I just fired up my mobile device, clicked on the Notes section, and then open a note called My View. This is the location that I use to make notes on items to discuss in this blog. There are two notes that have been on my mobile device for a long period of time and I'm going to clear them out. When I'm finished we'll continue our discussion on reading intervention and our new scholar, Fruit.
My oldest note is called Academic Pacing. I recorded this note while sitting in a general education classroom during a math block with Grr!. The lesson for the day was multiplication by two digit numbers. Here is an example: 26 x 54. For all of you old school blog readers we used a process called standard algorithm when we sat in a math class. Today, there are two additional ways to solve this multiplication problem, the lattice method and the area method. During this particular math lesson the lattice method was being taught. At the start of the lesson the teacher announced to the scholars that they needed to pay attention as only on certain amount time (academic pacing) was allocated to multiplying using the lattice method. As the teacher worked through the lesson plan a number of the scholars were lost and that included Grr!. Fortunately for Grr!, I was sitting right next to him. If I wasn't sitting next to him his anger and anxiety issues would be escalating rapidly and he would just shut down and do nothing. As I was helping Grr! two other scholars joined us at the large table we occupied. "Mr. Schultz, can you help us?" As I was helping these three scholars I kept thinking that the teacher was going through the lesson to fast and if the teacher lost these three scholars I was sure there were that others were lost. As the lesson continue I'm certain the teacher realized that too many scholars were lost and she said to herself when she walked in front of me, "I hate academic pacing."
I meant to ask the teacher about academic pacing and who determines the pace but I never got around to it. I do know this much though. The time allocated for this math lesson was insufficient. I also know this, in the time it took to draw the lattice work needed to solve the multiplication problem 26 x 54 I could have solve the problem using the standard algorithm process. By the way, once I solve the multiplication problem 26 x 54 using both the lattice method and the area method I took a picture of the completed problem with the camera on my mobile device. Why? Because the process was confusing and if I ever had to help other scholars with this multiplication technique I mostly likely would have forgotten the process myself.
The next note on my mobile device read as follows, Overhead Visits. There aren't any. Well, there were two in the first half of the school year. As a reminder, Knewer (the teacher) and Low (the instructional assistant) are in their first year in this classroom. In know for certain that Knewer was assigned a mentor from the SpecEd overhead department because this person visited the classroom once, for less than five minutes. You read that right, Knewer, a new teacher, spent less that five minutes with her overhead mentor. That's insane and our school corporate level overhead personnel can't figure out why they can't either retain or hire teachers for classrooms with scholars that have an emotional handicap. Teaching in an EH classroom can be a brutal task and the overhead support is almost non-existent. I'm sorry but non-existent is unacceptable. These overhead personnel should show up in this classroom weekly. When they arrive they should coming bearing gifts. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. A simple gift, coffee, donut, or even just a handshake and a thank you for what you are doing would suffice. Sadly, that doesn't happen and that means, according to me, that the overhead personnel that support Knewer's classroom fall into a category I call worthless.
Just a brief comment on the instructional assistances in my school. I believe, spread out through the special education classrooms and the pre-school classrooms, that there eleven instructional assistants. Ok, how can I say this? I know, with both barrels firing. These eleven individuals are the most under appreciated, least recognized individuals in this school. What I would like to see, just once, is that they all stay home for one day and let their classroom teachers and school leadership fill in during their absence. Maybe then the instructional assistants will get the credit they deserve.
Ok, on to our newest scholar, Fruit. When he first arrived in the classroom I had a chance to read his Individual Education Plan (IEP). He has a label, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). When you combine the ADHD label with an anger issue we have a scholar that can get pretty wild in the classroom. I don't have any qualifications to say this but that is not the right label. Fruit is quiet. Real quiet and he moves at a snails pace. The space he occupies on a daily basis in about an arms length from me and when Fruit speaks I can't hear him. I have to lean over to within a foot of him to be able to hear what he said. In addition to not being about to hear him, it's very time consuming to get him to do any academics. Whenever Knewer hands him a worksheet his pulls his hood up over his head and then stares down at the floor. I've watched him stay in this position for up to fifteen minutes without moving. That, in my opinion is not a scholar with ADHD. That is a scholar with an Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and he has shown it every day in this classroom.
On one of the rare instances that Fruit actually completed his assignments Knewer gave him a reward. He earned iPad time. By the way, the three iPads that arrived in this classroom a few years ago, thanks to the generosity of a few readers of this blog, are still in the classroom. They are in excellent working order and have not sustained any damage. When Knewer told him he earned iPad time his facial expression lite up with excitement. Fruit took the iPad, walked over to an area rug that is in the classroom, sat down, and maneuvered around on that iPad like a pro. At one point, he stood up, still playing his game, and walked toward me. When he reached my desk he looked up from that iPad and said to me, "do you want to play?" I sat straight up, turned to look at him and thought to myself, "that is the first time he spoke in his normal voice and he has been in this room for days."
On to my reading intervention group. In case you forgot, I'm working with some of the lowest readers in the third grade. While at lunch a few days ago I was approached by the LittleBigB. "Mr. Schultz we are changing reading intervention groups. Starting today you will no longer have the lowest reading group." "Ok," I responded, "will I still be involved in the reading intervention?" "Yes, you will now be leading a reading intervention group with the six highest readers in the third grade." "Really, when do we make this change?" I asked. "You'll start with your new group at your normal time today." Note: this was a one hour and twenty minute notice before the change took place. With my brain working overtime thinking about this abrupt change in direction it pops into my head that I'll need a book to read so I ask the LittleBigB about a book. The LittleBigB hesitated for a moment and said to me, " I don't have one for you right now but I'll to find you a book."
About thirty minutes before my reading group was to meet the LittleBigB handed me the reading book. It was titled Orphan Train Ride and, with the scholars on task and I'm doing nothing at the time, I started to read the book. As I was reading the book, one of the first things I thought about was that the opening two chapters were depressing. The setting of the story was New York City at the time when entire families were crammed into tenement housing due to a lack of jobs and extreme poverty. As I continued to read I came across this commentary in Chapter 3. It involved decisions being made by parental units when a new addition (baby) enters into this world. As the author tells it, the parental unit was faced with a decision as they can't afford this new baby. As I read on I abruptly closed the book and thought to myself there is no way in hell I'm going to let my third grade scholars read this. Here is the decision that parental units had to make that the author discussed in Chapter 3. The parental unit had two choices, kick the oldest scholar out of the house and onto the streets or drop the baby off somewhere. As I reminder, I don't make this stuff up.
After reading this disturbing part of the book I texted the LittleBigB and asked that she contact me as I wanted to tell her what I just read. I never got a response so it's decision time. My decision time and if someone didn't like my decision, tough. We skipped chapter three as there is no way I was going to deal with questions from a third grade scholar about a parental unit abandoning a baby on a street corner.
I just scrolled up to the start of this blog and again it's too long so I'm making an adjustment to bring this to a quick end. Reading with the top readers in the third grade is absolutely enjoyable. Despite reading this depressing story that are engaged, they asked good questions, and they don't hesitate to make predictions on what is going to happen in the next chapter. From a teachers perspective it doesn't get any better than that.
That's it for today. Poof! I'm out.
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