I Have No Idea

A quick review in case your forgot.  I've moved from the primary emotional handicapped classroom with Gnu to be the instructional assistant for the teacher in the middle school and the high school classrooms.  TOR, who is the teacher for both classrooms, primarily stays in the middle school and I stay primarily in the high school.  TOR has daily lesson plans and teaches in the middle school.  The high school scholars academic day is a software package with all their lesson plans laid out for the entire school year I believe.  TOR will periodically stick her head through the interior door that connects the two classroom but for the most part I'm in the classroom by myself.  One final review item and then the day begins.  The high school scholars are split into two parts, four in the morning and four in the afternoon.

Here is how the school day begins, if that is what you want to call it, for the high school scholars.  When they walk into the building they have a device, cellphone or tablet, with the ear buds stuck in their ears and are either listening to music, playing a game, or watching video.  Once in the building, they walk to our makeshift cafeteria to pick up either their breakfast or lunch with the ear buds still stuck in their ears.  The afternoon scholars eat their lunch in our makeshift cafeteria and the morning scholars eat their breakfast in the classroom and all the time they are eating the ear buds are in place.  With their meals consumed, and I'll say in again, what they just ate I don't consider a meal suitable for a high school scholar, the academic day begins.

So you don't have to scroll backwards to find the blog posting about meals, I'll give you quick reminder.  Here is the typical breakfast for our high school seniors.  The entre is a Pop Tart with thirty-two grams of sugar, there is a milk choice but low fat chocolate milk with eighteen grams of sugar is usually the choice, there is a juice choice, and on occasion there is fruit.  There is no cafeteria tray line with steam tables to keep the food hot, no options on what you can choose to eat, there is no food tray or plate, the only piece of silverware is plastic.  In fact, there is not even a cafeteria worker in the building to set out the food.  If an adult doesn't arrive in our makeshift cafeteria to set out the food, the scholars will have to do it themselves.

The academic day beings and pretty much stays consistent throughout the week.  The scholars walk into the classroom and will either sit in a beanbag chair or at a table with a desk top computer sitting right in front of them with their devices still plugged into their ears.  The more ambitious scholars will actually log into the academic software program but will quickly change their focus back on what is on their device.  With no teacher in the classroom I'm the one that has to address the electronic device issue and ask that they log into the software program.  The morning scholars will follow my instructions without too much difficulty but the afternoon scholars, not so much.

From my desk I have a good view of the scholars as I'm sitting behind them and I can see the computer screens.  Some of them will begin their academic lesson but with their devices still plugged into their ears.  The ones that don't log in have to be prodded to get started.  As I watch them working on academics, I can slowly see their heads beginning to nod and eventually they are asleep.  I'll then get up, make my rounds, wake up the scholars who are sleeping, sit back down and repeat the process a short time later.  In a nutshell, you now get a feel for the academic day for the high school scholars.

I don't have to do what I do, I choose to do what I do and it is for this reason.  I love to help scholars with their academics.  In my current situation that is hard to do because there are no text books, no lesson plans that I can see, just computer screens with font settings so small I can't even read the text on the computer screen to see what a scholar is working on.  What I do all day is sit in silence with the exception of when one of the scholars in the secondary emotional handicapped classroom or in Gnu's classroom erupts in anger.  What I hear then is the scholar being transported down the hallway screaming and crying as they pass my classroom on the way to the sensory room. 

One day I caught a break as Stimes2 pushed his chair away from his desk and said, "I have no idea what to do."  I moved over to where he was working and asked him if I could look at his computer screen to see what he was working on.  He agreed and this is what I saw.  Stimes2 just started a new assignment entitled Sonnet Analysis.  As I scrolled down the page I saw sonnets by Francesco Petrarch, Thomas Wyatt, Philip Sydney, and William Shakespeare and I thought to myself, "this is nuts."  Stimes2 is behind in credits to graduate and he is barely surviving in school.  One Friday he told me he was going to visit his parental unit over the weekend.  When I asked him were his parental unit lived he said, "I don't know the name of the city but it is in southern Indiana."  Stimes2 can't name the city his parental unit lives in and he is doing sonnet analysis.  Slightly agitated I started asking questions as to why Stimes2 is studying sonnet analysis.  I got several shrugs of the shoulds when I asked the teachers but finally was told to, "ask the state."  Dear State of Indiana, Stimes2 is a second year senior.  He is slowly, slowly trying to earn enough credits to graduate.  He is eighteen years old and can just drop out but he continues to plug away.  So, State of Indiana, why and the hell do you think it is necessary for this scholar to do a lesson on sonnet analysis.  This is not a student on track for college.  This is a student that needs to be taking vocational classes with the hope that he can learn a trade and live a comfortable life.

It's Friday afternoon and my two infantile, imbecilic, blibbits had been animated most of the afternoon.  TOR is attending a conference regarding a potential new scholar.  Czar is also not in the building.  That just leaves me in the classroom without support should something go wrong.  VerbalD and WideB are getting loud and I'm heading in their direction to get them to quiet down plus VerbalD has been showing something on his cellphone to WideB and I figured it's something inappropriate.  As I approached VerbalD, he turned towards me, shoved his cellphone up towards my face, showed me a picture of a topless female, removed the cellphone from my face, and laughed at me.  Keep in mind  I'm alone in the classroom and TOR has already forewarned me that VerbalD can get real angry, trash the classroom and has the potential to hurt an adult.  Knowing what I know, I quietly ask VerbalD to put the cellphone away.  I believe he would have done so but the next thing I know the interior classroom door that connects us to the middle school opens and scholars from the middle school walked into the classroom.  A behavior coach from the middle school stood in the doorway and said to me, "we have an angry scholar in our classroom and these two scholars need to come into your classroom to stay safe."  When I looked at the two scholars I knew immediately that the last thing I needed in my classroom was these two scholars.  Gnu once referred to her scholars as "bat shit," and these two scholars from the middle school are worse than that.

With these two additional scholars in the classroom, we went from animated to very animated.  VerbalD approached one of the middle school scholars, I believe a twelve year old, and showed him something on his cellphone.  The middle school scholar looked at the cellphone and said, "that is P.O.R.N."  For reasons unknown to me, I looked up at the clock, saw that we were about eight minutes to early to leave for the buses but decide that I needed to get the scholars out of my classroom.  I shouted to get the scholars attention and told them to head for their bus and everyone did so without any incidents.

With a discipline referral form completed and in my hand I walked over to the office.  TOR and Czar were still out of the building so I handed the form to the administrative assistant and said to her, "what will be the disciplinary action taken for this type of incident?"  The administrative assistant read the referral form, looked at me and said, "probably a suspension."  I respond, "if this scholar remains in my classroom then you may have to find a new instructional assistant," and walk out of the building.

I found out that the disciplinary action for blatantly shoving a picture of a topless female in my face and then laughing at me was a three day suspension.  On Monday morning I promptly filled out my letter of resignation telling the Czar that I will leave at the end of the day on the last day of VerbalD's three day suspension.

It's Wednesday afternoon at 2:45pm on my last day and I'm sitting in Gnu's classroom.  I could tell that she did not have a good day because, like so many other bad days that preceded this bad day, she was not smiling.  We talked, mostly small talk, for a couple minutes, and then I got up to leave as it was 3:00pm.  I told her I needed to clock out and turned to walk out of her classroom.  After only taking a couple steps I stopped and turned back and said to her, "do you mind if I give you a hug before I leave."  She looked up at me, stood up, smiled that smile that was so seldom seen in this classroom and said to me, "sure."  As she approached me she again apologized for talking me into returning to work.  I told her that no apology was needed and said, "we had a great three year run and that is what we needed to remember."  I hugged her and then walked out of the classroom, turned my ID badge in at the main office, and walked out to my car.  It took me a few seconds before I started the engine of my car as I knew driving with tears in my eyes was not a good thing to do.

It's also taking me a few seconds longer that I thought to finish this blog post because the screen is blurry as I have tears in my eyes as I tell you about my last few minutes in a classroom with Gnu.  With my eyes now back in focus I'm going to leave you with a quote from Forrest Gump, "that's all I have to say about that."