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.
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