Sunday June 10, 2018
The Speech Therapist walked into the classroom. She looked toward the front of the room and asked this question, "are you coming today?" The response, "no." "Are you sure, we are going to play a game." "No." "One last chance, are you coming?" "No."
This is how the day starts almost every day. Usually the Speech Therapist is not involve but instead it is Knewer or FBG. Almost every day it is the same with Fruit, who is in the first grade. You give him a direction and the answer is no. You give this scholar some options and the answer is, no, no, no. Sometimes the "no" includes knocking over chairs, throwing or tearing up the worksheet and/or a few choice obscenities. Eventually FBG will remove the scholar to his office and Knewer can start the academic day. While this is fine as you can only put up with this defiant behavior for so long I often wonder who on the battle. Knewer did as the disruption is gone but the disrupter also won because now he doesn't have to do any work. In the end, there were no consequences for the disruptive, defiant behavior from this scholar. Speaking of a lack of consequences I'm sure this next defiant behavior will raise a few eye brows.
This involves two scholars, Brush and Tourette. Both are in the fourth grade, both are defiant, both don't hesitate to drop the F bomb, both will knock over chairs and desks, both will look you in the eye and lie to you, both will storm out of the classroom, both have bullying tendencies and their favorite target is Grr!, and both have little respect for the female adults in the room, Low and Knewer. Rather than site a specific event I'm going to generalize their behavior so keep in mind I could be talking about either Brush or Tourette.
An event happens in the classroom. Usually it's an academic event but occasionally it's scholars arguing back and forth with one or the other always wanting to have the last word. When Knewer or Low have had enough of this defiant behavior something will get said. The immediate response is "I didn't do it," or "he started it." When Knewer or Low challenge these scholars on their response their defiant behavior begins to escalate. As the conversation between adult and scholar continues the scholar's defiant behavior escalates again and reaches the point of total disrespect for the two adult females. The B-word gets dropped. The F-bomb gets dropped. All the time this disrespect is directed at the two female adults the scholar will frequently make eye contact with me to see what I'm doing. If it gets too crazy I'll stand up and walk in the direction of the scholar and tell the scholar to be quiet, sit down, or get out of the classroom.
The response I get is either "I didn't do anything," or, my personal favorite, "why am I the only one getting in trouble for something I didn't do." Here comes my favorite little speech that I direct at these defiant scholars. "I'm old, I have gray hair and a wrinkly face but I am not blind, I am not deaf, I am not stupid. You sit either directly in front of me or immediately to my right and I saw exactly what you did or heard exactly what you said so stop lying to me and sit down."
Here is the totally frustrating part. The consequences for this behavior is almost nil. I believe Tourette was once suspended for a day. As for Brush, no or minimal consequences. I don't understand the direction this wonderful school is going in. To be totally disrespectful toward a teacher and an instructional assistant that included obscene language with minimal consequences is just ridiculous. Such is my current environment as the school year winds down. With each passing day I know that I'll need to make a decision about the next school year.
Although you can't tell it I just scrolled to the top of this blog post and for the first time I can say to myself, "this is a pretty short post." Knowing that, I'm going to clear out some blog discussion points that are on my cellphone.
Several weeks ago we had visitors from the State of Indiana in our school. The visit was to evaluate the school given it's recent low performance grade. During the two day visit members of this auditing team stepped into every classroom to observe the teacher. Well, almost every classroom. As it has happened so many times in the past, no one steps into Knewer's classroom. It's like the special education classrooms don't exist or even worse they are just "those" scholars and not worth the bother. On day two of the visit I was sitting in the staff lounge eating lunch when I heard this from one of our millennial teachers, "if I had known they were going to be in the building for two days I would have taken a shower today." As a reminder, I don't make this stuff up.
I have to be careful with this one as it may negatively impact me in the future. When I visit a classroom for math with Grr! we normally sit at a octagon shaped table right in the center of the room. For the most part, this table is unoccupied as it is a collection point for assorted stuff that can't fit on top of a desk. Surrounding the octagon is a classroom with an alternative seating concept. I'm not a big fan of alternative seating as it is nothing but a seating arrangement that gives a block of scholars, ranging from four to six, an easy opportunity to go off task and talk to one another. "Will you please stop talking," is heard often from the right front side of the classroom. Me, I'm old school. Desks should be arranged thusly. Straight rows, alternating boy and girl so that at no point are two boys or two girls sitting next to each other. As far as an octagon shaped table in the middle of the straight rows of desks I'm mostly good with that. I say mostly for only one reason, certain people like to take shots at me by saying, "are you sure you can fit your two hundred and ten pounds at that table?"
Discussing the school shooting that took place way to close to my school in the last blog post resulted in me getting a few comments from the readers of this blog. I'll mention three and then call it a day. The first comment poured in from As Far West As Utah, "I'm really sorry, YOU need to be hardened. The high school in my city is hardened. It's the teachers choice. They don't keep it a secret. Kids know teachers have guns." The second comment came from the offspring of my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse. Paraphrasing, "I've done some research and not one shooter has gone through a locked door in any of these school shootings." The last one is my favorite. Sadly I don't remember the source but it would fit my school perfectly. This comment was seen on an information sign outside a school building for all to see, "This is NOT a gun free zone."
That's it for today. The school year has officially ended and I'm on summer break. There will be one more blog post and then I'll stop for a while. The next blog post will be a review of exactly what the classroom was like on my last day of school where I have had a view from the back of the room for the last six years.
PS - I have a game plan for the next school year. Unless a certain individual took offense to my position on alternative seating I will be occupying that hexagon on a regular basis.
An event happens in the classroom. Usually it's an academic event but occasionally it's scholars arguing back and forth with one or the other always wanting to have the last word. When Knewer or Low have had enough of this defiant behavior something will get said. The immediate response is "I didn't do it," or "he started it." When Knewer or Low challenge these scholars on their response their defiant behavior begins to escalate. As the conversation between adult and scholar continues the scholar's defiant behavior escalates again and reaches the point of total disrespect for the two adult females. The B-word gets dropped. The F-bomb gets dropped. All the time this disrespect is directed at the two female adults the scholar will frequently make eye contact with me to see what I'm doing. If it gets too crazy I'll stand up and walk in the direction of the scholar and tell the scholar to be quiet, sit down, or get out of the classroom.
The response I get is either "I didn't do anything," or, my personal favorite, "why am I the only one getting in trouble for something I didn't do." Here comes my favorite little speech that I direct at these defiant scholars. "I'm old, I have gray hair and a wrinkly face but I am not blind, I am not deaf, I am not stupid. You sit either directly in front of me or immediately to my right and I saw exactly what you did or heard exactly what you said so stop lying to me and sit down."
Here is the totally frustrating part. The consequences for this behavior is almost nil. I believe Tourette was once suspended for a day. As for Brush, no or minimal consequences. I don't understand the direction this wonderful school is going in. To be totally disrespectful toward a teacher and an instructional assistant that included obscene language with minimal consequences is just ridiculous. Such is my current environment as the school year winds down. With each passing day I know that I'll need to make a decision about the next school year.
Although you can't tell it I just scrolled to the top of this blog post and for the first time I can say to myself, "this is a pretty short post." Knowing that, I'm going to clear out some blog discussion points that are on my cellphone.
Several weeks ago we had visitors from the State of Indiana in our school. The visit was to evaluate the school given it's recent low performance grade. During the two day visit members of this auditing team stepped into every classroom to observe the teacher. Well, almost every classroom. As it has happened so many times in the past, no one steps into Knewer's classroom. It's like the special education classrooms don't exist or even worse they are just "those" scholars and not worth the bother. On day two of the visit I was sitting in the staff lounge eating lunch when I heard this from one of our millennial teachers, "if I had known they were going to be in the building for two days I would have taken a shower today." As a reminder, I don't make this stuff up.
I have to be careful with this one as it may negatively impact me in the future. When I visit a classroom for math with Grr! we normally sit at a octagon shaped table right in the center of the room. For the most part, this table is unoccupied as it is a collection point for assorted stuff that can't fit on top of a desk. Surrounding the octagon is a classroom with an alternative seating concept. I'm not a big fan of alternative seating as it is nothing but a seating arrangement that gives a block of scholars, ranging from four to six, an easy opportunity to go off task and talk to one another. "Will you please stop talking," is heard often from the right front side of the classroom. Me, I'm old school. Desks should be arranged thusly. Straight rows, alternating boy and girl so that at no point are two boys or two girls sitting next to each other. As far as an octagon shaped table in the middle of the straight rows of desks I'm mostly good with that. I say mostly for only one reason, certain people like to take shots at me by saying, "are you sure you can fit your two hundred and ten pounds at that table?"
Discussing the school shooting that took place way to close to my school in the last blog post resulted in me getting a few comments from the readers of this blog. I'll mention three and then call it a day. The first comment poured in from As Far West As Utah, "I'm really sorry, YOU need to be hardened. The high school in my city is hardened. It's the teachers choice. They don't keep it a secret. Kids know teachers have guns." The second comment came from the offspring of my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse. Paraphrasing, "I've done some research and not one shooter has gone through a locked door in any of these school shootings." The last one is my favorite. Sadly I don't remember the source but it would fit my school perfectly. This comment was seen on an information sign outside a school building for all to see, "This is NOT a gun free zone."
That's it for today. The school year has officially ended and I'm on summer break. There will be one more blog post and then I'll stop for a while. The next blog post will be a review of exactly what the classroom was like on my last day of school where I have had a view from the back of the room for the last six years.
PS - I have a game plan for the next school year. Unless a certain individual took offense to my position on alternative seating I will be occupying that hexagon on a regular basis.
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