This is off subject but I thought I'd mention it. My part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse and I went to an artist exhibit at the Stutz Building on Saturday. This artist exhibit is an annual event that has easily over a hundred artists with their works on display. When I go to this event there are a handful of artists studios that I visit each time. One of the artist is a gentleman named Mike Swolsky. Mike works with metals; copper, brass, bronze and steel and he creates these amazing pieces of art. When I entered Mike's studio is was pretty quiet so I had the opportunity to stand in the middle of his studio and slowly study his artwork. As I was standing there, Mike walked up to me and mimicked the position I was standing and said to me, "sore back." I replied, "it's a little stiff but nothing major." As we continued our small talk I mentioned to Mike that I met him several years ago in a building called Fairbanks Hall that is part of the IU Medical Center. Mike responded that he remembered me but couldn't recall my name so I told him. He then asked me if I still worked in the build and I responded that I didn't but I was now working in a special education classroom with scholars that have emotional handicaps. He looked at me and said, "wait right here, my son also worked with the same type of scholars when he was in Cleveland and I'm going to get him." For the next twenty minutes, standing in the middle of this amazing art studio, I shared classroom stories with Mike's son about the most unusual, if not down right bizarre, things that we've had to deal with in our job. How bizarre? Never, in my almost five years in a classroom, did I have a scholar walk into the classroom with his pants unzipped and his hang-downer exposed but Mike's son did.
The WLNutt saga continues. As you recall, WLNutt and his parental unit were labeled as homeless despite that fact that they were staying with a relative. Because of this homeless position our school corporation was going to send a bus to pick up WLNutt and bring him to school despite the fact that he now resided well outside our school district boundaries. Gnu contacted our school corporation's transportation offices and gave them WLNutt's new address and explained to them why they had to travel such a great distance to pick him up. On Friday I asked Gnu about WLNutt. "I don't know where he is and I'm not going to worry about it as I have more important things to do." As it stands right now, WLNutt has missed eleven consecutive school days and like Gnu, I'm not going to worry about it because I know she did everything possible to set up transportation for this scholar and he is not showing up. Here is the sad part of the whole saga. At some point in the future, WLNutt is going to have to take one of the state mandated tests and he will fail miserably. When he does so there is the chance that some pointy headed intellectual or worse, one of the lowest life forms on earth, the politician, may question the school corporation, school principal and the classroom teacher's ability to properly educate this young scholar.
I can say with confidence that Gnu just completed the longest reading assignment since her arrival in the classroom three years ago. The book was from the Magic Tree House series and was a non-fiction account of the sinking of the Titanic. From the building of the Titanic to the survivors finally arriving in New York City she managed to hold the scholars attention and that in itself was doable solely due to the effort she puts forth everyday. In order to keep this brief, I'll cover the key points of the lesson plan plus some of the funny to absurd comments made by the scholars during our daily discussion of the book.
After the completion of each chapter the scholars had an assignment that needed to be completed. The fourth grade scholars assignment was to answer a series of the questions about the completed chapter. The third and second grade scholars had two options. First, they could complete the same assignment as the fourth grade scholars or second, they could draw a picture showing what happened in the chapter. As expected, they all chose to draw pictures. For reasons unknown to Gnu and I Huey was really excited about the book. It was a non-stop talking point for him even in the afternoon when we moved on to our math block. Huey was the first one to complete his drawing of the Titanic including icebergs. He was so excited about his drawing that he took it up to the whiteboard in front of the classroom and stuck it on the whiteboard for everyone to see. He also took some alphabet letters with magnets and spelled out his name under his picture so that anyone entering the classroom would know it was his picture.
The chapter that covered the sinking of the Titanic drew the most conversation mostly because Gnu was reading that chapter on the exact day that the Titanic sunk, April 14th. The women and children first into the lifeboats was discussed at length. A few of the scholars thought that this was the right thing to do. MiniJ, on the other hand, was quite adamant that he was getting in a lifeboat and would fight anyone who attempted to get him off. With the life boats clear of the Titanic and the remaining passengers forced to enter the freezing water Gnu asked the scholars what they thought would happen to them. Huey was first to respond and said, "sharks would probably eat them." Grr!, upon hearing Huey's comment, disagreed immediately. "There wouldn't be any sharks in the waters around the Titanic, the water was too cold," Grr! said. By the way, I did the research. There weren't any sharks around, the water was too cold. Gnu then asked Grr! what he thought would happen to the passengers. He responsed, "they'll die and eventually be fish food." For whatever reason, Gnu thought that was a pretty funny comment and I actually laughed out loud.
There was a chapter near the end of the book that discussed the changes that needed to be made to the Titanic so this disaster would have been prevented. Additional life boats was brought up immediately. Huey disagreed with this idea and proposed that instead of life boats, the ship should have jet skis. Uh-Uh-Uh challenged Huey right away and said, "where would you put all of those jets skis, you'd need over a thousand." Huey responded, "they'd just have to make the ship bigger." Gnu joined the discussion by reminding Huey that the Titanic sunk over a hundred years ago and jet skis were not invented. Huey responded, "well, maybe they could use speed boats instead of jet skis." With that reply from Huey, Gnu ended the conversation and we moved on to something else.
Gnu had kept the big challenge assignment a secret until the entire book was read. After taking a thumbs up or thumbs down book review of the book she told the scholars that they had one more very important assignment to do. By the way, the book received all thumbs up. Because they were not sure what the assignment would be they scholars remained silent. "Here is the assignment," Gnu said. "We are going back to the Titanic. You will be in a life boat and, as you know, there were several life boats that could have taken on more passengers. Your assignment, before returning to the Titanic, is to make life jackets that you can throw to the passengers in the water so they can stay afloat until they can be rescued." Still uncertain as the what the assignment was, the scholars stayed silent.
Gnu then walked around to the back side of her table at the front of the room and started writing on the whiteboard.
Straws - 50 cents each
Plastic bag - 50 cents each
Bubble wrap - 1 dollar and 50 cents a sheet
Rubber band - 50 cents each
Cork, the kind from a wine bottle, 50 cents each
Foam rubber, 75 cents a sheet
Scotch tape, 25 cents a piece
One plastic superhero toy character to be used as your test dummy. Free
She then laid out all of the items on her table. Next she paired the scholars and told them they had three dollars to buy the supplies they needed to make a life jacket. Gnu then walked over to the sink in the classroom and filled up a tub of water and took it to one of our side tables. She told the scholars that their superhero toy character had to wear the life jacket in the water for ninety seconds without sinking for them to pass the assignment. Gnu then asked if there were any questions. They were none so she said to the scholars, "you can begin the assignment."
The silence that preceded the assignment is now gone. The room is in chaos as the scholars scramble to the front table to get their supplies. "Stop!" Gnu yells at the ridiculously loud scholars. "Go back to your desks and sit down." To avoid another round of chaos, MiniJ is assigned the role of store owner and the scholars needs to walk into MiniJ's store and politely order the supplies they need to create their life jacket. If they are not polite when in the store Gnu informed MiniJ that he had the right to kick them out of his store.
With the chaos stopped the scholars were again told they could begin. Huey, working with Whale, created the first life jacket and walked over to the tub of water that was controlled by Gnu. Gently, Huey laid his toy character into the water. The initial excitement that the toy character was actually floating went away quickly as the toy character eventually floated with the feet above the water and the head under the water. Back to the drawing board for Huey and Whale. Knapper and Tourette were the next to finish. Rather than assemble a life jacket, they assembled a life raft. With the life raft gently placed in the tub of water, it easily floated for the required ninety seconds. Uh-Uh-Uh and Grr! were next up with their life jacket and it floated. Huey and Whale returned and this time their life jacket worked. Only BigHouse and S&T failed to assemble a life jacket that floated.
I don't know how many times I've said this but I'm going to say it again, "I'm working with this wonderful teacher." And guess what, the school leadership has finally recognized that fact as Gnu was on our school's short list for teacher of the year. Finally, Gnu is getting her due and I couldn't be happier for her. See you all next week and hopefully next weekend will not be rained out like this weekend was.
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Sunday, April 23, 2017
S&T Meets Tornado
Before I get to Tornado, a story about a dog that lives in tornado alley in the Midwest of our country, WLNutt, who Gnu and I just wrote off, may be on his way back to our classroom. One of our school social workers made an appearance outside our classroom at around 3:00pm on Friday. Gnu saw her standing in the doorway so she walked back to see what she wanted. Although I caught very little of the conversation, I did hear the name WLNutt mentioned. A few minutes after dismissal Gnu told me about the conversation with the social worker. It appears that WLNutt has fallen into the homeless category is what Gnu told me. "How can he be homeless, isn't he living with his parental unit and a sibling of his parental unit," I asked. Ok, I hope I can explain this correctly. According to our social working, you are considered homeless if you reside in a place where you do not pay the rent or mortgage even if the residence is owned by a family member and you are living with that family member. Due to my advance years, I had to think about that for a couple minutes and then it hit me. Based upon this definition of homeless S&T and Tourette should both be classified as homeless but I've never heard that label attached to either of them.
If you recall from the last blog post, WLNutt and his parental unit moved well outside the boundary of our school corporation. But, with the designation of homeless attached to the family, some unknown overhead person decide that our school corporation should provide WLNutt with bus transportation back to our school. So, beginning as early as Monday, a full sized yellow bus with a driver and bus monitor will make the trip well outside our school boundary and pick up WLNutt and only WLNutt and return him every day. Again, this is from a previous blog posts. When WLNutt first arrived at our school a bus picked him up and brought him to school. After a couple days WLNutt asked me if I could change his bus schedule. I told him I couldn't and he responded, "that bus picks me up to early in the morning so I'm not riding it." So, after missing fourteen days of school out of the twenty-five days of school since arriving at our school, another bus will be assigned to pick WLNutt up and bring him to school. This new bus, because of the distance that it needs to travel will be picking him up even earlier and getting him back home even later that his original bus. Any guesses as to how many days WLNutt will miss for the remainder of the school year. I believe we have just over thirty days left in the school year so give it your best guess.
Just over two weeks ago, S&T crossed the academic and behavior threshold and earned an opportunity to attend a general education classroom. He had been asking Gnu about going for several weeks and finally he's getting his big chance. When Gnu told him he could go the smile on his face was huge. Later that day Gnu laid out the S&T game plan. First, although he is in the third grade, he will be going to a second grade reading group. Gnu felt that going to a second grade reading group would be better for him than trying to survive in a third grade group and I'd agreed. Secondly, as Gnu looked at me, she said, "you are going with him at least for the first couple weeks," and I was again in agreement with her.
It's Monday morning, S&T's big day. At 9:30am Gnu gets all of the fourth grade scholars attention and tells them to head to their general education classroom. She then looks over at S&T and says to him, "are you ready to go to your general education classroom?" It's the big moment. After bugging Gnu about it for weeks, is he going to go? Is he going to have the ability to walk down the hallway, make a right turn and walk into a classroom full of scholars and he will not know a single one of them? S&T slowly stood up at his desk, look at Gnu, hesitated a moment, turn and starting walking toward our classroom door. As he approached me, he stopped, looked at me and quietly said, "Mr. Schultz, will you go with me?" "Sure," I said, "let's do this." That's all it took, S&T's smile returned and off we went.
S&T walked up to the front of the classroom and was introduced to all the scholars by the teacher. I took my normal seat where I had a nice view from the back of the room. After about ten minutes I hear, "Schultz, if you are going to stay in my room I'm going to put you to work." Shorty after that statement, I'm joined by S&T and five of his new classmates at the back table. Our objective was to read the first three chapters of a book titled Tornado that was written by Betsy Byars and the book won a Newbery Medal. S&T was on my immediate left so I pointed at him and said, "you read first and we'll move around the table." After each of the six scholars read, I guess correctly that the second grade that S&T was in had been leveled and he was with the low level reads. That may sound a little disappointing to you but it worked out perfectly as S&T fit right in with the other beginning readers.
The next morning S&T was back in the general education classroom sitting with the scholars on a rug in the front of the classroom. The teacher announced that she was going to ask questions about the story that everyone was reading. When she finished asking the first question, several hands were raised and S&T's was one of them. When the teacher called on him for the first time, he answered correctly, When she called on him a second and third time, he answered both questions correctly. As I sat in the back of the room watching him it just felt so good to see S&T being successful. As I sat there I also thought this, Gnu should be the one sitting were I'm sitting so she can see what she has accomplished with a young scholar who walked into our classroom at the beginning of the previous school year with a history of doing poorly academically and behaviorally.
I have one more fabulous S&T bragging story and them I'm finished. It's Friday and S&T is now sitting at his own desk in the general education classroom. "Everybody get out a pencil and a piece of paper as you are going to take a test on the book Tornado," the teacher announced. "Schultz, I'll have you work with S&T on this test," I'm told. There were six vocabulary words that needed to be matched with their definition and then eight multiple choice questions. Like other tests that S&T takes right now, someone can read the material to him. The vocabulary words gave him a little challenge but he flew through the multiple choice questions. When S&T finished the test he looked up at me and said, "Mr. Schultz, how did I do?" "How do you think you did?" I asked him. "Good," was his response. I looked at him and said, "you did real good, you got them all correct and that is an A+."
Here is the reason why I've stayed in this classroom for five years and dealt with some very serious anger outbursts. When S&T and I were heading back to our classroom after taking the reading test he started to run down the corridor. I quickly reminded him that he needed to walk so he slowed down for about two steps and then he started walking, faster and faster and faster. He was well ahead of me when he made the left turn and enter Gnu's classroom. When I finally walked into the classroom, S&T was at the front table with Gnu and the smile on his face was priceless as he talked to Gnu about getting that A+ on his reading test.
It's now 5:53pm on Sunday evening. My part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse spent a good part of this beautiful day cleaning and preparing our screened in porch on the back of the house for occupancy. So, next week for the first time since last fall, I'll be writing this blog from my favorite blogging place. Life is good.
If you recall from the last blog post, WLNutt and his parental unit moved well outside the boundary of our school corporation. But, with the designation of homeless attached to the family, some unknown overhead person decide that our school corporation should provide WLNutt with bus transportation back to our school. So, beginning as early as Monday, a full sized yellow bus with a driver and bus monitor will make the trip well outside our school boundary and pick up WLNutt and only WLNutt and return him every day. Again, this is from a previous blog posts. When WLNutt first arrived at our school a bus picked him up and brought him to school. After a couple days WLNutt asked me if I could change his bus schedule. I told him I couldn't and he responded, "that bus picks me up to early in the morning so I'm not riding it." So, after missing fourteen days of school out of the twenty-five days of school since arriving at our school, another bus will be assigned to pick WLNutt up and bring him to school. This new bus, because of the distance that it needs to travel will be picking him up even earlier and getting him back home even later that his original bus. Any guesses as to how many days WLNutt will miss for the remainder of the school year. I believe we have just over thirty days left in the school year so give it your best guess.
Just over two weeks ago, S&T crossed the academic and behavior threshold and earned an opportunity to attend a general education classroom. He had been asking Gnu about going for several weeks and finally he's getting his big chance. When Gnu told him he could go the smile on his face was huge. Later that day Gnu laid out the S&T game plan. First, although he is in the third grade, he will be going to a second grade reading group. Gnu felt that going to a second grade reading group would be better for him than trying to survive in a third grade group and I'd agreed. Secondly, as Gnu looked at me, she said, "you are going with him at least for the first couple weeks," and I was again in agreement with her.
It's Monday morning, S&T's big day. At 9:30am Gnu gets all of the fourth grade scholars attention and tells them to head to their general education classroom. She then looks over at S&T and says to him, "are you ready to go to your general education classroom?" It's the big moment. After bugging Gnu about it for weeks, is he going to go? Is he going to have the ability to walk down the hallway, make a right turn and walk into a classroom full of scholars and he will not know a single one of them? S&T slowly stood up at his desk, look at Gnu, hesitated a moment, turn and starting walking toward our classroom door. As he approached me, he stopped, looked at me and quietly said, "Mr. Schultz, will you go with me?" "Sure," I said, "let's do this." That's all it took, S&T's smile returned and off we went.
S&T walked up to the front of the classroom and was introduced to all the scholars by the teacher. I took my normal seat where I had a nice view from the back of the room. After about ten minutes I hear, "Schultz, if you are going to stay in my room I'm going to put you to work." Shorty after that statement, I'm joined by S&T and five of his new classmates at the back table. Our objective was to read the first three chapters of a book titled Tornado that was written by Betsy Byars and the book won a Newbery Medal. S&T was on my immediate left so I pointed at him and said, "you read first and we'll move around the table." After each of the six scholars read, I guess correctly that the second grade that S&T was in had been leveled and he was with the low level reads. That may sound a little disappointing to you but it worked out perfectly as S&T fit right in with the other beginning readers.
The next morning S&T was back in the general education classroom sitting with the scholars on a rug in the front of the classroom. The teacher announced that she was going to ask questions about the story that everyone was reading. When she finished asking the first question, several hands were raised and S&T's was one of them. When the teacher called on him for the first time, he answered correctly, When she called on him a second and third time, he answered both questions correctly. As I sat in the back of the room watching him it just felt so good to see S&T being successful. As I sat there I also thought this, Gnu should be the one sitting were I'm sitting so she can see what she has accomplished with a young scholar who walked into our classroom at the beginning of the previous school year with a history of doing poorly academically and behaviorally.
I have one more fabulous S&T bragging story and them I'm finished. It's Friday and S&T is now sitting at his own desk in the general education classroom. "Everybody get out a pencil and a piece of paper as you are going to take a test on the book Tornado," the teacher announced. "Schultz, I'll have you work with S&T on this test," I'm told. There were six vocabulary words that needed to be matched with their definition and then eight multiple choice questions. Like other tests that S&T takes right now, someone can read the material to him. The vocabulary words gave him a little challenge but he flew through the multiple choice questions. When S&T finished the test he looked up at me and said, "Mr. Schultz, how did I do?" "How do you think you did?" I asked him. "Good," was his response. I looked at him and said, "you did real good, you got them all correct and that is an A+."
Here is the reason why I've stayed in this classroom for five years and dealt with some very serious anger outbursts. When S&T and I were heading back to our classroom after taking the reading test he started to run down the corridor. I quickly reminded him that he needed to walk so he slowed down for about two steps and then he started walking, faster and faster and faster. He was well ahead of me when he made the left turn and enter Gnu's classroom. When I finally walked into the classroom, S&T was at the front table with Gnu and the smile on his face was priceless as he talked to Gnu about getting that A+ on his reading test.
It's now 5:53pm on Sunday evening. My part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse spent a good part of this beautiful day cleaning and preparing our screened in porch on the back of the house for occupancy. So, next week for the first time since last fall, I'll be writing this blog from my favorite blogging place. Life is good.
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Arm Wrestling
A small group of scholars were gathered around a classmates desk using hushed voices but not hushed enough. The person with the view from the front of the room inquires as to what is going on. "Nothing," is the response. Again, the hushed voices catch the attention of the person that sits at the front of the room and again the scholars deny doing anything. A third occurrence of hushed voices and now this question is asked from the front of the classroom, "what are you looking at?" "Oh, it's just my math notebook." Curious, the person at the front of the room rises and is walking towards the scholars, "can I see that math notebook?" A panicked expression sets in as the math notebook is handed over. Hmm! No math notes, just pictures and a story. Pictures of genitalia and a X-rated story that was written in such a manner that Larry Flynt would have been proud of the author.
It's crap like this that gives a school a bad name. It's crap like this that can undo years of good work in just a matter of minutes. It's crap like this, the really bad news about a school, that the media loves to publish because this crap, going on in our school corporation, is what really sells newspapers. All the good from the past couple years is immediately forgotten. It's crap like this that opens the door for all the naysayers who enjoy telling me that my school district is in a never ending downward tailspin. Well, naysayers, before you start sending me emails or text messages, save your breath because I'm not going to listen. Why am I not listening? This didn't happen in my school district, it happened in one of those hoity-toity voucher schools.
There is an app on my cell phone that is called Notes. It's full of stuff that occurs in the classroom where I have a view from the back of the room. Right now, there are too many notes so I'm dumping them all in this blog.
I'll start with this one as I probably have the attention of the naysayers who speak of the downward tailspin our school corporation is in. One of our scholars, Tourette, passed the IRead3 state mandated reading test. That doesn't sound like much so let me tell you this. I first met Tourette when he was in the first grade. His first spoken words to me were a string of obscenities that could match anything coming out of the mouth of some drunk. From the first grade through his arrival in Gnu's classroom he was a non-stop destructive mess that no one wanted to deal with. In less that a school year, Gnu did her job, wouldn't cut him any slack, and due to her effort, Tourette had what was needed to pass this test.
Our school district is in the beginning stages of a sizeable technology update. There were work crews in our classroom in the evenings a couple times now. You can always tell when someone or something in the classroom changed as the scholars will recognize it almost immediately. "Mrs. Gnu, Mrs. Gnu, look at that, someone installed a microphone in our classroom." Gnu and I both look in the direction that the scholar is pointing and see the microphone, look at each other, and wonder why would they installed a microphone. Our classroom flooring is made up of those one foot square vinyl tiles. After the scholars left for the day I counted the number of one foot square floor tiles that are between my desk and Gnu's desk. There are twenty-three. So, depending on the time of day, eleven scholars occupy a twenty-three foot space between my desk and Gnu's desk, so why would anyone think we need a really nice wireless microphone in our classroom?
Let's see, what is next? My favorite stopping point on the way to school for a cup of the Kona blend coffee, the BP gas station. Remember, I don't make this stuff up. This particular BP gas station is pretty busy in the morning so when I arrive I will go to the far left or far right parking space. Doing so will make it easier to exit the gas station. On this particular day, as I walked up to the front door of the gas station, I noticed that the glass in one of the doors was shattered. Thinking the wind might have blown the door open, I headed to the coffee urns to get my $1.00 cup of Kona blend coffee. When I reach the cashier I inquired about the door. "Some derogatory word entered all drunken up and ask me for a pack of cigarettes. Before I handed him the cigarettes, I asked for some ID to be sure he was of legal age. This made the person mad and he walked out of the gas station and entered a car being driven by some one else. The driver turned the car around, pulled up to the front door and the person who was denied the cigarettes opened the car window, reached out with a hand gun and shot the door," the cashier informed me.
Here is an update on our newest scholar, WLNutt. As of today, WLNutt has been a scholar in our classroom for twenty-two days. Of those twenty-two days, WLNutt has been absent thirteen days. After less than five days at our school, WLNutt's parental unit decided to move. In doing so, WLNutt's new residence is well outside our school corporation boundary. When WLNutt's parental unit finally decided to contact Gnu about her scholars absence, Gnu explained to her what her options were. First option, your scholar can continue attending our school but you will have to drive him to our school, bus transportation will not come to your house. The second option was to find a new school closer to your new address. After a Google map search, Gnu gave WLNutt's parental unit the telephone numbers for two school corporations near her current residence. Gnu also informed her where to go to read about the two schools so she can make an informed decision. When told to read something, WLNutt's parental unit ask Gnu if she could just read the information to her and leave it as a cellphone message. After Gnu finished the telephone conversation with WLNutt's parental unit, she looked over at me and said, "WLNutt's parental unit can't read. A few day go by and WLNutt's parental unit showed up at school. Again, the parental unit asked about bus transportation. Again, for the third time I believe, Gnu informed the parental unit that she resides outside our school corporation boundary and bus transportation will not come to her residence. As of today, WLNutt has missed the last four days of school and Gnu and I have no idea what happened to him.
A quick Baby Gnu update. Everything is progressing nicely with the exception of child care. Gnu quickly discovered that child care will be expensive and that is a real concern at this time. From Gnu's standpoint, her net pay after taxes, etc. and child care expenses would leave little left in her check. Knowing that she has to do lesson plans for three grades levels and up to five academic levels, she is wondering if she should just stay home. The best guess by the doctor on a delivery date is June 1st. Being very concerned that she will go into labor in the classroom, Gnu is going on sick/FMLA starting on May 26th. That will leave me with eight school days left in the school year without her in the classroom. Gnu was informed that a substitute teacher was interested in filling in for her and would visit the classroom to observe the scholars. At the last minute, this substitute teacher cancelled the visit. A second attempt at a visit was set for April 21st but that meeting is being rescheduled. I know, that does not sound very promising, so I'm waiting to see how all of this will play out. As for me, I'm attached at the hip to Gnu. What I will do next year will depend on what she will do.
Finally, the arm wrestling competition. Grr! started the competition by soundly defeating S&T. Huey then challenged Grr! and he was soundly defeated. Next up was MiniJ and he beat Grr! with Grr! commenting that his arm was too tired to put up much of the fight. After the first three challenges, there were several arm wrestling challenges amongst all of the scholars. If I was to pick a true winner of the competition, it would be Knapper. As the competition was winding down, someone, sorry, can't remember who, challenged Gnu who was closely observing in case there were anger eruptions. One by one the challengers stepped up to the desk top. One by one Gnu absolutely crushed them. There was no allowing the scholars even the slightest hope that they just might win. When the word "go" was said, Gnu just hammered them.
The school year is quickly winding down. I've even started my short timer calendar, just like I did when I was nearing the end of my time in Vietnam, to count down the days. That's it for today. Thanks for continuing to follow along. Good bye!
It's crap like this that gives a school a bad name. It's crap like this that can undo years of good work in just a matter of minutes. It's crap like this, the really bad news about a school, that the media loves to publish because this crap, going on in our school corporation, is what really sells newspapers. All the good from the past couple years is immediately forgotten. It's crap like this that opens the door for all the naysayers who enjoy telling me that my school district is in a never ending downward tailspin. Well, naysayers, before you start sending me emails or text messages, save your breath because I'm not going to listen. Why am I not listening? This didn't happen in my school district, it happened in one of those hoity-toity voucher schools.
There is an app on my cell phone that is called Notes. It's full of stuff that occurs in the classroom where I have a view from the back of the room. Right now, there are too many notes so I'm dumping them all in this blog.
I'll start with this one as I probably have the attention of the naysayers who speak of the downward tailspin our school corporation is in. One of our scholars, Tourette, passed the IRead3 state mandated reading test. That doesn't sound like much so let me tell you this. I first met Tourette when he was in the first grade. His first spoken words to me were a string of obscenities that could match anything coming out of the mouth of some drunk. From the first grade through his arrival in Gnu's classroom he was a non-stop destructive mess that no one wanted to deal with. In less that a school year, Gnu did her job, wouldn't cut him any slack, and due to her effort, Tourette had what was needed to pass this test.
Our school district is in the beginning stages of a sizeable technology update. There were work crews in our classroom in the evenings a couple times now. You can always tell when someone or something in the classroom changed as the scholars will recognize it almost immediately. "Mrs. Gnu, Mrs. Gnu, look at that, someone installed a microphone in our classroom." Gnu and I both look in the direction that the scholar is pointing and see the microphone, look at each other, and wonder why would they installed a microphone. Our classroom flooring is made up of those one foot square vinyl tiles. After the scholars left for the day I counted the number of one foot square floor tiles that are between my desk and Gnu's desk. There are twenty-three. So, depending on the time of day, eleven scholars occupy a twenty-three foot space between my desk and Gnu's desk, so why would anyone think we need a really nice wireless microphone in our classroom?
Let's see, what is next? My favorite stopping point on the way to school for a cup of the Kona blend coffee, the BP gas station. Remember, I don't make this stuff up. This particular BP gas station is pretty busy in the morning so when I arrive I will go to the far left or far right parking space. Doing so will make it easier to exit the gas station. On this particular day, as I walked up to the front door of the gas station, I noticed that the glass in one of the doors was shattered. Thinking the wind might have blown the door open, I headed to the coffee urns to get my $1.00 cup of Kona blend coffee. When I reach the cashier I inquired about the door. "Some derogatory word entered all drunken up and ask me for a pack of cigarettes. Before I handed him the cigarettes, I asked for some ID to be sure he was of legal age. This made the person mad and he walked out of the gas station and entered a car being driven by some one else. The driver turned the car around, pulled up to the front door and the person who was denied the cigarettes opened the car window, reached out with a hand gun and shot the door," the cashier informed me.
Here is an update on our newest scholar, WLNutt. As of today, WLNutt has been a scholar in our classroom for twenty-two days. Of those twenty-two days, WLNutt has been absent thirteen days. After less than five days at our school, WLNutt's parental unit decided to move. In doing so, WLNutt's new residence is well outside our school corporation boundary. When WLNutt's parental unit finally decided to contact Gnu about her scholars absence, Gnu explained to her what her options were. First option, your scholar can continue attending our school but you will have to drive him to our school, bus transportation will not come to your house. The second option was to find a new school closer to your new address. After a Google map search, Gnu gave WLNutt's parental unit the telephone numbers for two school corporations near her current residence. Gnu also informed her where to go to read about the two schools so she can make an informed decision. When told to read something, WLNutt's parental unit ask Gnu if she could just read the information to her and leave it as a cellphone message. After Gnu finished the telephone conversation with WLNutt's parental unit, she looked over at me and said, "WLNutt's parental unit can't read. A few day go by and WLNutt's parental unit showed up at school. Again, the parental unit asked about bus transportation. Again, for the third time I believe, Gnu informed the parental unit that she resides outside our school corporation boundary and bus transportation will not come to her residence. As of today, WLNutt has missed the last four days of school and Gnu and I have no idea what happened to him.
A quick Baby Gnu update. Everything is progressing nicely with the exception of child care. Gnu quickly discovered that child care will be expensive and that is a real concern at this time. From Gnu's standpoint, her net pay after taxes, etc. and child care expenses would leave little left in her check. Knowing that she has to do lesson plans for three grades levels and up to five academic levels, she is wondering if she should just stay home. The best guess by the doctor on a delivery date is June 1st. Being very concerned that she will go into labor in the classroom, Gnu is going on sick/FMLA starting on May 26th. That will leave me with eight school days left in the school year without her in the classroom. Gnu was informed that a substitute teacher was interested in filling in for her and would visit the classroom to observe the scholars. At the last minute, this substitute teacher cancelled the visit. A second attempt at a visit was set for April 21st but that meeting is being rescheduled. I know, that does not sound very promising, so I'm waiting to see how all of this will play out. As for me, I'm attached at the hip to Gnu. What I will do next year will depend on what she will do.
Finally, the arm wrestling competition. Grr! started the competition by soundly defeating S&T. Huey then challenged Grr! and he was soundly defeated. Next up was MiniJ and he beat Grr! with Grr! commenting that his arm was too tired to put up much of the fight. After the first three challenges, there were several arm wrestling challenges amongst all of the scholars. If I was to pick a true winner of the competition, it would be Knapper. As the competition was winding down, someone, sorry, can't remember who, challenged Gnu who was closely observing in case there were anger eruptions. One by one the challengers stepped up to the desk top. One by one Gnu absolutely crushed them. There was no allowing the scholars even the slightest hope that they just might win. When the word "go" was said, Gnu just hammered them.
The school year is quickly winding down. I've even started my short timer calendar, just like I did when I was nearing the end of my time in Vietnam, to count down the days. That's it for today. Thanks for continuing to follow along. Good bye!
Sunday, April 9, 2017
Nine More Weeks
Monday, April 3rd
It's 8:40am and I'm heading to bus duty. At a leadership meeting just before our spring break, the school leadership decided to change the drop off points for car riders and bus riders. With this change in place I'm placing orange cones along one side of the gym to keep the scholars from walking across the gym floor. While I can understand why that is important on snowy or rainy days, it seems like a waste of time on the nice days. However, I'm not in charge so I play along. With the orange cones in place, the school bell rings and spring break is over and we are back in the business of educating scholars. The purple bus was first to let the scholars off the bus and that went smoothly. Next up was our first yellow bus. That went smoothly and I was about to walk over to the next yellow bus when I hear, "Hey, Mr. Perfect Hair," the bus driver yelled, "one of your scholars is refusing to get off my bus." FBG, our morning bus captain, was standing right next to me so he took the lead and entered the bus. It was about a minute or so later when FBG exited the bus with BigHouse directly in front of him. With FBG escorting BigHouse into the school I followed immediately behind them in case BigHouse chose to turn run. When BigHouse entered the school his backpack went flying one way and he walked in the other direction. As soon as he neared a gym wall he started kicking it. FBG looked at me and said, "I'll stay with him," so I headed back outside to get the remaining scholars off their buses.
It's now a few minutes past 9:00am when BigHouse enters the classroom with FBG directly behind him. BigHouse walks towards his desk, throws his backpack on the floor, walks past me, and enters our time out room. Once inside the time out he slams the door, puts his breakfast on the window sill and starts pounding on the door with his fists and kicking the door with his foot. The scholars are doing a real nice job of totally ignoring BigHouse and I do the same and pretend that he is not even in the classroom. After a several minutes passed by, the time out room was quite and I'm getting a little nervous that BigHouse is in the room doing something stupid. So I stand up and walk over to the time out room and look inside. When I see BigHouse, he is in the middle of the time out room and soundly asleep on the floor. Several times during the morning I checked on BigHouse. Each time he was asleep but did change positions so I wasn't concerned that he was dead. As we were approaching lunch and recess there was a stirring in the time out room and BigHouse exited and sat at his desk.
Gnu instructed the scholars to line up as it was lunch time. Lining up went smoothly and they departed. I put the classroom back in it's normal position, sharpened the pencils, and ate my lunch. At 12:20pm BigHouse walked back into the classroom with Gnu right behind him. My radar detector said something was wrong as they were back too early. BigHouse walked directly passed me with the "look" and went over to Gnu's bookcase and climbed up on it. Gnu immediately said, "get off my bookcase." There was no response from BigHouse so Gnu repeated her request, "I said to get off my bookcase." Again, nothing, so now I'm up and walking toward BigHouse. "Miss Gnu asked you twice to get off her bookcase, now move." BigHouse slide off the bookcase and promptly started slamming chairs into a table at the side of the room. Knowing his anger was escalating again, I cautiously moved between him and the chairs. That didn't sit well and he grabbed some pencils and started throwing them across the room. With the scholars at risk of getting hit by flying pencils, Gnu and I recognized immediately that BigHouse needed to be moved to the time out room to keep the scholars safe. I got to him first and he promptly dropped to the floor. Gnu was going to try and get him on his feet but he took a swing at her and that was the moment he crossed over the line. I stepped in between them, told Gnu to move away to avoid getting punched in the stomach and in a short time BigHouse was in the time out room. I moved him to the back wall of the time out room and attempted to back out. He came at me with his fist raised and I knew the punch was going to be directed at my upper body. When the first swing came, I blocked it with my arm. When the second swing came, I again blocked it with my arm and moved out of the time out room. BigHouse was in a full blown rage, kicking and pounding on the door, pounding on the window, spewing forth a string of obscenities at me and give me the double flip off. With the scholars out of harms way I asked Gnu what brought on the anger. She informed me that BigHouse wanted to eat her lunch instead of the lunch he selected when he went through the cafeteria tray line. When she refused to give him her lunch, he got angry and started screaming and pounding on the table in the cafeteria in front of a room full of scholars who were trying to eat their lunch.
As Gnu and I were discussing BigHouse's anger out burst she pulled out her cell phone and informed me that she was going to call BigHouse's parental unit. "I'm not going to let him disrupt the classroom all afternoon, his parental unit can come and get him and take him home." Unfortunately, BigHouse's parental unit was at work. Gnu informed the parental unit that BigHouse was in the time out room and his parental unit informed Gnu that he should stay there until she could come and get him. It was about 2:00pm when BigHouse tapped on the window and asked me if he could come out. I open the door slightly and asked him if he was going to behave. He nodded yes and I stepped away from the door.
BigHouse was out of the time out room for about fifteen minutes when the classroom telephone rang. It was the front office and I was informed that BigHouse's parental unit was in the school to pick him up. When BigHouse was told his parental unit was here, he picked up his backpack, put on his jacket, and headed toward the door but stopped. He turned around, walked to the front of the classroom, stopped at Gnu's desk and calmly asked her for his homework. With his homework in his hand BigHouse turned around and headed out the classroom door towards his parental unit that I'm certain is not very pleased with her young scholar.
Fast forward to Friday, August 7th.
This will be brief as I'm getting a little long winded. Huey, once again, was off his medication. When that happens, he is a whirlwind of activity, incapable of staying stationary and unable to stop talking. I first recognized that one of his habits, when off his medication, happened when he was at the front table with Gnu. Are there any guesses as to what Huey did? It was during our afternoon math block and as Gnu worked with Huey she had pulled a scarf up over her face and nose. That is all I needed to see as I knew that one of Huey's consistencies when he is off his medication is to poop in his pants.
Gnu and I started the week with a major anger outburst solely because a scholar didn't want to go to school. We ended the week with a scholar pooping his pants because a sorry excuse for a parental unit failed to give her young scholar his medication. There are nine weeks left in the school year. Lord, please give us the strength to get through these nine weeks.
Check off another blog post. The granddaughter is in the house. It's a beautiful day. The Weber grill is heating up. I'm out of here. Bye!
BigHouse was out of the time out room for about fifteen minutes when the classroom telephone rang. It was the front office and I was informed that BigHouse's parental unit was in the school to pick him up. When BigHouse was told his parental unit was here, he picked up his backpack, put on his jacket, and headed toward the door but stopped. He turned around, walked to the front of the classroom, stopped at Gnu's desk and calmly asked her for his homework. With his homework in his hand BigHouse turned around and headed out the classroom door towards his parental unit that I'm certain is not very pleased with her young scholar.
Fast forward to Friday, August 7th.
This will be brief as I'm getting a little long winded. Huey, once again, was off his medication. When that happens, he is a whirlwind of activity, incapable of staying stationary and unable to stop talking. I first recognized that one of his habits, when off his medication, happened when he was at the front table with Gnu. Are there any guesses as to what Huey did? It was during our afternoon math block and as Gnu worked with Huey she had pulled a scarf up over her face and nose. That is all I needed to see as I knew that one of Huey's consistencies when he is off his medication is to poop in his pants.
Gnu and I started the week with a major anger outburst solely because a scholar didn't want to go to school. We ended the week with a scholar pooping his pants because a sorry excuse for a parental unit failed to give her young scholar his medication. There are nine weeks left in the school year. Lord, please give us the strength to get through these nine weeks.
Check off another blog post. The granddaughter is in the house. It's a beautiful day. The Weber grill is heating up. I'm out of here. Bye!
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