In an attempt to get parents engaged in their scholars education and actually show up at school our school leadership, in conjunction with our parent involvement educator, came up with an excellent idea. Donuts and Dads got us started and that was followed by Muffins and Moms a couple weeks later. Both were a huge success as our parking lot was full of cars and our cafeteria was full of parents and their young scholars. Muffins with Moms was an interesting day. Because the parking lot was crammed full of cars I had to park quite a distance from the school. When I reached the main entrance to the school I noticed that the front door was propped open. At first I was concerned about this given the number of school shootings but I figured what are the chances and proceeded inside. Because I had to walk so far to get into the school, I was running late for bus duty so I went directly to my duty station. In what was a pretty rare occurrence, two of our busses were running late so I headed to our main office to inform the BigB2.
When I reached the office, the door was closed but I heard voices inside the office so I lightly tapped on the door. The door only opened a crack and I saw the LittleB looking up at me. She invited me in but kept the door from opening real wide. When I stepped into the office I was promptly greeted by a puppy that had put it's front paws up on my legs and was wagging it's tail rapidly so I started scratching it's head. "Who's dog," I asked. "We don't know," was the response. "It wandered into the school because the main entrance door was propped open." I then informed the LittleB that two busses were running late and cautiously tried to back out of the office. In an instant the puppy was by me and right there, in the main office, this came out of my mouth very quickly, "oh shit," and the puppy was on the run in the school.
Fast forward a whole twenty minutes, I'm in the classroom sitting where I have my view from the back of the room. Gnu is at the front table giving Grr! and Tourette their spelling test. FBG is at the side table working with Huey. Fortunately, all of the fourth grade scholars were off to their general education classrooms because right out of nowhere, and stated quite clearly was, "oh shit." I looked up toward Gnu. Grr! and Tourette are quickly moving books and papers out of the way as Gnu accidentally spilled a carton of milk. I looked over at FBG and we both start laughing. FBG then looks at me and says, loud enough to be heard at the front of the classroom, "maybe I'll do my next group lesson plan with the scholars on the use of profanity in the classroom." I'm laughing as I look toward Gnu not knowing what to expect. Although her head is down wiping her table you can see the smile on her face.
Going in reverse now and it's Friday of last week when our social worker walked into the classroom. "I've got bus transportation set up, WLNutt will be here on Monday." As a reminder, WLNutt has missed the last sixteen days of school. Jumping forward to Monday morning. Any guesses? I'm on bus duty. All of the busses have arrived and departed. Any guesses? WLNutt is absent for the seventeenth day in a row. Tuesday morning, all the busses arrived and departed. I head back to the classroom, walked in, look to my left and there sits WLNutt so overjoyed at being back in school that he has pulled his hoodie up over his head with his head lying on his desk. I looked up at Gnu and she informed me that his parental unit drove him to school. Wednesday morning. all the busses arrived and departed. When I walked back into the classroom, no WLNutt. Forty minutes later he walked into the classroom with the same enthusiasm as on Tuesday. It's now Thursday morning and the scholars have not arrived. Gnu was at her front table preparing for the day when she said to me, "I spoke with WLNutt's parental unit last evening." "How did that go," I asked. "She was concerned because her young scholar told her that no one will help him with his work." "How did you respond," I asked. "I told her it was a little difficult to help her young scholar when he never comes to school." For the record, Gnu and I refused to help WLNutt with his work on Thursday and Friday. Why? WLNutt failed to show up for school.
Whale has been coming to our classroom now for a few months. To refresh your memory, Whale was in one of our life skills classrooms for the past two years. A life skills classroom is designed to help scholars who have some pretty serious learning difficulties. I believe, and maybe my friend SpedEd30+, who is sitting on her retirement throne up in Michigan, can help me if I get this wrong, these life skills classrooms have scholars that have a cognitive disability. During his time in our school, there has always been a concern that Whale had the wrong label (life skills classroom) so a decision was made to allow him to come to our classroom for about half of the school day. Although Gnu was not overjoyed at having another scholar in the classroom she realized that it was the right thing to do and so far Whale's attendance in our classroom has not been a problem. In fact, academically he is on the same level as S&T and Huey and from a reading standpoint, he reads better than Grr!, S&T, and Huey.
Although it took a while, the powers that be decided to retest Whale to either confirm that he belongs in a life skills classroom or he should be placed elsewhere. I'm not sure of the exact date that the testing began but I can tell you who was involved. Once I tell you who was involved, you will come to the same conclusion that I did, this is going to take a long time. Let's see, his current life skills teacher, his former life skills teacher, Gnu, a behavior specialist, a behavior therapist, a psychologist, and finally me. What did I contribute? I had to answer a sixty question survey regarding Whale's behavior in our classroom. In doing so, I had to answer questions about any anger issues that I saw. For the record, there were none that I observed although I have seen him angry outside our classroom.
After weeks of discussion and reviewing reams of paper on Whale's behavior, a decision was made and a case conference was set up with Whale's parental unit. I believe it was last Wednesday when all of the involved parties in Whale's retesting gather around the large oval shaped table in our school conference room. When all of the parties had their say, Whale's parental unit was informed that next school year Whale will be placed in a classroom for scholars with emotional handicaps. And what classroom will that be? Gnu's of course. Great! That is finally settled. Opps! I forgot one minor obstacle after going through this weeks long retesting process. Whale's parental unit has decided to relocate outside of our school corporation's boundary and Whale will be going to a new school next year.
Next up is the fidget spinner. Hmm! Are you familiar with the fidget spinner? Maybe not. Ok! Do an internet search and we'll discuss one of the greatest marketing scams since the pet rock next week.
Happy Mothers Day.
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