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.
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