Sunday morning, February 29th, at 9:00am, and I'm sitting at the kitchen table putting my notes together for this blog when I get disrupted by my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse, who is going into hobbit mode. "I'm hungry so I'm having a second breakfast, you will have to move," she tells me. Time out. I'm changing locations.
My version of WalMart, the BP gas station. It's pouring rain when I pulled in and park near the door to the convenience store part of the gas station and I notice someone standing outside the store. As I'm watching this man, who is using an extra large black trash bag as a rain jacket, he starts to wash an exterior window that is right by the cash register. As it is pouring rain, this gentleman raises up his arm and starts spraying a window washing cleaning solution on the window and promptly starts washing the window. He then removes from his pocket another cleaning rag and starts to dry the window. I've seen enough and get out of my car. Just as I reach the door the window washer is heading toward the same door so I hold it open for him. As he walks in ahead of me he says, "thank you," and as he passes me I notice the water running off his trash bag onto the floor. I head to the coffee urn, fill up my Styrofoam cup with the Kona blend, and head to the cashier. When I get there I say to my friend Sunny, "you're having the windows washed in the rain?" He laughs and says to me "just one." Sunny continues, "the window was so wet I couldn't see the gas pumps so I was going to wipe the window off myself but this gentleman (one of the regulars I finally realized) said he'd wash it for me." Knowing this I ask Sunny if the man drinks coffee and if he does I'd like to buy him a cup. Sunny tell me he does but says, "don't bother as I'm going to give him a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich for cleaning the window." There are two regulars that hang out at the BP gas station, one male and one female. I don't think they are homeless but all indications are that they are poor. The next time I see one of them I'm going to buy her/him a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich.
I went on a road trip to the urban area of Indianapolis over the weekend. I was chatting my granddaughter and telling her that this was the third time that I've seen her and I was a bit disappointed that she still was not walking. The conversation was interrupted by my daughter who told me it was time for dinner. As I'm sitting at the kitchen table eating, my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse and my daughter were discussing an article in the Indianapolis Monthly magazine. My daughter gets my attention and says to me, "Dad, you need to do this." "Do what?" I say. "Story telling," she responds. She continues, "there is a book store called Indy Reads on Mass Ave. that has a story telling night. You should go." "What makes you think people will listen to anything I have to say," I respond. "You've been writing a blog for almost two years now and people read what you write every week. Rather that writing your blog you go, stand up in front of people, and tell the same stories," she states. Hmm! I'll have to think about that.
Uh-Uh-Uh is celebrating her tenth birthday. She arrives with a tiara on her head that reads, "happy birthday." When she gets her coat put away, basically drops it on the floor behind her desk, she walks up to Gnu to tells her that her mother is going to bring in cup cakes for everyone in the afternoon. Gnu says "that sounds great, what time will your mother be here?" Uh-Uh-Uh responds, "at 2:30." Gnu looks back at me and says, "2:30 is right in the middle of our reading block." I look at her, shrug my shoulders, and say nothing but I'm thinking 3:15 would have been a much better time. It's shortly before 2:30 and Uh-Uh-Uh and the other scholars are at the front table with Gnu reading and I'm watching from my view at the back of the room when Uh-Uh-Uh stands up and walks over to Gnu's desk. At first I thought she was just looking for a pencil but realize that she is straightening up the mountain of papers on Gnu's desk. When Gnu finally looks at Uh-Uh-Uh she says to her, "what are you doing at my desk?" Uh-Uh-Uh turns back to look at her and says, "my mother is going to be here soon and I'm straightening up your desk as it's a mess."
EM was struggling most of the day and we weren't sure why. Gnu asked him a couple time if he was feeling alright. He told Gnu that his head hurts. Later in the day our school social worker walked into the classroom and asked Gnu if she could speak to her for a minute. Gnu agrees, and the conversation was very brief. When there was a break in academics Gnu walked back to my table and quietly says to me, "EM's mother is being evicted, EM is homeless." The school day is over. Gnu and I are walking the scholars to the buses and we are walking silently as were both know that we are about to put EM on the bus to go home. Sadly, we don't know where that home will be and we believe EM knows that and it is the cause of his headache. This is the third time that EM, his little sister, and four older brothers, will be homeless. Please keep his family in your prayers.
The news that we have one to many EH (emotionally handicapped) teachers at our school took precedent over the results of Prophet's case conference during my last blog post. This was mentioned to me by as far west as Utah so I'm going to backtrack a little and give you the result of the case conference. From what I heard, the room was pretty crowded as overhead personnel from both the life skills and the emotionally handicapped divisions of our school corporation were in the room. Also present was Prophet's parental unit. The big push from the school corporations point of view was to convince the parental unit that the young scholar needed medication to control is behavioral outbursts. From what I've been told, the parental unit agreed and that is a huge step forward not only for Prophet's behavior at school but at home. The final matter to be resolved was which classroom should Prophet be placed in. The matter was quickly resolved when TheMD clearly stated that the medication Prophet will be taking will help improve his behavior but will do nothing to increase his intelligence level so he needs to be place back in his original classroom. For the record, the case conference was held over a week ago and Prophet is still in Gnu's classroom. Obviously, there is a delay and I don't know why.
She continues to come up with the best ideas to get the scholars excited about learning. Gnu has been introducing geometric shapes, angles, and lines to the scholars for a number of days now and the scholars were struggling with the material. Her initial attempt to hold their attention was to put together three by five cards and set them up similar to a game called Concentration. One set of cards had the name of the shape written on it in green marker. The other set of cards had the definition or description of the shape written on hit with a red marker. The cards were then spread out on the floor and the matching game started. That worked for a while but came to an abrupt end when two of the scholars starting cheating so they could have the most matches. The next morning when I entered the classroom there was a large flashlight sitting on my desk and Gnu was taping something onto the wall in our time out room. "What are you doing?" I ask. "Setting up a math assignment on geometric shapes," was her response. "Does this assignment require a flashlight," I ask. "Yes!" is the response from Gnu. After morning announcements Gnu moves on to our math block and she tell the scholars that they need more work on geometric shapes. That news is met with moans and groans until Gnu shows them the flashlight. One of the scholars, I forget which one, says, "Miss Gnu what are you doing with that flashlight?" "I need it for our math assignment," she says and directs all of the scholars to the back of the classroom. "Please line up outside the time out room and Mr. Schultz, will you please turn off all of the lights in the classroom," Gnu states. Gnu then gives the scholars a quick lesson on how to turn the flashlight on and off. At this point she has their undivided attention. EM is first in line and Gnu hands him the flashlight. She pulls out the three by five card that have a definition or description of a shape written on it and reads it to EM, "this shape has intersecting lines that cross and form a right angle." She then tells EM to turn on the flashlight and she opens the door to our time out room. Gnu then instructs EM to shine the flashlight on the words on the wall of the time out room until he finds the match to the description that she just read. The excitement at doing a math assignment on geometric shapes just went from moans and groans to total excitement. I'm working with an amazing person and as the days of the calendar click by I keep hoping that by the end of the school year the BigB tells my partner that she can keep her existing job.
I don't have a teaching degree. I don't have a teaching license. I do have over three and a half years experience as an instructional assistant. I know that I can't be alone in the classroom with our scholars because I don't have a teaching license. I also know this, Gnu is going to Hawaii and will miss six school days. I know you are wondering why, so I'll tell you, she is a bridesmaid in a wedding that is taking place on the island of Maui. Initially, she was going minimize the length of time she would be gone but realized that this trip to Hawaii may be a once in a life time opportunity so she got permission from the BigB to extend her stay. Obviously this poses a big problem as a substitute teacher is needed for six consecutive days and it is Gnu's responsibility to find one. She does what she is supposed to do, contact the school corporation on line and request a substitute for the length of her absence. My confidence that this will actually work is low so I send a text message to BaseG (Gnu's predecessor in our classroom) and ask him if he has any substitute names that Gnu could contact directly. BaseG responded and said that he was not aware of any but if he came across one he'd contact me. I also sent a text message to a substitute teacher that supported our school several times in the past and asked him if he was available. Unfortunately, I didn't get a response. As I was leaving school one day, I walked past our administrative czar who said to me, "I hear Gnu is going to Hawaii." "Yes," I said, "she is in a wedding and will be gone for six days. What are the chances that there will be a substitute teacher available while she was gone?" I ask. "Good luck with that," was the response I got from our administrative czar.
Gnu will be gone for six school days. I have a number in my head that states how many days there will be a substitute teacher in the room and a number in my head that states how many days I will be the teacher in the room. Now it is your turn to come up with the numbers. You can tell me in person, call me on the cell phone, text me or just post a comment on the blog as to what you think will happen.
It's sixty five degrees today. I'm going to take a walk outside. Thanks for sticking around to read my stories. Maybe one day, you can sit in a room and listen to my stories at Indy Reads on Mass Ave.
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