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!
Have a great Xmas.
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