Indiana University but if there is I'll be put at ease because when the shooting starts I'll know that you will actively leave your office and pursue the shooter with you arms held wide open and shouting, "can I just give you a hug." Good luck with that.
School starts again on January 4, 2016. CHRISTMAS BREAK is over. Time to get back to work. Happy New Year everybody.
Post It Note #1 is a food note. All during our CHRISTMAS BREAK my school is offering free lunch to any individual eighteen years old or younger. All you have to do is show up at school anytime between 11:30am and 12:30pm Monday through Friday and you will be fed. The school has been doing this for a while now and to be honest, I have no idea how many meals they serve. Maybe I'll ask when I'm back to school on January 4th.
Post It Note #2 is about Cleveland, Ohio. My school corporation has put out a directive to reduce the number of school suspensions as the latest in research indicates that repeatedly suspending scholars creates a pipe line that takes the suspended scholars from school to prison. We just completed the first half of the school year and so far Gnu has not suspended a scholar. I can easily state that this has not happened during the past three school years in the classroom where I have a view from the back of the room. This no suspension directive from our school corporation has resulted in a number of very animated conversations amongst teachers, especially those that have been either cussed out, flipped off, threatened, hit, kicked, bitten, or had their classroom destroyed with little or no disciplinary action taken. Fortunately, there is hope for the teaching profession as I read an article that someone posted on my Facebook page about a school district in Cleveland, Ohio and what this school district was doing about those scholars that repeatedly disrupt the academic day. Cleveland had a very simple process, subpoena the scholars parental units and have them stand before a judge and explain why they continue to allow their scholar to be so disruptive at school. According to the article seventy three parental units received this subpoena and if you ignore the subpoena an arrest warrant is issued. I like that idea and I can easily think of a number of scholars, none of which are in my classroom, that should have their parental units subpoenaed. In fact, I can think of six scholars that are in the general education classrooms and not special education classrooms that should have their parental units subpoenaed. Cleveland Ohio has had it with disruptive scholars and they are taking their schools back. Hopefully the school corporation that I work for will follow Cleveland's lead.
Post It Note #3 is about our school corporation's overhead personnel. My school corporation recently hired a director of special education and just before school ended for CHRISTMAS BREAK this overhead person sent out an email message about an upcoming special education department reorganization. Most of the email message discussed changes that are outside of the classroom so I was quickly skimming over the message. Then the word mentor appeared in the message and I got my focus back. For the record, Gnu has had a mentor since she arrived at this school and to be honest with you this mentor rarely steps into our classroom to see how things are going. That has bothered me quite a bit given Gnu's newness to teaching and the challenges that she faces dealing with scholars that have anger control issues. The email message from the new overhead person was short on details about mentoring but I'll be watching closely to see what happens. So far Gnu has managed to survive but I wonder how many new special education teachers left teaching because of a lack of a mentor during the challenging days.
Post It Note #4 mentions one of the lowest life forms and an idea he is proposing to the state legislature here in Indiana. Before I proceed I need to mention that I did an internet search on this lowest of life forms and as expected, he does not have a teaching degree, teaching license, has never taught in a classroom and it appears that the last time he actually spent any time in a classroom was years ago when working on a college degree. Basically, this lowest of the life forms is suggesting that teachers be allowed to negotiate their salary outside the various union collective bargaining agreements. The teachers referenced are those STEM teachers (Science, Technology, Math and Engineering) as well as Special Education teachers (that would be Gnu) and like most other states there is s shortage of these teachers. Coming from a business background that put me into negotiating positions numerous times I thinking I like this idea. There is a high demand and low supply of STEM and Special Education teachers so why not allow these teachers the opportunity to maximize their earnings. I'm not sure how far in the legislature this proposal will go but I do know one thing, the teachers unions are on the verge of going postal over this proposal. They are flat out against it for reasons that I think are pretty weak especially when you consider this. There are a number of other unions that make no attempt at stopping their members from actively pursuing the highest wage possible given the shortage of people with a specific skill. What unions am I talking about? The unions that represent professional athletes. If, say an awesome quarter back from the University of Michigan should chose to negotiate a wage with another team and succeed, he will make millions. So if a professional athletes union is good with this why are the teachers unions so adamantly opposed to it?
My last Post It Note. Several weeks ago one of the lowest life forms at the highest level of education in Indiana formed a Blue Ribbon Committee of forty people, of which nineteen had the title PhD, to address the teacher shortage. Well, they have determined why their is a teacher shortage and what they intend to do about it. Here is their plan to address the teacher shortage, pay them more money. Brilliant! Should teachers be paid more? Yes! Is the higher pay going to attract or retain teachers? Maybe. Is money the solution to a national teacher shortage problem? No! Why are teachers leaving in large numbers? Because they are treated like shit by parental units, the news media, the lowest life form on earth, the politician, and numerous other fools who rarely even enter a school or classroom to see first hand what a teacher goes through daily. If the aforementioned individuals would just stop hammering the teacher profession for no just reason we wouldn't have this shortage.
We just jumped from December 28, 2015 to Sunday, January 3, 2016. In the Letters to the Editor section of the Indianapolis Star newspaper there is an article written by an assistant professor of history, Indiana University, entitled, "Active-shooter drills in Indiana schools feed hysteria." The letter starts out "I was shocked to read that at least one local elementary school in my hometown of Bloomington has given into irrational hysteria by subjecting children to active-shooter drills." The letter goes on to state that "terrorizing children in this way can only be justified by employing paranoid reasoning." And finally it states, "requiring elementary-aged children to cower under their desks once a year in fear of an imagined killer is projecting wildly hysterical fantasies." Dear assistant profession of not history but lunacy, let me tell you a few things as I work in an elementary school in the state of Indiana. First, we have fire drills. Second, we have tornado drills. Third, we have lock down drills. Why? It's the reality we face everyday. During these drills approximately four hundred an fifty scholars plus teachers and other staff member participate in the drills. All the scholars, because of the practice drills, know exactly what to do and do so in a timely and orderly fashion. There is no terrorizing. There is no cowering under desks. There is just an well organized exit from the classroom or the building to reduce the risk of injury to hundreds of scholars. Dear assistant professor of not history but lunacy, I hope and pray that there is never an active shooter on the campus of Indiana University but if there is I'll be put at ease because when the shooting starts I'll know that you will actively leave your office and pursue the shooter with you arms held wide open and shouting, "can I just give you a hug." Good luck with that.
School starts again on January 4, 2016. CHRISTMAS BREAK is over. Time to get back to work. Happy New Year everybody.
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