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!
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