This is a note to all of the snowflakes that may be reading this blog. You are about to be outraged. To avoid being outraged do no read the next sentence or the remainder of this blog post. You've been warned. I'M ON CHRISTMAS BREAK and I work in one of the finest public elementary schools in central Indiana.
I have a dilemma as I have two discussion points to talk about and both may get quite lengthy. So I have to make a decision and some of you may not like it. In the last blog post, by the way it was my two hundred and twelfth posting, I mentioned my involvement in a reading intervention group with third grade scholars. I stated that I would follow up my reading intervention discussion in what was to be this blog post as some of you gave me the impression that I left you hanging in the last post. Well! I'm going to leave you hanging a little while longer as I need to do this. Hopefully, when you finish reading this post you will know why I wrote what I wrote.
This will be redundant for my Facebook friends so please bear with me as I need to repeat myself. I sent her a text message asking if she was on break. The response came back and it said, "I am." I asked her is she would like to join me for lunch at the Metro Diner which is located right in the middle of where we both live. She agreed and a day and time was set. I was pretty excited that she agreed as I haven't seen her since this past June.
About ten minutes before our agreed upon lunch time I received a text message from her, "running a little late as the original baby Gnu is not feeling well and I need to drop him off at the baby sitter." That news was a little disappointing as I wanted to see the little fella as he just past his sixth month of existence. She arrived about ten minutes late but that was no big deal as I'm on Christmas break. Once we were seated at a booth I looked at her and notice some changes. The hair was a little longer. The hair color looked slightly different and the glasses were different. I also was shown the little stomach bump. When the waitress arrived at our table she was not ready to order so I went first, a Rueben sandwich with coleslaw. Finally organized, she order a glass of water, coffee black, and a side order of mash potatoes. When the waitress departed I questioned the ordering of the mash potatoes. "I'm trying a new soft food diet." Getting a little personal as she now has the link to this blog and may actually be reading it. Gnu, my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse said that your new soft food diet is an indication that it will be a girl.
We spent about an hour and fifteen minutes in the Metro Diner. We talked about our frustrations. We told stories that made the both of us laugh. She asked about my granddaughter and I promptly pull up several pictures on my cellphone. She also told me about her future plans and what options she was looking at. One of her options was to move to the far north side for employment. I responded quite quickly, "you can't more that far north as I may never see you again." She also told me that she needed to decide, some time soon, about teaching next year. With the original baby Gnu soon to be the big brother she is considering a teaching job but more in a supporting role than in an actual classroom. After sitting twenty-three or twenty-four feet across the classroom from her for three years I know that if she chooses the supporting teacher position a lot a scholars will miss out on one outstanding teacher. I also know that the amount of work required of a classroom teacher is huge so taking a supporting teacher roll will allow her to spend more time with her little ones just being a Mom and not someone who needs to block out hours of time each week doing lesson plans. As we were leaving the restaurant and heading to our cars I said to her, "we should do this again." She agreed and that put a smile on my face.
Although you don't know it, I just took a break from writing this blog. The second half of this blog is important to me and I wanted to be sure I told the story in the right manner. Now that I have it figure out I'll begin.
It's field trip day for some of our scholars. I say some for two reasons. First, some failed to get their permission slip signed. Second, some have behavior issues and the adults didn't want to take the risk of having an anger eruption over something trivial while out in public representing our school. We also have one scholar, Whale, who has been out with a health issue. Please keep this young scholar in your prayers as he has been out now for about three weeks. We are hoping he will return to school after Christmas break.
Grr! and Huey are two of the scholars that are going on the field trip although it took some convincing. I'll start with Huey. From the start of the field trip day he was being defiant and insisting that he was not going. I'm not sure what his problem was as he has gone on other field trips and had a good time but for some reason he was not going today. As Knewer and other adults tried to persuade him to go he offered multiple excuses and objections as to why he wasn't going to go. As the adults in the classroom continued to reason with Huey about this field trip I was not one of them. My task was Grr!
As you know from the last blog post Grr! was on my s-list over lies and reading tests. He was doing nothing to get off my s-list and that was evident when it was time to go on the field trip. Again, like Huey, Grr! has been on multiple field trips without incident but today he was not going. He offered his first objection that he simply did not want to go. When pressed about going he offered is second objection, "I didn't get my permission slip signed." His facial expression told me all that I needed to know so I turned to Knewer and said to her, "Grr! didn't get his permission slip signed." She looked at me and said, "that is not true, he is going." I turned back to Grr!, gave him my look of disgust with him, and told him to put his jacket on as it was time to go. Although he grumbled about going, he put on his jacket and out the classroom door we went.
Grr! and I were given instructions as to our bus location and we were heading in that direction. As we approached the exit door of the school we were redirected to another area. As we were walking to our new bus location site we passed the hallway that led back to our classroom. As I looked down the hallway I saw Huey, still looking grumpy, with FBG, our behavior specialist, following close by. With FBG with Huey I knew he was going of the field trip so I felt better as I knew what kind of adventure Grr! and Huey were going on.
I'm putting the calendar in reverse. We are backing up a couple weeks. "Schultz, I need you to go on a field trip with me," Teacher #4 said. "I'm a volunteer, I don't go on field trips," I replied. "You have to go for two reasons. I need you to stay with Grr! as he is joining my class for the day and even more important, this field trips is very dear to my heart and I need your help."
Jumping forward and back to field trip day. Grr! and Huey are heading toward their respective busses and they are not alone. The vast majority of the entire school, somewhere between four hundred and four hundred and fifty scholars are boarding various busses and will soon be scattered throughout the city of Indianapolis. With each group of scholars there is an adult carrying a very large bag. Inside this bag are numerous small, brown, paper sandwich bags filled with items either made by a scholar or purchased by an adult. On the outside of the bag is a note that is stapled to the paper sandwich bag. At the top of the note it read Bag of Cheer. Below this heading was a explanation of what these young scholars were doing and where they came from. There was also an itemized listing of what was in the bag and at the bottom of the bag it said Merry Christmas.
Grr! was on a bus heading to a Chick-fil-A with the entire fourth grade. Huey was on a bus heading to the main branch of the Indianapolis Public Library with scholars in the third grade. Other scholars were heading to downtown Indianapolis. Some were on Monument Circle (do a Google search). Others walked into various businesses, nursing homes, or just stood out on a street corner in Indianapolis. And what were they doing, handing out, to total strangers, their Bags of Cheer and saying Merry Christmas.
"Schultz, this is very dear to my heart and I need your help." "Ok, but why are we doing this?" Teacher #4 is explaining to me why our school is handing out Bags of Cheer. Every scholar in this school comes from a low income family. When they arrive at school, because of their home life, they are given something. Everyday they are given two free meals. Every year they can take advantage of a free eye exam or a dental exam. Every year scholars are selected to get new shoes. Every year scholars are selected and given practically an entire new wardrobe. Every year our school runs a food pantry and the scholars keep getting and getting and getting. I'm not complaining about the getting as I know where they come from but I decided that once, just once a year, these scholars are going to give somebody something and that is what we are doing today. We are taking this small bag, going out into our community, and we are going to give the scholars a chance to give something to someone so they can feel what it is like to give rather than receive.
I've been affiliated with this school for over five and a half years now and I don't believe I've had a more touching moment as I listened to Teacher #4. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I work in a outstanding school with outstanding teachers who give large parts of their personal time to make sure each and every scholars in our school has an opportunity to succeed and I couldn't be prouder of this school and its teachers.
That's it for today. Thank you all for following along. I'll be back soon. Merry Christmas!
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Thursday, December 14, 2017
I Had To Walk Out
I was introduced to him when he was in the first grade. His teacher called me and asked if I could walk over to her classroom and remove a scholar who was being very disruptive. When I walked into the classroom and made eye contact with this scholar he knew I wasn't there to talk in my therapeutic voice so he immediately went into his evading mode. With the help of the teacher and a couple of empty desks I managed to trap the evader in a corner of the classroom. As I approached this scholar he growled at me. I eventually was able to remove him from the first grade classroom and moved him to my classroom and placed him in our timeout room. That didn't sit well as he started kicking and hitting the walls, door and window in the time out room. Concerned that he would hurt himself I knew I had to do something to get him to de-escalate. On the floor, immediately outside the time out room, was five small, maybe one and a half inches long, plastic cars in five different colors. I picked up the five cars, showed them to him through the window of the timeout room, pointed out the five different colors, and then put the cars behind my back. I then placed four of the cars on the window ledge of the timeout room and said to him, "what color is in my hand?" The scholar studied the cars for a short time and then told me the correct color. I repeated the process a couple more times, the scholar guessed correctly each time, and the de-escalation process was complete and I returned the scholar to his classroom.
Fast forwarding and this scholar is now in the fourth grade and he still occupies my classroom. He's made a ton of progress with controlling his anger and, for the most part, has been one of the least disruptive scholars in the classroom. With the improved behavior he started going to general education classrooms. In the third grade it was for reading. In the fourth grade it was for math. Although there were a few bumps in the road, he was being successful. Unfortunately, about three weeks ago his behavior started to change.
This trip to the general education classroom for math started just as my lunch break finished. There were times when the scholar would head up to the general education classroom by himself and I'd just meet him there. On this particular day I was late returning to Knewer's classroom and the scholar had already left for math so I picked up my notebook and pencil and headed to the general education classroom. As I was walking down the hallway I saw the scholar walking toward me. "Where are you going," I asked him. "There is some kind of test and I don't have to take it," he replied. My caution flag went up but I turned around and walked back to the classroom with the scholar. I wasn't in my seat in the Knewer's classroom for two minutes when I stood up and walked out of the classroom. I was heading to the general education classroom to confirm this test situation. When I walked into the classroom the teacher immediately said, "where is the scholar?" I walked over to her and told her what the scholar said to me. She looked at me and said, "there is a test and he needs to take it." I headed back to my classroom, wrote on a post it note about the scholar lying and handed it to Knewer. She read the note, put it on her desk, and nothing happened or was said. Not overly pleased with what just happened I made eye contact with the scholar and just glared at him. For the record, I'm was also particularly upset with Knewer for doing nothing.
It's time for general education math again. When I arrived in Knewer's classroom the scholar was gone. Again, I picked up my notebook and pencil and headed to the general education classroom. When I arrived the scholar was not there. Thinking I missed the scholar and that he might be back in the classroom with Knewer, I returned to my classroom. The scholar was not there so I asked Knewer about the scholar. She informed me that he went to the general education classroom. I walk out of Knewer's classroom and headed back to the general education classroom. When I arrived the teacher again asked about the scholar. I told her that I had no idea where he was and I just took my seat in the classroom. A couple minutes later the scholar walked into the general education classroom. The teacher immediately asked him where he had been. "I needed to use the restroom," he responded. "Did you ask your teacher for permission to use the restroom," she asked the scholar. "Yes." The general education teacher walked directly to the telephone in her classroom, called Knewer, and asked her if she gave this scholar permission to use the restroom. Knewer's response was, "no."
Two lies over a two week period and I'm now sitting in the hallway outside the general education classroom with the scholar mentioned above (Grr!) as he needs to take the reading test on that worthless technological device that I talked about last week. The general education teacher just restarted the software package, because it froze up again, and Grr! is using the mouse to scroll down the screen to see how much he had to read. As he scrolled down I could see his facial expression change and I'm getting upset. Because I'm upset I decided to end the testing process before I lose my composure plus I knew that Grr! wasn't even going to make an attempt at reading the passage.
When I arrived back in Knewer's classroom I told her what had just happened with Grr!. I then walked to my desk, where I have a view from the back of the classroom, and sat down. I, along with several other teachers, have worked with Grr! for over three year and a half years trying different strategies to improve his reading skills and after what just happened my frustration with Grr! was rising rapidly. Three and a half years of trying and on this day, when Grr! scrolled down that reading test he reacted exactly as he has done for years, "do I have to read all of this?" As I sat at my desk in the back off the classroom I was fuming. Knowing that I was so upset with Grr! I stood up walked out of the classroom to find a quiet place to de-escalate before I did or said something stupid.
Ok, I'm about to go on an adventure. One that is completely different than anything that I've done in this school. The LittleBigB approached me one day and asked me to stop by her office when I had time. Later that same day I knocked on her office door and walked in. The conversation was relatively brief given the task I was handed. Paraphrasing, "I need your help with reading intervention for some of our third grade scholars," is what the LittleBigB said to me. I agreed to help and the conversation continued. LittleBigB began (paraphrasing) "these scholars are well behind in their reading and we need to give them a lot more attention prior to the mandatory IRead3 testing. You will be working with another adult (non-teaching adult) to accomplish this task. One of you will work on word formation and the other will work on reading. How you decide on who does what will be up to the two of you." For the record the other non-teaching adult immediately said, "I'll take the word formation part" so I got the reading part.
The LittleBigB wrapped up our meeting with this, "you will be working with ten third grade scholars, five in one group and five in the other group. Each group with work for fifteen minutes with one adult and then rotate to the other adult. You will work with these scholars in reading intervention five days a week at a prescribed time. In order to help you with your assignment I have two items you can review prior to starting your reading intervention groups. The first is a video on YouTube entitled, Guided Reading In A 3rd Grade Classroom (this is a seven minute and fifteen second video). The second tool to help you get started is a book entitled, The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo (three hundred and seventy-seven pages long)" and with that the LittleBigB ended the meeting.
Two adults, neither has a teacher degree nor a teaching license, have been tasked with raising the reading level of one group of scholars from an E, F, and G level to a P level and the other group of scholars from an H level to a P level. Doesn't sound to difficult right. Wrong! The E, F, and G level scholars are reading at the lowest reading level for their grade. The H level scholars are reading at a level that is one higher than the E, F, and G scholars. For further clarification on these scholars reading levels, they are reading at a first grade level or maybe a second grade level and they are in the third grade.
A little bit more on my reading intervention group and I'm going to call it a day. The non-teaching adult that has the letter formation task has a piece of cake job. This adult will be given a pre-established grouping of letters and will instruct the scholars to use the letters to make words. I, on the other hand, need to select the books to read, get the scholars to read, and then try and figure out how I can measure how well the scholars are reading and understand what they are reading. Afterall, the objective for this adult that does not have a teaching degree or a teaching license is to do as much as possible to get these scholars at a reading level to be able to pass IRead3 in the spring time. It's going to be interesting but fortunately for me I have an ace up my sleeve.
Thanks for following along. See you again fairly soon. I hope.
Fast forwarding and this scholar is now in the fourth grade and he still occupies my classroom. He's made a ton of progress with controlling his anger and, for the most part, has been one of the least disruptive scholars in the classroom. With the improved behavior he started going to general education classrooms. In the third grade it was for reading. In the fourth grade it was for math. Although there were a few bumps in the road, he was being successful. Unfortunately, about three weeks ago his behavior started to change.
This trip to the general education classroom for math started just as my lunch break finished. There were times when the scholar would head up to the general education classroom by himself and I'd just meet him there. On this particular day I was late returning to Knewer's classroom and the scholar had already left for math so I picked up my notebook and pencil and headed to the general education classroom. As I was walking down the hallway I saw the scholar walking toward me. "Where are you going," I asked him. "There is some kind of test and I don't have to take it," he replied. My caution flag went up but I turned around and walked back to the classroom with the scholar. I wasn't in my seat in the Knewer's classroom for two minutes when I stood up and walked out of the classroom. I was heading to the general education classroom to confirm this test situation. When I walked into the classroom the teacher immediately said, "where is the scholar?" I walked over to her and told her what the scholar said to me. She looked at me and said, "there is a test and he needs to take it." I headed back to my classroom, wrote on a post it note about the scholar lying and handed it to Knewer. She read the note, put it on her desk, and nothing happened or was said. Not overly pleased with what just happened I made eye contact with the scholar and just glared at him. For the record, I'm was also particularly upset with Knewer for doing nothing.
It's time for general education math again. When I arrived in Knewer's classroom the scholar was gone. Again, I picked up my notebook and pencil and headed to the general education classroom. When I arrived the scholar was not there. Thinking I missed the scholar and that he might be back in the classroom with Knewer, I returned to my classroom. The scholar was not there so I asked Knewer about the scholar. She informed me that he went to the general education classroom. I walk out of Knewer's classroom and headed back to the general education classroom. When I arrived the teacher again asked about the scholar. I told her that I had no idea where he was and I just took my seat in the classroom. A couple minutes later the scholar walked into the general education classroom. The teacher immediately asked him where he had been. "I needed to use the restroom," he responded. "Did you ask your teacher for permission to use the restroom," she asked the scholar. "Yes." The general education teacher walked directly to the telephone in her classroom, called Knewer, and asked her if she gave this scholar permission to use the restroom. Knewer's response was, "no."
Two lies over a two week period and I'm now sitting in the hallway outside the general education classroom with the scholar mentioned above (Grr!) as he needs to take the reading test on that worthless technological device that I talked about last week. The general education teacher just restarted the software package, because it froze up again, and Grr! is using the mouse to scroll down the screen to see how much he had to read. As he scrolled down I could see his facial expression change and I'm getting upset. Because I'm upset I decided to end the testing process before I lose my composure plus I knew that Grr! wasn't even going to make an attempt at reading the passage.
When I arrived back in Knewer's classroom I told her what had just happened with Grr!. I then walked to my desk, where I have a view from the back of the classroom, and sat down. I, along with several other teachers, have worked with Grr! for over three year and a half years trying different strategies to improve his reading skills and after what just happened my frustration with Grr! was rising rapidly. Three and a half years of trying and on this day, when Grr! scrolled down that reading test he reacted exactly as he has done for years, "do I have to read all of this?" As I sat at my desk in the back off the classroom I was fuming. Knowing that I was so upset with Grr! I stood up walked out of the classroom to find a quiet place to de-escalate before I did or said something stupid.
Ok, I'm about to go on an adventure. One that is completely different than anything that I've done in this school. The LittleBigB approached me one day and asked me to stop by her office when I had time. Later that same day I knocked on her office door and walked in. The conversation was relatively brief given the task I was handed. Paraphrasing, "I need your help with reading intervention for some of our third grade scholars," is what the LittleBigB said to me. I agreed to help and the conversation continued. LittleBigB began (paraphrasing) "these scholars are well behind in their reading and we need to give them a lot more attention prior to the mandatory IRead3 testing. You will be working with another adult (non-teaching adult) to accomplish this task. One of you will work on word formation and the other will work on reading. How you decide on who does what will be up to the two of you." For the record the other non-teaching adult immediately said, "I'll take the word formation part" so I got the reading part.
The LittleBigB wrapped up our meeting with this, "you will be working with ten third grade scholars, five in one group and five in the other group. Each group with work for fifteen minutes with one adult and then rotate to the other adult. You will work with these scholars in reading intervention five days a week at a prescribed time. In order to help you with your assignment I have two items you can review prior to starting your reading intervention groups. The first is a video on YouTube entitled, Guided Reading In A 3rd Grade Classroom (this is a seven minute and fifteen second video). The second tool to help you get started is a book entitled, The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo (three hundred and seventy-seven pages long)" and with that the LittleBigB ended the meeting.
Two adults, neither has a teacher degree nor a teaching license, have been tasked with raising the reading level of one group of scholars from an E, F, and G level to a P level and the other group of scholars from an H level to a P level. Doesn't sound to difficult right. Wrong! The E, F, and G level scholars are reading at the lowest reading level for their grade. The H level scholars are reading at a level that is one higher than the E, F, and G scholars. For further clarification on these scholars reading levels, they are reading at a first grade level or maybe a second grade level and they are in the third grade.
A little bit more on my reading intervention group and I'm going to call it a day. The non-teaching adult that has the letter formation task has a piece of cake job. This adult will be given a pre-established grouping of letters and will instruct the scholars to use the letters to make words. I, on the other hand, need to select the books to read, get the scholars to read, and then try and figure out how I can measure how well the scholars are reading and understand what they are reading. Afterall, the objective for this adult that does not have a teaching degree or a teaching license is to do as much as possible to get these scholars at a reading level to be able to pass IRead3 in the spring time. It's going to be interesting but fortunately for me I have an ace up my sleeve.
Thanks for following along. See you again fairly soon. I hope.
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
Release Times Two
Ok, where did I leave off with my releasing. Got it, technology in the classroom. A couple years ago I was voted onto the school's leadership team. I was there to represent the instructional assistants, custodians, and food service workers. It didn't take me long to realize that I was out of place as most of the discussion focused on academics and a lot of acronyms were used that left me totally out in left field. The one item I felt comfortable discussing was the meeting when updating technology was on the agenda. Somehow, if my memory serves me correctly, the school had about seventy thousand dollars to spend on technology. To keep this short let me tell you this. When it came time to spend the seventy thousand dollars on technology I abstained from voting as I thought there might be better ways to spend the money.
It's now two years later and I'm spending an increasing amount of time in general education classrooms and I'll share with you my experiences with technology. I'm with Grr! in Teacher #4's classroom. Grr! was supposed to take a required math test on his laptop but a change in plans occurred because Grr! didn't complete a previously scheduled reading test on his laptop. Not being familiar with the software package the test was using Teacher #4 got Grr! logged in. Grr! started reading, a good thing, as he's not a big fan of reading, but the room was incredibly noisy. Scholars were moving around the room getting their laptops and when scholars are moving around talking is out of control. It took Teacher #4 three attempts to get the room quiet. With some semblance of order the testing began. "Teacher #4, I can't get logged in (the CAP locks was on)." "Teacher #4, my password won't work (that is a lower case letter "o" not a zero)." I'm not sure about Grr! but I had enough with the noise. I stood up, walked over to Teacher #4, told her the room was too noisy, and that I was taking Grr! out into the hallway where is was quieter. My plan was approved and out the door we went.
Grr! and I weren't out in the hallway for five minutes when Grr! said to me, "Mr. Schultz, something is wrong. I can't get the computer to do anything." I checked the computer, it froze up, again. I picked up the computer, walked back into the classroom, handed the computer to the teacher and told her it froze up. As she was solving the problem I look around the room and there were still scholars who had not started the test due to log in issues. With Grr!'s computer fixed I head back out into the hallway and handed Grr! his laptop. Grr! started using the mouse to scroll down to see how much he had to read. As he scrolled down I saw his facial expression change and not for the good. The demons were invading Grr!'s mind. His head went down and it rested on this hands. His cheeks were starting to turn red and I knew that I had two options. Either stay after him to try and get him to finish the test or just power off the computer and head back to our classroom. I chose the second option as my frustration with Grr! was rising rapidly. I told Grr! to remain seated and I walked back into the classroom to turn in Grr!'s laptop when I heard Teacher #4 say, "I've had enough with this technology, turn off your computers and put them away we'll take the test another day."
All of this testing would have been simple with just a test paper and a Number 2 lead pencil. But no, we need technology. Technology, in my opinion is the bane of the classroom. Boot up time often drags on, the screen freezes, scholars with absolutely no keyboarding skills are required to do keyboarding. How and the hell do you expect a scholar to complete a state or district mandated test in a pre-established time frame when they spend an inordinate amount of time looking for the letter "k", a period, or the key to push so they can make an uppercase "P" on a keyboard. Quoting the apostle Paul, "brothers and sisters," you need to ban computers until scholars are in their first year of middle school. And when in that first year of middle school, spend the entire first half of the school year teaching them how to do keyboarding. And when they attain a working knowledge of the keyboard hand them their laptop and then maybe teachers won't be pissing away large amounts of academic time trying to solve computer related issues with scholars.
Let's see. What's next? I'm scanning the blog notes on my cellphone. Got it and I'm certain that I might just ruffle some feathers with this one. Ready?
Incident #1. A preschool teacher quietly walks into the classroom, gets Knewer's attention, and points at our classroom telephone that is right by the door. A call is made and then the preschool teacher steps back into the hallway. I heard her say, "you need to get in line," and her voice tells me everything I needed to know so I got up and walked into the hallway. "How can I help you," I asked. "I can't keep stopping to deal with him." I look down the hallway and see a preschool scholar (five years old) laying on the floor spinning himself in circles. "These scholars are already late for lunch and I need to get them to the cafeteria," the preschool teacher continued. "You take your scholars to the cafeteria and I'll deal with him." The preschool teachers exits to my left and I'm heading to my right to deal with a scholar who is obviously the product of P.P.P. When I'm standing directly above the scholar, who is still spinning in circles on the floor, I make eye contact with him. "You need to get up off of that floor and get to the cafeteria with the rest of your class." The scholar immediately got up off the floor and started sprinting down the hallway toward the cafeteria.
Incident #2. Teacher #2 has her second grade (seven years old) classroom outside Knewer's classroom using the restroom and I know there is something wrong as it's too loud. When I step into the hallway I see a scholar of Teacher #2's standing in a corner, facing the wall, with his hands over his eyes. I also see another of Teacher #2's scholars approaching the corner hugger and I hear him mock him by saying "you're crying." I'm not certain what the corner hugger said but the scholar that just mocked him stopped, turned around, walked up to the wall hugger, put both hands on his chest and pushed him backwards. Knowing that things could turn ugly I followed Teacher #2 and her scholars down the hallway. When Teacher #2 turned back and saw me following her classroom I walked up to her and I asked her if there is anything I can do to help her. "That young man standing behind you needs to get himself under control and get in line with his classmates. If he can't do that then he needs to spend the rest of the day in our school time out room," the teachers states. I walked up to this second grade scholar and told him what his options were and I'm not using my therapeutic voice. "You have two choices, get in line with your class or go to the time out room." "I'm not going anywhere," he said like Mr. Tough Guy as he tries to sneak past me. I step to my right to block his escape route and reach into my back pocket, pull out my wallet, and take out my expired and totally worthless C.P.I card. I stick the card right in front of the scholar's face and say, "you see this blue card? The principal gave it to me. She told me that if a scholar is being disrespectful towards a teach I can pick you up and carry you to her office. Now, do you want to get in line with your classmates or go with me to the principal's office and explain to her why you pushed a classmate?" The scholar chose to get in line.
Incident #3. I'm sitting in the classroom and I hear this noise outside the classroom in the hallway. It's a familiar noise, one I've heard many times before, so I stood up and walked out into the hallway. When I looked to my left, way down on the far end of the hallway, I see this scholar leaning on the wall outside a classroom. I also see the two chairs that this scholar picked up and threw across the hallway. As I'm looking at the scholar Teacher #2 stepped out from her classroom and looked in the direction of the scholar and I now know that another second grade scholar (seven years old), another product of P.P.P., is disrupting an entire classroom. When I'm along side Teacher #2 I asked her how and I can help. She responds, "this scholar needs to get himself together and go back into the classroom or he needs to go somewhere else." I started walking toward the scholar and said to him, "why are you acting like a fool?" I get the response that I was expecting, stated with an attitude, "I'm not a fool." "Then why are you acting like a fool? You have two choices, go back into your classroom and sit quietly at your desk or I can take you to the principals office and you can explain to her why you were throwing her chairs across the hallway. What are you going to do?" With his head down, the scholar heads back into his classroom.
You just read three incidents of the insanity that is going on in the general education classrooms at my school. Guess what? I could go on with numerous other examples but I won't. What I will do is tell you that it is time that the teachers start taking back control of the their classroom. Sadly, there are obstacles in doing that. The main obstacle, and it is a big one, is the school administration either at the school level or at the school corporation level. Why is this an obstacle? Because teachers can press their frustrations with these two layers of overhead until they are blue in the face and nothing will happen. Why will nothing happen? Because neither of these two layers of overhead will want to confront the main cause of their problem, P.P.P. So where does one turn? To the organization that numerous teachers pay to represent them, the Union. What is going on in the classroom is a working condition problem. Sure, it's not like a teacher is working on an unsafe assembly line, working in an environment with extreme heat or cold, working in a location where you could lose life or limb, but they are in an environment where scholars, from five years old to seven years old, treat them like shit. It is ridiculous that a teacher with either a PhD., a Master's Degree, or a Bachelor's Degree has to stand in the front of a classroom and take this crap. This is a work environment issue and the Union needs to start file grievance, after grievance, after grievance, and if necessary when the grievances are not addressed take the issue up with the media or simply just walk out in mass protest.
I know. That was way too long but I've finished releasing. I'll try and do an abridged version of the blog next time and hopefully I'll be in a better disposition. Thanks for following along. You'll hear from me in another week or so.
PS: almost forgot. P.P.P is piss poor parenting.
It's now two years later and I'm spending an increasing amount of time in general education classrooms and I'll share with you my experiences with technology. I'm with Grr! in Teacher #4's classroom. Grr! was supposed to take a required math test on his laptop but a change in plans occurred because Grr! didn't complete a previously scheduled reading test on his laptop. Not being familiar with the software package the test was using Teacher #4 got Grr! logged in. Grr! started reading, a good thing, as he's not a big fan of reading, but the room was incredibly noisy. Scholars were moving around the room getting their laptops and when scholars are moving around talking is out of control. It took Teacher #4 three attempts to get the room quiet. With some semblance of order the testing began. "Teacher #4, I can't get logged in (the CAP locks was on)." "Teacher #4, my password won't work (that is a lower case letter "o" not a zero)." I'm not sure about Grr! but I had enough with the noise. I stood up, walked over to Teacher #4, told her the room was too noisy, and that I was taking Grr! out into the hallway where is was quieter. My plan was approved and out the door we went.
Grr! and I weren't out in the hallway for five minutes when Grr! said to me, "Mr. Schultz, something is wrong. I can't get the computer to do anything." I checked the computer, it froze up, again. I picked up the computer, walked back into the classroom, handed the computer to the teacher and told her it froze up. As she was solving the problem I look around the room and there were still scholars who had not started the test due to log in issues. With Grr!'s computer fixed I head back out into the hallway and handed Grr! his laptop. Grr! started using the mouse to scroll down to see how much he had to read. As he scrolled down I saw his facial expression change and not for the good. The demons were invading Grr!'s mind. His head went down and it rested on this hands. His cheeks were starting to turn red and I knew that I had two options. Either stay after him to try and get him to finish the test or just power off the computer and head back to our classroom. I chose the second option as my frustration with Grr! was rising rapidly. I told Grr! to remain seated and I walked back into the classroom to turn in Grr!'s laptop when I heard Teacher #4 say, "I've had enough with this technology, turn off your computers and put them away we'll take the test another day."
All of this testing would have been simple with just a test paper and a Number 2 lead pencil. But no, we need technology. Technology, in my opinion is the bane of the classroom. Boot up time often drags on, the screen freezes, scholars with absolutely no keyboarding skills are required to do keyboarding. How and the hell do you expect a scholar to complete a state or district mandated test in a pre-established time frame when they spend an inordinate amount of time looking for the letter "k", a period, or the key to push so they can make an uppercase "P" on a keyboard. Quoting the apostle Paul, "brothers and sisters," you need to ban computers until scholars are in their first year of middle school. And when in that first year of middle school, spend the entire first half of the school year teaching them how to do keyboarding. And when they attain a working knowledge of the keyboard hand them their laptop and then maybe teachers won't be pissing away large amounts of academic time trying to solve computer related issues with scholars.
Let's see. What's next? I'm scanning the blog notes on my cellphone. Got it and I'm certain that I might just ruffle some feathers with this one. Ready?
Incident #1. A preschool teacher quietly walks into the classroom, gets Knewer's attention, and points at our classroom telephone that is right by the door. A call is made and then the preschool teacher steps back into the hallway. I heard her say, "you need to get in line," and her voice tells me everything I needed to know so I got up and walked into the hallway. "How can I help you," I asked. "I can't keep stopping to deal with him." I look down the hallway and see a preschool scholar (five years old) laying on the floor spinning himself in circles. "These scholars are already late for lunch and I need to get them to the cafeteria," the preschool teacher continued. "You take your scholars to the cafeteria and I'll deal with him." The preschool teachers exits to my left and I'm heading to my right to deal with a scholar who is obviously the product of P.P.P. When I'm standing directly above the scholar, who is still spinning in circles on the floor, I make eye contact with him. "You need to get up off of that floor and get to the cafeteria with the rest of your class." The scholar immediately got up off the floor and started sprinting down the hallway toward the cafeteria.
Incident #2. Teacher #2 has her second grade (seven years old) classroom outside Knewer's classroom using the restroom and I know there is something wrong as it's too loud. When I step into the hallway I see a scholar of Teacher #2's standing in a corner, facing the wall, with his hands over his eyes. I also see another of Teacher #2's scholars approaching the corner hugger and I hear him mock him by saying "you're crying." I'm not certain what the corner hugger said but the scholar that just mocked him stopped, turned around, walked up to the wall hugger, put both hands on his chest and pushed him backwards. Knowing that things could turn ugly I followed Teacher #2 and her scholars down the hallway. When Teacher #2 turned back and saw me following her classroom I walked up to her and I asked her if there is anything I can do to help her. "That young man standing behind you needs to get himself under control and get in line with his classmates. If he can't do that then he needs to spend the rest of the day in our school time out room," the teachers states. I walked up to this second grade scholar and told him what his options were and I'm not using my therapeutic voice. "You have two choices, get in line with your class or go to the time out room." "I'm not going anywhere," he said like Mr. Tough Guy as he tries to sneak past me. I step to my right to block his escape route and reach into my back pocket, pull out my wallet, and take out my expired and totally worthless C.P.I card. I stick the card right in front of the scholar's face and say, "you see this blue card? The principal gave it to me. She told me that if a scholar is being disrespectful towards a teach I can pick you up and carry you to her office. Now, do you want to get in line with your classmates or go with me to the principal's office and explain to her why you pushed a classmate?" The scholar chose to get in line.
Incident #3. I'm sitting in the classroom and I hear this noise outside the classroom in the hallway. It's a familiar noise, one I've heard many times before, so I stood up and walked out into the hallway. When I looked to my left, way down on the far end of the hallway, I see this scholar leaning on the wall outside a classroom. I also see the two chairs that this scholar picked up and threw across the hallway. As I'm looking at the scholar Teacher #2 stepped out from her classroom and looked in the direction of the scholar and I now know that another second grade scholar (seven years old), another product of P.P.P., is disrupting an entire classroom. When I'm along side Teacher #2 I asked her how and I can help. She responds, "this scholar needs to get himself together and go back into the classroom or he needs to go somewhere else." I started walking toward the scholar and said to him, "why are you acting like a fool?" I get the response that I was expecting, stated with an attitude, "I'm not a fool." "Then why are you acting like a fool? You have two choices, go back into your classroom and sit quietly at your desk or I can take you to the principals office and you can explain to her why you were throwing her chairs across the hallway. What are you going to do?" With his head down, the scholar heads back into his classroom.
You just read three incidents of the insanity that is going on in the general education classrooms at my school. Guess what? I could go on with numerous other examples but I won't. What I will do is tell you that it is time that the teachers start taking back control of the their classroom. Sadly, there are obstacles in doing that. The main obstacle, and it is a big one, is the school administration either at the school level or at the school corporation level. Why is this an obstacle? Because teachers can press their frustrations with these two layers of overhead until they are blue in the face and nothing will happen. Why will nothing happen? Because neither of these two layers of overhead will want to confront the main cause of their problem, P.P.P. So where does one turn? To the organization that numerous teachers pay to represent them, the Union. What is going on in the classroom is a working condition problem. Sure, it's not like a teacher is working on an unsafe assembly line, working in an environment with extreme heat or cold, working in a location where you could lose life or limb, but they are in an environment where scholars, from five years old to seven years old, treat them like shit. It is ridiculous that a teacher with either a PhD., a Master's Degree, or a Bachelor's Degree has to stand in the front of a classroom and take this crap. This is a work environment issue and the Union needs to start file grievance, after grievance, after grievance, and if necessary when the grievances are not addressed take the issue up with the media or simply just walk out in mass protest.
I know. That was way too long but I've finished releasing. I'll try and do an abridged version of the blog next time and hopefully I'll be in a better disposition. Thanks for following along. You'll hear from me in another week or so.
PS: almost forgot. P.P.P is piss poor parenting.
Sunday, November 26, 2017
Those Rich White Kids
I hate it when I start out the week agitated. I hate it even more when I started out the week agitated and it goes down hill from there. Do you know what happens when you start out the week agitated and it goes down hill from there and it's time to write this blog? It's called release. Release is a Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) term applied to scholars who have reached their boiling point, explode (release), and desks are knocked over, chairs are tossed, and the scholar is pretty much in a rage. Well, I'm about to release so beware.
For a couple years now I've been following a blog called Chalkbeat. This is an education blog that I'm pretty certain started here in Indiana and is slowly spreading out nationally. In fact, I believe that Chalkbeat opened an office in Detroit, Michigan recently but I don't think they opened one in as far west as Utah. When I started reading Chalkbeat the creator of the site just posted education news articles from various newspapers here in Indiana and occasionally from outside the state on his blog for interested people to read. For reasons unknown, Chalkbeat decided to hire reporters to help with the blog. It didn't take me long to realized that I didn't like this change because when you have reporters, you have reporters with an agenda. A couple days ago one of these reporters posted an article that said (paraphrasing), "all of the great teachers are in schools where only the white rich kids go." I only read a couple paragraphs when I realized that this article was a bunch of crap written by some clueless twit who spends little if any time in schools. You know why I can say this? Because I know where all of the good teachers are and they are not teaching the white rich kids. In fact, the white rich kids will likely succeed in the classroom with mediocre teachers because they come from a family where both parental units earned degrees, where both parental units are gainfully employed, and both parental units stressed the importance of education starting with their scholars date of origination.
So where are all of the great teachers? They walk the same hallway that I walk. They walk in a hallway that is surrounded by a neighborhood of parental units that come from a low social economic background who don't have the sense to place an emphasis on education as they raise their scholars. And when a scholar, who was conceived and brought into this world by so many dysfunctional parental units enters school who is faced with the challenge of educating these scholars, my colleagues.
My role at school was recently expanded as I now sit in two general education classrooms so what you are about to read is reality in a those classrooms. I'm with Teacher #3. It's nearing lunch and recess time. The instructions to the class of around twenty scholars was to clear off the top of their desks, quietly go to their locker to get their coat, and then to line up at the door. After about ten seconds I hear, "you need to keep your voices off and clear off your desks." The talking continues and the teacher restates the instruction. This process repeated itself four times before the scholars were lined up and ready to walk to the lunch room.
We are now on the way to the lunch room and I hear again, voices off and stay in line and who ever is dribbling a basketball, please keep the ball in your hands until we get outside. After a brief pause the basketball hits the floor again. The teacher stops the line and walks back toward the scholar with the basketball and again asks the scholar to hold onto the basketball. I'm standing to the immediate left of the scholar with the basketball and I watch him give the teacher the "you can't tell me what to do look as he rolls his eyes at her." Fortunately this little shit held on to the basketball until we entered the cafeteria. Why was he fortunate? Because if that basketball hit the floor one more time it was mine and I was going to dribble it all the way to the BigB's office.
Lunch and recess is now over and I'm back with Teacher #3. We are outside the building and she gives the instruction to line up so we can go back inside the school. The scholar with the basketball ignores the instruction and keeps shooting his basketball. Twice the teacher had to tell him to get in line. Just before the teachers reaches the door to re-enter the building she reminds the scholars to keep their voices off when they enter the building. The line is actually quiet except for one noise, the dribbling of a basketball. The teacher is now getting agitated and walks toward the scholar with the basketball and says, "give me that basketball." The scholar immediately turned in an attempt to run away from the teacher. Unfortunately, as the little shit turned to run he banged right into me. When he looked up at me I said, "get in line, hold that basketball, or it is mine."
I just changed days of the week and lunch and recess period is now over and I'm sitting in a classroom with Teacher #4. I arrived in the classroom a little early and I heard the teacher tell the scholars to clear off their desks, pick up their laptop and pencil and line up as they are changing classrooms. Almost immediately the scholars are told that they are way too loud and to be quiet. A minute or so passes by and again, "please stop talking, get your laptop and get in line as we are now late." As the line is forming the teacher calls out three names, "why are you standing in line without your laptop. I've told you twice to get your laptops and get in line. How is it possible that you are standing in line without your laptop." Finally, after ten minutes, a ridiculous amount of time to get what is needed to rotate to another classroom, the scholars exit the classroom.
A new group of scholars arrived in Teacher #4's classroom and took their assigned seats. Teacher #4 tells the scholars to open their work books to page so and so and we will get started. Immediately two hands go up and one of the scholar's says, "I didn't bring my workbook." Teacher #4 asks why the scholar didn't bring the workbook. There was no response from either scholar. Teacher #4, "where is your workbook?" A scholar responded, "in my classroom." Teacher #4, slightly agitated, "you've been coming to this classroom everyday for months. How is it possible that you can't remember to bring your workbook?" There was no response from the scholars.
Two incidents, two different general education teachers, and you just got a feel for what these two teachers and several others go through every day. Scholars who don't listen, can't stop talking, fail or often refuse follow even the simplest instructions, and when the teacher looses her/his patients and raises her/his voice, the scholars give them the look like they are King Shit, roll their eyes at the teacher, get an attitude, and at times will actually walk out of the classroom.
Crap like this frustrates the hell out of me and some twit from Chalkbeat has the balls to say that the white rich kids have all of the great teachers is utter nonsense. I know where to find great teachers. I know where great teachers work every day, every week, every month, every school year, and some have been putting up with the crap you just read about for decades. I know where the great teachers are, in my school and numerous other schools that are surrounding by poverty and parental units who failed miserably when raising a scholar. And do you know what makes these teachers great? They keep coming back into the classroom. They don't quit. They just keep plugging away and if some grossly misinformed individual criticizes one of my colleagues they better be prepared to defend themselves because I'll get up in their face.
I'm not done with my releasing yet but this blog is getting too long so I'll have to release again next week. In fact, some food for thought prior to the next blog post. First, it's time to pressure school leadership and start taking back the classroom, through discipline, from those arrogant, smart ass, disrespectful little scholars. Second, the crap that goes on in a classroom, in my opinion, falls under the working conditions part of a contract so why and the hell is the Union not supporting their members and doing something to stop this crap. Finally, I've had it with Grr!.
That's it. Thanks for following the rantings of an old guy that has view from the back of a special education classroom for scholars with emotional handicaps and also a from two general education classrooms with the supposedly normal scholars. See you again in a week or two weeks, or maybe three weeks.
For a couple years now I've been following a blog called Chalkbeat. This is an education blog that I'm pretty certain started here in Indiana and is slowly spreading out nationally. In fact, I believe that Chalkbeat opened an office in Detroit, Michigan recently but I don't think they opened one in as far west as Utah. When I started reading Chalkbeat the creator of the site just posted education news articles from various newspapers here in Indiana and occasionally from outside the state on his blog for interested people to read. For reasons unknown, Chalkbeat decided to hire reporters to help with the blog. It didn't take me long to realized that I didn't like this change because when you have reporters, you have reporters with an agenda. A couple days ago one of these reporters posted an article that said (paraphrasing), "all of the great teachers are in schools where only the white rich kids go." I only read a couple paragraphs when I realized that this article was a bunch of crap written by some clueless twit who spends little if any time in schools. You know why I can say this? Because I know where all of the good teachers are and they are not teaching the white rich kids. In fact, the white rich kids will likely succeed in the classroom with mediocre teachers because they come from a family where both parental units earned degrees, where both parental units are gainfully employed, and both parental units stressed the importance of education starting with their scholars date of origination.
So where are all of the great teachers? They walk the same hallway that I walk. They walk in a hallway that is surrounded by a neighborhood of parental units that come from a low social economic background who don't have the sense to place an emphasis on education as they raise their scholars. And when a scholar, who was conceived and brought into this world by so many dysfunctional parental units enters school who is faced with the challenge of educating these scholars, my colleagues.
My role at school was recently expanded as I now sit in two general education classrooms so what you are about to read is reality in a those classrooms. I'm with Teacher #3. It's nearing lunch and recess time. The instructions to the class of around twenty scholars was to clear off the top of their desks, quietly go to their locker to get their coat, and then to line up at the door. After about ten seconds I hear, "you need to keep your voices off and clear off your desks." The talking continues and the teacher restates the instruction. This process repeated itself four times before the scholars were lined up and ready to walk to the lunch room.
We are now on the way to the lunch room and I hear again, voices off and stay in line and who ever is dribbling a basketball, please keep the ball in your hands until we get outside. After a brief pause the basketball hits the floor again. The teacher stops the line and walks back toward the scholar with the basketball and again asks the scholar to hold onto the basketball. I'm standing to the immediate left of the scholar with the basketball and I watch him give the teacher the "you can't tell me what to do look as he rolls his eyes at her." Fortunately this little shit held on to the basketball until we entered the cafeteria. Why was he fortunate? Because if that basketball hit the floor one more time it was mine and I was going to dribble it all the way to the BigB's office.
Lunch and recess is now over and I'm back with Teacher #3. We are outside the building and she gives the instruction to line up so we can go back inside the school. The scholar with the basketball ignores the instruction and keeps shooting his basketball. Twice the teacher had to tell him to get in line. Just before the teachers reaches the door to re-enter the building she reminds the scholars to keep their voices off when they enter the building. The line is actually quiet except for one noise, the dribbling of a basketball. The teacher is now getting agitated and walks toward the scholar with the basketball and says, "give me that basketball." The scholar immediately turned in an attempt to run away from the teacher. Unfortunately, as the little shit turned to run he banged right into me. When he looked up at me I said, "get in line, hold that basketball, or it is mine."
I just changed days of the week and lunch and recess period is now over and I'm sitting in a classroom with Teacher #4. I arrived in the classroom a little early and I heard the teacher tell the scholars to clear off their desks, pick up their laptop and pencil and line up as they are changing classrooms. Almost immediately the scholars are told that they are way too loud and to be quiet. A minute or so passes by and again, "please stop talking, get your laptop and get in line as we are now late." As the line is forming the teacher calls out three names, "why are you standing in line without your laptop. I've told you twice to get your laptops and get in line. How is it possible that you are standing in line without your laptop." Finally, after ten minutes, a ridiculous amount of time to get what is needed to rotate to another classroom, the scholars exit the classroom.
A new group of scholars arrived in Teacher #4's classroom and took their assigned seats. Teacher #4 tells the scholars to open their work books to page so and so and we will get started. Immediately two hands go up and one of the scholar's says, "I didn't bring my workbook." Teacher #4 asks why the scholar didn't bring the workbook. There was no response from either scholar. Teacher #4, "where is your workbook?" A scholar responded, "in my classroom." Teacher #4, slightly agitated, "you've been coming to this classroom everyday for months. How is it possible that you can't remember to bring your workbook?" There was no response from the scholars.
Two incidents, two different general education teachers, and you just got a feel for what these two teachers and several others go through every day. Scholars who don't listen, can't stop talking, fail or often refuse follow even the simplest instructions, and when the teacher looses her/his patients and raises her/his voice, the scholars give them the look like they are King Shit, roll their eyes at the teacher, get an attitude, and at times will actually walk out of the classroom.
Crap like this frustrates the hell out of me and some twit from Chalkbeat has the balls to say that the white rich kids have all of the great teachers is utter nonsense. I know where to find great teachers. I know where great teachers work every day, every week, every month, every school year, and some have been putting up with the crap you just read about for decades. I know where the great teachers are, in my school and numerous other schools that are surrounding by poverty and parental units who failed miserably when raising a scholar. And do you know what makes these teachers great? They keep coming back into the classroom. They don't quit. They just keep plugging away and if some grossly misinformed individual criticizes one of my colleagues they better be prepared to defend themselves because I'll get up in their face.
I'm not done with my releasing yet but this blog is getting too long so I'll have to release again next week. In fact, some food for thought prior to the next blog post. First, it's time to pressure school leadership and start taking back the classroom, through discipline, from those arrogant, smart ass, disrespectful little scholars. Second, the crap that goes on in a classroom, in my opinion, falls under the working conditions part of a contract so why and the hell is the Union not supporting their members and doing something to stop this crap. Finally, I've had it with Grr!.
That's it. Thanks for following the rantings of an old guy that has view from the back of a special education classroom for scholars with emotional handicaps and also a from two general education classrooms with the supposedly normal scholars. See you again in a week or two weeks, or maybe three weeks.
Sunday, November 12, 2017
The Conversation
Nag, nag, and nag. "When are you going to start writing again. I told you if you kept finding excuses you'll never get started. You just can't stop. People have been reading what you write for over three years. If you are done writing, you own them one last writing to let them know what you are doing." She's right. As she has for almost forty years now, my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse has pointed me in the right direction.
So, where have I been? First Sunday, road trip to Michigan to visit my hospitalized brother who had triple bypass surgery and a couple heart valves replaced. Second and third Sunday, road trip back to Michigan as my brother passed away at the early age of sixty-five. A tough loss that saddens me greatly. Why is it that a man who would do anything to help anybody can leave us so early in life? Fourth Sunday, granddaughter in the house for the day. I could chose either to write or to watch the movie Moana with my granddaughter for the third or fourth time. I chose Moana.
Fifth Sunday and it's cold, cloudy, and I can't write from my favorite blogging place on the screened in porch on the back of the house but here I am. I believe I'll start with a review of the scholars. Also, as a reminder, I left the supposedly much better school in the surrounding area and returned to the school that I love so much, that is not in a downward spiral, as a volunteer.
The scholars you are familiar with, Grr!, Huey, Whale, S&T and Tourette. The new scholars, Hiss, ShortTime, and Cue. Table positions in the classroom have changed for the teacher and instruction assistant. I have maintained my normal position where I have a really swell view from the back of the room. The teacher, I'll call her Newest, as I'm on my fourth teacher, sits on the south side of the classroom. The instructional assistant, I'll call her Low, sits in the northeast corner of the classroom. In case your are wondering, I'm seated on the west side of the classroom.
One final update and I can begin. I've stayed in contact with Gnu even though I left the supposedly much better school. During our last texting exchange she informed my that things are settling down in her classroom. Apparently the scholars have finally figured out that they are no longer in a play room where they pretty much do what they want to do. Instead of a play room, they are in a academic setting, they will do academics, and at no point do they make the decisions on what they will or will not do. They are not in charge, Gnu is. Is Gnu being successful? I'll let you decide as Gnu's instructional assistant told her this one day. The instructional assistant is speaking (paraphrasing), "I've worked with Grab, a third grade scholar, since he was in the first grade. You, (Gnu) are the only teacher that has been successful in getting him to do academics. All his previous teachers would just give up and let him do what he wants to do when he got angry and defiant."
During one of our recent texting exchanges, Gnu sent me a picture. It was her son, who will be six months old in December, and he was seated in her lap holding up a sign. The sign read, "Big Brother." I'm pretty sure you can figure that out. If you can't, text me and I'll explain it.
Ok, here we go. It's the first Monday after fall break and two scholars did not return to our school. ShortTime, hence the name, moved out of the school district. S&T's original parental unit has gained back custody of this young scholar and he has moved out of state to be with her. The feelings of all the adults that worked with, or supported S&T, while in our school can be rolled up into one word, nervous. Why? MJ, a behavior therapist, during her last conversation with S&T, told him this. "Remember all of the safety things we talked about when you move to your new location." Please keep S&T in your prayers so that he can have a successful reunion with his parental unit.
Also, on the first Monday after fall break, I took some time to see how some of Gnu's former scholars were doing. Here are the names in case your forgot, EM, Uh-Uh-Uh, MiniJ, and Knapper. EM is now in a sixth grade general education classroom and he is doing well behaviorally but not academically. The other three scholars are struggling and, although I'm not certain, they are all back in a self contained classroom for scholars with emotional handicaps. Knapper, in particular, is regressing to behaviors not seen in a couple years. This was confirmed by FBG, a behavior specialist, and to hear this news is very disappointing. MiniJ's regression is also very disappointing and very troubling. I was informed that there is a safety plan for MiniJ that states that he can't go outside for recess and he can't go anywhere in the school without an adult escort. Why is there a safety plan for MiniJ? Inappropriate contact with scholars of the opposite sex.
So what is the new teacher, Newest, like? She runs a very nice, structured academic day very similar to Gnu's. There are three academic work stations just like Gnu had and the scholars are paired based on their academic abilities. The big upside for Newest, one that Gnu didn't have, is that there is a third adult (me) in the room so there is no independent academic work station where the scholars could do little if any academic work. The instructional assistant, Low, is also very capable which puts me at ease because I've seen instructional assistants in classrooms that are boarder line useless. So, the bottom line on Newest and Low is this, they are very capable academically and that is exactly as it should be. On the down side, neither of them have any previous experience in an emotional handicapped classroom and that raises some caution flags for me for two reasons. First, they are not very good yet at recognizing when a scholar is escalating toward an anger eruption but I figure that will come with time. Second, they are both very soft spoken and there have been instances when they recognized the anger escalation but don't speak loud enough to be heard. Fortunately for both of them the third adult in the classroom is not soft spoken especially when he needs to get a scholars immediate attention.
There have been several instances in the five plus years when I've been asked why I keep doing what I do with scholars who can get so angry. Here are two reasons. The first one is totally stupid and the second one explains it all. First of all, I get to stop at the BP gas station again every morning for a cup of Kona blend coffee. On my first stop at the BP, in almost two months, I ran into one of the locals that just hangs out at the gas station. It's an elderly African American women and when she saw me walk in the door she walked up to me, reeking of tobacco, and gave me a hug saying, "where have you been?" After I poured myself a cup of the Kona blend I was headed to the cashier. When the cashier say me coming he said, "long time no see, free coffee today." Here is the real reason why I do what I do. During the first two days that I was back in my favorite elementary school I was stopped numerous times in the hallway by teachers who said, "welcome back, you were missed." It's the little things, like a smile on the faces of the teachers that welcome me back, that make me realize that what I do with scholars with some serious issues does makes a difference. It's for that reason that I'll do what I do for a little while longer.
See you next week especially if I hear nag, nag, nag followed by you better get started on your blog.
So, where have I been? First Sunday, road trip to Michigan to visit my hospitalized brother who had triple bypass surgery and a couple heart valves replaced. Second and third Sunday, road trip back to Michigan as my brother passed away at the early age of sixty-five. A tough loss that saddens me greatly. Why is it that a man who would do anything to help anybody can leave us so early in life? Fourth Sunday, granddaughter in the house for the day. I could chose either to write or to watch the movie Moana with my granddaughter for the third or fourth time. I chose Moana.
Fifth Sunday and it's cold, cloudy, and I can't write from my favorite blogging place on the screened in porch on the back of the house but here I am. I believe I'll start with a review of the scholars. Also, as a reminder, I left the supposedly much better school in the surrounding area and returned to the school that I love so much, that is not in a downward spiral, as a volunteer.
The scholars you are familiar with, Grr!, Huey, Whale, S&T and Tourette. The new scholars, Hiss, ShortTime, and Cue. Table positions in the classroom have changed for the teacher and instruction assistant. I have maintained my normal position where I have a really swell view from the back of the room. The teacher, I'll call her Newest, as I'm on my fourth teacher, sits on the south side of the classroom. The instructional assistant, I'll call her Low, sits in the northeast corner of the classroom. In case your are wondering, I'm seated on the west side of the classroom.
One final update and I can begin. I've stayed in contact with Gnu even though I left the supposedly much better school. During our last texting exchange she informed my that things are settling down in her classroom. Apparently the scholars have finally figured out that they are no longer in a play room where they pretty much do what they want to do. Instead of a play room, they are in a academic setting, they will do academics, and at no point do they make the decisions on what they will or will not do. They are not in charge, Gnu is. Is Gnu being successful? I'll let you decide as Gnu's instructional assistant told her this one day. The instructional assistant is speaking (paraphrasing), "I've worked with Grab, a third grade scholar, since he was in the first grade. You, (Gnu) are the only teacher that has been successful in getting him to do academics. All his previous teachers would just give up and let him do what he wants to do when he got angry and defiant."
During one of our recent texting exchanges, Gnu sent me a picture. It was her son, who will be six months old in December, and he was seated in her lap holding up a sign. The sign read, "Big Brother." I'm pretty sure you can figure that out. If you can't, text me and I'll explain it.
Ok, here we go. It's the first Monday after fall break and two scholars did not return to our school. ShortTime, hence the name, moved out of the school district. S&T's original parental unit has gained back custody of this young scholar and he has moved out of state to be with her. The feelings of all the adults that worked with, or supported S&T, while in our school can be rolled up into one word, nervous. Why? MJ, a behavior therapist, during her last conversation with S&T, told him this. "Remember all of the safety things we talked about when you move to your new location." Please keep S&T in your prayers so that he can have a successful reunion with his parental unit.
Also, on the first Monday after fall break, I took some time to see how some of Gnu's former scholars were doing. Here are the names in case your forgot, EM, Uh-Uh-Uh, MiniJ, and Knapper. EM is now in a sixth grade general education classroom and he is doing well behaviorally but not academically. The other three scholars are struggling and, although I'm not certain, they are all back in a self contained classroom for scholars with emotional handicaps. Knapper, in particular, is regressing to behaviors not seen in a couple years. This was confirmed by FBG, a behavior specialist, and to hear this news is very disappointing. MiniJ's regression is also very disappointing and very troubling. I was informed that there is a safety plan for MiniJ that states that he can't go outside for recess and he can't go anywhere in the school without an adult escort. Why is there a safety plan for MiniJ? Inappropriate contact with scholars of the opposite sex.
So what is the new teacher, Newest, like? She runs a very nice, structured academic day very similar to Gnu's. There are three academic work stations just like Gnu had and the scholars are paired based on their academic abilities. The big upside for Newest, one that Gnu didn't have, is that there is a third adult (me) in the room so there is no independent academic work station where the scholars could do little if any academic work. The instructional assistant, Low, is also very capable which puts me at ease because I've seen instructional assistants in classrooms that are boarder line useless. So, the bottom line on Newest and Low is this, they are very capable academically and that is exactly as it should be. On the down side, neither of them have any previous experience in an emotional handicapped classroom and that raises some caution flags for me for two reasons. First, they are not very good yet at recognizing when a scholar is escalating toward an anger eruption but I figure that will come with time. Second, they are both very soft spoken and there have been instances when they recognized the anger escalation but don't speak loud enough to be heard. Fortunately for both of them the third adult in the classroom is not soft spoken especially when he needs to get a scholars immediate attention.
There have been several instances in the five plus years when I've been asked why I keep doing what I do with scholars who can get so angry. Here are two reasons. The first one is totally stupid and the second one explains it all. First of all, I get to stop at the BP gas station again every morning for a cup of Kona blend coffee. On my first stop at the BP, in almost two months, I ran into one of the locals that just hangs out at the gas station. It's an elderly African American women and when she saw me walk in the door she walked up to me, reeking of tobacco, and gave me a hug saying, "where have you been?" After I poured myself a cup of the Kona blend I was headed to the cashier. When the cashier say me coming he said, "long time no see, free coffee today." Here is the real reason why I do what I do. During the first two days that I was back in my favorite elementary school I was stopped numerous times in the hallway by teachers who said, "welcome back, you were missed." It's the little things, like a smile on the faces of the teachers that welcome me back, that make me realize that what I do with scholars with some serious issues does makes a difference. It's for that reason that I'll do what I do for a little while longer.
See you next week especially if I hear nag, nag, nag followed by you better get started on your blog.
Friday, October 6, 2017
Seven Weeks Revisited
On June 8, 2017, I had no intention of returning to the classroom for the next school year where I had a view from the back of the room for five years. It had nothing to do with a six year burn out as I wasn't in this classroom for six years. It was a simple decision, I didn't want to have a full time job as I approached my sixty-eight year of existence. After having lunch with Gnu and listening to her concerns about her new position, in one of those supposedly much better surrounding schools, I decided to join her. With that said, let's review my seven weeks of experience in one of the much better surrounding schools.
- More screaming and crying in the primary EH room in one week that I heard in five years at my previous school.
- Fed up with a secondary EH scholar constantly running out of the classroom and out the building during the second week of school, the scholar was sent to a behavioral health unit.
- A middle school scholar, very disruptive, running out of the classroom, running out of the building, managed in the seven weeks period to get sent to a behavioral health unit three times.
- A middle school scholar, in a fit of rage, sent a right hand punch to the left cheek of the school administrator.
- A middle school scholar, in a fit of rage, despite trying to be contained by two adults, managed to escape the classroom and aggressively attacked adults. This same scholar picked up the administrator, dropped the administrator on the ground and began punching.
- A high school scholar was expelled for threatening the lives of an adult's children.
- A high school scholar, caught again for fighting in the school, was expelled.
- A high school scholar intentionally flashed a picture of a topless woman in my face, laughed at me and then showed a similar picture to a twelve year old middle school scholar.
Keep in mind, I'm talking about only being in the much better school in the surrounding area for seven weeks. I'll also remind you that this much better school in the surrounding area has a home that I would say has a value of $750k right across the street from it. So you can have a comparison of the two schools that I've worked at, on the right hand side of this blog is a picture of a home that is directly across the street from my previous school.
My previous school, the one with the boarded up house directly across the street from it, has been labeled as being in a downward spiral. My new school, in the much better surrounding area, with very expensive homes around it, should be the school of choice for Gnu rather that staying in her downward spiraling school, BULL.
People like to take shots at my previous school and it angers me. I spent five years in that school. I watched dedicated teachers arrive early, stay late, come in on weekends to do their prep work, and stay long after school to show support for after school activities. At one time or another I sat in just about every teacher's classroom and I saw first hand the effort that they put in to educate scholars that come from a low social economic background. So, when someone, who is so misinformed about what is happening in my old school, states that I left due to burn out and that Gnu needs to abandon this downward spiraling school for schools in the surrounding area I got upset and fired with both barrels. And you know what? If it happens again, I'm going to reload.
The following conversations took place about two weeks ago. Adult #1, "when can you come in for an interview?" "How about Monday between 9:15am and 9:30am," I responded. Adult #1, "great, see you on Monday." I was sitting in the parking lot prior to my interview and was checking email on my cellphone. Adult #1, "I can't meet you on Monday, I hurt myself playing tennis and will not be in." Thinking to myself, "I drove all the way over here so I might as well go in so someone knows that I did arrived as scheduled." When I walked into the office the administrative assistant was on the telephone and signaled me to have a seat. As I'm sitting there waiting, Adult #2 approaches me. As Adult #2 approaches I stand up. Adult #2 gave me a hug and said, "it's so nice to see you, lets go to my office so we can talk."
I've been involved in a number of job interviews over my lifetime and I know this. The interviewee should do most of the talking with the interviewer asking follow up questions. In this interview the opposite was occurring. The interviewer was the dominant talker and I just listened. Adult #2, "let me tell you what we have going on. This is happening on this floor and this is happening on that floor. It's been pretty rough and we could use your assistance." As I was sitting there listening to Adult #2 I was getting the feeling that Adult #2 would like me to start immediately so I said to Adult #2, "so you want me to start right now." "Yes, in fact, follow me." So off we went. Adult #2 was in the lead and I followed.
It was only a short walk, probably less than I minute when we reached our destination. Adult #2 reached out to grab the door handle and as she did so she looked up at me and smiled. With the door opening, I think I had only one foot in the room when I heard a shout, "Mr. Schultz." I looked toward the voice and it was Tourette and he was in a full sprint across the classroom heading towards the door. When he reached me I got a big hug. I looked down at Tourette and said, "you need to take a seat, you're disrupting the entire classroom. As he walked back to his seat I stepped into the classroom. As I looked around I saw Grr!, Huey, Whale, and S&T. I also saw three scholars that I have never met. Adult #2 (LittleBigB) made a brief introduction and departed. I walked over to the teacher and introduced myself. I also walked over to the instructional assistant and introduced myself. I apologized to both of them for disrupting their classroom and said I was here to volunteer. The teacher asked me if I wanted to start today. I told her no, I would just like to sit and observe for a while.
The chair that I occupied in this classroom for five years was occupied by an adult who was assigned to one of the scholars that I never met before so I took a chair, placed it in the corner of the room, and sat down. As I sat their observing the room started getting a little animated. Tourette was involved and so was a student that I had not met. Being a volunteer I just watched to see what was going to happen. As I watched, Tourette and the other scholar started getting more animated. Still, nothing was being said so I stood up, started walking toward Tourette and said to him, "you need to stick to your own business. You know that is not how you are supposed to act in this classroom so get yourself settled down and get back to work." I then made eye contact with Huey, Grr!, Whale, and S&T and said the following, "some of you have been in this room for a three years now and you know how to act. Let's act right and get some work done." When I returned to my chair the room was quiet.
I was only going to stay for an hour or so but ended up staying for most of the day. When the scholars started rotating through their three academic stations I moved to my desk where I had a view from the back of the room and got to work. At recess the instructional assistant took everyone outside. As I was sitting at my desk the teacher walked over and said to me, "there have been days when it was hard for me to get the scholars attention. When they started to lose their focus and act up all you had to do was stand up, say something to them, and they quieted down." I looked at her and said, "you've only known these scholars for eight weeks. I've known these scholars for three or four years. It takes time to build a relationship with them and that is what makes it easier to get them to stay on task. I like the way you run this classroom, it's very similar to your predecessor, so you keep doing what your are doing and everything will work out."
I'm back in this wonderful school as a volunteer. I arrive at 9:30am. When the scholars leave for specials (PE, art or music) I relax. When the scholars have recess and lunch I have an hour to myself. When all hell breaks loose somewhere in the school I can't be called to assist as I'm just a volunteer. I leave at 3:00pm which is an hour before the scholars leave. That's a pretty good arrangement. I'll think I'll stick around.
It was only a short walk, probably less than I minute when we reached our destination. Adult #2 reached out to grab the door handle and as she did so she looked up at me and smiled. With the door opening, I think I had only one foot in the room when I heard a shout, "Mr. Schultz." I looked toward the voice and it was Tourette and he was in a full sprint across the classroom heading towards the door. When he reached me I got a big hug. I looked down at Tourette and said, "you need to take a seat, you're disrupting the entire classroom. As he walked back to his seat I stepped into the classroom. As I looked around I saw Grr!, Huey, Whale, and S&T. I also saw three scholars that I have never met. Adult #2 (LittleBigB) made a brief introduction and departed. I walked over to the teacher and introduced myself. I also walked over to the instructional assistant and introduced myself. I apologized to both of them for disrupting their classroom and said I was here to volunteer. The teacher asked me if I wanted to start today. I told her no, I would just like to sit and observe for a while.
The chair that I occupied in this classroom for five years was occupied by an adult who was assigned to one of the scholars that I never met before so I took a chair, placed it in the corner of the room, and sat down. As I sat their observing the room started getting a little animated. Tourette was involved and so was a student that I had not met. Being a volunteer I just watched to see what was going to happen. As I watched, Tourette and the other scholar started getting more animated. Still, nothing was being said so I stood up, started walking toward Tourette and said to him, "you need to stick to your own business. You know that is not how you are supposed to act in this classroom so get yourself settled down and get back to work." I then made eye contact with Huey, Grr!, Whale, and S&T and said the following, "some of you have been in this room for a three years now and you know how to act. Let's act right and get some work done." When I returned to my chair the room was quiet.
I was only going to stay for an hour or so but ended up staying for most of the day. When the scholars started rotating through their three academic stations I moved to my desk where I had a view from the back of the room and got to work. At recess the instructional assistant took everyone outside. As I was sitting at my desk the teacher walked over and said to me, "there have been days when it was hard for me to get the scholars attention. When they started to lose their focus and act up all you had to do was stand up, say something to them, and they quieted down." I looked at her and said, "you've only known these scholars for eight weeks. I've known these scholars for three or four years. It takes time to build a relationship with them and that is what makes it easier to get them to stay on task. I like the way you run this classroom, it's very similar to your predecessor, so you keep doing what your are doing and everything will work out."
I'm back in this wonderful school as a volunteer. I arrive at 9:30am. When the scholars leave for specials (PE, art or music) I relax. When the scholars have recess and lunch I have an hour to myself. When all hell breaks loose somewhere in the school I can't be called to assist as I'm just a volunteer. I leave at 3:00pm which is an hour before the scholars leave. That's a pretty good arrangement. I'll think I'll stick around.
Sunday, October 1, 2017
Post Departure Update
Before I get started I have to share with you some troubling news. I've been diagnosed with an affliction. It's an affliction that I'm familiar with but from what I can tell this is a very specific version of the affliction that may even spread to Gnu. Before I get to the specifics of my affliction lets change the subject and talk about my former colleague.
A text message poured in from Gnu one day last week. I was a little hesitant before reading the message as I knew she was working with "bat shit" scholars and I was fearful that it was more bad news but I opened and read the message anyway. Paraphrasing, "I've just had a great week. There were only a couple eruptions but I think the scholars are finally settling in and we are going through our academic work stations and doing academics." I immediately texted her back, "that is great news." Right after I sent the text message to Gnu I sent her a second text message, "is it alright if I call you?" The reply back from Gnu said, "sure."
The cellphone only rang once when I heard the voice that I sat across from for over three school years say, "hey." "I'm so glad to hear that things are settling down for you," I said. "From the day I walk out the door I've been thinking about you and praying that things would improve." "Yeah, it took almost eight weeks but things appear to be finally settling down," Gnu replied. "I'm so happy for you," I said. I've been feeling so guilty that I abandoned you and left you to deal with that nightmare of a classroom."
As Gnu and I continued our conversation the topic changed and not for the good. Gnu speaking, "did you know the high school teacher that you were supporting found another teaching assignment and quit?" "No," I replied, "but I knew the teacher was looking and had two interviews scheduled." "Well," Gnu said, "she is gone and now there is no teacher or instructional assistant in either the middle school or the high school." "That can't be good," I commented. "Do you remember the middle school scholar that had a major eruption that ended with him giving Czar an overhand right to the left side of her face," Gnu asked me. "Yes." "Well, this scholar had another eruption. Adults were trying to keep him contained in his classroom but he forced the classroom door open despite two adults trying to keep the door closed. The adults thought this scholar would attempt to run out of the school like he did the last time but he didn't. Instead of running, he began attacking the adults. The hallway outside my classroom was chaotic. Adults were scrambling to get away from the scholar. A couple of the little scholars in my classroom were crying. I was so afraid that I locked myself into my classroom."
As I listen to this nightmare of a story I kept thinking about the decision to put so many scholars, from first grade to seniors in high school, with anger issues in such a close proximity to each other.
Gnu continued with her story by saying this, "Czar arrived in the hallway and made an attempt to get the angry middle school scholar to settle down. It didn't work as the scholar grabbed Czar, picked her up and dropped her onto the floor and starting hitting her."
This is easily the worse incident that has happened in the five years and seven weeks that I've worked with scholars that have an emotional handicap. As Gnu was relaying the story the thought that kept crossing my mind was what would I have done if I was still in the school. I'm not sure what I would have done but I know this much, if this scholar, that is a little shorter and at about my weight, came at me in a fit of rage I would have defended myself and I wouldn't have been by using the approved therapeutic techniques that I was trained to use.
I found out about my affliction in the strangest way. It was so strange that I had to schedule a luncheon meeting with my friend A.O. of Vino, at the Metro Diner, to discuss the matter. While we were eating, A.O.of Vino knew I was buying lunch as payment for his consultation services so he order a massive quantity of food, I logged into my blog site and showed him a comment that was left by anonymous directly on the blog website. When he finished reading the comment I said to him, "can you believe it, I have the sixth year affliction." "That's crazy," he said. "I know, I responded. "This is a sixth year affliction, not a first year, not a fifth year, not a tenth year, but a very specific sixth year only affliction."
While dining I realized that I had been seriously misdiagnosed by anonymous. In the past, anonymous told me that I worked in a school corporation that was "in a downward spiral" and I strongly disagreed. Thinking that Gnu and I had just started our sixth year in the same school corporation and the fact that I had departed, anonymous told me that I had the "six year burn out which so many others have experienced." Anonmyous went on to say that Gnu will be fine. She should apply to one of the eight or so surrounding school systems. This is what happens to most of these dedicated souls.
It's decision time. Should I come out firing with one barrel of my shotgun or both? Both! Listen carefully anonmyous, it is impossible for Gnu and I to have a sixth year burn out which so many have experienced because we changed schools for the start of this year. We are both at one of those supposedly better schools in the surrounding area. I am not burned out. I loved the school that I was working at and I enjoyed what I was doing. I chose to not return to my old school for one reason, I'm getting old and I didn't want to work a full time job anymore. Gnu, like me, loved our previous school. She chose to make a change for two reasons. First, the new school has child care services in the same building she is teaching in. Second, despite taking a pay cut to switch schools she made the change because in the long run she will make quite a bit more money than she could at her original school. So, to put an end to this downward spiral crap let me tell you this. Three times at my new school I was asked I if preferred to work at my new school or my old school. Three times I said as quickly as I can snap my fingers, I'd return to my old school.
The end. But I have more to say so stayed tuned.
A text message poured in from Gnu one day last week. I was a little hesitant before reading the message as I knew she was working with "bat shit" scholars and I was fearful that it was more bad news but I opened and read the message anyway. Paraphrasing, "I've just had a great week. There were only a couple eruptions but I think the scholars are finally settling in and we are going through our academic work stations and doing academics." I immediately texted her back, "that is great news." Right after I sent the text message to Gnu I sent her a second text message, "is it alright if I call you?" The reply back from Gnu said, "sure."
The cellphone only rang once when I heard the voice that I sat across from for over three school years say, "hey." "I'm so glad to hear that things are settling down for you," I said. "From the day I walk out the door I've been thinking about you and praying that things would improve." "Yeah, it took almost eight weeks but things appear to be finally settling down," Gnu replied. "I'm so happy for you," I said. I've been feeling so guilty that I abandoned you and left you to deal with that nightmare of a classroom."
As Gnu and I continued our conversation the topic changed and not for the good. Gnu speaking, "did you know the high school teacher that you were supporting found another teaching assignment and quit?" "No," I replied, "but I knew the teacher was looking and had two interviews scheduled." "Well," Gnu said, "she is gone and now there is no teacher or instructional assistant in either the middle school or the high school." "That can't be good," I commented. "Do you remember the middle school scholar that had a major eruption that ended with him giving Czar an overhand right to the left side of her face," Gnu asked me. "Yes." "Well, this scholar had another eruption. Adults were trying to keep him contained in his classroom but he forced the classroom door open despite two adults trying to keep the door closed. The adults thought this scholar would attempt to run out of the school like he did the last time but he didn't. Instead of running, he began attacking the adults. The hallway outside my classroom was chaotic. Adults were scrambling to get away from the scholar. A couple of the little scholars in my classroom were crying. I was so afraid that I locked myself into my classroom."
As I listen to this nightmare of a story I kept thinking about the decision to put so many scholars, from first grade to seniors in high school, with anger issues in such a close proximity to each other.
Gnu continued with her story by saying this, "Czar arrived in the hallway and made an attempt to get the angry middle school scholar to settle down. It didn't work as the scholar grabbed Czar, picked her up and dropped her onto the floor and starting hitting her."
This is easily the worse incident that has happened in the five years and seven weeks that I've worked with scholars that have an emotional handicap. As Gnu was relaying the story the thought that kept crossing my mind was what would I have done if I was still in the school. I'm not sure what I would have done but I know this much, if this scholar, that is a little shorter and at about my weight, came at me in a fit of rage I would have defended myself and I wouldn't have been by using the approved therapeutic techniques that I was trained to use.
I found out about my affliction in the strangest way. It was so strange that I had to schedule a luncheon meeting with my friend A.O. of Vino, at the Metro Diner, to discuss the matter. While we were eating, A.O.of Vino knew I was buying lunch as payment for his consultation services so he order a massive quantity of food, I logged into my blog site and showed him a comment that was left by anonymous directly on the blog website. When he finished reading the comment I said to him, "can you believe it, I have the sixth year affliction." "That's crazy," he said. "I know, I responded. "This is a sixth year affliction, not a first year, not a fifth year, not a tenth year, but a very specific sixth year only affliction."
While dining I realized that I had been seriously misdiagnosed by anonymous. In the past, anonymous told me that I worked in a school corporation that was "in a downward spiral" and I strongly disagreed. Thinking that Gnu and I had just started our sixth year in the same school corporation and the fact that I had departed, anonymous told me that I had the "six year burn out which so many others have experienced." Anonmyous went on to say that Gnu will be fine. She should apply to one of the eight or so surrounding school systems. This is what happens to most of these dedicated souls.
It's decision time. Should I come out firing with one barrel of my shotgun or both? Both! Listen carefully anonmyous, it is impossible for Gnu and I to have a sixth year burn out which so many have experienced because we changed schools for the start of this year. We are both at one of those supposedly better schools in the surrounding area. I am not burned out. I loved the school that I was working at and I enjoyed what I was doing. I chose to not return to my old school for one reason, I'm getting old and I didn't want to work a full time job anymore. Gnu, like me, loved our previous school. She chose to make a change for two reasons. First, the new school has child care services in the same building she is teaching in. Second, despite taking a pay cut to switch schools she made the change because in the long run she will make quite a bit more money than she could at her original school. So, to put an end to this downward spiral crap let me tell you this. Three times at my new school I was asked I if preferred to work at my new school or my old school. Three times I said as quickly as I can snap my fingers, I'd return to my old school.
The end. But I have more to say so stayed tuned.
Sunday, September 24, 2017
I Have No Idea
A quick review in case your forgot. I've moved from the primary emotional handicapped classroom with Gnu to be the instructional assistant for the teacher in the middle school and the high school classrooms. TOR, who is the teacher for both classrooms, primarily stays in the middle school and I stay primarily in the high school. TOR has daily lesson plans and teaches in the middle school. The high school scholars academic day is a software package with all their lesson plans laid out for the entire school year I believe. TOR will periodically stick her head through the interior door that connects the two classroom but for the most part I'm in the classroom by myself. One final review item and then the day begins. The high school scholars are split into two parts, four in the morning and four in the afternoon.
Here is how the school day begins, if that is what you want to call it, for the high school scholars. When they walk into the building they have a device, cellphone or tablet, with the ear buds stuck in their ears and are either listening to music, playing a game, or watching video. Once in the building, they walk to our makeshift cafeteria to pick up either their breakfast or lunch with the ear buds still stuck in their ears. The afternoon scholars eat their lunch in our makeshift cafeteria and the morning scholars eat their breakfast in the classroom and all the time they are eating the ear buds are in place. With their meals consumed, and I'll say in again, what they just ate I don't consider a meal suitable for a high school scholar, the academic day begins.
So you don't have to scroll backwards to find the blog posting about meals, I'll give you quick reminder. Here is the typical breakfast for our high school seniors. The entre is a Pop Tart with thirty-two grams of sugar, there is a milk choice but low fat chocolate milk with eighteen grams of sugar is usually the choice, there is a juice choice, and on occasion there is fruit. There is no cafeteria tray line with steam tables to keep the food hot, no options on what you can choose to eat, there is no food tray or plate, the only piece of silverware is plastic. In fact, there is not even a cafeteria worker in the building to set out the food. If an adult doesn't arrive in our makeshift cafeteria to set out the food, the scholars will have to do it themselves.
The academic day beings and pretty much stays consistent throughout the week. The scholars walk into the classroom and will either sit in a beanbag chair or at a table with a desk top computer sitting right in front of them with their devices still plugged into their ears. The more ambitious scholars will actually log into the academic software program but will quickly change their focus back on what is on their device. With no teacher in the classroom I'm the one that has to address the electronic device issue and ask that they log into the software program. The morning scholars will follow my instructions without too much difficulty but the afternoon scholars, not so much.
From my desk I have a good view of the scholars as I'm sitting behind them and I can see the computer screens. Some of them will begin their academic lesson but with their devices still plugged into their ears. The ones that don't log in have to be prodded to get started. As I watch them working on academics, I can slowly see their heads beginning to nod and eventually they are asleep. I'll then get up, make my rounds, wake up the scholars who are sleeping, sit back down and repeat the process a short time later. In a nutshell, you now get a feel for the academic day for the high school scholars.
I don't have to do what I do, I choose to do what I do and it is for this reason. I love to help scholars with their academics. In my current situation that is hard to do because there are no text books, no lesson plans that I can see, just computer screens with font settings so small I can't even read the text on the computer screen to see what a scholar is working on. What I do all day is sit in silence with the exception of when one of the scholars in the secondary emotional handicapped classroom or in Gnu's classroom erupts in anger. What I hear then is the scholar being transported down the hallway screaming and crying as they pass my classroom on the way to the sensory room.
One day I caught a break as Stimes2 pushed his chair away from his desk and said, "I have no idea what to do." I moved over to where he was working and asked him if I could look at his computer screen to see what he was working on. He agreed and this is what I saw. Stimes2 just started a new assignment entitled Sonnet Analysis. As I scrolled down the page I saw sonnets by Francesco Petrarch, Thomas Wyatt, Philip Sydney, and William Shakespeare and I thought to myself, "this is nuts." Stimes2 is behind in credits to graduate and he is barely surviving in school. One Friday he told me he was going to visit his parental unit over the weekend. When I asked him were his parental unit lived he said, "I don't know the name of the city but it is in southern Indiana." Stimes2 can't name the city his parental unit lives in and he is doing sonnet analysis. Slightly agitated I started asking questions as to why Stimes2 is studying sonnet analysis. I got several shrugs of the shoulds when I asked the teachers but finally was told to, "ask the state." Dear State of Indiana, Stimes2 is a second year senior. He is slowly, slowly trying to earn enough credits to graduate. He is eighteen years old and can just drop out but he continues to plug away. So, State of Indiana, why and the hell do you think it is necessary for this scholar to do a lesson on sonnet analysis. This is not a student on track for college. This is a student that needs to be taking vocational classes with the hope that he can learn a trade and live a comfortable life.
It's Friday afternoon and my two infantile, imbecilic, blibbits had been animated most of the afternoon. TOR is attending a conference regarding a potential new scholar. Czar is also not in the building. That just leaves me in the classroom without support should something go wrong. VerbalD and WideB are getting loud and I'm heading in their direction to get them to quiet down plus VerbalD has been showing something on his cellphone to WideB and I figured it's something inappropriate. As I approached VerbalD, he turned towards me, shoved his cellphone up towards my face, showed me a picture of a topless female, removed the cellphone from my face, and laughed at me. Keep in mind I'm alone in the classroom and TOR has already forewarned me that VerbalD can get real angry, trash the classroom and has the potential to hurt an adult. Knowing what I know, I quietly ask VerbalD to put the cellphone away. I believe he would have done so but the next thing I know the interior classroom door that connects us to the middle school opens and scholars from the middle school walked into the classroom. A behavior coach from the middle school stood in the doorway and said to me, "we have an angry scholar in our classroom and these two scholars need to come into your classroom to stay safe." When I looked at the two scholars I knew immediately that the last thing I needed in my classroom was these two scholars. Gnu once referred to her scholars as "bat shit," and these two scholars from the middle school are worse than that.
With these two additional scholars in the classroom, we went from animated to very animated. VerbalD approached one of the middle school scholars, I believe a twelve year old, and showed him something on his cellphone. The middle school scholar looked at the cellphone and said, "that is P.O.R.N." For reasons unknown to me, I looked up at the clock, saw that we were about eight minutes to early to leave for the buses but decide that I needed to get the scholars out of my classroom. I shouted to get the scholars attention and told them to head for their bus and everyone did so without any incidents.
With a discipline referral form completed and in my hand I walked over to the office. TOR and Czar were still out of the building so I handed the form to the administrative assistant and said to her, "what will be the disciplinary action taken for this type of incident?" The administrative assistant read the referral form, looked at me and said, "probably a suspension." I respond, "if this scholar remains in my classroom then you may have to find a new instructional assistant," and walk out of the building.
I found out that the disciplinary action for blatantly shoving a picture of a topless female in my face and then laughing at me was a three day suspension. On Monday morning I promptly filled out my letter of resignation telling the Czar that I will leave at the end of the day on the last day of VerbalD's three day suspension.
It's Wednesday afternoon at 2:45pm on my last day and I'm sitting in Gnu's classroom. I could tell that she did not have a good day because, like so many other bad days that preceded this bad day, she was not smiling. We talked, mostly small talk, for a couple minutes, and then I got up to leave as it was 3:00pm. I told her I needed to clock out and turned to walk out of her classroom. After only taking a couple steps I stopped and turned back and said to her, "do you mind if I give you a hug before I leave." She looked up at me, stood up, smiled that smile that was so seldom seen in this classroom and said to me, "sure." As she approached me she again apologized for talking me into returning to work. I told her that no apology was needed and said, "we had a great three year run and that is what we needed to remember." I hugged her and then walked out of the classroom, turned my ID badge in at the main office, and walked out to my car. It took me a few seconds before I started the engine of my car as I knew driving with tears in my eyes was not a good thing to do.
It's also taking me a few seconds longer that I thought to finish this blog post because the screen is blurry as I have tears in my eyes as I tell you about my last few minutes in a classroom with Gnu. With my eyes now back in focus I'm going to leave you with a quote from Forrest Gump, "that's all I have to say about that."
Here is how the school day begins, if that is what you want to call it, for the high school scholars. When they walk into the building they have a device, cellphone or tablet, with the ear buds stuck in their ears and are either listening to music, playing a game, or watching video. Once in the building, they walk to our makeshift cafeteria to pick up either their breakfast or lunch with the ear buds still stuck in their ears. The afternoon scholars eat their lunch in our makeshift cafeteria and the morning scholars eat their breakfast in the classroom and all the time they are eating the ear buds are in place. With their meals consumed, and I'll say in again, what they just ate I don't consider a meal suitable for a high school scholar, the academic day begins.
So you don't have to scroll backwards to find the blog posting about meals, I'll give you quick reminder. Here is the typical breakfast for our high school seniors. The entre is a Pop Tart with thirty-two grams of sugar, there is a milk choice but low fat chocolate milk with eighteen grams of sugar is usually the choice, there is a juice choice, and on occasion there is fruit. There is no cafeteria tray line with steam tables to keep the food hot, no options on what you can choose to eat, there is no food tray or plate, the only piece of silverware is plastic. In fact, there is not even a cafeteria worker in the building to set out the food. If an adult doesn't arrive in our makeshift cafeteria to set out the food, the scholars will have to do it themselves.
The academic day beings and pretty much stays consistent throughout the week. The scholars walk into the classroom and will either sit in a beanbag chair or at a table with a desk top computer sitting right in front of them with their devices still plugged into their ears. The more ambitious scholars will actually log into the academic software program but will quickly change their focus back on what is on their device. With no teacher in the classroom I'm the one that has to address the electronic device issue and ask that they log into the software program. The morning scholars will follow my instructions without too much difficulty but the afternoon scholars, not so much.
From my desk I have a good view of the scholars as I'm sitting behind them and I can see the computer screens. Some of them will begin their academic lesson but with their devices still plugged into their ears. The ones that don't log in have to be prodded to get started. As I watch them working on academics, I can slowly see their heads beginning to nod and eventually they are asleep. I'll then get up, make my rounds, wake up the scholars who are sleeping, sit back down and repeat the process a short time later. In a nutshell, you now get a feel for the academic day for the high school scholars.
I don't have to do what I do, I choose to do what I do and it is for this reason. I love to help scholars with their academics. In my current situation that is hard to do because there are no text books, no lesson plans that I can see, just computer screens with font settings so small I can't even read the text on the computer screen to see what a scholar is working on. What I do all day is sit in silence with the exception of when one of the scholars in the secondary emotional handicapped classroom or in Gnu's classroom erupts in anger. What I hear then is the scholar being transported down the hallway screaming and crying as they pass my classroom on the way to the sensory room.
One day I caught a break as Stimes2 pushed his chair away from his desk and said, "I have no idea what to do." I moved over to where he was working and asked him if I could look at his computer screen to see what he was working on. He agreed and this is what I saw. Stimes2 just started a new assignment entitled Sonnet Analysis. As I scrolled down the page I saw sonnets by Francesco Petrarch, Thomas Wyatt, Philip Sydney, and William Shakespeare and I thought to myself, "this is nuts." Stimes2 is behind in credits to graduate and he is barely surviving in school. One Friday he told me he was going to visit his parental unit over the weekend. When I asked him were his parental unit lived he said, "I don't know the name of the city but it is in southern Indiana." Stimes2 can't name the city his parental unit lives in and he is doing sonnet analysis. Slightly agitated I started asking questions as to why Stimes2 is studying sonnet analysis. I got several shrugs of the shoulds when I asked the teachers but finally was told to, "ask the state." Dear State of Indiana, Stimes2 is a second year senior. He is slowly, slowly trying to earn enough credits to graduate. He is eighteen years old and can just drop out but he continues to plug away. So, State of Indiana, why and the hell do you think it is necessary for this scholar to do a lesson on sonnet analysis. This is not a student on track for college. This is a student that needs to be taking vocational classes with the hope that he can learn a trade and live a comfortable life.
It's Friday afternoon and my two infantile, imbecilic, blibbits had been animated most of the afternoon. TOR is attending a conference regarding a potential new scholar. Czar is also not in the building. That just leaves me in the classroom without support should something go wrong. VerbalD and WideB are getting loud and I'm heading in their direction to get them to quiet down plus VerbalD has been showing something on his cellphone to WideB and I figured it's something inappropriate. As I approached VerbalD, he turned towards me, shoved his cellphone up towards my face, showed me a picture of a topless female, removed the cellphone from my face, and laughed at me. Keep in mind I'm alone in the classroom and TOR has already forewarned me that VerbalD can get real angry, trash the classroom and has the potential to hurt an adult. Knowing what I know, I quietly ask VerbalD to put the cellphone away. I believe he would have done so but the next thing I know the interior classroom door that connects us to the middle school opens and scholars from the middle school walked into the classroom. A behavior coach from the middle school stood in the doorway and said to me, "we have an angry scholar in our classroom and these two scholars need to come into your classroom to stay safe." When I looked at the two scholars I knew immediately that the last thing I needed in my classroom was these two scholars. Gnu once referred to her scholars as "bat shit," and these two scholars from the middle school are worse than that.
With these two additional scholars in the classroom, we went from animated to very animated. VerbalD approached one of the middle school scholars, I believe a twelve year old, and showed him something on his cellphone. The middle school scholar looked at the cellphone and said, "that is P.O.R.N." For reasons unknown to me, I looked up at the clock, saw that we were about eight minutes to early to leave for the buses but decide that I needed to get the scholars out of my classroom. I shouted to get the scholars attention and told them to head for their bus and everyone did so without any incidents.
With a discipline referral form completed and in my hand I walked over to the office. TOR and Czar were still out of the building so I handed the form to the administrative assistant and said to her, "what will be the disciplinary action taken for this type of incident?" The administrative assistant read the referral form, looked at me and said, "probably a suspension." I respond, "if this scholar remains in my classroom then you may have to find a new instructional assistant," and walk out of the building.
I found out that the disciplinary action for blatantly shoving a picture of a topless female in my face and then laughing at me was a three day suspension. On Monday morning I promptly filled out my letter of resignation telling the Czar that I will leave at the end of the day on the last day of VerbalD's three day suspension.
It's Wednesday afternoon at 2:45pm on my last day and I'm sitting in Gnu's classroom. I could tell that she did not have a good day because, like so many other bad days that preceded this bad day, she was not smiling. We talked, mostly small talk, for a couple minutes, and then I got up to leave as it was 3:00pm. I told her I needed to clock out and turned to walk out of her classroom. After only taking a couple steps I stopped and turned back and said to her, "do you mind if I give you a hug before I leave." She looked up at me, stood up, smiled that smile that was so seldom seen in this classroom and said to me, "sure." As she approached me she again apologized for talking me into returning to work. I told her that no apology was needed and said, "we had a great three year run and that is what we needed to remember." I hugged her and then walked out of the classroom, turned my ID badge in at the main office, and walked out to my car. It took me a few seconds before I started the engine of my car as I knew driving with tears in my eyes was not a good thing to do.
It's also taking me a few seconds longer that I thought to finish this blog post because the screen is blurry as I have tears in my eyes as I tell you about my last few minutes in a classroom with Gnu. With my eyes now back in focus I'm going to leave you with a quote from Forrest Gump, "that's all I have to say about that."
Sunday, September 17, 2017
The Beginning
It's Saturday evening. The sun is about to set on another beautiful day. My part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse is in Bay City, Michigan, dining of fresh lake perch and probably consuming a craft beer at the local Moose Lodge. Me, I eating leftovers and sitting in my favorite blogging location, the screened in porch on the back of the house, and getting an early start on the blog.
So, where do I start? I think I'll do the introductions and then go from there.
Tick Tick
Truck
HandF
Stimes2
Quiet
WideB
VerbalD
Silent
Unfortunate
So, who are these scholars you ask. Patience! I'm getting there.
The subject was broached a couple times previously and I remained non committal. On a Monday morning, just prior to the scholars arriving, the subject came up again. Czar talking, "I'd like you to go across the hallway and be the instructional assistant that will support the middle school and high school teacher. I think having an adult male in the room will be good for those scholars." So, with the Czar standing right in front of me, with the instructional assistant that was in the middle school and high school classroom immediately next to her, and Gnu sitting at her table at the front of the room I asked one question. "When would you like this change to start?" "Right now," said the Czar. With little thought I stood up, walked to the back of the classroom, pick up my lunch, exited Gnu's classroom, turned right, walked about fifty-five feet down the hallway, turned left, and walked into the high school classroom.
In the process of doing so, the Czar didn't even bother to come with me. When I entered the classroom TOR greeted me and said, "are you going to be my assistant?" I replied, "yes." TOR continued, "would you like to be the assistant in the middle school classroom or the high school classroom?" Knowing that the scholars in the middle school could easily match the "bat shit" label that Gnu gave her scholars, I said, "the high school."
Here is some background information before I proceed. The middle school classroom and the high school classroom are two separate classrooms that are connected by an interior door. As you already know, the high school classroom has nine scholars. I believe the middle school classroom has five scholars. There is only one teacher for the two separate classrooms, that is TOR. There is only one instructional assistant for the two classrooms, that is me. Again, two separate classrooms, with scholars ranging from the seventh grade through high school seniors, and only one teacher.
So, how is this going to work you ask? I'm not sure it will but we'll see. TOR will be in the middle school classroom as those scholars attend school all day and she will have to develop lesson plans and actually teach. The high school scholars only attend school for half of the day. There are five scholars in the morning and four scholars in the afternoon. No teaching is actually required as all of their academics is done on-line using an academic software program that the school community purchased. With no academic responsibility I initially spent a lot of my time doing very little. After being totally bored for a couple days I started to get involved with high school academics.
As this might seem a bit unusual, I have to make an adjustment to the scholars listed as one actually disappeared before I arrived in the classroom. Gone is Tick Tick as this scholar went BOOM. That is a little inside play on words and we'll see if a certain reader picks up on it. The reason for the sudden departure, Tick Tick, in a outburst of anger threated to cause greatly bodily harm to the siblings of an adult in the real high school and was expelled. Yes, just like I have for the past five years and seven or so weeks, I'm working with scholars that have anger controls issues and this time some of them are bigger than I am.
I'm going to delay the discussion about academics until the next blog posting and instead I'll give you a brief description of the scholars. There are now four scholars in the morning, Truck, HandF, Quiet, Stimes2, and I like them. With the exception of a couple minor incidents, they've been quiet and I've been pretty bored. The four afternoon scholars, WideB, VerbalD, Silent, and Unfortunate, on the other hand have been very active and animated. Bored is not a term that I'd used to describe my afternoon. WideB and VerbalD are immature, imbecilic, blibbits* that banter on all afternoon. Unfortunate, despite being in high school, has the maturity level of some one in elementary school and pretty much idolizes VerbalD.
One quick story about Unfortunate, a definition of the word blibbit and I'm going to call it a day. I was with Unfortunate at the end of the day waiting for his bus to arrive. As we were standing at the door waiting, he asked me if I knew how he could get five hundred dollars. "What do you need five hundred dollars for," I asked him. "My parental unit is in jail and I need the money to bail him out." After Unfortunate departed, I walked over to our main office and mentioned my conversation with Unfortunate to our school door guard. "I hope you didn't give him any money," she said to me. "Nope!" "Good as he is a manipulator and so you know, his parental units seem to rotate going in and out of jail."
In 1968 and 1969, I worked second shift in a factory called Kuhlman Electric Company. One of my co-works, his name was Eugene, frequently came into work half liquored up. As I was talking to him one afternoon he looked over at one of his co-workers and said to me, "Virgil over there is a blibbit." "He's a what," I said. "A blibbit. You mean to tell me you don't know what a blibbit is." "No," I replied. "A blibbit is ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag," he informed me and that is a perfect description for WideB and VerbalD.
It's time to call it a day. Before I do, if you know anything about Francesco Petrarca, let me know as you may be able to help me with high school academics. Thanks for following along. See you next week.
So, where do I start? I think I'll do the introductions and then go from there.
Tick Tick
Truck
HandF
Stimes2
Quiet
WideB
VerbalD
Silent
Unfortunate
So, who are these scholars you ask. Patience! I'm getting there.
The subject was broached a couple times previously and I remained non committal. On a Monday morning, just prior to the scholars arriving, the subject came up again. Czar talking, "I'd like you to go across the hallway and be the instructional assistant that will support the middle school and high school teacher. I think having an adult male in the room will be good for those scholars." So, with the Czar standing right in front of me, with the instructional assistant that was in the middle school and high school classroom immediately next to her, and Gnu sitting at her table at the front of the room I asked one question. "When would you like this change to start?" "Right now," said the Czar. With little thought I stood up, walked to the back of the classroom, pick up my lunch, exited Gnu's classroom, turned right, walked about fifty-five feet down the hallway, turned left, and walked into the high school classroom.
In the process of doing so, the Czar didn't even bother to come with me. When I entered the classroom TOR greeted me and said, "are you going to be my assistant?" I replied, "yes." TOR continued, "would you like to be the assistant in the middle school classroom or the high school classroom?" Knowing that the scholars in the middle school could easily match the "bat shit" label that Gnu gave her scholars, I said, "the high school."
Here is some background information before I proceed. The middle school classroom and the high school classroom are two separate classrooms that are connected by an interior door. As you already know, the high school classroom has nine scholars. I believe the middle school classroom has five scholars. There is only one teacher for the two separate classrooms, that is TOR. There is only one instructional assistant for the two classrooms, that is me. Again, two separate classrooms, with scholars ranging from the seventh grade through high school seniors, and only one teacher.
So, how is this going to work you ask? I'm not sure it will but we'll see. TOR will be in the middle school classroom as those scholars attend school all day and she will have to develop lesson plans and actually teach. The high school scholars only attend school for half of the day. There are five scholars in the morning and four scholars in the afternoon. No teaching is actually required as all of their academics is done on-line using an academic software program that the school community purchased. With no academic responsibility I initially spent a lot of my time doing very little. After being totally bored for a couple days I started to get involved with high school academics.
As this might seem a bit unusual, I have to make an adjustment to the scholars listed as one actually disappeared before I arrived in the classroom. Gone is Tick Tick as this scholar went BOOM. That is a little inside play on words and we'll see if a certain reader picks up on it. The reason for the sudden departure, Tick Tick, in a outburst of anger threated to cause greatly bodily harm to the siblings of an adult in the real high school and was expelled. Yes, just like I have for the past five years and seven or so weeks, I'm working with scholars that have anger controls issues and this time some of them are bigger than I am.
I'm going to delay the discussion about academics until the next blog posting and instead I'll give you a brief description of the scholars. There are now four scholars in the morning, Truck, HandF, Quiet, Stimes2, and I like them. With the exception of a couple minor incidents, they've been quiet and I've been pretty bored. The four afternoon scholars, WideB, VerbalD, Silent, and Unfortunate, on the other hand have been very active and animated. Bored is not a term that I'd used to describe my afternoon. WideB and VerbalD are immature, imbecilic, blibbits* that banter on all afternoon. Unfortunate, despite being in high school, has the maturity level of some one in elementary school and pretty much idolizes VerbalD.
One quick story about Unfortunate, a definition of the word blibbit and I'm going to call it a day. I was with Unfortunate at the end of the day waiting for his bus to arrive. As we were standing at the door waiting, he asked me if I knew how he could get five hundred dollars. "What do you need five hundred dollars for," I asked him. "My parental unit is in jail and I need the money to bail him out." After Unfortunate departed, I walked over to our main office and mentioned my conversation with Unfortunate to our school door guard. "I hope you didn't give him any money," she said to me. "Nope!" "Good as he is a manipulator and so you know, his parental units seem to rotate going in and out of jail."
In 1968 and 1969, I worked second shift in a factory called Kuhlman Electric Company. One of my co-works, his name was Eugene, frequently came into work half liquored up. As I was talking to him one afternoon he looked over at one of his co-workers and said to me, "Virgil over there is a blibbit." "He's a what," I said. "A blibbit. You mean to tell me you don't know what a blibbit is." "No," I replied. "A blibbit is ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag," he informed me and that is a perfect description for WideB and VerbalD.
It's time to call it a day. Before I do, if you know anything about Francesco Petrarca, let me know as you may be able to help me with high school academics. Thanks for following along. See you next week.
Sunday, September 10, 2017
The End
In what may be a first, I'm writing this blog on a Saturday afternoon. Why? I'm not really sure. It's a beautiful day, no wild fires, no earthquakes, no hurricane number one, no hurricane number two, no building hurricanes that will be labeled number three and number four, so I just decided to write.
It's been two weeks since the last blog post and a lot has happened. So much has happened that I have several Post It notes sitting directly in front of me plus several notes on my cellphone note app. As I looked at all these notes I arranged them in a sequence and then I realized something. All these notes are from two weeks ago, the week prior to Labor Day weekend.
A new scholar arrived. I've assigned him a name so lets start with an updated listing of the scholars that occupy desks directly in front of Gnu.
Grab - third grade
DQ - third grade
KVA - second grade
Thumb - second grade
Cube - first grade
Nograb - first grade
Nograb is our new scholar. Although Gnu knew he was coming it took a little longer that expected as Nograb's parental unit wrestled with the idea of sending him to our school. Eventually, following a case conference, the parental unit decided that our school was the best place for this young scholar. Gnu informed me that Nograb was going to arrive and also told me that his behavior has been so poor at his previous school that he will only be in our classroom for two hours a day. Knowing the degree of difficultly working with our five present scholars having Nograb only in our classroom for two hours a day put me a little at ease.
It was a Monday morning when Nograb arrived. Gnu was at the front of the room. Merlot, our behavior coach was in the room. I was sitting where I have a nice view from the side of the room and the scholars were all doing their morning when Nograb walked into the classroom. My first reaction when I saw him was that he was big for his grade level. As Nograb walked in, three adults followed him into the classroom. Seeing them, Gnu got up and walked to the back of the room to introduce herself to Nograb. She then escorted Nograb to his seat, which was right in the center of the classroom, with two of the three adults following close by. With the third adult remaining in the back of the classroom near the door I got up, walked over and introduced myself. "Hello, I'm Mrs. Gnu's assistant" and shook hands with the adult. The adult shook my hand and said, "I'm the parental unit."
With the parental unit departing, the day got back on track. Gnu returned to the front table. I returned to my seat at the side of the classroom and Merlot sat directly opposite of me on the other side of the classroom. Interestingly, the two other unknown adults remained in the classroom and took up a standing position about three or four feet directly behind Nograb. When the timing was right I approached one of the adults to introduce myself and found out I as speaking to a behavior coach assistant and that the other adult I didn't know was a behavior coach. When Nograb's two hours in the classroom were up and he departed with his escorts I asked Gnu about the other two adults. She informed me that these two adults will be with Nograb everyday that he is in our classroom and they will address any behavioral eruptions he has. Two adults and one scholar and I'm thinking to myself what exactly is sitting in the center of our classroom.
It was midmorning on Tuesday when I discovered why there were two adults and one scholar. I'm not exactly sure what happened but Nograb got up from his desk and started walking around the room and refusing to return to his desk. As he walked I could see his body language change. His face was tense and so was his body as he continued to walk around the room. When he headed toward the classroom door one of his assigned escorts block his way and told him he needed to stay in the classroom. Knowing what was about to happen I switched from my observation mode to my getting involved mode and walked towards our classroom door. As I stood behind Nograb he made his first attempt at forcing his way past his escort. The escort blocked his path and then made eye contact with me and said, "we need to get him out of this classroom right now and take him to the sensory room (this is a fancy name for our time out room)." After a short walk down the hallway Nograb was in our sensory room. As we walked Nograb into the sensory room I asked the escort (behavior coach) how long I should stay in the room. She responded, "until another adult arrives. I don't want to be in the room with him alone."
Although I'm sure I mentioned this in a previous blog, I'll mention it again. When Nograb was at his previous school his behavior was so poor his academic day was only one hour and during that one hour he was secluded from all of his classmates.
So there you have it. One new scholar with two personal escorts who remain near him all day added to our five previous scholars with four of them having an oppositional defiant disorder. Brothers and sisters, this is a tough, tough, tough situation. Please keep Gnu in your prayers as she faces the undaunting task or educating these six young scholars.
An ODD story. This is only one of the many I could choose from. DQ is doing her morning work. The task is pretty simple for someone in the third grade, just put five groups of four words into alphabetical order. That is a total of twenty words just in case you didn't bother to do the math. Are there any estimates on how long it took DQ to complete the assignment? It took ninety minutes over a two day period. With each attempt to keep her focused on the task, she redirected the conversation to another topic. At one point, in the midst of this defiant behavior, I wrote out the alphabet on a 5" x 7" card to handed it to her. DQ's defiant behavior over the ninety minutes finally ended when she got frustrated with my attempts to get her to complete the assignment and she said to me in an angry voice, "alphabetical order is too complicated."
A "stupid mistake" or a "human error" middle school story. The announcement came across the walkie talkie that sits on Gnu's front desk, "we have a package in the hallway." The package didn't belong to Gnu so we both remained on task. In a matter of a couple minutes, the walkie talkie spoke again, "the package has eloped." Again, we chose to do nothing as other adults were responsible for the package (scholar) as well the package elopement (scholar running out of the school.) Several minutes after the elopement I needed to take a break to use the restroom. My restroom of choice is in the main office. In order to get to the restroom I have to walk past the Czar's office. As I passed the office I looked in and the Czar was just sitting at her desk facing her computer. As I was passing the Czar's office on my way back to the classroom I looked in again and the Czar was still sitting with a blank look on her face so I tapped on the door. "Are you all right?" Paraphrasing now. "I just got punched by the eloper." "What?" I entered the office and as I did so Czar picked up her mouse, clicked, and video surveillance is running on her computer screen. The camera shows the eloper outside the school. Next to appear on the screen is the Czar in pursuit of the eloper as she makes an attempt to stop the eloper. The eloper stops, turns, and as quick as lightning sends a right handed punch at the Czar that catches her on the cheek bone on the left side of her face. The contact was solid enough to knock her backward.
I stayed in the Czar's office for a few more minutes and talked to her. "Don't try and stop an angry scholar. Especially one that is that big. Maintain visual contact, use the walkie talkie to communicate and contact campus police. Don't try grab an angry scholar." I knew what was going on in Czar's head as I've been in that position. Her first instinct was to stop the scholar before he got it by a car. In this case, the scholar was big and angry and when approached he did what others who are angry did, turn and attack. So, "stupid mistake" or "human error." Clearly a human error made by someone with approximately five weeks of experience dealing with scholars that have serious anger eruptions. I'm pretty certain this human error will not happen a second time.
Here is a summation of the first five weeks of the school year. Grab struggles transitioning from one subject to the next without breaking pencils, tearing up paper and eventually dropping to his knees and starts crying. DQ, when pressed to do some academics, will bare her fangs and hiss at you like a feral cat and then drops on the floor and cries. Cube, obsessed with dinosaurs, will go into a escalate if you redirect him from constantly drawing dinosaurs and will stand and scream in this high shrilled voice and then start crying. Thumb, without any warning, will lose focus for reasons unknown to anyone, start storming around the room knocking stuff on the floor, attempting to hit the other scholars, and then start crying. I received a text message from Gnu recently that pretty much summed up our school year. This is a direct quote, "my kids are bat shit."
I know, pretty long winded today. Hang in there for a little while longer. When the Big E and I read to her daughter and my granddaughter we end the story by saying, "the end," and then close the book. I'm not sure why the Big E started doing this but I guess it brings some finality to the story and indicates that it's time to move on to other things. I'm pretty certain, after five weeks of the school year, that you know what the environment is like for Gnu and I. So, like Big E bringing finality to a story she read to my granddaughter, I'm going to bring finality to this phase of the blog. THE END!
With the parental unit departing, the day got back on track. Gnu returned to the front table. I returned to my seat at the side of the classroom and Merlot sat directly opposite of me on the other side of the classroom. Interestingly, the two other unknown adults remained in the classroom and took up a standing position about three or four feet directly behind Nograb. When the timing was right I approached one of the adults to introduce myself and found out I as speaking to a behavior coach assistant and that the other adult I didn't know was a behavior coach. When Nograb's two hours in the classroom were up and he departed with his escorts I asked Gnu about the other two adults. She informed me that these two adults will be with Nograb everyday that he is in our classroom and they will address any behavioral eruptions he has. Two adults and one scholar and I'm thinking to myself what exactly is sitting in the center of our classroom.
It was midmorning on Tuesday when I discovered why there were two adults and one scholar. I'm not exactly sure what happened but Nograb got up from his desk and started walking around the room and refusing to return to his desk. As he walked I could see his body language change. His face was tense and so was his body as he continued to walk around the room. When he headed toward the classroom door one of his assigned escorts block his way and told him he needed to stay in the classroom. Knowing what was about to happen I switched from my observation mode to my getting involved mode and walked towards our classroom door. As I stood behind Nograb he made his first attempt at forcing his way past his escort. The escort blocked his path and then made eye contact with me and said, "we need to get him out of this classroom right now and take him to the sensory room (this is a fancy name for our time out room)." After a short walk down the hallway Nograb was in our sensory room. As we walked Nograb into the sensory room I asked the escort (behavior coach) how long I should stay in the room. She responded, "until another adult arrives. I don't want to be in the room with him alone."
Although I'm sure I mentioned this in a previous blog, I'll mention it again. When Nograb was at his previous school his behavior was so poor his academic day was only one hour and during that one hour he was secluded from all of his classmates.
So there you have it. One new scholar with two personal escorts who remain near him all day added to our five previous scholars with four of them having an oppositional defiant disorder. Brothers and sisters, this is a tough, tough, tough situation. Please keep Gnu in your prayers as she faces the undaunting task or educating these six young scholars.
An ODD story. This is only one of the many I could choose from. DQ is doing her morning work. The task is pretty simple for someone in the third grade, just put five groups of four words into alphabetical order. That is a total of twenty words just in case you didn't bother to do the math. Are there any estimates on how long it took DQ to complete the assignment? It took ninety minutes over a two day period. With each attempt to keep her focused on the task, she redirected the conversation to another topic. At one point, in the midst of this defiant behavior, I wrote out the alphabet on a 5" x 7" card to handed it to her. DQ's defiant behavior over the ninety minutes finally ended when she got frustrated with my attempts to get her to complete the assignment and she said to me in an angry voice, "alphabetical order is too complicated."
A "stupid mistake" or a "human error" middle school story. The announcement came across the walkie talkie that sits on Gnu's front desk, "we have a package in the hallway." The package didn't belong to Gnu so we both remained on task. In a matter of a couple minutes, the walkie talkie spoke again, "the package has eloped." Again, we chose to do nothing as other adults were responsible for the package (scholar) as well the package elopement (scholar running out of the school.) Several minutes after the elopement I needed to take a break to use the restroom. My restroom of choice is in the main office. In order to get to the restroom I have to walk past the Czar's office. As I passed the office I looked in and the Czar was just sitting at her desk facing her computer. As I was passing the Czar's office on my way back to the classroom I looked in again and the Czar was still sitting with a blank look on her face so I tapped on the door. "Are you all right?" Paraphrasing now. "I just got punched by the eloper." "What?" I entered the office and as I did so Czar picked up her mouse, clicked, and video surveillance is running on her computer screen. The camera shows the eloper outside the school. Next to appear on the screen is the Czar in pursuit of the eloper as she makes an attempt to stop the eloper. The eloper stops, turns, and as quick as lightning sends a right handed punch at the Czar that catches her on the cheek bone on the left side of her face. The contact was solid enough to knock her backward.
I stayed in the Czar's office for a few more minutes and talked to her. "Don't try and stop an angry scholar. Especially one that is that big. Maintain visual contact, use the walkie talkie to communicate and contact campus police. Don't try grab an angry scholar." I knew what was going on in Czar's head as I've been in that position. Her first instinct was to stop the scholar before he got it by a car. In this case, the scholar was big and angry and when approached he did what others who are angry did, turn and attack. So, "stupid mistake" or "human error." Clearly a human error made by someone with approximately five weeks of experience dealing with scholars that have serious anger eruptions. I'm pretty certain this human error will not happen a second time.
Here is a summation of the first five weeks of the school year. Grab struggles transitioning from one subject to the next without breaking pencils, tearing up paper and eventually dropping to his knees and starts crying. DQ, when pressed to do some academics, will bare her fangs and hiss at you like a feral cat and then drops on the floor and cries. Cube, obsessed with dinosaurs, will go into a escalate if you redirect him from constantly drawing dinosaurs and will stand and scream in this high shrilled voice and then start crying. Thumb, without any warning, will lose focus for reasons unknown to anyone, start storming around the room knocking stuff on the floor, attempting to hit the other scholars, and then start crying. I received a text message from Gnu recently that pretty much summed up our school year. This is a direct quote, "my kids are bat shit."
I know, pretty long winded today. Hang in there for a little while longer. When the Big E and I read to her daughter and my granddaughter we end the story by saying, "the end," and then close the book. I'm not sure why the Big E started doing this but I guess it brings some finality to the story and indicates that it's time to move on to other things. I'm pretty certain, after five weeks of the school year, that you know what the environment is like for Gnu and I. So, like Big E bringing finality to a story she read to my granddaughter, I'm going to bring finality to this phase of the blog. THE END!
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