Frustrating Technology/Student Situation

Each day during the classes I take notes and write down observations and routines. After taking quite a few notes in the last couple of days, I decided I would scan my notes and put them on the journal. After school on Thursday I went to our elementary school library to scan my documents. I scan, saved and the uploaded my notes. But, something was not working with the scanner and when I opened my documents they came up scrambled. The second scanner was not working at all. After spending much time on this project, it was time to leave and write my lessons.

Here is a significant episode that I will elaborate on for this Thursday.

This week on of my fifth grade boys was gone on Monday. He came in on Tuesday without his home folder, so none of his homework was done. This boys is absent-minded too most days, so this did not seem too out of place. He received his penalty for the day and got a zero on his chart for the day. Later in the day he was scratching his leg a lot, we discovered he had poison ivy. The next day it had come to our attention that this boy was actually gone Monday because he had head lice. His brother was out because of poison ivy, and then his brother had it.

Wednesday our fifth grader came in again with no home folder. We talked to him about the importance of bringing it back and how he must take some responsibility before he goes into the middle school. He then mentioned something about moving in with his grandma. This was odd because his mother had custody, and the children had lived with her for a while.

Later that day we got the whole story from the office. The grandparents hadn't heard from their daughter in a while so they called and called and got no response. The grandparents got worried and went over for a visit. When they arrive at our fifth graders house, it was in a terrible state. The toilets were all overflowing, everything was filthy, there was absolutely no food in the house, dirty dishes were piled high all over the counter, and garbage was just left out. The grandparents did not waste any time. They took the two brothers and told the mother to get her act together. They told her that she has to clean the house and get things in a livable condition; her deadline will be the holiday weekend. The grandparents warned if things weren't better by then, they would take legal action and try to get guardianship of the boys.

Until the Labor Day weekend the boys will be living with their grandparents. The boys don’t have much of their own, not even their school work.

C. Analysis of Episode
When I found out what was really going on with my fifth grader, it just broke my heart. He is so young, but yet he has to deal with so much. He never complained about his household or said how hard things were for him. I feel bad that we were hard on him for not having his homework. Usually that would be something that is a big deal, but in the grand scheme of it all it doesn’t seem like it really matters. A reading worksheet or his math paper is not life and death. I am not sure if Child Services knows what is going on; the principal and social worker were taking care of things. What breaks my heart even more, is that I know that it is not just this fifth grader that is going through a hard time. So many other children are going through difficult things too. These precious children have to spend one week at moms and then next at dad’s place. It is so hard to keep both parents on the same page, as far as school work goes. If anything throughout this semester, I hope that I can bring a glimpse of God’s love and hope into the lives of these amazing children; to show them that someone loves and cares about them.