And Yet More Snow...again

Snow Day Number Seven will be tomorrow.

And keep in mind we only get three. And oftentimes don't even use all three.

However, we did get a phone call from the Director of Schools. Our Monday off for Presidents day will no longer be off...we'll be in school making up at least one of the FOUR days we've gone over this year.

Thank goodness...losing this many days of instruction is not good.

Even if the snow has been rather pretty.

Oh No! Not Again

Another snow day.

We now have three to make up.

Crap.

Excuse Me, But Can I Have My Student Back?

Last year the attendance/truant officer for The District retired. She was wonderful. If you had a concern about a kid's attendance (and we often have concerns) she was there checking into the situation and doing what she could to get it resolved. She understood that we needed these kids to be in our classrooms, not running the streets, playing sick, or sleeping in.

We've had some pretty nasty flu and strep outbreaks this year and we have the usual number of suspects who have spotty attendance for a myriad of reasons, so The New Attendance Officer has been by to talk with these kids and to let them know of the consequences, many of them legal, for not coming to school.

The first day she showed up I got a phone call from the front office, asking me to send one of my kids up for "a few minutes". No problem. We get calls like this all the time, and the kid is usually back in about five minutes and doesn't miss so much instruction that it can't be made up.

We were almost through with the class period when I realized that the child in question hadn't come back. What on earth? So I called up front only to be told that "it won't be a minute", and she'd be back. She did eventually come back to class, but she pretty much missed the entire day. This is not good for a kid who'd been out with the flu for nearly two weeks.

At lunch we were talking and realized that we had a few more kids who'd been called up front and ended up missing an entire class period. One of them, a kid who had been out for nearly two weeks, including a stint in a hospital, had been called up to the front office the first day she'd returned from her absence.

"Anyone know why they're calling these kids up?" Mrs. Social Studies asked.

"It's the new Attendance Officer," said Mrs. Eagle. "One of my kids showed me a brochure she gave him."

"You mean to tell me that the Attendance Officer is pulling kids out of class for an entire period to talk to them about missing school? That's insane!" I said.

"Yeah, it apparently now takes 45 minutes to tell a kid the consequences of poor attendance, instead of 5 minutes," said Mrs. Eagle.

This. Is. Crazy.

What logic is there in taking a kid out of class to talk about the kid not being in class?

As luck would have it, we had a team leader meeting that afternoon and found out that every single team leader had a complaint about kids missing entire class periods due to The Attendance Officer. The Principal was appalled as well. She said she'd talk to The New Attendance Officer, but commented that she couldn't guarantee it would do any good - those people from The District, after all, see the world differently from those of us in the trenches.

No kidding.

However, it may have done some good - or the complaints were flying fast and furious from every school in The District. The New Attendance Officer was back again last week and only kept kids for about ten minutes. Thank goodness.

And the weird thing? The kids she pulled from my team were all today.

P.S. - A reader commented on having consequences for absences like staying after in detention to make up missed work. Can't be done. Detention is only an option for behavior issues. We cannot write up a student for absences. The consequences for these students with a lot of absences are failing for the year, a court date with a judge, possible jail time for student and/or parent. I did have one kid my first year who ended up spending time in juvenile detention due to absences and his mother lost custody of the remaining children due to his absences as well. So there are consequences, but it isn't something the teacher determines.

Hey Buddy, Can You Spare a Quarter?

There are just some things that you don't expect to have to deal with in middle school. Little kid things like frequent barfing, skinned knees, and potty accidents, and all that little kid stuff that the elementary teachers deal with (bless them!) on a regular basis. We're used to dealing with the more dramatic middle school stuff like boy/girl drama, body odor, and girls having to see the nurse because their "friend" arrived and they aren't prepared.

So I was a bit surprised when Skater Goober (why is it always Skatter Goober?) came running up to me in a panic between class changes.

"Mrs. Bluebird," he gasped. "You know Shaggy Boy?" he asked breathlessly.

"Um, yeah, he's in your class," I reminded him.

"Oh, yeah. Well anyhow he was throwing a quarter around and he tossed it at me, it flew in my mouth and I swallowed it and now it feels like it's stuck and OH MY GOSH, I SWALLOWED A QUARTER!" His eyes are wildly spinning around and he's bouncing up and down on his toes by this point.

Oh. Good. Gracious.

"You opened your mouth and swallowed a quarter?" I asked, just wanting to make sure I heard right.

"Um, yeah. Do you think I'm going to be okay?" he asked. "I mean, OHMIGOD, I SWALLOWED A QUARTER!"

"You'll probably be fine and I'm sure it's uncomfortable, so I'm sending you to the nurse," I told him. I went back to my room, grabbed the nurse form, filled it out with the description of "swallowed a quarter," and sent him on his way. I wonder what our new nurse is going to think about this latest adventure?

Mrs. Social Studies, who had Skater Goober the next period looked at me. "Where's Skater Goober going in such a hurry?"

"I'm sending him to the nurse. He swallowed a quarter." I then filled her in on the story because, like me, she was having a hard time keeping a straight face.

Poor Skater Goober. The nurse called Dad who came and picked him up a few minutes later. Considering that Mom and Dad are, again, at their wits' end with this kid, I'm sure this whole adventure was just icing on the cake.

I just hope he doesn't keep the quarter as a souvenir.

Finally! Back to School

After three snow days we finally - finally! - went back to school on Wednesday.

Which was a really good thing because the teachers, at least, were getting stir-crazy.

Mrs. Eagle, Mrs. Hummingbird and I got together to do our lessons during morning planning and basically shifted three days, moved our test to Tuesday (which isn't ideal, but it's not like we have a choice), and then came up with three more days of a new unit. So, Wednesday was last week's Friday, Thursday (today) was Monday and tomorrow, (Friday) was Tuesday...Got that?

So even though it was Wednesday, and it felt like Monday, the kids had to turn in their weekly homework (due the previous Friday) and we had to go over our guided outline (also due the previous Friday).

Astounding how many kids honestly couldn't believe I actually wanted them to turn in their homework from last week.

"It's due today?" they'd ask. "Really?"

"Really," I'd tell them. "You had five extra days to get it done."

"Oh."

Many of my students in my Fifth Period Class From the Very Depths of Hell Itself not only didn't have their homework, but they didn't have their outline.

Now we have these fun little slips of paper titled, "My dog didn't eat my homework, because this is what really happened," where the kids fill in their name, the class, what the assignment was, and why it wasn't turned in. I love these things. The look on parents' faces when we slide them ever so carefully across the table during parent meetings is, well, priceless. Nothing like seeing "I didn't do it", "Lost it", "Didn't feel like doing it," and so forth in their darling's hand to kind of wake them up.

Some of the comments written down yesterday were even more amusing. For example:

"I was snowboarding and couldn't do it." (For five days? Five entire days!?)

"It got hit by a snowball and ruined." (You want me to believe you took it outside to work on?)

"I didn't know it was going to be due." (I loved that one.)

"I was too busy." (Doing what? For Five Days??)

Of course, being the little dreamers that they are, they asked if I'd give them an extra day to get it done."

"Hummmmm, No." I said. "No late work. You had five whole days to do it."

Any guesses on how many studied their vocabulary cards?

That's what I thought...

Enough Already

The District builds three snow days into our calendar.

We used two of them right after we returned to school in early January.

We used our third on Friday.

Our fourth was today.

And the fifth will be tomorrow as they just canceled school again for Tuesday.

At this rate, we'll be going into the middle of June.

And you know, you just know, that they won't reschedule The Very Big Deal Government Mandated Tests even if we do miss instructional time due to the weather....

ARGH

And Yet More Snow

Kinda makes one wonder if we'll even have school on Monday considering the rural county roads are an absolute mess.

The Obnoxious Folder

Anyone remember Elf Boy? He's a tiny little guy in my 5th period who, from what we can tell from previous test scores and grades, is really quite capable but who turns in ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Nothing at all. He has one of the lowest grades out of all the kids in my classes. He never needs to be told to fill out the "why I didn't have my homework" slip and nine times out of ten his explanation is "lost it" or "forgot it at home". He must fill out about a dozen of these a week in between all his classes. He did get enrolled in after school tutoring and his tutoring teacher is, thankfully, snatching all his completed work as soon as it's done and putting it in my mailbox so I can disburse it to the rest of the teachers on The Team.

I've been trying to get a hold of mom for months to get a meeting set up and finally - finally! - this week she actually returned a phone call. She couldn't come in for a meeting due to her job, but she could do a teleconference. So, I set one up and we called her, put her on speakerphone and we all had a nice chat about Elf Boy and his grades.

Mom seemed very nice, and sweet, and very concerned that although she sees him "do all his homework and put it in his binder/bookbag", she doesn't have any idea why none of it gets turned in. None at all.

So, we put in a plan something that has worked well in the past - The Obnoxious Folder. The Obnoxious Folder is the brightest, garish, most eye-popping folder with pockets that we can find which is to go home with Darling Cherub every night. Cherub does homework and it all goes into the Obnoxious Folder. The parent is supposed to supervise, and in some cases staple, to make sure the work is Done and In The Folder. The parent then makes sure the folder, which is obnoxiously garish and loud, is then placed into the bookbag which is usually deep, dark and has some of the same properties as black holes. The idea is that the folder is so obnoxious it can't get lost - like all the homework has been doing for the past year. The next morning the first thing this child does after he/she arrives at school is to personally hand me the folder. I usually snatch them up during hall duty when I see them walk in from the buses, and make the kid stop, open the backpack and fish out the folder. At that point, I empty the folder, give it back to the cherub and send him and her off on their merry way.

This has worked pretty well in the past because I now have custody of the work, and it takes me a minute or so to deliver it to the teachers who assigned it. No big deal as I usually have to check in and talk to them about something anyway. If I'm short on time, I put it in the mailboxes.

Well, Elf Mom loved this idea. I had given Elf Boy a BRIGHT YELLOW folder the day before and she was going to make sure he had it EVERY NIGHT and she'd make sure he put all his finished work in it EVERY NIGHT, and that he'd hand it to me EVERY MORNING, and life would be wonderful because finally, finally, finally, Elf Boy would turn in his assignments. Elf Mom is ecstatic because this is a great idea, it's something she could do, and it will solve all her problems.

Except it's not working out that way.

Most mornings when I intercept Elf Boy in the hallway, he has his yellow folder. It is EMPTY. And those are on the mornings he remembers to bring it back to school. I asked him if his mom was watching him put his work in the folder like she said she would and he hems and haws, and finally admits that no, she's not checking on him. He can't understand why the work isn't there. (Elves again?) Like mom, he swears he's doing it.

Really now.

So Elf Mom, who promised she'd watch him put all the homework she sees him do every night into his folder...hasn't even managed to do that for one single day. Not one. Two weeks now and the only thing this folder is getting is banged up from going in and out of the backpack every day.

(Any guess on who's going to be held accountable for this kid's education? Let me clue you in...it won't be him and it won't be his mom.)

I got with Mrs. Reading Teacher a few days ago to discuss the folder issue. Her comment? "I sort of thought about sending a stapler home to help her staple his work to the folder, but I'm not sure that would even work."

Sad to say, she's probably right.

And Yet Another Snow Day

The Great White Death was predicted to hit last night. It was first predicted to arrive around nine pm, then midnight, then after midnight, then by six am this morning. School districts all over the State, hearing the forecasts of Ice! Sleet! Freezing Rain! Snow! Snow! and more Snow! started canceling classes yesterday afternoon, including The District, which amazed many of us because The District is usually one of the very last to close.

And here I sit, after noon, with nary a flake in sight.

Why? Because this storm has wrapped itself into a donut-shape and we're right in the middle of the donut hole. So, while everyone around us is getting slammed, we're all staring at the sky wondering when we'll get our share.

So, it's another day off, we've used our last snow day built into the calendar, and I am going to be useful and write a test.

At least I did get to sleep in!