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!