In my last post I mentioned that Gnu had a family emergency that caused her to leave the classroom. As of today she has not said anything about the emergency and I haven't asked about it. So at this point I guess no news is good news.
On the day of this family emergency our third and fourth grade scholars were scheduled to take the Indiana Stupid Testing and Evaluation Process (ISTEP) test and they were schedule to take the test during Gnu's absence. All the communications that the BigB and the teachers administering and/or proctoring the test needed to know about our classroom situation had taken place. It was a pretty simple plan. Take all of our scholars to the testing site. Drop off the third grade and fourth grade scholars at the testing site and return to the classroom with the second grade scholars. I was doing a math assignment with the second grade scholars when three of the five scholars taking the ISTEP test walked into the classroom and I realized immediately I screwed up. Within another five minutes the other two scholars entered the room after completing the test and this furthers added to my frustration. They weren't gone long enough. Their allotted time to take this test was one hour. They were all back in under twenty-five minutes. They didn't do much of anything but click on boxes to answer the questions and then hit the exit button on the test. When all the scholars were in the room I asked them why they finished the test so quickly. The response was that there were only eight questions. I said to them that they were given an hour to take this test, how was it possible that everyone got done so quickly. Then I asked the big question, "did any of you actually take the time to read the material before answering the questions?" ShortTime spoke first, "yes, I read everything." "Good, I said to him, "tell me what you read." There was silence until EM spoke up. "I don't know how to read," he said to me. His comment sent me over the edge. I'm now speaking to all of the scholars. "Don't tell me you don't know how to read. What you chose to do was not even attempt to read. All you did was glance at the reading material and then start answering questions. Do you know how hard Miss Gnu worked to prepare you to take this test and you don't even try? You should be embarrassed by what you just did." The objections from the scholars started but I shut it done real quick. "QUIET, just sit there until I figure out what we are going to do next. The test is over and we need to move on."
I've made a number of mistakes in the classroom over the past four years but I've moved on from those mistakes. The ISTEP mistake I made when Gnu was out of the classroom will stay with me for a while. I should have dropped the second grade scholars off with another classroom and stayed with the third and fourth grade scholars when they took the ISTEP test. I didn't, and they chose not to even try to pass the test. I can't guarantee that my presence in the testing room would have resulted in them passing the ISTEP test but my being there would have at least resulted in them trying. I screwed up, I failed my teaching partner at a critical time, and I felt like shit.
It's 8:45am and I'm wearing my bus captain's hat. The first bus dropped off the scholars without incident. When all the scholars exited from the second bus the bus driver told me he was going to pull his bus out of the way and come back and talk to me. When he approached me he says, "every day I have to wait for EM. Some days I have to honk the school bus horn several times to get him to come out of the house. Today, as I was honking the horn and waiting for EM one of the neighbors approached the bus and starting talking to me." The neighbor speaking, "you needed to stop honking that horn every morning, you are waking up my children." The bus driver informed me that he apologized to the neighbor speaking to him and them continued telling me his story. The bus driver speaking again, "as this neighbor turned and started walking back to his home I noticed that he had a hand gun in his back pocket."
EM has a history of being late for the bus. I've spoken to the BigB about it and she said to me the same thing I told the bus driver. "When you stop at the house, wait your allotted time. If EM does not come out of the house, you need to drive on so you can stay on schedule." The day after the hand gun incident the bus stopped at EM's house, the bus driver waited the allotted time without honking the horn, and drove on. EM was absent from school that day.
It's food pantry day at our school. Yes, we stock a food pantry exclusively for families with scholars in our school. So you know, it is very well attended. EM, as he is exiting the bus on food pantry day says to me, "Mr. Schultz my parental unit is going to pick me up after school today." "Ok," I say to him and he walks into the school. It's now 2:30pm and I'm heading to the office to ask our administrative czar to call me when EM's parental unit shows up at school. The response I got was, "I don't have to call you, EM's parental unit is in our food pantry right now." So I walk over to the food pantry to confirm with EM's parental unit that he will be a car rider at the end of the school day. When I arrive at the food pantry I was informed that she had picked up what she needed and left. It's now 3:30pm and the school day is over and I don't know for sure how EM is going to get home. EM thinks his parental unit will pick him up so I take him to the office and tell him to have a seat until his parental unit arrives. I then ask the administrative czar to contact me when EM is picked up. When I don't hear from the administrative czar I head back to the office and EM is still sitting there. Now it's decision time for me. Either let EM continue to sit in the office and wait for his parental unit or take him to the bus. After overhead paging EM's parental unit with no luck the decision to send him home on the bus is made. As EM is being walked to the bus he is crying because his parental unit said "to wait at school for me to pick you up" and in his anxiety issue mind he is thinking she left him and would not be home when he got there. No scholar deserves this type of treatment from a parental unit, especially one with anxiety issues. Unfortunately, EM is a product of PPP, and such is his life. EM and I have been in the same classroom for almost three years now. He is a real nice young man and does not deserve to have some many parental unit issues. Please keep him in your prayers.
It's Friday morning and Gnu was late arriving. At around 9:45am she makes an announcement to the scholars, "I really overslept this morning and didn't have time to take a shower so hopefully I don't smell." I wanted to say to her that if she didn't shower and smelled, she'd easily fit in with some of the scholars in the room but chose to remain silent. Shortly after making her announcement, she walks over to MiniJ, gets close to him and says, "do I smell?" She then walked over to Uh-Uh-Uh and again asks the questions as she gets up close and personal, "do I smell"? They didn't think she did. I didn't think she did so on went the day. I know I've mentioned a number of times what I wonderful teacher Gnu is but I wonder if I've ever mentioned before that she is a bit Edith Bunkeresque, a ding bat as Archie Bunker would say.
It's Mother's Day. My daughter is enjoying her first Mother's Day. My part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse is enjoying her first Mother's Day as a grandmother. I'm blogging, drinking a gin and tonic, looking out over the backyard and realize that I need to cut the grass. Bye!
Sorry, PPP means piss poor parenting.
Thanks for continuing to follow along.
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