Friday, January 25, 2019
Today I had my semi-annual wellness check up. My instructions via a text message; appointment at 8:45am, arrive fifteen minutes early, have insurance cards with you, have proof of identification with you. I arrived at 8:27am, early. Checked in. Sat down in the waiting room well before 8:45am. "Mr. Schultz you can come in now." I took a seat in exam room #4 right at 8:45am and was told the doctor will be right with you. I'm thinking to myself, "right on schedule, I should be out of here in about fifteen minutes and I will arrive in the classroom right on time."
9:00am still waiting. 9:15am still waiting. Getting irritated, pulled out my cellphone and checked the news. 9:30am still waiting. Even more irritated, this is taking too long, maybe I'll just go home when the wellness check is over. 9:40am and I hear, "high Mr. Schultz, my name is so and so and I'm here to check your blood pressure." The first person in the room is fifty-five minutes late, I'm seriously irritated, and she is going to check my blood pressure. Anyone care to guess how high it was?
Finally the doctor enters the exam room. "Good morning," shakes my hand, "how are you doing?" "I feel real good." "Has anything changed that I need to know about?" I recently stabbed myself in the palm of my right hand with a pencil and the lead from the pencil is still stuck in my hand but I chose not to mention it and just said, "no." "Ok, let's check your blood work results, cholesterol level is very good, triglycerides level is very good, PSA level is very good, blood pressure is high but your history of blood pressure checks indicates that this may just be an odd reading. Have your blood pressure check a couple times and if it stays high let me know." "I check it monthly at the CVS and if it stays high I'll contact your office." "That will work. The last item to talk about is your Body Mass Index. You are a 32.2 and at this level you are considered obese. You need to lose about seven pounds." I'm already irritated because he was almost an hour late and he just said I was obese." Note to self, don't check your blood pressure again today.
The school day is now over and I'm home. At about 4:30pm my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse walked in the door. She took a couple minutes to unload her school stuff and then said to me, "how was you check up?" "All my blood work was very good but my Body Mass Index was 32.2." "What does that mean?" "According to the doctor I'm in the obese range." "You've got to be kidding me. What are you going to do?" "Lose seven pounds is what the doctor said." "How much does your doctor weigh?" "A hell of a lot more than I do." "Then I wouldn't be to worried about it."
I received a text message from TheBookClubLady shortly after I posted my last blog. The message stated, "you didn't mention the School Quality Review (SQR) in your post." She is right. I had totally forgotten about it so I asked T4 if the results were back. She said, "yes." The results are back and ……….. pausing for effect just to keep you waiting, the results came back and they surprised me.
A brief review of the SQR process. For three consecutive years my school was given an "F" rating. Because of this rating the powers that be sent this group of dour faced people to our school to evaluate us. After the evaluation the SQR team and others within the school corporation had options as follows: do nothing as the school is on the right track, make change recommendations, replace the leadership team, replace the entire faculty and literally start the school over with an entire new staff. Anyone care to venture a guess as to what is going to happen after three consecutive "F" grades?
Okay, I stalled around long enough. Ready? NOTHING! We continue doing what we have been doing. And here is the real surprise. During our SQR process there were six or seven other schools in the exact same position that our school was in and the results of their SQR was the same as ours, do nothing, stay the course.
The truth is about to be told. When T4 told me the results, and I did my best to not show it in my facial expression, I was really surprised. I was certain that something had to change. For three consecutive years this school, that I've thoroughly enjoyed going to for seven years, received an "F" rating. That is not good. So, I guess we stay the course, take the ILEARN state mandated test in a couple months, and then wait to see what our next school rating will be.
Before I move on to the seismic activity that occurred in our school I have this interesting item to share with you. From the start of the school year, all the way through Christmas break, we had a classroom without a permanent teacher. That was resolved shortly before break and when I returned to school on January 7, 2019, I met the new permanent teacher, NewT5. In a short period of time this newly hired teacher turned a classroom that was historically loud into a quiet learning environment. I was so impressed with what she managed to do that I even mentioned it to her.
We are now two and a half weeks into the school year following Christmas break when T4 walked up to me and told me that NewT5 just quit. "You're kidding me. I thought things were going real well in NewT5's classroom. What happened?" "One of NewT5"s scholars told her to......." I'm not sure of the exact language used except for this, the word ass was used by the scholar. "What did NewT5 do," I asked. "She went to the school leadership, told them what was said, and waited to hear what they were going to do. NewT5 didn't like the response from school leadership, told leadership that there was no way a scholar was going to talk that way to her, and quit right there on the spot." Welcome to the teaching profession where a scholar can direct a vulgar slang expression at a teacher and the scholar survives without consequences and a teacher walks out the door and again, after only two and a half weeks, we are without a T5 teacher again.
The fourth grade classes just rotated. T4's scholars are with OtherT4 and OtherT4's are with T4. I'm sitting at the half round table in the hallway grading a math test that T4's scholars just completed and the grading process was moving forward slowly. When I finally finished I walked into the classroom, put the tests and their results on T4's desk, and took a seat at the hexagon. I wasn't sure what transpired in the classroom as I was out in the hallway but I do know this. T4 picked up her throne chair that is normally off to the side of the room and placed it in the center of the room right in front of the hexagon and took a seat. She then told the scholars, in a somewhat animated voice, to have a seat at their desk. In typical fashion, a segment of the scholars were slow to understand, "take a seat," so T4 had to repeat herself and during the repeating process I sensed that the seismograph needle just wiggled a little. Paraphrasing and you better hold on as T4 is about to address the scholars.
"Do you see these tests. The results are bad. There are only two scholars in this classroom," she named them, "that passed this test. Two, so what is wrong with the rest of you?. We are doing multiplication and division using these numbers; 0, 1, 2, 5, 9, and 10. What is so difficult for you to understand? 0 x 5 does not equal 5. 1 x 10 does not equal 1. You've taken this same test multiple times and you still can't recall, after being repeatedly told, that 0 x any number is always 0. 1 x any number and the answer is the number. 1 x 10 is 10. 1 x 100 is 100. 1 x any number you choose and the answer is not 1. Why is that so hard to remember? When you add two numbers, 6 + 2, it should take you one second to say 8. Why does it take you so long to come up with this answer? Why do some of you have to count on you fingers? Every one of you can easily remember your user name and password when you log in to Fortnight or any of the others games you play so why can you remember the easiest of the multiplication problems?"
I was within ten feet of T4 and I didn't say a word. I just listened an the longer she spoke the more animated her voice became. I'm sitting here right now trying to come up with the proper descriptive term to use to describe how she was feeling. Was she angry, disgusted, frustrated, disappointed, I'm not sure. But I do know this, she got her point across and in doing so I think her little animated talk hit 4.0 on the Richter scale.
The truth is about to be told for the second time today. I'm confident in saying that there are staff members in this school who would not have been happy with the talk T4 had with her scholars. They would have suggested that she needed to be kinder. Kinder? I've seen being kinder for over half the school year and this is what kindness got, scholars who consistently fail to make even the slightest effort to memorize multiplying by the simplest numbers. This is not the time for kindness, this is the time to be direct, to the point, and T4 did exactly that. Brothers and sisters, can I have an amen.
I don't need to do what I do, I choose to do what I do and do you know why I choose to do what I do? In the front of the classroom is a damn good teacher, I enjoy working with her, but watching her hit 4.0 on the Richter scale was tough. When the scholars were lining up for lunch T4 walked past me and said this, "Schultz, we need to pick it up." "T4 I'm not going anywhere. Come Monday let's get to work and do what can be done to move these scholars forward."
PS - early in the blog post I said to the doctor, "I feel real good." That has me laughing right now. Quoting PhD(*)Sparty, the best behavior therapist I've worked with, "Mr. Schultz, good is how food tastes and not how you feel." I can't stop laughing.
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Sunday, January 20, 2019
I Choose To Be Right Here
Sunday, January 20, 2019
On January 7th I walked back into the classroom following Christmas break. I spent the entire week in the classroom where I have a real swell view from the back of the room. On either Saturday January 12th or Sunday January 13th I should have written my next blog. I actually started the blog on Sunday the 13th by pulling out my cellphone to review the notes I made that reminds me what to write about. When I opened the notes section on the cellphone there were no notes. Nothing, zero, nada and after almost five years that was a first.
On Monday, November 14th, I walked into the classroom and T4 mentioned that she did not receive a letter from me over the weekend. I told her that I had nothing to write about. As we were talking OtherT4 walked into the room and spoke to T4 about a case conference that she had attended with a parental unit of one of her OtherT4-M's. As the conversation continued I thought to myself, "the scholar said what." Because I was late entering the notes of this conversation into my cellphone I'll be paraphrasing and, again, I don't make this stuff up.
A little background on OtherT4-M. He is the scholar that I talked about way back at the beginning of the school year. So far behind academically that he prints his name in the same fashion as a kindergarten student. So far behind academically that he struggles doing simple addition. This is a scholar that, if not watched closely as he transitions between the fourth grade classrooms will just wander off and hide in the restroom or will just sit in an out of the way corner. He will also do the same as he transitions to the various specials classes. Although this may seem that I am piling on this young scholar I can add this statement with a great deal of certainty, he has never started and completed a worksheet during this school year.
At some point during the case conference it was mentioned that OtherT4-M was showing improvement in not wandering off from the classroom. The parental unit viewed this as progress. Then the scholar, paraphrasing, said, "I have a Fitbit with GPS that keeps me in the classroom." Although I wasn't in the room I sure wish I could have been there when OtherT4-M mentioned his Fitbit with GPS. I can only imagine the facial expressions of the adults in the room that know this scholar. As the case conference continue, OtherT-4M came up this these two gems. "I ride an electric scooter to school," and "I have my own elevator pass." Lies, lies, lies, and the reaction from the parental unit was little if anything. Here is the part that scares me. If, sorry, when this young scholar does poorly on the upcoming state mandated ILEARN test the people involved in the testing could think this is a teacher problem and not a scholar problem.
If you have been following along for a while I'm certain you have heard me say, "I don't have to be here, I choose to be here" when talking about my involvement with this school. On Tuesday of this past week I heard the words, "I choose to be here," and they didn't come from my mouth. I was returning to T4's classroom when I found T4-F hiding in a corner off the second floor hallway. When I approached her I asked her, "where are you supposed to be?" Her response, "I choose to be right here." "I didn't ask you where you chose to be I asked you where your are suppose to be. Now, you need to move along and return to T4's classroom." "No, I'm not moving." As a volunteer I knew right away that I needed to be careful as I no longer have my blue Crisis Prevention and Intervention (CPI) card in my wallet and that pretty much leaves me at the mercy of this defiant scholar. Fortunately, I caught a huge break as I saw FBG, who deals with these types of behavioral issues all day long, and I got his attention. I explained what was going to FBG and then continued on my way. A short while later other T4-F, moving at her usual snails pace. was directed into the classroom by FBG.
I've dealt with a lot of parental units over my six and one half years at this school. Some of these parental units I label as piss poor parents, others that I know are really trying and I feel real bad for them when their scholar acts up. Here is a story of a parental unit that is really trying and when I encounter her this past week I was at a loss for words to say to her.
Tourette is a former scholar that I've known since he was in the first grade. This young scholar has issues, serious anger control issues. Tourette is now in the fifth grade and he still has anger issue that are so bad he only goes to school for half of the day. Tourette has a younger sibling in the school, I'm guessing second grade, with clear indications that he has the same anger issues as Tourette.
My day was over and I was cutting through the main office on my way to my car. When I I entered the office area I heard someone crying. Normally when you hear crying in the main office it is a scholar who is in trouble and is waiting to have a chat with either the BigB#4 or LittleBigB#2. This time, I shortly discovered, it was not a scholar, it was and adult. As I continued on through the office the crying got a little louder and then I saw the adult. She was sitting in a chair directly across from the school's Administrative Czar. She was bent over with her elbows on her knees, her hands covering her face, and she was crying. On the floor near her was Tourette's brother rolling around on the floor and refusing to go home. Like Tourette, this sibling just goes to school half of the day. Like Tourette can get, this sibling was in one of his defiant moods and on this particular day the parental unit, when picking up her grand children, just couldn't control herself and literally broke down crying right there in the main office of the school. That is tough to watch. That is even tougher to watch when you have known the parental unit for three years and you know, despite the disaster she has been placed in, she really tries to do the right thing.
I have more cellphone notes. One is regarding the timed multiplication/division tests that the scholars are now taking twice a week. Another note is just three words long, "I Don't Matter." This note brings a smile to my face as T4 suggested that I use "I Don't Matter" as the title for one of my blog posts. I also have these three notes; kindness, social-emotional learning and brain aligned and trauma responsive instruction whatever that means but I'm stopping and I'll tell you why. I'm sitting at my kitchen table looking out the window at a frigid, ground covered with snow day, that has a bright sunshine despite the temperature and here is all I can see, Tourette's parental unit, his grandmother, sitting in a chair with her elbows on her knees her hands covering her face and she is crying. This grandmother has had a nightmare dropped in her lap and I can't get it out of my mind so I'm stopping.
On January 7th I walked back into the classroom following Christmas break. I spent the entire week in the classroom where I have a real swell view from the back of the room. On either Saturday January 12th or Sunday January 13th I should have written my next blog. I actually started the blog on Sunday the 13th by pulling out my cellphone to review the notes I made that reminds me what to write about. When I opened the notes section on the cellphone there were no notes. Nothing, zero, nada and after almost five years that was a first.
On Monday, November 14th, I walked into the classroom and T4 mentioned that she did not receive a letter from me over the weekend. I told her that I had nothing to write about. As we were talking OtherT4 walked into the room and spoke to T4 about a case conference that she had attended with a parental unit of one of her OtherT4-M's. As the conversation continued I thought to myself, "the scholar said what." Because I was late entering the notes of this conversation into my cellphone I'll be paraphrasing and, again, I don't make this stuff up.
A little background on OtherT4-M. He is the scholar that I talked about way back at the beginning of the school year. So far behind academically that he prints his name in the same fashion as a kindergarten student. So far behind academically that he struggles doing simple addition. This is a scholar that, if not watched closely as he transitions between the fourth grade classrooms will just wander off and hide in the restroom or will just sit in an out of the way corner. He will also do the same as he transitions to the various specials classes. Although this may seem that I am piling on this young scholar I can add this statement with a great deal of certainty, he has never started and completed a worksheet during this school year.
At some point during the case conference it was mentioned that OtherT4-M was showing improvement in not wandering off from the classroom. The parental unit viewed this as progress. Then the scholar, paraphrasing, said, "I have a Fitbit with GPS that keeps me in the classroom." Although I wasn't in the room I sure wish I could have been there when OtherT4-M mentioned his Fitbit with GPS. I can only imagine the facial expressions of the adults in the room that know this scholar. As the case conference continue, OtherT-4M came up this these two gems. "I ride an electric scooter to school," and "I have my own elevator pass." Lies, lies, lies, and the reaction from the parental unit was little if anything. Here is the part that scares me. If, sorry, when this young scholar does poorly on the upcoming state mandated ILEARN test the people involved in the testing could think this is a teacher problem and not a scholar problem.
If you have been following along for a while I'm certain you have heard me say, "I don't have to be here, I choose to be here" when talking about my involvement with this school. On Tuesday of this past week I heard the words, "I choose to be here," and they didn't come from my mouth. I was returning to T4's classroom when I found T4-F hiding in a corner off the second floor hallway. When I approached her I asked her, "where are you supposed to be?" Her response, "I choose to be right here." "I didn't ask you where you chose to be I asked you where your are suppose to be. Now, you need to move along and return to T4's classroom." "No, I'm not moving." As a volunteer I knew right away that I needed to be careful as I no longer have my blue Crisis Prevention and Intervention (CPI) card in my wallet and that pretty much leaves me at the mercy of this defiant scholar. Fortunately, I caught a huge break as I saw FBG, who deals with these types of behavioral issues all day long, and I got his attention. I explained what was going to FBG and then continued on my way. A short while later other T4-F, moving at her usual snails pace. was directed into the classroom by FBG.
I've dealt with a lot of parental units over my six and one half years at this school. Some of these parental units I label as piss poor parents, others that I know are really trying and I feel real bad for them when their scholar acts up. Here is a story of a parental unit that is really trying and when I encounter her this past week I was at a loss for words to say to her.
Tourette is a former scholar that I've known since he was in the first grade. This young scholar has issues, serious anger control issues. Tourette is now in the fifth grade and he still has anger issue that are so bad he only goes to school for half of the day. Tourette has a younger sibling in the school, I'm guessing second grade, with clear indications that he has the same anger issues as Tourette.
My day was over and I was cutting through the main office on my way to my car. When I I entered the office area I heard someone crying. Normally when you hear crying in the main office it is a scholar who is in trouble and is waiting to have a chat with either the BigB#4 or LittleBigB#2. This time, I shortly discovered, it was not a scholar, it was and adult. As I continued on through the office the crying got a little louder and then I saw the adult. She was sitting in a chair directly across from the school's Administrative Czar. She was bent over with her elbows on her knees, her hands covering her face, and she was crying. On the floor near her was Tourette's brother rolling around on the floor and refusing to go home. Like Tourette, this sibling just goes to school half of the day. Like Tourette can get, this sibling was in one of his defiant moods and on this particular day the parental unit, when picking up her grand children, just couldn't control herself and literally broke down crying right there in the main office of the school. That is tough to watch. That is even tougher to watch when you have known the parental unit for three years and you know, despite the disaster she has been placed in, she really tries to do the right thing.
I have more cellphone notes. One is regarding the timed multiplication/division tests that the scholars are now taking twice a week. Another note is just three words long, "I Don't Matter." This note brings a smile to my face as T4 suggested that I use "I Don't Matter" as the title for one of my blog posts. I also have these three notes; kindness, social-emotional learning and brain aligned and trauma responsive instruction whatever that means but I'm stopping and I'll tell you why. I'm sitting at my kitchen table looking out the window at a frigid, ground covered with snow day, that has a bright sunshine despite the temperature and here is all I can see, Tourette's parental unit, his grandmother, sitting in a chair with her elbows on her knees her hands covering her face and she is crying. This grandmother has had a nightmare dropped in her lap and I can't get it out of my mind so I'm stopping.
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