I have a bucket list. I've had it for number of years now and it's a pretty short list. Actually, it's not pretty short, it is short, as it only has one item on it. One of life's disappointment is that I never new my grandparents. Not only did I not know them, I can't say for certainty what their names were as they all either died before or just after I was born. That's bothered me for the better part of my life so when I put together my bucket list I knew what I wanted as the number one item. On February 14, 2016, as 7:11pm my bucket list was completed as my granddaughter Ellen weighed in at 7 pounds 6.5 ounces and measured 20 inches long. My daughter and granddaughter are doing extremely well and I am one proud grandfather who does not have to worry about his granddaughter never meeting her grandfather.
Recap. Wednesday, February 3rd, we hit rock bottom as we used our time out room seven times in one day.
Thursday, February 4th.
My cellphone rings and I have a text message. "I'm very sick but I hope to be there before you have to go to bus duty," is what the text message from Gnu stated. "Maybe you should stay home," I texted back. "I can't, there is to much work to do," she replies. It's approximately 8:40am when she walks into the classroom. "Why didn't you stay home?" I asked. "I haven't printed out my lesson plan and worksheets for the day so you would know what to do," she says. "Well, print them out and go home," I say. "Maybe I'll do that," is her response. I tell her that I have to get to bus duty and walk out of the room. As I'm walking down the hallway I see an overhead person but don't give it much thought. When I return from bus duty all the daily work is on her table at the front of the room so I move to the front and sit at her table. She tells me that she is going to tell the Big B that she is leaving. I let her know that the Big B will not be in today and she needed to talk to the back up that will wear the crown for the day. Gnu leaves and within a few minutes the person wearing the crown for the day walks into the classroom. "Gnu is leaving for the day," the crown wearer tells me. "Good," I say, "as she does not feel well." "You can't stay in the room by yourself as you are not a licensed teacher," the crown wearer says to me. I say, "ok," and remain silent. "We have three options for a replacement" and she tells me the names of the teachers and then asks me "which one would you like to work with?" I tell her that I don't have a preference but say to her, "of the three, which one do you think will be able to survive the day in this environment?" The crown wearer says to me, "I'll have to think about it," and walks out of the classroom.
The scholars are now arriving and as they enter the room I hear multiple times, "Mr. Schultz, where is Miss Gnu?" I explain to them what is going on and they then ask me, "who will be our teacher?" I tell them I will be for now but someone will arrive shortly so get started with your morning work. As I start to get the scholars settled down so the day can begin the overhead person walks into the room. The overhead person stands by a cabinet at the back of the room and is listening to me as I start the day. This overhead person then walks over to ShortTime's desks and asks him what he's working on. ShortTime is pretty active as his ADHD issues have a hold of him and he is just plain ignoring the overhead person. The overhead person makes a second attempt at getting ShortTime's attention but fails. A couple minutes later the overhead person leaves the room. During the time that the overhead person was in the room I don't think this person said five words to me.
The day is started and the scholars are working when Gnu finally walks back into the room. "Go home, I can do this," I say to her. "I can't yet," she responds. "I was told that I can't leave until I get teacher signatures on this document and fax it," she informs me. "Well, sit down and rest, I'll take the document and get the signatures," I say. "No, you stay here, I can do this," she tells me and walks out of the room. I sit back down at the front table and I'm doing everything that I can do hide my anger from the scholars. What kind of person, who encounters a teacher that is obviously sick, tells this teacher that she can't leave the school until she gets a few signatures and faxes a document is just plain cruel. A couple minutes later the crown wearer walks into the back of the room and says to me "are you going to be alright by yourself?" I respond "yes" as I'm walking toward her at the back of the room. Knowing that the person wearing the crown is not at fault for Gnu's delay, I do my best to temper my anger. "Are you aware that Gnu can't leave to go home until she gets a few signatures and faxes a document," I ask the crown wearer. The facial expression I got from the crown wearer tells me all that I need to know as she is not aware. I continue, "it's getting to be very frustrating to sit in the back of this room and watch people take advantage of my partner. This room is like a dumping ground for misbehaving scholars and it is negatively impacting academics. Are you aware that we have not had a group session for our scholars going back to fall break? Are you aware that no one ever comes into this room to check on how we are doing or ask us if we need any assistance." I decided to stop and wait for a response. "Well, both of you are doing a real good job controlling your classroom so that may be one of the reasons you don't see anyone." That is not what I wanted to hear. If doing a real good job is why our classroom is treated as a dumping ground for disruptive scholars from general education classrooms then maybe we need to stop being so good at what we do is what I'm thinking. The crown wear excuses herself saying she has to head back to the office and I decided not to say, "you do realize that I am not a licensed teacher."
A short time later Gnu returns to the classroom and she looks exhausted. "Did you get all of your signatures," I ask. "No," she responds, "I can't find three of the teachers." "Why don't you sit down and rest and I'll go look for the teachers," I say. She agrees and I'm off in search of three signatures that must be so damn important that someone would detain a sick teacher from departing the school until she gets them. I catch a break and find two of the teachers quickly. Unfortunately, number three is not visible so I head to our main office to ask our administrative czar if this teacher could be paged. "Sorry, I don't have the authority to page someone," is the response I get. I don't say anything but think to myself, you certainly don't have any trouble overhead paging me when a scholar in a general education classroom is tearing up the room and you need my help. I finally get the last signature and return to the classroom. I hand the document to Gnu and say fax this and go home. About thirty five minutes later I receive a text message, "made it home safely and I'm going to bed."
Friday, February 5th
It's 8:30am when she walks into the classroom. I take one look at her and say, "why are you here?" "I have all the material that you will need for the day. Let's go over it, then I'm going home," she says to me. As we are reviewing the material the crown wearer from Thursday, who is not wearing the crown today as the Big B is in the building, walks into the classroom. "Miss Gnu, your class is scheduled for mandatory testing today," she says. Gnu's facial expression indicates that we just reached the subterranean level. The test that the third and fourth grade scholars have to take has a lot riding on it. If they do poorly, their scores will negatively impact Gnu's performance appraisal, which then negatively impacts her ability to get a salary increase, and in extreme circumstances it could cost Gnu her job. So what do you think she does, trust someone else to sit with her scholars and take the test or stay and sit with them herself. I'm pretty sure you figured it out.
Gnu is gone for the day and I'm alone with four of our scholars in the classroom. It's just a little after 2:00pm and we are in our reading block. As I'm reading to them I notice that our classroom door open up but I can't see anyone. As I looking toward the back of the classroom a body appears from behind the large cabinet near the classroom door. "My teacher said this boy is being bad and I'm supposed to bring him to your room," the little scholar says to me. Before I can say anything this little scholar says to me, "opps, he just ran away," and she is in pursuit. About three minutes later the door opens again and in walks this little male scholar. When I see him, it is not the scholar I was expecting so I say to him, "why are you in my classroom?" "I was being bad and my teacher told me I had to come over here." A couple minutes later the classroom door opens again and it's an adult. "I believe this scholar is supposed to be in your classroom," the adult says to me. "Who is it?" I ask. When I'm told the scholar's name I say, "he's with me."
"You cannot be in this classroom alone as you are not a licensed teacher," I was told and for the better part of two days no licensed teacher showed up. "You cannot be in this classroom alone as your are not a licensed teacher," as scholar number one is dumped into the classroom. You cannot be in this classroom alone as you are not a licensed teacher", as scholar number two is dumped into the classroom. There is talk on the national level about a teacher shortage. I wonder why that is.
First rock bottom then down to the subterranean level but somehow Gnu and I survived to continue the following week. Obviously it was not one of our better weeks but I'm confident that I can say this for the both of us, we really do work at a great school. How great? One last little story. I'm doing math with Grr! in the back of the room. It's not going very well as Grr! arrived at school a bit grumpy and doing math is not his idea of fun. We are doing addition with two digit numbers and I can tell the sum will have three digits when I place the first math problem in front of Grr! The first problem stated 95 + 73. Grr! promptly adds 5 + 3 and arrives at 8. He then looks at the 9 + 7 and says to me, "Mr. Schultz, you can't expect me to add those two big numbers as my brain is not fully developed." I looked at him and just started laughing.
That's it, I'm out. Before I leave, did I mention that I'm a real proud grandfather of a little girl born on Valentine's Day?
No comments:
Post a Comment