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.