I have to get this out of the way quickly as I'd rather focus on happier activities so here we go. We, as a school, bottomed out again. The Indiana Stupid Testing and Evaluation Process (ISTEP) results are in and so is our school's letter grade and we, according to a bunch of idiots that have never stepped foot in this wonderful school, are deemed a failure. I've said it before and I'm going to say it again right now, I like this school. I like the dedication of the teachers, arriving early, staying late, coming in on weekends, supporting numerous before and after school activities, spending ridiculous sums of their personal money to make sure our scholars have what they need to be successful. And for the umpteenth time, I don't need to do what I do, I choose to keep doing what I do because this is a great school in a neighborhood where parental units easily falls into the category of low social economic background.
Enough of that. NO! I'm not done yet as I forget to mentioning that teachers are compensated based upon the STUPID results. The Indianapolis Star, a week or so ago, ran an article about teacher compensation based on the STUPID results. Teachers, who are tasked to teach the scholars of wealthy, two income, two parental units with college degrees scholars can be compensated at or above $2,000 if their scholars perform well on the STUPID test. Where in the hell is the challenge to do that? These scholars were born into the lucky sperm club and they were going to do well academically from the day they were born. Teachers, those that are in my school corporation, who are tasked with the challenge to teach scholars that are products of piss poor parenting are also compensated based upon the STUPID test results. Well, you know the results as I mentioned it above. So what are the wonderful, hardworking teachers, who deal with scholars who do not have wealthy parental units with college degrees, who, maybe graduated from high school, get compensated. The average check for a teacher in my school corporation is $128. That equates to seventy-one cents per day solely because the teachers that I work with are in a school that is in the wrong zip code. To the lowest life form on earth, the politician, and to the snooty, high minded, pointy headed intellectuals that continue to grade schools solely on the results of this STUPID test I have this to say. You can take your $128 check and stick it where the sun don't shine.
I wasn't in the classroom when the conversation started but one or more of the scholars questioned the validity of elves. If I was to venture a guess I'd say that Huey was a part of this conversation based up how he acted over the next few hours in school whenever elves were mentioned. Later in the day, after the scholars were all gone, FBG walked into the classroom and started a conversation about elves with Gnu. Apparently the two had spoken earlier in the day and decided to prove the existence of elves. As they were strategizing I walked over and joined the conversation. After about fifteen minutes of planning we had our game plan. The elf was going to enter the classroom from one of the exterior windows of our classroom. Fortunately, the window was unlocked but the plan hit a bump in the road because we couldn't find anything to make elf footprints in the snow that was on the ground. Gnu searched the room and found a fairly good sized stuffed SpongeBob doll with legs and we decided that this is the best we had. FBG opened the window and Gnu tried to put the feet of SpongeBob in the snow. When she realized that she couldn't reached the ground she adjusted her body to the point that FBG had to get a hold of her to keep her from falling out the window.
With the foot prints in place outside we decided to use brown water color paint to make the foot prints inside the classroom. That was right up FBG's alley as he is a decent artist. He started making the foot prints on the window sill, then down onto a small electrical outlet that stuck out from the wall, and finally down on the floor. As I was watching FBG I suggested that we reopen the window and put some foot prints on the outside of the window so that it looked like the elf had to climb up the building. To make it more authentic, FBG drew elf foot prints from the wall by the window across the room to an area rug that we use. When the foot prints reached the area rug FBG smeared some of the brown water color paint onto the area rug to make it look like the elf wiped his feet.
The next step in this grand scheme was to leave a note for the scholars on the white board. As FBG wrote what he wanted to say on a note pad I looked around for the smallest dry erase marker that I could find. With marker in hand, FBG start writing the note in vary small letters at the very bottom of the white board. As FBG was writing, Gnu retrieved a piece of yarn from our art cabinet and taped it to the ledge on the white board that holds the erasers. When we asked her what the yarn was for she said, "the elf is little and he can use this to climb up to the ledge of the white board." FBG and I looked at each other and then agreed that if the scholars can buy the elf foot prints they can buy using a piece of yarn to climb up something.
With the project almost complete the classroom telephone rang. Gnu answered it, left the room for a short while, and then returned and announced that there was bus incident and one of our busses was returning to school. Gnu then left the classroom and FBG and I finished up the project. Gnu had not returned to the classroom, so with jacket on and heading home, I decided to alter my route to the parking lot and walk through the front office. As I turned the corner I saw the BigB2, LittleBigB, and the school bus driver surrounding Big House as he sat in a chair. As I approached them I passed the BigB2's office and saw MiniJ sitting in a chair with Gnu right next to him. I stuck my head in the door and told her the classroom project was complete and I was heading home. As I continued toward the exit door, the bus driver was trying to convince Big House to get up off the chair and get on the bus. Being in his stubborn mood Big House refused to move. When I was directly in front of him I said to him, "Mr. Bus Driver asked you very politely to get up and get on the bus as there are students that need to be taken home, now get up and let's get going."
It was around 8:00pm when I sent a text message to Gnu to see how her day ended. She responded that Big House and MiniJ received a one day suspension from the bus because of an fight with Huey on the bus. She then immediately sent a second text message back to me, "I can't believe we do all of these fun activities in the classroom for these butt holes."
It's now the next morning and as I walked into the classroom after doing my morning, standing out in the freezing cold, bus duty there was excitement in the air. "Mr. Schultz, Mr. Schultz, an elf was in the classroom last night." "Are you sure," I responded. "Yes Mr. Schultz, he came in through the window. You can see his foot prints outside on the ground and where he walked around the classroom. He even left us a note on the whiteboard." "Elves can write," I responded as I walked over to the white board. After reading the note from the elf I started looking around the classroom. Speaking to the scholars in general I said, "don't you think it is interesting that there are no foot prints showing how the elf got out of the classroom. Maybe he is still in the school somewhere?" Huey took the bait and immediately started looking around the classroom and then even looked out in the hallway.
I know this is getting lengthy but I have two more items to mention. First, the bus altercation made it necessary for MiniJ's male parental unit to pick him up after school. Just prior to the end of the school day the classroom telephone rang, it was a male and he wanted to talk to Gnu. So you know, this is MiniJ's third year in our classroom and I never met or saw his male parental unit. When I asked Gnu what the call was about she told me that MiniJ's male parental unit wanted to know what time school ended so he could pick up his son. I looked at Gnu and said, "MiniJ has been in this room for three years and his parental unit doesn't know what time of the day school ends." She turned and looked at me and said, "he also can't read."
Here is the last item. Gnu and numerous others are faced with the challenge of educating young scholars like MiniJ who are the offspring of very poorly educated parental units and they bust their ass to do the right thing. Gnu, working with FBG, put together this wonderful elf project after school, when they should have been on their way home, with the intent of making school a fun place to be for our scholars. For their effort, the lowest life form, the politician, and those pointed headed intellectuals who put in place a horrible compensation plan that states your effort is only worth seventy-one cents per school day need to be driven out of office and out of our classroom lives.
That's it. It's wine drinking Wednesday so I'm out of here. Good bye! Merry Christmas!
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Sunday, December 11, 2016
The Safety Plan
One week out from our official winter break (really Christmas break but there is that separation of church and state thing) and we have, since very early in the school year, a behavior therapist that will do on one counseling sessions with our scholars plus group behavior sessions with them. So here is an updated list of the adults that I work with on a daily basis.
BigB2 - principal
LittleBigB - vice principal
Gnu - the teacher
Me - the instructional assistant
Hill'sGirl - behavior therapist
MJ - our brand spanking new behavior therapist
FBG - behavior specialist
While I'm at it, I might was well list the scholars as we have a new part time scholar.
Knapper - 4th grade
MiniJ - 4th grade
Uh-Uh-Uh - 4th grade
Big House - 4th grade
Tourette - 3rd grade
S&T - 3rd grade
Grr! - 3nd grade
Huey - 2nd grade
Whale - grade uncertain, maybe 3rd grade.
Whale is from one of our life skills classes and joins us twice a day. In the morning he arrives at 9:00am and does his morning work (usually an easy assignment to get the brain started) and then returns to his classroom. He returns around 1:00pm and joins us for our math block. So far he has fit in real well and there have been no issues. Hopefully, saying what I just said, I didn't just jinx myself.
Where should I begin? I have two choices, the safety plan or the blonde Grinch. I'm going to save the blonde Grinch until later just so you can once again get a feel for the quality of the person that occupies the front of the classroom.
From the moment he takes the first step off the bus in the morning until he puts his foot back on the first step of the bus to go home after school there has to be an adult with him. The adult that is with him during lunch is Gnu. The adult that is with at all the other times of the school day is me. When he walks through the cafeteria tray line to get his breakfast, I walk with him. If he needs to go to the bathroom I go with him. No, I don't go into the bathroom with him. I stand immediately outside the door. If he wants to go to the library I go with him. If he needs to go to the computer lab I go with him. When he is outside at recess, this is the real danger zone, I stay within fifteen feet of him all the time. Why is this happening? A safety plan was put in place, not to keep this scholar safe, but to keep another scholar safe.
For the better part of three school years now Gnu and our behavior therapists and behavior specialists have worked with this scholar on his behavior. Progress has been made, lots of progress. No longer do this scholar erupt with anger and start tipping over tables, desks, and chairs. No longer does this scholar start fights with his classmates over something stupid. His behavior has progressed to the point that at the start of the school year this scholar was sent back into a general education classroom. Unfortunately, because adults failed to do their jobs, this scholar returned to our classroom. That's progress, real progress, except for one area, this scholar's mouth. From his arrival nearly three years ago, this scholar has been well versed in obscenities, well versed in shouting out total nonsense, well versed in opening his mouth and saying something totally stupid without thinking. Well, he opened his mouth and now we have this safety plan.
What actually took place is a bit sketchy as it happened on a morning bus. When Gnu and I heard about the incident I believe we both knew that this was something our scholar would do but we hoped for the best. Unfortunately, the best didn't work out. When confronted about the incident, our scholar tried to defend himself by saying this other student was talking about his mother and threated to slap him. As this incident was talking place on the bus this other scholar took out a cell phone and started recording our scholar. With this happening, our scholar, who speaks first and thinks later, told this scholar and I'm paraphrasing, "why don't you suck my d...." With a video in hand, this other scholar shows the video to a parental unit, the parental unit brings up the matter with the BigB2 and the end result is a safety plan to keep the two scholars separated. Interestingly, our scholar was never suspended for his actions and I believe I know why. Since this incident, this other scholar has started irritating Big House who is on the same bus. Fortunately, Big House kept his mouth shut, walked away, and told an adult. The adult then relayed this information to the BigB2. The other day FBG and I were discussing the Big House incident. He informed me that this same other student has an additional target, one of our Latino scholars. Although you can't refute a video, I'm feeling confident in saying we haven't heard the rest of the story and who are the real victims.
Academically, we are continuing our discussion about Queen Victoria, the Industrial Revolution, Charles Dickens, and Dickens's story, A Christmas Carol. With all of this going on Gnu decided that is was time for the scholars to write a letter to Santa Claus that she will tie together with A Christmas Carol. When Gnu announced this assignment the scholars were pretty excited about writing to Santa Claus. To assist the scholars in their letter writing Gnu handed out a worksheet the scholars could use to keep their thoughts organized. The first step was to write down what you wanted for Christmas. After each scholar wrote down what they wanted Gnu told them they had to list three reasons, with examples, as to why Santa Claus should bring them what they wanted. This threw the scholar for bit of a loop as they didn't understand why they had to list any reasons as you don't need reasons, you just tell Santa Claus what you want. Despite the confusion on the part of the scholars Gnu added one more item to the list of things the scholars had to have in their letter. Once Gnu got everyone settled down she told them that they needed to write an opening statement to Santa that will act as a hook to get his attention so he'll keep reading your letter. In order to get her point across, Gnu used herself as an example. Dear Santa Claus, I live in a house that is too small. The house only has one bathroom and in a few months I am going to have a baby so I'll need a second bathroom. So Santa Claus, I'd like a new house for Christmas, one that has two bathrooms.
For two days Gnu worked with the scholars on their letter to Santa Claus. One by one the scholars had to bring their worksheet organizer up to Gnu for a progress update. When the blonde Grinch reviewed the scholars worksheets she rejected a lot of what they wrote and sent them back to their desks to start again. With the scholars getting frustrated, they started to head for my desk for assistance. When the blonde Grinch saw the scholars heading in my direction she said, "Schultz, you can't help them with spelling, sentence structure or ideas. This is their project and they need to do it themselves. Do not help them!"
A couple days later, Gnu stands up and says, "I'm going to be Santa Claus, who has finished their letter to Santa Claus." If my memory serves me correctly, S&T walked up first. When he handed his letter to her she starting reading and then said to him, "this is boring. I've read a million letters like this one. You need to give me better reasons as to why I should give you a billion dollars for Christmas." Dejected, S&T's head dropped down and then she took out her pencil, had S&T sit right next to her, and she helped him for over a half hour with the assignment. Seven more times the blonde Grinch read a letter to Santa Claus. Seven more times the blonde Grinch nitpicked them on their letter. Seven more times the blonde Grinch picked up their spirits by helping them with the assignment. Some time next week all eight letters to Santa Claus will be written. Some time next week eight scholars, ranging from the second to the fourth grade, will have written the longest, best organized letter in their life. The blonde Grinch beat them up about their letter. Gnu, one of the finest, most caring teachers I've worked with pickup up their spirits so that they can be proud of the letter they wrote to Santa Claus. For the umpteenth time, you again know why I keep doing what I do.
That's it. Another blog completed. We have five more school days before our winter break. Both Gnu and I are not looking forward to next week as the closer we get to our winter break the harder it will be to keep the scholars focused on academics. Hopefully we are both wrong and the week will pass uneventfully. Thanks again for your return visit to read a blog written by an old guy that has a view from the back of a classroom.
BigB2 - principal
LittleBigB - vice principal
Gnu - the teacher
Me - the instructional assistant
Hill'sGirl - behavior therapist
MJ - our brand spanking new behavior therapist
FBG - behavior specialist
While I'm at it, I might was well list the scholars as we have a new part time scholar.
Knapper - 4th grade
MiniJ - 4th grade
Uh-Uh-Uh - 4th grade
Big House - 4th grade
Tourette - 3rd grade
S&T - 3rd grade
Grr! - 3nd grade
Huey - 2nd grade
Whale - grade uncertain, maybe 3rd grade.
Whale is from one of our life skills classes and joins us twice a day. In the morning he arrives at 9:00am and does his morning work (usually an easy assignment to get the brain started) and then returns to his classroom. He returns around 1:00pm and joins us for our math block. So far he has fit in real well and there have been no issues. Hopefully, saying what I just said, I didn't just jinx myself.
Where should I begin? I have two choices, the safety plan or the blonde Grinch. I'm going to save the blonde Grinch until later just so you can once again get a feel for the quality of the person that occupies the front of the classroom.
From the moment he takes the first step off the bus in the morning until he puts his foot back on the first step of the bus to go home after school there has to be an adult with him. The adult that is with him during lunch is Gnu. The adult that is with at all the other times of the school day is me. When he walks through the cafeteria tray line to get his breakfast, I walk with him. If he needs to go to the bathroom I go with him. No, I don't go into the bathroom with him. I stand immediately outside the door. If he wants to go to the library I go with him. If he needs to go to the computer lab I go with him. When he is outside at recess, this is the real danger zone, I stay within fifteen feet of him all the time. Why is this happening? A safety plan was put in place, not to keep this scholar safe, but to keep another scholar safe.
For the better part of three school years now Gnu and our behavior therapists and behavior specialists have worked with this scholar on his behavior. Progress has been made, lots of progress. No longer do this scholar erupt with anger and start tipping over tables, desks, and chairs. No longer does this scholar start fights with his classmates over something stupid. His behavior has progressed to the point that at the start of the school year this scholar was sent back into a general education classroom. Unfortunately, because adults failed to do their jobs, this scholar returned to our classroom. That's progress, real progress, except for one area, this scholar's mouth. From his arrival nearly three years ago, this scholar has been well versed in obscenities, well versed in shouting out total nonsense, well versed in opening his mouth and saying something totally stupid without thinking. Well, he opened his mouth and now we have this safety plan.
What actually took place is a bit sketchy as it happened on a morning bus. When Gnu and I heard about the incident I believe we both knew that this was something our scholar would do but we hoped for the best. Unfortunately, the best didn't work out. When confronted about the incident, our scholar tried to defend himself by saying this other student was talking about his mother and threated to slap him. As this incident was talking place on the bus this other scholar took out a cell phone and started recording our scholar. With this happening, our scholar, who speaks first and thinks later, told this scholar and I'm paraphrasing, "why don't you suck my d...." With a video in hand, this other scholar shows the video to a parental unit, the parental unit brings up the matter with the BigB2 and the end result is a safety plan to keep the two scholars separated. Interestingly, our scholar was never suspended for his actions and I believe I know why. Since this incident, this other scholar has started irritating Big House who is on the same bus. Fortunately, Big House kept his mouth shut, walked away, and told an adult. The adult then relayed this information to the BigB2. The other day FBG and I were discussing the Big House incident. He informed me that this same other student has an additional target, one of our Latino scholars. Although you can't refute a video, I'm feeling confident in saying we haven't heard the rest of the story and who are the real victims.
Academically, we are continuing our discussion about Queen Victoria, the Industrial Revolution, Charles Dickens, and Dickens's story, A Christmas Carol. With all of this going on Gnu decided that is was time for the scholars to write a letter to Santa Claus that she will tie together with A Christmas Carol. When Gnu announced this assignment the scholars were pretty excited about writing to Santa Claus. To assist the scholars in their letter writing Gnu handed out a worksheet the scholars could use to keep their thoughts organized. The first step was to write down what you wanted for Christmas. After each scholar wrote down what they wanted Gnu told them they had to list three reasons, with examples, as to why Santa Claus should bring them what they wanted. This threw the scholar for bit of a loop as they didn't understand why they had to list any reasons as you don't need reasons, you just tell Santa Claus what you want. Despite the confusion on the part of the scholars Gnu added one more item to the list of things the scholars had to have in their letter. Once Gnu got everyone settled down she told them that they needed to write an opening statement to Santa that will act as a hook to get his attention so he'll keep reading your letter. In order to get her point across, Gnu used herself as an example. Dear Santa Claus, I live in a house that is too small. The house only has one bathroom and in a few months I am going to have a baby so I'll need a second bathroom. So Santa Claus, I'd like a new house for Christmas, one that has two bathrooms.
For two days Gnu worked with the scholars on their letter to Santa Claus. One by one the scholars had to bring their worksheet organizer up to Gnu for a progress update. When the blonde Grinch reviewed the scholars worksheets she rejected a lot of what they wrote and sent them back to their desks to start again. With the scholars getting frustrated, they started to head for my desk for assistance. When the blonde Grinch saw the scholars heading in my direction she said, "Schultz, you can't help them with spelling, sentence structure or ideas. This is their project and they need to do it themselves. Do not help them!"
A couple days later, Gnu stands up and says, "I'm going to be Santa Claus, who has finished their letter to Santa Claus." If my memory serves me correctly, S&T walked up first. When he handed his letter to her she starting reading and then said to him, "this is boring. I've read a million letters like this one. You need to give me better reasons as to why I should give you a billion dollars for Christmas." Dejected, S&T's head dropped down and then she took out her pencil, had S&T sit right next to her, and she helped him for over a half hour with the assignment. Seven more times the blonde Grinch read a letter to Santa Claus. Seven more times the blonde Grinch nitpicked them on their letter. Seven more times the blonde Grinch picked up their spirits by helping them with the assignment. Some time next week all eight letters to Santa Claus will be written. Some time next week eight scholars, ranging from the second to the fourth grade, will have written the longest, best organized letter in their life. The blonde Grinch beat them up about their letter. Gnu, one of the finest, most caring teachers I've worked with pickup up their spirits so that they can be proud of the letter they wrote to Santa Claus. For the umpteenth time, you again know why I keep doing what I do.
That's it. Another blog completed. We have five more school days before our winter break. Both Gnu and I are not looking forward to next week as the closer we get to our winter break the harder it will be to keep the scholars focused on academics. Hopefully we are both wrong and the week will pass uneventfully. Thanks again for your return visit to read a blog written by an old guy that has a view from the back of a classroom.
Sunday, December 4, 2016
Dear Parental Unit
Here is an update on my light at the end of the tunnel situation that I mentioned last week. So far our school corporation's school board has not made an announcement about the changes to the start time and end time of the school day so it's still a waiting game. However, the elimination of the emotionally handicapped classroom has taken an interesting turn. A few days ago, one of those special education overhead personnel walked into the classroom and had a conversation with Gnu while I occupied the back of the classroom. A short while later this same overhead person re-entered the classroom and pulled up a chair next to me with the intent of observing the scholars behavior during an academic lesson. With the overhead person sitting within arms reach of me I decided to ask about the elimination of the emotionally handicapped classroom. The response I received back was quite animated with the overhead person questioning me about who is starting these rumors. What the overhead person did not know was that I asked Gnu what the overhead person spoke to her about earlier and Gnu told me that she was advised to look at other teaching opportunities as her job may be eliminated. It's interesting, the overhead person took the time to advise Gnu about this upcoming change but chose to leave me in the dark. Dear overhead person, I don't need to do what I do, I choose to do what I do and you telling Gnu one thing and me something entirely different really pisses me off.
Gnu spent the better part of the last two school weeks studying early Native Americans during our morning reading block. She read two different stories, the first was about the Native Americans in the northwest part of our country and the second one was about Native Americans from the southwest part of our country. As anticipated, because these two stories took place outside the one mile radius of our school, the scholars were clueless about the location of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Fortunately, for these geographically challenged scholars, our classroom was the recipient of that really nice quilted map that you seen Gnu pointing to on the right side of this blog. As Gnu read each story, the scholars auditory skills remained consistent as they could easily recall the stories to included the vocabulary words that went with each book. It was also not surprising that the scholars knew about the Native American teepee. What was surprising was that the scholars were clueless when discussing the totem pole. While the book had pictures of a totem pole Gnu took it a step further and did an image search for totem poles on the internet so the scholars could get a better look at one. As the scholars were looking at the pictures Gnu retrieve the Play Dough from a storage closet, set the containers on her front table, and asked the scholars to join her in designing their own totem pole. As each scholar completed their totem pole, Gnu informed them that they had to describe what they put on their totem pole and why. One by one the scholars talked about their totem pole. Some were pretty simple but others, Grr!, Uh-Uh-Uh, and Huey, went into some pretty good detail. As the assignment was winding down Gnu looked up at the clock on the wall and announced that we were late for lunch and everyone needed to line up quickly. In less than a minute everyone was out the door and heading for lunch with the exception of the old guy that has a view from the back of the room. He was left behind to clean up the mess on the front table.
I'm sure it was just a coincidence, but as Gnu was discussing the early Native Americans in our country, an email message poured in from the BigB2 that was sent to her by our school corporation. This email message was written by a gentleman of Native American ancestry and to say he had an attitude is an understatement. I'll keep this short as I need to get to the Dear Parental Unit part so I'll only mention two items that offended this Native American. First, the person was offended that Native Americans were all lumped into one culture. According to this person, the Native Americans are made up of numerous cultures so to group them all together is insulting. The second item that offended this person was the fact that schools, mainly at the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten level, would have their very young scholars design, out of colored construction paper, a headdress. For two paragraphs this person ranted on about schools being so insensitive to Native Americans that they would tolerate teachers having pre-kindergarten and kindergarten scholars making headdresses out of construction paper. So, the schools, as well as the teachers, have been forewarned, headdresses are off limits. As a side note, I'm considering writing my own letter of outrage. On numerous occasions I've seen, and if my memory serves me correctly, BassG, a former teacher at our school was asked to address this during his time at this school, scholars arriving at school wearing a rosary as if it were a piece of costume jewelry. If the Native Americans can voice their displeasure about the headdress, what can't the Catholics voice their please about using a rosary as a piece of costume jewelry?
Dear Parental Unit, you just moved again. This is the third time in less that half a school year that you have moved. What the hell are you thinking? Do you know how much time over the past three school years teachers, behavior specialists, behavior therapists, and an instructional assistant have spent trying to give your scholar the best possible education so he can be a productive citizen of this country some day but you keep moving? Do you know that your scholar was getting free before school after school tutoring help with his homework because you totally failed to help him yourself? Do you know that your scholar had one place where he could go and feel safe and wanted and you just moved again? Do you know, because you decided to move outside our school corporation boundary, what kind of additional stress you just put on your scholar who already has anxiety issues? Dear parental unit, are you mental? EM and his family just moved again and are outside our school boundary and we can no longer help him.
Dear Parental Unit, have you ever noticed that your scholar leaves for school wearing one type of pants and returns home wearing a completely different type of pants? Because you are apparently clueless and have not noticed this I'm going to tell you why this is happening. Gnu was the first one to smell it and she new immediately where the order was coming from. Huey had just pooped his pants for the third time this school year. With Huey directed out of the classroom, Gnu passed my desk and said to keep the scholars on task and that she would be back in a couple minutes. Huey was the first to arrive back in the classroom. When I looked in his direction, he was wearing construction barrel orange colored pants. He looked absolutely ridiculous and I had to do my best not to laugh out loud. Gnu walked in immediately after Huey and when I looked at her she had this huge smile on her face and was doing her best not to laugh out loud. Rather than walk to the front of the classroom, Gnu sat down next to me and told me what happened. The orange pants were the only thing she could find that fit Huey. She also told me that he wasn't wearing any underwear and when she questioned Huey about his lack of underwear he said he didn't have any. When Gnu questioned Huey a second time about his lack of underwear he responded that he actually had underwear but every time he went to put on some underwear they were still dirty. Gnu also informed me that she now knows why Huey walks in such an odd fashion, his shoes are one and maybe two sizes to small for his feet. Slightly irritated that Huey is subjected to such piss poor parenting I asked Gnu if she was going to talk to the school corporation social worker about this matter. Gnu stated that she was and would do so at the end of the school day. The very next morning, all of the scholars are in the classroom and Gnu is about to start our reading block when the social worker walks into the classroom carrying a package. Inside the package are pants and shoes for Huey. Dear parental unit, are you even aware that you scholar pooped his pants three times in less than half the school year, arrives at school without any underwear, and when your scholar does want to wear underwear they are so dirty he refuses to put them on? Dear parent unit, did you not notice that you scholar returned home wearing a brand new pair of pants and brand new shoes? Dear parental unit, are you blind or just plain mental?
I have one more dear parental unit but I'm going to save it for next week. We just rolled into the month on December and Gnu has started a wonderful lesson on London, England during the Industrial Revolution that will also introduce the scholars to Charles Dickens and will eventually lead to a reading of Dickens book, A Christmas Carol. Stick around for a while because what she has prepared for the scholars is really quite special and to be honest I didn't think the scholars would enjoy this subject matter. Boy, was I wrong.
Gnu spent the better part of the last two school weeks studying early Native Americans during our morning reading block. She read two different stories, the first was about the Native Americans in the northwest part of our country and the second one was about Native Americans from the southwest part of our country. As anticipated, because these two stories took place outside the one mile radius of our school, the scholars were clueless about the location of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Fortunately, for these geographically challenged scholars, our classroom was the recipient of that really nice quilted map that you seen Gnu pointing to on the right side of this blog. As Gnu read each story, the scholars auditory skills remained consistent as they could easily recall the stories to included the vocabulary words that went with each book. It was also not surprising that the scholars knew about the Native American teepee. What was surprising was that the scholars were clueless when discussing the totem pole. While the book had pictures of a totem pole Gnu took it a step further and did an image search for totem poles on the internet so the scholars could get a better look at one. As the scholars were looking at the pictures Gnu retrieve the Play Dough from a storage closet, set the containers on her front table, and asked the scholars to join her in designing their own totem pole. As each scholar completed their totem pole, Gnu informed them that they had to describe what they put on their totem pole and why. One by one the scholars talked about their totem pole. Some were pretty simple but others, Grr!, Uh-Uh-Uh, and Huey, went into some pretty good detail. As the assignment was winding down Gnu looked up at the clock on the wall and announced that we were late for lunch and everyone needed to line up quickly. In less than a minute everyone was out the door and heading for lunch with the exception of the old guy that has a view from the back of the room. He was left behind to clean up the mess on the front table.
I'm sure it was just a coincidence, but as Gnu was discussing the early Native Americans in our country, an email message poured in from the BigB2 that was sent to her by our school corporation. This email message was written by a gentleman of Native American ancestry and to say he had an attitude is an understatement. I'll keep this short as I need to get to the Dear Parental Unit part so I'll only mention two items that offended this Native American. First, the person was offended that Native Americans were all lumped into one culture. According to this person, the Native Americans are made up of numerous cultures so to group them all together is insulting. The second item that offended this person was the fact that schools, mainly at the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten level, would have their very young scholars design, out of colored construction paper, a headdress. For two paragraphs this person ranted on about schools being so insensitive to Native Americans that they would tolerate teachers having pre-kindergarten and kindergarten scholars making headdresses out of construction paper. So, the schools, as well as the teachers, have been forewarned, headdresses are off limits. As a side note, I'm considering writing my own letter of outrage. On numerous occasions I've seen, and if my memory serves me correctly, BassG, a former teacher at our school was asked to address this during his time at this school, scholars arriving at school wearing a rosary as if it were a piece of costume jewelry. If the Native Americans can voice their displeasure about the headdress, what can't the Catholics voice their please about using a rosary as a piece of costume jewelry?
Dear Parental Unit, you just moved again. This is the third time in less that half a school year that you have moved. What the hell are you thinking? Do you know how much time over the past three school years teachers, behavior specialists, behavior therapists, and an instructional assistant have spent trying to give your scholar the best possible education so he can be a productive citizen of this country some day but you keep moving? Do you know that your scholar was getting free before school after school tutoring help with his homework because you totally failed to help him yourself? Do you know that your scholar had one place where he could go and feel safe and wanted and you just moved again? Do you know, because you decided to move outside our school corporation boundary, what kind of additional stress you just put on your scholar who already has anxiety issues? Dear parental unit, are you mental? EM and his family just moved again and are outside our school boundary and we can no longer help him.
Dear Parental Unit, have you ever noticed that your scholar leaves for school wearing one type of pants and returns home wearing a completely different type of pants? Because you are apparently clueless and have not noticed this I'm going to tell you why this is happening. Gnu was the first one to smell it and she new immediately where the order was coming from. Huey had just pooped his pants for the third time this school year. With Huey directed out of the classroom, Gnu passed my desk and said to keep the scholars on task and that she would be back in a couple minutes. Huey was the first to arrive back in the classroom. When I looked in his direction, he was wearing construction barrel orange colored pants. He looked absolutely ridiculous and I had to do my best not to laugh out loud. Gnu walked in immediately after Huey and when I looked at her she had this huge smile on her face and was doing her best not to laugh out loud. Rather than walk to the front of the classroom, Gnu sat down next to me and told me what happened. The orange pants were the only thing she could find that fit Huey. She also told me that he wasn't wearing any underwear and when she questioned Huey about his lack of underwear he said he didn't have any. When Gnu questioned Huey a second time about his lack of underwear he responded that he actually had underwear but every time he went to put on some underwear they were still dirty. Gnu also informed me that she now knows why Huey walks in such an odd fashion, his shoes are one and maybe two sizes to small for his feet. Slightly irritated that Huey is subjected to such piss poor parenting I asked Gnu if she was going to talk to the school corporation social worker about this matter. Gnu stated that she was and would do so at the end of the school day. The very next morning, all of the scholars are in the classroom and Gnu is about to start our reading block when the social worker walks into the classroom carrying a package. Inside the package are pants and shoes for Huey. Dear parental unit, are you even aware that you scholar pooped his pants three times in less than half the school year, arrives at school without any underwear, and when your scholar does want to wear underwear they are so dirty he refuses to put them on? Dear parent unit, did you not notice that you scholar returned home wearing a brand new pair of pants and brand new shoes? Dear parental unit, are you blind or just plain mental?
I have one more dear parental unit but I'm going to save it for next week. We just rolled into the month on December and Gnu has started a wonderful lesson on London, England during the Industrial Revolution that will also introduce the scholars to Charles Dickens and will eventually lead to a reading of Dickens book, A Christmas Carol. Stick around for a while because what she has prepared for the scholars is really quite special and to be honest I didn't think the scholars would enjoy this subject matter. Boy, was I wrong.
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