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.
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