In cooperation with the Ruth Lily Foundation and Marian University, both located here in Indianapolis, several of the scholars in are school will be attending a presentation on healthy food choices. Rounding to the tens place value position, forty of our scholars were handed a flier on the event to take home to their parental unit. From what I can tell, thirty-nine scholars successfully accomplished this task putting T4's class at a ninety-seven percent success rate. One scholar failed to accomplish the assignment in a timely fashion. Below is correspondence from the parental unit of this one scholar. Again, I remind you, I don't make this stuff up.
Dear Teacher,
Why am I just now seeing this! I wasn't aware of this at ALL!! Then to get it the day of. Well actually after school on same day! Unexceptable !! I need a phone call ASAP!!.
Signed, Parental Unit
Dear Parental Unit,
I am not your scholar's teacher. I am the gray haired, wrinkly faced, sometimes grumpy, but right now thoroughly pissed off, old guy that sits in your scholar's classroom and helps him with his math and occasionally with his writing assignments. I had the opportunity to read the hand written note that you sent to your scholar's teacher and let me tell you this. Your hand written note is unacceptable for the following reasons.
- The word is unacceptable not "unexceptable." That is unacceptable.
- In your first sentence you asked a question. That requires a question mark and not an exclamation point at the end of the sentence. That is unacceptable.
- In you third sentence you left off a prepositional phrase that was needed to have a complete sentence. That is unacceptable.
- Your fourth sentence is not even a sentence. That is unacceptable.
- ASAP is an acronym. Acronyms are not allowed when writing in the fourth grade. As soon as possible is allowed. The use of an acronym is unacceptable.
Let me tell you this before I continue. Your little diatribe, directed at your scholar's teacher, caused me to get so upset that I had to walk out of the classroom to de-escalate. With that being said, let me tell you a little about your scholar.
Are you aware that your scholar has been absent from school eleven times and tardy fourteen times? That is unacceptable. Are you aware that every school day your scholar arrives with absolutely nothing in his hands? No books, no papers, no pens or pencils, not even a backpack. That is unacceptable. Are you aware that your scholar is one of the biggest disruptive forces in the classroom and instruction has to stop multiple times a day to correct your scholar's misbehavior? That is unacceptable. Are you aware that when the teacher addresses your scholar's disruptive behavior your scholar thinks is appropriate to snap in half pencils that were paid for by either the school or his teacher? That is unacceptable. Are you aware that at the end of every school day your scholar walks within three feet of his mailbox that contains his completed school work and any notifications about school events that you need to see? Are you aware that every day your scholar walks out of the classroom without a book, paper, pen or pencil, or a backpack and without the papers you need to see about upcoming school events? That is unacceptable and is the reason you were not notified about the school event you mentioned in you diatribe.
So, before you go off the next time, let me offer you a bit of advise. You can call the teacher and get the truth or you can call me at BR549 and I'll tell you exactly what I see from my view at the back of the classroom.
Signed,
Gray hair, wrinkly faced, occasionally grumpy, old guy who spends a great deal of time every week helping your scholar with his math and writing because he is so far behind academically.
No Boarders and No Consequences
I'm on the second floor in a staff lounge that doubles as our copy center room. In the hallway, outside the art classroom, either the second or third grade scholars are arriving for their art class. The teacher is in the hallway as the scholars are arriving. Paraphrasing. "Please line up, girls in one line and boys in the other line and you all need to be quiet before you can enter my classroom." The scholars ignore the request. Twice more the instructions are repeated and still the scholars ignore the instruction. Finally, the girls are settled down and can enter the classroom and take their assigned seat. As the girls are entering the classroom one of them decides to sit at the teachers desk and not in her assigned seat. "Please get out of my chair and sit in your assigned seat," the teacher said to the scholars.
The teacher now turns her attention to the boys. The majority are now in line an silent so they can enter the classroom. The remaining handful are either sitting on the floor talking or rolling around on the floor with their jackets pulled up over their heads and totaling ignoring the teacher's request to get in line and stop talking. The consequences for this defiant behavior. None!
No Boarders and No Consequences
I'm now in the classroom. T4 is walking around the classroom handing out the morning work to the scholars so the day can get started. While at the desk of T4-F, T4 states to the scholar, "Take the hoodie off you head and hang it up in your cubby." The request is ignored. The request to remove the hoodie is made two more times and is totally ignored. In the past this type of behavior was referred to the school leadership so it could be addressed. That didn't happen on this day as referring a behavior issue to the school leadership results in the scholar being sent back to the classroom with a note in hand, paraphrasing, "Behavior is not an issue to be addressed by school leadership. You need to handle it yourself." There are, again rounding to the tens position, twenty scholars in the classroom. How much academic time should be lost dealing with one defiant scholar? In this case none as nineteen scholars are no going to miss a part of their academic time because behavior issue will not be dealt with appropriately by the school.
It's Friday morning and there are visitors in the school. Both of them are coaches from the school corporation and they are visiting classrooms to observe instruction. When I walked into the classroom the math coach from the school corporation was already there. T4 took a minute to introduce me and then the daily lesson, on decimals, began. As T4 progressed through the decimal lesson, with occasional comments made by the math coach, T4 passed near me and said that when the lesson was over I needed to step out of the classroom so she could talk privately with the math coached. I told her I would and when the time came I stepped out into the hallway, sat down at my half round table and with nothing to do I pulled out my cellphone and was going to read an on-line newspaper.
After a couple of minutes reading the newspaper the school corporation coach that was in OtherT4's classroom exited the classroom so I stood up and walked into OtherT4's classroom. "How did your observation go?" I asked. "I've about had it with this school so I told the coach was I thought." That didn't sound good so I said nothing. OtherT4 continues. "I told the school corporation coach this. I received input from our school based coach and followed those instructions. Then school leadership saw what I was doing and told me to stop doing that and do this. Then you arrived at the school, observe what I am doing, and then send me off in a third direction."
Right now I don't know how the school corporation coach reacted to what OtherT4 said to her. OtherT4 made a bold statement and I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. There is one thing I know for certain and it is this. Three people don't walk into the classroom and give the teacher contradicting directions. That is my opinion is unacceptable.
Wrapping it up for another day. One diatribe, two No Boarders and No Consequences, and one trilogy of contradictory directions on how to teach. No positivity, all negativity. As I you know, I don't like that.
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