This is a note to all of the snowflakes that may be reading this blog. You are about to be outraged. To avoid being outraged do no read the next sentence or the remainder of this blog post. You've been warned. I'M ON CHRISTMAS BREAK and I work in one of the finest public elementary schools in central Indiana.
I have a dilemma as I have two discussion points to talk about and both may get quite lengthy. So I have to make a decision and some of you may not like it. In the last blog post, by the way it was my two hundred and twelfth posting, I mentioned my involvement in a reading intervention group with third grade scholars. I stated that I would follow up my reading intervention discussion in what was to be this blog post as some of you gave me the impression that I left you hanging in the last post. Well! I'm going to leave you hanging a little while longer as I need to do this. Hopefully, when you finish reading this post you will know why I wrote what I wrote.
This will be redundant for my Facebook friends so please bear with me as I need to repeat myself. I sent her a text message asking if she was on break. The response came back and it said, "I am." I asked her is she would like to join me for lunch at the Metro Diner which is located right in the middle of where we both live. She agreed and a day and time was set. I was pretty excited that she agreed as I haven't seen her since this past June.
About ten minutes before our agreed upon lunch time I received a text message from her, "running a little late as the original baby Gnu is not feeling well and I need to drop him off at the baby sitter." That news was a little disappointing as I wanted to see the little fella as he just past his sixth month of existence. She arrived about ten minutes late but that was no big deal as I'm on Christmas break. Once we were seated at a booth I looked at her and notice some changes. The hair was a little longer. The hair color looked slightly different and the glasses were different. I also was shown the little stomach bump. When the waitress arrived at our table she was not ready to order so I went first, a Rueben sandwich with coleslaw. Finally organized, she order a glass of water, coffee black, and a side order of mash potatoes. When the waitress departed I questioned the ordering of the mash potatoes. "I'm trying a new soft food diet." Getting a little personal as she now has the link to this blog and may actually be reading it. Gnu, my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse said that your new soft food diet is an indication that it will be a girl.
We spent about an hour and fifteen minutes in the Metro Diner. We talked about our frustrations. We told stories that made the both of us laugh. She asked about my granddaughter and I promptly pull up several pictures on my cellphone. She also told me about her future plans and what options she was looking at. One of her options was to move to the far north side for employment. I responded quite quickly, "you can't more that far north as I may never see you again." She also told me that she needed to decide, some time soon, about teaching next year. With the original baby Gnu soon to be the big brother she is considering a teaching job but more in a supporting role than in an actual classroom. After sitting twenty-three or twenty-four feet across the classroom from her for three years I know that if she chooses the supporting teacher position a lot a scholars will miss out on one outstanding teacher. I also know that the amount of work required of a classroom teacher is huge so taking a supporting teacher roll will allow her to spend more time with her little ones just being a Mom and not someone who needs to block out hours of time each week doing lesson plans. As we were leaving the restaurant and heading to our cars I said to her, "we should do this again." She agreed and that put a smile on my face.
Although you don't know it, I just took a break from writing this blog. The second half of this blog is important to me and I wanted to be sure I told the story in the right manner. Now that I have it figure out I'll begin.
It's field trip day for some of our scholars. I say some for two reasons. First, some failed to get their permission slip signed. Second, some have behavior issues and the adults didn't want to take the risk of having an anger eruption over something trivial while out in public representing our school. We also have one scholar, Whale, who has been out with a health issue. Please keep this young scholar in your prayers as he has been out now for about three weeks. We are hoping he will return to school after Christmas break.
Grr! and Huey are two of the scholars that are going on the field trip although it took some convincing. I'll start with Huey. From the start of the field trip day he was being defiant and insisting that he was not going. I'm not sure what his problem was as he has gone on other field trips and had a good time but for some reason he was not going today. As Knewer and other adults tried to persuade him to go he offered multiple excuses and objections as to why he wasn't going to go. As the adults in the classroom continued to reason with Huey about this field trip I was not one of them. My task was Grr!
As you know from the last blog post Grr! was on my s-list over lies and reading tests. He was doing nothing to get off my s-list and that was evident when it was time to go on the field trip. Again, like Huey, Grr! has been on multiple field trips without incident but today he was not going. He offered his first objection that he simply did not want to go. When pressed about going he offered is second objection, "I didn't get my permission slip signed." His facial expression told me all that I needed to know so I turned to Knewer and said to her, "Grr! didn't get his permission slip signed." She looked at me and said, "that is not true, he is going." I turned back to Grr!, gave him my look of disgust with him, and told him to put his jacket on as it was time to go. Although he grumbled about going, he put on his jacket and out the classroom door we went.
Grr! and I were given instructions as to our bus location and we were heading in that direction. As we approached the exit door of the school we were redirected to another area. As we were walking to our new bus location site we passed the hallway that led back to our classroom. As I looked down the hallway I saw Huey, still looking grumpy, with FBG, our behavior specialist, following close by. With FBG with Huey I knew he was going of the field trip so I felt better as I knew what kind of adventure Grr! and Huey were going on.
I'm putting the calendar in reverse. We are backing up a couple weeks. "Schultz, I need you to go on a field trip with me," Teacher #4 said. "I'm a volunteer, I don't go on field trips," I replied. "You have to go for two reasons. I need you to stay with Grr! as he is joining my class for the day and even more important, this field trips is very dear to my heart and I need your help."
Jumping forward and back to field trip day. Grr! and Huey are heading toward their respective busses and they are not alone. The vast majority of the entire school, somewhere between four hundred and four hundred and fifty scholars are boarding various busses and will soon be scattered throughout the city of Indianapolis. With each group of scholars there is an adult carrying a very large bag. Inside this bag are numerous small, brown, paper sandwich bags filled with items either made by a scholar or purchased by an adult. On the outside of the bag is a note that is stapled to the paper sandwich bag. At the top of the note it read Bag of Cheer. Below this heading was a explanation of what these young scholars were doing and where they came from. There was also an itemized listing of what was in the bag and at the bottom of the bag it said Merry Christmas.
Grr! was on a bus heading to a Chick-fil-A with the entire fourth grade. Huey was on a bus heading to the main branch of the Indianapolis Public Library with scholars in the third grade. Other scholars were heading to downtown Indianapolis. Some were on Monument Circle (do a Google search). Others walked into various businesses, nursing homes, or just stood out on a street corner in Indianapolis. And what were they doing, handing out, to total strangers, their Bags of Cheer and saying Merry Christmas.
"Schultz, this is very dear to my heart and I need your help." "Ok, but why are we doing this?" Teacher #4 is explaining to me why our school is handing out Bags of Cheer. Every scholar in this school comes from a low income family. When they arrive at school, because of their home life, they are given something. Everyday they are given two free meals. Every year they can take advantage of a free eye exam or a dental exam. Every year scholars are selected to get new shoes. Every year scholars are selected and given practically an entire new wardrobe. Every year our school runs a food pantry and the scholars keep getting and getting and getting. I'm not complaining about the getting as I know where they come from but I decided that once, just once a year, these scholars are going to give somebody something and that is what we are doing today. We are taking this small bag, going out into our community, and we are going to give the scholars a chance to give something to someone so they can feel what it is like to give rather than receive.
I've been affiliated with this school for over five and a half years now and I don't believe I've had a more touching moment as I listened to Teacher #4. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I work in a outstanding school with outstanding teachers who give large parts of their personal time to make sure each and every scholars in our school has an opportunity to succeed and I couldn't be prouder of this school and its teachers.
That's it for today. Thank you all for following along. I'll be back soon. Merry Christmas!
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Thursday, December 14, 2017
I Had To Walk Out
I was introduced to him when he was in the first grade. His teacher called me and asked if I could walk over to her classroom and remove a scholar who was being very disruptive. When I walked into the classroom and made eye contact with this scholar he knew I wasn't there to talk in my therapeutic voice so he immediately went into his evading mode. With the help of the teacher and a couple of empty desks I managed to trap the evader in a corner of the classroom. As I approached this scholar he growled at me. I eventually was able to remove him from the first grade classroom and moved him to my classroom and placed him in our timeout room. That didn't sit well as he started kicking and hitting the walls, door and window in the time out room. Concerned that he would hurt himself I knew I had to do something to get him to de-escalate. On the floor, immediately outside the time out room, was five small, maybe one and a half inches long, plastic cars in five different colors. I picked up the five cars, showed them to him through the window of the timeout room, pointed out the five different colors, and then put the cars behind my back. I then placed four of the cars on the window ledge of the timeout room and said to him, "what color is in my hand?" The scholar studied the cars for a short time and then told me the correct color. I repeated the process a couple more times, the scholar guessed correctly each time, and the de-escalation process was complete and I returned the scholar to his classroom.
Fast forwarding and this scholar is now in the fourth grade and he still occupies my classroom. He's made a ton of progress with controlling his anger and, for the most part, has been one of the least disruptive scholars in the classroom. With the improved behavior he started going to general education classrooms. In the third grade it was for reading. In the fourth grade it was for math. Although there were a few bumps in the road, he was being successful. Unfortunately, about three weeks ago his behavior started to change.
This trip to the general education classroom for math started just as my lunch break finished. There were times when the scholar would head up to the general education classroom by himself and I'd just meet him there. On this particular day I was late returning to Knewer's classroom and the scholar had already left for math so I picked up my notebook and pencil and headed to the general education classroom. As I was walking down the hallway I saw the scholar walking toward me. "Where are you going," I asked him. "There is some kind of test and I don't have to take it," he replied. My caution flag went up but I turned around and walked back to the classroom with the scholar. I wasn't in my seat in the Knewer's classroom for two minutes when I stood up and walked out of the classroom. I was heading to the general education classroom to confirm this test situation. When I walked into the classroom the teacher immediately said, "where is the scholar?" I walked over to her and told her what the scholar said to me. She looked at me and said, "there is a test and he needs to take it." I headed back to my classroom, wrote on a post it note about the scholar lying and handed it to Knewer. She read the note, put it on her desk, and nothing happened or was said. Not overly pleased with what just happened I made eye contact with the scholar and just glared at him. For the record, I'm was also particularly upset with Knewer for doing nothing.
It's time for general education math again. When I arrived in Knewer's classroom the scholar was gone. Again, I picked up my notebook and pencil and headed to the general education classroom. When I arrived the scholar was not there. Thinking I missed the scholar and that he might be back in the classroom with Knewer, I returned to my classroom. The scholar was not there so I asked Knewer about the scholar. She informed me that he went to the general education classroom. I walk out of Knewer's classroom and headed back to the general education classroom. When I arrived the teacher again asked about the scholar. I told her that I had no idea where he was and I just took my seat in the classroom. A couple minutes later the scholar walked into the general education classroom. The teacher immediately asked him where he had been. "I needed to use the restroom," he responded. "Did you ask your teacher for permission to use the restroom," she asked the scholar. "Yes." The general education teacher walked directly to the telephone in her classroom, called Knewer, and asked her if she gave this scholar permission to use the restroom. Knewer's response was, "no."
Two lies over a two week period and I'm now sitting in the hallway outside the general education classroom with the scholar mentioned above (Grr!) as he needs to take the reading test on that worthless technological device that I talked about last week. The general education teacher just restarted the software package, because it froze up again, and Grr! is using the mouse to scroll down the screen to see how much he had to read. As he scrolled down I could see his facial expression change and I'm getting upset. Because I'm upset I decided to end the testing process before I lose my composure plus I knew that Grr! wasn't even going to make an attempt at reading the passage.
When I arrived back in Knewer's classroom I told her what had just happened with Grr!. I then walked to my desk, where I have a view from the back of the classroom, and sat down. I, along with several other teachers, have worked with Grr! for over three year and a half years trying different strategies to improve his reading skills and after what just happened my frustration with Grr! was rising rapidly. Three and a half years of trying and on this day, when Grr! scrolled down that reading test he reacted exactly as he has done for years, "do I have to read all of this?" As I sat at my desk in the back off the classroom I was fuming. Knowing that I was so upset with Grr! I stood up walked out of the classroom to find a quiet place to de-escalate before I did or said something stupid.
Ok, I'm about to go on an adventure. One that is completely different than anything that I've done in this school. The LittleBigB approached me one day and asked me to stop by her office when I had time. Later that same day I knocked on her office door and walked in. The conversation was relatively brief given the task I was handed. Paraphrasing, "I need your help with reading intervention for some of our third grade scholars," is what the LittleBigB said to me. I agreed to help and the conversation continued. LittleBigB began (paraphrasing) "these scholars are well behind in their reading and we need to give them a lot more attention prior to the mandatory IRead3 testing. You will be working with another adult (non-teaching adult) to accomplish this task. One of you will work on word formation and the other will work on reading. How you decide on who does what will be up to the two of you." For the record the other non-teaching adult immediately said, "I'll take the word formation part" so I got the reading part.
The LittleBigB wrapped up our meeting with this, "you will be working with ten third grade scholars, five in one group and five in the other group. Each group with work for fifteen minutes with one adult and then rotate to the other adult. You will work with these scholars in reading intervention five days a week at a prescribed time. In order to help you with your assignment I have two items you can review prior to starting your reading intervention groups. The first is a video on YouTube entitled, Guided Reading In A 3rd Grade Classroom (this is a seven minute and fifteen second video). The second tool to help you get started is a book entitled, The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo (three hundred and seventy-seven pages long)" and with that the LittleBigB ended the meeting.
Two adults, neither has a teacher degree nor a teaching license, have been tasked with raising the reading level of one group of scholars from an E, F, and G level to a P level and the other group of scholars from an H level to a P level. Doesn't sound to difficult right. Wrong! The E, F, and G level scholars are reading at the lowest reading level for their grade. The H level scholars are reading at a level that is one higher than the E, F, and G scholars. For further clarification on these scholars reading levels, they are reading at a first grade level or maybe a second grade level and they are in the third grade.
A little bit more on my reading intervention group and I'm going to call it a day. The non-teaching adult that has the letter formation task has a piece of cake job. This adult will be given a pre-established grouping of letters and will instruct the scholars to use the letters to make words. I, on the other hand, need to select the books to read, get the scholars to read, and then try and figure out how I can measure how well the scholars are reading and understand what they are reading. Afterall, the objective for this adult that does not have a teaching degree or a teaching license is to do as much as possible to get these scholars at a reading level to be able to pass IRead3 in the spring time. It's going to be interesting but fortunately for me I have an ace up my sleeve.
Thanks for following along. See you again fairly soon. I hope.
Fast forwarding and this scholar is now in the fourth grade and he still occupies my classroom. He's made a ton of progress with controlling his anger and, for the most part, has been one of the least disruptive scholars in the classroom. With the improved behavior he started going to general education classrooms. In the third grade it was for reading. In the fourth grade it was for math. Although there were a few bumps in the road, he was being successful. Unfortunately, about three weeks ago his behavior started to change.
This trip to the general education classroom for math started just as my lunch break finished. There were times when the scholar would head up to the general education classroom by himself and I'd just meet him there. On this particular day I was late returning to Knewer's classroom and the scholar had already left for math so I picked up my notebook and pencil and headed to the general education classroom. As I was walking down the hallway I saw the scholar walking toward me. "Where are you going," I asked him. "There is some kind of test and I don't have to take it," he replied. My caution flag went up but I turned around and walked back to the classroom with the scholar. I wasn't in my seat in the Knewer's classroom for two minutes when I stood up and walked out of the classroom. I was heading to the general education classroom to confirm this test situation. When I walked into the classroom the teacher immediately said, "where is the scholar?" I walked over to her and told her what the scholar said to me. She looked at me and said, "there is a test and he needs to take it." I headed back to my classroom, wrote on a post it note about the scholar lying and handed it to Knewer. She read the note, put it on her desk, and nothing happened or was said. Not overly pleased with what just happened I made eye contact with the scholar and just glared at him. For the record, I'm was also particularly upset with Knewer for doing nothing.
It's time for general education math again. When I arrived in Knewer's classroom the scholar was gone. Again, I picked up my notebook and pencil and headed to the general education classroom. When I arrived the scholar was not there. Thinking I missed the scholar and that he might be back in the classroom with Knewer, I returned to my classroom. The scholar was not there so I asked Knewer about the scholar. She informed me that he went to the general education classroom. I walk out of Knewer's classroom and headed back to the general education classroom. When I arrived the teacher again asked about the scholar. I told her that I had no idea where he was and I just took my seat in the classroom. A couple minutes later the scholar walked into the general education classroom. The teacher immediately asked him where he had been. "I needed to use the restroom," he responded. "Did you ask your teacher for permission to use the restroom," she asked the scholar. "Yes." The general education teacher walked directly to the telephone in her classroom, called Knewer, and asked her if she gave this scholar permission to use the restroom. Knewer's response was, "no."
Two lies over a two week period and I'm now sitting in the hallway outside the general education classroom with the scholar mentioned above (Grr!) as he needs to take the reading test on that worthless technological device that I talked about last week. The general education teacher just restarted the software package, because it froze up again, and Grr! is using the mouse to scroll down the screen to see how much he had to read. As he scrolled down I could see his facial expression change and I'm getting upset. Because I'm upset I decided to end the testing process before I lose my composure plus I knew that Grr! wasn't even going to make an attempt at reading the passage.
When I arrived back in Knewer's classroom I told her what had just happened with Grr!. I then walked to my desk, where I have a view from the back of the classroom, and sat down. I, along with several other teachers, have worked with Grr! for over three year and a half years trying different strategies to improve his reading skills and after what just happened my frustration with Grr! was rising rapidly. Three and a half years of trying and on this day, when Grr! scrolled down that reading test he reacted exactly as he has done for years, "do I have to read all of this?" As I sat at my desk in the back off the classroom I was fuming. Knowing that I was so upset with Grr! I stood up walked out of the classroom to find a quiet place to de-escalate before I did or said something stupid.
Ok, I'm about to go on an adventure. One that is completely different than anything that I've done in this school. The LittleBigB approached me one day and asked me to stop by her office when I had time. Later that same day I knocked on her office door and walked in. The conversation was relatively brief given the task I was handed. Paraphrasing, "I need your help with reading intervention for some of our third grade scholars," is what the LittleBigB said to me. I agreed to help and the conversation continued. LittleBigB began (paraphrasing) "these scholars are well behind in their reading and we need to give them a lot more attention prior to the mandatory IRead3 testing. You will be working with another adult (non-teaching adult) to accomplish this task. One of you will work on word formation and the other will work on reading. How you decide on who does what will be up to the two of you." For the record the other non-teaching adult immediately said, "I'll take the word formation part" so I got the reading part.
The LittleBigB wrapped up our meeting with this, "you will be working with ten third grade scholars, five in one group and five in the other group. Each group with work for fifteen minutes with one adult and then rotate to the other adult. You will work with these scholars in reading intervention five days a week at a prescribed time. In order to help you with your assignment I have two items you can review prior to starting your reading intervention groups. The first is a video on YouTube entitled, Guided Reading In A 3rd Grade Classroom (this is a seven minute and fifteen second video). The second tool to help you get started is a book entitled, The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo (three hundred and seventy-seven pages long)" and with that the LittleBigB ended the meeting.
Two adults, neither has a teacher degree nor a teaching license, have been tasked with raising the reading level of one group of scholars from an E, F, and G level to a P level and the other group of scholars from an H level to a P level. Doesn't sound to difficult right. Wrong! The E, F, and G level scholars are reading at the lowest reading level for their grade. The H level scholars are reading at a level that is one higher than the E, F, and G scholars. For further clarification on these scholars reading levels, they are reading at a first grade level or maybe a second grade level and they are in the third grade.
A little bit more on my reading intervention group and I'm going to call it a day. The non-teaching adult that has the letter formation task has a piece of cake job. This adult will be given a pre-established grouping of letters and will instruct the scholars to use the letters to make words. I, on the other hand, need to select the books to read, get the scholars to read, and then try and figure out how I can measure how well the scholars are reading and understand what they are reading. Afterall, the objective for this adult that does not have a teaching degree or a teaching license is to do as much as possible to get these scholars at a reading level to be able to pass IRead3 in the spring time. It's going to be interesting but fortunately for me I have an ace up my sleeve.
Thanks for following along. See you again fairly soon. I hope.
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
Release Times Two
Ok, where did I leave off with my releasing. Got it, technology in the classroom. A couple years ago I was voted onto the school's leadership team. I was there to represent the instructional assistants, custodians, and food service workers. It didn't take me long to realize that I was out of place as most of the discussion focused on academics and a lot of acronyms were used that left me totally out in left field. The one item I felt comfortable discussing was the meeting when updating technology was on the agenda. Somehow, if my memory serves me correctly, the school had about seventy thousand dollars to spend on technology. To keep this short let me tell you this. When it came time to spend the seventy thousand dollars on technology I abstained from voting as I thought there might be better ways to spend the money.
It's now two years later and I'm spending an increasing amount of time in general education classrooms and I'll share with you my experiences with technology. I'm with Grr! in Teacher #4's classroom. Grr! was supposed to take a required math test on his laptop but a change in plans occurred because Grr! didn't complete a previously scheduled reading test on his laptop. Not being familiar with the software package the test was using Teacher #4 got Grr! logged in. Grr! started reading, a good thing, as he's not a big fan of reading, but the room was incredibly noisy. Scholars were moving around the room getting their laptops and when scholars are moving around talking is out of control. It took Teacher #4 three attempts to get the room quiet. With some semblance of order the testing began. "Teacher #4, I can't get logged in (the CAP locks was on)." "Teacher #4, my password won't work (that is a lower case letter "o" not a zero)." I'm not sure about Grr! but I had enough with the noise. I stood up, walked over to Teacher #4, told her the room was too noisy, and that I was taking Grr! out into the hallway where is was quieter. My plan was approved and out the door we went.
Grr! and I weren't out in the hallway for five minutes when Grr! said to me, "Mr. Schultz, something is wrong. I can't get the computer to do anything." I checked the computer, it froze up, again. I picked up the computer, walked back into the classroom, handed the computer to the teacher and told her it froze up. As she was solving the problem I look around the room and there were still scholars who had not started the test due to log in issues. With Grr!'s computer fixed I head back out into the hallway and handed Grr! his laptop. Grr! started using the mouse to scroll down to see how much he had to read. As he scrolled down I saw his facial expression change and not for the good. The demons were invading Grr!'s mind. His head went down and it rested on this hands. His cheeks were starting to turn red and I knew that I had two options. Either stay after him to try and get him to finish the test or just power off the computer and head back to our classroom. I chose the second option as my frustration with Grr! was rising rapidly. I told Grr! to remain seated and I walked back into the classroom to turn in Grr!'s laptop when I heard Teacher #4 say, "I've had enough with this technology, turn off your computers and put them away we'll take the test another day."
All of this testing would have been simple with just a test paper and a Number 2 lead pencil. But no, we need technology. Technology, in my opinion is the bane of the classroom. Boot up time often drags on, the screen freezes, scholars with absolutely no keyboarding skills are required to do keyboarding. How and the hell do you expect a scholar to complete a state or district mandated test in a pre-established time frame when they spend an inordinate amount of time looking for the letter "k", a period, or the key to push so they can make an uppercase "P" on a keyboard. Quoting the apostle Paul, "brothers and sisters," you need to ban computers until scholars are in their first year of middle school. And when in that first year of middle school, spend the entire first half of the school year teaching them how to do keyboarding. And when they attain a working knowledge of the keyboard hand them their laptop and then maybe teachers won't be pissing away large amounts of academic time trying to solve computer related issues with scholars.
Let's see. What's next? I'm scanning the blog notes on my cellphone. Got it and I'm certain that I might just ruffle some feathers with this one. Ready?
Incident #1. A preschool teacher quietly walks into the classroom, gets Knewer's attention, and points at our classroom telephone that is right by the door. A call is made and then the preschool teacher steps back into the hallway. I heard her say, "you need to get in line," and her voice tells me everything I needed to know so I got up and walked into the hallway. "How can I help you," I asked. "I can't keep stopping to deal with him." I look down the hallway and see a preschool scholar (five years old) laying on the floor spinning himself in circles. "These scholars are already late for lunch and I need to get them to the cafeteria," the preschool teacher continued. "You take your scholars to the cafeteria and I'll deal with him." The preschool teachers exits to my left and I'm heading to my right to deal with a scholar who is obviously the product of P.P.P. When I'm standing directly above the scholar, who is still spinning in circles on the floor, I make eye contact with him. "You need to get up off of that floor and get to the cafeteria with the rest of your class." The scholar immediately got up off the floor and started sprinting down the hallway toward the cafeteria.
Incident #2. Teacher #2 has her second grade (seven years old) classroom outside Knewer's classroom using the restroom and I know there is something wrong as it's too loud. When I step into the hallway I see a scholar of Teacher #2's standing in a corner, facing the wall, with his hands over his eyes. I also see another of Teacher #2's scholars approaching the corner hugger and I hear him mock him by saying "you're crying." I'm not certain what the corner hugger said but the scholar that just mocked him stopped, turned around, walked up to the wall hugger, put both hands on his chest and pushed him backwards. Knowing that things could turn ugly I followed Teacher #2 and her scholars down the hallway. When Teacher #2 turned back and saw me following her classroom I walked up to her and I asked her if there is anything I can do to help her. "That young man standing behind you needs to get himself under control and get in line with his classmates. If he can't do that then he needs to spend the rest of the day in our school time out room," the teachers states. I walked up to this second grade scholar and told him what his options were and I'm not using my therapeutic voice. "You have two choices, get in line with your class or go to the time out room." "I'm not going anywhere," he said like Mr. Tough Guy as he tries to sneak past me. I step to my right to block his escape route and reach into my back pocket, pull out my wallet, and take out my expired and totally worthless C.P.I card. I stick the card right in front of the scholar's face and say, "you see this blue card? The principal gave it to me. She told me that if a scholar is being disrespectful towards a teach I can pick you up and carry you to her office. Now, do you want to get in line with your classmates or go with me to the principal's office and explain to her why you pushed a classmate?" The scholar chose to get in line.
Incident #3. I'm sitting in the classroom and I hear this noise outside the classroom in the hallway. It's a familiar noise, one I've heard many times before, so I stood up and walked out into the hallway. When I looked to my left, way down on the far end of the hallway, I see this scholar leaning on the wall outside a classroom. I also see the two chairs that this scholar picked up and threw across the hallway. As I'm looking at the scholar Teacher #2 stepped out from her classroom and looked in the direction of the scholar and I now know that another second grade scholar (seven years old), another product of P.P.P., is disrupting an entire classroom. When I'm along side Teacher #2 I asked her how and I can help. She responds, "this scholar needs to get himself together and go back into the classroom or he needs to go somewhere else." I started walking toward the scholar and said to him, "why are you acting like a fool?" I get the response that I was expecting, stated with an attitude, "I'm not a fool." "Then why are you acting like a fool? You have two choices, go back into your classroom and sit quietly at your desk or I can take you to the principals office and you can explain to her why you were throwing her chairs across the hallway. What are you going to do?" With his head down, the scholar heads back into his classroom.
You just read three incidents of the insanity that is going on in the general education classrooms at my school. Guess what? I could go on with numerous other examples but I won't. What I will do is tell you that it is time that the teachers start taking back control of the their classroom. Sadly, there are obstacles in doing that. The main obstacle, and it is a big one, is the school administration either at the school level or at the school corporation level. Why is this an obstacle? Because teachers can press their frustrations with these two layers of overhead until they are blue in the face and nothing will happen. Why will nothing happen? Because neither of these two layers of overhead will want to confront the main cause of their problem, P.P.P. So where does one turn? To the organization that numerous teachers pay to represent them, the Union. What is going on in the classroom is a working condition problem. Sure, it's not like a teacher is working on an unsafe assembly line, working in an environment with extreme heat or cold, working in a location where you could lose life or limb, but they are in an environment where scholars, from five years old to seven years old, treat them like shit. It is ridiculous that a teacher with either a PhD., a Master's Degree, or a Bachelor's Degree has to stand in the front of a classroom and take this crap. This is a work environment issue and the Union needs to start file grievance, after grievance, after grievance, and if necessary when the grievances are not addressed take the issue up with the media or simply just walk out in mass protest.
I know. That was way too long but I've finished releasing. I'll try and do an abridged version of the blog next time and hopefully I'll be in a better disposition. Thanks for following along. You'll hear from me in another week or so.
PS: almost forgot. P.P.P is piss poor parenting.
It's now two years later and I'm spending an increasing amount of time in general education classrooms and I'll share with you my experiences with technology. I'm with Grr! in Teacher #4's classroom. Grr! was supposed to take a required math test on his laptop but a change in plans occurred because Grr! didn't complete a previously scheduled reading test on his laptop. Not being familiar with the software package the test was using Teacher #4 got Grr! logged in. Grr! started reading, a good thing, as he's not a big fan of reading, but the room was incredibly noisy. Scholars were moving around the room getting their laptops and when scholars are moving around talking is out of control. It took Teacher #4 three attempts to get the room quiet. With some semblance of order the testing began. "Teacher #4, I can't get logged in (the CAP locks was on)." "Teacher #4, my password won't work (that is a lower case letter "o" not a zero)." I'm not sure about Grr! but I had enough with the noise. I stood up, walked over to Teacher #4, told her the room was too noisy, and that I was taking Grr! out into the hallway where is was quieter. My plan was approved and out the door we went.
Grr! and I weren't out in the hallway for five minutes when Grr! said to me, "Mr. Schultz, something is wrong. I can't get the computer to do anything." I checked the computer, it froze up, again. I picked up the computer, walked back into the classroom, handed the computer to the teacher and told her it froze up. As she was solving the problem I look around the room and there were still scholars who had not started the test due to log in issues. With Grr!'s computer fixed I head back out into the hallway and handed Grr! his laptop. Grr! started using the mouse to scroll down to see how much he had to read. As he scrolled down I saw his facial expression change and not for the good. The demons were invading Grr!'s mind. His head went down and it rested on this hands. His cheeks were starting to turn red and I knew that I had two options. Either stay after him to try and get him to finish the test or just power off the computer and head back to our classroom. I chose the second option as my frustration with Grr! was rising rapidly. I told Grr! to remain seated and I walked back into the classroom to turn in Grr!'s laptop when I heard Teacher #4 say, "I've had enough with this technology, turn off your computers and put them away we'll take the test another day."
All of this testing would have been simple with just a test paper and a Number 2 lead pencil. But no, we need technology. Technology, in my opinion is the bane of the classroom. Boot up time often drags on, the screen freezes, scholars with absolutely no keyboarding skills are required to do keyboarding. How and the hell do you expect a scholar to complete a state or district mandated test in a pre-established time frame when they spend an inordinate amount of time looking for the letter "k", a period, or the key to push so they can make an uppercase "P" on a keyboard. Quoting the apostle Paul, "brothers and sisters," you need to ban computers until scholars are in their first year of middle school. And when in that first year of middle school, spend the entire first half of the school year teaching them how to do keyboarding. And when they attain a working knowledge of the keyboard hand them their laptop and then maybe teachers won't be pissing away large amounts of academic time trying to solve computer related issues with scholars.
Let's see. What's next? I'm scanning the blog notes on my cellphone. Got it and I'm certain that I might just ruffle some feathers with this one. Ready?
Incident #1. A preschool teacher quietly walks into the classroom, gets Knewer's attention, and points at our classroom telephone that is right by the door. A call is made and then the preschool teacher steps back into the hallway. I heard her say, "you need to get in line," and her voice tells me everything I needed to know so I got up and walked into the hallway. "How can I help you," I asked. "I can't keep stopping to deal with him." I look down the hallway and see a preschool scholar (five years old) laying on the floor spinning himself in circles. "These scholars are already late for lunch and I need to get them to the cafeteria," the preschool teacher continued. "You take your scholars to the cafeteria and I'll deal with him." The preschool teachers exits to my left and I'm heading to my right to deal with a scholar who is obviously the product of P.P.P. When I'm standing directly above the scholar, who is still spinning in circles on the floor, I make eye contact with him. "You need to get up off of that floor and get to the cafeteria with the rest of your class." The scholar immediately got up off the floor and started sprinting down the hallway toward the cafeteria.
Incident #2. Teacher #2 has her second grade (seven years old) classroom outside Knewer's classroom using the restroom and I know there is something wrong as it's too loud. When I step into the hallway I see a scholar of Teacher #2's standing in a corner, facing the wall, with his hands over his eyes. I also see another of Teacher #2's scholars approaching the corner hugger and I hear him mock him by saying "you're crying." I'm not certain what the corner hugger said but the scholar that just mocked him stopped, turned around, walked up to the wall hugger, put both hands on his chest and pushed him backwards. Knowing that things could turn ugly I followed Teacher #2 and her scholars down the hallway. When Teacher #2 turned back and saw me following her classroom I walked up to her and I asked her if there is anything I can do to help her. "That young man standing behind you needs to get himself under control and get in line with his classmates. If he can't do that then he needs to spend the rest of the day in our school time out room," the teachers states. I walked up to this second grade scholar and told him what his options were and I'm not using my therapeutic voice. "You have two choices, get in line with your class or go to the time out room." "I'm not going anywhere," he said like Mr. Tough Guy as he tries to sneak past me. I step to my right to block his escape route and reach into my back pocket, pull out my wallet, and take out my expired and totally worthless C.P.I card. I stick the card right in front of the scholar's face and say, "you see this blue card? The principal gave it to me. She told me that if a scholar is being disrespectful towards a teach I can pick you up and carry you to her office. Now, do you want to get in line with your classmates or go with me to the principal's office and explain to her why you pushed a classmate?" The scholar chose to get in line.
Incident #3. I'm sitting in the classroom and I hear this noise outside the classroom in the hallway. It's a familiar noise, one I've heard many times before, so I stood up and walked out into the hallway. When I looked to my left, way down on the far end of the hallway, I see this scholar leaning on the wall outside a classroom. I also see the two chairs that this scholar picked up and threw across the hallway. As I'm looking at the scholar Teacher #2 stepped out from her classroom and looked in the direction of the scholar and I now know that another second grade scholar (seven years old), another product of P.P.P., is disrupting an entire classroom. When I'm along side Teacher #2 I asked her how and I can help. She responds, "this scholar needs to get himself together and go back into the classroom or he needs to go somewhere else." I started walking toward the scholar and said to him, "why are you acting like a fool?" I get the response that I was expecting, stated with an attitude, "I'm not a fool." "Then why are you acting like a fool? You have two choices, go back into your classroom and sit quietly at your desk or I can take you to the principals office and you can explain to her why you were throwing her chairs across the hallway. What are you going to do?" With his head down, the scholar heads back into his classroom.
You just read three incidents of the insanity that is going on in the general education classrooms at my school. Guess what? I could go on with numerous other examples but I won't. What I will do is tell you that it is time that the teachers start taking back control of the their classroom. Sadly, there are obstacles in doing that. The main obstacle, and it is a big one, is the school administration either at the school level or at the school corporation level. Why is this an obstacle? Because teachers can press their frustrations with these two layers of overhead until they are blue in the face and nothing will happen. Why will nothing happen? Because neither of these two layers of overhead will want to confront the main cause of their problem, P.P.P. So where does one turn? To the organization that numerous teachers pay to represent them, the Union. What is going on in the classroom is a working condition problem. Sure, it's not like a teacher is working on an unsafe assembly line, working in an environment with extreme heat or cold, working in a location where you could lose life or limb, but they are in an environment where scholars, from five years old to seven years old, treat them like shit. It is ridiculous that a teacher with either a PhD., a Master's Degree, or a Bachelor's Degree has to stand in the front of a classroom and take this crap. This is a work environment issue and the Union needs to start file grievance, after grievance, after grievance, and if necessary when the grievances are not addressed take the issue up with the media or simply just walk out in mass protest.
I know. That was way too long but I've finished releasing. I'll try and do an abridged version of the blog next time and hopefully I'll be in a better disposition. Thanks for following along. You'll hear from me in another week or so.
PS: almost forgot. P.P.P is piss poor parenting.
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