Don't Stop Telling My Story

Sunday, October 6, 2010

The scholars were in specials (art or gym) and with the exception of two adults, the classroom was empty.  "I can't get started on the blog.  Although I didn't believe you at the start of the school year when you told me this year would be worse than last year you were right, it is.  If I started writing the blog again it would be mostly negative so I stopped writing."  "Old man," she said to me, "don't stop telling my story."

In no particular order as it has been a while since my last blog post, here we go.

* M - male.  F - female

T4 has the scholars doing a writing assignment to start the day.  I can't recall the topic but the assignment included listing ten items using complete sentences.  I'm sitting at the hexagon (picnic table) in the middle of the classroom when I hear,  "Mr. Schultz, can you help me?"  "Sure," I say, "Have a seat."  "How can I help you?"  "I need help writing."  I looked at T4-M's paper and said, "You haven't written anything."  "I don't know what to write." "The teacher just told you less than five minutes ago what to write about" so I offered a suggestion to get him started.  The scholar starts writing.  He wrote, "Wen I."  "Stop, what is that word you just wrote?  "When, Mr. Schultz."  I corrected the spelling and the scholar continued.  Slowly T4-M progressed to sentence number eight when he ran out of time.  During this writing assignment I'm confident in saying that I had to correct T4-M's spelling on ninety percent of the words he wrote.  As I sat at the hexagon thinking about this scholar I started to get a little emotional.  This scholar was probably socially promoted dating back to PreK, he is on a path to academic failure, and I'm not sure what I can do to help get him off this path because he is so far behind.   

Changing T4-M's.  A timed math test is under way.  You have six minutes to answer either fifty-two (addition) or seventy-two (multiplication/division) problems.  In this case the scholar, T4-M, only has to answer fifty-two problems as he is doing the addition test.  When T4-M finished the test he walked over to me and handed me his test.  "Mr. Schultz, I've finished the test."  "How did you do?"  "I think I got them all correct."  I start checking his test, fifty-two addition problems that are at a first grade or maybe a second grade math level, and he answered all correctly.  Despite knowing this fourth grade scholar just successfully completed a first or second grade math test I made a big deal of it.  I stood up, told him he got them all correct, did I high five with him, he was all smiles, and I sat back down.

It is now a timed fifty-two problem subtraction test and it is the same T4-M as I mentioned above.  The timer rings as the six minutes are up.  The scholar placed his test on the hexagon, when everyone was finished with the test I picked them up, walked out into the hallway, and sat down at the half round table to grade them.  When I got to T4-M's first or second grade level subtraction test I see that he only managed to complete half of the problems and about a fourth of the ones the scholar answered were incorrect.  Simple, single digit subtraction problems, and this fourth grade scholar did not answer all of the problems and a fourth of what he answered were incorrect.  

T4 has been giving the scholars a timed multiplication/division test twice a week for over a month now.  They have to successfully multiply/divide numbers that include; zero, one, two, five, nine, and ten.  With the exception of a couple scholars the results are not good.  "Schultz, I need to change directions on multiplication/division as these scholars are not making any progress.  Take these new multiplication tests, make twenty-five copies of each and bring them back to me."  A few minutes later the copies are made, I'm back in the classroom, T4 takes the tests, finds the one she wants, and passes them out to the scholars.  She sets the timer for one minute and the scholars begin.  The timer rings, T4 collects the tests, hands them to me so I can grade them, and out into the hallway I go.  When I looked at the test I saw that the scholars were only doing multiplication problems that contain the number one.  It can't get much easier than that.  Three of the twenty-three scholar failed to complete the test.  One didn't even make it halfway threw the test. Several of the answers to a MULTIPLICATION problem were wrong because the scholars were ADDING not MULTIPLYING.  

Enough with the academic issues.  If I continued with academics I could write a book.  Let's switch to behavior issues.

This one will be short.  A former scholar, that I worked with from second through fourth grade,      T6-M, went into an anger release outburst and said the following, "I'm going home to get my AK-47 and come back to school and shoot this place up."  

T4, when doing academics, has options as to where she can sit while doing a lesson.  All of those options are off limits to the scholars unless they get her permission.  On this day a T4-M scholar decides that he is not going to do his assignment at his desk like everyone else.  He got up, walked across the room, and sat down in chair that is reserved for T4.  T4 sees him sitting at her chair and states, "Get out of my chair and sit at your desk."  The scholar totally ignores her.  "Get out of my chair."  Again, she is ignored.  Getting a little animated, "Get out of my chair and sit at your desk."  For the third time the scholar does not move and I'm now up.  "Get out of that chair."  The scholar gets up and starts moving but not to his desk.  He takes a seat on another chair that is reserved to T4.  

Occasionally T4 lets the scholars play some games during our math block.  Although the scholars think they are just games, these are games that are designed to improve critical thinking skills.  One of the games is Legos where you look at a picture and then, using the Legos, created what is on the picture.  One day, one of our fine T4-M scholars decided it was more important for him to stop doing what he was supposed to be doing, got up from his desk, walked over to where the Legos were stored and start playing with them.  T-4 sees him and says, "Put the Legos down and go back to your desk."  She is ignored.  "Put the Legos down."  Ignored.  "Put the Legos down right now and go back to your desk."  Three times she is ignored and guess who is now up and moving toward the scholar.

At what point did it become normal practice for a scholar to just totally ignore a teacher.  Who decided that there are no consequences for this completely defiant behavior.  I can guarantee you it was not a classroom teacher.  I'll bet money that is was someone who is in a leadership position, who sits in an office somewhere, doesn't have to put up with this crap, and when this matter is discussed with school leadership the response a teacher gets is you need to do a better job of classroom management.  This is not a classroom management problem.  This is a school corporation leadership problem created by individuals who think any corrective discipline opens the pipeline that leads to prison.  Let's get this straight.  The real pipeline to prison is social promotion and behavior issues and not discipline.  Until someone figures that out of the only pipeline that will open is teachers abandoning their profession because they didn't go into debt to didn't earn an undergraduate degree or a masters degree to put up with all of this behavior BS.

It's all negative, I'm getting agitated just writing about it and this is what is so frustrating about this school year.  I could easily quadruple the number of behavior issues above what I just talked about.  No teacher should have to put up with this crap especially the one that I've worked with for almost two years now.

Okay, a new subject.  Guess what?  We have a new scholar from Central America.  Any one care to venture a guess as to what challenges this new scholar will present to T4.  Surely this is a no brainer.  The scholar doesn't speak English.  According to OtherT-4, a language arts teacher, he knows about forty words of English.  Any one care to venture a guess as to how often someone in an overhead position will walk into the classroom to support T4 when it comes to teaching math to someone who doesn't speak English?  After approximately two weeks in the classroom, no one.

A final thought.  I wonder how much trouble I'd get in if I quietly started video streaming what goes on in this classroom so people will realize that I don't make this stuff up.  

                          

    

      

Year Eight

September 1, 2019

It was either the first or second day of the school year when I heard this, "Old Man, just so you know, this year may be as bad or worse than last year."  Not exactly what I wanted to hear but, as I've said numerous times in the past, "I don't need to do this, I choose to do this."  However, the words, "Bad or worse than last year," caused me to pause and think about this blog.  Academically, last year was a challenge, it wasn't a lot of fun, it resulted in my writing more negative blog posts than positive blog posts and I didn't like that.  So I delayed, delayed, delayed, and eventually decided to stop writing my blog.

On Monday, August 26th, T4 looked at me and said, "Why haven't I seen any letters (our private, classroom word for blog)."  "I can't get started," I said.  "It will be too much like last year and as you know, last year was a challenge."  "You can't stop," she said to me.  "You have to continue telling everyone what it is like to be a teacher.  People need to hear the story,"

So, here we are, twenty days into the school year and I'm about to tell the story of a teacher, in a school in a low social economic neighborhood, a school that has been struggling to reach an academic standard that will avoid it from being taken over by the state of Indiana.  You are being forewarned, when I get started "I'm too hot, called a police and a fireman, I'm too hot, make a dragon wanna retire man," and remember, I don't make this stuff up.  The quote is from a song by Mark Ronson, featuring Bruno Mars, and is call Uptown Funk.

I'm going to list test results in the order that I found out about them so you can see what this teacher has just inherited.  If this doesn't get too lengthy I'll go into some of the specifics as to what I've seen during the first twenty days of this school year, otherwise, you'll have to wait until the next blog post.

First up are the IREAD3 results.  This is an Indiana reading and determination assessment measuring foundational reading standards for third grade scholars.  The test was administered during the last school year.  A failing grade results is a remediation opportunity for the scholar and, in worse case, calls for the retention of the scholar in the third grade.  Here are the results.  The number of third grade scholars that took the test is forty-six.  The number of third grade scholars that passed the test is sixteen.  The number of third grade scholars that failed the test is thirty.  That is a sixty-five percent failure rate.  From prekindergarten through the second grade you learn how to read.  From the third grade on you read to learn.  T4 is now sitting amongst thirty scholars who can't read to learn and they advanced to her fourth grade classroom.  

Next up is the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) testing results.  This test was administered to the fourth grade scholars about a week and a half into the school year.  The results of this test will set the academic baseline for all of the scholars that T4 will be working with this school year.  Once this baseline is set T4 will have the task of getting each fourth grade scholar to show academic growth over the initial test.  In math forty-one scholars took the test.  Seven of the forty-one tested out on grade level.  That is seventeen percent of the scholars taking the test.  In reading thirty-four scholars took the test.  Only one of the thirty-four who took the test tested out on grade level.  That is three percent of the scholars taking the test.

Last up is the biggest failure in mandatory testing in the state of Indiana.  This test is a product of the lowest life form on earth, the politician, plus the Indiana Department of Education, and pointy headed intellectuals with a PhD.  By the way I recently found out, from a Wine Drinking Wednesday friend, what PhD stands for, piled higher and deeper.  So what is this biggest failure, Indiana's Learning Evaluation Readiness Network (ILEARN) and this is certainly a testing process created by a piled higher and deeper person.

Here are the fresh off the presses results of the ILEARN test.  The results you are about to see are from the third grade scholars that are now in the fourth grade.  The percentage of scholars passing English Language Arts (ELA) is eight percent.  The percentage of scholars passing Math is ten percent.

"I'm too hot, called a police and fireman. make a dragon wanna retire man."  Welcome to the insanity of education.  A place where sixty-five percent of the fourth grade scholars failed to learn to read in the lower grade levels and got promoted to the fourth grade.  Welcome to the insanity of education.  A place where fourth grade scholars are tested to determine there academic baseline and the results show that the baseline they are currently at is at a third grade or below level.  Welcome to the insanity of education.  A place where eight percent of the third grade scholars passed the ELA portion of ILEARN and ten percent of the third grade scholars pass the math portion of ILEARN and they are promoted to the fourth grade. Welcome to the insanity of ILEARN where it clearly states on the test results what to do with scholars that are BELOW PROFICIENCY.  "Indiana students below proficiency have not met current grade level standards.  Students may require significant support to develop the knowledge, application, and analytical skills needed to be on track for college and career readiness." The scholars that T4 just inherited did not meet current grade level standards and they got promoted into her classroom.

"I'm too hot, called a police and fireman, make a dragon wanna retire man," and I'm about to add some fuel to the fire.  School leadership, while doing a fourth grade classroom observation, observed what was going on, and then informed the teacher, "you need to us more rigorous fourth grade lesson plans."  They are at a third grade or below academic level and more rigorous fourth grade lesson plans need to be used.  What?  Maybe the leadership person that made this recommendation could come into the classroom and demonstrate how to teach a rigorous fourth grade lesson plan to fourth grade scholars that can't do fourth grade work.  Do you know what the chances of that happening are, ZERO.  The blank statement, "You need to have more vigorous lessons," was made and out the door leadership goes probably thinking, "Well, I did my part, now it is up to the teacher to do hers."

Too long but I'll give you one example of what T4 is up against.  Fourth grade math worksheet.  Take a number that is in written form and change it into standard form.  Here is the number in written form, six hundred and thirty-four.  The scholar's answer did not contain a six, three, or a four.  Why?  The scholar is reading at a C level when he should be at an O level so he had no idea what six hundred and thirty-four meant.

Welcome to year number eight.        

The Magnet Is Off

Sunday, June 9, 2019

Again, it's raining.  With all of my outside projects on hold I decided to write for a while.  As I mentioned in my last post my school year is over.  T4 and the scholars will be in school until Thursday, June 13th.  I believe awards day for the school will be on Wednesday, June 12th, so I might drive to school to attend the event.  I think I'll text T4 later in the day and bounce off her the idea of me returning for awards day and go from there.

I'm scrolling through the blog notes on my cell phone to see what items remained that I wanted to talk about.   There are a few that I put under a category called school drama so I'll start with those.  One of the F scholars, at the time I wrote this note, was living in a motel.  I don't know for certain if this scholar's parental unit moved before getting evicted or was evicted but living in a motel was where this parental unit moved to rather than the streets.  The F scholar, for obvious reasons, was having trouble arriving to school on time or actually arriving at all.  One day this F scholar pulled out her cell phone as she felt the immediate need to call her parental unit.  The gist of the phone call went something like this.  The scholar absentmindedly took the motel room key with her to school.  Knowing she had the key, she needed to tell her parental unit so she called her from the classroom.  In a motel, no money to pay the rent, one step short of homelessness, but everyone has a cell phone.

This one occurred while sitting at my half round table in the hallway.  There was some commotion in the fifth grade classroom.  From what I can gather, the teacher just assigned the fifth grade scholars a reading assignment.  As she was making the assignment this voice shouted loudly, "Do you expect me to read all of this?"  Anyone care to venture a guess as to what the consequences were for this blatant disruption of the classroom?  For those of you that have been following along for a while I'm sure you know the answer.  For those of you that recently joined me here is the answer, NOTHING.  Why nothing?  Schools are trying to close the pipeline to prison that is the result of discipline being taken in a school.

One more and then I'll discuss my last day at school.  This is a tough one for me as it involves a scholar that I spent quite a bit of time with doing math.  I don't know how this started but this scholar reached the point where she shouted, "You shut up," in the classroom.  This drew T4's attention, T4 put a stop to it, and in the process the scholar stood up, started crying, and walked out of the classroom.  I looked over at T4, indicated to her that I'd retrieve the scholar, and do what I could to de-escalate this situation.

When I stepped outside the classroom the scholar was heading down the hallway.  I asked her to stop but she ignored me.  I then said to her, Tthe farther you walk down that hallway the more trouble you will get into.  Why don't you turn around, sit at the table by our classroom, and tell me what happened?"   That worked and she sat down.  All of this drama started because of an eraser.  Yes, that simple, an eraser.  Then the scholar stated crying and out came the crux of the matter.  The scholar is speaking, I'm paraphrasing.  "My parents are divorced, my Dad don't speak to me, my Mom has a new boy friend and I don't like him."  She is in the fourth grade and today she walked into school dragging all of that baggage behind her.

Monday, June 10, 2019

The plan for my last day, besides doing the last morning work math worksheet, was to spend a couple minutes with the scholars that I worked with the most.  T4 agreed to let me speak to them privately and she even brought in some snacks for them to eat.  When the scholars rotated to specials T4 told the scholars that I wanted to meet with to have seat at the hexagon.  When the classroom was empty I said to these scholars, "Do you know why you are sitting here with me?"  My question was met with silence.  "I'll tell you why," I said.  "Just about every day I sit at this hexagon and I answer all of the math problems on our morning work math sheet.  As soon as I sit down, it's like this huge magnet is turned on and scholars are pulled toward the magnet and sit down by me."  When I said this the scholars had that look on their faces that said, "Mr. Schultz, what are you talking about.

When I continued, this is what I told them.  "When I sit at this hexagon some scholars sit down with me but they are not here to do math, there are here to clown around.  Other scholars also come and sit by me.  These are the scholars who are sitting by me for one reason, to copy my answers to all the math problems.  They are cheating and I don't like that.  Then there is the group of scholars who are sitting here with me right now.  This is my favorite group of scholars.  You didn't sit by me to clown around or copy my answers.  You needed help solving a math problem, walked over to the hexagon, sat down by me, and asked me for help."  Then I told them, "You worked hard at math all year.  Everyone at this hexagon kept trying, everyone sitting here got better at math every day, and because you never gave up you get to sit with me and eat a snack while the rest of the class is in Art classroom."

This is the last thirty minutes on my last day in the classroom.  There wasn't much going on so I asked T4 if there was anything I could do for her before I left.  "If you don't mind, I need copies of some work sheets.  Some are word search work sheets, others are math work sheets.  Go through the two books and pick out some.  I'll need sixty copies of each worksheet."

I was in the copy room making the necessary copies when I heard some noise out in the hallway.  I thought it was one of the scholars from the special education life skills classroom so I ignore it.  Then I heard someone so angry they were growling so looked out into the hallway and saw T4-M and he was mad.  It's decision time.  Keep copying or get involved.  I kept copying but was watching the hallway closely to see if someone was going to retrieve T4-M.  I didn't see anyone so I got involved.  I found T4-M standing in a stairwell.  His fists were clenched, there were tears in his eyes, and he was so angry he was literally sweating.  When I asked him what happened he responded but because of all the crying I had no idea what he said.  So I put my hand on his shoulder and asked him to walk with me to the copy room where he could sit down and get himself under control and he walked along with me.  Within a minute or so, T4 walked into the copy room and had her little chat with him.  Now I know what happened.  This fine young scholar decided to write, "You are ugly," on another scholar's year ending poster board and he got caught.

I'm now back in the classroom sitting at the hexagon with T4.  Remember, I don't make this stuff up.  As were are talking one of her M's got her attention and asked her this question.  "Is it true that a doctor can change a boy into a girl."  I'm silent, looking at T4, and waiting for her response as I want no part of this conversation.  Finally, T4 said to the M, "God made you a boy, why would you want to change that?"  A short while later a T4-F made an attempt to get me to return to the classroom for one more day.  I told her I couldn't as my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse was out of school.  Because I was in school, I continued, I couldn't go on a bicycle ride with my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse and her friend Ray.  T4-F promptly responded, "Mr. Schultz is your wife cheating on you?"

It's now 12:20pm, recess was in ten minutes so now was the time to make my announcement.  I was going to stand but T4 insisted that I sit at her throne to give the scholars the news.  I started by telling them that it was day number one hundred and sixty-five and I asked them if they knew what that meant.  As I was waiting for a response I heard T4 say, "it's always a story" and I turned, smiled at her, and waited for a scholar to answer my question.  One of the T4-F's raised her hand and said, "Mr. Schultz, is it the one hundred and sixty-fifth day of the school year?"  I told her she was close but it's the one hundred and sixty-fifth day that I've been in this classroom and it is also my last day with you.  There was a collective grown from the scholars and then the magnet started to kick in.  First one scholar approached me and gave me a hug.  Then lots of scholars approached me to give me a hug.  This group hug was so big I thought the throne that I was sitting on was going to collapse under the weight of all those bodies.

When the scholars were walking to recess I stood up and walked out of the classroom door.  As I was walking down the first floor hallway I heard crying.  When I reached the library door I saw a T-PK standing over a scholar that was curled up in a ball right by the library door crying.  I stopped to see if T-PK needed any help, looked at the scholar on the floor, saw who it was, and said to T-PK, "I know the scholar let me speak to him."  It was an OtherT-4 M.  When I asked him what was wrong he responded but I had no idea what he said with all of the crying.  I then told him that he needed to move away from the library door because if someone opened the door he'd get hit by the door.  I convinced up to get up off the floor and asked him where he would like to go.  Other T4-M said, "Somewhere where no one will bother me."  I walked him into the main office, gave him two options on where to sit, he chose one and sat down.  With him seated I continued on to the front door of the school.  When I stepped outside the door I knew the magnet was off until next year.

This is to the teacher.  On the first day that I stepped into your classroom you told me that only six of the sixty fourth grade scholars were on grade level for math.  You then told me that it was going to be a very challenging year.  I'm not sure if you told me this just to warn me or to try and scare me off but there is one thing that you didn't know about me on day one.  I'm old, gray haired, wrinkly faced, occasionally grumpy, have a dark side, and I don't scare easily.  We spent one hundred and sixty-five days together and I'm glad I'm typing this and not standing in front of you as I'm already getting emotional.

Thank you for allowing me to enter into your classroom life.  Thank you for allowing me to have the freedom tell my stories, read to the scholars, and bug you just for the sake of bugging you.  This is my fifth year writing this blog and you are the only teacher that knew I was writing it.  Thank you for allowing me to share the real life experiences that took place in your classroom.  Finally, thank you for having the confidence in me to help the scholars that were the farthest behind in math show improvement.  You said it correctly at the beginning of the year, "It was going to be a challenge."  Hopefully, I lived up to your expectations and I had a positive impact on these young scholars.

School year number seven has come to a close.  School year number eight will begin around August 1st.  I'm now on vacation.  Thanks for following along.  See you in August.          







                   

         

     


 

The Flat Rock

Friday, June 7, 2019

I've gone from, "Oh my God, what was I thinking," to spending three days and two nights at the Flat Rock.  As I sit here trying to figure out how to proceed, this thought came into my mind.  T4, I have a suggestion for the camp t-shirts for next year.  The top line on the t-shirt should read, Doing Time On the Rock.  Underneath this it should read, Camp Flat Rock 2020.

If I have the scholar count correct, forty-five made the trip.  According to T4, this is the smallest group she ever took to camp.  There were two no shows on the day we departed for camp.  There were somewhere between five and seven that didn't make the trip due to behavior issues in the classroom.  There were nine adults on the trip, I was one of those nine.  The scholars were transported to Camp Flat Rock in two school busses.  I drove my car.  When I was packed I decided that I'd put my two small bags of stuff in the back seat as I figured I would be transporting stuff to camp in the back of my SUV.  I guessed correctly.  The back of my SUV was full.  It's amazing what certain adults pack for a three day, two night camp trip.  Just before I hit the button to close the back hatch of my SUV this thought came into my mind.  "Looking at what I just crammed into the back of my SUV you'd think I was traveling with my friend SHC of Vino to Florida."  Sorry, that is a little inside humor and I thought it was quite funny.

I took me a long time trying to decide how to do this but I think I have it.  I'm going to break it down into sections; cabin groups, trail group activities, and table groups for meals.  I'll start with cabin groups.  T4 assigned me to the Shawnee cabin and it had seven bunk beds, two showers, two toilets and a two sink hand washing area.  Outside there was a large picnic table set up with a checker board, two rocking chairs and one love seat style chair..  I was joined by T5-6 and eleven scholars.  We had a few behavior issues from the same scholars that have behavior problems in the classroom but for the most part things went well.  Although it went well, that is not to say that we didn't have any interesting things happen.

Cabin events in no particular order.

• This from a scholar who has a history of trying to hurt himself.  "Mr. Schultz, I sometimes have real scary nightmares when I sleep, is it all right if I staff up all night?"  "Yes."  "Can I leave the lights on?"  "No."  "Can I use my flashlight?"  "Yes, just be quiet."
•  "Mr. Schultz, I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep."  "Why is that?"  "This is the first time I've ever went to bed without my parents near me."
• This from a scholar who is pretty wired even when he is on his medication.  "Mr. Schultz, I can't find my medicine, someone must have stolen it."  "No one stole you medicine."  "Yes they did, I can't find it."  "Did you look everywhere?"  "Yes!"  "Get off your bed, remove one item at a time and see if you can find your medication."  Two items were picked up, "I found it Mr. Schultz."
• "Someone stole my camera."  "No one stole your camera."  "Yes they did, I can't find it."  Did you look under all of that junk on your mattress?"  "Yes!"  "Look again."  "I found it Mr. Schultz."
• The last overnight evening.  It's around 10:30pm, lights are out.  It's pretty quiet then I hear it.  The rattle of a plastic bag, the kind that may have chips, pretzels, or similar snacks in it.  I chose to say nothing as I didn't want to wake everyone up and battle to get them back to sleep but I figured someone helped himself to the snacks without asking.  The crunching on the snack lasted about fifteen minutes and then it was silent.

Scholars were broken down into table groups for all of our meals.  I was assigned to Table #6 and RetiredMD joined me to monitor the activities of eight scholars. The scholars were served two meals, lunch and dinner, on day one.  Three meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinner on day two.  Two meals, breakfast and lunch on day three.  The best part of the meals, as far as the scholars were concerned, they could eat as much as they wanted to eat.

• The nicest surprise, at least to me, was the number of scholars that went to the salad bar to grab something to eat.  They picked out exactly what they wanted, found the salad dressing of choice, sat down, ate all of their salad, and then started on the entre.
• The chunk of a scholar at our table, a T4-M, pretty much ate like a bird and that surprised me given his size.  I should say, he ate like a bird until desert arrived, and then he ate like Cookie Monster.
• This is a T4-F during lunch and dinner.  No matter what was served; hamburgers, French fries, corn dogs, chicken tenders, or tacos this young scholar made a sandwich and did it exactly the same way each time.  Two pieces of white bread, one piece of bread with peanut butter and one piece of bread with jelly. Then she carefully removed all of the crust from the bread so that her sandwich was almost perfectly round. 
• The meal was chicken tenders, macaroni and cheese, and peas.  As I watched this person eat I looked twice to be sure I saw what I saw.  This person took all of the peas and dumped them on top of the macaroni and cheese so I was looking at a big blob of orange and green all mixed together.  This combination had me thinking about trying it but the more I thought about it I've never had a food item that was blend of orange and green so I think I'm going to pass.  Oh, I forget to mention one thing.  The person that created this concoction was the other adult at my table.

T4 and I were in the same trail group for all of the group activities.  We were the Skunks.  There were multiple activities so I'm going to narrow in down to a few.

We started at the Alpine Tower.

• This is a confidence building, overcoming your fears climb, that ascended fifty feet up into the air.  For those brave enough to actually made it to the top they got to ring the bell that was up there to claim their bragging rights for all to hear.  I was told three made it to the top, all F's.
• Initially not every scholar in our group was interested in climbing the tower.  As time went by, one by one they donned the harness, placed a brain bucket (helmet) on their head, got checked out by the camp counselor to see that they were properly equipped, had the safety cable attached to their harness and up the went.  I believe every scholar in our group overcame their fear of heights and climbed up to the first level of the tower and then were lowered to the ground by the camp counselor.
• We did have a few bumps in the road.  While two scholars were very good at going up the tower, once they reached the first platform and looked down they got scared.  One of the camp counselors had to climb the tower to convince one of the scholars to start the descent, it took him almost twenty minutes to do this.

 From the Alpine Tower we went to the swimming pool.

• Upon arrival every scholar had to take a swimming test and then were given a wrist band that indicated their swimming level.  There were three colored wrist bands; blue, you could swim, yellow, you could sort of swim, and red, you can't swim.
• One of the life guards then asked the scholars who could swim.  Up went five hands if I recall it correctly.  Their task was to swim across the width of the pool towards the deep end, swim under a lane guide to the deep end, and then thread water for a minute.  I saw one scholar do a couple of freestyle strokes, the rest were dog paddling, and one scholar, who claimed he could swim, had to be rescued by the life guards.  
• I believe three of our scholars were given a blue wrist band indicating that they could swim.  Being a non-swimmer who just watched this swim test I was nervous.  While I can't swim I do know how to do one thing as I watched my daughter swim competitively for around ten years.  I know how to determine a true swimmer and if it was up to me no blue wrist bands would have been awarded to this group.

On to the Pond for canoeing, fishing, rope swing, and water slide.  This, in my opinion, was the favorite area for the scholars and several of the adults.

• With a little prodding from T4, something she is real good at otherwise I wouldn't be at camp, every one of our scholars got into a canoe.  I was joined in a canoe by the same scholar I had when we did this last September so we needed little time to get organized and off we went. 
• The entertainment value watching the scholars fish was priceless.  They didn't have a good day fishing.  I believe they caught one fish.  Getting a bit disgruntled, the scholars started asking for worms to fish with rather than a piece of bread.  The camp counselor finally gave in to the request for worms and went off and got some.  The worms arrived in a blue and white cooler.  When the counselor sat it on the ground he warned the scholars that the worms were old and would be thrown out shortly.  They meant nothing to the scholars as they just wanted a worm.  When the lid was removed from the cooler the stench was just plain nasty so someone had to reach into the cooler, grab a worm, and hand it to the scholars.  This is the camp memory that will stay with me for quite some time.  T4, donning a plastic glove, with an article of clothing covering her nose, and despite the nasty smell, reached into the cooler, swirled her hand around in this nearly black, slimy looking muck, and pulled out a worm.  Absolutely gross and sadly I didn't think to record this event on my cell phone.   

One of my worries when I started writing this blog was being able to catch the true feel of the camp.  I not sure if I did that so I'm going to leave you with this.  One person, T4, had a vision, "to provide funding so underprivileged children can be afforded the opportunity to excel outside of their boundaries through an outdoor educational camping experience."  For three days I watched forty five scholars running, laughing, overcoming their fears, holding turtles, touching or holding a snake, catching bugs, stuffing their faces, swimming until they were exhausted, and having a whole lot of fun.

This past Thursday T4 said this to me, "Schultz, do you know how many times I heard a scholar call my name at camp?  It had to be in the thousands."  When she said this to me I just laughed.  As I sit here thinking about what T4 said to me this popped into my head.  "T4, you heard your named called thousands of times.  For every time you heard your named called I bet there was just as many smiles on the faces of your scholars.  If you don't think so, just take a look at the faces on the pictures of all the scholars that were taken over the three days at Camp Flat Rock."

"T4, T4, T4, are you listening to me?  T4.  HEY T4!  You may have heard that thousands of times but I know forty-five scholars who left Camp Flat Rock with memories that will last a life time.  Thanks for letting me be a part of it.

That's it for today.  The school year is about to end.  There will be one more blog post and then I'll call it quits until the next school year.   

        

 

100 Books

Friday, May 10, 2019

For the first time in months I writing this blog from my favorite blogging spot, the screened-in porch on the south side of my house.  The temperature is a little cooler that I like but, on the upside, it's Friday at 11:00am and I'm writing so think about that for a moment.  So far I've seen a ruby throated hummingbird at the feeder that is about ten feet from me, an American goldfinch, a house finch, and sadly, a utility company work crew digging a trench behind my neighbors home and that can't be a good thing.

T4 decided to change roles one day.  "Schultz, take the top three math students to your table in the hallway and work with them.  I'll take the rest of the class."  That caught me a little off guard as I normally work with the bottom quartile for math but I collected my scholars and out into the hallway we went.  A worksheet was sent out with them and, as I sat down, OtherT4-F said to me, "Mr. Schultz, this is too easy, can we have some harder math problems to do."  Both of OtherT4's M scholars agreed with OtherT4-F so I tried to come up with some fifth grade math problems to solve.  As I was thinking about fifth grade math the three scholars sitting there with me were getting impatient.  "Mr. Schultz what is taking you so long to come up with some problems?"  I told them that I was thinking and then started to laugh.  "Mr. Schultz, what is so funny?"  So I told them, "I've been in this school for seven years.  I've help with math lessons from first grade through fourth grade but never fifth grade and I'm not sure what a fifth grade problem would be."

Finally, although I'm not certain if this was fifth grade math or sixth grade math, I had a game plan.  Before we started the problems I had to go back into the classroom to get some graph paper as I knew it would be very helpful for the scholars when doing the problems.  I gave each of the scholars a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 graph paper and told them all the numbers they write down have to fit in a box.  Then I wrote down the math problem on my graph paper, a three digit number multiplied by a two digit number, turned it over so they could see it, and reminded them that they can only place one number in a box.  The initial response came from one of the OtherT4's-M, "This looks too hard, I don't know how to do this."  "You are a Magic Multiplier, you got to dance on the hexagon to celebrate that achievement, so don't tell me this is too hard as all you are doing is multiplying.  Now get started and remember, only one number in each box."

It took a couple problems before they figured out the multiplication process and they all agreed that using the graph paper helped them keep the numbers in a straight line.  From multiplication we move on to higher level division problems.  Then I hit them with this problem and the facial expressions where quite interesting.  I put in front of them an order of operation problem that included parentheses.  I then told them to write down this acronym on their paper, P. M. D. A. S.  "That is not a word, Mr. Schultz."  "I know it's not a word, it's an acronym," and then I said to them, "Please my dear Aunt Sally."  "What?"  "What you are looking at is an order of operation problem and in order to solve this problem you need to do it in this order, P = parentheses, M = multiply, D = Divide, A = add, and S = subtract.  Now remember, Please My Dear Aunt Sally, and do the problems like this in this order every time.  Got it?"  "No!"  "Okay, we'll do it together, one step at a time."

Saturday, May 11, 2019

We were about to get started when I heard her voice even with the classroom door closed.  "If you can't subtract you can't go on to the fifth grade."  Being in the hallway with the top three math students in the classroom, who can definitely subtract, I continued with my order of operation problem.  As the hallway group was working through the second problem the classroom door opened a little and I heard T4 say, "It's recess time, line up at the door."  When I turned and looked at her I could tell she was frustrated so I just said to my three scholars, "Hand me your papers, we'll continue another time."  When I turned back in T4's direction she said to me, "These kids do no know how to subtract."  Frustration levels are high.  Too many scholars are struggle with adding, struggle with subtraction, really struggle with multiplication, long division is like talking a foreign language to them and here is what lies ahead, ILEARN, the state mandated test that has the potential to bring a teacher's career to an abrupt end if too many scholars fail the test.

Before I move on let me tell you a little something about OtherT4-F, one of the scholars that worked with me in the hallway on the fifth, or sixth, or maybe seventh grade math problems.  The first time she spoke to me about doing harder math problems was a couple months ago.  She had finished her worksheet and needed something to do so she asked me for harder problems.  I said to her, "You want harder math problems."  "Yes, my mother always tells me that I should challenge myself by doing harder work so I need some harder math problems."  So I gave her some.  Then I gave her some more and some more and some more.  Here is the beauty of working with this young female fourth grade scholar.  She is Latino, she wants to be challenged, if she continues to challenge herself through her entire school career I'm guessing that she will break the mold and be the first in her family to earn a college degree and avoid an entire working career making minimum wage or a little better.

The conversation took place back in the October, just a couple days before fall break.  A parental unit is speaking, "Mr. Schultz, we are concerned that our T2-M scholar is falling behind in his reading and we wondered if you would take some time to help him with his reading."  I agreed and approached the young scholar's teacher to work out a time to read.  We agreed upon a time and as I was about to leave the teacher said to me, "Good luck getting him to read as he won't read anything in this classroom."  I told the teacher that if he doesn't read he doesn't read but at least I can tell his parental units that I tried.

The first time I met with the T2-M scholar he brought his own book, Ninjago, Masters of Spinjitzu.  Remember, I don't make this stuff up.  This is a real book and I believe it is also a cartoon series.  When I finished reading his book I said to him, "Tomorrow I'll bring the books and you do the reading."  He agreed and the next day, sitting in the waiting area of the school's main office, he started reading.  Knowing that he was behind in his reading I found the easiest book I could find, Level A.  For those of you not familiar with a Level A reading book it has very short sentences, usually from four to eight words long, and not many pages.  He started reading and read, and read, and read right up to Christmas break.  When Christmas break was over I found him sitting next to his parental unit and his sister Uh-Uh-Uh in the main office acting grumpy, defiant, and refusing to read.  So I said to him, "It's too bad you don't want to read any more as I picked out a couple boy books that I thought you'd really like to read." I then stood up and walked away from him.

A couple days later we were back in the main office reading.  He read, and read, and read right up to  spring bring break.  When spring break was over he came back to school all grumpy and defiant, and actually started throwing objects in his classroom.  Obviously that wasn't good but I caught a huge break as he works with an excellent behavior therapist and after three or four days we were back in the main office reading again.  Before we started reading I said to him, "Do you know how many books you've read with me?"  "No, Mr. Schultz."  "Seventy-eight," I said.  He looked at me and said, "That's a lot."  "I know," I said, "Let's get started with today's books."

Sunday, May 12, 2019 - Happy Mother's Day

It's now Wednesday, May 8th, and we are in the main office.  When OtherT2-M walked in and sat down he looked at me and said, "Are we only reading one book today, Mr. Schultz?"  I said, "Yes, let's get started."  The book I selected was "Too Late Harry!" by Sara Shapiro and illustrated by Chris Vallo.  When he finished reading I turned the book over to show him the reading level of the book.  When he saw the level he smiled at me and said, "Level H, Mr. Schultz."  "That's right, you moved up another level and you know what else is special about this book," I said to him.  "This is book number one hundred and I'm quite certain that no other scholar in this school has read one hundred books this year."  His facial expression when I told him this was priceless and, again, you know why I keep doing what I do.

Dear Pointy Headed Intellectuals and the lowest life form there is, the Politician,

You are spending millions of dollars yearly to cram the ILEARN test down the throats of the teachers.  I like to offer you this suggestion.  Stop spending money on this worthless test.  Take the money and use it to hire additional instructional assistants in the grade levels where young scholars are learning to read.  If you do, you'd be impressed with the results.

Respectfully submitted,

A Gray Haired, Wrinkly Faced, Old Man (some times grumpy as a certain teacher will tell you) who has a real nice view from the back of the classroom.





   

 

I Raked Some Leaves

Sunday, April 28, 2019

Let's start with a little bit of education news that I came across will enjoying my morning cup of coffee before I head off to school.  Here is the first one and it comes from a site called Go Banking Rates, "These jobs aren't worth the cost of their degrees"  In the top ten is elementary school teacher.  And the lowest life form there is, the politician, continues for form blue chip committees to study teacher pay with little or no results.  And teacher unions continue to threaten to take action with little if any action is taken.  Teachers, damn good teachers, have left my school and it saddens me.  At the end of the school year my school is going to lose another damn good teacher so I have this to say to the politician and unions, quoting my mother, "It's time you people either shit or get off the pot."

Before I bring up my second bit of education news let me remind you of this.  AnotherT4, both of them actually, failed to last even a quarter of the school year.  They both left abruptly and then I read this from a site called Chalkbeat.  There is a movement going on to eliminate the CASA (Core Academic Skills Assessment) test.  This is a test that teacher candidates must pass prior to admission to a teacher education program.  The requirement to pass this test ensures that teacher candidates have a proficiency in basic reading, mathematics, and writing.  And they want to eliminate this test so that teacher candidates that are NOT proficient in basic reading, mathematics, and writing can enter a teacher education program.  This falls into that category called, "what the hell are you people thinking."

I decided, although I felt guilty for doing it, to take a day off (a Wednesday) and go rake some leaves.  Well, actually not some leaves but a lot of leaves out of flower beds and other landscaped areas.  In the midst of raking these leaves, with a slight rain dropping from the clouds, I stopped to take a break, and to take in some fluids.  With my blue tinted Gaterade thirst quencher in my hand this idea popped into my head.  I'll make a selfie video of me raking leaves and send it to T4 and have her show it to the scholars.  In the video I stated, "I'm old, I'm tired, and it's starting to rain so maybe some of the fourth grade scholars, that I help with math every day, would like to come out and help me rake up these leaves."

It's now Thursday morning and I thought I'd have a little fun with the scholars.  When I walked into the classroom the scholars started saying, "Good morning."  My response came quickly, "Don't talk to me.  I had all of those leaves to rake, I'm old, I was tired, and no one came to help me.  So for the next ten minutes I'm not helping with math and don't even talk to me."  As soon as I stopped running my mouth T4 said to me, "you better change that to about two seconds."  When I turned to look at T4 I saw them coming toward me.  The scholars, bearing gifts, as it was volunteer appreciation day and they wanted to thank me for all the time I spent at school helping them.  There is a picture of the gifts on the right side of the blog.  In the silver tin was brownies.  All of the flowers and other objects were made by the scholars while I was raking leaves.

They can frustrate you so much.  They can be unruly, disrespectful, defiant, and test my ability to control my emotions and then it's volunteer appreciation day.  There are thirty scholars in the room and every one of them was so excited at the opportunity to thank me.  And once again I say to you, "Now you know why I keep doing what it do."

The state mandated IRead3 test reared up it's ugly head the other day.  T4 brought it up and what she told me had me shaking my head.  I'll start with the good part and then move onto the shaking my head part.  Eleven of our fourth grade scholars had to retake the IRead3 test because they failed it the first time.  Of the eleven that took the retest, three passed it.  That is progress, for some of our scholars, huge progress.  That is great news, all attributed to OtherT4 as she is the language arts teacher who has everyone on the right track to continue making progress.  Then the progress breaker landed in OtherT4's lap.  We lost AnotherT4 and three classrooms were consolidated into two classrooms with thirty scholars each.  What we have now is a lose, lose, lose situation.  OtherT4's eight scholars that still need to pass IRead3 will get less attention so they lose out.  The new scholars, dumped into OtherT4's classroom, do to an inability to hire and retain teachers, will not get the attention they need so they lose out.  And the biggest loss of all, the potential for someone in a position of authority to question OtherT4's teaching ability if these scholars failed to pass IRead3.

He is the saddest part of all when it comes to IRead3.  In June the eight scholars that did not pass the retake IRead3 test get another chance.  If they don't pass the test in June this scenario could play out.  The scholars failed the IRead3 test in the third grade and were not retained.  These same scholars are now in the fourth grade, have taken two retakes of the IRead3 test and still failed to pass it.  So what happens to them.  Are they retained in the fourth grade or do they move on to the fifth grade.  I'll give you a hint.  The chances that the June IRead3 retake test results would be made available to our school by the end of the school year are about zero so the scholars will probably move on.

One more bit of information and I'm going to call it a day.  A new scholar arrived in T4's classroom a short while back.  This further adds to a classroom that is already over crowded.  When the scholar arrived T4 asked him, "What school did you come from?"  He said he came from another school in our school corporation and that got my immediate attention.  Why?  My seven years of experience tells me that when scholars changes schools in the same school corporation, especially this late in the school year, the reason there was a need to change schools is not a good one.  Hopefully I'm wrong about this and, I guess, we'll find out soon enough.  

Thanks for following along.  We are only a couple days short of May and do you know what that means?  Camp is just around the corner.  God, what was I thinking.

     



 





       

The Last Forty-Five

Sunday, April 14, 2019

It's Monday, the first day after spring break.  The classroom has been adjusted to accommodate thirty scholars.  It's a tight fit.  Morning work is being completed and I normally weave my way through the scholars to help were needed.  Today I can't weave anywhere.  All I can do is walk around the perimeter of the classroom because I'm too large to fit in the narrow gaps between the scholars when they are sitting at their desks.  That is tight and even worse, the room is loud.  Too much talking, not enough working.  Then, in walks the LittleBigB#2.  He is here to address the scholars, not only the fourth grade scholars, but eventually the majority of the scholars in all the other classrooms.  

It took me a while to figure out what he was talking about but it finally registered.  This was a social-emotional learning speech.  This is a speech that belongs entirely to the parental units as it is about behavior and being respectful when at school.  Unfortunately, numerous parental units failed to do their job.  As a result, LittleBigB#2 has to address the scholars about behavior and respect and, in doing so, is taking a large block of T4's math academic time.  

As I'm sitting, where I have a real nice view from the back of the classroom, and listening to the lecture on behavior and respect I hear this from the LittleBigB#2, "Stop talking and pay attention," "Get you heads up off of your desks and sit up straight."  Then I hear this from the LittleBigB#2.  "We are no longer going to put up with this inappropriate behavior."  Really!  We are now three fourths of the way through the school year and finally the school leadership decides to give a speech on behavior and respect and "With that being said," the LittleBigB#2 finished his little speech and headed off to his next classroom.  How much of this lecture was retained by T4's scholar?  Read on. 

Finally some academics.  Work sheets have been passed out.  The scholars begin doing the assignment.  The LittleBigB#2 has been out of the classroom less than five minutes when I heard it the first time.  "You're too loud, be quiet, and get your work done."  A short while later, with a little more voice inflection, "You're too loud, stop talking."  Finally, and I could feel the tension in her voice, "Stop talking, how many times do I have to tell you to be quiet."

Were are three fourths of the way through the school year and T4 and OtherT4 are faced with the challenge of gaining control of their respective classes for the second time and I don't like it.  They've both put too much effort into this school year to be placed in this situation.  Worst of all, they are in this position because both AnotherT4's failed to do their job, then lost their jobs, and now all of their poorly behaved and disrespectful scholars have been divided in half and crammed into T4's and OtherT4's classrooms.  This is a train wreck situation and you've only heard about what happened on the first day of school after spring break.

Here is some other information that I was told about on Monday.  First, in an attempt to support T4 and OtherT4, a long term substitute teacher has been brought on board.  That's nice but on the first day this long term substitute teacher was scheduled to arrive he/she was a no show.  Second, and my personal favorite, our school has been assigned a pointy headed intellectual consultant with a PhD to support the school leadership's attempt to overcome our school's F rating.  The lights in our school library have been off the majority of the school year as we don't have a media specialist (librarian), one of the fifth grades has only had a permanent teacher in the room for about three weeks, one of the fourth grade classes has been without a permanent teacher for easily over half of the school year.  You can't find and keep teachers but money can be found to bring in a consultant.  Sorry, that don't add up.  

Tuesday, day two following spring break, and tension is still high.  As it was on Monday, minus the visit from the BigB#2, the scholars are loud, not doing what they are supposed to be doing, and T4 again has to raise her voice a number of times to gain control of the classroom.  Amidst all of this I realized that the long term substitute has a perfect batting average.  Perfect in the sense that this person is zero for two when it comes actually showing up.  The scholars are too loud, no support from the substitute teacher, and then the bane of every teacher's school year raises it's ugly head. 

T4 speaking, "stop doing what your are doing and go get your laptops."  I'm not sure what is going on so I take a seat.  As the scholars are retrieving their laptops T4 opened hers and was logging in to something.  When an image appeared on the big pull down screen in the front of the classroom I know what was next and all I can do is shake my head.  On the screen it read, ILEARN review of blueprint standards for fourth grade math.  ILEARN, formerly known as ISTEP, the state mandated test that costs the taxpayers of Indiana millions of dollars and accomplishes little, if anything at all, is rearing it's ugly head and the testing will occur in a couple weeks.  What happens next is not made up by me.  It is the reality that so many teachers face and it doesn't matter if it was ISTEP or is now ILEARN when you are taking a on-line test.

T4 to the scholars.  "Look at the overhead screen and follow along with me.  First, log in."  A hand goes up, "Mrs. T4, I don't have a laptop."  "Schultz, go across the hall and see if you can find this scholar a laptop."  A second hand goes up, "Mrs. T4, I don't know my student ID."  "What do you mean you don't know your student ID, you've been using it all year."  "I forgot it."  "Didn't you write it down so you won't forget it?"  "No."  "Schultz, go down to the main office and get this scholar's ID."  Please note at this time that T4 is using her forty five minute math block to introduce the scholars to ILEARN and time is rapidly ticking away.

I'm back in the room with the ID information and I sense right away the tension.  "Schultz, walk around the classroom and help any scholar that needs help."  As I'm looking at laptop screens I see that the scholars are at the point that they need to be at to continue learning about ILEARN.  Well, not all of the scholars.  Three of them are waiting patiently for their computer to finish the boot up process to get to where they need to be.  Twenty-six scholars went through the boot up process without incident.  Why and the hell do three scholars have to wait an extended period of time to do the same thing?  I raise my hand to let T4 know that the are boot up issues and then wait.  Now it is decision time for T4.  Does she wait for the three computers to boot up, it may take a while, or does she move on and work with the other twenty-six scholars who are where they are supposed to be.  Note, the clock is ticking and soon the forty-five minutes block of time will be gone.  She decides to move on.

One of the suggestions for the teachers, with ILEARN rapidly approaching, is to be sure the scholars are familiar with all of the tools available to them to do the math problems.  Knowing this, T4 starts to show the scholars the tools that are available to them.  The first one she put up on her screen was a number pad, the on-line version of the calculator.  "Mrs. T4, I can't find my number pad.  How did you do that?"  "Mrs. T4, I'm totally lost."  At this point the scholars are losing interest.  Conversations are starting, heads are on the desk, they've have had enough for one day.  T4 looks at the clock and announces, "Times up, log off, and get ready to go to specials."

In a couple of weeks I will watch the scholars take a state mandated test for the sixth time.  For the last five years it was ISTEP.  This year it will be the much improved, more user friendly ILEARN test.  Here is the frustrating part with the supposedly more user friendly ILEARN test.  The issues that T4 just had to deal with have been the same issues for the past six years. Student ID issues, system delays getting to the actual test, and confusion on how to find and use the tools, and most importantly, a complete failure on the part of the creators of this test to recognize that scholars can't key board and key boarding will play a larger role when it is time to take the ILEARN test.  It's so frustrating to watch, the clock is ticking, and T4 never reached the point where she could do any of the math practice questions with the scholars because she ran out of time.

There you go.  Two days back in an over crowded classroom and already tension levels are high.  The next forty-three days will be a grind but I'm going to leave you with this T4, we will not be defeated.  

           

     

         

  

  

Forty-five Days To Go

Saturday, April 6, 2019

This event occurred a couple days before Spring Break.  "Schultz, I need you to make some copies of these works sheets for me."  "How many copies?" I asked T4.  "Sixty of each work sheet and put them in two groups of thirty."  That sounds simple enough, right.  I've been making copies for teachers for the entire school year and I've got the system down pat.  However, this request came with a T4 facial expression that spoke volumes.  You see, for almost the entire year, when I was asked to make copies, it was sixty and put them in three groups of twenty.  Putting the copies in two groups rather than three groups seems simple enough until I tell you this.  When I walk into the classroom on Monday, April 8th, at 8:55am, not 9:00am not 8:50am, but exactly at 8:55am, I'm walking into a classroom that will be occupied by thirty fourth grade scholars.  So back to that T4 facial expression when she said, "sixty of each work sheet and put them in two groups of thirty."  Try and visualize the look on her face when she knew, despite her strong objections, that she will have to teach thirty scholars in a classroom that is barely large enough to fit that many desks for the remainder of the school year.

Before I go any farther I'm going to remind you that I'm about to complete my seventh year in this school.  Seven years, no regrets.  Seven years and I've met so many great people, both teachers and support staff, that I plan on returning for year eight.  Now I must tell you that this school has a serious hitch in it's giddy up and you are about to hear about it.

Let's start with the classroom that is to my immediate right when I arrive each day.  With the exception of about two weeks there has been no permanent teacher in this classroom.  How is that possible?  Moving on to the classroom that is to my immediate left when I arrive each day.  Two teachers have occupied this classroom.  Their combined time in this classroom is less then half of the school year.  How is it possible that these two recent graduates failed after only a limited time in the classroom?  As it stands right now, and I know I'm not a teacher, there are only five classroom teachers in this school that have been in the building longer than I have.  That would put me sixth on the teacher seniority list.  Sixth, after only seven years, and I have reason to believe that I'm about to move from sixth on the seniority list up to fifth at the end of he school year.  There is only one way to arrive at this point.  There is a failure at the leadership level, both in the school and at the school corporation office, when they don't recognize the number of teachers that have left this school and ask themselves, why did this happen?  So what are the immediate damages caused by this turnover?  You are about to find out.

The first AnotherT4 departed at Christmas break.  The second AnotherT4 departed at Spring break.  There is no plan to replace these teachers so what are the damages.  The damages are the facial expressions of T4 and OtherT4 when they were told that their class sizes will increase by at least ten scholars each.  That will put both of them right at thirty scholars in their respective classrooms.  Here is the part that really grinds at me.  There are overhead teachers in this school that could have been placed in AnotherT4's classroom for the remainder of the school year and that didn't happen.  When that didn't happen additional damages, damages to the scholars that I work with, will happen.

This took place several months ago.  "Schultz," as T4 handed me a Post It note, "these are your scholars.  Every day, no matter what is going on in this classroom, you help these scholars.  Got it."   "Got it," I responded as I looked at the note that had five names on it with an occasional sixth or seventh name hitting the list.  So, who are these scholars?  They are the bottom quartile.  The ones that really struggle with math facts, and in this particular case, multiplication and division.  T4 has the bulk of the classroom and that is the correct direction to go in.  Assigning me the rest is also the right way to go for this reason.  Small groups, sometimes one on one, and I can slow down the pace and it was working.  You could see it in the scholars faces, it was working.  They were catching on.  They wanted to work with me.  They would rather skip recess and stay inside with the gray haired wrinkly faced old guy and do math and their scores were improving.  And then, BOOM!  Blowed up and on April 8th, T4 will try and figure out how to regroup and start over simply because there is a problem attracting and retaining teachers and that is not her fault.  That is a leadership fault.  Everything about this situation stinks.

It's now Sunday, April 7th, at 2:00pm.  We are at eighteen and a half hours and counting down until T4 and OtherT4 walk into a classroom with thirty scholars each.  Here is what I know for sure.  These are two damn good teachers, they've been busting their humps all year, they will make the adjustments needed, and academic progress will continue because there is no way in hell that they will be defeated.

There are forty-five days to go in the school year and it is going to be interesting, very, very, interesting.  At some point I will know what teachers, if any, are leaving.  What teachers will be changing roles.  Will there be another leadership change.  How will the current leadership change the academic day for the start of another school year.  Best of all, how will I survive three days of camp with sixty or so four grade scholars.  If you stick around I'll be glad to tell you about it.



     

 

   



 








 

A Job Offer

Sunday, March 24, 2019
A Milestone Moment

On Tuesday, March 19th, I hit a milestone as it was five years ago on this date that I was convinced by my daughter to write this blog.  Five years, two hundred and fifty-three posts and over fourteen thousand page views coming from somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty countries and shortly I'll post blog number two hundred and fifty-four.  Never in my imagination did I think I'd be doing this for five years.  So much for shameless self promotion, time to move on to more important events.  

We were measuring in the classroom recently using both inches and centimeters rulers.  I thought the lesson plan, how it was presented to the scholars, by the person that occupies the front of the classroom, went quite well.  After all, I am talking about a degreed and licensed teacher with multiple years of experience.  All of that came into question recently during a Monday morning community circle with the scholars.  The topic for Monday morning community circle is simple, what did you do over the weekend?  The scholars always go first and then the adults, should they choose, can share their experiences.  I chose to pass this past Monday morning so the other adult in the room could share a story.  It went something like this.

I decided to buy a new light that would hang over a table in my house.  After a few struggles removing the old light and then hanging the new light I recognized immediately that the new light hung too low over the table and it could easily hit someone in the head.  Being frustrated that I'd have to take the light down, make a cord adjustment, and rehang the light I decided to take a short cut.  To speed up the process I just decided to eye ball the length of the cord and then make the cut.  Finally my new light is hung for the second time and now the light hangs too high above the table.

The hanger of the light is now past frustrated and has moved into the danger zone and I'm certain words were spoken that I could not place in this blog.  So, what to do now?  Call the manufacturer, explain what happened, and get another light shipped to the house.  Amazingly, after listening to the I'll just eye ball it and cut it story, the manufacturer agreed to ship the second light at no additional cost.

As it stands right now I'm not sure if the second light has been hung.  If it hasn't I'm going to offer this bit of advice to someone well prepared to teach young scholars how to use a ruler.  "Measure twice and cut once.

A couple of weeks ago the BigB#4 asked me to stop by her office as she had an open position at the school that she thought I might be interested in taking.  I've been aware of this open position for some time as two individuals were lobbying me to take the position.  I've gone back and forth about taking the position a number of times before I decided to stop by the BigB#4's office and talk.  Here is what I was offered; this is an overhead position that will support classroom teachers, it is a job share position as I would share this full time position with another individual, I'd only work two full days per week, I'd have to clock in at the start of the day and clock out at the end of the day, I'd have to do lunch duty each day I worked, and I'd make around $9.50, maybe a little more.

Here is my thought process on taking this job.  Would it be nice to be paid again, yes.  Would part time be better than full time, yes.  Would I be more interested in this job if I only had to work mornings, yes.  Do I like the idea of having to clock in and clock out, no.  Do I like the idea of doing lunch duty, hell no, nobody does.  Do I like the fact that I'm committing myself to two full days of school a week for an entire school year, no.  Do I think I'd be adequately compensated at $9.50 per hour or slightly higher, no.  When I was a paid instructional assistant in that Special Education classroom I made $14.42 per hour.  This is a job sharing position.  The person I'd be sharing the job with has a teaching degree.  If we are doing the exact same job will I get paid at the same level as this teacher, highly unlikely, as I can't see a teacher taking a job that pays around $9.50 per hour.

So, it is decision time.  What am I going to tell the BigB#4?  Anyone care to venture a guess?  Ready, I turned it down as I didn't like the idea of committing myself to a paid position and the commitments that go with it knowing that my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse is retiring.  And, if she is retiring, it makes no sense for me to un-retire for the second time.

T4, OtherT4, and I are now on spring break, two weeks where T4 and OtherT4 can simply relax and I can do yard work.  The timing for spring break was perfect as a big change took place recently.  AnotherT4, who accepted the third fourth grade teaching position in January resigned in March.  In fact, this teaching position has turned over twice in less than a half of a school year.  So what does the future hold for T4 and OtherT4 with this opened position that apparently will not be filled?Somewhere between twenty-eight and thirty scholars per classroom.  To my teaching friends that read this blog, what are your thoughts on a classroom with thirty scholars crammed into it?  I'll share mine in the next blog post.

Back to my milestone.  I'm struggling with the blog and I have to make some adjustments.  Quitting entirely is one option but I'm not to that point as the remaining nine weeks of the school year are going to be real interesting.  Having approximately sixty scholars roll through T4's classroom for a daily math lesson is going to be pure survival mode and I certainly don't want to miss all of that fun.  The month of May is rapidly approaching and that means three days of camp with all of these fourth grade scholars and I've agreed, in a moment of weakness, to camp overnight with them.  The other option is to post updates with less frequency.  I've already moved in that direction as some of you may have noticed.  I think that is what I'll do for the remainder of the school year and then go from there.

That is it for today.  The NCAA basketball tournament is in full swing.  I think I'll make some popcorn, crack open a cold something, sit in my favorite chair, and watch some basketball.  Thanks for following along.    



   



     



   

   






   

Regrouping

Sunday, March 10, 2019

On Sunday mornings I check my cellphone for the notes I made about blog content.  On some Sunday's there are just not enough notes.  That has been the case for two weeks.  This morning I had notes, lots of notes, so here I go.

Remember the little fella (T2 age group) that brought in a bag of weed to school.  Here is an update on this little fella's status.  After missing a couple weeks of school there was a meeting with the parental units (the very one's that left the weed out in the first place) about reinstating their scholar.  A date was set for the little fella to return and everything seemed to be moving in the right direction.  Then the parental units dropped this bomb on the school leadership.  "We need to tell you that we are going to California for a two week vacation and we are taking the little fella with us."  I have a friend, As Far West As Utah, who told me this a few weeks ago, "parents matter most."  The more I hang around the classroom the more I believe that parents matter most and in this case this little fella is a product of P.P.P. (piss poor parenting) and these parents don't give a damn about their scholars education.

Twice a week now, for several weeks, the scholars took a timed, six minute, test on multiplication and division that has thirty-six multiplication problems and thirty-six division problems.  Here are the numbers involved; zero, one, two, five, nine, and ten.  With the exception of the nines it doesn't get much simpler.  Unfortunately, of the two groups that rotate through T4's classroom for math, one of the groups, with the exception of two scholars, just don't get it.  When you just don't get if after weeks of taking the same test over and over and the scholars can't pass it something has to give and it happened a few days ago.

"Schultz, grade these papers.  I want the entire class to come to the front of the classroom and have a seat on the carpet."  The venting of frustration started before I exited the room to my half round table in the hallway.  Paraphrasing, "why is it so difficult for you to pass this test?  This is not hard work.  After all of this time you still can't multiply.  How is it that you do not know that 2 x 5 = 10 without counting on your fingers.  How can you multiply 5 x 0 and tell me the answer is 5?  How can you look at a division problem, 6/2 and tell me the answer is 8?  How can you look at the same division problem 6/2 and tell me the answer is twelve?  This is not hard work and starting next week we are starting the year over."  The venting process only lasted a short while and when T4 was over there was silence.  Silence was a wise choice for these scholars because if there were objections raised the venting may have turned into a thunder storm with lightning bolts flashing across the room.

"Schultz, we are starting the year over."  As a reminder, T4 works with fourth grade scholars and we are approaching the end of the third quarter of the school year.  "I need you to make copies of these work sheets for me."  With the work sheets in my hand I started looking, the top work sheet is addition, the second worksheet is subtraction, and I'm thinking to myself, "second grade math for fourth grade scholars," and I said absolutely nothing to T4.  There was no need for me to say anything.  When you spend just short of three fourths of a school year within twenty feet of a teacher it is easy to see the frustration and it bothers me a lot.  I know the quality of the math teacher that I'm working with and I know, going back to the very start of the school year, the train wreck that walks into her classroom every day at 11:30am for a math lesson.

Day one of the new, timed, second grade addition test for the fourth grade scholars.  T4 reviewed the directions as I sat in the back of the classroom observing, "you have this many problems, you have this much time, these are easy problems so there is no reason that you should need to use your fingers.  Three, two, one, begin."  I believe the very first addition problem was 7 + 3 = and immediately the fingers came out.  Lord, give this teacher the strength to persevere because if many of these scholars can't add 7 + 3 = without using their fingers how are they going to ever subtract 6 - 2 = without using their fingers.

On to the regrouping in the fourth grade.  I believe it was this past Thursday when I walked into the classroom and I knew something was wrong.  The facial expressions on T4 and OtherT4 just didn't look right.  Rather than saying something I just went about my business as sooner or later I will be told what was going on.  The scholars were at specials when T4 quietly said this to me.  "Schultz, you need to keep this in the vault."  "T4, I've have information dating back to 1975 in my vault."   "AdditionalT4," the third fourth grade teacher, "just turned in a letter of resignation."

This news didn't surprise me because I knew this first year teacher, graduated this past December, was struggling in the classroom.  I walked past this fourth grade classroom on several occasions and the classroom was loud, scholars were behaving poorly, and classroom management wasn't happening they way it should have happened.  I'm not sure what the final straw was that broken the camels back and forced a teacher to resign but I do know this much.  For the first half of the school year there was no teacher for this third fourth grade classroom.  In the span of one grading period, nine weeks, the scholars in this third fourth grade classroom chewed up and spit out two teachers.  Losing two teachers in that short of a time frame is a failure at the highest levels of this school and T4 and OtherT4 are going to be the recipients of this failure and they are not happy campers right now.

On April 8th, the first school day after our spring break, there will be no third fourth grade teacher and there is no plan to replace this teacher.  So on April 8th, T4 and OtherT4's classroom will swell up from twenty scholars each to somewhere between twenty-five and twenty-eight scholars and that is not sitting well.  There is a lot more to talk about on this matter but sadly, LibraryLady from the hoity-toity private school, you'll have to wait until next week.

Thanks for following along.  There is more to follow and I'll leave you with this little tidbit.  The next blog post will be a milestone event for me.  Bye!

   

         

   

 

         

They Come From Hard Places

Sunday, February 17, 2019

You'd think, as I'm about to finish my seventh year at this school, that when bad things happen I'd put it in the category of been there, done that, and move on.  Well, bad things happened at the start of the school week and I thought to myself, so many of the scholars that I've worked with in the SpecEd classroom came from hard places and will they ever escape those hard places.

On Monday morning, after being in the school for only a few minutes, I was told that Tourette was missing.  As I understand it, something happened at his parental unit's home that caused him to run out of the house.  The running out of his parental unit's house is not something that is new to me as this was not the first time that it happened.  What is new to me is the fact that he never returned when it started to get dark.  Rather than returning at dark he went missing for almost thirty hours.  The family couldn't find him.  The school couldn't find him.  He's eleven, whereabouts unknown, it's in the middle of winter, and no one has a clue as to his location.

It's now Tuesday morning.  As I normally due, I cut through the administrative offices on my way to the elevator.  At best I will say good morning to the people in the office area and go about my business but not today as I was heading to a specific office to ask the OH person about Tourette.  OH was in her office and all I said was, "did they find him?"  The response was, "yes."

I've shared a classroom with Tourette for three years and with the "yes" response I relaxed and continued on my way to the classroom.  When I exited the elevator on the second floor I normally turn to the right.  Today, I turned left looking for FBG, our behavior specialist.  FBG was in his office so I asked him about Tourette and his whereabouts.  According to FBG his whereabout remains an unknown and here is where is gets real interesting.  FBG told me that Tourette was driven back to his parental unit's home, dropped off at the curb, and then the car drove off.  Who brought Tourette back to his parental unit's home is an unknown.  So, while Tourette is safe, there are now more questions than answers and the school may never know what happened.

I believe this happened on Tuesday of this past week.  I was in the office area when I came across FBG so I stopped to talk to him.  He told me he was just outside the school chasing down Uh-Uh-Uh who ran out of the building.  This took me by surprise as all indications were that Uh-Uh-Uh was having a real successful school year so I asked him what happened.  FBG responded, her parental unit was arrested and charged with domestic violence, she was upset, and she just took off.  I stood there shaking my head.  I spent three years with Uh-Uh-Uh in the classroom and I've known her for five years and all I can of think is, "why is this happening to this young scholar who has shown so much improvement this school year."  Why?  Just like Tourette, she comes from a hard place.  She is the product of P.P.P (piss poor parenting) and she is stuck in this hard place until she reaches the age when she can live independently.  

By the end of the week things returned to normal, or as close to normal as you can get, for Tourette and Uh-Uh-Uh, as they both finished the week without further incident.  I'm guardedly optimistic that what happened this past week is over and everyone can move on.  Despite my guarded optimism I know that both of these scholars come from hard places and it's just a matter of time before that hard place jumps up and grabs them again.

Here is an update of the hand signal scholars from the T5 classroom that I wrote about last week.  The consequences for these scholars, who created vulgar, bordering on obscene hand signals, that they secretly directed at their teacher, were given an in-school suspension.  An in-school suspension is not even a slap on the wrist.  It's nothing more that a tap on the wrist and further evidence that consequences for inappropriate behavior are a thing of the past.

In the midst of all of the events that occurred early last week I did get started on the show growth in math scores challenge that T4 assigned to me.  To start with I have four of T4's scholars.  Three are T4-F's and one is a T4-M.  Their first challenge is for each of them to complete seventy-two math problems.  Thirty-six are multiplication and thirty-six are division and they have six minutes to answer all of the problems correctly.  Here are the numbers they are working with; zero, one, two, five, nine, and ten.  My immediate task was to get them to multiply by nine as they were all weak with this number.  My confidence level was high with nines as many years ago I was shown, by a close friend of mine in my original career, how to use your hands to multiple by nine.  We started on Monday with hand multiplication and by Wednesday they could multiply by nine.  One of the T4-F's was so excited that she could multiply by nine she went home that evening and showed her parental unit how to multiple by nine.  The next day this T4-F had so much excitement in her facial expression when she told me that she showed her parental unit how to multiply by nine is one of the many reasons why I keep doing what I do.

Note:  if you are not familiar with multiplying by nine using your hands just do a YouTube search.

Comfortable that they can multiply by nine I move on to the next obstacle, division.  Unfortunately, division for these scholars was like trying to learn a foreign language.  The first division problem on the timed test worksheet is four divided by two.  Here are some of the wrong answers that I saw; eight, as they multiplied four times two, six, as they added four plus two, and sometimes I saw a number that made absolutely no sense at all.

I started doing division with T4-M as he was easily completing the first thirty-six multiplication problems.  I caught a bit of a break right away when T4-M told me that division just didn't make any sense to him.  I watched T4 teach a lesson on division so I knew I had some options on how to proceed.  The option that I chose, mainly because it didn't require making a lot of dots and then circling them in groups, was to turn the problem from a division problem to a multiplication problem.

I started with 4/2=? and then asked T4-M this question.  2 x ? = 4?  He hesitated for a few seconds and then said 2.  I then went back to the division problem and asked him what 4/2 equaled and I showed him the two fingers from the multiplication problem.  I then did the next six problems using the same process with T4-M and then the light went on.  It took a couple more tries but T4-M correctly answered all of the first seventy-two problems and he has moved on to the next level.

One a lighter note when it comes to math and showing progress is this story.  It's a bit of a visual so bear with me.  Here are the four combination multiplication and division tests that the scholars need to pass to become a magic multiplier.

Test A - zero, one, two, five, nine, and ten.  The three T4-F's are here.
Test B - zero, one, two, three, four, five, nine, and ten.  T4-M is here and soon will go on to C.
Test C - zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten.
Test D - all of the above.

When you pass D you earn a Magic Multiplier Certificate and then get to dance on the hexagon to celebrate your achievement.

I can't remember what day it was but T4-M asked me what numbers were on Test C so I showed it to him.  The T4-F's then asked me what numbers were on Test B so I showed it to them.  One of the T4-F's looked at the addition of the threes and fours on Test B and calmly said, "I'm pretty good with those numbers."  She then asked me to show her what numbers were on Test C.  I took out my pencil, circled six, seven, and eight and then showed her Test C.  So you know, T4-F is sitting right next to me.  We are about two feet apart when I showed her Test C.  In order to see Test C more clearly T4-F moved even closer to me, our heads are about a foot apart, and when she saw the circled six, seven, and eight the first word out of her mouth was "shit."

I started laughing.  Yes, totally inappropriate but I couldn't help it.  Immediately, the other T4's in the group collectively said, "Mr. Schultz, she just said..."  "Stop," I said, "I know what she said.  It was an accident so there is no reason to repeat the word."  I just did the right thing by stopping them from repeating the word but I was still laughing.  With me laughing the next thing you know, all the scholars were laughing.  Finally, when everything settle down we got back to work.

I plead guilty.  The consequences for saying, "shit" practically right in my ear, none.  Is that right, no. You know what, I'm in charge, it's my decision, my consequences for the wrong decision but I also know this.  These four scholars want to learn and they are working hard.  They're willing gave up time from P.E. to learn how to multiply and divide.  They're willing to gave up outdoor recess time to learn how to multiply and divide.  If they are willing to work hard and make some sacrifices to learn then I believe they are entitled to one free "shit."

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  See you next week.    


     





   

 



     

The Catcher Flashed Two Fingers - Curveball

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Let's talk some baseball.  I've played my fair share of games in my younger days.  Numerous games on the athletic fields of St. Hyacinth's parish.  Numerous games of fast pitch (or strike out depending on what neighborhood you lived in) against the boiler room brick wall at St. Hyacinth's Elementary School.  Numerous games of fast pitch against the concrete block wall on the storage building behind Ollie's Meat Market.  Three years of Little League baseball (pitcher and third base).  Two years of Pony League baseball (outfield and occasionally pitcher).  Several years of fast pitch softball (mainly catcher and occasionally outfield). 

It's my years of catching fast pitch softball that is of most importance at this time.  As a catcher you know about flashing hand signals to your pitcher.  In this particular game, Dick Bauer was pitching and I was catching.  To this day I will insist that I flashed one finger to Dick, drop ball.  For those of you not familiar with fast pitch softball, if thrown correctly by the pitcher, a drop ball will break in a downward motion as it approaches the batter.  Knowing, with one hundred percent certainty, that I called for a drop ball, I adjusted my catching position for the pitch I called for.  Dick wound up, released the ball, and I knew immediately that he was throwing a rise ball (two fingers) and not a drop ball (one finger).  I quickly made my adjustment to catch the pitch but not exactly the way that I should have with the ball coming in so fast.  My glove hand is up and so is my bare hand.  My glove hand missed the ball.  May bare hand didn't.  

The ball got passed me, I ran to the backstop to retrieve it, called time out, and headed to the pitchers mound.  When I got to the pitchers mound Dick and I discussed what pitch I called for and then I handed to ball back to him.  When I looked at the ball there was blood on it.  Mine, as the ball hit may bare hand so hard and so fast that it split open the first joint of my ring finger on my right hand and I'm off to the emergency room for four stitches.  As you can see, a failure to communicate between the pitcher and catcher, can result in bad things happening.  Sadly, three young scholars from a T5 classroom found out what happens when they communicated between themselves while flashing hand signals, bad things happen.

It's Friday, lunch time, and I'm sitting at the hexagon with T4, OtherT4, and an Overhead (OH) person eating my eight inch, hand tossed, sausage and onion pizza, when a conversation started.  Sadly, as I was stuffing my face, I'm missed the start of the conversation but this much I know.  T4 placed her right hand on her chest, flashed a hand signal, and then stated what the hand signal meant.  When she finished I said to her, "you've got be kidding, the hand signal stood for what."  She repeated what the hand signal meant and then said that three T5-M's came up with the hand signal and used it in the classroom when the right occasion arose.

Now you have to visualize what is going on in the T5 classroom.  One of the three T5-M's is acting in an inappropriate manner and is seen by T5.  T5 corrects the young scholar and then turns to continue the lesson.  With T5's focused elsewhere the T5-M flashes a hand signal to his two T5-M friends and they all have a good silent laugh.  After developing the hand signal the three T5-M's failed in a huge way as they told someone outside their immediate group.  Then someone told someone else who told someone else and the next thing you know someone tells a teacher.

Alright, back to the hexagon and my pizza.  While we were enjoying our lunch a parental unit stepped into the classroom.  I didn't recognize the parental unit but T4 did and promptly got up to greet this person.  When their conversation started it didn't take for me long to realize the T4 was speaking to a parental unit of one of the T5-M's about their no longer secret hand signals.  Unfortunately the conversation that T4 was having with the parental unit moved out into the hallway and out of hearing distance.  The part that I missed and I'd love to know how T4 did it, was to tell the parental unit what the hand signals meant because what they meant was disrespectful, vulgar, and bordering on obscene.  Unfortunately for all of you I don't know what the consequences were for these three T5-M scholars as I finished my lunch and left before T4 returned to the classroom.  If I find out next week I'll let you know.  By the way, we are not talking about extending the middle finger as I've seen that happen so many times I just laugh at the scholar that directed it at me.  

Here is an update on that Littlefella that brought in that clear, plastic, zip lock, sandwich bag into school last week.  I finally had a chance to speak to T2 about the incident.  T2 told me two things.  First, when the Littlefella realized that he was in trouble he said that someone on the playground game him that plastic bag.  Amazing, a T2 level scholar and he is already well versed in coming up with ways to get out of trouble.  The second thing that T2 told me was that the scholar has not been in the classroom all week and she was not sure what happened to him.  Missing in action for a week.  Let's see, suspended, expelled, parental units changed schools.  Maybe I'll find out next week what happened to the Littlefella.

"Schultz, I have something for you to look at."  "Ok, what is it?"  It's on my laptop so have a seat at my desk while I get the day started."  I'm now sitting at the second T4 throne.  The second throne is much nicer than the other one as it has a leather seat to sit on.  Leather?  Probably vinyl but it is still more comfortable than the other throne.  On the laptop screen was two columns of names.  The first column contained all of T4's scholars and the other column contained all of OtherT4's scholars.  I eventually realized that I was looking at Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) math test scores.

As I was looking at the math scores the first thing I discovered was that green is good and red is bad.  Looking at T4's scholars I saw four green and sixteen red.  I then looked at the second column, OtherT4's scholars, and I saw two green and eighteen red.  Six green, a passing scored and thirty-four red, a failing score and the reality of the challenge that T4 faces just hit me right between the eyes.

"T4, how are we going to get these thirty-four scholars moved into the green zone?"  "Schultz, green is the ultimate objective but for now we just need to do what we can do to get all thirty-four to show improvement over their previous test score."  "How are we going to do that?" I asked.  T4 walked over to me and handed me a two inch square, pink Post It Note.  On it were four names, all her scholars, and she said to me, "you start with these."  When I looked at the names I immediately recognize them and the fact that all four were in or near the bottom quartile for math.

Once again, I don't need to do what I do, I choose to do what I do and here is why.  I don't have a teaching degree and I don't have a teaching license.  Despite my lack of credentials T4 just handed this old, gray haired, wrinkly face guy, sometimes known as just Schultz, sometimes known as Old Man, sometimes known as Papa, a task.  When I thought about the task I was just handed it made me feel pretty good because a math teacher just sent me a message that said that what I do in her classroom matters.  I'm not sure of the time frame that I have to work with but I'll tell you what, I'll bust my butt to get these four scholars into a position to raise their scores and I'll do it for one reason.  I matter.

With that said, thanks for following along and God willing and the creek don't rise I'll see you next week.