There is a BP gas station that I stop at every morning to get a cup of coffee. In case your are wondering, I like the Kona blend. It's near the school which puts this gas station in a lower income neighborhood. It's always interesting to watch the clientele come and go at this gas station. I guess it's my version of people watching at WalMart. This past Friday I stood in line behind a gentleman who was searching his pockets for some money as he just asked the cashier for a $5.00 lottery ticket and, as he called it, a pack of smokes. He finally pulls out some money from his back pants pocket and pays for his purchases. Just as he turns to leave, he reaches into another pocket and pulls out more money. So he turns to the cashier and says give me $3.00 worth of gas on pump number 3. With the price of gas listed at $1.75 per gallon and the car he was driving falling into the hooptie category, I'm thinking he'll have to start the process over the next morning.
I work at a great school and I write a blog telling about my view from the back of the room. Along the way several people starting following my blog and I need to tell you about the generosity of two of them. Staying consistent with past practice, I will not use real names. The United States Postal Service dropped off a package on my front door step a few days ago. When my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse handed me the package is was fairly heavy. Inside the package was a hand written note from Curbs and a dozen or so hand sewn pillow cases using material suitable for our young scholars. The note, I'll give you the short version, said I started to make a few pillow cases for your scholars but got a little carried away. Please distribute them as you see fit. I can't recall all of the pillow case themes but I do recall Spider Man, Star Wars, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Whales, and Basketballs. I showed them to Gnu and then we decided when to had them out and how to do that without starting any fights. We decided the Friday before Valentine's Day was the perfect day to hand them out and the order of the scholars was based on seniority in the classroom. That meant EM went first, and as expected, he chose the basketball themed pillow case. It felt like Christmas as the scholars were really excited. After each one made their initial selection they were allowed to make a second selection for a brother or sister. It didn't take long to distribute the pillow cases and at the end of the day the pillows cases were in backpacks and heading home. There were a lot of smiling faces in the classroom that day, thanks Curbs.
Gnu likes science projects. Nothing elaborate, just simple little projects that, when completed, are usually edible. Our latest science project was to research the history of ice cream and them make ice cream in the classroom. I good friend of mine, AO of VeeNo, was kind enough to provide some financial support for the ice cream project. The scholars gathered on a Thursday and, starting from scratch, made the ice cream. The flavor chosen was vanilla, boring, but it was decided that crushed up Oreo cookies would be added to the ice cream. Everything was going smoothly until it was time to crush up the Oreo's. Gnu divided up the Oreo's into zip lock bags and told the scholars that they needed to break up the cookies into smaller pieces. Quite promptly the scholars just started pounding of the zip lock bags with their fists. It was hilarious to watch when Gnu she tried to convince them that they didn't need to hit them so hard. At one point, MiniJ wanted to climb up on Gnu's table so he could step on the cookies. With the cookies literally crushed the ice cream making process began and was successfully completed. The last remaining step was to place the ice cream in a freezer over night. With only the waiting left to do before the ice cream could be consumed I ask Gnu if it would be alright to invite AO of VeeNo to join us in eating the ice cream. She agreed, so I sent the text message. A short while later I get a response, "Hell yes, I'll be there." So the next day AO of VeeNo arrives and joins the scholars eating the ice cream. It's always interesting to hear what visitors, who follow this blog, have to say after spending some time in our classroom. AO of VeeNo's comments were pretty consistent with what others have said. "I couldn't believe how polite and smart they were," he told me later. Yes, they are polite. Yes, they are, for the most, part smart. Unfortunately there are days when all hell breaks loose and someone gets to enjoy some time in our time out room. The ice cream research project was fun. The ice cream tasted great and AO of VeeNo can attest to that. To my friend AO of VeeNo, your willingness to support our ice cream projects as well as future science projects greatly appreciated.
Wednesday, February 17th, it's shortly after recess and lunch and something went wrong. I wasn't there but I could tell by the tone of Gnu's voice when she told the scholars to sit at their desks it couldn't have been good. As I scanned the room I noticed Grr! had his I'm angry look on as he stood behind his desk with his arms folded across his chest. Gnu is lecturing them about appropriate behavior when Grr! angrily yells, "will you stop laughing at me." Gnu quickly responds to Grr! , "why don't you just ignore him. We've had this conversation numerous times but you just will not listen." Again, Grr! shouted, "stop laughing at me." This time I catch the culprit and as it has been for months it's Prophet. It's now my turn, "there is no reason for you to be laughing at him. Get off the top of ShortTime's desk and go sit at your own desk." As Prophet moves toward his own desk, chairs are knocked over, he throws his pencil case on the floor, and he swipes across this desk with his arm and knocks all of his papers on the floor. I look at Gnu and ssy, "if our overhead personnel don't remove Prophet from our classroom tell them they may need to find another instructional assistance." "Do you think they care what you do? They don't even care what I do or have to say," she responds. For the first time there is friction between us in the classroom and I felt bad.
Thursday, February 18th and I was late arriving. Even though I was late the room was empty as Gnu was at a case conference that will again discuss Prophet and what to do with him. Just as I'm about to head to bus duty I get a text message from Gnu, "the meeting is almost over." I respond, "ok, I'm on my way to bus duty." Fifteen minutes later I'm in the classroom with the scholars and Gnu is still in the meeting so, despite the fact that I am not a licensed teacher, I start the academic day. While at Gnu's desk I get another text message, "almost over." I continue with the academics until she arrives. She doesn't say anything about the case conference and I'm moving to my table with a view from the back of the room. A couple minutes pass when she walks back to my table and sits across from me. "I'm not sure I can tell you this without starting to cry," she says to me. I remain silent but I'm thinking we are stuck with Prophet for the remainder of the year. She continues, "there are too many EH (emotional handicap) teachers in our school and I may loose my job." BOOM! "What?" "Are you serious?" "I have to meet with Knew2 (our other EH teacher) and we need to see if one of us would be willing to leave," she says. "Why is this happening?" I say. "The school needs to find a position for one of our inclusion teachers and in order to do so an EH teachers needs to be moved. The inclusion teacher will then be placed in the open EH teacher classroom. I guess I won't loose my job but I'll have to leave this school and find another job is our school corporation," she states.
Put your thinking caps on as I'm backing up a few days. "You are not a licensed teacher so you can't be in this classroom by yourself," the person wearing the crown says to me. The crown continues, "we have three choices to fill in for Gnu while she is ill." Which of the three (all inclusion teachers) would you like to work with?" "Which one do you think will be able to survive the day in this environment?" I ask. "I'll have to think about it" the crown wearer states. As a reminder, no licensed teacher showed up.
This is my best guess as to what is happening. My school needs to eliminate one inclusion teacher position. Apparently, one, or all of our inclusion teachers have a special education teaching license. So in order to find a position for a long term teacher a short term teacher gets bumped out of the way. It doesn't matter that a teacher who is about to get bumped absolutely excels in the classroom as this teacher does not have enough seniority so she/he has to go. Who is at the bottom of the seniority list of special education teachers, Knew2 and Gnu.
We hit rock bottom. We dropped to the subterranean level. Now BOOM! Imagine what is going through Gnu's head as she knows that at the end of the school year, she, under the best circumstances will have a job but at another school in our school corporation or under the worse case circumstances will not have a job at all in our school corporation. My part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse is aware and she is furious. "Why and hell would your school do something so stupid?" she asks me. "It's a seniority issue," I say. "Does you school realize how much she has done to improve these scholars behavior. Does you school know how much she has done to improve these scholars academic skills? "Why remove a teacher with such outstanding teaching skills from a classroom just because she doesn't have any seniority?" What is going on in our school right now is just plan nuts and I'm pissed. I'm also done for the day. Thanks for continuing the read the musing of an old man who has a great view from the back of the room.
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