Make Your Mark Heavy And Dark
Well, the good news is the dreaded TEST is water under the bridge. Now it's a game of hurry up and wait. Apparently the scoring can take some time, so it might even be as long as till next year before I hear back on the results for my class from this year. That system, of course, makes total and complete sense.
In the meanwhile, there's, "nothing to do but go back and review" since nearly everything that is necessary for the test is touched upon BEFORE...the test.
That's not to say that the kids can't use the review. I mean it's not like they're all masters, far from it. In fact, most days it's like Groundhog's Day, since you repeat yourself over and over but to no avail.
No, perhaps the biggest issue in my class is that they are smart, but in a different way. See these kids are street smart. In fact one thing you can trust is that many of these kids simply cannot be trusted.
For instance, there's my newest student who has been with me for a few months now. Instantly when he got there he had that "one of these things is not like the others" vibe about him. At first I thought he might have just been bilingual and not understanding me. It made sense since his brother, who was in 4th, was placed in a bilingual class. But then, as it turned out, he was not bilingual, just really, really low.
Test after test the kid was bombing. And then there was the behavior. Suddenly there was another kid who could just not stay in his seat, not to mention the stories of cursing. Cursing? My kids didn't curse! What is up with this new kid corrupting my poor, rather surprisingly innocent third graders?
Then I met with mom and the picture suddenly became much, much clearer.
Mom doesn't speak English so in these cases, a school interperter is available to help out. But his uncle came along as well, and he did speak English so we were good to go. Mom was unresponsive about his behavior and his grades and only said that he had "some" problems in his old school. But at this school some had quickly turned into many. On top of everything else, he was taking on his uncle's identity by signing his name as his along with forging and signing his paper's with his uncle's signature.
To me it was shocking that this kid had started forging so early. Then, when we called him in the room, I was even more shocked when the kid showed no remorse. NONE. Quite the contrary. And mom and the uncle? Said nada. He actually had a smile on his face the entire time. This my friends, is the stuff future serial killers are made of.
Adding insult to injury, his paperwork had yet to come through from out of state. If my school had a helpful guidance counselor on the case this could have easily been resolved. Oh we have a counselor alright, but she ain't too keen on actually "guiding" anyone anyhere, so it was back the drawing board. Then, a week before THE TEST she finally gets in touch with someone at his old school who confirms that not only is he a troubled kid, but that he was also, in a self contained special ed classroom.
For this, I had 2 immediate reactions:
1. I was right in thinking something was amiss all along.
2. Now what?
Unfortunately, there was no real answer for number 2. I was told we had to wait until his paperwork came through from the school to see if it was enough to not have to reevaluate him here. But like I said, we had the little matter of THE TEST to contend with. Well, as it turns out, he won't count anyhow because he entered our district after July of 2004. Don't ask me why that's a rule. It just is. And finally, a damn good one at that.:)
As I continue to get the runaround about his future placement for the last 3 months of school, I have another little liar blooming in my third grade garden. This girl has been involved in a few altercations throughout the year but has been able to fly just below the radar because otherwise, she's a well behaved kid. But after the episode with sneaky #1 let's just say I got hip to their dishonest ways.
The other day, after THE TEST this girl had an extra math manipulative on her desk after all the shapes had been collected. As usual, I had at least 10 kids trying to get my attention at once, so I heard her, but hadn't gotten to her yet. That's when, out of the corner of my eye, I see her reach over and "plant" the shape in the girl's desk next to her. She then proceeds to tap that girl on the shoulder and tell her she sees a shape in her desk. Girl #2, unsuspecting and innocent, raises her hand to hand me the shape. That's when I called out Girl #1. At first she didn't even admit it, which is the worst after you've already been caught, red handed. So I had her stay in for lunch detention, writing a letter to her parents about why she was there. Often this is a very effective method, even if the parents speak Spanish. I guess they see
"please sign" and can fill in the blanks from there.
But when the letter came back, I started putting 2 and 2 together. I broke out the only signature I knew for sure was mom's, the one on the emergency card. It looked like a close enough match, but I found it weird mom always wrote in pencil. I mean it's not unheard of, at least not in my district. So I had the parent coordinator/interpreter call her just to make sure. Suddenly, mom wanted to see me at 3pm that afternoon. Why? Because she hadn't been seeing and thus hadn't been signing, any of the papers that had gone home THE ENTIRE YEAR.
Now, don't get me wrong, mom has a right to be frustrated, but as an educator, I do too. It's almost April and you're telling me you haven't seen anything, good or bad and you don't question that? Don't you want to know how your child is doing? Wouldn't you somehow, someway think that was odd and contact the teacher? Again, maybe it's just me.
So although it was afterschool, the child was still in the building. The mom didn't want me to call her out of clubs though. She said her and her husband would deal with it privately but that I should still talk to her on my own, which just seemed silly to me. Why make the kid relive it twice, especially if getting her upset is your main concern, as she said it was. Still, I respected the mom's wishes because in education, just like in business, the customer is always right.
I went back upstairs after the meeting and called the girl out of clubs to talk to her privately. I offered her one more chance to fess up but she still insisted it was mom's signature on the papers. That's when I went in for the reveal. I told her that it was not mom's signature and I know because I had just spent the last 30 minutes with mom. For a brief moment, I had a glimpse into what it must have felt like for Angela Lansbury's Jessica Fletcher. You know, when she confronted the wrongdoer in the last five minutes of the episode? I had a few seconds of satisfaction, which were quickly washed over with pain at the sight of this girl who, after the shock wore off, completely broke down in tears.
In between her uncontrollable sobs I asked her why she did it. She said that she couldn't tell her parents anything bad because if she did, she'd get hit. This was the answer I dreaded. I know a lot of parents still hit their children and while I by no means condone this, there is a big difference between being hit for doing something wrong and being beat. So I carefully tried to say this to her without giving her any ideas because, after all, we are dealing with a girl who has a long track record of twisting the truth. If she did tell me anything we could very well have a classic, "girl who cried wolf" situation on our hands.
So I told her what I felt was best at the time. I said to come in and tell me what happened, good or bad and that we would take it from there. Then I went home and just prayed it wouldn't be bad and that I wouldn't kick myself for my decision. I also dread this scenario because it's such a delicate situation that you simply cannot plan for, no matter how hard you try.
The next morning she came in and I pulled her aside. She said that nothing bad happened and that her parents just sat her down and asked her why she did it. They told her to never do it again. No hitting took place. In fact, they told her that she should know by now that no matter what she does, they will always love her just the same. That's sweet.
Once I realized that she wasn't in any danger, I had to ask if she had any punishment. She said she couldn't watch tv that night.
That night?!
Well come on now. I didn't want the kid to be beat but hell, lying for a whole year only got you a punishment like that!?
In the meanwhile, there's, "nothing to do but go back and review" since nearly everything that is necessary for the test is touched upon BEFORE...the test.
That's not to say that the kids can't use the review. I mean it's not like they're all masters, far from it. In fact, most days it's like Groundhog's Day, since you repeat yourself over and over but to no avail.
No, perhaps the biggest issue in my class is that they are smart, but in a different way. See these kids are street smart. In fact one thing you can trust is that many of these kids simply cannot be trusted.
For instance, there's my newest student who has been with me for a few months now. Instantly when he got there he had that "one of these things is not like the others" vibe about him. At first I thought he might have just been bilingual and not understanding me. It made sense since his brother, who was in 4th, was placed in a bilingual class. But then, as it turned out, he was not bilingual, just really, really low.
Test after test the kid was bombing. And then there was the behavior. Suddenly there was another kid who could just not stay in his seat, not to mention the stories of cursing. Cursing? My kids didn't curse! What is up with this new kid corrupting my poor, rather surprisingly innocent third graders?
Then I met with mom and the picture suddenly became much, much clearer.
Mom doesn't speak English so in these cases, a school interperter is available to help out. But his uncle came along as well, and he did speak English so we were good to go. Mom was unresponsive about his behavior and his grades and only said that he had "some" problems in his old school. But at this school some had quickly turned into many. On top of everything else, he was taking on his uncle's identity by signing his name as his along with forging and signing his paper's with his uncle's signature.
To me it was shocking that this kid had started forging so early. Then, when we called him in the room, I was even more shocked when the kid showed no remorse. NONE. Quite the contrary. And mom and the uncle? Said nada. He actually had a smile on his face the entire time. This my friends, is the stuff future serial killers are made of.
Adding insult to injury, his paperwork had yet to come through from out of state. If my school had a helpful guidance counselor on the case this could have easily been resolved. Oh we have a counselor alright, but she ain't too keen on actually "guiding" anyone anyhere, so it was back the drawing board. Then, a week before THE TEST she finally gets in touch with someone at his old school who confirms that not only is he a troubled kid, but that he was also, in a self contained special ed classroom.
For this, I had 2 immediate reactions:
1. I was right in thinking something was amiss all along.
2. Now what?
Unfortunately, there was no real answer for number 2. I was told we had to wait until his paperwork came through from the school to see if it was enough to not have to reevaluate him here. But like I said, we had the little matter of THE TEST to contend with. Well, as it turns out, he won't count anyhow because he entered our district after July of 2004. Don't ask me why that's a rule. It just is. And finally, a damn good one at that.:)
As I continue to get the runaround about his future placement for the last 3 months of school, I have another little liar blooming in my third grade garden. This girl has been involved in a few altercations throughout the year but has been able to fly just below the radar because otherwise, she's a well behaved kid. But after the episode with sneaky #1 let's just say I got hip to their dishonest ways.
The other day, after THE TEST this girl had an extra math manipulative on her desk after all the shapes had been collected. As usual, I had at least 10 kids trying to get my attention at once, so I heard her, but hadn't gotten to her yet. That's when, out of the corner of my eye, I see her reach over and "plant" the shape in the girl's desk next to her. She then proceeds to tap that girl on the shoulder and tell her she sees a shape in her desk. Girl #2, unsuspecting and innocent, raises her hand to hand me the shape. That's when I called out Girl #1. At first she didn't even admit it, which is the worst after you've already been caught, red handed. So I had her stay in for lunch detention, writing a letter to her parents about why she was there. Often this is a very effective method, even if the parents speak Spanish. I guess they see
"please sign" and can fill in the blanks from there.
But when the letter came back, I started putting 2 and 2 together. I broke out the only signature I knew for sure was mom's, the one on the emergency card. It looked like a close enough match, but I found it weird mom always wrote in pencil. I mean it's not unheard of, at least not in my district. So I had the parent coordinator/interpreter call her just to make sure. Suddenly, mom wanted to see me at 3pm that afternoon. Why? Because she hadn't been seeing and thus hadn't been signing, any of the papers that had gone home THE ENTIRE YEAR.
Now, don't get me wrong, mom has a right to be frustrated, but as an educator, I do too. It's almost April and you're telling me you haven't seen anything, good or bad and you don't question that? Don't you want to know how your child is doing? Wouldn't you somehow, someway think that was odd and contact the teacher? Again, maybe it's just me.
So although it was afterschool, the child was still in the building. The mom didn't want me to call her out of clubs though. She said her and her husband would deal with it privately but that I should still talk to her on my own, which just seemed silly to me. Why make the kid relive it twice, especially if getting her upset is your main concern, as she said it was. Still, I respected the mom's wishes because in education, just like in business, the customer is always right.
I went back upstairs after the meeting and called the girl out of clubs to talk to her privately. I offered her one more chance to fess up but she still insisted it was mom's signature on the papers. That's when I went in for the reveal. I told her that it was not mom's signature and I know because I had just spent the last 30 minutes with mom. For a brief moment, I had a glimpse into what it must have felt like for Angela Lansbury's Jessica Fletcher. You know, when she confronted the wrongdoer in the last five minutes of the episode? I had a few seconds of satisfaction, which were quickly washed over with pain at the sight of this girl who, after the shock wore off, completely broke down in tears.
In between her uncontrollable sobs I asked her why she did it. She said that she couldn't tell her parents anything bad because if she did, she'd get hit. This was the answer I dreaded. I know a lot of parents still hit their children and while I by no means condone this, there is a big difference between being hit for doing something wrong and being beat. So I carefully tried to say this to her without giving her any ideas because, after all, we are dealing with a girl who has a long track record of twisting the truth. If she did tell me anything we could very well have a classic, "girl who cried wolf" situation on our hands.
So I told her what I felt was best at the time. I said to come in and tell me what happened, good or bad and that we would take it from there. Then I went home and just prayed it wouldn't be bad and that I wouldn't kick myself for my decision. I also dread this scenario because it's such a delicate situation that you simply cannot plan for, no matter how hard you try.
The next morning she came in and I pulled her aside. She said that nothing bad happened and that her parents just sat her down and asked her why she did it. They told her to never do it again. No hitting took place. In fact, they told her that she should know by now that no matter what she does, they will always love her just the same. That's sweet.
Once I realized that she wasn't in any danger, I had to ask if she had any punishment. She said she couldn't watch tv that night.
That night?!
Well come on now. I didn't want the kid to be beat but hell, lying for a whole year only got you a punishment like that!?
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