The Meeting

Oh, boy. She's going to be one of "those" parents. You know the kind--every graded paper kept in a folder so they can be scrutinized for mistakes. Every single thing I do as a routine is questioned, including not having a set math test day "like the other school did". I think we're all wishing they'd never left the other school--maybe they'll go back. One of the adults at the meeting agreed with us that Rotney was done no favor by getting to retake tests (with "help") because he hasn't learned any skills that way. The other adult just wants him to continue to be on the honor roll because, as she says, "These F's are hurting his self-esteem." Sorry, I don't modify grades to B's. I will help Rotney pass, but please remember that D's and C's are also passing grades. The meeting was tense, but without the other adult's support (her own mother, BTW), there wasn't a whole lot she could do but keep a pickle-sour look on her face.

Ooooh! Big News! Skippy had his meds today! Talk about a difference--he was actually able to sit and work and didn't eat anything off the floor all day! I hope he stays on them--our kids' meds are quite often "lost" because mom sells them.

Others in my class

It's early in the school year, but so far you (my fictitious reader) have only read about two of my challenging students. I do have students who are not challenging. Some snapshots of them, complete with anonymous names:

• Sweet Guy--cried on the first day of school because he was afraid of fourth grade. He's usually happy-go-lucky and an avid student. I like him alot, more for his attitude than his scholarliness. Happy kids are a blessing to be around.
• Sweet Girl--hugs me a lot, always when I'm least expecting it. She means well, though, so I try not to jump to the ceiling when she comes up from behind. I'm the sort who never wants anyone to touch my back.
• Big Girl--I was afraid Big Girl and I wouldn't get along. She came to me with the reputation of being a hallway roamer--leaving to use the restroom and never coming back. She also has a reputation as a behavior problem. She is very low and I think leaving the classroom was a respite for her. I'll only let her leave the room with an aide or the Special Ed teacher, and we're working individually with her as much as possible. She's actually quite a sweet child, just hindered greatly by her first grade skills.
• My Acolyte--follows me around the room. I look to my left and there he is. Shy, nervous, and always over-thinking his conversations with me, he desperately wants my approval. I need to figure out a way to let him know he's OKAY with me without giving him permission to hang on me all day long. Tricky situation.
• Best Buds--one of them is new to our state; the other is an outgoing boy I asked to be his friend on the first day of school. Now they're inseparable, but both are good kids--do their work and mind their own business--so it's not a problem. You'd never know they've only known each other for three weeks.
  
• Princess--perfect hair, lovely girl. Unfortunately, a no-gapper. Do you have these--low performance because of low IQ and, therefore, not Special Ed? Bless her heart, she tries.
• Wise Guy--don't let the name fool you--he is very wise but has Asperger's so everything comes with a little twist. If I forget to dot an i, he notices and kindly points it out, every single time. He could be a big pain, but he's so sincere in everything he says and does that I just enjoy him.

Well, that's enough for now. I am enjoying getting to know my students; behavior wise, we're not quite the class I want yet, but we're getting there.

Progress Reports

It's the end of the first third of our quarter and progress reports went home today. I'm now waiting for a bombardment of parent queries about low grades (What can s/he do to make it up? Um, if s/he would just do his/her assignments and turn them in, that would do the trick.) I don't do extra credit; I do give credit for work turned in. It's that simple, but this year's group is one of the worst I've ever had as far as turning in assignments go. When I speak to them, singly or as a group, I get blank stares and a "What's the big deal?" attitude.

Parents can be a help or a hindrance when it comes to learning. One of my students (let's call him Rotney) has a parent who is determined that he make all A's or A's and B's. He's not quite that caliber (putting it mildly), so this parent wants us to offer him retests, after she sees what he has missed and then teaches him the correct answers. And, yes, I mean the exact answers. (Lesson learned--no more marking the correct answer as I grade our standardized-format reading tests!) I've got news for her--tests are staying at school until after he is retested unless an equivalent form of the test is available. I only have equivalent forms available in math, and I'm not about to start creating my own reading and social studies assessments. Rotney knows he doesn't have to try, so rushes through his work so that he doesn't miss a moment of socializing. He's the Hedda Hopper of my classroom--always reporting what others are doing wrong yet, at the same time, doing plenty of wrong things himself. So, in a nutshell--behavior problem, pushy parent, 2 meetings scheduled about him next week--could life be any more perfect? :(

Skippy

I've worked with the same Special Ed teacher for the past 6 years. We work really well together and share memories and laughs about some of our special kids from the past. We have our own list of "best" students--you know--those kids who benchmark the wrong behaviors: "Best Cheater", "Best Fighter", "Best Whiner". Until this year, the child who was, hands down, the "Best Example of Off-the-Charts ADHD" was George, even though he was only with us for a month. He would literally spin on his head in his seat and had absolutely no attention span. Poor George--he had a terrible homelife and the fact that he couldn't function because his ADHD was so severe didn't faze his mom--no support from her at all. Finally, his father found out where he was living (in appalling conditions--mom was more stressed about her boyfriend leaving than worried about George's needs) and took him back to his home (a place far away).

Well, I think I have finally found a new benchmark for "Best Example of Off-the-Charts ADHD". Let's call him "Skippy". Skippy is brilliant--high test scores even though most instruction takes place when he's out of his seat because he's never actually in his seat. I've said, "Skippy, SIT DOWN" so often that I probably say it in my sleep. Today was one of his really bad days--he was constantly looking for a reason to be out of his seat and I was constantly redirecting him and trying to get him to complete a simple reading worksheet. Finally, when he dismantled his pencil sharpener and tried to insert the very sharp blade into the plastic casing (to stick straight out, like a scalpel), I had had enough and sent him to the office. It was 10:00. He had driven me to distraction in an hour and forty minutes. He has already been written up once for threatening to cut the throat of a classmate (3 days ago), so I had to send him for making something weapon-like. Truthfully, I can handle the typical ADHD behaviors, but being ADHD does not make you threaten others or put your hands around a clasmate's throat to choke. And that's what I'm dealing with everyday with him.

So, after a record-breaking year of behavior issues (12 behavior problems last year. TWELVE.), this year I've got Skippy. And another handful of ADHD kids, but Skippy is the newly crowned "Best". It's going to be an interesting year.

Negative Brownie Points

First, a little background: We have a new computer class this year. Because the teacher who has this classroom is renowned for her inability to teach, we classroom teachers have to stay with our classes to assist her. Yeah, I'm not wild about this--I would instead appreciate the planning time, but I would stay with my class (even if I weren't forced to) rather than leave them with her. She yells and goes too fast and makes nonsensical statements as asides--you just gotta see it to believe it.

After today's experience, I had to say something to Boss, so I sent her this email:
"A positive comment:
The half hour I spend in the computer lab every week makes me appreciate all of the half hours that I don’t. "

She didn't find it to be a positive comment. But, I swear, it was the most positive comment I could find! (Somewhere I need to mention that I saw Julie and Julia and commented to Boss that I needed to be more like Julia Child--she was unflappable and never let setbacks get her down. I told Boss that I was going to work on being more positive. See--my email was a JOKE.) Boss wasn't upset with me (probably), but perhaps tired of acknowledging that that particular teacher is a thorn in our collective behinds. We did have a small chuckle about it, but I felt bad that I had let my negativity out. Gotta push that cork in tighter and put on a sunny face. Yeah, right.

Mondays

Mondays are hard enough, but I just wish the god of Mondays had cut me some slack today. I had 2 concerned parents before school began, a concerned parent who popped in at 9:00, and 2 voluminous parent emails after school. All different concerned parents. All the same problem--why is my child failing (choose one or more) math, social studies, all classes.

I am a parent of 4 children. When any of my children failed, I never once--not even for a teensy moment--supposed it was the teacher's fault. My students' helicopter parents don't see how it could be anyone's fault but the teacher's (mine, in case this is unclear.) One parent (really custodian, but not really--just acting for the custodian--opening up the whole FERPA can of worms!) wants me to allow her darling to retake tests until As or Bs are achieved. Yeah--like that's going to happen. But it seems it did happen at another school in our district that this darling attended. Um, getting multiple chances to pass a test does not make your child an A/B honor roll student. It makes your child lucky or the best bubbler-in-er or something, but it does not mean that your child's grades match his/her ability level and that's what grades should do, shouldn't they? Doggone it.

And, just for the record--if a child has made it to 4th grade and there is not an accountability system set up by you the parent to check your child's daily work, then that is not the teacher's fault, either. You know your child. If s/he has made a habit in the past of having missing assignments, then why do you suppose that I have lost them? Why don't you set up a system so that your child has a place for his/her work and knows that you will check to see that it is completed? Oh, you're too busy you say? Well, try dealing with 20 other children, all with their own unique needs that are just as important as your darling's. Just try it. I'd like to see that. Not so easy, is it?

I don't think I have anyone reading these posts, but if you are and are horrified by my attitude, I wish I could say I'm sorry. But I can't. The god of Mondays has won this week.

Back to School

I hate the first two weeks of school--thank goodness it's over and I'm good-to-go until the last two weeks of school (hate those, too!). I intended to post sooner than this, but it's been a very hectic time for me. My roster has settled down and the remaining class is fairly balanced: 12 boys and 9 girls. Of course, some of those boys are really like having 2 boys, since they never sit down or do any work so my class is really more like 17 boys and 9 girls. :) Still, not as bad as last year's group. I do wonder what they do at our sister-school (k-3), because it seems like not a whole lot of teaching has been going on.

Really--shouldn't 4th graders be able to get out a pencil when directed to do so? Or have their "pen in hand, ready to check" their paper? When I say these things, I get blank looks. So I've been explicitly teaching everything imaginable and trying so hard not to be sarcastic about it. I have succeeded at that but sarcasm is one of my great character flaws, and I constantly strive to be less brusque and more, umm--human? Anyway, less of what my natural tendency is. I am a good teacher, my students come to appreciate me (even love me), but I can be a little too no-nonsense (but that's not always a bad thing).

One constant daily frustration is our Social Studies notebooks. A few of my students are doing a wonderful job--notebooks lovingly decorated and well-maintained. Others--well, explicitly showing and telling and using my doc camera to really show and tell has had no effect on them. Their notebooks are irreparably screwed up--papers glued in just any-old-where, incomplete, and just plain wrong in so many ways. Oh--the angst! And I've tried so hard! I gave up on talking them through taking notes--even when I write them on the doc camera as they watch, they can't keep up. Even with looooooooong pauses. After spending 3 days on Lesson 1 (and our curriculum map says "1 day" for that lesson), I knew I had to make some changes. Now, I provide a notetaking frame. It's basically cloze sentences, written with one eye on continuity (history is a story) and the other eye on the chapter test (so that it is also the study guide my 6 students with IEPs need.) I spent a couple of hours writing these for the next 2 chapters. Here's an example:

Chapter 1 Lesson 3
The Rise of ___________________
1. The ___________
• The Mayan ____________________ developed about
_____________ years ago and lasted until about the year
_____________.
• The Maya were extremely successful _______________ and
eventually produced a _______________ _of food.
• Because they had a _________________ of food, some Maya
began to ______________________.
• As a result of the Mayan study of the movements of the
____________, ______________, and _______________, the Maya
developed a highly accurate ________________.
2. The _________________ and the __________________
• The ______________ civilization developed in about the year
_______________.
• The Aztecs settled in the Valley of ________________ where
they built the great city of _________________________.
• The Aztecs got more ______________ for _______________ by
creating floating _________________, carving terraces in
___________________, and developing __________________
systems.
• The Aztecs extended their borders to reach from the
______________ to the _______________ oceans by conquering
other peoples in the _________________ of Mexico.
• At the same time as the ______________ ruled central Mexico,
the _______________ Empire rose in South America.
• The Incas built thousands of miles of ____________ to link all
parts of the empire to their capital at ________________.

I don't just give them this notetaking frame--we read and work together on it. They locate the lesson title, section names, etc. in the text, then we read the first cloze statement (they are sequential) and listen to the cd recording of the text to hear the answer. Hands shoot up, the answer is found in the text, and everyone records it. Or, so I thought. I don't record it for them. Not even on the example on display on the doc camera--heck, I've done everything but that. But, incredibly, quite a few want me to do that, too. Um, no. The answer is in your text. Find it.

Oh, and next time I make a batch of these frames, I'll replace the bullet point with A. B. C. listings--they just can't handle those bullet points.