I N D I A N A D A I LY S T U D E N T | F R I D AY, O C T. 3 0 , 2 0 1 5 | I D S N E W S . C O M
IDS
HOUSING AND LIVING GUIDE INSIDE AND ON STANDS NOW
20 fire alarms go off in 1 week Carley Lanich clanich@indiana.edu | @carleylanich
RACHEL MEERT | IDS
As a pre-service teacher, Katie Russell often reads to the class. So far, while she’s been at Templeton Elementary, the class has read several “Junie B. Jones” books.
WELCOME TO
ROOM L9
IU senior to enter profession in the midst of a state-wide teacher shortage By Alexa Chryssovergis aachryss@indiana.edu | @achryssovergis
On her first day in Room L9 at Templeton Elementary School, Katie Russell is all soft smiles and soothing, soprano tones. She watches from the sidelines in Room L9 with a bemused expression crossing her face, smiling at kindergarteners — 5-yearolds with energy levels too high — as they walk into the classroom. It’s her first day of field experience as a senior at IU. Every Wednesday for the semester, she’ll come into the same room and greet familiar faces. The field experience is required of education students and is meant to prepare them to lead their own classroom. Russell is 21, and within a year she’ll begin a career in a struggling field. She said she has known she has wanted to teach since freshman year when she changed her major, even though it meant summer classes and six semesters jammed with at least 18 credit hours so she could graduate on time. Nearly every teacher she’s encountered — and people who know teachers, too — has warned her against this job. You want to be a teacher? Don’t do this. Don’t throw away your life doing this. You’re going to regret this decision. It’s not worth it. You don’t want this job. *** There’s a teacher shortage in Indiana. Schools are in need, and the job is harder than ever. Russell is well aware of the struggles teachers face: an overload of standardized tests, poor pay and general lack of community respect. On her first day at Templeton, she will learn more about the obstacles to being a good teacher and a happy person at the same time. Though she said she knows what’s at stake, that doesn’t stop her from assuming her coddling voice. It is in stark contrast to the strictly serious voice of the Jen Waltz, the kindergarten teacher whose class she’s observing. “Hi,” Russell says softly, as she smiles and
waves to the kids as Waltz bustles around setting up activities for the day. “Miss Waltz, do we have gym today?” asks a girl with a long black ponytail. “Look at the board,” Waltz answers without glancing up. The girl skips over to the whiteboard, ponytail swinging, and sees “physical education” under the date — Sept. 23, 2015 — in kindergarten teacher handwriting — crisp and pointy and curvy all at once. Under the board, a table is set back from the rest of the room. Russell said she later noticed it was filled with stacks of common formative assessments, or CFAs. Russell said she knows the heavy focus on standardized testing can be problematic for schools, but she doesn’t know much about CFAs. After subbing for three years and being in several classrooms, relating to the kids is easy. It’s the classroom management that might not be so simple. The day starts with breakfast — eaten in the classroom, free for many students, just like lunch, because of the low-income population at Templeton. The rest of Waltz’s students trickle in and begin practicing their J’s. Some have already begun to master their letter-writing. Others have wobbly J’s. Russell walks around, taking notes and smiling. Nonsensical chatter percolates throughout the room. “One-two-three, eyes on me!” Waltz says, and it’s clear she’s practiced this many times. “One-two, eyes on you!” her class says back. The talking stops. Russell notices Waltz knows how to recognize problematic situations and easily sidestep them. She knows when a temper tantrum is just for attention or when her kids are tired or cranky. “Down here, you’re teaching them how to be learners, you’re teaching skills,” Waltz says to Russell later in the day. Normally, the day is split up so students are in “small group time” for 25 minutes followed by a 90-minute literacy block. After that, Wednesdays consist of lunch, then math, Spanish, specials, snack and time Waltz typically spends reading from a
chapter book or watching a short video. “Can I please have hands up in a bubble?” Maybe half the class responds by raising their arms in a “bubble” shape, and Waltz isn’t satisfied yet. She asks again. “If I have to ask a third time, it’s a clip move.” At the threat of a dreaded clip move, the class obeyed. It is the first time all day Waltz has brought up the clips, but it won’t be the last. Every student in the class has a clip on a green slot — “READY TO LEARN.” If they do something good, they can be rewarded by having their clip moved to “GOOD CHOICES”, “GREAT JOB” or “FANTASTIC.” As a consequence for bad behavior, Waltz can move a clip to “THINK ABOUT IT,” “TEACHER’S CHOICE” or “PARENT CONTACT.” The kids alternate between stations to practice phonetic skills before it’s time for lunch, which means another several minutes of scrambling and another “one-twothree, eyes on me.” Through the chaos, Russell smiles softly and continues taking notes. *** On this Wednesday, Waltz doesn’t have recess duty, which means lunch to herself followed by planning time. She normally eats lunch with her closest colleagues, Margaret Shields and Chloe Nelson. The three are the only teachers at Templeton who focus only on kindergarten. However, on this Wednesday, Waltz spends her free time asking Russell if she has any questions. Russell asks about the school’s report card, which has gone through a recent revamp, leaving teachers confused and frustrated. Instead of running on a letter scale, it’s based off of a 4-point scale. Teachers are expected to rate their students’ abilities at the beginning of the year and then again at the end. Russell listens as Waltz explains her concern the teachers don’t have enough
It’s 8 a.m. Thursday. Students living in Read Center slowly scatter to their respective classes while appearing overwhelmed and tired. Signs posted on the glass doors leading to the Curry wing read “Last night’s false alarm was pulled by a fellow resident ... tonight’s ‘false alarm’ could kill.” Workers in Read’s Crimson Cafe fire up the grill and sell cups for the cafe’s self-serve Hubbard & Cravens coffee. “The fire alarms have been going off,” one said to another. “They went off in the rain the other night. My roommate’s definitely sick because of it.” Buildings have been evacuated sometimes multiple times a day throughout the past week. Early Wednesday morning alarms sounded three times. Sophomore Anna Mayfield lived in Forest Quad last year and said she enjoyed her residence hall experience — having food prepared for her and living close to academic buildings on campus. Mayfield has been doing anything she can to get some sleep before her 9 a.m. music theory class, one she struggles to stay awake during on a normal day. This week she has crashed in both an off-campus hotel and an apartment and opted not to sleep in her own room in Read. “It’s hard to stay focused on a normal day,” Mayfield said. “But with the lack of sleep, it’s awful. It’s everything I have to keep going.” IU spokesperson Mark Land said the alarms are primarily being set off in Read’s Curry wing. There have been more than 20 false alarms in seven days, likely caused by disruptions to smoke detectors in the building’s sprinkler heads. Land said in some instances it appeared that white spray, possibly deodorant or an aerosol spray, was used to trigger the alarms. When sensors are triggered in the Curry wing, the whole building must leave — displacing about 500 students from their rooms for sometimes more than 30 minutes at 3, 4 and sometimes 5 in the morning. Each alarm must be treated as if it were real. “We know that this is inconvenient,” Land said. “We know that nobody wants to get out in shorts and T-shirts at 4 in the morning when it’s 50 degrees outside. We’re asking that people bear with us as much as possible because we’re treating every one SEE ALARMS, PAGE 6
SEE SHORTAGE, PAGE 6
Alarm timeline FIELD HOCKEY
Hoosiers battle Scarlet Knights in finale By Zain Pyarali zpyarali@iu.edu | @ZP_IDS
The senior class had two career conference wins coming into this season. Now it’s going for the program’s single season conference win record Friday. Due to a complete turnaround this season, led by first-year IU Coach Amanda Janney, Hoosier field hockey is a prominent contender in the Big Ten once again. To find where the success comes from, look no further than the team’s hard-working seniors who used Janney’s on-field philosophies and watched the positive results trickle down as a result. “Just to be at the very beginning of this and to be a senior, to know that the girls behind me are going to experience this for the rest of their careers, I’m very jealous,” senior defender Sydney Supica said. “Also, at the same time I’m very happy that I could be at the start of this.” IU (8-9, 4-3) will play Rutgers (79, 0-7) in pursuit of its fifth conference victory of the season after tying the all-time program record of four conference wins in a season, which was last done in 2009. The matchup against the Scarlet Knights will be the regular season finale for the Hoosiers, marking senior day.
IU (8-9) vs. Rutgers (7-9) 3:30 p.m. Oct. 30, IU Field Hockey Complex Supica and fellow senior forwards Nicole Volgraf, Rachel Stauffer and Karen Lorite will be recognized as their Hoosier careers dwindle down. These four play a key part on the field and their knowledge and leadership have been instrumental in the success of the team this year. “They’ve been great leaders by example both on and off the field and also just with the intangibles of leadership and experience,” Janney said. “It’s really clear where they’ve been and what they’ve been through in terms of not getting as many Big Ten wins in the past, they’ve been able to bring experiences they’ve had in the past and inspired us to do our very best this year.” Rutgers enters its final Big Ten contest with a winless conference record. Rutgers was able to snap a four-game losing streak while earning its first road win of the season by defeating American University, 2-1, in its last game. IU dropped its last game to American in double overtime. After dropping two overtime
Here are the times during the past week that the alarms have gone off in Read Center Wednesday, Oct. 21 7:18 p.m. 9:50 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22 12:38 a.m. 8:14 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23 1:25 a.m. 1:52 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 24 2:54 a.m. 11:16 p.m.
RACHEL MEERT | IDS
Freshman midfielder Charlie Kaste passes the ball during the game against Penn State on Sunday afternoon at the IU Field Hockey Complex. The Hoosiers defeated the Nittany Lions 1-0.
matchups on the road without top goal-scorer sophomore Maddie Latino, IU is back in the comfort of its own home, a place where it has won five of the last six games with one loss against No. 1 Syracuse. Latino is recovering from a foot injury, and Janney said she is anxious to get her top goal scorer back into the lineup this weekend. “Maddie suffered a little injury a couple weeks ago so we’ve been resting her,” Janney said. “It was unfortunate to play Maryland without her because she’s been such a dynamic scorer for us, but she’s back
to practice this week and we expect her to do well this weekend.” This will be the final tune-up prior to the conference tournament next weekend that the Hoosiers will play host in. Team members said they feel confident they can take the home success and turn it into a deep tournament run. “We get to practice on this field every single day so having the tournament here is going to be huge,” Volgraf said. “I just think it’s fun. We definitely have an advantage, and I hope we can use that and really have a fun time.”
Sunday, Oct. 25 2:04 a.m. 5:23 a.m. 6:41 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26 1:36 a.m. 4:39 a.m. 11:30 a.m. 4:27 p.m. 6:35 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27 9:44 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28 3:59 a.m. 4:26 a.m. 5:07 a.m. SOURCE MEL LANE, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF OFFICE OF INSURANCE, LOSS CONTROL & CLAIMS