A Parental Unit Request
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
It's election day and yes I voted.
There are a lot of student teachers in the school right now so when I arrived at school around 9:35am the parking lot was full. My only option was street parking but I'm good with that is there is not a lot of traffic around the school. As I was heading across the parking lot I saw both of Uh-Uh-Uh's parental units in their car. As a reminder, Uh-Uh-Uh is a former scholar of mine that is now in the sixth grade. One of the parental units saw me walking across the parking lot so I waved and continued on my way to the main entrance of the school. Just before stepping onto the sidewalk Uh-Uh-Uh's parental units pulled up in their car and parked right in front me. Don't worry, there is no drama here as I like Uh-Uh-Uh's parental units as they were easy to work with for the three years Uh-Uh-Uh and I were in the same classroom.
With the car at a complete stop I walked up to the driver side window, shook hands with the driver, lowered my head to see in the window then said "good morning," to the passenger. With the pleasantries completed the driver said to me, "we are worried that BabyT is falling behind in his reading and we would like to know if you could make some time in your day to help him read." The request caught me off guard a little but I told Uh-Uh-Uh's parental units that if I can fit into my day I would try and help BabyT.
I knew Baby T was in the second grade so I tracked down his teacher of record to see if there was a good time to read with the scholar that also fit my daily agenda. T2 and I came to an agreement on a time so I found Uh-Uh-Uh and told her to tell her parental units that I would begin reading with BabyT right after fall break.
With a library book in hand, one that was at the lowest reading level, I headed off to my first reading lesson with BabyT. I was a little concerned as to what would happen when I told BabyT that I was there to read with him because he can be a tad bit bullheaded and even down right defiant. I've known BabyT since he was in kindergarten so I was hoping that his familiarity with me would work to my advantage and it did. We sat down in the main office, no drama at all, and he read the entire book. As BabyT read, it didn't take me long to see that he was clearly behind in reading. My estimate at to his reading level would put him a year to a year and a half behind where he should be.
After a couple reading sessions with BabyT I ran across one of his parental units in the school hallway so we talked for a couple minutes. I told the parental unit that BabyT was behind in his reading but that he was more than willing to read with me. I then said this to the parental unit, "I can help BabyT with his reading but in order for him to get caught up someone at home needed to get him to read in the evening." As I was talking I was also watching the parental unit's facial expression. Sadly, the facial expression gave me the indication that what I said about reading at home in the evening just went in one ear and right out the other. As I started heading to T4's classroom following my conversation with BabyT's parental unit I was thinking to myself, "you asked me to extend my day at school, as a non-paid volunteer, to help your young scholar read but you give me no indication that you will read to him at home." Dear parental unit. You are failing as a parental unit but I made a commitment to help your son read and I am going to honor that commitment. Maybe you should make a commitment to be a better parental unit.
Saturday November 10, 2018
Okay, back to academics and long division. As a reminder, the quiz on long division that took place last Friday was a disaster as both groups of fourth grade scholars had the lowest accumulated math quiz score of the school year. Knowing this I was pretty certain that T4 would be revisiting long division and I was correct.
Although the long division quiz scores from last week were dismal there was a pretty clear indication that at a certain point in the division process the scholars got lost and it was consistent for both groups of fourth grade scholars. I'll try and explain what went wrong and I hope this makes sense. When doing long division T4 came up with an acronym, D-M-S-B, and it reads as follows, Divide, Multiply, Subtract and Bring down. The scholars did well right to the point of Bring down (B) and then they got lost. This was evident to me as I was grading the last quiz because on a couple quizzes, despite trying my best to figure out how they came up with answer that they did, I had no idea where their numbers came from.
So, it's Monday morning and T4 is starting over with long division. The acronym D-M-S-B is placed on the over head screen so the scholars could see it. With the first long division problem on the over head screen T4 started the division process but at a much slower pace. When she reached the B in Bring down she really slowed down as this was where the scholars got lost. The long division process was followed for a few more problems when I heard this, "Schultz, I need some copies made." In my hand was a quiz on long division but, as T4 told me, it was a practice quiz. There would be no grade given and all that T4 wanted to see was if the scholars had a better grasp on long division so off to the copier I went.
T4 now has the quiz copies in her hand and is passing them out to the scholars. About fifteen or twenty minutes I heard, "Schultz, grade the quizzes. Each problem is worth four points. One point is awarded if they have the right answer. The other three point are awarded based on how well the scholars followed the D-M-S-B process." All of the quizzes are transferred to my hand and out to the half round table in the hallway I go. The quizzes are graded and they are transferred back to T4's hands. When I handed them over I said to T4, "much better results. I think we are on the right track."
It's now election day, Tuesday, November 6, 2018, and school was cancelled. When the school corporation put the school calendar together prior to the start of the school year they decided that classes would not be held on election day as many of the gymnasiums in the school corporation are polling places. I was good with that as now, instead of arriving at a polling place during the peak voting hours, I could go in the middle of the day and I did. I walked in and fifteen minutes later I walked back out.
On to Wednesday and we are back at long division. T4 passed out the worksheet for the day and she was working from the front of the classroom and I'm in my designated help spot. T4 starts walking the scholars through the first long division problem and I heard, "Mr. Schultz, I don't know what to do?" "Mr. Schultz, can you help me?" "Mr. Schultz, I need some help." We are on the first problem and all of the gains that were made on Monday have been lost in a matter of twenty-four hours. At the end of the day I was frustrated that so many scholars, after doing long division for several days, still didn't get it. When the scholars from OtherT4's classroom rotated out of the room I walked over to T4 and said, "I need to figure out how I can divide myself into fourths as so many scholars just don't get it.
Sunday, November 11, 2018 - Veterans Day
It's now Thursday and we are doing long division again. Thursday was just a revisit of Wednesday as so many scholars were requesting help. On this day though I was being selective on who I was going to help. Today I picked a scholar to help that I know was really trying to do his work, OtherT4-M, and asked him to join me at the hexagon. One day, during the previous week, I worked with OtherT4-M one on one at the half round table in the hallway. As we were working on the long division he looked up and said to me, "I think I got this Mr. Schultz." He was right, he was following the D-M-S-B sequence correctly and was solving the problems. In fact, after I left the half round table, OtherT4-M started making up his own long division problems and was solving them.
Sadly, as I was sitting with him at the hexagon, everything he had know was forgotten. I said to him, "OtherT4-M you need to get started on the first problem, you know how to do this." His head immediately dropped down and he just sat there. I let him sit there for a minute or so and then said to him, "come on you can do this." He didn't move, it was like he didn't even hear me, and then I saw the tears running down his face.
Later that day I was at home thinking about OtherT4-M when this thought popped into my head. "Was his tears the result of being embarrassed because he couldn't do the math problems or was there much deeper problems that happened away from the classroom." So many of the scholars that T4 and I work with come from hard places; no father around, living with a relative because the parental units failed at parenting, drugs, alcohol, prison, deaths, and so many other things that can negatively impact a scholar getting an education. In hindsight, I should have taken OtherT4-M out to the half round table in the hallway and asked him why he was so sad. If his tears were caused by something that happened at home I could have contacted people that could have helped him with his crisis. I missed that opportunity and I felt bad. There are times like this that I need to do a better job. This is a lesson learned for me. Hopefully one that won't happen again.
Another sad ending. I don't like sad endings so, despite this blog being too long, I'm going to continue. It's now Friday morning. I was sitting at the kitchen table when a text message poured in. "We have food can you come in early?" I responded, "yes." When I arrived there were bagels and cream cheese sitting at the half round table in the hallway. I stuck my head in the classroom door so T4 would know that I was in the building and then sat down to eat a bagel. When I finished eating I stepped into the classroom and T4 greeted me right at the door. She put he hand on my should and starting guiding me toward the front of the classroom and then stepped away. As soon as I was standing alone in the front of the classroom four scholars walked up to me and said, "Happy Veterans Day, Mr. Schultz."
I can already here the LibraryLady from that hoity toity private school saying, "he left me hanging again." That's right LibraryLady, the rest of the story will be told next week.
It's election day and yes I voted.
There are a lot of student teachers in the school right now so when I arrived at school around 9:35am the parking lot was full. My only option was street parking but I'm good with that is there is not a lot of traffic around the school. As I was heading across the parking lot I saw both of Uh-Uh-Uh's parental units in their car. As a reminder, Uh-Uh-Uh is a former scholar of mine that is now in the sixth grade. One of the parental units saw me walking across the parking lot so I waved and continued on my way to the main entrance of the school. Just before stepping onto the sidewalk Uh-Uh-Uh's parental units pulled up in their car and parked right in front me. Don't worry, there is no drama here as I like Uh-Uh-Uh's parental units as they were easy to work with for the three years Uh-Uh-Uh and I were in the same classroom.
With the car at a complete stop I walked up to the driver side window, shook hands with the driver, lowered my head to see in the window then said "good morning," to the passenger. With the pleasantries completed the driver said to me, "we are worried that BabyT is falling behind in his reading and we would like to know if you could make some time in your day to help him read." The request caught me off guard a little but I told Uh-Uh-Uh's parental units that if I can fit into my day I would try and help BabyT.
I knew Baby T was in the second grade so I tracked down his teacher of record to see if there was a good time to read with the scholar that also fit my daily agenda. T2 and I came to an agreement on a time so I found Uh-Uh-Uh and told her to tell her parental units that I would begin reading with BabyT right after fall break.
With a library book in hand, one that was at the lowest reading level, I headed off to my first reading lesson with BabyT. I was a little concerned as to what would happen when I told BabyT that I was there to read with him because he can be a tad bit bullheaded and even down right defiant. I've known BabyT since he was in kindergarten so I was hoping that his familiarity with me would work to my advantage and it did. We sat down in the main office, no drama at all, and he read the entire book. As BabyT read, it didn't take me long to see that he was clearly behind in reading. My estimate at to his reading level would put him a year to a year and a half behind where he should be.
After a couple reading sessions with BabyT I ran across one of his parental units in the school hallway so we talked for a couple minutes. I told the parental unit that BabyT was behind in his reading but that he was more than willing to read with me. I then said this to the parental unit, "I can help BabyT with his reading but in order for him to get caught up someone at home needed to get him to read in the evening." As I was talking I was also watching the parental unit's facial expression. Sadly, the facial expression gave me the indication that what I said about reading at home in the evening just went in one ear and right out the other. As I started heading to T4's classroom following my conversation with BabyT's parental unit I was thinking to myself, "you asked me to extend my day at school, as a non-paid volunteer, to help your young scholar read but you give me no indication that you will read to him at home." Dear parental unit. You are failing as a parental unit but I made a commitment to help your son read and I am going to honor that commitment. Maybe you should make a commitment to be a better parental unit.
Saturday November 10, 2018
Okay, back to academics and long division. As a reminder, the quiz on long division that took place last Friday was a disaster as both groups of fourth grade scholars had the lowest accumulated math quiz score of the school year. Knowing this I was pretty certain that T4 would be revisiting long division and I was correct.
Although the long division quiz scores from last week were dismal there was a pretty clear indication that at a certain point in the division process the scholars got lost and it was consistent for both groups of fourth grade scholars. I'll try and explain what went wrong and I hope this makes sense. When doing long division T4 came up with an acronym, D-M-S-B, and it reads as follows, Divide, Multiply, Subtract and Bring down. The scholars did well right to the point of Bring down (B) and then they got lost. This was evident to me as I was grading the last quiz because on a couple quizzes, despite trying my best to figure out how they came up with answer that they did, I had no idea where their numbers came from.
So, it's Monday morning and T4 is starting over with long division. The acronym D-M-S-B is placed on the over head screen so the scholars could see it. With the first long division problem on the over head screen T4 started the division process but at a much slower pace. When she reached the B in Bring down she really slowed down as this was where the scholars got lost. The long division process was followed for a few more problems when I heard this, "Schultz, I need some copies made." In my hand was a quiz on long division but, as T4 told me, it was a practice quiz. There would be no grade given and all that T4 wanted to see was if the scholars had a better grasp on long division so off to the copier I went.
T4 now has the quiz copies in her hand and is passing them out to the scholars. About fifteen or twenty minutes I heard, "Schultz, grade the quizzes. Each problem is worth four points. One point is awarded if they have the right answer. The other three point are awarded based on how well the scholars followed the D-M-S-B process." All of the quizzes are transferred to my hand and out to the half round table in the hallway I go. The quizzes are graded and they are transferred back to T4's hands. When I handed them over I said to T4, "much better results. I think we are on the right track."
It's now election day, Tuesday, November 6, 2018, and school was cancelled. When the school corporation put the school calendar together prior to the start of the school year they decided that classes would not be held on election day as many of the gymnasiums in the school corporation are polling places. I was good with that as now, instead of arriving at a polling place during the peak voting hours, I could go in the middle of the day and I did. I walked in and fifteen minutes later I walked back out.
On to Wednesday and we are back at long division. T4 passed out the worksheet for the day and she was working from the front of the classroom and I'm in my designated help spot. T4 starts walking the scholars through the first long division problem and I heard, "Mr. Schultz, I don't know what to do?" "Mr. Schultz, can you help me?" "Mr. Schultz, I need some help." We are on the first problem and all of the gains that were made on Monday have been lost in a matter of twenty-four hours. At the end of the day I was frustrated that so many scholars, after doing long division for several days, still didn't get it. When the scholars from OtherT4's classroom rotated out of the room I walked over to T4 and said, "I need to figure out how I can divide myself into fourths as so many scholars just don't get it.
Sunday, November 11, 2018 - Veterans Day
It's now Thursday and we are doing long division again. Thursday was just a revisit of Wednesday as so many scholars were requesting help. On this day though I was being selective on who I was going to help. Today I picked a scholar to help that I know was really trying to do his work, OtherT4-M, and asked him to join me at the hexagon. One day, during the previous week, I worked with OtherT4-M one on one at the half round table in the hallway. As we were working on the long division he looked up and said to me, "I think I got this Mr. Schultz." He was right, he was following the D-M-S-B sequence correctly and was solving the problems. In fact, after I left the half round table, OtherT4-M started making up his own long division problems and was solving them.
Sadly, as I was sitting with him at the hexagon, everything he had know was forgotten. I said to him, "OtherT4-M you need to get started on the first problem, you know how to do this." His head immediately dropped down and he just sat there. I let him sit there for a minute or so and then said to him, "come on you can do this." He didn't move, it was like he didn't even hear me, and then I saw the tears running down his face.
Later that day I was at home thinking about OtherT4-M when this thought popped into my head. "Was his tears the result of being embarrassed because he couldn't do the math problems or was there much deeper problems that happened away from the classroom." So many of the scholars that T4 and I work with come from hard places; no father around, living with a relative because the parental units failed at parenting, drugs, alcohol, prison, deaths, and so many other things that can negatively impact a scholar getting an education. In hindsight, I should have taken OtherT4-M out to the half round table in the hallway and asked him why he was so sad. If his tears were caused by something that happened at home I could have contacted people that could have helped him with his crisis. I missed that opportunity and I felt bad. There are times like this that I need to do a better job. This is a lesson learned for me. Hopefully one that won't happen again.
Another sad ending. I don't like sad endings so, despite this blog being too long, I'm going to continue. It's now Friday morning. I was sitting at the kitchen table when a text message poured in. "We have food can you come in early?" I responded, "yes." When I arrived there were bagels and cream cheese sitting at the half round table in the hallway. I stuck my head in the classroom door so T4 would know that I was in the building and then sat down to eat a bagel. When I finished eating I stepped into the classroom and T4 greeted me right at the door. She put he hand on my should and starting guiding me toward the front of the classroom and then stepped away. As soon as I was standing alone in the front of the classroom four scholars walked up to me and said, "Happy Veterans Day, Mr. Schultz."
I can already here the LibraryLady from that hoity toity private school saying, "he left me hanging again." That's right LibraryLady, the rest of the story will be told next week.
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