September 2nd was the twenty-fifth school day of the year and it still has not been a fun year. There was a glimmer of hope that things were getting into a good groove as we had two solid academic days in a row. For the first time in quite a while the look on Gnu's face at the end of the day was satisfaction and not that "I survived another day" look. However, that ended abruptly, as the demons entered his head the moment he walked into the classroom. There is a picture on the right side of the blog that will give you an idea as to how Wednesday of last week started. Rather than discuss the construction of the Tower of Babel now I'm going to let you ponder that picture for a while and she if you can figure out how it was constructed.
My first encounter with Tourette was when he was in kindergarten. He was being removed from the classroom for very disruptive behavior. When I arrived at his classroom, he had cornered himself behind the classroom door out in the hallway. When I looked behind the door, he looked up at me and, true to form, loudly directed a couple obscenities at me and then pulled the door closer to himself to avoid me. As he did so, I'm thinking to myself "thanks" as all I have to do now is put my foot by the door and you can't escape. It's now two years later and he hasn't changed or, for that matter, shown any improvement. Although I can't recall the exact date I do know that it was around 2:30pm when LittleBB walked into the classroom and left with Tourette in tow. Gnu was informed later in the day that he was picked up by a social services agency. Tourette missed a day of school before he returned and Gnu was informed that he was staying with people from another social services agency. This agency dropped him off at school and picked him up from school for a couple days but that ended abruptly. As I understand it, the people at this second social services agency decided that he was too much for them to handle and were not going to deal with him any more. As I was leaving school on this day, I walked past LittleBB's office and noticed the BigB2, FBG, and Tourette sitting in the office with her and then it clicked in my head. It was time for Tourette to go home but he did not have a home or a social services agency to go to.
The first former scholar to return was Uh-Uh-Uh. A few days later Gnu was notified that BigHouse would be returning. The very next day Gnu was informed that MiniJ was returning. That just leaves EM in a general education classroom and even if he wanted to return to Gnu's classroom he couldn't as he in now in the fifth grade. This school year started out with a pretty high degree of confidence on Gnu's part that all of her former scholars could adjust to the general education classroom, but sadly, it was a failure. Why did this fail? Simple, adults failed to do their job. Adults in this absolutely wonderful school where I work plus adults in our SpecEd overhead department failed to do their jobs. So when school reconvenes on Wednesday after Labor Day there will be ten scholars in Gnu's classroom. Ten! How much fun will that be? I'll let you think about it.
Remember the ice bucket challenge that took place a couple years ago, well, today's version of the ice bucket challenge is the eraser challenge. MiniJ walked into the classroom one day and as he walked past me I notice a scab on the back of his right hand. I didn't question him about it as he was headed to the front of the classroom to give Gnu a box of her favorite cereal that he picked up in the cafeteria. What is Gnu's favorite cereal you ask? Anything with too much sugar in it that she eats dry as a snack. As he was headed out of the classroom I got his attention and said to him, "let me see that hand." "What did you do to get this scab," I asked. "I did the eraser challenge Mr. Schultz," and he put his foot up on the chair next to me to show me another scab near his ankle. Here is how you do the eraser challenge. First, you need one of those pink erasers that are about an inch long and just over a half an inch wide. Second, you need a competitor with the same type of eraser. Third, you start rubbing the eraser on your chosen body part until one of the two competitors quits. I'm going to assume MiniJ won the contest as he literally rubbed the skin off his body......twice.
Although I could put the exact date that this happened in this blog I chose not to as it is a regular occurrence in our classroom. BayBee and Oil had a loud conversation, what we label as verbal aggression, in the cafeteria breakfast line. Upon arrival in the classroom, BayBee went about his normal routine but Oil could not let the cafeteria incident go. Oil shouted, "I need help," as he attempted to get started on his morning warm up worksheet. Gnu walked over to help him but he put his head down and refused to do anything. Not wanting any help, Gnu walked away to help someone else. As Gnu walked away Oil's response was to starting pounding on his desk with his fist. Since his arrival in the classroom he has been disruptive and defiant. The morning work assignment had to do with the weekly spelling words, there are ten of them. Oil was asked to read the spelling words. His response was, "do I have to read all of these?" He then, once again, put his head down on his desk and did nothing. A short time later Oil asked for help again. Gnu said to read the first word. He angrily said, "I don't know the word." I believe the word he didn't know was "easy." He continues to be defiant. He asks for help and then does nothing. This process repeated itself a number of times. It's now 9:37 and since his arrival at 9:00am he has done little or nothing. I'm working with Uh-Uh-Uh at my table where I have a view from the back of the room when Oil walks up to the table. He reaches toward Uh-Uh-Uh and takes the pencil out of her hand. When she asked him to give it back, he refused. When I asked him to give the pencil back to Uh-Uh-Uh he again refused to give it back. When I ask him to give me the pencil he said, "no" and hid the pencil behind his back. Oil just stepped over the line and he was removed from the classroom to our in-school suspension room for a timeout. When you have to deal with behavior like this almost daily it's no wonder there is not a lot of smiling going on in the classroom.
Enough of that crap, it's time to smile. My part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse and I are in the car and we are heading north to attend the wedding. It's a perfect day, in fact, to quote Billy Idol, "it's a nice day for a white wedding." We are seated in church on the bride's side near the back and TheSpouse is the first person to walk down the aisle and promptly takes his position near the alter. Immediately following are the brides maids and the grooms men. Then, standing in the back of the church, is something I haven't seen in quite some time, a smile. As she walked down the aisle the smile continued, non-stop. For three hundred and eighty five days I sat in a classroom with Gnu and never seen her smile so much. As she move down the aisle heading to the alter and was passing me I had tears in my eyes as she looking absolutely beautiful. This was a Catholic ceremony and after the exchanging of the wedding vows was communion. Because I was seated near the back of the congregation I was one of the last people to receive communion. Just before I stepped up to the priest I looked up at Gnu sitting next to TheSpouse. She saw me, turned to TheSpouse, and whispered to him, "there's Schultz." As I'm sitting here right now I'm smiling. Even on her wedding day, I'm "Schultz." Maybe, one day, she will actually call me by my first name.
I know this is getting a little long but I'm going to continue with the wedding. After the ceremony the wedding party exited the church. At first I was a bit confused as to what was happening as, one by one, the brides maids and grooms men climbed into the respective pick up truck. When Gnu and TheSpouse passed by they promptly stepped into a huge 4x4 fire engine red pick up truck and then the wedding party exited the church parking lot for the reception hall. The reception was held at a golf course, actually a real nice golf course, one that I've played before. As my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse arrived the wedding party was heading out onto the golf course in golf carts. Apparently there are a couple scenic spots on the golf course that are perfect for wedding pictures. As Gnu was attempting to get into a golf cart with her wedding dress on my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse looked at me and said, "did you see what Gnu was wearing?" "No," I respond. "She has cowboy boots on under that wedding dress." With the wedding party out on the golf course I found an empty table out on a balcony and took a seat. As I was sitting there a lady walks up to the table and said, "you must be Schultz." I turned to my left and there standing right next to me is Gnu's mother. As I turned toward her to introduce myself Gnu's mother said to me, "she talks about you all the time."
My part time editor, part time consultant, full time spouse and I stayed at the reception for around two hours and during that time I saw that smile and I heard the laughter. Those two images of my classroom partner will stay with me for a long time. The end. I'm outta here. Thanks for following along.
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