Saturday, October 27, 2018
Lets start with a general update as to what happened during fall break. First and foremost, a third fourth grade teacher was hired. This new teacher, AdditionalT4, will run a fourth grade classroom that is totally self contained and that means that AdditionalT4's scholar will not rotate to T4's classroom for math. As a result of this change the size of T4's fourth grade class shrunk down to eighteen scholars and I believe OtherT4's classroom is similar in size. So, with this change, thirty-six or so scholars will still rotate through T4's classroom for math.
After spending six years plus one quarter of a school year in this school you would think that watching scholars come and go would be like water off a ducks back. Well, T4 lost a scholar over fall break due to a relocation and this one was not like water off a ducks back for me. This one stung a little. You've met this scholar, T4-F, in the last blog post. This is the scholar that correctly answered twenty seven multiplication problems in fifty-three seconds and just like that she is gone, on to another school. God, this is job can be so frustrating and like I said earlier, this one stung a little.
My first encounter with T4-F was very early in the school year when she was returning from a specials class. As she walked into the classroom she was having an animated conversation with another female scholar that eventually resulted in a pushing incident. When I stepped in between the two scholars I look at T4-F and said, "there is no reason to push another scholar." T4-F's immediate response was, "I didn't push anyone." My response was, "I'm old but I'm not blind and I just watched you push that scholar." My response resulted in what I will label as a dead cold, unblinking, you can't intimidate me stare, from T4-F.
Fast forwarding to the end of the first quarter of the school year and the dead cold, unblinking, you can't intimidate me stare is gone. Now I see a scholar that can smile, sometimes even laugh, that is excited about math because I pulled out my stop watch and challenger her to answer some multiplication problems and then, just like that, she is gone, her parental unit decided to move again.
One the first day back in the classroom after fall break I talked to T4 about T4-F and my disappointment that she was gone. T4 responded, paraphrasing, "Schultz, you need to harden yourself when situations like this happen. I've hardened myself and you need to do the same and move on." T4 is correct about hardening yourself and I know it as I've seen it happen so many times. But, you know what. Just once I'd like to get the chance to speak to the parental unit about relocation and this is what I would say. "Dear parental unit. I'm not sure why you're moving, although I can probably guess with a great deal of certainty as to why, but do you realize the damage you are causing your scholar. You just jerked your scholar out of a school where she was having a good deal of success doing math and now she has to start all over at another school. So, parental unit, the next time you decide to move, and I'm certain that you will do it again, why don't you move but stay in the boundaries of the same school so you can stop screwing up your scholars education.
With fall break over and the formula for calculating area and perimeter almost forgotten T4 is moving on to the next lesson. So what is next on the math agenda? Simple, we are going to study a natural number greater than one that cannot be formed by multiplying two smaller natural numbers. And why are we doing this? Most modern computer cryptography works by using these numbers. These numbers are also of the utmost importance to number theorists because they are the building blocks of whole numbers, and important to the world because their odd mathematical properties make them perfect for current uses.
Ok, you got that? Maybe you should read the last paragraph again so that you can clearly understand what the next math lesson is about. After all, I'm certain that everyone can handle fourth grade math. Still don't get it. I'll simplify, the scholars are being introduced to prime numbers and the difference between a prime number and a composite number. And why is it important for a fourth grade scholar to know the prime numbers? Who the hell knows.
Sunday, October 28, 2018
For the record, I know the difference between a prime number and a composite number. What I was waiting to see was how T4 was going to demonstrate to the scholars how they could determine the difference between the two types of numbers. It didn't take long as T4 told the scholars that they were going to make rainbows to determine if a number was prime or composite. "Rainbows," I thought to myself, "I made sixty copies of the math worksheet for this lesson and I didn't recall seeing any rainbows being drawn." When T4 continued she told the scholars that the worksheet in front of them shows them how to determine if a number is prime or composite but the worksheet's way was too boring so they were going to be drawing rainbows. "After all," T4 said to the scholars, "who doesn't like drawing rainbows." T4 just turned a boring worksheet on prime and composite numbers into a fun assignment drawing rainbows. This is one of the many reasons why I enjoy sitting in the back of a classroom where a have a real nice view of how an excellent teacher goes about her day teaching math and keeping the scholars engaged.
It was either day two or day three of prime and composite numbers when I heard this, "Schultz, I need sixty copies of this hundred count sheet as I going to use it to identify the prime and composite numbers that are between one and one hundred with our scholars. By the way, I need them right now." The copies are made, I hand them over to T4, she assigns a scholar to pass out the hundred count worksheets and then reaches to turn on her document camera. The big screen in front of the classroom is pulled down. I can see T4 placing the hundred count worksheet on the document camera, the document looks too small on the big screen in the front of the classroom so T4 reaches for the zoom in button on the document camera. As she is doing so, her forearm comes into view of the document camera and she said, "look how hairy my arm is." As a reminder, I don't make this stuff up.
The scholars are laughing and T4 is making the final adjustments to the document camera when I pulled out my cellphone. Just as T4 was going to start her lesson using the hundred count sheet I got her attention and showed her my cellphone and started laughing. I pretty certain she knew, as soon as she saw my cellphone, that the comment about the hairy arm would be in the blog. As you can see, she was correct.
I've been sitting here at my kitchen table thinking for a couple minutes now. There was one more event that took place in the classroom but I couldn't decide if I want to bring it up. Oh well, it's a bit of a frustrating story, but it happened so I guess I'll tell you about it.
I was sitting at the half round table in the hallway grading the quizzes on prime and composite numbers when OH walked up to my table. OH placed a large green sheet of poster paper on my table and then asked me if I knew the dimensions of the piece of paper that she was holding in her hand. I told OH the paper was 8 1/2 x 11. OH then picked up all of her papers and walked across the hallway to OtherT4's classroom. Shortly after she departed I finished grading all of the quizzes, stood up, walked into the classroom, and place the quiz results on T4's desk.
When I returned to the half round table in the hallway T4 was sitting at the table with the large green poster paper, the white paper, a medium sized paper cutter, and some liquid glue. "Schultz, these posters need to be completed today so I'm helping OH with the project. As soon as I'm done I need you to laminate them and bring them right back to me." "Sure," I said, "no problem."
As I'm walking to the laminator, that is in the library, I'm looking at the poster paper and thinking to myself, "I've never laminated anything this big, the corners of the white paper that T4 glue onto the green poster paper are sticking up, so how am I going to run this through the laminator without damaging the paper." When I arrived in the library the laminator wasn't turned on so I turned it on. It takes about ten minutes for the laminator to warm up so I stood in front of the laminator with one of the posters in my hand trying to determine the best way to run it through the laminator.
When the green light turned on I knew the laminator was hot enough so I stuck a poster onto the front tray of the laminator face up with the wide side of the poster being the leading edge. I then hit the run button on the laminator and watched the poster slowly enter the laminator while thinking, "please don't catch a corner of that white paper." When the poster exited the back side of the laminator I looked at it and thought, "perfect, no folder over pieces, and no wrinkles in the laminate." I then ran the other seven pieces of poster paper through the laminator.
I then spread out the laminated posters on a long book shelf in the library and slowly cut away the excess laminate from the posters. When I finish cutting I stacked up the seven posters on their edge to see if I had to do any final trimming to be sure they were all the same size. I made a couple cutting adjustments to the laminate and then returned to the classroom.
Ok, here is where I need to be careful, after all, I am getting old and maybe my hearing is failing me a little. Because I'm a little concerned about what I heard I'll be paraphrasing. When I walked into the classroom I handed the posters to T4. T4 then handed the posters to OH. When OH had the posters in her hand I'm fairly certain this is what I heard, "I hope they are not messed up." T4 responded immediately, "you don't have to worry about Schultz. He has an Army background and is very careful about details."
Until right now I know T4 does not know how much I appreciate what she said to OH about the posters. I knew from the beginning how important these posters were. I took my time laminating them. I took even more time trimming the excess laminate off of them so they would all be exactly the same size and what do I get, "I hope they are not messed up." I didn't like that comment at all and fortunately for OH, T4 spoke before I had a chance to speak.
That's it for this week. Thanks for following along. Next up is long division and maybe, if I feel that the consequences aren't too severe, a story about a 15oz tin can of chocolatey caramel crunch that was made by a company called Trail's End.
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Sunday, October 21, 2018
Fingers On One Hand
Friday, October 19, 2018
My Hallway Revisited post from last week resulted in a number of people commenting on the T6-M scholar that I worked with out in the hallway. For all of the positive comment about the time I spent with this scholar I say, "thank you." I also received an additional comment and all it said was, "thanks for the positivity." When I saw that comment I smiled and responded that the next blog post would be equally positive unless you do something weird in the classroom. As of right now I'm not aware of any weirdness coming from the classroom so I'm going to proceed with some more positivity.
T4 has been working on area and perimeter for a number of days now. In doing so I've heard a few times, "Schultz I need copies made of these worksheets. When you make these copies I need sixty of each. I need these two one page worksheets turned into a one page, two sided, worksheet. Then I need copies of the exit ticket, sixty copies of each. You got that?" I snapped to attention, saluted, and said, "yes Drill Sergeant," and off to the copier I go.
For this lesson on area and perimeter no worksheets were needed because the scholars will be designing their dream house. All that is required is a pencil, ruler, and graph paper. Prior to starting the dream house project T4 got my attention and said to me, "Schultz, the LittleBigB#2 will be doing an observation of me today." As soon as I heard that the LittleBigBig#2 was going to be in the classroom I knew immediately what my role would be, crowd control.
With the LittleBigB#2 seated and his laptop open, T4 began the lesson. The first task was to draw a large rectangle on the graph paper. T4 had one drawn in advance and placed it under the document camera that projected a picture of the graph paper up on the big overhead screen in the front of the classroom. The scholars were told that they could put as many rooms as they wanted into their dream house but they had to stay inside the rectangle. The last instruction, before the scholars were turned loose, was that for every room they drew in the rectangle they had to calculate the area and perimeter of the room.
Once T4 finished with all directions on building a dream house the scholars began. "Mr. Schultz, I don't know what to do." "You need to draw a rectangle on your graph paper, there is an example on the screen in the front of the classroom." "Mr. Schultz, I can't draw a straight line." "Are you using your ruler?" "Yes Mr. Schultz but I still can't make a straight line." "Okay, erase the line you drew and I'll come over and help you." "Mr. Schultz, I don't know what kind of room to draw." "Every house has these two very important rooms, what do you think they are?" There is a moment of silence as the scholar is thinking and then I hear, "bedroom." "Perfect," I say, "now what is the other one and I'll give you a hint, you will use it everyday." A bit more silence and then I hear, "kitchen." "Very good, now draw a bedroom and a kitchen and don't forget to calculate the area and perimeter." "How do you calculate the area and perimeter, Mr. Schultz?" "Lord, give me the strength to stay calm." "Mr. Schultz, can I draw an X-box in my dream house?" "No, an X-box is not a room. If you want an X-box in your dream house what room would you put it in?" "A game room Mr. Schultz." "Well then you need to draw a game room in your house." Mr. Schultz, can I draw a room in my dream house for my dog?" There is now a slight hesitation on my part, "sure your dog can have its own room."
Eventually the questions slowed and I had an opportunity to look around the room and I liked what I saw, the scholars were engaged and having fun with the project. There were still a lot of questions, especially about figuring out the area and perimeter but, with the LittleBigB#2 observing, this was the perfect project to do. I think the LittleBigB#2 spent about thirty minutes observing T4. When he left the room I made eye contact with T4, nodded my head, smiled, and we went back to work.
Observations like this make teachers nervous. In this case I'm sure T4 was particularly nervous as the LittleBigB#2 is new to the school and she had no idea what to expect. She may not have known what to expect but this is what I know for sure. The LittleBigB#2 just observed and excellent math teacher, one that I enjoy working with, will continue to work with, and I will do everything I can do to remove obstacles so she can be successful. If the LittleBigB#2 disagrees with me about my observations then we may have to have an animated conversation so I can convince him that he is wrong. How can I convince him? Simple, he observed T4 for about thirty minutes. I've been observing T4 every day for nine weeks.
On to some multiplication. T4 is on day number nine with multiplication. On each new day T4 hands out three strips of paper, 1 1/2" x 4" in size, with a multiplication problem written on it. With this being day nine, the scholars have twenty-seven multiplication problems in front of them. Daily, T4 blocks out a section of time so that the scholars can practice their multiplication. One this particular day I'm working with OtherT4-F who is really struggling with multiplication. When I sat next to OtherT4-F I pointed to one of the easy multiplication problems and said to her, what is 5 x 5? The response I got was no where near the correct answer so I repeated the problem and told her to count by five using her fingers. OtherT4-F started counting and when she passed her fifth finger she just kept on counting by five. I stopped her when she reached thirty-five and said, "you are way to high, lets try it again." OtherT4-F starts again, her hand is up, and she starts counting my five. When she didn't stop at twenty-five I remained silent and just observed. When OtherT4-F reached seventy-five I stopped her and said, "5 x 5 equals twenty-five."
Later that evening while sitting at the kitchen table eating my evening meal I told my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse about my time with OtherT4-F. Her initial reaction was to say, "you're kidding." After a brief pause she offered me this suggestion. "The next time you are working with this scholar hold up your hand and ask her how many fingers are on your hand. If she has to count them individually then you will know that you have your work cut out for you."
Saturday, October 20 , 2018, happy birthday little sister. Also a happy birthday to my Florida friend and my Bay City friend.
One more multiplication story and then I'll call it a day. T4-F, one of my hallway friends, had all of her twenty-seven multiplication problems stacked up neatly in front of her so I thought I'd put her to the test. When I arrived at her desk I asked her to pick up all of her multiplication problems and join me at the hexagon. When she sat down at the hexagon I pulled out my cellphone and found my stop watch. "Mr. Schultz, are you going to see how long it takes me to answers all of the problems?" "No," I responded, "I'm going to see how fast you can answer them." T4-F's facial expression told me all I needed to know, the game was on. Stop watch set to zero, twenty-seven multiplication problems stacked in front on me, "three, two, one, go." It took T4-F fifty-three seconds to correctly answer all twenty-seven multiplication problems.
One stop watch challenge down, one to go, and I knew exactly who I was looking for. "T4-F, pick up all of your multiplication problems and join me at the hexagon." When I finished going over the rules of the game I got the same facial expression that I got earlier, the game was on. Stop watch set to zero, twenty-seven multiplication problems stacked in front of me and then the disruption arrived. My first competitor sat down at the hexagon and that made me hesitate. My concern, this was to be fun and not a competition between scholars as that could lead to unnecessary drama. I told my first competitor that she could stay at the hexagon but she had to remain silent and that if she knew she couldn't then she needed to step away. The first competitor promised to be quiet so I let her stay.
"T4-F are you ready?" "Yes Mr. Schultz," "Three, two, one, go." All twenty-seven multiplication problems were answered correctly. The elapsed time with fifty-eight seconds. Then the potential for drama started. The first T4-F said, "I did it in fifty-three seconds." The first T4-F's comment was addressed quickly, "you promised me that you would be silent. Now, if you can't be silent step away from the hexagon." I'm now speaking to the second T4-F. "You had an excellent time but you know what, I know you can do it faster. When I was going through the multiplication problems some of the problems were upside down and I had to turn them over. That slowed you down. We'll do this again another day and I know you will go faster."
Over six years ago I was at a professional development day and an overhead person with a Ph.D was one of the speakers. During her presentation this Ph.D said something that has stayed with me now for six years, "when you work with your scholars remember to glaze over strengths and glance at weaknesses." After the timer challenge ended I remained at the hexagon with these two scholars and believe me I was glazing over their strengths. "Do you two know how proud of you I am? There are sixty scholars in the fourth grade and I'm certain that only you two could do what you just did. This is a huge accomplishment. When you get home tonight be sure to tell your parental units how well you did with multiplication today as I'm certain that they will be as proud of you as I am."
There you go, positivity as promised. Although that multiplication exercise with OtherT4-F was a little weird. Tomorrow is the last day of my two weeks long fall break. I'll be back in the classroom on Monday morning at around 9:45am and we'll see what the week will bring. Thanks for following along.
My Hallway Revisited post from last week resulted in a number of people commenting on the T6-M scholar that I worked with out in the hallway. For all of the positive comment about the time I spent with this scholar I say, "thank you." I also received an additional comment and all it said was, "thanks for the positivity." When I saw that comment I smiled and responded that the next blog post would be equally positive unless you do something weird in the classroom. As of right now I'm not aware of any weirdness coming from the classroom so I'm going to proceed with some more positivity.
T4 has been working on area and perimeter for a number of days now. In doing so I've heard a few times, "Schultz I need copies made of these worksheets. When you make these copies I need sixty of each. I need these two one page worksheets turned into a one page, two sided, worksheet. Then I need copies of the exit ticket, sixty copies of each. You got that?" I snapped to attention, saluted, and said, "yes Drill Sergeant," and off to the copier I go.
For this lesson on area and perimeter no worksheets were needed because the scholars will be designing their dream house. All that is required is a pencil, ruler, and graph paper. Prior to starting the dream house project T4 got my attention and said to me, "Schultz, the LittleBigB#2 will be doing an observation of me today." As soon as I heard that the LittleBigBig#2 was going to be in the classroom I knew immediately what my role would be, crowd control.
With the LittleBigB#2 seated and his laptop open, T4 began the lesson. The first task was to draw a large rectangle on the graph paper. T4 had one drawn in advance and placed it under the document camera that projected a picture of the graph paper up on the big overhead screen in the front of the classroom. The scholars were told that they could put as many rooms as they wanted into their dream house but they had to stay inside the rectangle. The last instruction, before the scholars were turned loose, was that for every room they drew in the rectangle they had to calculate the area and perimeter of the room.
Once T4 finished with all directions on building a dream house the scholars began. "Mr. Schultz, I don't know what to do." "You need to draw a rectangle on your graph paper, there is an example on the screen in the front of the classroom." "Mr. Schultz, I can't draw a straight line." "Are you using your ruler?" "Yes Mr. Schultz but I still can't make a straight line." "Okay, erase the line you drew and I'll come over and help you." "Mr. Schultz, I don't know what kind of room to draw." "Every house has these two very important rooms, what do you think they are?" There is a moment of silence as the scholar is thinking and then I hear, "bedroom." "Perfect," I say, "now what is the other one and I'll give you a hint, you will use it everyday." A bit more silence and then I hear, "kitchen." "Very good, now draw a bedroom and a kitchen and don't forget to calculate the area and perimeter." "How do you calculate the area and perimeter, Mr. Schultz?" "Lord, give me the strength to stay calm." "Mr. Schultz, can I draw an X-box in my dream house?" "No, an X-box is not a room. If you want an X-box in your dream house what room would you put it in?" "A game room Mr. Schultz." "Well then you need to draw a game room in your house." Mr. Schultz, can I draw a room in my dream house for my dog?" There is now a slight hesitation on my part, "sure your dog can have its own room."
Eventually the questions slowed and I had an opportunity to look around the room and I liked what I saw, the scholars were engaged and having fun with the project. There were still a lot of questions, especially about figuring out the area and perimeter but, with the LittleBigB#2 observing, this was the perfect project to do. I think the LittleBigB#2 spent about thirty minutes observing T4. When he left the room I made eye contact with T4, nodded my head, smiled, and we went back to work.
Observations like this make teachers nervous. In this case I'm sure T4 was particularly nervous as the LittleBigB#2 is new to the school and she had no idea what to expect. She may not have known what to expect but this is what I know for sure. The LittleBigB#2 just observed and excellent math teacher, one that I enjoy working with, will continue to work with, and I will do everything I can do to remove obstacles so she can be successful. If the LittleBigB#2 disagrees with me about my observations then we may have to have an animated conversation so I can convince him that he is wrong. How can I convince him? Simple, he observed T4 for about thirty minutes. I've been observing T4 every day for nine weeks.
On to some multiplication. T4 is on day number nine with multiplication. On each new day T4 hands out three strips of paper, 1 1/2" x 4" in size, with a multiplication problem written on it. With this being day nine, the scholars have twenty-seven multiplication problems in front of them. Daily, T4 blocks out a section of time so that the scholars can practice their multiplication. One this particular day I'm working with OtherT4-F who is really struggling with multiplication. When I sat next to OtherT4-F I pointed to one of the easy multiplication problems and said to her, what is 5 x 5? The response I got was no where near the correct answer so I repeated the problem and told her to count by five using her fingers. OtherT4-F started counting and when she passed her fifth finger she just kept on counting by five. I stopped her when she reached thirty-five and said, "you are way to high, lets try it again." OtherT4-F starts again, her hand is up, and she starts counting my five. When she didn't stop at twenty-five I remained silent and just observed. When OtherT4-F reached seventy-five I stopped her and said, "5 x 5 equals twenty-five."
Later that evening while sitting at the kitchen table eating my evening meal I told my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse about my time with OtherT4-F. Her initial reaction was to say, "you're kidding." After a brief pause she offered me this suggestion. "The next time you are working with this scholar hold up your hand and ask her how many fingers are on your hand. If she has to count them individually then you will know that you have your work cut out for you."
Saturday, October 20 , 2018, happy birthday little sister. Also a happy birthday to my Florida friend and my Bay City friend.
One more multiplication story and then I'll call it a day. T4-F, one of my hallway friends, had all of her twenty-seven multiplication problems stacked up neatly in front of her so I thought I'd put her to the test. When I arrived at her desk I asked her to pick up all of her multiplication problems and join me at the hexagon. When she sat down at the hexagon I pulled out my cellphone and found my stop watch. "Mr. Schultz, are you going to see how long it takes me to answers all of the problems?" "No," I responded, "I'm going to see how fast you can answer them." T4-F's facial expression told me all I needed to know, the game was on. Stop watch set to zero, twenty-seven multiplication problems stacked in front on me, "three, two, one, go." It took T4-F fifty-three seconds to correctly answer all twenty-seven multiplication problems.
One stop watch challenge down, one to go, and I knew exactly who I was looking for. "T4-F, pick up all of your multiplication problems and join me at the hexagon." When I finished going over the rules of the game I got the same facial expression that I got earlier, the game was on. Stop watch set to zero, twenty-seven multiplication problems stacked in front of me and then the disruption arrived. My first competitor sat down at the hexagon and that made me hesitate. My concern, this was to be fun and not a competition between scholars as that could lead to unnecessary drama. I told my first competitor that she could stay at the hexagon but she had to remain silent and that if she knew she couldn't then she needed to step away. The first competitor promised to be quiet so I let her stay.
"T4-F are you ready?" "Yes Mr. Schultz," "Three, two, one, go." All twenty-seven multiplication problems were answered correctly. The elapsed time with fifty-eight seconds. Then the potential for drama started. The first T4-F said, "I did it in fifty-three seconds." The first T4-F's comment was addressed quickly, "you promised me that you would be silent. Now, if you can't be silent step away from the hexagon." I'm now speaking to the second T4-F. "You had an excellent time but you know what, I know you can do it faster. When I was going through the multiplication problems some of the problems were upside down and I had to turn them over. That slowed you down. We'll do this again another day and I know you will go faster."
Over six years ago I was at a professional development day and an overhead person with a Ph.D was one of the speakers. During her presentation this Ph.D said something that has stayed with me now for six years, "when you work with your scholars remember to glaze over strengths and glance at weaknesses." After the timer challenge ended I remained at the hexagon with these two scholars and believe me I was glazing over their strengths. "Do you two know how proud of you I am? There are sixty scholars in the fourth grade and I'm certain that only you two could do what you just did. This is a huge accomplishment. When you get home tonight be sure to tell your parental units how well you did with multiplication today as I'm certain that they will be as proud of you as I am."
There you go, positivity as promised. Although that multiplication exercise with OtherT4-F was a little weird. Tomorrow is the last day of my two weeks long fall break. I'll be back in the classroom on Monday morning at around 9:45am and we'll see what the week will bring. Thanks for following along.
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Hallway Revisited
Thursday, October 11, 2018
I'm four days into fall break, it's 52 degrees outside, cloudy with rain threatening. Because of the lousy weather I'm sitting at my kitchen table instead of my favorite blogging place, my screened in porch, and with nothing better to do I started typing. The depressing activities that I saw in the hallway, as mentioned in my last blog post, got me thinking about how negative some of my recent posts have been so I decided to get out of the hallway and go back into the classroom Well, I'm not quite done with the hallway and you are about to find out why.
T6 scholars rotate during the day and one of their rotations takes them to the classroom that is right next to T4's. On a several occasions, after the T6's walked into the classroom, I noticed that one scholar chose not to enter the classroom. Instead, this T6-M just sat down on the floor outside the classroom door so I decided to offer him a seat at the half round table I sit at when I'm in the hallway. T6-M declined the offer but I kept after him until he finally got up and sat at the table. One day when T6-M was sitting at my table T-4 stepped outside her classroom, saw him sitting there, and said hello to him. Later in the day I asked T-4 about T6-M and this is what I was told. T6-M is real shy, doesn't like loud noises, and has autism. T-4's comment about loud noises gave me the clue as to why this scholar would not enter that classroom. The classroom is noisy, the teacher gets real loud when trying to get the scholars to stay quiet, and often times, because this classroom is so loud, I will get up and close the classroom door when I'm doing math in the hallway.
Normally T6-M just sits quietly at my table with nothing to do. This changed when he sat down next to me one day with a worksheet. Although he had a worksheet in front of him he was still doing nothing so I asked him what he was working on. He told me he had to write a scary story and then he said that he didn't know what to write. It's now decision time for me. Should I help T6-M or just let him sit there doing, as he has been for several days, nothing. I stood up, walked into T4's classroom, tore a page out of my black spiral notebook, walked back to my half round table in the hallway, sat down, and said to T6-M, "would you like me to help you get started with your writing assignment?" He agreed to let me help him so I wrote the following on my piece of spiral notebook paper: title, setting, characters, and plot. As we worked through the parts of a story T6-M did the talking and I did the writing. When he was finished I said lets start your story with a good opening sentence. He struggled with the opening sentence at first but finally wrote something.
When I read his opening sentence I mentioned to him how much I liked it and told him to continue writing and to look at the outline we made so he could remember to work the setting and characters into his story. As I sat there watching T6-M write I had a smile on my face. I wasn't sure what he was writing but he was writing nonstop. When he was about three-fourths of the way through the 8" x 11 1/2" piece of lined paper I heard him laugh to himself. When he told me what he wrote I started laughing and said to him, "T6-M, I'm certain that you will be the only scholar in your class that will work a paranormal experience into their scary story."
When T-6M finished his scary story it was right at a page long. As I sat next to him, he kept staring at his story and I wasn't sure what he was doing. Then he picked up his pencil and I knew what he was doing. He was rereading and editing his story as he had seen a couple mistakes he made and he wanted to correct them. I'm in my seventh year at this school. I've watched numerous scholars write a story. Only a few of them would write a story that covered an entire 8" x 11 1/2" piece of paper and no one, until I came across T6-M, ever edited their paper to look for errors.
A few days later I ran into an M-Overhead teacher that had worked with T6-M in the past. When this teacher asked me how T6-M was doing I mentioned that he just wrote at scary story that was an entire page long. The M-Overhead teacher's reaction totally surprised me as he gave me a hug and then said to me, "do you know how huge that is?" "No," I said. "T6-M doesn't like to do very much work. He usually will just sit and be quiet but you managed to get him to write a story that was a page long. That's amazing, thank you for taking the time to work with him."
I'm going to finish my T6-M story with two comments. First, a while back I was having a texting conversation with a college roommate and I was telling him that I missed my calling a long time ago and said to him, "maybe I should have been a teacher." The response from my college roommate, Lutriot, was this. "I think your calling found you." Here is the second comment. The hallway outside T-4's classroom certainly has a lot of drama but, as you can see, good things also can a happen. You were just introduced to T6-M, a scholar I saw sitting quietly and alone in the hallway while other adults just walked right on past him and now you can see why I choose to continue doing what I do.
Sunday, October 14, 2018
The granddaughter arrived on Friday afternoon and she is still here. For a while I didn't think I'd have time to finish this blog but I caught a break, she fell asleep on the floor, started snoring, so I just covered her up with a blanket and started typing.
I was so close to returning to the classroom as I wanted to tell you about T4's dream house project but this little story popped into my head. Every day T4's scholars rotate to specials class. Last year specials consisted of art, music, and gym. This year, for budgeting reasons, gym class stills exists but a hybrid class of art and music was formed. At the end of the specials class T-4 walks to either the gym or the art/music classroom to pick up the scholars and then returns to the classroom. On the way back to the classroom there is a restroom break. When the scholars are at the restroom break I'm normally sitting at my half round table in the hallway waiting for T4's return.
I'm not sure of the exact date that this started but one day a couple T4-F's decided to leave the restroom area and walk down the hallway and sat by me. "What are you doing, Mr. Schultz?" "I'm sitting here enjoying my quiet time. Shouldn't you girls be standing in line with your teacher?" "No, we'd rather sit by you," one of them said to me. "So you walked down here just to bug me," I said. Before there was a response the rest of the class arrived at the classroom and it was time to get back to academics.
The T4-F's have been visiting me at my half round table during restroom break just about daily. This past Friday, while the scholars were at specials I was grading a multiplication quiz at my table when four T4-F's arrived. "What are you doing, Mr. Schultz?" "I'm grading the multiplication quiz you just took." "Can I help you," one of the T4-F's said to me. "You T4-F's are bugging me again and no, you can't help me," I said. With a moment of silence from the four T4-F's, I continued grading the quiz. "Mr. Schultz," one of them said to me. "I just graded your next quiz. You can write down that this scholar got thirteen of the fifteen correct." I looked up at the scholar and said, "you are looking at this quiz upside down and you're telling me that this scholar got thirteen right, are you sure?" "Yes, Mr. Schultz, can I grade another one?" "No!" I picked up the next quiz, checked all fifteen problems and found that thirteen were answered correctly. There are only six out of a little less than sixty scholars that are on grade level for math. You just met one of the six and let me tell you something else about this T4-F scholar, she is also in the less than a minute club but I'll save that for next week.
The granddaughter, who has been sleeping on the carpet in our living room, is starting to stir. Time to go. See you next week when I'll continue telling you about my view from the inside of the classroom. Thanks for following along.
I'm four days into fall break, it's 52 degrees outside, cloudy with rain threatening. Because of the lousy weather I'm sitting at my kitchen table instead of my favorite blogging place, my screened in porch, and with nothing better to do I started typing. The depressing activities that I saw in the hallway, as mentioned in my last blog post, got me thinking about how negative some of my recent posts have been so I decided to get out of the hallway and go back into the classroom Well, I'm not quite done with the hallway and you are about to find out why.
T6 scholars rotate during the day and one of their rotations takes them to the classroom that is right next to T4's. On a several occasions, after the T6's walked into the classroom, I noticed that one scholar chose not to enter the classroom. Instead, this T6-M just sat down on the floor outside the classroom door so I decided to offer him a seat at the half round table I sit at when I'm in the hallway. T6-M declined the offer but I kept after him until he finally got up and sat at the table. One day when T6-M was sitting at my table T-4 stepped outside her classroom, saw him sitting there, and said hello to him. Later in the day I asked T-4 about T6-M and this is what I was told. T6-M is real shy, doesn't like loud noises, and has autism. T-4's comment about loud noises gave me the clue as to why this scholar would not enter that classroom. The classroom is noisy, the teacher gets real loud when trying to get the scholars to stay quiet, and often times, because this classroom is so loud, I will get up and close the classroom door when I'm doing math in the hallway.
Normally T6-M just sits quietly at my table with nothing to do. This changed when he sat down next to me one day with a worksheet. Although he had a worksheet in front of him he was still doing nothing so I asked him what he was working on. He told me he had to write a scary story and then he said that he didn't know what to write. It's now decision time for me. Should I help T6-M or just let him sit there doing, as he has been for several days, nothing. I stood up, walked into T4's classroom, tore a page out of my black spiral notebook, walked back to my half round table in the hallway, sat down, and said to T6-M, "would you like me to help you get started with your writing assignment?" He agreed to let me help him so I wrote the following on my piece of spiral notebook paper: title, setting, characters, and plot. As we worked through the parts of a story T6-M did the talking and I did the writing. When he was finished I said lets start your story with a good opening sentence. He struggled with the opening sentence at first but finally wrote something.
When I read his opening sentence I mentioned to him how much I liked it and told him to continue writing and to look at the outline we made so he could remember to work the setting and characters into his story. As I sat there watching T6-M write I had a smile on my face. I wasn't sure what he was writing but he was writing nonstop. When he was about three-fourths of the way through the 8" x 11 1/2" piece of lined paper I heard him laugh to himself. When he told me what he wrote I started laughing and said to him, "T6-M, I'm certain that you will be the only scholar in your class that will work a paranormal experience into their scary story."
When T-6M finished his scary story it was right at a page long. As I sat next to him, he kept staring at his story and I wasn't sure what he was doing. Then he picked up his pencil and I knew what he was doing. He was rereading and editing his story as he had seen a couple mistakes he made and he wanted to correct them. I'm in my seventh year at this school. I've watched numerous scholars write a story. Only a few of them would write a story that covered an entire 8" x 11 1/2" piece of paper and no one, until I came across T6-M, ever edited their paper to look for errors.
A few days later I ran into an M-Overhead teacher that had worked with T6-M in the past. When this teacher asked me how T6-M was doing I mentioned that he just wrote at scary story that was an entire page long. The M-Overhead teacher's reaction totally surprised me as he gave me a hug and then said to me, "do you know how huge that is?" "No," I said. "T6-M doesn't like to do very much work. He usually will just sit and be quiet but you managed to get him to write a story that was a page long. That's amazing, thank you for taking the time to work with him."
I'm going to finish my T6-M story with two comments. First, a while back I was having a texting conversation with a college roommate and I was telling him that I missed my calling a long time ago and said to him, "maybe I should have been a teacher." The response from my college roommate, Lutriot, was this. "I think your calling found you." Here is the second comment. The hallway outside T-4's classroom certainly has a lot of drama but, as you can see, good things also can a happen. You were just introduced to T6-M, a scholar I saw sitting quietly and alone in the hallway while other adults just walked right on past him and now you can see why I choose to continue doing what I do.
Sunday, October 14, 2018
The granddaughter arrived on Friday afternoon and she is still here. For a while I didn't think I'd have time to finish this blog but I caught a break, she fell asleep on the floor, started snoring, so I just covered her up with a blanket and started typing.
I was so close to returning to the classroom as I wanted to tell you about T4's dream house project but this little story popped into my head. Every day T4's scholars rotate to specials class. Last year specials consisted of art, music, and gym. This year, for budgeting reasons, gym class stills exists but a hybrid class of art and music was formed. At the end of the specials class T-4 walks to either the gym or the art/music classroom to pick up the scholars and then returns to the classroom. On the way back to the classroom there is a restroom break. When the scholars are at the restroom break I'm normally sitting at my half round table in the hallway waiting for T4's return.
I'm not sure of the exact date that this started but one day a couple T4-F's decided to leave the restroom area and walk down the hallway and sat by me. "What are you doing, Mr. Schultz?" "I'm sitting here enjoying my quiet time. Shouldn't you girls be standing in line with your teacher?" "No, we'd rather sit by you," one of them said to me. "So you walked down here just to bug me," I said. Before there was a response the rest of the class arrived at the classroom and it was time to get back to academics.
The T4-F's have been visiting me at my half round table during restroom break just about daily. This past Friday, while the scholars were at specials I was grading a multiplication quiz at my table when four T4-F's arrived. "What are you doing, Mr. Schultz?" "I'm grading the multiplication quiz you just took." "Can I help you," one of the T4-F's said to me. "You T4-F's are bugging me again and no, you can't help me," I said. With a moment of silence from the four T4-F's, I continued grading the quiz. "Mr. Schultz," one of them said to me. "I just graded your next quiz. You can write down that this scholar got thirteen of the fifteen correct." I looked up at the scholar and said, "you are looking at this quiz upside down and you're telling me that this scholar got thirteen right, are you sure?" "Yes, Mr. Schultz, can I grade another one?" "No!" I picked up the next quiz, checked all fifteen problems and found that thirteen were answered correctly. There are only six out of a little less than sixty scholars that are on grade level for math. You just met one of the six and let me tell you something else about this T4-F scholar, she is also in the less than a minute club but I'll save that for next week.
The granddaughter, who has been sleeping on the carpet in our living room, is starting to stir. Time to go. See you next week when I'll continue telling you about my view from the inside of the classroom. Thanks for following along.
Sunday, October 7, 2018
The Hallway
Saturday, October 6, 2018
For the past five years I spent my day in a classroom on the first floor. While I had issues to deal with the number of occurrences were pretty spread out. With my move to the second floor, a floor where the higher grade levels are located, I didn't think I would have to deal with hallway issues. Sadly, I was wrong. So wrong in fact that I expanded my view from the back of the classroom to my view from the hallway. In my last blog post I mentioned a couple incidents that I witnessed and thought that I could put the hallway incidents on the back burner for a while and just stick to the inside of the classroom incidents. Sadly, I'm wrong again as I have a few more incidents that I think you may find quite interesting.
Round one of my view from the hallway. OtherT4-M is easily the most visible hallway incident in the school. People, we are talking about daily visibility as this scholar pretty much refuses to do anything and when the mood strikes him he just walks out of the classroom. When I see him in the hallway I ask him about his leaving the classroom and when I do he proceeds into his work avoiding mode and starts moving away from me. I've been involved with scholars like this for years and I've decided that I'm no long going to follow a scholar around the school trying to convince him or her to return to the classroom. Instead, I pulled out my cellphone, called the office, told the office what I saw, and then go back to helping students that are interested in getting an education and do some math with them. Eventually this work avoiding scholar gets corralled by an adult and is returned to his classroom. As this adult is leaving my hallway area I thank the adult for the assistance but I also know this. The adult was successful in returning the scholar to the classroom but that scholar is just sitting in that classroom and is still doing absolutely nothing.
About a week or so ago my frustration level with OtherT4-M got the best of me. The BigB#4 was visiting the second floor and was walking in my direction after passing OtherT4-M in the hallway doing his best at work avoidance. When the BigB#4 was a few steps from me I pointed at OtherT4-M and said to the BigB#4, "do you see that scholar, he has fallen through the cracks and its very frustrating for me to watch him continuously doing nothing." Right after saying what I said, the BigB#4 sat down directly across from me at my half round table. As BigB#4 sat there I'm thinking to myself, "did I say more that what I should have said?" Knowing what I'm thinking I said to the BigB#4, "if I was out of line I'll apologize." The response was immediate, "you were out of line." Then I heard the following, paraphrasing, "I'm aware of this scholar. I know that he does not belong in a general education classroom. I've been trying to get him tested so he can get the help he needs. I've been trying for four weeks and so far I can't convince anyone to have him tested." I've said it before and I'm going to say it again. This is an overhead problem and for those of you that have been following this blog for a while you know exactly how I feel about the overhead personnel at the schools corporate office. This group, in its entirety, does not remove obstacles for teachers, they create obstacles for teachers. And right now a scholar that needs help, lots of help, is not getting it because some overhead person will not take ownership of this scholar and have him tested.
Sunday, October 7, 2018
Round two of my view from the hallway. My day is over, it's time to go home. Rather than take the express route to the first floor I decided to take the stairway that is on the opposite side of the school from where I have my view of the hallway. ST-T3 is walking his scholars back to the classroom. As I approach the end of the line I noticed that there was quite a gap between the middle of the line and the back of the line. I'm not exactly sure what caused the gap but I saw that there was an animated conversation going on between two ST-T3-M's. I'm now within three or four strides from this conversation when the eruption started. It looked like Ali versus Frazier, the Thrilla in Manila revisited, by two third grade scholars. As I approached the two scholars one of them step back from the altercation, pulled his hoodie up over his head, put his head down, and charged his opponent swinging with both hands. It seems appropriate at this time to remind everyone that I don't make this stuff up. When I reached the fight scene I moved my body between Ali and Frazier and not using my therapeutic voice told them to stop. I then got the attention of ST-T3 and let him know that there was a fist fight at the end the line of his third grade scholars.
Round three of my view from the hallway. It's time for the two classrooms that are to the left of my half round table in the hallway to rotate. The first group of scholars exited their classroom and lined up in the hallway to my left. Note, the ST-T does not exit the classroom with the scholars. Instead, ST-T closes the classroom door and takes a seat inside the classroom. Sitting across from me at my half round table are three of T4's scholars and we are just talking. The scholars that are supposed to be rotating are just standing in the hallway unattended and they are getting loud. One of T4's scholars yelled at this group of scholars to be quiet. I immediately addressed T4's scholar that yelled out and told her to stick to her own business. In just a matter of a couple minutes the same T4 scholars said to me, "Mr. Schultz, those kids are fighting." When I looked to my left, two M's were exchanging punches and I hesitated for a second. When one of the M's sent a right hand flying at his opponent and hit his opponent in the eye I stood up and stopped the fight.
I'm now seated at my half round table. I hit speed dial on my cellphone and called the front office to make them aware of the incident. I also called FBG to see if he was available to assist with this incident. A short while later LittleBigB#2 and FBG arrived, the two combatants were removed from the area, and I'm back to my conversation with the T4 scholars. Eventually the T4 scholars had to rotate to their next classroom and I was sitting alone and enjoying my brief respite from the chaos in the hallway. As I was sitting there this thought entered into my mind. ST-T's scholars were in the hallway. They were loud, a fight broke out, phone calls were made, help arrived, the scholars involved were removed from the scene, and during this whole incident ST-T was sitting behind a closed classroom door, doing only God knows what, and was totally unaware of what just happened.
When I hit the publish button that is located in the upper right hand corner of my screen this will be blog post number two hundred and thirty-six. Truthfully, this blog was difficult for me to write. Twice I almost blew it up but decided to continue. This blog post, and the one preceding it, have some pretty negative stories in it. Stories that could lead someone to believe that I'm not sitting in a very good school. That couldn't be any farther from the truth. I enjoy walking into this school five days a week and I will continue doing so until someone kicks me out. Sure, there are bad days but when I started writing this blog I made the decision to write about the worst and best of what goes on in this school so you would have a feel for what teachers have to deal with on a daily basis and I will continue doing that.
T4, OtherT4, and all of the other T's in this school are on a well deserved two week fall break. This was a tough blog to write but I'm going to continue for one reason. I already have the outline for my next blog post and I know right now, when you read it, you know that I have my happy face on.
PS - I've decided to snatch the sadness of this blog right out from under your feet and leave you with this. This past Friday I got a directive, "Schultz, you are going to participate in morning check in." "Yes, Drill Sergeant," and I moved towards the center of the room and parked my butt on the top of the hexagon. "Drill Sergeant, I wrote a story last evening, can I read it?" Drill Sergeant, addressing the class, "Mr. Schultz wrote a story and he is going to read it to you so sit like a frog." Prior to reading my story I mentioned to the scholars that they were going on fall break at the end of the day and then went into my best rendition of song lyrics written by Roger Waters, "hey teacher, leave those kids alone." Before I could finish the first sentence of my story I was interrupted. Off to my left I hear T4-M talking. "Mr. Schultz is the name of that song Another Brick in the Wall? Ladies and gentleman, can you visualize my happy face?
PSS - for my personal safety, although it may be forgotten before fall break it over, there was a tad bit of hyperbole in that previous paragraph.
For the past five years I spent my day in a classroom on the first floor. While I had issues to deal with the number of occurrences were pretty spread out. With my move to the second floor, a floor where the higher grade levels are located, I didn't think I would have to deal with hallway issues. Sadly, I was wrong. So wrong in fact that I expanded my view from the back of the classroom to my view from the hallway. In my last blog post I mentioned a couple incidents that I witnessed and thought that I could put the hallway incidents on the back burner for a while and just stick to the inside of the classroom incidents. Sadly, I'm wrong again as I have a few more incidents that I think you may find quite interesting.
Round one of my view from the hallway. OtherT4-M is easily the most visible hallway incident in the school. People, we are talking about daily visibility as this scholar pretty much refuses to do anything and when the mood strikes him he just walks out of the classroom. When I see him in the hallway I ask him about his leaving the classroom and when I do he proceeds into his work avoiding mode and starts moving away from me. I've been involved with scholars like this for years and I've decided that I'm no long going to follow a scholar around the school trying to convince him or her to return to the classroom. Instead, I pulled out my cellphone, called the office, told the office what I saw, and then go back to helping students that are interested in getting an education and do some math with them. Eventually this work avoiding scholar gets corralled by an adult and is returned to his classroom. As this adult is leaving my hallway area I thank the adult for the assistance but I also know this. The adult was successful in returning the scholar to the classroom but that scholar is just sitting in that classroom and is still doing absolutely nothing.
About a week or so ago my frustration level with OtherT4-M got the best of me. The BigB#4 was visiting the second floor and was walking in my direction after passing OtherT4-M in the hallway doing his best at work avoidance. When the BigB#4 was a few steps from me I pointed at OtherT4-M and said to the BigB#4, "do you see that scholar, he has fallen through the cracks and its very frustrating for me to watch him continuously doing nothing." Right after saying what I said, the BigB#4 sat down directly across from me at my half round table. As BigB#4 sat there I'm thinking to myself, "did I say more that what I should have said?" Knowing what I'm thinking I said to the BigB#4, "if I was out of line I'll apologize." The response was immediate, "you were out of line." Then I heard the following, paraphrasing, "I'm aware of this scholar. I know that he does not belong in a general education classroom. I've been trying to get him tested so he can get the help he needs. I've been trying for four weeks and so far I can't convince anyone to have him tested." I've said it before and I'm going to say it again. This is an overhead problem and for those of you that have been following this blog for a while you know exactly how I feel about the overhead personnel at the schools corporate office. This group, in its entirety, does not remove obstacles for teachers, they create obstacles for teachers. And right now a scholar that needs help, lots of help, is not getting it because some overhead person will not take ownership of this scholar and have him tested.
Sunday, October 7, 2018
Round two of my view from the hallway. My day is over, it's time to go home. Rather than take the express route to the first floor I decided to take the stairway that is on the opposite side of the school from where I have my view of the hallway. ST-T3 is walking his scholars back to the classroom. As I approach the end of the line I noticed that there was quite a gap between the middle of the line and the back of the line. I'm not exactly sure what caused the gap but I saw that there was an animated conversation going on between two ST-T3-M's. I'm now within three or four strides from this conversation when the eruption started. It looked like Ali versus Frazier, the Thrilla in Manila revisited, by two third grade scholars. As I approached the two scholars one of them step back from the altercation, pulled his hoodie up over his head, put his head down, and charged his opponent swinging with both hands. It seems appropriate at this time to remind everyone that I don't make this stuff up. When I reached the fight scene I moved my body between Ali and Frazier and not using my therapeutic voice told them to stop. I then got the attention of ST-T3 and let him know that there was a fist fight at the end the line of his third grade scholars.
Round three of my view from the hallway. It's time for the two classrooms that are to the left of my half round table in the hallway to rotate. The first group of scholars exited their classroom and lined up in the hallway to my left. Note, the ST-T does not exit the classroom with the scholars. Instead, ST-T closes the classroom door and takes a seat inside the classroom. Sitting across from me at my half round table are three of T4's scholars and we are just talking. The scholars that are supposed to be rotating are just standing in the hallway unattended and they are getting loud. One of T4's scholars yelled at this group of scholars to be quiet. I immediately addressed T4's scholar that yelled out and told her to stick to her own business. In just a matter of a couple minutes the same T4 scholars said to me, "Mr. Schultz, those kids are fighting." When I looked to my left, two M's were exchanging punches and I hesitated for a second. When one of the M's sent a right hand flying at his opponent and hit his opponent in the eye I stood up and stopped the fight.
I'm now seated at my half round table. I hit speed dial on my cellphone and called the front office to make them aware of the incident. I also called FBG to see if he was available to assist with this incident. A short while later LittleBigB#2 and FBG arrived, the two combatants were removed from the area, and I'm back to my conversation with the T4 scholars. Eventually the T4 scholars had to rotate to their next classroom and I was sitting alone and enjoying my brief respite from the chaos in the hallway. As I was sitting there this thought entered into my mind. ST-T's scholars were in the hallway. They were loud, a fight broke out, phone calls were made, help arrived, the scholars involved were removed from the scene, and during this whole incident ST-T was sitting behind a closed classroom door, doing only God knows what, and was totally unaware of what just happened.
When I hit the publish button that is located in the upper right hand corner of my screen this will be blog post number two hundred and thirty-six. Truthfully, this blog was difficult for me to write. Twice I almost blew it up but decided to continue. This blog post, and the one preceding it, have some pretty negative stories in it. Stories that could lead someone to believe that I'm not sitting in a very good school. That couldn't be any farther from the truth. I enjoy walking into this school five days a week and I will continue doing so until someone kicks me out. Sure, there are bad days but when I started writing this blog I made the decision to write about the worst and best of what goes on in this school so you would have a feel for what teachers have to deal with on a daily basis and I will continue doing that.
T4, OtherT4, and all of the other T's in this school are on a well deserved two week fall break. This was a tough blog to write but I'm going to continue for one reason. I already have the outline for my next blog post and I know right now, when you read it, you know that I have my happy face on.
PS - I've decided to snatch the sadness of this blog right out from under your feet and leave you with this. This past Friday I got a directive, "Schultz, you are going to participate in morning check in." "Yes, Drill Sergeant," and I moved towards the center of the room and parked my butt on the top of the hexagon. "Drill Sergeant, I wrote a story last evening, can I read it?" Drill Sergeant, addressing the class, "Mr. Schultz wrote a story and he is going to read it to you so sit like a frog." Prior to reading my story I mentioned to the scholars that they were going on fall break at the end of the day and then went into my best rendition of song lyrics written by Roger Waters, "hey teacher, leave those kids alone." Before I could finish the first sentence of my story I was interrupted. Off to my left I hear T4-M talking. "Mr. Schultz is the name of that song Another Brick in the Wall? Ladies and gentleman, can you visualize my happy face?
PSS - for my personal safety, although it may be forgotten before fall break it over, there was a tad bit of hyperbole in that previous paragraph.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)