Running On Empty

by

Sara Washicko

Contents:

Scene 1: Welcome to Smith Street Elementary.

Meet teachers Lauren, Sherry, Betty and Kathy.

Attend a grade level meeting during the new school

year.

Scene 2: A typical day in Lauren's classroom. Meet

students Charlie and Jackie. Reflections by Lauren.

Scene 3: A telephone conference with the mother of

Charlie. A meeting with the principal, Rex,

concerning the telephone call.

Scene 4: A K-2 meeting to discuss the partnerships.

Meet first grade teacher, Margaret, Lauren's

partner.

Scene 1: A Grade Level Meeting

Lauren dreaded this year and now it was here. All

last year she had witnessed the constant behavioral

problems her first grade partner, Margaret, was

dealing with each day. The amount of effort and

energy that Margaret expended was just beyond

what Lauren felt she could deal with emotionally

and physically. She

felt that her greatest weakness in teaching was

handling behavioral problems, and now she had not

just one tough child, but several on her class list.

She was not looking forward to the school year,

especially after having had a dynamite group of

self-directed learners last year.

Lauren had just dropped her kids off at their

Library class and was now on her way to Sherry's

room for a grade level meeting. This was Sherry's

first year at second grade and most of what was

discussed at these short meetings were ways to help

Sherry with the curriculum and the logistics of

second grade. Today they needed to discuss the

Colonial Day Workshop because it was quickly

approaching.

"Where's Kathy?" inquired Lauren as she walked

through the door, greeting the others. "She had a

problem with a student," replied Betty. Lauren

could relate- oh, so well. Betty's class, too, was

needy and forever requiring her to deal with issue

after issue. As a matter of fact the second grades on

a whole, were a tough group this year. All of the

teachers had witnessed this last year with their first

grade colleagues. However, Betty's and Lauren's

classes were, by far, the worst.

Sherry began, "I need to know where you all are

with the math. I don't know if I'm at the right point

in the year or should I be farther along."

"This year seems to be going more easily now that

we have the first year with the new materials behind

us, stated Lauren. But there are things you need to

skip that don't address our content standards in the

school's curriculum. We've discussed that with

Linda(Math/Science Specialist) and to this date we

still don't have a nice neat list of what is important

to cover based on the curriculum."

After using the new program's materials for a year

and being told by the Superintendent that "The

program is just a resource, not the curriculum,"

many of the teachers requested that it be spelled out

as to what they actually needed to teach from the

program.

"We don't have time to sit down and align the

curriculum with the units from the program, said

Betty. It's not my job!"

Annoyed and frustrated Lauren pushed on. "Okay,

we can be here all day discussing that. Let's move

on to the Colonial Day Program because we need to

collect money, buy the materials, organize the

volunteers, confirm the speakers and so on."

Sherry was feeling overwhelmed by the complexity

of organizing her first "in-house field trip" on her

own. She only had the folder from the last year's

teacher. "I'll help you with the purchasing of

materials. I always went shopping with Sharon,"

said Lauren. "Can someone get the information to

Kathy? asked Lauren, we need to go." Before they

got it all straightened out it was time to pick up their

kids. This lack of common planning time during

their specials was a sore spot. Last year the

principal was supposed to work it out so that their

specials were backed up to their lunch periods so

they could have a chunk of time to be together. This

twenty minute common planning time was a joke.

Scene 2: Lauren's Class in Action

As Lauren drove to school her mind wandered to

last year. She had had one of the best years in her

15 years of teaching. She was happy with the new

principal especially after a long seven years with

one that had no leadership skills, personal problems

and a lack of direction. It was a welcomed change

with Rex. Of course that was not her first reaction

when she learned of his appointment the summer

before. He had been the principal of another

elementary school in the district and the

Superintendent had switched him in the summer

and moved Lauren's previous principal to the

Middle School. Getting that call from Matt, a fifth

grade teacher who was the union rep was

worrisome. She could still remember her response,

"Oh my God! We're in trouble!" She said it over

and over. But she decided to give him the benefit of

the doubt and the first year was like heaven. He

was truly a principal who was a man of his words

and dealt with problems when they arose,

something that hadn't been done in seven years.

Lauren walked to her classroom in a slow shuffle,

something she had developed only this year. Even

her neighbor in her wing called attention to it one

day. "It's going to be a long year, isn't it, Lauren?

Your whole demeanor tells me that," noticed Phil.

"Just you wait three more years. You'd better hope

these kids are different then!" replied Lauren. Phil

had the sibling of one of the problem kids in his

class . He also saw similar behaviors, but his

student was better at being able to use some

workable strategies to modify her reactions to

problems than Lauren's. Of course, she was that

much older.

Lauren knew she had to place Charlie on a behavior

system/chart right from day one. She had seen the

choices he had made last year and the many times

he had been taken from his classroom to Time Out

by the school psychologist. However, the chart

was not yet in place. She wanted to see how it

would go for a while without it. Today was the

determining factor, the straw that had broken the

camel's back and pushed Lauren to the edge.

Lauren called one of the groups back to the silo for

reading. She had formed three reading groups

based on need. She couldn't see placing her nine

kids that were receiving reading support in the first

book of second grade. She knew that the demands

of the print would be overwhelming and it would

just point out to them their inability to read at this

level. She had formed two groups at their level,

using first grade materials. The materials were more

suited to their needs. However, it had been a

scheduling nightmare! Some students were being

taken out for reading support during the same time

that she had scheduled the group for reading. Kids

were in and out all morning!

As the students were taking their seats on the floor,

she noticed Charlie off by the math manipulatives

playing with the Unifix cubes.

"Charlie, you need to join us now for reading,"

demanded Lauren. Charlie continued to play and

ignored the direction, something he always did. On

the count of three you need to be here with the

others." Lauren began counting. Slowly Charlie

complied and came to the group.

As Lauren began building background for the story

to be read, Charlie, who had seated himself toward

the back of the group began reading one of the

books off of the shelf. Lauren ignored this for a

while. As she continued presenting the lesson's

vocabulary, she engaged Charlie by having him

read the chart. After he read he went right back to

reading his book. At this point the students were

working in the workbook and Charlie had begun

making noises.

"You have a choice, Charlie, you can work quietly

here or go to your seat for time out and complete

the page during recess." Once again he complied

for a while and then decided to lie down.

"Charlie, you need to sit up," instructed Lauren.

Very gruffly he replied, "I'm tired!"

Exasperated, Lauren replied, "You are just going to

have to tough it out and sit up."

At which point, Charlie yelled back, "I said I was

tired!" Lauren was not going to tolerate his

disrespectful manner and told him to go to his seat

for time out.

The rest of the morning continued in this fashion.

During Math, Charlie had three nickels in his

pocket and was jingling them. When he was asked

to stop Charlie complied for a few seconds, but

then deliberately looked at Lauren and started to

clang them.

"Please give me the nickels, Charlie," demanded

Lauren.

"But I need them for lunch," pleaded Charlie.

"You can have them back then," replied Lauren.

Math ended and it was time to go to P.E. Lauren

welcomed this break in the morning. After

delivering them to gym, she ran into Rex, the

principal in the hallway. "See, I should have gone

onto third grade with last year's class. I can't

handle behavior problem kids."

"Oh yes you can!" encouraged Rex.

"Charlie is going to be the death of me. He is a

handful," complained Lauren.

"Don't tolerate any of the disrespect from him.

Send him to me if it continues," Rex said firmly.

Lauren didn't want to use him in that manner.

Charlie had missed so much instruction last year

every time he was sent to Time Out, that now he

had many gaps in his learning. There had to be a

better way.

When Lauren picked up her students at the gym she

was greeted by an upset Coach Stevens. "Now

what?" was all she could think. Charlie had been

upset because someone had tagged him out in a

game. Coach Stevens said that he had lost control

and when he went to help calm him down he

literally attacked him by pummeling his arm

breaking his watchband. Apparently, Coach

Stevens had handled it. Coach Stevens felt okay

with the outcome and they let the incident rest.

During lunch, Lauren went to see Rex to explain

what took place in gym.

"Send him home!" Rex emphatically stated.

"Well, it has been handled by Coach Stevens and I

didn't know that that was the procedure. I don't

feel good about changing the outcome now, it

wouldn't be fair," Lauren replied.

Coach Stevens was just entering the office. Lauren

told him to see Rex. "Lauren, you need to call Mom

and explain what happened," said Rex as Coach

Stevens entered his office.

The afternoon's lessons were compounded by

Jackie's temper tantrum. She was a new student to

the school this year and Lauren had already been

informed by her parents at "Meet the Teacher Day"

about the inappropriate behaviors Jackie relied

upon.

The class was working on a fold and cut booklet

that accompanied a health lesson on healthy eating

and food energy. After many years of copying, the

original of the book did not line up properly.

Lauren recognized that this was a problem and

encouraged the students to do the best they could

and not to be concerned if it wasn't exact. This did

not work for Jackie. She immediately went into a fit

of whining and pouting and stomping her feet.

"Jackie, you need to go your seat!" Lauren insisted.

Jackie did not go. This had already occurred more

than once and Lauren had had a conference with

Jackie and Mom weeks before. Lauren had no time

for this. It was disruptive. Lauren called down to

the office. When the secretary picked up the phone

Lauren said, "I have a student who is having a

tantrum and disrupting my class, can you send Jen

or Rex?"

"Which would you prefer?" said the secretary.

"Send Jen." Lauren tried to go on with the lesson

and the other students were excellent about ignoring

Jackie. Lauren thought, "Sure, they were

used to it from being with Charlie last year."

Lauren couldn't wait for the day to end.

At dismissal time Charlie was spinning on Lauren's

teacher's chair which she had wheeled to the front

of the room for a lesson. "Charlie, please get off

the chair. It is dangerous to be on your knees doing

that," Lauren instructed. Charlie continued. Lauren

physically helped him off and began to push the

chair back to her desk. At the same time Charlie,

angry that he had been removed from the chair,

started to climb back on. In doing so his head

collided with Lauren's elbow. "You hit me!" yelled

Charlie.

"I did not, you bumped into my arm," replied

Lauren.

"No, You hit me!" Charlie insisted.

"It was an accident. Believe what you want, but I

know what happened," Lauren replied angrily. She

walked away and Charlie left for his bus.

As Lauren drove home she reflected on her day.

"That's it! Lauren thought. I'm calling his parents,

and scheduling a meeting. This can't be. I've got to

put him on a chart." She knew that she had to work

hard at not responding to his provocations. She had

to avoid getting caught up on his "hooks." Once he

baited her, it was difficult not to play into his

favorite game, "The Great Debate."

Scene 3: The Telephone Conference

Lauren pulled into the garage. She could feel how

tense her body felt from the day. She put her school

bag down and went upstairs for some privacy.

Angrily, she dialed Charlie's home. Charlie's mom

answered.

"Hi, Cindie, this is Lauren Appleby. I'm sorry to

have to be calling you with this news, but Charlie

had an extremely tough day." Lauren relayed the

day's events including the accusatory statement

about hitting Charlie. Cindie immediately tried to

give some background history on her son, and how

difficult he has always been. She then inquired

about intelligence testing and asked if it could be

done now instead of waiting for third grade. Cindie

implied that if his academic needs were addressed,

then maybe his behavior would change.

Lauren was very upset. Defensively she replied," I

have taught many bright and gifted students during

my career. Not one of those kids has ever been

disrespectful to me. The issue here is Charlie's

disrespectful behavior and failure to do what is

asked of him. His behavior needs to be addressed

before we address his IQ."

Cindie replied "It sounds like you are frustrated."

"Yes, it was a frustrating day. countered Lauren.

Look we both want what's best for Charlie,

however, I also have my other students to be

concerned about. This needs to be fair for all.

Would you agree with that?"

There was a long pause at the other end. Lauren

sensed a problem. Cindie finally agreed.

Lauren proceeded "I would like to have a meeting

with you, your husband, and Charlie. I will invite

the principal as well. You can address your

concerns regarding learning activities and the

testing with him."

Lauren felt that Cindie really understood, was

frustrated herself after many years of hearing about

Charlie's behavior, and was looking for a quick fix

with the request for IQ testing.

"What would that prove? thought Lauren. We all

know that he is a bright boy. That's not the issue!"

She was annoyed both at

the outcome of the conversation and with the fact

that she had called Cindie when she was in an

agitated state of mind.

The next day Lauren directly went to see Rex about

the call. After filling him in on the call he stated,

"There is no correlation between giftedness and

rudeness. We are not going to address the academic

piece at this meeting. The issue is his disrespect."

Lauren had always wanted to make this a

"win-win" situation. "What would it hurt, let's say

if we gave him the off-level mastery tests from third

grade?"

"Lauren, you know you'd only be giving the

problem to another teacher if he was skipped to

third grade. This isn't about challenging activities.

You can provide those for Charlie. This is about his

behavior."

Lauren knew that , but thought she'd still try some

other possibilities.

The meeting was scheduled with Charlie's parents.

For Lauren it now was a matter of waiting to find

solutions at the meeting. In the meantime, Lauren

drafted a very basic behavior chart for Charlie with

only two goals: "I will speak respectfully at all

times," and I will follow the teacher's directions the

first time they are given." Consequences were

spelled out: Charlie would be sent to a stool just

outside the classroom and/or his recess would be

taken away for failing to meet his goals each day.

His reward would be visiting with Jen, the school

psychologist, whom he really liked. Lauren

checked with Jen and she thought it was fine.

Scene 4: The K-2 Partners Meeting

Lauren had been approached by Rex on more than

one ocassion concerning the 1-2 configurations.

The design began with Lauren's previous principal

who wanted something special in her building. She

had liked what one first grade teacher had done.

She had traveled with her first grade class through

their second grade year and to their third grade

year. There were problems that arose, so the team

was hesitant about jumping into anything quickly.

The principal had also mentioned family groupings.

She started with the K-2 team and presented her

idea. The team spent time researching multi-aged

classrooms anticipating that that would be the

direction to take for "family-groupings." The team

proceeded slowly and began forming partnerships

and having the entire class of students from the first

grade go to the same second grade classroom. This

eliminated the mystery of who would be next year's

teacher and would alleviate some anxiety for the

children. During the year the partners would team

teach multi-aged lessons pairing first and second

graders together. Now, in its third year, Rex

wanted to know what they wanted. He had no

strong feeling either way. Academically it wasn't

hurting the students, but it wasn't helping them

either.

Once everyone arrived in Betty's room, Lauren

opened it up with the fact that she was approached

by Rex to ask about what we wanted to do with the

1-2 configurations.

Immediately, Margaret jumped in and said, "Okay,

let's go around the room and find out. With her

pencil and pad in hand she began. Betty, how do

you like it?"

Lauren was angry. Why did she take over? Lauren

closed down and waited for her turn. Lauren no

longer liked it. She didn't see any value in it for the

academic side and only saw that it helped the first

graders' feelings about knowing who their teacher

would be next year. She felt that the team was stuck

and that they weren't doing anything to address the

parents' concern or questions that had been stated

on surveys given out at the end of the previous

year. Also, she saw it as a matter of convenience

for the teachers.

Sherry had expressed her displeasure with it earlier

in a meeting, but now waffled. That really annoyed

Lauren. The team discussed the pitfalls of having

kids together for two years who clearly should have

been separated and how the "family" changes when

parents request placement in another classroom or

when new students enter.

Towards the end of the meeting, Margaret stated,

"Lauren is not happy."

"No, I'm not this year," Lauren snapped.

The next meeting was scheduled and Lauren got up

to leave. Angrily she asked, "Margaret, since you

took notes could you get me a copy, please?"

Margaret replied that she would and then the door

shut.

Lauren couldn't determine if it was intentional or

accidental, but the thought crossed her mind that

more was being said behind the closed door.

The next morning as the students were at group

opening in Margaret's classroom, Margaret noticed

the cold shoulder Lauren gave her. She came over

to Lauren and asked "What's wrong?"

Lauren paused, ready to tell her, but then replied,

"Nothing," and walked away. How was she going

to approach her on this one? They had already had

some confrontations earlier in the year.

After the kids went to lunch, Lauren saw an

opportunity back in the classroom. Nervously she

approached Margaret. "I need to talk to you."

Teaching Note for "Running on Empty"

Describe briefly the FACTS, ISSUES,

PROBLEMS AND/OR DILEMMAS.

ISSUES:

What tensions exist at Smith Street Elementary

School?

How does Rex deal with Lauren's feelings

concerning her student Charlie?

What problems arise at the K-2 Partnership

Meeting?

How will the telephone call effect the teacher-parent

relationship?

PERSPECTIVES:

How are Lauren's feelings about her class effecting

her performance as a teacher?

How does Lauren feel about the 1-2 partnerships?

How does that effect the progress of the program?

How are Rex's and Lauren's view of handling

Charlie different? How will that effect the progress

in helping Charlie?

KNOWLEDGE:

What do you know about William Glasser's

"Choice Theory" and would that be helpful to

Lauren?

What more would you like to know about the 1-2

partnerships?

What do you know about behavior management?

How might this knowledge apply to this case?

ACTIONS:

If you were Lauren, what things might you do to

address Charlie's behavior?

If you were Lauren, what things would you do to

address the learning needs of her class?

If you were Cindie, Charlie's mom, how would

you address your son's needs with the school?

If you were Rex, what things might you do to

support Lauren?

CONSEQUENCES:

What problems arise when teachers have differing

feelings on the usefulness of a particular program,

such as the 1-2 partnerships? How can they be

resolved?

What problems arise from a lack of communication

concerning procedures in handling behavioral

issues with students? How can this be resolved?