I remember a math lesson from third grade in which we learned that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Any other type of line between those two points, chaos will ensue. As a nine year old I was not only able to comprehend this but also to put it into practice at that early age. Unfortunately not so with Mrs AK. In fact I am thinking that she is in the wrong line of work. She should be a tour guide, but I don't think she would be able to cut it. She doesn't have any spunk.

As I had mentioned in an earlier post Mrs AK takes her students on an extended tour of the school, along with several intermediary stops walking back from lunch. Her class is several floors directly above the cafeteria and down the corridor approximately fifty feet. Now to the untrained eye that seems to be the most logical way to go. But logic goes out the door with Mrs AK. I have a funny feeling she is not a Vulcan.

How you may ask does she bring her students back to the classroom. Mrs AK takes the students down the corridor and several floors underneath to the furthest side of the school, up the furthest staircase from her classroom, and then basically retraces her steps in the opposite direction to her classroom. Oh! One more thing. She has the students stop approximately every twenty feet or so. See what I mean. This burns time off the clock and offers the students less instruction time. But that is not the only reason this can cause problems.

It causes problem because the students have more time on their hands while walking back to the class in which problems will and can occur, and that is what happened today. It was all preventable!!! Two boys got into a fight today because of her laziness. It was nothing more than verbal and pushing but it did not have to happen. The conflict continued once the students were in the classroom and time was taken away from the students who wanted to learn. One student had to be removed from the class which took educational time away from him as well. This never had to happen. But why did it happen? It happened because she had gotten soft from all those years of kissing ass and knew that she was not accountable to anyone but herself.

I need to start t his posting with an explanation of some teaching bashing I have done in this blog. First, I am one hundred percent behind my union. But I am also one hundred percent for the students who are affected by incompetent, slip through the cracks, unsafe to be near in a classroom teacher. Mrs Ass Kisser is not a safety concern, but a phony. I will acknowledge that she does know the curriculum, but she is lazy, and whitewashes what is to be seen. As long as that bulletin board looks pretty that is all that matters.

Which brings me to Mr First Grade. Oh I just love coming up with these pet names. But I can’t take credit for this pet name. Credit is due a colleague of mine who dubbed him “the world’s oldest first grader.” For the purposes of this blog Mr First Grade will henceforth be known as Mr FG.

Watching Mr FG teach today reminded me of when I was little and me and my friends played teacher. I mean he would have fit right in with how we played except that we spoke better English. His English is a cross between the Frito Bandito, Don Corleone, and my Grandma Celia with her Polish accent. Is it any wonder the kids have never learned thing one in the years he has been my school?

His suits are never tailored as if he was an eight year old wearing daddy’s clothes to work. He has no classroom management, if left alone in a room of six year olds they are soon running amok. When paired with another teacher he never does the teaching and lets the other teacher do all the work, which I guess is good thing if you think about it. He has already been removed from one school and dumped with us. How does he do it? He must be extorting someone.

And the thing is he doesn’t see it at all. He thinks he is Charlie Moore! He makes Mrs Krabappel look like teacher of the year!

It has been proven that any student he has had is at least a year behind students from other classes in the same grade. How does this happen? Why does it happen? In fact rumor has it that he has been terminated from another big city school district for incompetence. There has to be some truth to that. I think there is a lot of truth to that.

Oh Frank burns yet another teacher! Funny, eh? Oh sorry pardon the pun I just could not resist, and I do not mean burns as in some inferno, but yet again Frank didn't like what he had, and Frank got what he wanted.

Frank has been removed from Mrs AK's class and hos now with Mrs God's class. Mrs God has the voice of God and you know for sure that you will be smite down if you cross her. Hey she is fantastic teacher. She is organized, efficient, creative, and not only expects the most out of her students, genuinely cares for her students betterment.

Frank should have been in her class from the get go. But there was no foresight to this switch. Actually there was, but burying your head in the sand is such a much easier why to deal with issues when they have been festering for 3 years. But as I have stated earlier Mrs AK thought that she had it clear and free because she was able to suckle at the sphincter of the higher ups. Look what it got her. Watching her and her class coming back from lunch today was great. It is like driving from the Yankees Stadium to Bronx Courthouse by way of Fairbanks, Alaska. She knows how to milk it.

The students in Mrs AK's class were overcome with joy that Frank is no longer with them. They shared this with me personally, seeking me out with smiles on their faces, joy in their eyes, and the knowledge they will be able to learn knowing the class tormentor has been vanquished to a netherworld, only to be seen once a day.

But this problem would never have manifested if what needed to be done was done.

Stay tuned.

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Remember "The Terminator"? I have been thinking about a line from that movie all day since seeing Frank in action today. There is a scene in which Reese, aptly played by Michael Biehn is explaining what is after Sarah Connor. "It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop," Reese tells Sarah as they are hiding from Arnold. That is how I feel about Frank most of the time. I don't know whether or not to wash my hands of him, or pity him and do everything I can to help.

Frank first came to our school several years ago. From the get go he was a handful. Not only was he intimidating and bullying students in his class and grade but was attempting to do it with staff as well. I remember one instance in which he looked menacingly at a cluster teacher while pounding his fist into his hand.

The behavior in the classroom was no better. Not following directions, intimidating smaller students, not doing any classwork or homework. Anecdotes were written copiously and nothing was done except to change his class and meet several time with the mother whose favorite line was "I don't know what to do with him, " and just state blankly. I mean I know and I empathize that mom works all day and the dad is not home, but there has to be some parental responsibility taken. She gave the standard "I have a mental health appointment for Frank" line but it is now and as it was then it was an empty promise. Even when threatened to have ACS called on her.

Frank's behavior last year was 180 degrees better. Except with the clusters and at lunch. I think he ate by himself in the cafeteria and did not go outside for about 5 months if memory serves. But at least in his class Frank did what he was supposed to do. The reason for this is simple. He had a strong homeroom teacher that did not accept nor tolerate his anti social behavior. I guess you could say Frank heard the voice of God.

Now here we are nine days into the school year and the proverbial shit is about to hit the proverbial fan. Mrs AK can't control him. I find it ironic that she has him in her class. All that ass kissing for naught. I guess one reaps what they sow. It doesn't help that her room always looks like a tornado hit it, and she is so frazzled all the time it would make me go nuts. But fortunately for her Frank is about to be moved to another class. There is some shuffling going on in the grade and Mrs AK again escapes responsibility.

What makes it so sad is that Frank is super smart. And that also is the problem. He knows how to manipulate, how to push the right buttons. He is a schmoozer when he needs to be. But don't, especially if you are a student, ever get on his bad side. The thing is I discovered how to best settle him down. Oh yes I did share it with one of the assistant principals. But thus far nothing. No implementation, no purchasing of the material needed. All that is need is abut two dollars. But the school can't do it alone. Mom needs to get her act together and start becoming a partner in her child's education. She has never even come to back to school night.

Worst of all this is not fair to the other students in Frank's class or any of the kids who come into contact with him throughout the school day. These kids have a right to a full day of education and lose out when all the focus is on Frank. Worst of all, and I hope I am wrong but won't be surprised if it happens is that one day Frank will seriously injure a student.

So now that it is Saturday how has the first week of school gone? Well as the old saying goes, the more things change the more it stays the same. Or as I like to say, just more of the same bullshit!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

What can go wrong on the first day of school? Not much. Everyone is on their best behavior. Teachers even put on a smile when the see the sociopathic students. In fact we have one at our school which I will tell about later, but even he was a little angel today.


Tuesday, September 3, 2008

Now the proverbial fecal matter is being lined up to throw into the fan. The sociopath who I shall henceforth refer to is "Frank". Frank is psychotic. His mother is useless, the father is God knows where, and the older brother who he worships is in all probability a gang banger. This is Frank's third year in the school, and the first two have been very eventful. Now I won't go into details for fear of giving away Frank's true identity, but let's just say that in every student you can find something good. Frank there is nothing good at all. For some reason ACS has never been called. Frank bullies, hits, and threatens not only children smaller than him, threatens teachers, but generally does not care about anything. And the thing is the boy is bright as hell, but he knows how to manipulate. This boy should be put in a SEIS 7 setting in which there is a small roster and a larger amount of staff.

Now last year he behaved in his homeroom. Know why? He was scared shitless of his teacher. Still was a psycho to the clusters, but his sphincter was tight in the homeroom. Now this year irony of ironies he is not with the same teacher, but in a class with one of the laziest, under qualified, no class room management teachers ever. I shall call her Mrs Ass Kisser, or Mrs AK for short. Mrs AK has no self respect at all. She will fawn all over her principal and do whatever his necessary for herself. She acts as if she actually cares about the students, but she does not. She will not go the extra yard for Administrators unless something is in it for her. Other teachers know not to speak about anything confidentially to or in front of her because she will run like a child to the principal. And now she is stuck with Frank. She is in for a very long year, and she has no support for anyone to help her with Frank. She will never ask for help because by doing so it will show the level of her incompetence. She is doomed and so unfortunately is the rest of her students to Frank's sociopathy.