Eleven

As it has so many time before, the parental unit had other priorities.  I can't image what they were but on Wednesday of this past week WLnutt walked himself into our school and eventually into Gnu's classroom and his parental unit showed no interest at all in entering the building with him.  WLnutt's arrival has set a new personal high for scholars in our EH classroom as we now have eleven of them.  Before going any farther, I'm going to update our class roster.

Knapper - 4th grade
MiniJ - 4th grade
BigHouse - 4th grade
Uh-Uh-Uh - 4th grade
WLnutt - 4th grade
S&T - 3rd grade
Grr! - 3rd grade
Tourette - 3rd grade
Whale - 3rd grade
Blank - 2nd grade
Huey - 2nd grade

The list of scholars is getting ridiculously long and with WLnutt's arrival I sensed that Gnu has shut it down a little.  "Schultz, there are too many kids in this classroom.  How am I supposed to do this?"  I didn't have much of a response.  All I could say was, "let's just keep doing what we've been doing."  In hindsight, what I said was pretty lame but, like Gnu, I'm just as frustrated and at a loss for words.

WLnutt's IEP arrived before he did so Gnu had some idea of what to expect when it came to this scholar's behavior.  As expected, he has anger issues and a defiant disorder issue, plus a wonderful ability to use language better suited for a drunken sailor.  What Gnu was uncertain about was WLnutt's academic ability so on his first day in her classroom she began to quietly test him off to the side and away from the other scholars.  First up was a reading test using the Fry First 100 Sight Words list.  For those of you that are not aware, these are the sight words used in kindergarten and first grade classes.  The first one hundred Fry words are the one hundred most frequently occurring words in the English language.  When Gnu finished the test I asked her how WLnutt did, "not well," was her response. "He can barely read but he is real good at disguising the fact that he can barely read."

Later that day, WLnutt arrived at my station for math.  He joined Knapper and MiniJ as we were doing a lesson on lines and angles.  Placed immediately in front of me was my copy of the worksheet with the problems already solved.  As we worked through the problems Knapper and MiniJ struggled a little bit so I was working closely with them.  When I turned to help WLnutt, he had already completed the first three math problems.  As I looked at his paper it became obvious what he did so I asked him to explain to me the steps he took to answer the first problem.  As anticipated, he couldn't.  All he did was look at my worksheet and copy my answers.  I have a sure fire remedy for cheaters as I've done it twice before, once with MiniJ and once with BigHouse and it worked to perfection.  One day next week I'm going to have my completed worksheet in front of me but I'm going to do all the problems wrong.  The first problem may be a multiplication problem but I'll do long division and so forth.  When the little cheater is finished with the assignment, I'll have the scholar take the worksheet up to Gnu for a review.  The scholar, thinking he is so slick, will get busted up real quick as Gnu knows exactly what I will do with cheaters.  Sometimes I feel guilty doing what I just described but you know what, every scholar I trapped has not tried copying my answers a second time.

In my last blog post I mentioned that Gnu missed a day of school as she was not feeling well.  The text message announcing her absence reached me at home at around 7:00am.  Shortly, following the first text message, was a string of text messages laying out the entire day's agenda.  Our behavior therapist, MJ, and our behavior specialist, FBG, were copied on all of these text messages so I knew help would be available if needed.  When I arrived at school, our administrative czar saw me walk in and immediately announced that Gnu would not be in today.  I informed our administrative czar that I was aware of Gnu's absence and asked if a substitute would be filling in for her.  The administrative czar's response was, "you're kidding." 

One by one the scholars arrived for the day and one by one they asked me the same question, "Mr. Schultz, why are you sitting at Miss Gnu's desk?"  Shortly after all the scholars arrived, MJ walked into the classroom and asked me what she could do to help.  I told her you will be me when we do our work stations and she promptly sat down at me desk at the back of the room.  The first work station is reading and today's subject about the pony express and the transition to the telegraph.  To add a little fun to the subject matter I wrote, in Morse Code, a message on the whiteboard prior to the scholars arrival.  With the coded message on the whiteboard I wrote in huge letters, SECRET CODE and drew an arrow to the series of dots and dashes.  As anticipated, the scholars were clueless about the Morse Code.  As we were working through the assignment, FBG walked into the classroom, waved at me and sat down at Gnu's second desk off to the side of the classroom.  I was just about to discuss the Morse Code with the scholars when I heard this noise in the classroom.  I initially thought it was my cellphone and an Amber Alert message was sounding.  When I reached for my cellphone to silence it I caught of glimpse of FBG off to the side of the room and he was looking at me and laughing.  Finally, it clicked.  FBG was using his cellphone and our classroom overhead speakers to send out an S.O.S. message in Morse Code.

When we finished the reading assignment, I pointed to the secret code on the whiteboard and told the scholars that they needed to solve the code.  Before they got started I gave them two hints on how to solve the code.  First, I took a red marker and circled the first group of dots and dashes and told them this was one letter in the alphabet.  Then I took a blue marker and circled a series of dots and dashed and told them that this was a word.  Finally, I told them to get started.  I collectively received a "I don't know what to do."  So, I repeated my instructions to them, "solve the code."  "Mr. Schultz, those marks on the whiteboard don't make any sense."  "Oh! Did I forget to tell you that I wrote the Morse Code on the back of the reading assignment we just completed?"  Almost instantaneously eight pieces of paper were turned over and they immediately got to work. 

It took them a while to figure it out.  They'd look at the Morse Code and then up at the whiteboard, then back down at the Morse Code and then back up at the whiteboard.  Finally, I heard it, "Mr. Schultz, Mr. Schultz, I know one of the letters.  I picked up the red marker and told the scholar to put the letter above the Morse Code and in doing so I opened up the flood gates as the remaining seven scholars that were seated created a human wave right to the front of the room as other letters were discovered.  It was fun watching the scholars as they were so excited about solving the secret code.  Eventually the code was solved, "Miss Gnu is sick and will not be here today." 

With the assignment completed, I looked up at the clock and saw that it was nearly lunch time.  Because the scholars were so excited about the Morse Code task it took me a couple minutes to get them settled down.  As I was moving around the room getting the scholars to sit down MJ got my attention and told me that she would eat her lunch with the scholars so I could have my lunch break.  When I stood next to her to thank her she said this to me, "you really did a nice job with that assignment."  I told her "thanks," and then told the scholars to line up for lunch.  As the scholars were lining up, FBG walked over to me, "I'll pick the scholars up after lunch and take them outside for recess so you can have a little break."

I know I've said this numerous times, "I work with a truly wonderful and talented teacher," but I don't think I've ever said this before.  "I also work with two wonderful adults, MJ and FBG, who both stepped up in a big way to help me make it through the school day."  I'm often asked why I keep doing what I do.  I just gave you three reasons (names) why I've hung around this classroom for almost five years. 

If my calculations are correct, there are fifty-seven days remaining in the school year and our classroom just added the eleventh scholar.  That means two adults have been tasked with teaching eleven scholars in three different grade levels and at least five different academic levels.  On Friday, after all the scholars had left for the day, Gnu and I sat down in the empty classroom.  We talked about our classroom situation for a couple minutes and we came to the same conclusion.  We are moving into survival mode for the remainder of the school year.

Quitting time.  Thanks for following along.  See you next week.

PS - I realize that saying WLnutt is difficult so I suggest you just call him Nutt.  Is there is reason I used the unofficial prefix of WL?  Yes!  Am I going to tell you what it stands for?  No!