Twice now, I've received email messages from the school corporation's main office asking me to let them know if I'm going to return to school in my same position for the next school year. Twice, I've ignored the message as I usually make that decision closer to the end of the school year. A recent turn of events, however, may force me to make that decision real soon. Gnu had a performance review with the BigB2 a few days ago. The performance review went very well but just before the meeting ended Gnu was asked what her intentions were for the next school year. I know Gnu, like me, was uncertain about the next school year. For me, it was a matter of retiring or not as I will be sixty-eight soon after the next school years begins. For Gnu, the birth of her son, some time in early June of this year, will be the deciding factor for her. Faced with the return next year question asked by the BigB2, Gnu informed her that she is going to take Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and return to the classroom in January of 2018. With Gnu's future identified, the BigB2 asked Gnu what my intentions were. She responded, "you'll have to ask him."
While Gnu's decision to stay out of the classroom until January 2018 didn't surprise me, it did bring about a couple lengthy conversations between the two of us about how the next school year will start. The game plan right now, according to the BigB2, is to try and locate a long term substitute teacher. Note, every time you read the word substitute, red flags should go up as my four and a half years of experience with substitutes, especially in an emotionally handicapped (EH) classroom, has not been good. The thought of a long term substitute was not appealing to me and Gnu recognized it immediately so she said something to me that caught me off guard. "Why don't you approach the BigB2 and tell her you are interested in being the long term substitute. Keep in mind, substitutes get paid twenty dollars and hour," she said. The additional money would be nice but money is not the reason I'm in this classroom. I believe I have the ability to move to the front of the room as I've done it numerous times before but there is one part of occupying the front of the classroom that I'm not skilled enough to do, create lesson plans for three grade levels and up to five academic levels. When I mentioned this fact to Gnu she came right back at me with this, "you don't need to do the lesson plans. You know that if you went to any fourth, third, or second grade teacher and asked them to share their lesson plans with you they'd do it without question." While Gnu is right about the lesson plans, ninety days in the front of the classroom is a daunting task. One that I'll have to think about.
Ok, let's get to the crux of the matter as it is not Gnu's absence, it is not a long term substitute, or a series of short term substitutes, or if I'm at the front of the classroom. The crux of the matter is very clear and both Gnu and I recognize it. How are the scholars going to react to the change? If everything goes according to plan, Grr!, S&T, Huey, and Tourette will return for the next school year. Grr!, S&T, and Tourette will be in the fourth grade. Huey will be in the third grade. When Grr! first starting coming into our classroom it was for one hour a day. That's it. That's all he could manage without going into some serious outbursts of anger. That behavior is very rare now. S&T came into the classroom with an IQ so low that he could have easily been placed in a life skills classroom. That didn't happen and academically he is making progress to the point that he wants to voluntarily stay after school for additional help. S&T is also the scholar that will miss Gnu the most. Any day that he walks into the classroom and he doesn't see Gnu, he turns immediately to me and ask me why she in not in the classroom. Huey, when he arrived, had anger issues, was defiant, and often refused to do any work. That does not happen very often now. Just last Friday, Huey stood in the front of the classroom and gave an oral presentation on the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson and he did a wonderful job. Tourette, the manipulator, the scholar that could put together the longest sting of obscenities that I've ever heard, hasn't made much progress but at least he progressed past the point of getting so volatile that he gets suspended from school. So, the crux of the matter is quite simple, neither Gnu nor I want the scholars to regress back to their former selves if we are not in the classroom.
I'm sitting at the kitchen table right now. On the table next to me is an established in 1885 bottle of Dr. Pepper and a container of salted, shelled peanuts. Directly in front of me is a window that faces east and I'm watching snow slowly fall to the ground. As I'm sitting at the table I'm running these scenarios through my head. There is either a long term or a series of short term substitute teachers in the classroom and a new instructional assistant as I don't return. Will the scholar make progress or regress? There is a substitute in the front of the classroom and I'm still in the classroom. Will the scholars make progress or regress? I move to the front of the classroom and there is a brand new instructional assistant in the classroom. Will the scholar make progress or regress? Four of our scholars are scheduled to return next year but will the overhead personnel, the very same personnel that rarely step foot in Gnu's classroom, decide to add several scholars to the classroom so our total goes back to ten scholars as it was at the start of the school year. Will our scholars make progress or regress. That's a lot to think about and I know, lurking in the background, is the BigB2 and soon she will call me to her office and ask for my return or don't return decision.
During the week, if something occurs in the classroom that I want to include in the blog, I write the event on a note pad on my cell phone. Right now I have too many notes so I'm going to get rid of a couple before I call it a day.
One morning, sorry, I can't recall the exact morning, an email message poured into my mailbox at school. The email message was from our school corporation superintendent and it was referencing a school that was promoting a student leadership program for the scholars of this particular school. As I continued reading the message, the superintendent mentioned that those scholar that are successful in this leadership program are eligible to earn "paraphernalia." As I looked at the word paraphernalia the first thing that came to mind was bong, roach clip, and rolling papers. Surely, I'm using the wrong definition for the word paraphernalia.
Tourette has been making regular stops at our school gift store in the morning when he arrives at school. His purchases are simple, cheap mechanical pencils, gel pens, erasers, and small note pads. After making payment for his purchases, he promptly picks up his breakfast from the cafeteria and heads to our classroom. Upon arrival in the classroom, he starts giving away all of his purchases to our scholars. On one particular morning I watched what he was doing and thought to myself that he spent quite a bit of money at our gift store so I mentioned my concern to Gnu. "Yes, I know," she said to me. "I've spoken to his parental unit and here is the response I got." "Oh, that's Tourette. He just takes money off my desk without asking," in a matter of fact way with little laugh. The parental unit thinks it's funny. The parental unit does nothing about it. The parental unit is incompetent and I don't have to gaze into a crystal ball to see what Tourette's future will be like.
That's it for the day. It's decision time or will be very soon. What to do? What to do? Maybe I'll take a reader survey and get some feedback. Thanks for continuing to follow the musing of an old, gray haired, wrinkly faced man, who spends way to much time on Sunday's writing this blog.
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Sunday, January 22, 2017
Prego Pilates
If you are reading this blog post then you realize that our country did not implode at noon last Friday. While it didn't implode, there is pepper spray in the air, their is CS gas in the air, our police offices are being pepper with rocks, vehicles are on fire, people have been injury, people have been shot, private property, as well as public property, has been destroyed. It is Sunday at 1:14pm and I have yet to hear any of the constituents from the losing party renounce the violence that anarchist from their party are responsible for across our country.
It's Wednesday morning, 9:30am, and I'm heading to math in a general education classroom with Knapper and BigHouse, when I'm told that the general education classroom that I'm heading to is in the computer lab. Knowing this, I alter my route and enter the computer lab. The teacher is there and informs me that her class has to take part in a pre-mandatory state testing exercise to see if the software used for the mandatory testing can stand the load coming from thousands of school computers. I was told that this load test, in combination with a practice math test on the computers, would last for one hour. After getting all of the scholars logged in, they started the practice math test. The testing was going on for about fifteen minutes when it happened. The first scholar was kick off the website. Shorty after that another scholar and then another scholar and then another scholar was kicked off the website. When all was said and done, approximately forty percent of the scholars participating in the load test were kicked off the website. For a number of years now, the software used for the statewide testing in the state of Indiana has failed. For a number of years now the lowest life form on earth, the politician, and their colleagues, the pointed headed intellectuals, that are responsible for this test, continue to do the same thing over and over knowing that the process is a complete failure. I don't think there is another state in the nation that keeps spending millions and millions of dollars on a failed process. Well, there is Washington, DC but technically, it is not a state.
Speaking of general education classrooms, Uh-Uh-Uh, MiniJ, Knapper, and Big House have been to going to a general education classroom daily for both math and reading. I'm only involved with the math portion so I can't speak as to how the scholars are doing in reading but let me tell you about math. I am proud to announce that our scholars, often referred to THOSE scholars, are holding their own. Twice a week, our scholars take a timed, seventy-two math problems test, that lasts six minutes. The problems are either multiplication or division with the test problems ranging from easy, Level A, to hard, Level D. Although Uh-Uh-Uh is still stuck on Level A, MiniJ and Knapper have advanced to Level C and best of all, BigHouse has advanced to Level D. Here is the motivator that has our scholars, whenever they have a few minutes of free time, wanting to practice multiplication and division. When you pass Level D, that is, answering a combination of seventy-two multiplication or division problems correctly in six minutes, you get to celebrate. So, how do you celebrate. Right in the middle of this general education classroom is a large, wooden, octagon shaped picnic table. When you pass Level D, you get to climb up on the picnic table, the teacher puts on a song from Kool and the Gang called "Celebration" and you get to show of your best dance moves. As the celebrant is dancing, all the other scholars in the classroom have to mimic the celebrating scholars dance moves. Last Friday, BigHouse asked me twice to give him the Level D practice test when he had some free time. The first time he didn't do very well as the classroom was too noisy. On his second attempt he got seventy-one out of seventy-two correct. On either Tuesday or Thursday of next week, BigHouse is going to past the test and when he gets up on that picnic table to dance I am going to do whatever is necessary so that his teacher of record, Gnu, is in the classroom to celebrate with him.
Here is a Blank update. He was at my math station with S&T, Huey, and Whale and they were working on two digit math problems in their workbook. S&T, Huey, and Whale were doing fine but I noticed that Blank, rather than doing the first math problem, was on the adjoining page of the workbook counting all the letters in math story problem. I watched him for a short time and then decided to get him back on track. I reached across my table at the back of the room and told him he needed to get back on task and pointed to the math problem that he was supposed to start on. When I did this he immediately started to raise his voice sounding angry. Rather than force the issue and have him go into a full scale anger eruption I backed away but continued to observe what he was doing. The first math problem was twenty-seven subtract fourteen and as I watched him I figured out what he was doing. On the adjoining page of story problems, Blank was at the first problem. He started with the first word of the first problem and starting counting the individual letters until he got to the twenty-seventh letter and then he stopped. Then he looked back at the math problem on the proceeding page and saw the number fourteen. He then started counting letters backward, crossing off the individual letters, until he got to fourteen. From there, he started counting the remaining uncrossed off letters and came up with the right answer to the first math problem. I've watched, over the years, our scholars use a lot of different techniques to add or subtract but this was a first for me.
Alright, let's introduce prego pilates. It's Thursday morning and I'm sitting at my back table when Gnu arrives. We exchange greetings and she walks up to her table at the front of the room and logs in on her laptop to check her email. At one point, I looked up at her and saw her rubbing her stomach, which is slowly enlarging. A little concerned at what I see, I asked her if she is alright. "Yes, I'm fine," she responded. "I'm just a little sore this morning." "You're sore," I say. "Yes, my doctor was a little concerned that I would not have the strength to push the baby out during the delivery process so she has me enrolled in pilates for pregnant women. I never realized how weak I was and right now my entire body aches." I thought I had the perfect come back comment to make but after thirty-eight years of marriage I've learned when it is the right time to keep my mouth shut.
Fast forward, it's still Thursday but now it's 4:00pm and I'm about to leave for the day. S&T is at the front table with Gnu as he is staying late to improve his reading skills. Just as I'm about walk out the door Gnu said to S&T, "you have to come with me for a walk around the school." "Miss Gnu," S&T responded, "I want to stay in the classroom and do MindPlay." Mindplay is a reading website that our scholars use when they are at the independent reading station. "No, you have to come and walk with me. My body is so sore that I just need to move around so you are coming with me to make sure that I walk fast enough and far enough," Gnu tells S&T. As I say my good byes to Gnu and S&T I think to myself, we've gone from prego pilates to prego power walking in just a matter of days, so I wonder what it will be like working with Gnu during the month of May through the first week of June.
It's time to stop. I'm going to turn on the television to catch the latest from the anarchist of the loosing political party and then watch some NFL football. Assuming that the anarchist won't be annoyed with me and decide to torch my house, I'll be back next week.
It's Wednesday morning, 9:30am, and I'm heading to math in a general education classroom with Knapper and BigHouse, when I'm told that the general education classroom that I'm heading to is in the computer lab. Knowing this, I alter my route and enter the computer lab. The teacher is there and informs me that her class has to take part in a pre-mandatory state testing exercise to see if the software used for the mandatory testing can stand the load coming from thousands of school computers. I was told that this load test, in combination with a practice math test on the computers, would last for one hour. After getting all of the scholars logged in, they started the practice math test. The testing was going on for about fifteen minutes when it happened. The first scholar was kick off the website. Shorty after that another scholar and then another scholar and then another scholar was kicked off the website. When all was said and done, approximately forty percent of the scholars participating in the load test were kicked off the website. For a number of years now, the software used for the statewide testing in the state of Indiana has failed. For a number of years now the lowest life form on earth, the politician, and their colleagues, the pointed headed intellectuals, that are responsible for this test, continue to do the same thing over and over knowing that the process is a complete failure. I don't think there is another state in the nation that keeps spending millions and millions of dollars on a failed process. Well, there is Washington, DC but technically, it is not a state.
Speaking of general education classrooms, Uh-Uh-Uh, MiniJ, Knapper, and Big House have been to going to a general education classroom daily for both math and reading. I'm only involved with the math portion so I can't speak as to how the scholars are doing in reading but let me tell you about math. I am proud to announce that our scholars, often referred to THOSE scholars, are holding their own. Twice a week, our scholars take a timed, seventy-two math problems test, that lasts six minutes. The problems are either multiplication or division with the test problems ranging from easy, Level A, to hard, Level D. Although Uh-Uh-Uh is still stuck on Level A, MiniJ and Knapper have advanced to Level C and best of all, BigHouse has advanced to Level D. Here is the motivator that has our scholars, whenever they have a few minutes of free time, wanting to practice multiplication and division. When you pass Level D, that is, answering a combination of seventy-two multiplication or division problems correctly in six minutes, you get to celebrate. So, how do you celebrate. Right in the middle of this general education classroom is a large, wooden, octagon shaped picnic table. When you pass Level D, you get to climb up on the picnic table, the teacher puts on a song from Kool and the Gang called "Celebration" and you get to show of your best dance moves. As the celebrant is dancing, all the other scholars in the classroom have to mimic the celebrating scholars dance moves. Last Friday, BigHouse asked me twice to give him the Level D practice test when he had some free time. The first time he didn't do very well as the classroom was too noisy. On his second attempt he got seventy-one out of seventy-two correct. On either Tuesday or Thursday of next week, BigHouse is going to past the test and when he gets up on that picnic table to dance I am going to do whatever is necessary so that his teacher of record, Gnu, is in the classroom to celebrate with him.
Here is a Blank update. He was at my math station with S&T, Huey, and Whale and they were working on two digit math problems in their workbook. S&T, Huey, and Whale were doing fine but I noticed that Blank, rather than doing the first math problem, was on the adjoining page of the workbook counting all the letters in math story problem. I watched him for a short time and then decided to get him back on track. I reached across my table at the back of the room and told him he needed to get back on task and pointed to the math problem that he was supposed to start on. When I did this he immediately started to raise his voice sounding angry. Rather than force the issue and have him go into a full scale anger eruption I backed away but continued to observe what he was doing. The first math problem was twenty-seven subtract fourteen and as I watched him I figured out what he was doing. On the adjoining page of story problems, Blank was at the first problem. He started with the first word of the first problem and starting counting the individual letters until he got to the twenty-seventh letter and then he stopped. Then he looked back at the math problem on the proceeding page and saw the number fourteen. He then started counting letters backward, crossing off the individual letters, until he got to fourteen. From there, he started counting the remaining uncrossed off letters and came up with the right answer to the first math problem. I've watched, over the years, our scholars use a lot of different techniques to add or subtract but this was a first for me.
Alright, let's introduce prego pilates. It's Thursday morning and I'm sitting at my back table when Gnu arrives. We exchange greetings and she walks up to her table at the front of the room and logs in on her laptop to check her email. At one point, I looked up at her and saw her rubbing her stomach, which is slowly enlarging. A little concerned at what I see, I asked her if she is alright. "Yes, I'm fine," she responded. "I'm just a little sore this morning." "You're sore," I say. "Yes, my doctor was a little concerned that I would not have the strength to push the baby out during the delivery process so she has me enrolled in pilates for pregnant women. I never realized how weak I was and right now my entire body aches." I thought I had the perfect come back comment to make but after thirty-eight years of marriage I've learned when it is the right time to keep my mouth shut.
Fast forward, it's still Thursday but now it's 4:00pm and I'm about to leave for the day. S&T is at the front table with Gnu as he is staying late to improve his reading skills. Just as I'm about walk out the door Gnu said to S&T, "you have to come with me for a walk around the school." "Miss Gnu," S&T responded, "I want to stay in the classroom and do MindPlay." Mindplay is a reading website that our scholars use when they are at the independent reading station. "No, you have to come and walk with me. My body is so sore that I just need to move around so you are coming with me to make sure that I walk fast enough and far enough," Gnu tells S&T. As I say my good byes to Gnu and S&T I think to myself, we've gone from prego pilates to prego power walking in just a matter of days, so I wonder what it will be like working with Gnu during the month of May through the first week of June.
It's time to stop. I'm going to turn on the television to catch the latest from the anarchist of the loosing political party and then watch some NFL football. Assuming that the anarchist won't be annoyed with me and decide to torch my house, I'll be back next week.
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
"A Hot Mess"
Today is Tuesday, January 17th, one day after we celebrated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, and three days before our country implodes up itself. The implosion should begin around noon this Friday so I thought I'd squeeze in one more blog post before all hell breaks loose.
Email messages continue to arrive from the school's administrative czar advising the adults, that man the car rider line, about changes regarding parental units that pick up a scholar at the end of the day. Here is the latest one and it again reinforces my belief that some of our scholars have no chance at living a normal life. The email message read, please be aware that only the mother of Scholar A is allow to pick up the scholar after school. No man is supposed to pick up Scholar A even if the man states that he is Scholar A's dad. So you know, on this scholar's birth certificate, no man's name is listed. As a reminder, for the gazillionth time, I don't make this stuff up.
Before I move on to tell you about the new scholar that joined Gnu and I a few days ago I thought I'd let you know about a very animated conversation that I had with one of those teachers that works at a voucher school. The subject being discussed was the 21st Century Scholarship Program for students in the state of Indiana. Briefly, a 21st Century Scholarship provides students up to four years of undergraduate tuition, and in some cases room and board, at any participating public college or university in Indiana. In addition to the scholarship, each student will get step-by-step help to make sure they succeed in college plus support to insure that the student finishes all the degree requirements.
A free four year degree, got it. What is the catch you ask? Meeting the requirements is brutal. First, you have to actually sign up for the scholarship as the state of Indiana will not seek you out. Second, you need to carry a 2.5 (C+) grade point average. Those are the requirements, all two of them. Alright, back to the animated conversation with this voucher school teacher. I'll be paraphrasing, "this scholar has an opportunity to get a college degree practically for free. I've done everything I can get this scholar to sign up. I tried to get the scholar to talk to his parental units about this matter with no success. I tried to call this scholar's parental units but without success. I tried to get the parental units to come to school and discuss the scholarship without success. There is an opportunity for this scholar to earn a college degree for practically nothing and I can't get the parental units to agree to sign up for the scholarship.
Is this crazy or what? Now, quoting Paul Harvey, "here is the rest of the story." The parental units have a cell phone but there is no money for cell phone minutes. The parental units have difficulty getting to school for a meeting because they both work. The parental units, with a scholar in middle school, who have lived in this country for years, failed to take the time to learn the English language. There is a free ride to an Indiana college or university (Indiana University, Purdue University, Ball State University, or Indiana State University) that is available to this scholar. There is an opportunity for this scholar to end the cycle of poverty for his family and the opportunity is going to be missed because the parental unit absolutely failed to adjust to their environment and learn the English language.
On to our new scholar. Although you don't know it, it took me forever to come up with a name for this scholar. In the past, selecting a name was easy. Usually it was something the scholar said to me, or how they looked, or what they wore on the first day of school. With this particular scholar I kept drawing a blank. After three days observing this scholar and consistently drawing a blank on selecting a name, I finally came up with a name. I've decided to call this scholar Blank. Below is an updated listing of our scholars.
Knapper - 4th grade
MiniJ - 4th grade
Uh-Uh-Uh - 4th grade
Big House - 4th grade
Tourette - 3rd grade
Grr! - 3rd grade
S&T - 3rd grade
Huey - 2nd grade
Whale - 2nd grade (part time)
Blank - 2nd grade (part time)
Fortunately Whale and Blank are part time and Gnu is not the teacher of record for these young scholars. Blank is an interesting story and when Gnu explains it, it gets just as animated as the conversation I had with that voucher teacher. Paraphrasing again, "Blank can't be in this classroom. He doesn't have a special education label of any kind and he doesn't even have an individual education plan (IEP). You just can't assign a scholar to an emotionally handicapped classroom without any labels. His being in this classroom is probably illegal."
Blank is not new to us. I first met this scholar in kindergarten when I was called to his classroom to remove him before he hit someone. I met Blank again in the first grade for the same reason. Although I didn't have to deal with him until a few days ago, he hasn't changed much. For the most part he is rarely in his assigned classroom as he is too disruptive. A couple days after Blank was assigned to our class, his teacher of record walked into our classroom shortly after the end of our school day. Like that voucher school teacher and Gnu discussing the legality of Blank being in our classroom, Blank's teacher of record had an equally animated conversation with Gnu. "Oh my God! Oh my God! This scholar is a hot mess. There are close to sixty pages of notes tracking the behavior of this scholar going back a couple years and nothing was done about it. If there was ever a scholar that belongs in an EH room this is one. Oh my God, this scholar is a hot mess."
The sixty pages of notes comment caught my attention. How can you gather sixty pages of notes about a scholar's poor behavior and nothing happens. As Blank's teacher of record continued speaking, I found out. The sixty pages of notes were hand written in sentence format. When they were presented to the special education overhead person, this person rejected them because they were not in the correct format. Apparently the notes, rather than being in sentences, had to be on a check list that listed the unacceptable behavior with an accompanying check mark indicating how may times Blank exhibited this unacceptable behavior. When told by an overhead person to redo all of the notes into a check list format this overhead person was told, "no." Once again, an overhead person, when given an opportunity to do something positive to help a classroom teacher, went into work avoidance, thought up some lame excuse to avoid the work, and placed the work right back into the hands of the classroom teacher. I spent thirty-four years working for a management services company and, in a lot of those years, I occupied an overhead position, so I know what overhead people are supposed to do. They are supposed to remove obstacles for their customers to make their job easier. They are not supposed to do the opposite, create more work for their customers, solely because they don't want to work too hard.
Blank has been with us for a number of days now and it has been pretty uneventful. I'm not sure how long that will last but at least he is off to a good start. It's about 4:05pm on Tuesday and my four day weekend is rapidly coming to a close. My objective over the next two and a half days is to build a fall out shelter similar to those built in the1950's in preparation for the implosion that will occur at noon this Friday. If I survive the implosion I'll post another blog next week. Now, where is my shovel as I need to dig a deep hole in the ground in a very short period of time.
Email messages continue to arrive from the school's administrative czar advising the adults, that man the car rider line, about changes regarding parental units that pick up a scholar at the end of the day. Here is the latest one and it again reinforces my belief that some of our scholars have no chance at living a normal life. The email message read, please be aware that only the mother of Scholar A is allow to pick up the scholar after school. No man is supposed to pick up Scholar A even if the man states that he is Scholar A's dad. So you know, on this scholar's birth certificate, no man's name is listed. As a reminder, for the gazillionth time, I don't make this stuff up.
Before I move on to tell you about the new scholar that joined Gnu and I a few days ago I thought I'd let you know about a very animated conversation that I had with one of those teachers that works at a voucher school. The subject being discussed was the 21st Century Scholarship Program for students in the state of Indiana. Briefly, a 21st Century Scholarship provides students up to four years of undergraduate tuition, and in some cases room and board, at any participating public college or university in Indiana. In addition to the scholarship, each student will get step-by-step help to make sure they succeed in college plus support to insure that the student finishes all the degree requirements.
A free four year degree, got it. What is the catch you ask? Meeting the requirements is brutal. First, you have to actually sign up for the scholarship as the state of Indiana will not seek you out. Second, you need to carry a 2.5 (C+) grade point average. Those are the requirements, all two of them. Alright, back to the animated conversation with this voucher school teacher. I'll be paraphrasing, "this scholar has an opportunity to get a college degree practically for free. I've done everything I can get this scholar to sign up. I tried to get the scholar to talk to his parental units about this matter with no success. I tried to call this scholar's parental units but without success. I tried to get the parental units to come to school and discuss the scholarship without success. There is an opportunity for this scholar to earn a college degree for practically nothing and I can't get the parental units to agree to sign up for the scholarship.
Is this crazy or what? Now, quoting Paul Harvey, "here is the rest of the story." The parental units have a cell phone but there is no money for cell phone minutes. The parental units have difficulty getting to school for a meeting because they both work. The parental units, with a scholar in middle school, who have lived in this country for years, failed to take the time to learn the English language. There is a free ride to an Indiana college or university (Indiana University, Purdue University, Ball State University, or Indiana State University) that is available to this scholar. There is an opportunity for this scholar to end the cycle of poverty for his family and the opportunity is going to be missed because the parental unit absolutely failed to adjust to their environment and learn the English language.
On to our new scholar. Although you don't know it, it took me forever to come up with a name for this scholar. In the past, selecting a name was easy. Usually it was something the scholar said to me, or how they looked, or what they wore on the first day of school. With this particular scholar I kept drawing a blank. After three days observing this scholar and consistently drawing a blank on selecting a name, I finally came up with a name. I've decided to call this scholar Blank. Below is an updated listing of our scholars.
Knapper - 4th grade
MiniJ - 4th grade
Uh-Uh-Uh - 4th grade
Big House - 4th grade
Tourette - 3rd grade
Grr! - 3rd grade
S&T - 3rd grade
Huey - 2nd grade
Whale - 2nd grade (part time)
Blank - 2nd grade (part time)
Fortunately Whale and Blank are part time and Gnu is not the teacher of record for these young scholars. Blank is an interesting story and when Gnu explains it, it gets just as animated as the conversation I had with that voucher teacher. Paraphrasing again, "Blank can't be in this classroom. He doesn't have a special education label of any kind and he doesn't even have an individual education plan (IEP). You just can't assign a scholar to an emotionally handicapped classroom without any labels. His being in this classroom is probably illegal."
Blank is not new to us. I first met this scholar in kindergarten when I was called to his classroom to remove him before he hit someone. I met Blank again in the first grade for the same reason. Although I didn't have to deal with him until a few days ago, he hasn't changed much. For the most part he is rarely in his assigned classroom as he is too disruptive. A couple days after Blank was assigned to our class, his teacher of record walked into our classroom shortly after the end of our school day. Like that voucher school teacher and Gnu discussing the legality of Blank being in our classroom, Blank's teacher of record had an equally animated conversation with Gnu. "Oh my God! Oh my God! This scholar is a hot mess. There are close to sixty pages of notes tracking the behavior of this scholar going back a couple years and nothing was done about it. If there was ever a scholar that belongs in an EH room this is one. Oh my God, this scholar is a hot mess."
The sixty pages of notes comment caught my attention. How can you gather sixty pages of notes about a scholar's poor behavior and nothing happens. As Blank's teacher of record continued speaking, I found out. The sixty pages of notes were hand written in sentence format. When they were presented to the special education overhead person, this person rejected them because they were not in the correct format. Apparently the notes, rather than being in sentences, had to be on a check list that listed the unacceptable behavior with an accompanying check mark indicating how may times Blank exhibited this unacceptable behavior. When told by an overhead person to redo all of the notes into a check list format this overhead person was told, "no." Once again, an overhead person, when given an opportunity to do something positive to help a classroom teacher, went into work avoidance, thought up some lame excuse to avoid the work, and placed the work right back into the hands of the classroom teacher. I spent thirty-four years working for a management services company and, in a lot of those years, I occupied an overhead position, so I know what overhead people are supposed to do. They are supposed to remove obstacles for their customers to make their job easier. They are not supposed to do the opposite, create more work for their customers, solely because they don't want to work too hard.
Blank has been with us for a number of days now and it has been pretty uneventful. I'm not sure how long that will last but at least he is off to a good start. It's about 4:05pm on Tuesday and my four day weekend is rapidly coming to a close. My objective over the next two and a half days is to build a fall out shelter similar to those built in the1950's in preparation for the implosion that will occur at noon this Friday. If I survive the implosion I'll post another blog next week. Now, where is my shovel as I need to dig a deep hole in the ground in a very short period of time.
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Anger, Sadness and Big Smiles
I've been a slacker so this is a little late, Happy New Year! My two weeks Christmas (winter) break from school went by too quickly and Gnu and I walked back into the classroom on January 2nd. The title of the blog post pretty much sums up our week, a roller coaster of emotions, all in a four day span.
Tuesday, January 2nd (the angry day). I arrived in the classroom first which was surprising given we had been away for two weeks. I though for sure Gnu would have arrived early to prepare for the week but I was wrong. She arrived about fifteen minutes after I did and promptly checked her email. When she finished checking her email she mentioned to me that the Indiana Stupid Testing and Evaluation Process (ISTEP) was slowly approaching and that she had a meeting with the BigB2 about the test over our Christmas (winter) break. As Gnu explained it, the BigB2 did a pre-ISTEP evaluation of our scholars and noticed that Knapper was on the bubble. On the bubble, as used in the previous sentence, means that Knapper is close to being able to pass the math portion of the ISTEP test. Knowing this, the BigB2 met with Gnu and requested that she spend extra math time with Knapper to improve his math skills so that his chances of passing ISTEP math increases. When Gnu relayed this information to me my emotions started to change and not for the good. Before I proceed, let me remind you that we are a classroom with three grade levels and with scholars at four or five different academic levels depending on the subject matter. Let me also remind you that just before our Christmas (winter) break, Whale, a scholar from one of our life skills classrooms, with a very low IQ, joined our classroom for a small portion of our reading block in the morning and our entire math block in the afternoon. One last reminder and then I'll proceed. Our math block is sixty minutes long. Because of the grade levels and academic levels we break out into three groups with each group spending twenty minutes at a math station. That means when Knapper rotates to Gnu during our math block she has twenty minutes with him to cover the current math topic and then spend review time with him to prepare for ISTEP. What are the chances that this is a successful strategy so that Knapper came move from the bubble and pass the math portion of ISTEP, none.
As Gnu and I discussed Knapper's situation we both came to the same conclusion, how are we going to find time to spend additional time with Knapper. Ok, get ready for the bomb to be dropped and the anger to rise. As I'm thinking about ways to help Knapper, Gnu informs me that parties outside of our classroom decided to add another scholar to our classroom. There is some good news regarding this additional scholar, he will only be with us for half the day. Unfortunately, the half day with us is in the afternoon during our math block. Brilliant! Pressure is put on Gnu to get our scholars ready to take the ISTEP test. Additional pressure is put on Gnu to get Knapper, in particular, in a position to pass the math portion of ISTEP. And then, to put a little fuel on the fire, let's add another scholar to the mix during our math block. This is bordering on the edge of ridiculous. For the sake of time I'll defer discussing our new scholar until the next blog post which I'm sure will agitate a few of you.
Thursday morning, January 4th (the sadness day). We are in the middle of our reading block and Gnu was reading a Folktale to the scholars when LittleB and a social worker walked into the classroom. Having the social worker in our classroom is not unusual but when the LittleB walks in something is not right. When Gnu sees these two individuals in our classroom she stops reading and looks over to where they are standing. The LittleB then asks Gnu to step outside the classroom so they can have a conversation. Even the scholars know that this is not a good situation as someone in this classroom has probably done something stupid and all eyes shift to MiniJ who is always the first suspect in situations like this one. A little less than ten minutes later Gnu walked back into the classroom and continued reading. With the Folktale read in it's entirety, Gnu passes out the worksheets that go with the story, gives the instructions to the scholars on how to complete the worksheet, and then sits down at her desk in the front of the classroom. I have a copy of the worksheet and, as I'm looking at it, I see Gnu walking towards me. When she reaches my desk, she doesn't say a word, and hands me a fluorescent pink Post It note. When I looked at the note it said, "read this and then tear it up." The note continues, "Tourette's parental unit has died and he is not aware of it." After I read the note, it was destroyed, and I just sat at my desk shaking my head and thinking to myself, "why did this have to happen to a young scholar who has had so many obstacles to overcome and he is only ten years old." Tourette remained in the classroom through our reading block, lunch and then recess. At 1:00pm, his schedule time for departure, he walked out of our classroom, headed to his bus for the trip home with no idea what was waiting for him when he got there.
Thursday evening, January 4th. It's around 7:30pm when I hear my cellphone ring. It's Gnu, "FBG will meet with the scholars in the morning and tell them about Tourette's parental unit. And don't forget, I have a doctor's appointment at 9:00am in the morning and I hope to be back in school by 10:00am."
Friday, January 5th (the big smile day, eventually). For some reason I decided to arrive at school earlier than normal. This may sound strange but I wanted the room to look right before the scholars arrived and before FBG gave his little talk. As I was sitting there in silence the BigB2 walked into the classroom. She asked it Gnu arrived and I said, "no, she has a doctor's appointment and will arrive around 10:00am." I then told BigB2 about the plan to inform the scholars about Tourette's parental unit's passing. The BigB2 was comfortable with the plan and said to me, "if you need my to help in any way let me know," and then left the room. It's now 9:10am, the scholars are in the room eating their breakfast, FBG is sitting on Gnu's desk at the front of the room, and MJ, our behavior specialist, is sitting with me where I have a view from the back of the room. FBG was moments from getting started when Tourette walked into the classroom carrying his breakfast and promptly sat down at his desk. I looked at MJ first and then towards the front of the classroom at FBG and think to myself, "now what." After a slight delay, I stood up, looked at FBG and said, "give me a minute, I'll be right back." When I reached the front office I saw the LittleB and let her know that FBG was about to inform our scholars that Tourette's parental unit passed away when Tourette walked into the classroom. I then asked the LittleB if Tourette knew about his parental unit. The LittleB informed me that Tourette knew about his parental unit but he decided that he wanted to come to school today rather than stay home.
LittleB and I walked back to the classroom and she got Tourette's attention and asked him to join her outside the classroom. Before FBG began his talk, he looked over at MJ and says to her, "you can jump into this conversation at any time." Just so you know, FBG has never done anything like this before. Once FBG has everyone seated and silent he started talking and told the scholars that Tourette's mother had died. The room was dead silent, no one even moved, they just sat there. Uh-Uh-Uh was the first one to break the silence by saying, "does Tourette know his parental unit died?" FBG responded, "yes, and it is important to think of something to say to Tourette if he tells you his parental unit died." FBG then asked the classroom in general what they would say to Tourette if he told any one of them about his parental unit dying. BigHouse had his hand up first, "I'd say to him, I'm sorry about your loss." Better words could not have been said.
The entire conversation with our scholars lasted about fifteen minutes. During that time they acted in the best possible way as they realized the seriousness of the conversation that took place. As I sat there I though to myself, this is a group of scholars that can act in the most angry and aggressive manner but when the time came to act appropriately they did and I couldn't be any prouder of them.
It was close to 11:00am when Gnu finally arrived in the classroom. As she was sitting at her front table getting her thoughts organized Tourette, who returned to the classroom a few minutes earlier, walked up to me with a 8 1/2" by 14" sheet of copier paper, handed it to me and said, "would you like to write something to my parental unit?" "I sure would," I said and I started drawing. First I drew the clouds. Second was a cross. Third was lines placed in such a way that it looked like the cross was sitting on the top of a hill. Finally, I wrote the following at the bottom of the hill, "rest in peace and may God hold you in the hollow of his hands." I handed the paper back to Tourette and he started to read what I wrote. He was fine until he reached the word hollow. "What does that mean Mr. Schultz?" I cupped my two hands together, focused on the bowl that my hands formed and told Tourette that the bowl is also known as a hollow and it was in this hollow in God's hands that his mother was going to be held. When I finished my explanation, Tourette looked up at me and said, "thank you Mr. Schultz, that's real nice."
Friday, January 5th at around 1:00pm (here comes the smile part). We just returned from our lunch and recess time period and Gnu was at the front of the room preparing for our math block. I'm sitting at my desk at the back of the room and I decided that I've waiting long enough. I raised my hand high into the air to get Gnu's attention. When I knew that I had her attention I asked, "how much longer am I going to have to wait before you tell me?" My question brought an instant smile to her face and she said to me, with a huge grin, "it's a boy." Then, grabbing her purse, she pulled out the ultrasound pictures that were taken earlier in the day and, I got to see first hand, the son that she will deliver sometime around the first of June.
Ta da! Check off the first blog post of the new year. As I have so many times in the past, I wonder if I'll ever run out of things to write about. I seriously doubt it so I guess I'll see you all next week.
Tuesday, January 2nd (the angry day). I arrived in the classroom first which was surprising given we had been away for two weeks. I though for sure Gnu would have arrived early to prepare for the week but I was wrong. She arrived about fifteen minutes after I did and promptly checked her email. When she finished checking her email she mentioned to me that the Indiana Stupid Testing and Evaluation Process (ISTEP) was slowly approaching and that she had a meeting with the BigB2 about the test over our Christmas (winter) break. As Gnu explained it, the BigB2 did a pre-ISTEP evaluation of our scholars and noticed that Knapper was on the bubble. On the bubble, as used in the previous sentence, means that Knapper is close to being able to pass the math portion of the ISTEP test. Knowing this, the BigB2 met with Gnu and requested that she spend extra math time with Knapper to improve his math skills so that his chances of passing ISTEP math increases. When Gnu relayed this information to me my emotions started to change and not for the good. Before I proceed, let me remind you that we are a classroom with three grade levels and with scholars at four or five different academic levels depending on the subject matter. Let me also remind you that just before our Christmas (winter) break, Whale, a scholar from one of our life skills classrooms, with a very low IQ, joined our classroom for a small portion of our reading block in the morning and our entire math block in the afternoon. One last reminder and then I'll proceed. Our math block is sixty minutes long. Because of the grade levels and academic levels we break out into three groups with each group spending twenty minutes at a math station. That means when Knapper rotates to Gnu during our math block she has twenty minutes with him to cover the current math topic and then spend review time with him to prepare for ISTEP. What are the chances that this is a successful strategy so that Knapper came move from the bubble and pass the math portion of ISTEP, none.
As Gnu and I discussed Knapper's situation we both came to the same conclusion, how are we going to find time to spend additional time with Knapper. Ok, get ready for the bomb to be dropped and the anger to rise. As I'm thinking about ways to help Knapper, Gnu informs me that parties outside of our classroom decided to add another scholar to our classroom. There is some good news regarding this additional scholar, he will only be with us for half the day. Unfortunately, the half day with us is in the afternoon during our math block. Brilliant! Pressure is put on Gnu to get our scholars ready to take the ISTEP test. Additional pressure is put on Gnu to get Knapper, in particular, in a position to pass the math portion of ISTEP. And then, to put a little fuel on the fire, let's add another scholar to the mix during our math block. This is bordering on the edge of ridiculous. For the sake of time I'll defer discussing our new scholar until the next blog post which I'm sure will agitate a few of you.
Thursday morning, January 4th (the sadness day). We are in the middle of our reading block and Gnu was reading a Folktale to the scholars when LittleB and a social worker walked into the classroom. Having the social worker in our classroom is not unusual but when the LittleB walks in something is not right. When Gnu sees these two individuals in our classroom she stops reading and looks over to where they are standing. The LittleB then asks Gnu to step outside the classroom so they can have a conversation. Even the scholars know that this is not a good situation as someone in this classroom has probably done something stupid and all eyes shift to MiniJ who is always the first suspect in situations like this one. A little less than ten minutes later Gnu walked back into the classroom and continued reading. With the Folktale read in it's entirety, Gnu passes out the worksheets that go with the story, gives the instructions to the scholars on how to complete the worksheet, and then sits down at her desk in the front of the classroom. I have a copy of the worksheet and, as I'm looking at it, I see Gnu walking towards me. When she reaches my desk, she doesn't say a word, and hands me a fluorescent pink Post It note. When I looked at the note it said, "read this and then tear it up." The note continues, "Tourette's parental unit has died and he is not aware of it." After I read the note, it was destroyed, and I just sat at my desk shaking my head and thinking to myself, "why did this have to happen to a young scholar who has had so many obstacles to overcome and he is only ten years old." Tourette remained in the classroom through our reading block, lunch and then recess. At 1:00pm, his schedule time for departure, he walked out of our classroom, headed to his bus for the trip home with no idea what was waiting for him when he got there.
Thursday evening, January 4th. It's around 7:30pm when I hear my cellphone ring. It's Gnu, "FBG will meet with the scholars in the morning and tell them about Tourette's parental unit. And don't forget, I have a doctor's appointment at 9:00am in the morning and I hope to be back in school by 10:00am."
Friday, January 5th (the big smile day, eventually). For some reason I decided to arrive at school earlier than normal. This may sound strange but I wanted the room to look right before the scholars arrived and before FBG gave his little talk. As I was sitting there in silence the BigB2 walked into the classroom. She asked it Gnu arrived and I said, "no, she has a doctor's appointment and will arrive around 10:00am." I then told BigB2 about the plan to inform the scholars about Tourette's parental unit's passing. The BigB2 was comfortable with the plan and said to me, "if you need my to help in any way let me know," and then left the room. It's now 9:10am, the scholars are in the room eating their breakfast, FBG is sitting on Gnu's desk at the front of the room, and MJ, our behavior specialist, is sitting with me where I have a view from the back of the room. FBG was moments from getting started when Tourette walked into the classroom carrying his breakfast and promptly sat down at his desk. I looked at MJ first and then towards the front of the classroom at FBG and think to myself, "now what." After a slight delay, I stood up, looked at FBG and said, "give me a minute, I'll be right back." When I reached the front office I saw the LittleB and let her know that FBG was about to inform our scholars that Tourette's parental unit passed away when Tourette walked into the classroom. I then asked the LittleB if Tourette knew about his parental unit. The LittleB informed me that Tourette knew about his parental unit but he decided that he wanted to come to school today rather than stay home.
LittleB and I walked back to the classroom and she got Tourette's attention and asked him to join her outside the classroom. Before FBG began his talk, he looked over at MJ and says to her, "you can jump into this conversation at any time." Just so you know, FBG has never done anything like this before. Once FBG has everyone seated and silent he started talking and told the scholars that Tourette's mother had died. The room was dead silent, no one even moved, they just sat there. Uh-Uh-Uh was the first one to break the silence by saying, "does Tourette know his parental unit died?" FBG responded, "yes, and it is important to think of something to say to Tourette if he tells you his parental unit died." FBG then asked the classroom in general what they would say to Tourette if he told any one of them about his parental unit dying. BigHouse had his hand up first, "I'd say to him, I'm sorry about your loss." Better words could not have been said.
The entire conversation with our scholars lasted about fifteen minutes. During that time they acted in the best possible way as they realized the seriousness of the conversation that took place. As I sat there I though to myself, this is a group of scholars that can act in the most angry and aggressive manner but when the time came to act appropriately they did and I couldn't be any prouder of them.
It was close to 11:00am when Gnu finally arrived in the classroom. As she was sitting at her front table getting her thoughts organized Tourette, who returned to the classroom a few minutes earlier, walked up to me with a 8 1/2" by 14" sheet of copier paper, handed it to me and said, "would you like to write something to my parental unit?" "I sure would," I said and I started drawing. First I drew the clouds. Second was a cross. Third was lines placed in such a way that it looked like the cross was sitting on the top of a hill. Finally, I wrote the following at the bottom of the hill, "rest in peace and may God hold you in the hollow of his hands." I handed the paper back to Tourette and he started to read what I wrote. He was fine until he reached the word hollow. "What does that mean Mr. Schultz?" I cupped my two hands together, focused on the bowl that my hands formed and told Tourette that the bowl is also known as a hollow and it was in this hollow in God's hands that his mother was going to be held. When I finished my explanation, Tourette looked up at me and said, "thank you Mr. Schultz, that's real nice."
Friday, January 5th at around 1:00pm (here comes the smile part). We just returned from our lunch and recess time period and Gnu was at the front of the room preparing for our math block. I'm sitting at my desk at the back of the room and I decided that I've waiting long enough. I raised my hand high into the air to get Gnu's attention. When I knew that I had her attention I asked, "how much longer am I going to have to wait before you tell me?" My question brought an instant smile to her face and she said to me, with a huge grin, "it's a boy." Then, grabbing her purse, she pulled out the ultrasound pictures that were taken earlier in the day and, I got to see first hand, the son that she will deliver sometime around the first of June.
Ta da! Check off the first blog post of the new year. As I have so many times in the past, I wonder if I'll ever run out of things to write about. I seriously doubt it so I guess I'll see you all next week.
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