Saturday, April 23rd at 5:10pm. I heard it before I saw it. The sudden loud outburst of a child just after mass had started. The mother turned quickly toward the child and put her arm around him. That seemed to help but for a very short period of time. Although I'm not sure what it was, the child picked up an object that he was not supposed to have and the mother turned to take it away from him. Immediately after the mother took possession of the object the eruption happen. The child got very loud, the mother again turned to put her arm around him but the child starting swinging his elbows back and forth very aggressively and said "give the back to me." The father is now up and is picking up the child and removing him from the church. As the father was moving from his seat toward the aisle the child was struggling to get free. Now in the aisle, the father is quickly walking toward the back of the church with the mother immediately following. I've seen scenes like this numerous times over the past four years so I had a pretty good idea of what just happened, a child with an emotional handicap just erupted. As the mass continued I had trouble refocusing on the religious service as I kept thinking about what I just witnessed. Then it hit me, I'm in a church in the suburbs where homes are well maintained, lawn care companies do the majority of the yard work and being concerned about where your next pay check will come from is mostly non-existent. Outbursts like this aren't supposed to happen in the suburbs and that is why I started my blog with this incident. For four years readers have followed the musing of an old man with a view from the back of the room in a low social economic neighborhood and may not have considered that scholars with emotional handicaps are in the suburban schools. Well, they are, because an emotional handicap doesn't distinguish between rich and poor, between bad parents and great parents, between educated parents and uneducated parents. So, I ask you, as I've asked before, to keep the scholars that have emotional handicaps, as well as their parents, in your prayers because they have a tough road to follow.
Alright, let's get down to some academics. Today, I'll talk about things that made me smile if not laugh out loud so here we go. With so many scholars in the classroom Gnu decided to break the scholars into three academic groups and establish three separate work stations. Work station number one is her desk. Work station number two is my desk. Work station number three is an independent work station where the scholars can sit anywhere they want doing either reading or math on one of our iPads. The scholars rotate work stations every twenty minutes and Gnu runs a stop watch on her cell phone so we can stay on schedule. I can't remember what day it was but Gnu pulled out her cell phone and started her stop watch as we were doing our stations. As the first twenty minute rotation was coming to an end suddenly there is this duck quacking sound in the room. Gnu and I are looking around wondering where that sound was coming from. As Gnu focused on the quacking, she reached into her back pocket and pulled our her cell phone. Some mischievous young scholar changed the ring tone on her cell phone so it quacked. The scholars were laughing, I was laughing, and Gnu was laughing. The guilty party, as he could not keep from laughing when confronted about the quacking sound, was MiniJ.
I'm working with Grr! during our reading block. Knapper is also at my table doing his work. Grr! was in one of his moods and didn't want to read any more. I'm doing my best to keep him on track but to no avail. All of a sudden Knapper looks up at Grr! and says to him, "you need to keep reading. I know what it's like to not be able to read. I'm ten years old and I can't read and it is embarrassing." I wanted to give Knapper a big hug but hugging can be problematic so we exchanged high fives and I thank him for saying what he said to Grr!. When I turned back to Grr! he had is book in his hands and was ready to read.
We've had a science project in progress for several days and it was the life cycle of a butterfly. Every morning the scholars needed to check on the butterflies as they went through the various stages of metamorphosis. Despite the constant disruptions from the scholars, the first of our five butterflies hatched on Thursday morning. When Gnu told the scholars what had happened the excitement in their eyes and voices, as the commercial says, was priceless. Throughout the day the other four butterflies hatched and the science project was declared a success.
For about a week and a half Gnu read one of the Magic Treehouse stories to our scholars. This particular book was about the two main characters, Jack and Annie, traveling to Edo, Japan around the year 1650. By the way, the present day Edo is known as Tokyo. The story line discussed the culture and traditions on Japan and, as with the other Jack and Annie books, the scholars were thoroughly engaged in the book. As the final chapter was read Gnu half jokingly said to the scholars, "maybe we should take a trip to Japan." The scholars thought that was a great idea until Gnu mentioned what it would cost for a plane ticket to Japan so the conversation ended quickly. Later that evening I received a text message from Gnu about her plans for Japan day in the classroom that will take place on Friday. I told her that it would be a fun day so continue with the plans. For some reason I'd forgotten about Japan day until about 1:15pm on Friday afternoon as I was sitting with the scholars in music class so I decided to text Gnu about the matter. Gnu's text came back quickly and all it stated was "I'm working on it right now. When you are returning to the classroom walk slowly as I'm not quite ready." About five minutes later Gnu is standing in the doorway of the music room so I walk over to her. She says to me, "you'll need these," and she hands me the scholars passports and departs. When the music class ended I had the scholars line up in the hallway but instead of taking our usual route back to the classroom I had them walk in the opposite direction where the hallway came to and end. When we got to the end of the hallway I sat on the floor and told the scholars to sit down. The consensus of the scholars was, "why do we have to sit on the floor in the hallway Mr. Schultz, we didn't do anything wrong." When they were all seated I told them that we are no longer in school, we are in the airport as we were on our way to Edo, Japan. I told them we have cleared all of the security checkpoints but have to sit here for a while as our plane was on a weather delay. As we were sitting there my cellphone beeped and it was Gnu telling me she was ready. So I announced to the scholars that the text message I just received was from the airlines and our plane had arrived so we need to get ready to go. Just before everyone stood up I asked the scholars what they needed to have with them before we left for Japan. They thought for a moment and then said, "passports." I said that was correct and then, one by one, handed them their passport. On each passport was a photocopy of the seal of the United States just as it would be on a real passport. On the inside was the generic information for each scholar plus their picture. Do I need to mention at this point that I am working with a really outstanding teacher. Probably not. With their passports in hand, I tell the scholars to stand up and follow me as we are heading to the airplane.
When we were about twenty feet from the classroom I see our speech therapist walking toward us. I get her attention by saying, "officer, can you assist us as we are heading to Japan and I need to be sure our passports are in order." The officer steps up to the scholars and says, "I need to see your passports so when I stand in front of you, you need to hand me your passport." The speech therapist quickly got into her character, asked the scholars some questions as she looked at the passports and finally said to me "everything appears to be in order, you may continue on you way."
To this point, I've totally adlib what was going on. Now that we are standing outside our classroom I can see a sign on the door that says "Japan, please knock." From here on, I have no idea what will happen when we walk into the classroom. Knapper is at the front of the line so I say to him "we have arrived in Japan, please knock of the door," and I step out of the way. Gnu opens the door and she is wearing a kimono, has her hands together in front of her, she bows slowly and in her best Japanese accents, says to the scholars, "welcome to Japan, my name is Master G. Please come into my teahouse and sit on a mat as we will have soup and rice for lunch and then begin our poetry lesson." She carefully looks at each passport, tells each scholar that she/he can enter but first you have to take off your shoes. When I step into the classroom Gnu looks at me and says, "may I see your passport?" I respond, "I don't have one." She immediately starts speaking loudly, "intruder, intruder, young scholars please sit on your mats quietly as we have an intruder and I must call the samurai and have him removed." Gnu then picks up the telephone, dials a few numbers and speaks into the phone. "This is Master G, please send the samurai to my teahouse as there is an intruder in my presence and he does not have a passport." As she is holding the phone she starts searching her pockets and pulls out a piece of paper, looks at it and says into the phone, "I have found the intruders passport so I will not be in need of the samurai," and hangs up the phone. As she hands me my passport she says, "please have a seat in my teahouse as my scholars are about to eat lunch."
When Gnu is back at her front desk she has the scholars line up in front of her and announces that miso soup will be served so pick up a bowl and spoon. She also announces that when you have finished eating your soup you can return to the front table for rice, wanton and chop sticks so you can continue your meal. The fact that they can use chop sticks has everyone real excited. When they unwrap the chop sticks they can't figure out how to use them. Grr! tells them that they need to separate the chop sticks as they are stuck together. With his chop sticks separated Grr! properly places them in his hand and starts eating his rice. The other scholars are struggling with the chop sticks so Gnu helps them and also announces that if you want to, you can eat your rice with your spoon. Everybody but Grr! opted to us the spoon.
With the meal finished, Gnu instructs the scholars to clean any spilled food off of their mat and prepare for the poetry lesson. "Master G," I say. "I have prepared a haiku for the scholars that is worthy of me being declared a shogun with my own samurai and my own large private castle. If you'd like, I can write my haiku on the white board for the scholars to see." Gnu directs me to the white board and I write my haiku and go over the procedure on how to count the syllables in each line. I also inform the scholars that the haiku needs to be three lines long with five syllables each in line one and line three and seven syllables in line two and take my seat. Gnu moves to the front of the room, hands out the worksheets and the scholars are writing their haiku's. BigHouse and Uh-Uh-Uh are the first to finish. EM, MiniJ and S&T don't even make an attempt. Knapper had a good outline but can't get his ending right so I sit on his mat next to him and offer a few suggestions. A couple minutes later Knapper was finished and the scholars now get a chance to read what they wrote in front of the class. With the lesson completed, Gnu instructs the scholars to roll up their mats and put them back in the storage cabinet and, when done, to take a seat as our trip to Japan is over.
With everyone seated, Gnu informs the scholars that a decision has to be made about our butterflies. She reads the final part of the instructions that came with the butterfly kit to them and they realize that the butterflies need to be set free as the weekend is about to start. With the butterflies in hand the scholars are led of the school building onto the lawn at the back of the school where there are trees and flowers. Gnu is about to open the butterfly house when Uh-Uh-Uh says she wrote a haiku that she would like to read before the butterflies are released. Uh-Uh-Uh's haiku read as follows.
Flutter flutter butterfly
Fly to flower that's blooming
Pretty butterfly
With the reading complete Gnu reaches into the butterfly house and gets the butterflies moving. One by one they exit their house and the only thing nearby for them to land on is the scholars. As the butterflies are landing on the scholars they are literally screaming with excitement and pointing at the butterfly that landed on them. After a couple minutes all of the butterflies survived the screaming and excitement and safely departed.
It's 4:00pm and the day is over. Gnu speaking to me, "I don't think I've ever seen our scholars as excited as they were with those butterflies. This has the potential to be one of the best days of their entire lives." I smile at her and said "it was a good day and at some point in the future the scholars may realize that the time spent in this classroom was with the best teacher they ever had."
Not one negative thing happened in our classroom all week. We had a great week and my string of consecutive blog posts that focused solely on the bad things that happen has ended. I'm tired, I'm out. See you next week.
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Just Like That.....Gone
I just reread the last few blog posts and I'm getting concerned that everything is negative and I don't want that to be the story of the classroom that Gnu and I share. Despite what you've been reading there is a lot of good going on every day. Unfortunately, I need to continue the story of Prophet and the ever present challenges that this trouble young scholar brings to our classroom.
I'm having a bit of a senior moment as to when this event occurred. It was either the day after the case conference to determine Prophet's future or the following day. Before I continue, keep this in mind as I again restate the position of an overhead person who attended Prophet's case conference. I'm paraphrasing, "you will not be held at fault because you took the necessary steps to try and get him out." It's in the afternoon and as has happened so many times in the past Prophet has lost his focus and is refusing to do any further academics. Gnu pushes him a little to do his work to no avail. Prophet's anger is escalating and he leaves the classroom and with both hands, slams the door shut. As I walk out of the room to pursue him he starts to run away. As he is running down the hallway, other teachers are stepping out of their classroom as the door slamming was so loud they decided to see what happened. If I continue to pursue Prophet he will just keep running so I walk back into the classroom and call the front office to let them know that Prophet is out running the hallways again and ask them to get me some assistance. As others are pursuing Prophet he runs out of the building. Fortunately, one of his pursuers is real quick and Prophet is quickly contained and is brought back to our classroom. When Gnu and I are told that he actually left he building the first thing that came into my mind was the comment from the overhead person about Gnu taking all of the "necessary steps." A troubled scholar just ran out of the building and a decision must be made to pursue or not pursue. If you pursue and the scholar runs out into the street and gets hit by a car you're on the front page of the newspaper. If you choose not to pursue and the scholar continues to walk away from the school and gets hurt you're on the front page of the newspaper. You are stuck with two options and bad things can happen no matter which one you choose. Under these circumstances I wonder if the statement "you will not be held at fault" will still apply.
Apparently the last blog post got a few readers pretty animated as I was contacted via Facebook post, text message, plus an email message. A 9Patch Quilter made the comment that she is going to start drinking a glass of wine prior to reading my blog with the hope that it will keep her relaxed. A PrivateSchool teacher contacted me and said if I kept her hanging on this story for another week she was going to call my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse and file a complaint. As far west a Utah made some pretty strong statements about what was stated by the overhead person as well as what role the principal played in this process. To get as far west as Utah to relax a little I'll tell you about the BigB's position in this whole story. The day after Prophet's case conference the BigB unexpectedly walked into the classroom. I knew she wasn't in the room to do an observation of Gnu because she didn't have her laptop. When Gnu saw the BigB in the room she stopped the academics and the BigB walked toward the front of the classroom and said, "I'm really sorry." Gnu stood up and asked me to move to the front of the classroom and take over the academics as she exits the classroom with the BigB. A few minutes later Gnu returns, we switch places, and the day continues. About an hour later I had an opportunity to leave the classroom so I headed to the BigB's office. She sees me standing in her office doorway and invites me in. "What happened with the Prophet decision was just devastating for Gnu, she works to hard to have something like this happen to her," I say. "I know, I don't like it either, but there is just no placement alternative for Prophet right now so he has to stay," she replies. "So, even though you are the principal, the overhead personnel in the special education department can dictate what happens in your school. I'm sorry but I just don't understand that," I continue. "I don't like it either but that is how it works," is the reply I get. For the record, I like the BigB. She has a very difficult job to do and often, like anyone else in a leadership position, she has to make some tough decisions. While I don't always agree with her decisions I respect them and I hope she stays at our school for as long as I stay at our school.
It's now a Tuesday afternoon and Gnu informs me that she has to attend another case conference and I'll need to move to the front of the room again. "Who are you meeting with," I ask. Gnu replies, it's with Prophet's grand parental unit, an overhead person from the EH side of the special education department, and PhD(*)Pete so you'll take over at around 3:00pm. I survived the final half hour of the school day without incident. The scholars have all department without incident, the classroom is back in order, the case conference has not ended and I'm done for the day. It's around 7:00pm when my cell phone rings. I can see that the caller is Gnu so I answer the phone. I immediately recognize the emotion in her voice as she sounds as if she is close to tears. "He's gone," is all she said and then there was a pause. I was ready to say something when she continued. "His grand parental unit has agreed to place him in a residential unit and I feel horrible." My brain is going a hundred miles and hour trying to figure out what to say. "You did the right thing. Prophet has been in this school for three years and little if anything was accomplished. He was not progressing at all," is what came out of my mouth. "I know," she replied, "but it's still a tough thing to deal with." "I know, I feel just as bad as you do but you did the right thing. His father was involved in gang activity and died. His mother has a drug problem and often has to wear a police ankle bracelet, his grand parental unit failed a number of times to properly administer his medication which further added to his problems," I stated. "It's quite possible that for the first time in his life, Prophet may be in a stable situation where he can get the help he needs."
I was told when I first took this job almost four years ago that I was going to be in a tough environment. As you've read numerous times I've been kicked, hit, scratched, cussed out, flipped off and have seen so many items tossed around in a classroom that I've lost track of how often it happened but what happened with Prophet last week was not part of the game plan. For the first time since I started at this school, no, for the first time in my life I was part of the decision process to have a scholar removed from his home. That's tough, real tough. As I move toward concluding this blog I ask a favor of you. When time permits, please say a small prayer for Prophet and his grand parental unit. Please also say a pray for my teaching partner and please say a prayer for me. This was a tough week, one that will stay with me for a while.
It's Sunday evening. For the first time since last fall, I'm in my favorite bloging location, the screened in porch on the south side of my house as it is a beautiful day. My part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse is about to fire up the grill for the first time this year. Burgers and a salad are on the menu and we'll be dining alfresco. To put the finishing touches on this beautiful day we'll have Bloody Mary's for dessert. Life is good and I'll see you next week.
I'm having a bit of a senior moment as to when this event occurred. It was either the day after the case conference to determine Prophet's future or the following day. Before I continue, keep this in mind as I again restate the position of an overhead person who attended Prophet's case conference. I'm paraphrasing, "you will not be held at fault because you took the necessary steps to try and get him out." It's in the afternoon and as has happened so many times in the past Prophet has lost his focus and is refusing to do any further academics. Gnu pushes him a little to do his work to no avail. Prophet's anger is escalating and he leaves the classroom and with both hands, slams the door shut. As I walk out of the room to pursue him he starts to run away. As he is running down the hallway, other teachers are stepping out of their classroom as the door slamming was so loud they decided to see what happened. If I continue to pursue Prophet he will just keep running so I walk back into the classroom and call the front office to let them know that Prophet is out running the hallways again and ask them to get me some assistance. As others are pursuing Prophet he runs out of the building. Fortunately, one of his pursuers is real quick and Prophet is quickly contained and is brought back to our classroom. When Gnu and I are told that he actually left he building the first thing that came into my mind was the comment from the overhead person about Gnu taking all of the "necessary steps." A troubled scholar just ran out of the building and a decision must be made to pursue or not pursue. If you pursue and the scholar runs out into the street and gets hit by a car you're on the front page of the newspaper. If you choose not to pursue and the scholar continues to walk away from the school and gets hurt you're on the front page of the newspaper. You are stuck with two options and bad things can happen no matter which one you choose. Under these circumstances I wonder if the statement "you will not be held at fault" will still apply.
Apparently the last blog post got a few readers pretty animated as I was contacted via Facebook post, text message, plus an email message. A 9Patch Quilter made the comment that she is going to start drinking a glass of wine prior to reading my blog with the hope that it will keep her relaxed. A PrivateSchool teacher contacted me and said if I kept her hanging on this story for another week she was going to call my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse and file a complaint. As far west a Utah made some pretty strong statements about what was stated by the overhead person as well as what role the principal played in this process. To get as far west as Utah to relax a little I'll tell you about the BigB's position in this whole story. The day after Prophet's case conference the BigB unexpectedly walked into the classroom. I knew she wasn't in the room to do an observation of Gnu because she didn't have her laptop. When Gnu saw the BigB in the room she stopped the academics and the BigB walked toward the front of the classroom and said, "I'm really sorry." Gnu stood up and asked me to move to the front of the classroom and take over the academics as she exits the classroom with the BigB. A few minutes later Gnu returns, we switch places, and the day continues. About an hour later I had an opportunity to leave the classroom so I headed to the BigB's office. She sees me standing in her office doorway and invites me in. "What happened with the Prophet decision was just devastating for Gnu, she works to hard to have something like this happen to her," I say. "I know, I don't like it either, but there is just no placement alternative for Prophet right now so he has to stay," she replies. "So, even though you are the principal, the overhead personnel in the special education department can dictate what happens in your school. I'm sorry but I just don't understand that," I continue. "I don't like it either but that is how it works," is the reply I get. For the record, I like the BigB. She has a very difficult job to do and often, like anyone else in a leadership position, she has to make some tough decisions. While I don't always agree with her decisions I respect them and I hope she stays at our school for as long as I stay at our school.
It's now a Tuesday afternoon and Gnu informs me that she has to attend another case conference and I'll need to move to the front of the room again. "Who are you meeting with," I ask. Gnu replies, it's with Prophet's grand parental unit, an overhead person from the EH side of the special education department, and PhD(*)Pete so you'll take over at around 3:00pm. I survived the final half hour of the school day without incident. The scholars have all department without incident, the classroom is back in order, the case conference has not ended and I'm done for the day. It's around 7:00pm when my cell phone rings. I can see that the caller is Gnu so I answer the phone. I immediately recognize the emotion in her voice as she sounds as if she is close to tears. "He's gone," is all she said and then there was a pause. I was ready to say something when she continued. "His grand parental unit has agreed to place him in a residential unit and I feel horrible." My brain is going a hundred miles and hour trying to figure out what to say. "You did the right thing. Prophet has been in this school for three years and little if anything was accomplished. He was not progressing at all," is what came out of my mouth. "I know," she replied, "but it's still a tough thing to deal with." "I know, I feel just as bad as you do but you did the right thing. His father was involved in gang activity and died. His mother has a drug problem and often has to wear a police ankle bracelet, his grand parental unit failed a number of times to properly administer his medication which further added to his problems," I stated. "It's quite possible that for the first time in his life, Prophet may be in a stable situation where he can get the help he needs."
I was told when I first took this job almost four years ago that I was going to be in a tough environment. As you've read numerous times I've been kicked, hit, scratched, cussed out, flipped off and have seen so many items tossed around in a classroom that I've lost track of how often it happened but what happened with Prophet last week was not part of the game plan. For the first time since I started at this school, no, for the first time in my life I was part of the decision process to have a scholar removed from his home. That's tough, real tough. As I move toward concluding this blog I ask a favor of you. When time permits, please say a small prayer for Prophet and his grand parental unit. Please also say a pray for my teaching partner and please say a prayer for me. This was a tough week, one that will stay with me for a while.
It's Sunday evening. For the first time since last fall, I'm in my favorite bloging location, the screened in porch on the south side of my house as it is a beautiful day. My part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse is about to fire up the grill for the first time this year. Burgers and a salad are on the menu and we'll be dining alfresco. To put the finishing touches on this beautiful day we'll have Bloody Mary's for dessert. Life is good and I'll see you next week.
Sunday, April 10, 2016
No. 9, No. 9, No. 9, Is In The House
Monday morning, April 4th, and it's approximately 8:30am, when I asked Gnu if our new scholar will arrive today. "I'm not sure," she responds, "I heard from the overhead personnel and there may be an issue with either transportation or the scholar lives outside of our district." It's now 9:15am, all the scholars are in the room and I'm back from bus duty when the classroom door opens. "Hi everybody, I'm scholar No. 9, you can call me S&T and I'm in the second grade although I'm supposed to be in the third grade." So much for the overhead personnel knowing if this young scholar will arrive in our classroom on April 4th. Again I ask myself, what the hell do these overhead people do all day that they can't say for sure when a scholar will show up in a classroom. As I watch S&T walk past me I'm recalling his Individual Education Plan (IEP) that I read a few days ago and think to myself, this scholar was removed from his previous school and sent to my school because he attacked his teacher. Ridiculous! S&T is easily the smallest scholar in our room and I can't imagine anyone, who barely weights fifty pounds, attacking an adult in such a way that would cause expulsion from a school. It's mid-morning before Gnu and I get a minute to discuss our new scholar. "He's so tiny," is the first thing she said to me. Knowing that Gnu put S&T through a reading assessment I asked her about his reading ability. "He can't read, not even two letter words like at or no. I showed him a picture of a squirrel and asked him what it was and he said it was a frog. He also does not speak clearly. In fact, I had a real hard time understanding anything he said." Were jumping forward and it's now 11:40am and PhD(*)Pete arrives for our group session with all the scholars. These sessions usually start out with PhD(*)Pete asking everyone how they are feeling today. On this occasion, S&T was sitting to her immediate right so he got to go first. "I feel sad," he tells PhD(*)Pete. "Why are you sad?" she asks him. "Because they took me away from my mother," was S&T's response. Later in the day Gnu handed me the paperwork that arrived with S&T. The cover page contained generic information about the scholar. Page two was a letter from the Department of Child Services explaining guardianship. On the last page was a photo copy of the drivers license for the person that has guardianship of S&T. As I looked at the date of birth on the drivers license, I ran the math and determined that this person was forty-four years old. S&T is nine years old so that means the person with guardianship was approximately thirty-five when S&T was born. For the record, S&T's legal guardian (parental unit) is his grandmother. So, at the age of thirty-five you can be a grandmother. That leaves two generations over a thirty-five year time span and if you divide the thirty-five years by two that means S&T's mother was seventeen and a half when he was born and his mother came into existence from her mother when she was seventeen and a half. One last comment on S&T and I have to move on. He made it through the first week without any difficulty. He also made it through the first week without his parental unit ever making an appearance in our classroom or our school. Ignorance breeding ignorance and now Gnu has to educate a young scholar who looked at a picture of a squirrel and said it was a frog.
Tuesday morning and it's D-Day for Prophet and his continuing to stay in our classroom. Gnu expressed her confidence that Prophet will be leaving us and going to an educational or behavioral facility that actually has the ability to help him. We are in our reading block with the scholars spread out at different reading stations. I'm with EM, Knapper, and ShortTime. Grr!, MiniJ, and Uh-Uh-Uh are doing Sound Reading on the iPads and S&T is at the front table with Gnu. S&T speaking to Gnu, "I can't read, will you teach me to read?" Gnu looked back at me and I thought she was going to cry. "Of course I'll teach you to read," Gnu responded to S&T. It's now 3:00pm and Gnu is gathering her resources to attend the case conference with Prophet's parental unit. That means I get to spend the remaining thirty minutes of the day with the nine scholars in our classroom. As a reminder, I'm not a licensed teacher so I can't be alone in the classroom with the scholars. It's now 3:30pm and the telephone in the classrooms rings. Grr! was the closest one to the phone so he answered the phone perfectly, "room #, student speaking," The conversation was brief and Grr! hangs up the phone and looks at me and says, "Prophet needs to go to the front office." With Prophet out of the classroom the other scholars get ready and depart for the day. It's now 4:00pm, the classroom is straightened up, the case conference to determine Prophet's future is not over, so I depart for the day.
It's Wednesday morning and things are going very well in the classroom. As we near recess and lunch time I asked Gnu for the status of Prophet. She looks up at me and says he will be here today and the look on her face tells me all that I need to know, Prophet is not leaving us. As I looked at her two things came to mind, this is bullshit and she works to damn hard to have this happen to her. It's now 12:00 noon and I'm walking with ShortTime as he heads for his bus to go home for the day. Walking towards us, as he is arriving for the day, is Prophet. "Mr. Schultz, a student (Leftside, a scholar from last year) just ran out of the building," Prophet says to me. "How do you know that," I asked Prophet. "I saw him run out the door" and he pointed into the cafeteria. As I looked across the cafeteria I saw my instructional assistant counterpart from the other EH room walk past the cafeteria windows as he is outside the building. I tell ShortTime to get on his bus and I direct Prophet to our classroom and I'm heading outside into forty-five degree temperature wearing a short sleeved shirt. When I see my counterpart I yell at him to get his attention and say to him, "what way did he go?" He points to the south and the pursuit is on. We decided to split up to try and get ahead of Leftside. Unfortunately, I lost track of my counterpart and Leftside so I head back toward the school when I see the BigB in her car as she is now pursuing Leftside. She informs me the school police have joined the search and to head back to the classroom before I freeze to death. Twenty minutes later I was informed that the school police captured Leftside at a location that was almost a half mile from the school. Here is the frustrating part of the Leftside adventure. He will not be suspended because suspensions are a pipeline to prison. I think this pipeline to prison will be the subject of my next post. Anyway, I'm back in the classroom and the reminder of the day went smoothly. It's now approximately 5:30pm and it's Wine Drinking Wednesday and I'm with A.O. of Vino when I realize that I don't know what happened at the case conference for Prophet so I send a text message to Gnu to find out what happened.
It's decision time. This blog is getting rather lengthy and I have to decide if I should tell you now what happened at the case conference or wait until next week. Hmmm! What should I do? I already took some grief from a colleague of my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse for leaving the readers hanging for an entire week previously so I better continue but with the abridged version.
The purpose of the case conference was to convince Prophet's parental unit that the best option for him was a behavior health in-patient unit so he could get the help he needs to get his life back on track. The parental unit refused to do that. Why would a parental unit fail to get help for their scholar is beyond my comprehension. With this option shut down the consensus of those in attendance at the case conference came down to this, "we don't know what to do with him." So the bottom line is this, we are stuck with an incredibly disruptive scholar and probably for the remainder of the school year. That sucks and this next part is the icing on the cake. Part of the text message I received back from Gnu while sitting with A.O. of Vino on Wine Drinking Wednesday read like this. An overhead person from the life skills department of our school corporation's special education department is speaking to Gnu. I'm paraphrasing, "you will not be held at fault because you documented and took the necessary steps to try and get him out." Gnu speaking, "okay, tell that to the parents of the people he may hurt and sorry, I don't care if it's physical. The damage he does to their academic progress is just as bad as a broken arm." When I finished reading Gnu's text message I was pissed and A.O. of Vino can attest to that. At the same time I was proud of my partner, she fired back with both barrels at a superior in the overhead department who just made, in my opinion, a totally stupid statement.
That's it. Time to mix up a Bloody Mary, turn on the television, and watch the end of the Master's golf tournament. Thanks for sticking around to read the rantings of an old man with a view from the back of the room.
By the way, did you like my Beatles reference in the title?
Tuesday morning and it's D-Day for Prophet and his continuing to stay in our classroom. Gnu expressed her confidence that Prophet will be leaving us and going to an educational or behavioral facility that actually has the ability to help him. We are in our reading block with the scholars spread out at different reading stations. I'm with EM, Knapper, and ShortTime. Grr!, MiniJ, and Uh-Uh-Uh are doing Sound Reading on the iPads and S&T is at the front table with Gnu. S&T speaking to Gnu, "I can't read, will you teach me to read?" Gnu looked back at me and I thought she was going to cry. "Of course I'll teach you to read," Gnu responded to S&T. It's now 3:00pm and Gnu is gathering her resources to attend the case conference with Prophet's parental unit. That means I get to spend the remaining thirty minutes of the day with the nine scholars in our classroom. As a reminder, I'm not a licensed teacher so I can't be alone in the classroom with the scholars. It's now 3:30pm and the telephone in the classrooms rings. Grr! was the closest one to the phone so he answered the phone perfectly, "room #, student speaking," The conversation was brief and Grr! hangs up the phone and looks at me and says, "Prophet needs to go to the front office." With Prophet out of the classroom the other scholars get ready and depart for the day. It's now 4:00pm, the classroom is straightened up, the case conference to determine Prophet's future is not over, so I depart for the day.
It's Wednesday morning and things are going very well in the classroom. As we near recess and lunch time I asked Gnu for the status of Prophet. She looks up at me and says he will be here today and the look on her face tells me all that I need to know, Prophet is not leaving us. As I looked at her two things came to mind, this is bullshit and she works to damn hard to have this happen to her. It's now 12:00 noon and I'm walking with ShortTime as he heads for his bus to go home for the day. Walking towards us, as he is arriving for the day, is Prophet. "Mr. Schultz, a student (Leftside, a scholar from last year) just ran out of the building," Prophet says to me. "How do you know that," I asked Prophet. "I saw him run out the door" and he pointed into the cafeteria. As I looked across the cafeteria I saw my instructional assistant counterpart from the other EH room walk past the cafeteria windows as he is outside the building. I tell ShortTime to get on his bus and I direct Prophet to our classroom and I'm heading outside into forty-five degree temperature wearing a short sleeved shirt. When I see my counterpart I yell at him to get his attention and say to him, "what way did he go?" He points to the south and the pursuit is on. We decided to split up to try and get ahead of Leftside. Unfortunately, I lost track of my counterpart and Leftside so I head back toward the school when I see the BigB in her car as she is now pursuing Leftside. She informs me the school police have joined the search and to head back to the classroom before I freeze to death. Twenty minutes later I was informed that the school police captured Leftside at a location that was almost a half mile from the school. Here is the frustrating part of the Leftside adventure. He will not be suspended because suspensions are a pipeline to prison. I think this pipeline to prison will be the subject of my next post. Anyway, I'm back in the classroom and the reminder of the day went smoothly. It's now approximately 5:30pm and it's Wine Drinking Wednesday and I'm with A.O. of Vino when I realize that I don't know what happened at the case conference for Prophet so I send a text message to Gnu to find out what happened.
It's decision time. This blog is getting rather lengthy and I have to decide if I should tell you now what happened at the case conference or wait until next week. Hmmm! What should I do? I already took some grief from a colleague of my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse for leaving the readers hanging for an entire week previously so I better continue but with the abridged version.
The purpose of the case conference was to convince Prophet's parental unit that the best option for him was a behavior health in-patient unit so he could get the help he needs to get his life back on track. The parental unit refused to do that. Why would a parental unit fail to get help for their scholar is beyond my comprehension. With this option shut down the consensus of those in attendance at the case conference came down to this, "we don't know what to do with him." So the bottom line is this, we are stuck with an incredibly disruptive scholar and probably for the remainder of the school year. That sucks and this next part is the icing on the cake. Part of the text message I received back from Gnu while sitting with A.O. of Vino on Wine Drinking Wednesday read like this. An overhead person from the life skills department of our school corporation's special education department is speaking to Gnu. I'm paraphrasing, "you will not be held at fault because you documented and took the necessary steps to try and get him out." Gnu speaking, "okay, tell that to the parents of the people he may hurt and sorry, I don't care if it's physical. The damage he does to their academic progress is just as bad as a broken arm." When I finished reading Gnu's text message I was pissed and A.O. of Vino can attest to that. At the same time I was proud of my partner, she fired back with both barrels at a superior in the overhead department who just made, in my opinion, a totally stupid statement.
That's it. Time to mix up a Bloody Mary, turn on the television, and watch the end of the Master's golf tournament. Thanks for sticking around to read the rantings of an old man with a view from the back of the room.
By the way, did you like my Beatles reference in the title?
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