My part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse and I had family in town last weekend. The occasion was our granddaughter's first birthday and between family and birthday I lost track of time and failed to post a blog. This same situation is going to take place this weekend as the other side of the family is in town to celebrate the birthday. So, for the first time, I'm writing this blog on a Saturday morning and hopefully I'll have it finished and posted this weekend.
Despite being in this classroom for over four and a half years, things occur that often have me think about the future of some of our young scholars. A couple weeks ago, in a span of three days, one of our scholars did things that make we wonder if he will make it through high school. Gnu and I had the scholars outside as it was recess. Tourette, who usually doesn't get to go outside for recess, improved his behavior enough that Gnu allowed him to join his classmates. Because MiniJ has a safety plan in place due to inappropriate behavior directed at other students, I'm charged with watching him and him only during recess. With my single focus being MiniJ, I didn't see exactly what happened but when I saw another teacher on top of the playground equipment separating scholars I knew something bad happened so I headed toward the altercation. Right in the middle was Tourette who was very upset and was being directed to move off the playground equipment to serve a timeout along the fence that surrounds the playground. Rather that follow this simple instruction, Tourette began to argue with the teacher until he saw me approach him. My instructions to him were simple, move away and take a timeout at the fence. The response I got was, "I didn't do anything." When I looked over at the teacher, he informed me that Tourette was fighting with another student. Tourette again responded, "that boy was talking about and making fun of my mother." "Do you know that boy," I asked Tourette. "No," was his response. "If you don't even know that boy, how would that boy know anything about your mother?" Tourette paused for a moment and then said to me, "that boy was bullying my little brother." "How is that possible," I asked him. "Your brother doesn't even have recess as this time of the day." My response was met with silence. "Now Tourette, you need to move to the fence and get yourself under control." Again, silence plus a lack of movement. "If you want outdoor recess for the rest of the week than I suggest you MOVE."
Advancing the calendar two days and it is approximately 12:50pm and Tourette's day ends at 1:00pm. On a couple of previous occasions, when Tourette's behavior has been acceptable, Gnu will let him spend the last few minutes of his day with FBG. As a reminder FBG is a behavior specialists so Tourette going to talk with him is a good thing. "Miss Gnu, can I go up to FBG office for a little while before I get on the bus?" "Sure," Gnu responded, "but call him first to see if he is in his office." Because this is a somewhat regular event, I'm half paying attention as Tourette dials the telephone number. After a brief moment, Tourette hangs up the telephone and heads out the door. It took a while but then I thought to myself I didn't hear any talking on the telephone. Realizing what scholar I'm dealing with I pull out my cellphone and text FBG telling him Tourette is heading his way. "Sorry, can't talk to him now, I'm out of my office dealing with two other scholars," was the response I received. It's now 1:00pm and I'm heading to a general education math classroom with MiniJ and Uh-Uh-Uh. As I step into the classroom, immediately to my right is Tourette. "What are you doing in here," I asked him. "Mr. FBG said is was alright for me to be here." "How is that possible as you never talked to Mr. FBG," I respond back. He came back at me quickly and I could see the anger building, "yes I did." I took out my cellphone and showed it to him. "Mr. FBG is the red text, I'm the blue text. It says right here," as I'm showing him the text messages, "Mr. FBG never talked to you and never said you could come to this classroom." Tourette is now silent. "You are now late for your bus. I suggest you get out of this classroom and head for your bus before the bus driver leaves you." I then turn to the general education math teacher and tell her that if he ever shows up on your classroom again, throw him out.
Lies, lies, lies. They just keeping coming from this scholar. "Mr. Schultz, look, I got this diamond for $800.00. It's the size of a golf ball and it's plastic. "Miss Gnu, look at this gold neckless I have. I paid $100.00 for it." It wasn't even metal. Speaking to the scholars in general, "look at all of these coins. They are real silver and worth a lot of money." They were from Harrah's casino, the old $1.00 tokens that you used to get from slot machines. Lies, lies, lies, from a third grade scholar. Unless the behavior therapists, behavior specialist, and classroom teacher work miracles with this scholars he's heading from a major train wreck as some point in this life.
After two and a half years in the classroom, it finally happened and Gnu was so excited. "Schultz, someone is taking my lunch and recess duty so I can eat in total quite. Can you believe it? This has not happened in two and a half years." "So, who is taking your lunch and recess duty?" "Mr. FBG." Gnu arrives early and stays late every day. Every day she eats her lunch with our scholars and then takes them outside for recess. I join her at recess to keep an eye on MiniJ. I can say this with a great deal of certainty, no other teacher eats lunch with their scholars and then takes them to recess. In fact, no other teacher goes the entire day without any prep time. So, for the first time in two and a half years, I hope Gnu enjoyed the forty minutes of peace and quite in our classroom.
Our run started on January 3rd and went all the way to February 17th. We were in a good rhythm both academically and behaviorally. All of the scholars except Huey and Tourette were spending part of their day in a general education classroom and there were no major issues. Then we got hit with both barrels. Ka-Boom! "Schultz, we may be getting up to three new scholars." As of right now, Gnu has information on two of the scholars. One will be a returning scholar, Oil. As a reminder, Oil has an oppositional defiant disorder, something that Gnu and I don't do well with, plus he will run out of the classroom every chance he gets. Oil's parental unit moved while he was in our classroom but he is still in our school corporation in an EH classroom. The question that has been asked, and overhead personnel refused to answer, is why is Oil returning to our school if he is in an EH classroom? There are serious doubts that his parental unit wants him to return here because she was quite clear on his departure that she didn't like our school. So, why is he returning? We do have information on the second scholar that may be heading our way. He has a history of starting fights with his classmates. There is no information on the third scholar, except that he may be heading our way.
We are within two weeks of starting the Indiana Stupid Testing and Educational Process (ISTEP). We've been on a great run and just like that our world will come crashing down especially if all three scholars arrive. Gnu has been fighting the process, especially for Oil and the scholar that starts fights with his classmates. She is trying to convince the overhead personnel that the last thing she needs, at the sixth month pregnant level, are scholars with a history of violence in her classroom. So far, the overhead personnel have been non-responsive. When crap like this happens it really irritates me and causes me to pause and think about my future at this school. Maybe Gnu is right, with her out of the classroom for the first ninety days of the next school year, I'd be crazy to return.
That's it for today. As I said at the beginning, my granddaughter is celebrating her first birthday for the second time today and I need to get cleaned up and ready to go. Thank you again for following along. See you next week. Bye!
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