So, I got up early on Monday morning and enjoyed a beautiful drive into work. The snow continued to fall, and it was gorgeous to see. (Once again, I keep thanking Ken for the new Toyota Rav4. It's AWD and has snow tires. No slipping or sliding for me!)
I am still in awe at how beautiful it is here. Of course, driving in this can be stressful. There are many teachers who drive in from Billings, and I can't imagine an hour of this mess. I learned (quickly) that when a vehicle passes you, there is a full wall of white that is thrown up in front of your vehicle. This makes it very difficult to drive until the White Wall dissipates. Oh, the fun things you learn in a new environment!
So, I knew that I was going to have an interesting time getting back to work after two weeks break. Special Education students require routine and discipline, but my students have never had either in their lives before me. As predicted, they did not do well this week. There were high absences for the entire school this week - seriously, some classes only had 3 - 5 students each day. I would walk in to get a student to work with, and not only would that student be absent, but so was most of the class!!
What the hell is this??? I am used to schools laden with Poverty. I have only worked in schools that are classified as Title 1 schools - Title 1 is a federal program that provides funds to school districts and schools with high numbers or high percentages of children who are disadvantaged to support a variety of services. Its overall purpose is to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging state academic achievement standards and assessments.
That being said, I have never experienced this level of poverty combined with an overall lack of desire to learn nor appreciation of the opportunity. Most students are late every day - even before the Break. When asked why they are tardy, their answers are honest: Slept in, Mom had to go to Billings, so I had to come to school, etc.
My handling of these experiences has been difficult. I cannot believe that these families do not care about an education - especially at the elementary level. In my years of teaching, I have experienced students who are intent on living "on the system" that being Welfare. I had one female student tell me she had already found her "baby daddy" and was "working on her future." But, these Crow students are baffling me. The families do not care. They are happy to live in poverty - not all of them, of course, but most. They have no aspirations to better themselves as individuals or as a Nation. The clans are always fighting amongst themselves and trying to better each clan rather than the Tribe overall.
Even more baffling to me is that I have been learning about the Crow, and they do not. They have no intention of carrying on their language, their beliefs or understanding their own culture. They seem to hang on to the parts the like, and they change things from the past that they like to suit their present, but they cannot explain "why" or "where" something came from.
In my research, I have been learning about Chief Plenty Coups (1848 – 1932) who has a great quote, "Education is your greatest weapon. With education you are the white man's equal, without education you are his victim and so shall remain all of your lives. Study, learn, help one another always. Remember there is only poverty and misery in idleness and dreams - but in work there is self respect and independence."
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And yet, the Crow do not value education nor strive to better themselves. Again, this is an overall statement and not indicative of ALL Crow People.
I have also been learning about Joseph Medicine Crow - who is still alive.
http://www.military.com/army-birthday/badass-of-the-week-joe-medicine-crow.html
Ok, so I'll get off that soap box for now, but it's seriously frustrating to me that so few students will show up, and the ones that do are sleeping in class. According to the teachers who have been here for a while (15-20) years, this is "normal" behavior and will only get worse as the year goes on. How are the teachers here to be held accountable for student scores when there is no investment into what is being taught?
Again, off the soap box I go. I'm not the first one to be frustrated by this, and maybe things will change soon. I have loved every part of this new adventure of mine. I don't want anyone to think that I regret this move, or that I do not enjoy my job. Teaching is difficult - in fact, it is really sucking big time because of all of the red tape and bureaucracy that is involved now. However, I would not change things. I love the Crow. These are very warm-hearted and friendly people. There are those who do not like Whites, or Baashchíile (it's pronounced "Ba-shiela") which means "yellow eyes" since the first White People had jaundice. I have had a ton of discrimination and hate against me in every school I have ever worked in solely because my skin is white. It doesn't bother me, and I continue to teach with the same passion I had 10 years ago when I started. The Crow language has been difficult for me to learn, but I keep working on it.
As for the rest of my week, I worked on some of the cross-stitching. The 15 Miras in '15 is kicking my ass!! We were supposed to start one new project on January 1 - 15. I'm a few days behind as there are days I am just too tired to stitch, and I would rather not make mistakes.
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| Bluebell 07 Jan 2015 Stephanie's Pollywog Princess in 32 ct. Jobelan |
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| Halloween Fairy 04 Jan 2015 on 28 ct Lugana in Opal Falling Leaves from Hand Dyed by Stephanie |
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| Sabrina 05 Jan 2015 on Stephanie's 28 ct Opal Lugana in Snow Drifts |
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| Stargazer 09 Jan 2015 on Stephanie's 32ct Jobelan in Lunar Eclipse |
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| Waterlily 06 Jan 2015 on 32 ct Jobelan in Pollywog Princess by Stephanie |
My monthly trip to Ft. Smith did not happen as the snow was so bad the busses did not run. I chose to stay at Crow rather than try to get my vehicle through all of that.
On Tuesday, I received horrible news. Genie Heldt, the woman who organized and ran the SSS-DDD group and get-together, died that day. She had been in a nursing home for quite some time, and she just did not want to leave. Tina was kind enough to call me and give me the news rather than my finding out about it on Facebook. I called Marie to let her know, and the news spread quickly.
Genie was an incredible and loving woman. All of us stitchers who had met her loved her dearly, and many of us felt that she would never recover from the death of her husband, Jim. Many are posting on her personal Facebook page and on the Group pages. I am happy to report that the Chicago GTG will continue this June. The promise is to cry a little and laugh a lot - which is what Genie would want from us. I hope that she is enjoying her reunion with Jim, and that she is getting all stitching done and she loves. I have been very happy to hear that our group is in contact with one of her nieces, and the unfinished pieces Genie had for family will be completed by someone and sent to that family member. Yay!!!
Thursday and Friday, I had to go into Billings for a State Training about testing. The roads were OK, but the District vehicle did not have good tires. The training on Thursday morning was actually pertinent to my job, which was a nice change. I sat through three parts about the Alternate Test for students who are Moderate to Severe. Sadly, what I learned is that my students are not prepared for this test. The Alternate Assessment for Cognitively Delayed students who are in 5th grade requires graphing with comparing and contrasting as well as writing actual paragraphs, etc. Holy crap! I spent the first semester teaching my 5th grade student to keep his clothes on, not masturbating in the bathroom, and to start communicating using sing language. He doesn't read at all nor can he write his name (of course, he doesn't want to learn either - school is playtime for him). I sure hope my ability to be rehired isn't tied to his performance. I'll be screwed!!
Sadly, I listened to a lot of teachers from all over the State have the same complaint. The blueprint for these standards are not completed yet. Um, it's January, and testing begins in March. How was it acceptable to create these standards for such low functioning students and not give teachers advance time to plan and prepare? Many were pissed and then felt defeated. Just like us, the students will experience huge failure. That's not what Special Education is about. I have never personally liked Common Core Standards, but this is even worse than I thought.
On the bright side, the girls are doing really well here. Ken loves everything about here, well, other than he keeps having to shovel and then it snows on top of the work he just completed.
Seriously, he went out Monday morning to shovel, and by 1 pm that afternoon, there was another foot of snow. I felt bad for him working so hard only to have the snow fall again, but he was the one who wanted to wait to get a snowblower. I couldn't help but laugh. Seriously, this is the most snow seen in this area in a long time, and we were so honored to be a part of it - yeah, no, not really. The girls told us on Tuesday, that they are officially "so over it" all. They no longer find it pretty nor want to walk and play in it.
I, however, am constantly amazed by it all. Here are some more of my "firsts":
- Learning to drive in the "ruts" otherwise, you can get stuck.
- No more LA driving - SLOW is the way to go!
- Seeing people randomly jumping out of their vehicles to help push someone else's vehicle out of snow.
- Icicles used as swords by children.
- Tractors clearing a road and leaving their load of snow right in front of you so you can't get across the road. Nice!
Taylor's friend, Chase, spent most of his evenings in our house. A few more times feeding him, and I'm going to send his parents a bill for child support. HAHA! They are good friends, and I'm so happy to see Taylor becoming more relaxed and able to relate to others. Of course, Chase torments her.
She has been "hanging out" with her friends, going bowling, and listening to music. Now, if we can just get Mandy out of her shell and hanging out with people. She is more than happy to stay home and be alone. The poor girl is so shy, and I just hope that she works her way out of it soon.
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