Sunday, November 24, 2019
I have a lot of hallway drama and a shining light story on the agenda for today. Lets see, I have drama and I have a shining light so quoting Roseanne Roseannadanna, "it's always something, if it ain't one thing it's another," so I'll start with the drama.
I haven't written about the hallway in quite a while so I'll start there. T6-M is at the far end of the hallway walking around by himself, as he has been doing a lot for almost half the school year. Something in his home classroom had to be bothering him so when that happens he just gets up and walks out into the hallway. As he was pacing around I got his attention and signaled for him to join me at my half round table. As soon as he sat down his facial expression told me to remain silent and just let him sit there until he relaxes. Unfortunately, the two fifth grade classrooms were rotating and for some reason the two T5's don't join their scholars in the hallway so it gets ridiculously loud. T6-M does not like noise so instead of sitting their with him hoping he will de-escalate he started escalating. As he escalated, he started talking to himself with his voice inflection getting louder so, if T6-M's teacher of record likes it or not, it's my call. "T6-M, let's talk a walk," I said. He hesitated so I spoke again. "This hallway is way to loud let's move down to the other end of the hallway until it quiets down."
When we reached the end of the hallway I turned around and saw that the hallway was still crowded with scholars so we went through the fire door and down the stairway. At one point I asked T6-M if he was alright. His responded, "this school is getting real bad." Sadly, I couldn't disagree with him as this school, that I've thoroughly enjoyed coming to for seven years, has issues that need to be addressed and right now I don't think the school has enough personnel to do.
Next on the drama list is this anger eruption. The T5 classroom door opened, then slammed closed, and T6-F, with an angry look on her face, is heading past me down the hallway. "Where are you going?" I asked her. "I'm mad so I'm leaving the classroom," was the response I received. "You can be mad if you want but if you walk down that hallway where no one can see you then you will be in a lot of trouble. So, why don't you just sit right here by me and stay out of trouble." T6-F then took a seat right across from me. "Why are you so mad?" I asked. "My friend in that classroom is mad at me." "Why is your friend mad at you?" "She is mad at me because I'm trying to make new friends." "Well, let me tell you this. You can have as many friends as you like and if someone doesn't like that then maybe you should ignore that person rather than getting so mad and walk out of the classroom." After a few more minutes T6-F's facial expression showed me that she had relaxed and I sensed that the drama was over. I looked at T6-F and suggested that she go back into the classroom and she did without further incident.
It's a different day, same T5 classroom as above, and this drama does not have anger, it has emotions on full display. T4 and I are on our way to the library to do some laminating. As I exited our classroom door I looked over at the half round table and there was a T5-F sitting at the table. After walking down the hallway for about twenty feet I thought to myself, "why is that girl sitting there," so I turned around to look at her. When I did it looked like she was crying but I chose to continue down the hallway. When the laminating project was completed I headed back to the classroom and noticed that the same girl was sitting at the table and she was definitely crying.
When I reached my half round table I took a seat right next to her and asked, "why are you crying?" T5-F's head immediately dropped down onto her forearm and the crying escalated. I hesitated and then said to her. "Put you head up and look at me. I'm not a teacher, I'm not even an employee of the school. All I am is a volunteer that helps T4 with math and I think that makes me the perfect person for you to talk to." Surprisingly that worked and this is what she told me between the tears. "My brother ran away from home yesterday." Jesus, now what do I do. After telling T5-F that I was so sorry to hear about her brother I said to her, "I think it would be best for you to talk to OH-SW about your brother, would you like me to call her?" There was a hesitation but she said, "yes," so I walked into T4's classroom and made the telephone call. The Admin Czar at the front desk answered the telephone and informed me that OH-SW was not in the building. That is not what I wanted to hear so I explained to the Admin Czar what was going on. She informed me that she'll find someone to come up to the classroom to help me.
A couple minutes later BigB#4 turned the hallway corner and was headed in my direction. When she took a seat across from me she asked T5-F what was wrong. T5-F's head dropped down on her forearm again and started crying. When BigB#4 looked at me I quietly told her what T5-F told me. After a bit of persuasion, BigB#4 convinced T5-F to walk down to her office with her and I went back into T4's classroom.
Tuesday, November 27, 2019
I know, I'm late, and I've already been called a slacker. When you are called a slacker you have to make a decision. Should I continue with the shining lights that I mentioned in the title of the blog or go in a whole different direction and talk about back injuries and the weird things I observed the injured person doing. To keep peace in the classroom I'll stick with shining lights.
"Schultz, I have to give a presentation in front of the faculty and school leadership soon and I need you to listen to my speech. So you know, I'm really nervous about giving this speech." "What are you nervous about, you're in front of the scholars every day?" "This is different. I don't like giving speeches as I get real nervous, I'm afraid that I will mess up, and this speech will be in front of my peers." "Okay, lets hear it."
T4 is holding her hand written notes, that were in pencil, she starts her speech, and I'm listening. I'll be paraphrasing as the incident took place a couple weeks ago and I can't recall T4's exact wording but it goes something like this.
T4 is speaking. "It's the start of the school day. The scholars just arrived in the classroom and they are loud and off task. I'm sitting at my desk and I'm thinking to myself, I don't think I can do this today. The morning procedure has been the same all school year so why can't these scholars just start their work and be quiet. Every day, day after day, I have to deal with scholars who just don't get it and it gets so frustrating. As I'm looking around the room to determine what I'm going to do to survive this day I saw T4-M sitting at his desk near the corner of the classroom. As I'm looking at T4-M I noticed that he was sitting quietly, he was doing his morning work, and this thought entered my mind. There is my shining light. The one scholar that is doing what he is supposed to be doing and it is this scholar that is going to help me make it through this day. All day, I'm going to focus entirely on T4-M, and give him the best that I can give. If the others want to follow along fine but today I focusing totally on my shining light."
T4 continues and I'm still listening. "Back in October I took sixty fourth grade scholars to camp for the day. The amount of work put forth to bring this off was very time consuming and, just like the classroom, keeping things under control was exhausting. Will you stop talking, listen to your group activity leader so you will know what to do, when we move from one activity to another stay together as a group, please stop talking and pay attention. As we neared the end of our time at camp I decided to take the scholars down to a little creek that ran through the camp. Before we arrived at the creek I gathered up all the scholars and told them that they could walk out into the creek but only so far and they were not supposed to get soaking wet. It was like I didn't even talk to them. Water was being splashed everywhere, scholars were getting soaking wet and again I thought to myself why do I continue to do this. Then I saw T4-M (not the same one as above) standing in the creek and he had this look of pure joy on his face and I knew I found my shining light that will help me make it though the day."
For the sake of time I'm going to skip the conclusion of T4's practice speech. When she finished I told her I loved it. In fact, now that I've retold it I like it even better. It was the perfect story to tell the faculty as I'm certain everyone of the them has had the same struggles that T4 has and every one of them needed to search for their shining light to survive the day.
The first half of the school year is rapidly approaching. At the halfway point of the school year T4 and I will have spent ninety days in close proximity to each other and you know what. Despite the challenges that our school corporation faces, despite the challenges that our school faces, despite the challenges that occur when trying to teach math to fifty plus fourth grade scholars every day, I have the pleasure of sitting at the hexagon in the middle of the classroom watching this shining light do what she does best, teach.
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Check Your Emotions
Saturday, November 17, 2018
Veterans Day recognition for me started on Friday, November 9th and lasted all the way through Monday, November 12th.
Friday, November 9th, continuing where I left off in the last blog post.
T4 greeted me right at the classroom door when I arrived at school. She put her arm around my shoulder and guided me toward the front on the classroom. Once I was standing in the front of the classroom she walked away. Immediately after T4 walked away four scholars approached me and handed me a binder and said, "Happy Veterans Day Mr. Schultz. The pictures of this event are on the right hand side of the blog. As I started to look through the binder I said to T4, "is it okay if I tell the scholars a story?" T4's response was, "sure." I responded, "thanks and hopefully I will not get to emotional." Before I continue I have to tell you that inside that binder are forty letters that the fourth grade scholars wrote thanking me for my service. Forty, and they were written in their best penmanship, something that I rarely see, with their signature at the bottom of their letter.
As soon as I started my story I was interrupted by this wave of scholars who were quickly moving to the front of the room to get closer to me. With everybody settled down I started again. "Wait Mr. Schultz," and I see an OtherT4-M scholar moving T4's throne chair with the high backrest and a cushion for a seat immediately behind me so I could sit down to tell my story so I stopped again. I'm now seated on T4's throne and I begin again and it goes like this.
Four or five years ago I was in Washington, DC with my wife and we were there to visit the World War II Memorial that was just completed. I wanted to go to this memorial out of respect for my Dad who was a World War II veteran who fought in a famous battle that was called the Battle of the Bulge. After walking through the memorial I told my wife that I was going to go to a souvenir stand that was operated by a group called the Rolling Thunder to see if they would have a pin that I wanted to stick on my Vietnam veterans hat. The pin I was looking for was a shield that signified that I was part of the 23rd Infantry (Americal) Division when I was in Vietnam. The souvenir stand had the shield I was looking for so I bought one for three dollars and, with the help of my wife, I was pinning the shield on to my hat.
Just as I was about to put my hat back on my head I heard a voice behind me say, "there is an America hero over there, go show him some love." With my hat back on my head I turned around to see who was the American hero that someone was talking about. When I turned, standing right in front of me, was a line of either middle school or high school scholars from the state of Washington. One by one the scholars walked up to me and said, "thanks for your service," and a few even shook my hand. With about a half dozen or so of the scholars standing immediately in front of me I said to them, doing my best to check my emotions, "in the past five minutes or so you have thanked me more times for my service that I've heard over the past forty years." As the scholars started moving on to their next destination I turned to look to see where my wife was standing. When I saw her, she walked over to me, handed me her camera, and said to me, "take a look, I got pictures."
My trip to Washington, DC was over forty years ago I was telling my fourth grade scholars when I was interrupted. OtherT4-F (a former scholar you knew as Cue last year) wanted to hand me a box of tissues as she saw how emotional it was for me to tell my Washington, DC story again. I told her that I didn't need the tissue right now but keep the box close in case I might need one later. Prior to continuing my story I looked up at T4 and said to her, "how many years are there between 1971 and 2018?" T4 said, "forty-seven," and I continued my story.
Today, I told the scholars, while holding up the binder so they could all see it, forty-seven years after I left Vietnam, this is the second best thing that has happened to this Vietnam veteran and with my little story told I stood up. OtherT4-F (Cue) was the first to reach me and she handed me that tissue as she recognized that I couldn't check my emotions and I thanked her for doing so. Right behind OtherT4-F was the next wave of scholars all moving towards me to give me the biggest group hug I've ever had.
It's still Friday, OtherT4's scholars arrived in the classroom for their math lesson and things got a little weird. T4 had left the classroom to, I think, rearrange desks in Additional T4's classroom, as again, the alternative seating plan turned out to be nothing but an opportunity for a chat festival for the scholars. The student teacher that has been in T4's classroom, for what seems like an eternity now, was no where in sight. That leaves me and eighteen or so scholars in the classroom by myself so what do I do? I moved to the front of the classroom to teach the math lesson. With two problems completed on the worksheet I looked up and saw T2 standing in the classroom doorway and I knew why she was there. I signaled her to give me a minute and then addressed the class. "T2 and her second grade scholars are right outside our classroom door and her scholars want to say happy Veterans Day to me so please work quietly on the next problem until I return," I said to the scholars.
When I stepped out into the hallway this entire second grade class said to me, "Happy Veterans Day Mr. Schultz." Four or five of T2's cub scout scholars gave me the official cub scout salute and I returned their salute. One of T2's scholars then walked up to me and gave me a tin pan full of brownies that I gladly accepted. Finally, T2 handed me the eighteen hand written thank you letters that these young scholars wrote. With my emotions in check this time I thanked the scholars, got a few hugs, and then gave one final salute for the cub scout scholars.
Moving on to Monday, November 12th, and I was sitting at my half round table in the hallway as the scholars were at one of their specials class. Uh-Uh-Uh was walking toward me as she was rotating to her general education classroom when she walked up to me, handed me a hand written letter and said, "Happy Veterans Day," then continue on her way. My intent was to post a picture of this letter on the blog but the penmanship was difficult to read and it was written in crayon so below, edited for content, is the letter Uh-Uh-Uh wrote to me.
On the front cover of the letter. "You helped our America, thank you," and Uh-Uh-Uh signed her name on the bottom. The letter is now open. "Thank you Mr. Schultz for helping us. I've known you since first grade and you showed me reading and writing isn't as bad as it seemed. I wish everyone had someone like you. Most people hate writing and can't read. I was lucky enough to meet you. I'm lucky to have you here to help my brother (BabyT) learn to read." On the back cover Uh-Uh-Uh drew a bright yellow sun, the sky was shaded in blue, there was green grass growing on the bottom of the page, and a pink flower was growing up from the grass.
Like Uh-Uh-Uh said, we've known each other since she was in the first grade. She is now in the sixth grade and soon onto middle school. I've watched her struggle academically for the four years we shared the same classroom. I watched her as she battled the demons that were in her head that resulted in so many anger eruptions. On Monday she handed me this very touching letter that is forcing me to check my emotions right now as I'm sitting at my kitchen table writing this blog.
There are friends of mine that questioned me about why I would spend so much time at this school as a volunteer and not getting paid. Well, you just read what I wrote about what happened to me over the Veterans Day holiday. Fifty-nine hand written letters, one Kleenex tissue, and a huge group hug as payment is much better than any pay check as these scholars touched my heart. And, as I said numerous times before, "now you know why I keep doing what I do."
Veterans Day recognition for me started on Friday, November 9th and lasted all the way through Monday, November 12th.
Friday, November 9th, continuing where I left off in the last blog post.
T4 greeted me right at the classroom door when I arrived at school. She put her arm around my shoulder and guided me toward the front on the classroom. Once I was standing in the front of the classroom she walked away. Immediately after T4 walked away four scholars approached me and handed me a binder and said, "Happy Veterans Day Mr. Schultz. The pictures of this event are on the right hand side of the blog. As I started to look through the binder I said to T4, "is it okay if I tell the scholars a story?" T4's response was, "sure." I responded, "thanks and hopefully I will not get to emotional." Before I continue I have to tell you that inside that binder are forty letters that the fourth grade scholars wrote thanking me for my service. Forty, and they were written in their best penmanship, something that I rarely see, with their signature at the bottom of their letter.
As soon as I started my story I was interrupted by this wave of scholars who were quickly moving to the front of the room to get closer to me. With everybody settled down I started again. "Wait Mr. Schultz," and I see an OtherT4-M scholar moving T4's throne chair with the high backrest and a cushion for a seat immediately behind me so I could sit down to tell my story so I stopped again. I'm now seated on T4's throne and I begin again and it goes like this.
Four or five years ago I was in Washington, DC with my wife and we were there to visit the World War II Memorial that was just completed. I wanted to go to this memorial out of respect for my Dad who was a World War II veteran who fought in a famous battle that was called the Battle of the Bulge. After walking through the memorial I told my wife that I was going to go to a souvenir stand that was operated by a group called the Rolling Thunder to see if they would have a pin that I wanted to stick on my Vietnam veterans hat. The pin I was looking for was a shield that signified that I was part of the 23rd Infantry (Americal) Division when I was in Vietnam. The souvenir stand had the shield I was looking for so I bought one for three dollars and, with the help of my wife, I was pinning the shield on to my hat.
Just as I was about to put my hat back on my head I heard a voice behind me say, "there is an America hero over there, go show him some love." With my hat back on my head I turned around to see who was the American hero that someone was talking about. When I turned, standing right in front of me, was a line of either middle school or high school scholars from the state of Washington. One by one the scholars walked up to me and said, "thanks for your service," and a few even shook my hand. With about a half dozen or so of the scholars standing immediately in front of me I said to them, doing my best to check my emotions, "in the past five minutes or so you have thanked me more times for my service that I've heard over the past forty years." As the scholars started moving on to their next destination I turned to look to see where my wife was standing. When I saw her, she walked over to me, handed me her camera, and said to me, "take a look, I got pictures."
My trip to Washington, DC was over forty years ago I was telling my fourth grade scholars when I was interrupted. OtherT4-F (a former scholar you knew as Cue last year) wanted to hand me a box of tissues as she saw how emotional it was for me to tell my Washington, DC story again. I told her that I didn't need the tissue right now but keep the box close in case I might need one later. Prior to continuing my story I looked up at T4 and said to her, "how many years are there between 1971 and 2018?" T4 said, "forty-seven," and I continued my story.
Today, I told the scholars, while holding up the binder so they could all see it, forty-seven years after I left Vietnam, this is the second best thing that has happened to this Vietnam veteran and with my little story told I stood up. OtherT4-F (Cue) was the first to reach me and she handed me that tissue as she recognized that I couldn't check my emotions and I thanked her for doing so. Right behind OtherT4-F was the next wave of scholars all moving towards me to give me the biggest group hug I've ever had.
It's still Friday, OtherT4's scholars arrived in the classroom for their math lesson and things got a little weird. T4 had left the classroom to, I think, rearrange desks in Additional T4's classroom, as again, the alternative seating plan turned out to be nothing but an opportunity for a chat festival for the scholars. The student teacher that has been in T4's classroom, for what seems like an eternity now, was no where in sight. That leaves me and eighteen or so scholars in the classroom by myself so what do I do? I moved to the front of the classroom to teach the math lesson. With two problems completed on the worksheet I looked up and saw T2 standing in the classroom doorway and I knew why she was there. I signaled her to give me a minute and then addressed the class. "T2 and her second grade scholars are right outside our classroom door and her scholars want to say happy Veterans Day to me so please work quietly on the next problem until I return," I said to the scholars.
When I stepped out into the hallway this entire second grade class said to me, "Happy Veterans Day Mr. Schultz." Four or five of T2's cub scout scholars gave me the official cub scout salute and I returned their salute. One of T2's scholars then walked up to me and gave me a tin pan full of brownies that I gladly accepted. Finally, T2 handed me the eighteen hand written thank you letters that these young scholars wrote. With my emotions in check this time I thanked the scholars, got a few hugs, and then gave one final salute for the cub scout scholars.
Moving on to Monday, November 12th, and I was sitting at my half round table in the hallway as the scholars were at one of their specials class. Uh-Uh-Uh was walking toward me as she was rotating to her general education classroom when she walked up to me, handed me a hand written letter and said, "Happy Veterans Day," then continue on her way. My intent was to post a picture of this letter on the blog but the penmanship was difficult to read and it was written in crayon so below, edited for content, is the letter Uh-Uh-Uh wrote to me.
On the front cover of the letter. "You helped our America, thank you," and Uh-Uh-Uh signed her name on the bottom. The letter is now open. "Thank you Mr. Schultz for helping us. I've known you since first grade and you showed me reading and writing isn't as bad as it seemed. I wish everyone had someone like you. Most people hate writing and can't read. I was lucky enough to meet you. I'm lucky to have you here to help my brother (BabyT) learn to read." On the back cover Uh-Uh-Uh drew a bright yellow sun, the sky was shaded in blue, there was green grass growing on the bottom of the page, and a pink flower was growing up from the grass.
Like Uh-Uh-Uh said, we've known each other since she was in the first grade. She is now in the sixth grade and soon onto middle school. I've watched her struggle academically for the four years we shared the same classroom. I watched her as she battled the demons that were in her head that resulted in so many anger eruptions. On Monday she handed me this very touching letter that is forcing me to check my emotions right now as I'm sitting at my kitchen table writing this blog.
There are friends of mine that questioned me about why I would spend so much time at this school as a volunteer and not getting paid. Well, you just read what I wrote about what happened to me over the Veterans Day holiday. Fifty-nine hand written letters, one Kleenex tissue, and a huge group hug as payment is much better than any pay check as these scholars touched my heart. And, as I said numerous times before, "now you know why I keep doing what I do."
Camp OPP, Inc.
Opportunities Present Possibilities
www.oppcamp.org
This past fall and again this spring I will attend summer camp with the young fourth grade scholars that I work with every day. Right now Camp OPP, Inc. is beginning its 2018 Fall Fund Drive to provide the financial means for around fifty scholars to attend these camps at no expense to them. To give you a familiarity with Camp Opp, Inc. I put their website above. I'll also give you the link to their Facebook page for the latest updates and pictures. Please "like" and follow Camp Opp, Inc. at https://www.facebook.com/oppcamp.
Please consider making a donation today. 100% of all funds go directly to support children. Camp OPP, Inc. is a 501(c) and non-profit organization so all gifts are tax-deductible. You can go online at www.oppcamp.org to make your donation. Click on the 2018 Fall Fund Drive tab.
Sunday, November 11, 2018
A Parental Unit Request
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
It's election day and yes I voted.
There are a lot of student teachers in the school right now so when I arrived at school around 9:35am the parking lot was full. My only option was street parking but I'm good with that is there is not a lot of traffic around the school. As I was heading across the parking lot I saw both of Uh-Uh-Uh's parental units in their car. As a reminder, Uh-Uh-Uh is a former scholar of mine that is now in the sixth grade. One of the parental units saw me walking across the parking lot so I waved and continued on my way to the main entrance of the school. Just before stepping onto the sidewalk Uh-Uh-Uh's parental units pulled up in their car and parked right in front me. Don't worry, there is no drama here as I like Uh-Uh-Uh's parental units as they were easy to work with for the three years Uh-Uh-Uh and I were in the same classroom.
With the car at a complete stop I walked up to the driver side window, shook hands with the driver, lowered my head to see in the window then said "good morning," to the passenger. With the pleasantries completed the driver said to me, "we are worried that BabyT is falling behind in his reading and we would like to know if you could make some time in your day to help him read." The request caught me off guard a little but I told Uh-Uh-Uh's parental units that if I can fit into my day I would try and help BabyT.
I knew Baby T was in the second grade so I tracked down his teacher of record to see if there was a good time to read with the scholar that also fit my daily agenda. T2 and I came to an agreement on a time so I found Uh-Uh-Uh and told her to tell her parental units that I would begin reading with BabyT right after fall break.
With a library book in hand, one that was at the lowest reading level, I headed off to my first reading lesson with BabyT. I was a little concerned as to what would happen when I told BabyT that I was there to read with him because he can be a tad bit bullheaded and even down right defiant. I've known BabyT since he was in kindergarten so I was hoping that his familiarity with me would work to my advantage and it did. We sat down in the main office, no drama at all, and he read the entire book. As BabyT read, it didn't take me long to see that he was clearly behind in reading. My estimate at to his reading level would put him a year to a year and a half behind where he should be.
After a couple reading sessions with BabyT I ran across one of his parental units in the school hallway so we talked for a couple minutes. I told the parental unit that BabyT was behind in his reading but that he was more than willing to read with me. I then said this to the parental unit, "I can help BabyT with his reading but in order for him to get caught up someone at home needed to get him to read in the evening." As I was talking I was also watching the parental unit's facial expression. Sadly, the facial expression gave me the indication that what I said about reading at home in the evening just went in one ear and right out the other. As I started heading to T4's classroom following my conversation with BabyT's parental unit I was thinking to myself, "you asked me to extend my day at school, as a non-paid volunteer, to help your young scholar read but you give me no indication that you will read to him at home." Dear parental unit. You are failing as a parental unit but I made a commitment to help your son read and I am going to honor that commitment. Maybe you should make a commitment to be a better parental unit.
Saturday November 10, 2018
Okay, back to academics and long division. As a reminder, the quiz on long division that took place last Friday was a disaster as both groups of fourth grade scholars had the lowest accumulated math quiz score of the school year. Knowing this I was pretty certain that T4 would be revisiting long division and I was correct.
Although the long division quiz scores from last week were dismal there was a pretty clear indication that at a certain point in the division process the scholars got lost and it was consistent for both groups of fourth grade scholars. I'll try and explain what went wrong and I hope this makes sense. When doing long division T4 came up with an acronym, D-M-S-B, and it reads as follows, Divide, Multiply, Subtract and Bring down. The scholars did well right to the point of Bring down (B) and then they got lost. This was evident to me as I was grading the last quiz because on a couple quizzes, despite trying my best to figure out how they came up with answer that they did, I had no idea where their numbers came from.
So, it's Monday morning and T4 is starting over with long division. The acronym D-M-S-B is placed on the over head screen so the scholars could see it. With the first long division problem on the over head screen T4 started the division process but at a much slower pace. When she reached the B in Bring down she really slowed down as this was where the scholars got lost. The long division process was followed for a few more problems when I heard this, "Schultz, I need some copies made." In my hand was a quiz on long division but, as T4 told me, it was a practice quiz. There would be no grade given and all that T4 wanted to see was if the scholars had a better grasp on long division so off to the copier I went.
T4 now has the quiz copies in her hand and is passing them out to the scholars. About fifteen or twenty minutes I heard, "Schultz, grade the quizzes. Each problem is worth four points. One point is awarded if they have the right answer. The other three point are awarded based on how well the scholars followed the D-M-S-B process." All of the quizzes are transferred to my hand and out to the half round table in the hallway I go. The quizzes are graded and they are transferred back to T4's hands. When I handed them over I said to T4, "much better results. I think we are on the right track."
It's now election day, Tuesday, November 6, 2018, and school was cancelled. When the school corporation put the school calendar together prior to the start of the school year they decided that classes would not be held on election day as many of the gymnasiums in the school corporation are polling places. I was good with that as now, instead of arriving at a polling place during the peak voting hours, I could go in the middle of the day and I did. I walked in and fifteen minutes later I walked back out.
On to Wednesday and we are back at long division. T4 passed out the worksheet for the day and she was working from the front of the classroom and I'm in my designated help spot. T4 starts walking the scholars through the first long division problem and I heard, "Mr. Schultz, I don't know what to do?" "Mr. Schultz, can you help me?" "Mr. Schultz, I need some help." We are on the first problem and all of the gains that were made on Monday have been lost in a matter of twenty-four hours. At the end of the day I was frustrated that so many scholars, after doing long division for several days, still didn't get it. When the scholars from OtherT4's classroom rotated out of the room I walked over to T4 and said, "I need to figure out how I can divide myself into fourths as so many scholars just don't get it.
Sunday, November 11, 2018 - Veterans Day
It's now Thursday and we are doing long division again. Thursday was just a revisit of Wednesday as so many scholars were requesting help. On this day though I was being selective on who I was going to help. Today I picked a scholar to help that I know was really trying to do his work, OtherT4-M, and asked him to join me at the hexagon. One day, during the previous week, I worked with OtherT4-M one on one at the half round table in the hallway. As we were working on the long division he looked up and said to me, "I think I got this Mr. Schultz." He was right, he was following the D-M-S-B sequence correctly and was solving the problems. In fact, after I left the half round table, OtherT4-M started making up his own long division problems and was solving them.
Sadly, as I was sitting with him at the hexagon, everything he had know was forgotten. I said to him, "OtherT4-M you need to get started on the first problem, you know how to do this." His head immediately dropped down and he just sat there. I let him sit there for a minute or so and then said to him, "come on you can do this." He didn't move, it was like he didn't even hear me, and then I saw the tears running down his face.
Later that day I was at home thinking about OtherT4-M when this thought popped into my head. "Was his tears the result of being embarrassed because he couldn't do the math problems or was there much deeper problems that happened away from the classroom." So many of the scholars that T4 and I work with come from hard places; no father around, living with a relative because the parental units failed at parenting, drugs, alcohol, prison, deaths, and so many other things that can negatively impact a scholar getting an education. In hindsight, I should have taken OtherT4-M out to the half round table in the hallway and asked him why he was so sad. If his tears were caused by something that happened at home I could have contacted people that could have helped him with his crisis. I missed that opportunity and I felt bad. There are times like this that I need to do a better job. This is a lesson learned for me. Hopefully one that won't happen again.
Another sad ending. I don't like sad endings so, despite this blog being too long, I'm going to continue. It's now Friday morning. I was sitting at the kitchen table when a text message poured in. "We have food can you come in early?" I responded, "yes." When I arrived there were bagels and cream cheese sitting at the half round table in the hallway. I stuck my head in the classroom door so T4 would know that I was in the building and then sat down to eat a bagel. When I finished eating I stepped into the classroom and T4 greeted me right at the door. She put he hand on my should and starting guiding me toward the front of the classroom and then stepped away. As soon as I was standing alone in the front of the classroom four scholars walked up to me and said, "Happy Veterans Day, Mr. Schultz."
I can already here the LibraryLady from that hoity toity private school saying, "he left me hanging again." That's right LibraryLady, the rest of the story will be told next week.
It's election day and yes I voted.
There are a lot of student teachers in the school right now so when I arrived at school around 9:35am the parking lot was full. My only option was street parking but I'm good with that is there is not a lot of traffic around the school. As I was heading across the parking lot I saw both of Uh-Uh-Uh's parental units in their car. As a reminder, Uh-Uh-Uh is a former scholar of mine that is now in the sixth grade. One of the parental units saw me walking across the parking lot so I waved and continued on my way to the main entrance of the school. Just before stepping onto the sidewalk Uh-Uh-Uh's parental units pulled up in their car and parked right in front me. Don't worry, there is no drama here as I like Uh-Uh-Uh's parental units as they were easy to work with for the three years Uh-Uh-Uh and I were in the same classroom.
With the car at a complete stop I walked up to the driver side window, shook hands with the driver, lowered my head to see in the window then said "good morning," to the passenger. With the pleasantries completed the driver said to me, "we are worried that BabyT is falling behind in his reading and we would like to know if you could make some time in your day to help him read." The request caught me off guard a little but I told Uh-Uh-Uh's parental units that if I can fit into my day I would try and help BabyT.
I knew Baby T was in the second grade so I tracked down his teacher of record to see if there was a good time to read with the scholar that also fit my daily agenda. T2 and I came to an agreement on a time so I found Uh-Uh-Uh and told her to tell her parental units that I would begin reading with BabyT right after fall break.
With a library book in hand, one that was at the lowest reading level, I headed off to my first reading lesson with BabyT. I was a little concerned as to what would happen when I told BabyT that I was there to read with him because he can be a tad bit bullheaded and even down right defiant. I've known BabyT since he was in kindergarten so I was hoping that his familiarity with me would work to my advantage and it did. We sat down in the main office, no drama at all, and he read the entire book. As BabyT read, it didn't take me long to see that he was clearly behind in reading. My estimate at to his reading level would put him a year to a year and a half behind where he should be.
After a couple reading sessions with BabyT I ran across one of his parental units in the school hallway so we talked for a couple minutes. I told the parental unit that BabyT was behind in his reading but that he was more than willing to read with me. I then said this to the parental unit, "I can help BabyT with his reading but in order for him to get caught up someone at home needed to get him to read in the evening." As I was talking I was also watching the parental unit's facial expression. Sadly, the facial expression gave me the indication that what I said about reading at home in the evening just went in one ear and right out the other. As I started heading to T4's classroom following my conversation with BabyT's parental unit I was thinking to myself, "you asked me to extend my day at school, as a non-paid volunteer, to help your young scholar read but you give me no indication that you will read to him at home." Dear parental unit. You are failing as a parental unit but I made a commitment to help your son read and I am going to honor that commitment. Maybe you should make a commitment to be a better parental unit.
Saturday November 10, 2018
Okay, back to academics and long division. As a reminder, the quiz on long division that took place last Friday was a disaster as both groups of fourth grade scholars had the lowest accumulated math quiz score of the school year. Knowing this I was pretty certain that T4 would be revisiting long division and I was correct.
Although the long division quiz scores from last week were dismal there was a pretty clear indication that at a certain point in the division process the scholars got lost and it was consistent for both groups of fourth grade scholars. I'll try and explain what went wrong and I hope this makes sense. When doing long division T4 came up with an acronym, D-M-S-B, and it reads as follows, Divide, Multiply, Subtract and Bring down. The scholars did well right to the point of Bring down (B) and then they got lost. This was evident to me as I was grading the last quiz because on a couple quizzes, despite trying my best to figure out how they came up with answer that they did, I had no idea where their numbers came from.
So, it's Monday morning and T4 is starting over with long division. The acronym D-M-S-B is placed on the over head screen so the scholars could see it. With the first long division problem on the over head screen T4 started the division process but at a much slower pace. When she reached the B in Bring down she really slowed down as this was where the scholars got lost. The long division process was followed for a few more problems when I heard this, "Schultz, I need some copies made." In my hand was a quiz on long division but, as T4 told me, it was a practice quiz. There would be no grade given and all that T4 wanted to see was if the scholars had a better grasp on long division so off to the copier I went.
T4 now has the quiz copies in her hand and is passing them out to the scholars. About fifteen or twenty minutes I heard, "Schultz, grade the quizzes. Each problem is worth four points. One point is awarded if they have the right answer. The other three point are awarded based on how well the scholars followed the D-M-S-B process." All of the quizzes are transferred to my hand and out to the half round table in the hallway I go. The quizzes are graded and they are transferred back to T4's hands. When I handed them over I said to T4, "much better results. I think we are on the right track."
It's now election day, Tuesday, November 6, 2018, and school was cancelled. When the school corporation put the school calendar together prior to the start of the school year they decided that classes would not be held on election day as many of the gymnasiums in the school corporation are polling places. I was good with that as now, instead of arriving at a polling place during the peak voting hours, I could go in the middle of the day and I did. I walked in and fifteen minutes later I walked back out.
On to Wednesday and we are back at long division. T4 passed out the worksheet for the day and she was working from the front of the classroom and I'm in my designated help spot. T4 starts walking the scholars through the first long division problem and I heard, "Mr. Schultz, I don't know what to do?" "Mr. Schultz, can you help me?" "Mr. Schultz, I need some help." We are on the first problem and all of the gains that were made on Monday have been lost in a matter of twenty-four hours. At the end of the day I was frustrated that so many scholars, after doing long division for several days, still didn't get it. When the scholars from OtherT4's classroom rotated out of the room I walked over to T4 and said, "I need to figure out how I can divide myself into fourths as so many scholars just don't get it.
Sunday, November 11, 2018 - Veterans Day
It's now Thursday and we are doing long division again. Thursday was just a revisit of Wednesday as so many scholars were requesting help. On this day though I was being selective on who I was going to help. Today I picked a scholar to help that I know was really trying to do his work, OtherT4-M, and asked him to join me at the hexagon. One day, during the previous week, I worked with OtherT4-M one on one at the half round table in the hallway. As we were working on the long division he looked up and said to me, "I think I got this Mr. Schultz." He was right, he was following the D-M-S-B sequence correctly and was solving the problems. In fact, after I left the half round table, OtherT4-M started making up his own long division problems and was solving them.
Sadly, as I was sitting with him at the hexagon, everything he had know was forgotten. I said to him, "OtherT4-M you need to get started on the first problem, you know how to do this." His head immediately dropped down and he just sat there. I let him sit there for a minute or so and then said to him, "come on you can do this." He didn't move, it was like he didn't even hear me, and then I saw the tears running down his face.
Later that day I was at home thinking about OtherT4-M when this thought popped into my head. "Was his tears the result of being embarrassed because he couldn't do the math problems or was there much deeper problems that happened away from the classroom." So many of the scholars that T4 and I work with come from hard places; no father around, living with a relative because the parental units failed at parenting, drugs, alcohol, prison, deaths, and so many other things that can negatively impact a scholar getting an education. In hindsight, I should have taken OtherT4-M out to the half round table in the hallway and asked him why he was so sad. If his tears were caused by something that happened at home I could have contacted people that could have helped him with his crisis. I missed that opportunity and I felt bad. There are times like this that I need to do a better job. This is a lesson learned for me. Hopefully one that won't happen again.
Another sad ending. I don't like sad endings so, despite this blog being too long, I'm going to continue. It's now Friday morning. I was sitting at the kitchen table when a text message poured in. "We have food can you come in early?" I responded, "yes." When I arrived there were bagels and cream cheese sitting at the half round table in the hallway. I stuck my head in the classroom door so T4 would know that I was in the building and then sat down to eat a bagel. When I finished eating I stepped into the classroom and T4 greeted me right at the door. She put he hand on my should and starting guiding me toward the front of the classroom and then stepped away. As soon as I was standing alone in the front of the classroom four scholars walked up to me and said, "Happy Veterans Day, Mr. Schultz."
I can already here the LibraryLady from that hoity toity private school saying, "he left me hanging again." That's right LibraryLady, the rest of the story will be told next week.
Sunday, November 4, 2018
Matthew L. Tully
Tuesday, October, 30, 2018
When you read the title of this blog you read a first from me. After two hundred and forty blog posts I used a real name, Matthew L. Tully, and now here is the rest of the story.
In 2009, Mr. Tully, a newspaper columnist, spent an entire school year at one of the local public high schools here in central Indiana. During that year he wrote about both the good and the bad that happened at this particular school. On numerous occasions Mr. Tully wrote about the need for the community to get involved in education as the need was so great. After reading Mr. Tully's column about this high school I took that big step. I un-retired, walked into an elementary school, and said to a Parent Liaison, "I looking to do some volunteer work, do you need any help?"
The conversation with that Parent Liaison took place just over seven years ago and it took place for one reason and one reason only, Matthew L. Tully. Mr. Tully passed away today at the age of forty-nine and it saddens me greatly. Now you know the reason why I have been doing what I do for all these years. Thank you Mr. Tully for giving me that push to get involved and may God hold you in the hollow of his hands.
Sunday, November 4, 2018 - Happy Birthday Big E.
My cellphone is sitting on the kitchen table to my immediate left. In the Notes section, under the heading My View, are the notes that I took to remind me what I should write about. Right now there are too many notes so I'm about to clear some out.
The first note just says dance moves. This one brings a smile to my face for a couple reasons. First, I saw, by the person standing in the front of the classroom, four or five of the latest, what I believe are Hip Hop dance moves. It was an impressive display of hand and foot coordination. The second reason that these dances moves brought a smile to my face I've decided to keep quiet about for one huge reason. If I mention it I'll hear about it first thing Monday morning.
Next on the list is report cards. With the end of the first quarter of the school year upon us it's time for T4 to send home report cards. Prior to handing out the report cards T4 makes an announcement that went something like this. Report cards will be handed out today and so you know some of you are getting a bad grade. If you don't do your homework, don't complete the daily worksheets, do poorly on quizzes and tests you will get a bad grade. So, when you look at your report card and see a bad grade that is on you and no one else.
I can't recall the exact day the conversation took place but it went something like this. T4 looked over at T4-M, this peanut sized scholar, and said to him, "did you give your report card to your parental unit?" I don't recall if the scholar responded to the question or if T4 didn't give the scholar enough time to respond because she immediate said, "I took a picture of your report card on my cellphone and I'm going to text it to your parental unit." Back in my youth you could play that, avoid giving your parental unit your bad report card, game. Today, with all of the technology available, no games can be played especially if your teacher knows you real well.
Third under My View notes on my cellphone is celery sticks. That's right, rabbit food, and two individuals have chosen celery sticks that may or may not include peanut butter as a snack option. Now I know I'm walking on thin ice here but celery sticks is an interesting selection that I don't think is necessary as they both look the same today as they did twelve weeks ago. That's all I have to say about that as, like I mentioned about, tomorrow is Monday and I'll be back in school.
There is a huge smile on my face as I move from celery sticks to Trails End Chocolate Caramel Crunch. "Schultz, I don't like the taste of this so you can have it." "What is it?" I asked. "Chocolate and I don't like the way it tastes." I now have a fifteen ounce tin can of chocolate caramel crunch in my hand and the obvious thing to do is taste it. "It's tastes good to me," I said. "Good, take it home with you."
I'm now home and the chocolate caramel crunch is sitting on the kitchen counter as my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse walked into the kitchen. "Where did you get this?" she asked. "From school," I responded. "Oh my god, this is so good," was said after taking a sample taste. "I know," I said. A day or so later the granddaughter is paying a visit. "PaPa, can I have a snack?" "Sure, try this." It became immediately obvious that the granddaughter like her snack as she was quickly jamming chocolate caramel crunch into her mouth. Three people enjoyed the chocolate caramel crunch and one preferred celery sticks. That's all I have to say about that.
Here is my last cellphone note. I was on my way to make copies of a math worksheet when I approached the elevator to go down one flight. Standing at the elevator was T5-6 and a T5-6F scholar. As the three of us were waiting for the elevator T5-6F said to the two of us, "are you brothers?" We both laughed and then I said to T5-6F, "no, we are not brothers as I'm way to old to be T5-6's brother." There was a slight pause in the conversation and then T5-6F said, "I thought you two were brothers as you both look so buff." The "so buff" comment had T5-6 and I laughing as I went into my best bicep muscle pose as the comment certainly made my day.
I now have open, on my cellphone, the Cambridge English dictionary with the word buff on the screen. Buff, adjective, having a strong, healthy body with well-developed muscles. Yup, that is me and I'm the one eating the chocolate caramel crunch while others eat celery sticks.
Moving on to academics for the week as T4 introduced long division to the scholars. In hindsight, I should have started this blog with academics and long division as this is not a happy story. Rather than doing some serious editing to move this story to the top of the blog I'm going to leave here and continue.
This week was like grinding up hill on a bicycle and for those of you that ride a bicycle outdoors you know that hill climbing can be brutal. Despite T4's best effort long division was not registering with the scholars. Over and over and over T4 walked the scholars through the process of long division and it was not clicking. When Friday arrived it was time for the long division quiz. After making the sixty copies I handed them over T4. Prior to passing out the quiz we look at each other and we both knew this was going to be a train wreck. As each class completed the quiz I went out to my half round table in the hallway to grade them. As expected the scholar did poorly. The percentage of problems answered correctly for both groups was forty-one percent. These was easily the lowest quiz scores for the year.
This was a frustrating week for both or us. On Thursday my frustration with long division got the best of me. Usually at 12:30pm I do some work with the T6-M scholar who refuses to enter a classroom because of the noise level. Today, I chose not to work with this scholar as I was mentally drained and just wanted to go home. As a volunteer I have the option to say that's enough and just go home. T4, and every teacher that I've worked with for the past six plus years, does not have that option. Teaching is their life, it pays the bills, it puts food on the table, it puts clothing on their backs and some times teaching can just wear you down. I saw that happen this week to my partner in the classroom and I feel bad for her.
As I said early, it was a tough week for academics. As I sit here thinking about next week and what is on the math lesson plan I'm guessing it will be long division again. When you have an average quiz score of forty-one percent come next week I'll again hear, over and over this sequence: divide, multiply, subtract, bring down, and then, if necessary repeat the process. That seems pretty simple but forty-one percent tells me that apparently it is not.
Today is my daughter's birthday. She will arrive shortly with her husband and my granddaughter to have a meal, blow out some candles, eat some cake and ice cream, and then open presents. I can't think of a nicer thing to do to get my mind off of long division. That's it. I'm out. Bye.
When you read the title of this blog you read a first from me. After two hundred and forty blog posts I used a real name, Matthew L. Tully, and now here is the rest of the story.
In 2009, Mr. Tully, a newspaper columnist, spent an entire school year at one of the local public high schools here in central Indiana. During that year he wrote about both the good and the bad that happened at this particular school. On numerous occasions Mr. Tully wrote about the need for the community to get involved in education as the need was so great. After reading Mr. Tully's column about this high school I took that big step. I un-retired, walked into an elementary school, and said to a Parent Liaison, "I looking to do some volunteer work, do you need any help?"
The conversation with that Parent Liaison took place just over seven years ago and it took place for one reason and one reason only, Matthew L. Tully. Mr. Tully passed away today at the age of forty-nine and it saddens me greatly. Now you know the reason why I have been doing what I do for all these years. Thank you Mr. Tully for giving me that push to get involved and may God hold you in the hollow of his hands.
Sunday, November 4, 2018 - Happy Birthday Big E.
My cellphone is sitting on the kitchen table to my immediate left. In the Notes section, under the heading My View, are the notes that I took to remind me what I should write about. Right now there are too many notes so I'm about to clear some out.
The first note just says dance moves. This one brings a smile to my face for a couple reasons. First, I saw, by the person standing in the front of the classroom, four or five of the latest, what I believe are Hip Hop dance moves. It was an impressive display of hand and foot coordination. The second reason that these dances moves brought a smile to my face I've decided to keep quiet about for one huge reason. If I mention it I'll hear about it first thing Monday morning.
Next on the list is report cards. With the end of the first quarter of the school year upon us it's time for T4 to send home report cards. Prior to handing out the report cards T4 makes an announcement that went something like this. Report cards will be handed out today and so you know some of you are getting a bad grade. If you don't do your homework, don't complete the daily worksheets, do poorly on quizzes and tests you will get a bad grade. So, when you look at your report card and see a bad grade that is on you and no one else.
I can't recall the exact day the conversation took place but it went something like this. T4 looked over at T4-M, this peanut sized scholar, and said to him, "did you give your report card to your parental unit?" I don't recall if the scholar responded to the question or if T4 didn't give the scholar enough time to respond because she immediate said, "I took a picture of your report card on my cellphone and I'm going to text it to your parental unit." Back in my youth you could play that, avoid giving your parental unit your bad report card, game. Today, with all of the technology available, no games can be played especially if your teacher knows you real well.
Third under My View notes on my cellphone is celery sticks. That's right, rabbit food, and two individuals have chosen celery sticks that may or may not include peanut butter as a snack option. Now I know I'm walking on thin ice here but celery sticks is an interesting selection that I don't think is necessary as they both look the same today as they did twelve weeks ago. That's all I have to say about that as, like I mentioned about, tomorrow is Monday and I'll be back in school.
There is a huge smile on my face as I move from celery sticks to Trails End Chocolate Caramel Crunch. "Schultz, I don't like the taste of this so you can have it." "What is it?" I asked. "Chocolate and I don't like the way it tastes." I now have a fifteen ounce tin can of chocolate caramel crunch in my hand and the obvious thing to do is taste it. "It's tastes good to me," I said. "Good, take it home with you."
I'm now home and the chocolate caramel crunch is sitting on the kitchen counter as my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse walked into the kitchen. "Where did you get this?" she asked. "From school," I responded. "Oh my god, this is so good," was said after taking a sample taste. "I know," I said. A day or so later the granddaughter is paying a visit. "PaPa, can I have a snack?" "Sure, try this." It became immediately obvious that the granddaughter like her snack as she was quickly jamming chocolate caramel crunch into her mouth. Three people enjoyed the chocolate caramel crunch and one preferred celery sticks. That's all I have to say about that.
Here is my last cellphone note. I was on my way to make copies of a math worksheet when I approached the elevator to go down one flight. Standing at the elevator was T5-6 and a T5-6F scholar. As the three of us were waiting for the elevator T5-6F said to the two of us, "are you brothers?" We both laughed and then I said to T5-6F, "no, we are not brothers as I'm way to old to be T5-6's brother." There was a slight pause in the conversation and then T5-6F said, "I thought you two were brothers as you both look so buff." The "so buff" comment had T5-6 and I laughing as I went into my best bicep muscle pose as the comment certainly made my day.
I now have open, on my cellphone, the Cambridge English dictionary with the word buff on the screen. Buff, adjective, having a strong, healthy body with well-developed muscles. Yup, that is me and I'm the one eating the chocolate caramel crunch while others eat celery sticks.
Moving on to academics for the week as T4 introduced long division to the scholars. In hindsight, I should have started this blog with academics and long division as this is not a happy story. Rather than doing some serious editing to move this story to the top of the blog I'm going to leave here and continue.
This week was like grinding up hill on a bicycle and for those of you that ride a bicycle outdoors you know that hill climbing can be brutal. Despite T4's best effort long division was not registering with the scholars. Over and over and over T4 walked the scholars through the process of long division and it was not clicking. When Friday arrived it was time for the long division quiz. After making the sixty copies I handed them over T4. Prior to passing out the quiz we look at each other and we both knew this was going to be a train wreck. As each class completed the quiz I went out to my half round table in the hallway to grade them. As expected the scholar did poorly. The percentage of problems answered correctly for both groups was forty-one percent. These was easily the lowest quiz scores for the year.
This was a frustrating week for both or us. On Thursday my frustration with long division got the best of me. Usually at 12:30pm I do some work with the T6-M scholar who refuses to enter a classroom because of the noise level. Today, I chose not to work with this scholar as I was mentally drained and just wanted to go home. As a volunteer I have the option to say that's enough and just go home. T4, and every teacher that I've worked with for the past six plus years, does not have that option. Teaching is their life, it pays the bills, it puts food on the table, it puts clothing on their backs and some times teaching can just wear you down. I saw that happen this week to my partner in the classroom and I feel bad for her.
As I said early, it was a tough week for academics. As I sit here thinking about next week and what is on the math lesson plan I'm guessing it will be long division again. When you have an average quiz score of forty-one percent come next week I'll again hear, over and over this sequence: divide, multiply, subtract, bring down, and then, if necessary repeat the process. That seems pretty simple but forty-one percent tells me that apparently it is not.
Today is my daughter's birthday. She will arrive shortly with her husband and my granddaughter to have a meal, blow out some candles, eat some cake and ice cream, and then open presents. I can't think of a nicer thing to do to get my mind off of long division. That's it. I'm out. Bye.
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