Saturday, August 25, 2018
So here I sit on a Saturday morning writing this blog and just like last Saturday it is raining. That means no morning bicycle ride, no yard work gets completed, and I can't even start cleaning the house, to have something to do, as I did that yesterday prior to the hoity toity book club meeting that my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse was hosting.
Earlier in the week I was having a text chat with this crazy mountain bike rider who reads this blog. During the conversation, CMBR asked me if the air conditioning was back on at school. My response was, "nice try, I'm going to keep you in suspense."
On Monday morning around 8:15am I sent a text message. The message was brief, "long pants or short pants?" A couple minutes later I got a response from T4, "short pants." There you go CMBR, your question is answered.
There are thirty-one scholars and two adults sitting in a classroom that is too hot and too humid. That's not exactly how I wanted to start the week but we'll adjust the way we did last week, lights turned off, window shades down when the sun shifts to our side of the building, and turn on the fans. On the upside, when I walked into the classroom I did not hear, "Schultz, we have a new student so we need a desk and chair." What I did hear was, "Schultz, I need several items laminated." The laminating machine is in the library so off I go.
The power switch on the laminating machine was in the off position when I arrived so I turned it on and now have a ten minute waiting period as the machine warms up. With ten minutes to kill I start searching for a book to read to the scholars in T4's classroom. As I'm searching, a side door of the library opens and in comes the young scholars from the two Prekindergarten classrooms followed by their teachers and instructional assistants. I know one of the PreK instructional assistants, MaT, so I asked her what was going on. "There is mold growing in the carpeting in both PreK classrooms and we have to vacate the rooms." It's hot. It's humid. It has been like this for eight days and the humidity in the school is so high it is causing mold to form in carpets.
I'm sitting in OtherT4's classroom preparing to read. Unlike the hexagon in T4's classroom, that I occupy almost daily, when I'm in OtherT4's classroom I'm given the honor to sit on the queen's throne that occupies the front center of the classroom. My book selection today is Peppe the Lamplighter by Elisa Bartone. The story revolves around an Italian family residing in tenement housing in New York City prior to electric street lights being invented. I had just finished read the book and was answering questions from the scholars about the book when I hear, "Mr. Schultz, T4-F is sick." I look to my left, see T4-F vomiting all over the top of the desk she is occupying. The vomiting continued and now is dripping off of the desk and onto the floor. A T4-M from T4's classroom brings me a wastebasket and I redirect T4-F's head so it is over the wastebasket. As I'm waiting for the vomiting to subside I noticed that not only has T4-F vomited on top of the desk, on her arms, on the floor, but also vomited inside the desk she occupies, and it is not her desk. When the vomiting stops I have T4-F stand up and head towards the sink that is in the classroom to get cleaned up. When T4-F stands I see this. Vomit is all of the front of her school uniform. Vomit is in her long hair that was touching the top of the desk when the initial vomiting started. The volunteer is addressing the issue. The teachers are observing from a safe distance because they admit they don't do well with vomit. I'm good with that. Two weeks into the school year, two vomiting occurrences. I'm not liking this trend.
With the start of week two T4 shifts from community time to academics. One of the first academic lessons was multiplication. Using a video from YouTube called Multiplication Mash Up the lesson starts. This video sings the multiplication tables starting with zero and ending with twelve with popular music playing in the background to go with the singing. Knewer and Low, from the Special Education classroom I occupied last year, used this video a lot. As I'm watching the video in T4's classroom this thought enter my mind. Maybe I can get Tourette and Grr!, former scholars now in the fifth grade, to come into T4's classroom and sing the multiplication songs. I bounced the idea off of T4 and she agreed to give it a try. My next stop is the fifth grade classroom to ask Tourette and Grr! if they would like to come to my new classroom and sing the Multiplication Mash Up song. Surprisingly, they both agreed to do it.
The next day it's Multiplication Mash Up time and standing in front of the scholars in T4's classroom, with a microphone in hand, is Tourette and Grr! singing and dancing. Seeing Tourette up front singing and dancing is not surprising because he would be an excellent scholar ambassador for the school when he is not angry and spewing forth a string of obscenities. Seeing Grr! standing in front of the classroom with a microphone in his hand and singing and dancing is HUGE. I know I've said this before but I have to say it again. I first met Grr! in the first grade. This is a scholar that has serious anxiety issues, that if allowed to build, would cause him to go into a major anger eruption. From the second through the fourth grade teachers like Gnu and Knewer worked to get Grr! to control his anxiety issues. Behavior therapist and behavior specialists (FBG) also worked with Grr! to control his anxiety issues. On this day, this young scholar, who came into this world with all of this baggage, is standing in front of a classroom that has thirty-one scholars, he knows none of them, complete strangers, and he is singing and dancing. People, this is HUGE step for this young scholar.
This is my seventh year in this school. I've been writing this blog for four and a half years and those of you that have been around for a long time are familiar with all of the crazy things I've seen. Often, since the start of this blog, people ask me why I keep working in this environment. I don't have to do what I do. I choose to do what it do. And watching Grr! today is why I continue to do what I do.
It's now Friday of week two. Ten consecutive schools days with no air conditioning. It's hot, it's humid, and there are too many scholars in T4's classroom. From a scholar behavior standpoint it's been a rough day for T4. Too often academics was disrupted due to scholars who can't keep their mouths shut. Each time T4's stops the academics to address the noise you can hear her tone of voice change. It's around 12:20pm, twenty-five minutes before lunch when T4 gets my attention and says,
"can you read to the scholars." I agreed, T4 walks over to the book shelf, selects Salt In His Shoes by Deloris Jordan and Roslyn Jordan. The story is about Michael Jordan (hopefully I don't have to tell you who that is) and his pursuit of a dream. The authors are his mother and sister.
This is either my third or fourth time reading this book and, as I have in the past, I'll stop and challenge the scholars with questions, ask them the meaning of a particular word, or to make a prediction on the ending. I was either two or three pages short of the ending the story when I sensed that I was loosing the attention of the scholars. There was too much talking so I started to look around the room. I started on my left, moved to my right, and saw the source of the distraction so I abruptly stopped reading. Looking at the guilty parties (three T4-F's) I asked them to leave the classroom as they were distracting the entire classroom. They were so focused on their distracting activity that they didn't even hear me. So I raise my voice, "get out of the classroom." This got their attention so I said it again with same volume, "get out of the classroom." The response, "we didn't do anything." "Don't sit there telling me you didn't do anything. You were arm wrestling and distracting me and everyone else in the classroom. If you think it is more important to arm wrestle than listen to the story I'm reading then get out of the classroom." I got the look that so many teachers get in this school. The facial expression and the rolling of the eyes that says who do you think you are that you can tell me what to do. There was no movement from the scholars so I stood and using a way to loud voice, "get out of the classroom or I'll walk over and take you out of the classroom." They got up, walked out, and immediately ran into T4 and OtherT4 who were standing just outside the classroom door.
There are two adults in the classroom. One is a teacher and the other is a volunteer. It didn't take me long to realize, as a volunteer, that I just stepped over the line. I lost control of my emotions, kicked three scholars out of the classroom when, in reality, I have no business doing that.
Was that a stupid mistake on my part or a human error? I know what my thoughts are. What are yours?
Two weeks are in the books. It's going to be a challenge like no other this year and on day ten I've already made a stupid mistake. When I was leaving for the day T4 thanked me, as she does at the end of every day, for being in her classroom. She also told me to have a nice weekend and see you on Monday. She must have thought human error and I'm grateful for that.
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Week One Postlaunch
Saturday August 18, 2018
It's rare that I sit in my favorite blogging spot on a Saturday morning and begin my next post but the weather stinks and I needed something to do. Yesterday, after a challenging day in T4's classroom, I pretty much cleaned the entire interior of the house to help me de-escalate. Today was supposed to be yardwork day but that got blown up because the weather stinks. To further add to my frustration I typed the work Postlaunch in the blog title. Initially is was typed Post Launch but I was uncertain if I had the word spelled correctly. I was thinking maybe it should be Post-Launch. My part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse was at the city market so I was stumped as to the spelling. When all else fails I figured, Google it. According to the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary the word is spelled correctly in the title.
Several years ago, when I worked for a management services company here in central Indiana, I had the opportunity to work with a gentleman who had the nickname Duck. As I was passing Duck in the hallway one day I asked him how his day was going. He looked at me and said, "Big Al, this place is off the hook today." "Off the hook," is a perfect way to describe the start of the school year here in central Indiana.
One of those hoity-toity private schools is in the news on the local level, state wide level, and national level. The issue revolves around the actions of an ministerial employee. Here is the basic argument. Did the employee break the terms of a contract that was signed or did the employee get placed, at least for now, on paid administrative leave, due to a sexual orientation issue. Next up, a high school located here in central Indiana had a brawl inside the school that eventually moved outdoors. In the midst of this brawl seven scholars were injured, three of the seven taken to the hospital, and the following day thirteen scholars were arrested. The final "off the hook," hit real close to home. My school is without air conditioning. It is hot. It is humid. There are, as of today, twenty-eight scholars and two adults crammed into a classroom that I can't believe was originally designed to hold that many people. The scholars are sweating. I'm sweating a lot. At first I didn't think that T4 was capable of sweating until I sat at her desk. There, sitting on her desk, partially hidden by all of her valuable treasures that she keeps stacked on top her desk, was a small round fan.
Okay, get out your note pads so you can write this down and use as a future reference. I've decided on how I'm going to name the sixty plus scholars that will rotate through T4's classroom for math. I will identify the scholars in this fashion. Here are examples; T4-M or T4-F. Next will be OtherT4-M or OtherT4-F. The M and F are male or female. The T4 and OtherT4 are the two difference classrooms that I'll help. Hopefully that is not too confusing.
It's hot. It's humid. And it's the first day of school. The morning went smoothly as it was mostly a community day so all of the scholars and adults could get acquainted. At 12:45pm, T4 tells that the scholars line up, T4-M's on one side of the room and T4-F's on the other side of the room, as it is lunch time. Just before departing for the cafeteria T4 gets my attention and points toward T4-F who is sick. As I look toward T4-F, the scholar is puking in a wastebasket right by the door to the classroom. I walked towards T4-F to lend assistance and at the same time I told T4 to lead the scholars to the cafeteria and I'll address the puking when it's finished. T4 agreed with the plan, imagine that, and also told me she would call T4-F's parental unit to come and get her. Fortunately for me all of the puke went inside the wastebasket making clean up real easy. All I had to do was give T4-F a cup of water to rinse her mouth out, a paper towel to wipe off her face, and a squirt of hand sanitizer. With T4-F cleaned up as best as she could be we headed to the nurses office.
As I entered the classroom on day two of the school year I immediately here this, "Schultz, we need another desk and chair because we have a new student." It's hot. It's humid. I sweat easily and again I'm carrying a desk and chair from an empty classroom into T4's classroom. Later that same day T4 is observing questionable behavior amongst some scholars on the opposite side of the classroom from her. Something is not right and she is up and moving. I'm not exactly sure what transpired once she got to her destination but I knew by her voice inflection she was not happy. As she is returning to her desk she alters her route a little, walks up to me, and shows me what is written on a piece of notebook paper by T4-M. Please note, T4-M sits at an alternative seating arrangement with four T4-F's. I looked at the paper, read what was written, looked up at T4 and gave her my best you have to be kidding look. Now I know you are all dying to know what was written on that piece of paper. I'm not going to repeat the words but I'll leave you with this. The words on that piece of paper could easily have fit the dialogue of a Stormy Daniels porn movie and they came from a fourth grade scholar.
An hour or so later T4-M's parental unit arrives to retrieve the young scholar and take him home. During the conversation with T4, T4-M's parental unit stated that she has no idea where T4-M learned that language. Dear parental unit. Let me give you some suggestions as to why your scholar has a familiarity with this type of language. First, if you have cable television I suggest you figure out how to block access to those channels that frequently post movies rated M for mature audiences. Second, if your scholar has internet access, I suggest you do a history search to see what your young scholar has been watching. Third, and I know this one will be hard to do, but occasionally, when your scholar is at home and is real quiet for a long period of time, I suggest you get off your backside and walk to see what he is up to back in his bedroom.
Sunday August 19, 2018
A brief note on the scholar, T4-F, who was ill on day one of the school year. The parental unit of T4-F contacted T4 and informed T4 that her scholar is in a pediatric hospital and will be there for an extended period of time. I ask that you keep T4-F and her parental unit in your prayers during this difficult time.
It's now day three postlaunch, that would be Wednesday. As usual, being a volunteer that can set his own hours, I'm the last to arrive. As I step into the classroom, still without air conditioning, and it's hot, it's humid, and I sweat easily, "Schultz, we have another new student. I need another desk and chair." Off I go. When I return reality sets in when it comes to adding desks and chairs to the classroom. We are running out of room. T4 scans the room and comes up with the best option. We need to move the hexagon. Not an easy task but with the scholars helping the move goes smoothly. It's now late in the morning and there is a need to fill a time gap before lunch. T4 looks at me and asks me to fill the gap while she gets some paperwork done. No problem because now I get to do something I really like to do, make up a story. Out comes the cellphone. I find the picture I wanted and placed it under the document camera that puts the picture on a big screen in front of the classroom so all the scholars can see it. It is a picture of TheGranddaughter, her doll named Big Momma, and me on my riding lawnmower. My story begins, totally made up, I occupy the scholar's minds for a few minutes, and the next thing you know, T4 completed some of the minutiae of worthless stuff that goes with being a teacher, and now it's lunch time.
Day four postlaunch. "Schultz, we have another new student so we need another desk and chair. Yes, no air conditioning, it's hot, humid, and I sweat easily and off I go again. The desk and chair are in the room. The placement of it takes a few minutes to figure out as the room is really crowded. When the desk and chair are added to one of the alternative seating arrangements I looked around the room. When all of the scholars are seated at their desks, with chairs pull out from their desks, the aisle way between the chairs is real narrow. So narrow that I'm certain that I will not fit through some of the aisle ways when moving to help a scholar with an academic problem.
When I'm not sitting at the hexagon I occupy a rocking chair that is in the back right corner of the classroom. As I was sitting in my rocking chair looking at how crowded the room was this thought entered into my mind. Given the total square foot of this classroom, now occupied by thirty-one scholars and two adults, I wonder if we have exceeded the room capacity for this classroom and are in violation of a Fire Marshall ordinance. It was going to Google it but decided, it's too hot, too humid, so I chose to sit quietly in my rocking chair where I also have a really swell view from the back of the room for a couple minutes and do nothing.
The first five days of the school year are past us. There are one hundred and seventy-five school days to go. As I sit in my rocking chair and look at the crowded conditions in the classroom I think to myself, how is T4 going maintain discipline in this classroom and still meet the academic pacing guidelines for the math lesson she needs to get done? From my view from the back of the room I know already that this is going to be a challenging year for T4. I also know this. At the end of the last school year I had options as to what I'd be doing this school year. I chose the classroom that is led by T4 for this reason. She is a damn good teacher, placed in a borderline nightmare situation, and I'm going to offer my support to remove as many obstacles that I can to make sure she is successful.
PS - I reconnected with a colleague from my original career who I haven't spoken to in almost ten years. In doing so, I gave her the link to my blog so she can follow along. To my colleague and, as a reminder to you, as we progress through the school year, I don't make this stuff up.
It's rare that I sit in my favorite blogging spot on a Saturday morning and begin my next post but the weather stinks and I needed something to do. Yesterday, after a challenging day in T4's classroom, I pretty much cleaned the entire interior of the house to help me de-escalate. Today was supposed to be yardwork day but that got blown up because the weather stinks. To further add to my frustration I typed the work Postlaunch in the blog title. Initially is was typed Post Launch but I was uncertain if I had the word spelled correctly. I was thinking maybe it should be Post-Launch. My part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse was at the city market so I was stumped as to the spelling. When all else fails I figured, Google it. According to the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary the word is spelled correctly in the title.
Several years ago, when I worked for a management services company here in central Indiana, I had the opportunity to work with a gentleman who had the nickname Duck. As I was passing Duck in the hallway one day I asked him how his day was going. He looked at me and said, "Big Al, this place is off the hook today." "Off the hook," is a perfect way to describe the start of the school year here in central Indiana.
One of those hoity-toity private schools is in the news on the local level, state wide level, and national level. The issue revolves around the actions of an ministerial employee. Here is the basic argument. Did the employee break the terms of a contract that was signed or did the employee get placed, at least for now, on paid administrative leave, due to a sexual orientation issue. Next up, a high school located here in central Indiana had a brawl inside the school that eventually moved outdoors. In the midst of this brawl seven scholars were injured, three of the seven taken to the hospital, and the following day thirteen scholars were arrested. The final "off the hook," hit real close to home. My school is without air conditioning. It is hot. It is humid. There are, as of today, twenty-eight scholars and two adults crammed into a classroom that I can't believe was originally designed to hold that many people. The scholars are sweating. I'm sweating a lot. At first I didn't think that T4 was capable of sweating until I sat at her desk. There, sitting on her desk, partially hidden by all of her valuable treasures that she keeps stacked on top her desk, was a small round fan.
Okay, get out your note pads so you can write this down and use as a future reference. I've decided on how I'm going to name the sixty plus scholars that will rotate through T4's classroom for math. I will identify the scholars in this fashion. Here are examples; T4-M or T4-F. Next will be OtherT4-M or OtherT4-F. The M and F are male or female. The T4 and OtherT4 are the two difference classrooms that I'll help. Hopefully that is not too confusing.
It's hot. It's humid. And it's the first day of school. The morning went smoothly as it was mostly a community day so all of the scholars and adults could get acquainted. At 12:45pm, T4 tells that the scholars line up, T4-M's on one side of the room and T4-F's on the other side of the room, as it is lunch time. Just before departing for the cafeteria T4 gets my attention and points toward T4-F who is sick. As I look toward T4-F, the scholar is puking in a wastebasket right by the door to the classroom. I walked towards T4-F to lend assistance and at the same time I told T4 to lead the scholars to the cafeteria and I'll address the puking when it's finished. T4 agreed with the plan, imagine that, and also told me she would call T4-F's parental unit to come and get her. Fortunately for me all of the puke went inside the wastebasket making clean up real easy. All I had to do was give T4-F a cup of water to rinse her mouth out, a paper towel to wipe off her face, and a squirt of hand sanitizer. With T4-F cleaned up as best as she could be we headed to the nurses office.
As I entered the classroom on day two of the school year I immediately here this, "Schultz, we need another desk and chair because we have a new student." It's hot. It's humid. I sweat easily and again I'm carrying a desk and chair from an empty classroom into T4's classroom. Later that same day T4 is observing questionable behavior amongst some scholars on the opposite side of the classroom from her. Something is not right and she is up and moving. I'm not exactly sure what transpired once she got to her destination but I knew by her voice inflection she was not happy. As she is returning to her desk she alters her route a little, walks up to me, and shows me what is written on a piece of notebook paper by T4-M. Please note, T4-M sits at an alternative seating arrangement with four T4-F's. I looked at the paper, read what was written, looked up at T4 and gave her my best you have to be kidding look. Now I know you are all dying to know what was written on that piece of paper. I'm not going to repeat the words but I'll leave you with this. The words on that piece of paper could easily have fit the dialogue of a Stormy Daniels porn movie and they came from a fourth grade scholar.
An hour or so later T4-M's parental unit arrives to retrieve the young scholar and take him home. During the conversation with T4, T4-M's parental unit stated that she has no idea where T4-M learned that language. Dear parental unit. Let me give you some suggestions as to why your scholar has a familiarity with this type of language. First, if you have cable television I suggest you figure out how to block access to those channels that frequently post movies rated M for mature audiences. Second, if your scholar has internet access, I suggest you do a history search to see what your young scholar has been watching. Third, and I know this one will be hard to do, but occasionally, when your scholar is at home and is real quiet for a long period of time, I suggest you get off your backside and walk to see what he is up to back in his bedroom.
Sunday August 19, 2018
A brief note on the scholar, T4-F, who was ill on day one of the school year. The parental unit of T4-F contacted T4 and informed T4 that her scholar is in a pediatric hospital and will be there for an extended period of time. I ask that you keep T4-F and her parental unit in your prayers during this difficult time.
It's now day three postlaunch, that would be Wednesday. As usual, being a volunteer that can set his own hours, I'm the last to arrive. As I step into the classroom, still without air conditioning, and it's hot, it's humid, and I sweat easily, "Schultz, we have another new student. I need another desk and chair." Off I go. When I return reality sets in when it comes to adding desks and chairs to the classroom. We are running out of room. T4 scans the room and comes up with the best option. We need to move the hexagon. Not an easy task but with the scholars helping the move goes smoothly. It's now late in the morning and there is a need to fill a time gap before lunch. T4 looks at me and asks me to fill the gap while she gets some paperwork done. No problem because now I get to do something I really like to do, make up a story. Out comes the cellphone. I find the picture I wanted and placed it under the document camera that puts the picture on a big screen in front of the classroom so all the scholars can see it. It is a picture of TheGranddaughter, her doll named Big Momma, and me on my riding lawnmower. My story begins, totally made up, I occupy the scholar's minds for a few minutes, and the next thing you know, T4 completed some of the minutiae of worthless stuff that goes with being a teacher, and now it's lunch time.
Day four postlaunch. "Schultz, we have another new student so we need another desk and chair. Yes, no air conditioning, it's hot, humid, and I sweat easily and off I go again. The desk and chair are in the room. The placement of it takes a few minutes to figure out as the room is really crowded. When the desk and chair are added to one of the alternative seating arrangements I looked around the room. When all of the scholars are seated at their desks, with chairs pull out from their desks, the aisle way between the chairs is real narrow. So narrow that I'm certain that I will not fit through some of the aisle ways when moving to help a scholar with an academic problem.
When I'm not sitting at the hexagon I occupy a rocking chair that is in the back right corner of the classroom. As I was sitting in my rocking chair looking at how crowded the room was this thought entered into my mind. Given the total square foot of this classroom, now occupied by thirty-one scholars and two adults, I wonder if we have exceeded the room capacity for this classroom and are in violation of a Fire Marshall ordinance. It was going to Google it but decided, it's too hot, too humid, so I chose to sit quietly in my rocking chair where I also have a really swell view from the back of the room for a couple minutes and do nothing.
The first five days of the school year are past us. There are one hundred and seventy-five school days to go. As I sit in my rocking chair and look at the crowded conditions in the classroom I think to myself, how is T4 going maintain discipline in this classroom and still meet the academic pacing guidelines for the math lesson she needs to get done? From my view from the back of the room I know already that this is going to be a challenging year for T4. I also know this. At the end of the last school year I had options as to what I'd be doing this school year. I chose the classroom that is led by T4 for this reason. She is a damn good teacher, placed in a borderline nightmare situation, and I'm going to offer my support to remove as many obstacles that I can to make sure she is successful.
PS - I reconnected with a colleague from my original career who I haven't spoken to in almost ten years. In doing so, I gave her the link to my blog so she can follow along. To my colleague and, as a reminder to you, as we progress through the school year, I don't make this stuff up.
Sunday, August 12, 2018
Year Seven
Saturday, August 11, 2018
For the past seven or so weeks I thought about this blog and how to proceed as I enter my seventh year where I've had a really interesting view from the back of the room. Over the past six years I have had as low as three scholars to a high of nine scholars in the Special Education classroom for scholars that have an emotional handicap. All of that is water under the bridge as I now occupy a general education classroom that, at present time, has thirty scholars sitting around the classroom in one of those alternative seating arrangements. In addition to the thirty scholars that occupy what I call my home classroom, there are another thirty scholars that will rotate from another classroom into my home classroom for their math block. If you do the math, that is sixty scholars that I will be working with primarily doing math.
For the past six years I've assigned each scholar that I worked with a totally fictitious name to make it easier for everyone to follow along. Sorry, that is not going to happen when I'm working with sixty scholars. Therein lies the problem. How can I identify the scholars that I work with so you can follow along. Right now I'm clueless but I'm working on it.
Although I had a great summer break it occasionally had it's dramatic moments. In fact, there were four dramatic moments, all school related. One made me really irritated, one was very surprising, and two fell into the category of don't let the door hit you in your butt on the way out. Here are the four dramatic moments. Let see if you can match the dramatic moment with one of the following categories: really irritated, very surprising, don't let the door hit you in your butt. The school lost a teacher due to a lack of seniority. Someone with much more seniority had to find a job because of a school closure so this person bumped a teacher from my school out of their job. Not just any teacher, a damn good teacher. TheBigB left to take on a different role in the school district. A person that was at my school for approximately ten years just up and took another position in our school district. The LittleBigB resigned and left the school district. You make your decision. If my memory doesn't lapse I'll give you the correct answer in the next blog post.
During my summer off I continued reading education related news items so I could stay on the cutting edge of innovation in the classroom. My main source of education news came from a website called Chalkbeat Indiana. I also started following the Chalkbeat Detroit website. I you think there are crazy things going on in Indiana you should follow the education news coming out of Detroit. As I read these two websites and their articles regarding innovation in the classroom I began to think, what the hell are these pointed headed intellectuals with their PhD's doing to our schools.
Here is the first of the pointy headed intellectuals with their PhD's classroom innovation. We need to start teaching a social-emotional learning curriculum. Why? To teach kids respect and responsibility, self-awareness and self-management, relationship skills, and good decision making. In doing so we will accomplish this, we will have less shootings and less violence in our schools. My part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse chimed in on this innovation. "Animals do a much better job of raising their young than many of the parents that have school age scholars."
Here is your second innovation, we need mindfulness training. Mindfulness, the mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. If you trace mindfulness origins back a few centuries you will find that it has a link to Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism. Those are religions so I ask this question. Where is the American Civil Liberties Union now that religious teachings are entering our public schools?
Sunday August 12, 2018
Here is the last one, my personal favorite. We need happiness classes. The stress scholars face today are causing anxiety and depression issues. They have to pass a state mandated reading test, a state mandated math test, and a state mandated language arts class. They stress about their ACT and SAT scores and their GPA so that they can get accepted into the local university. Hell, they are so stressed about their ability to play Fortnight, that their parental units are hiring tutors at the rate of twenty dollars an hour so their totally depressed scholar can be competitive playing this totally useless on-line game. All this pressure, all this stress, all this anxiety can be solved quite simply. Just block out one hour a school day and teach these scholars how to be happy.
Happiness classes, mindfulness training, and social-emotional learning curriculum are products of the 21st century. How anyone alive, beginning with our county's declaration of independence in the 18th century through the end of the 20th century, managed to get an education without all of this touchy feely baloney and sausage is beyond me.
Alright, year seven began on August 6th. Here are the returning adult players.
Teacher - T4
Volunteer - that would be me
Behavior Specialist - FBG
Principal - this will be TheBigB#4
Vice Principal - blank, waiting to hear but will be call LittleBigB#2
Part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse - unchanged for forty years
Here are the scholars that might cross my path throughout the year.
MiniJ - sixth grade
Uh-Uh-Uh - sixth grade
Tourette - fifth grade
Grr! - fifth grade
Huey - fourth grade
Cue - fourth grade
All six of the scholars listed above will be rotating from either the primary special education classroom or the secondary special education classroom to a general education classroom for math and language arts. That means Huey and Cue will be in the same classroom with me for math. During the summer FBG contacted me to see what my interest would be in maintaining a relationship with MiniJ, Uh-Uh-Uh, Tourette, and Grr!. Given the amount of time I've spent with each of them, going back as far as the second grade, I agreed to lend my support when needed. All four of them will rotate to a general education classroom that is either right next to me or just a short distance down the hallway. If bad things are happening with these four scholars FBG will text me, when needed, to sit with them in their general education classroom until they get themselves under control.
Let's see. What else do I need to tell you. My view varies as I could be working at a half round table in the hallway, sitting at T4's desk, which is an experience in itself, parked in a rocking chair on the back right hand side of the classroom, or sitting at the hexagon. If you recall, from my final blog post from the last school year, I negotiated my payment for services rendered. On the first day of school, two Payday candy bars were waiting for me on a shelf next to the rocking chair.
That's it. Let the school year begin and I'm anticipating that it will be a great year.
For the past seven or so weeks I thought about this blog and how to proceed as I enter my seventh year where I've had a really interesting view from the back of the room. Over the past six years I have had as low as three scholars to a high of nine scholars in the Special Education classroom for scholars that have an emotional handicap. All of that is water under the bridge as I now occupy a general education classroom that, at present time, has thirty scholars sitting around the classroom in one of those alternative seating arrangements. In addition to the thirty scholars that occupy what I call my home classroom, there are another thirty scholars that will rotate from another classroom into my home classroom for their math block. If you do the math, that is sixty scholars that I will be working with primarily doing math.
For the past six years I've assigned each scholar that I worked with a totally fictitious name to make it easier for everyone to follow along. Sorry, that is not going to happen when I'm working with sixty scholars. Therein lies the problem. How can I identify the scholars that I work with so you can follow along. Right now I'm clueless but I'm working on it.
Although I had a great summer break it occasionally had it's dramatic moments. In fact, there were four dramatic moments, all school related. One made me really irritated, one was very surprising, and two fell into the category of don't let the door hit you in your butt on the way out. Here are the four dramatic moments. Let see if you can match the dramatic moment with one of the following categories: really irritated, very surprising, don't let the door hit you in your butt. The school lost a teacher due to a lack of seniority. Someone with much more seniority had to find a job because of a school closure so this person bumped a teacher from my school out of their job. Not just any teacher, a damn good teacher. TheBigB left to take on a different role in the school district. A person that was at my school for approximately ten years just up and took another position in our school district. The LittleBigB resigned and left the school district. You make your decision. If my memory doesn't lapse I'll give you the correct answer in the next blog post.
During my summer off I continued reading education related news items so I could stay on the cutting edge of innovation in the classroom. My main source of education news came from a website called Chalkbeat Indiana. I also started following the Chalkbeat Detroit website. I you think there are crazy things going on in Indiana you should follow the education news coming out of Detroit. As I read these two websites and their articles regarding innovation in the classroom I began to think, what the hell are these pointed headed intellectuals with their PhD's doing to our schools.
Here is the first of the pointy headed intellectuals with their PhD's classroom innovation. We need to start teaching a social-emotional learning curriculum. Why? To teach kids respect and responsibility, self-awareness and self-management, relationship skills, and good decision making. In doing so we will accomplish this, we will have less shootings and less violence in our schools. My part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse chimed in on this innovation. "Animals do a much better job of raising their young than many of the parents that have school age scholars."
Here is your second innovation, we need mindfulness training. Mindfulness, the mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. If you trace mindfulness origins back a few centuries you will find that it has a link to Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism. Those are religions so I ask this question. Where is the American Civil Liberties Union now that religious teachings are entering our public schools?
Sunday August 12, 2018
Here is the last one, my personal favorite. We need happiness classes. The stress scholars face today are causing anxiety and depression issues. They have to pass a state mandated reading test, a state mandated math test, and a state mandated language arts class. They stress about their ACT and SAT scores and their GPA so that they can get accepted into the local university. Hell, they are so stressed about their ability to play Fortnight, that their parental units are hiring tutors at the rate of twenty dollars an hour so their totally depressed scholar can be competitive playing this totally useless on-line game. All this pressure, all this stress, all this anxiety can be solved quite simply. Just block out one hour a school day and teach these scholars how to be happy.
Happiness classes, mindfulness training, and social-emotional learning curriculum are products of the 21st century. How anyone alive, beginning with our county's declaration of independence in the 18th century through the end of the 20th century, managed to get an education without all of this touchy feely baloney and sausage is beyond me.
Alright, year seven began on August 6th. Here are the returning adult players.
Teacher - T4
Volunteer - that would be me
Behavior Specialist - FBG
Principal - this will be TheBigB#4
Vice Principal - blank, waiting to hear but will be call LittleBigB#2
Part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse - unchanged for forty years
Here are the scholars that might cross my path throughout the year.
MiniJ - sixth grade
Uh-Uh-Uh - sixth grade
Tourette - fifth grade
Grr! - fifth grade
Huey - fourth grade
Cue - fourth grade
All six of the scholars listed above will be rotating from either the primary special education classroom or the secondary special education classroom to a general education classroom for math and language arts. That means Huey and Cue will be in the same classroom with me for math. During the summer FBG contacted me to see what my interest would be in maintaining a relationship with MiniJ, Uh-Uh-Uh, Tourette, and Grr!. Given the amount of time I've spent with each of them, going back as far as the second grade, I agreed to lend my support when needed. All four of them will rotate to a general education classroom that is either right next to me or just a short distance down the hallway. If bad things are happening with these four scholars FBG will text me, when needed, to sit with them in their general education classroom until they get themselves under control.
Let's see. What else do I need to tell you. My view varies as I could be working at a half round table in the hallway, sitting at T4's desk, which is an experience in itself, parked in a rocking chair on the back right hand side of the classroom, or sitting at the hexagon. If you recall, from my final blog post from the last school year, I negotiated my payment for services rendered. On the first day of school, two Payday candy bars were waiting for me on a shelf next to the rocking chair.
That's it. Let the school year begin and I'm anticipating that it will be a great year.
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