Bombs Away

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Shortly after my Camp post last weekend a private message appeared on my Facebook page regarding my ability to launch an arrow at a stationary target.  The message was sent from Neighbor-F and the message read like this, "you should have spent more time with Mr. Swantek."  As soon as I finished reading the message I just started laughing as I had not thought about Mr. Swantek in decades.  Mr. Swantek, long deceased, lived three houses south of where I was raised.  He was an avid deer hunter and his weapon of choice was the bow and arrow.  Each year, as deer hunting season drew near, Mr. Swantek would get out his bow and arrow, place his bulls eye target inside his garage, back up about thirty feet in his driveway, and start practicing.  With each new practice session Mr. Swantek would back up a little farther in his driveway and continue launching arrows.  With just days before the opening of deer hunting season Mr. Swantek would practice one more time.  This time he was standing in the middle of the street that ran in front of his house.  This distance to the target was around fifty yards and every arrow that he launched hit the target in his garage.

Neighbor-F is correct, I should have practiced more with Mr. Swantek.  However, despite missing my target three times and having my male ego damaged, at least I didn't launch an arrow and break a window in Mr. Swantek's garage.

For the first six years that I occupied this school my day was mainly on the first floor with occasional trips to the second floor.  This year I am on the second floor.  This floor has the higher grade levels and the supposedly more mature and better behaved scholars.  After spending seven weeks silently observing the behavior of the supposedly better behaved scholars I started taking notes on their behavior in my black spiral notebook.  The spiral notebook that I keep with me when I'm sitting at the half-round table in the hallway while doing math is now open.  For the most part, the notes I took are not about the scholars that are in the fourth grade.  These are notes about scholars that are in a higher grades, what their behavior is like in the hallway when they don't think anyone is watching, and it gives you another indication of the crap that a school teacher puts up with daily.

T6-M just walked out of the classroom.  At first this scholar sat in a chair immediately outside his classroom.  As I was observing him, no teacher followed him out of the classroom.  After sitting in the chair for a short time he stood up and started walking in my direction.  When he approached me I said, "good morning."  He responded in kind and then sat down in an office furniture chair on wheels that was on the opposite side of the hallway from me.  When I asked him what he was doing he said, "I'm taking a break."  After a brief moment of silence I hear the office chair move.  I looked up and T6-M was aggressively rolling down the hallway in that office chair.  When he reached the end of the hallway, the length of three classrooms, he starting rolling back in my direction going backwards.  When he was even with me he stopped and just sat there.  Eventually, all of the scholars from T6-M's classroom started lining up in the hallway and T6-M got up and rejoined his classroom.  The number of adults watching this behavior, one, me.

The BigB#4 hired a new staff member a short while back.  The new staff member is LittleBigB#2.  While sitting at my table in the hallway LittleBigB#2 was walking down the hallway and heading in my direction.  I had met LittleBigB#2 earlier in T4's classroom so when he approached me we exchanged greetings.  We spoke for a few moments, mainly idle chit chat, and just as he was about to move on I said to him, "before too many of the scholars figure out exactly who you are I think you should take some time out of your day and sit at my table and just observed what is going on in this wing of the building."  I'm not sure how the LittleBigB#2 took my comment but I do know this, at least he didn't throw me out of the school.

One more and then I'll move on.  T6 scholars are at the restroom with the teacher of record standing nearby.  When all of the scholars are finished, recycling so to speak, the teacher gets them moving back toward the classroom.  As the teacher is leading the scholars she is walking backwards to keep and eye on them.  Comfortable that the scholars are moving forward without any horseplay the teacher turns her back to them and continues on to the classroom.  As they are about to pass me, one of these fine scholars, the oldest scholars in the building, fakes being tripped and falls on the floor.  This scholar was back up on his feet quickly and the line continued.  Then, three scholars back, another fine scholar drops on the floor in the prone position and started doing a dance move called the worm.

Dear LittleBigB#2, I know you have a busy day and may not make it to the second floor to see all of the crap that goes on up here so I have a suggestion.  I believe there is a security camera on the second floor that watches the wing of the building that I sit it.  I'd like to suggest that you review the security tape when you have a moment and then bring some discipline to this floor.

Sunday, September 29, 2018

First, a little background and then on to T4's academic challenge.  When you are in the third grade there are three major tests that you must take, IRead3, ISTEP Math, and ISTEP Language Arts.  The ultimate goal is to pass all three.  The secondary goal is to at least show progress over previous tests taken.  These are big deal tests that can make or break a school district, a principal, and most important can end a classroom teacher's career.  Quoting the apostle Paul, "brothers and sisters," these tests put major pressure on teachers.

Academics, in particular math, has been a roller coaster ride for T4 when it comes to test scores.  The results of one test were dismal and then on the next test the scores were up.  As I move throughout the building staff members will ask me how my day is going.  I tell them that my day is going well and then comment on the low math skills of the fourth grade scholars. Twice, when mentioning the low math skills, I was told something about third grade.  Because I was not speaking to someone directly involved with the third grade I just logged what I was told into the back of my mind.

A few days back the fourth grade scholars took a math test on area and perimeter.  As I was answering  the problems myself I realized that this was going to be a hard test and the scholars scores would be low. I was correct, the scores were low.  One fourth grade class had an average score of thirty-seven percent and the other fourth grade class had an average score of thirty-four percent.

A day or so later I was walking down the hallway to the copier to make some copies when I stopped to talk to a teacher.  When the teacher asked me how I was doing I said I was frustrated and mentioned the low math scores on the area and perimeter tests the scholars took earlier.  This teacher, very familiar with third grade, looked at me and commented, I'm paraphrasing, "when your scholars were in the third grade the school leadership came to the third grade teachers and told them to significantly reduce the amount of time they spent teaching math and use the time to teach language arts.  Stop teaching math, teach more reading.  KABOOM!  It is much clearer now why the fourth grade scholars math abilities are so low.  As a reminder, only six out of sixty scholars are on grade level for math in for the fourth grade and T4 has been tasked with overcoming the damages caused by decisions made while her scholars were in the third grade.

The pressure on school leadership and classroom teachers to get third grade scholars to successfully pass two mandatory language arts tests and one math test is tremendous.  The scholars failure to do well on these tests can costs people their jobs.  When you have that type of pressure some times decisions are made, not because they are the right decision, but because it's a decision that can keep someone employed.  In this case, purely speculation on my part, this decision, to put a huge effort into passing the two language arts tests with the hope that doing so will overcome some of the criticism for not passing the math test, was made to keep people employed.

Right or wrong this is the reality that school leaders and teachers face and I know that their level of frustration with this testing process increases every year because I can see it on their faces.  While I don't have any issues with the IRead3 test I do have issues with ISTEP.  I've shared my concerns a number of time before and I'll share them again.  ISTEP is a waste of tax payer money, millions of dollars.  Does this test matter to the parental units, no.  Does this test matter when it comes to a promotion to the next grade level, no.  Does this test have any impact on a scholar's time in high school, no.  Does this test determine if a scholar is college eligible, no.   Does this test have any impact on a scholar that chooses to enter the work force after high school, no.  This test is the product of pointy headed intellectuals who want to convince themselves that they are important.  Even worse, this test is a product of politicians, the lowest life form on earth, who rarely ever step into a classroom to see if this test actually has any value.

You heard the KABOOM after I stated, "bombs away," earlier.  Hopefully the next time you see a post titled, Bombs Away, with a soon to follow KABOOM, it will be the blowing up of ISTEP.

 POOF!  Not quite as earth shaking as KABOOM but.....I'm out.  See you next week.