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.
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