Day of Testing is DONE!

Well, actually that happened yesterday for my kids, and I think that there is still more testing to be done in the upper grades tomorrow, and one of my kids has make-ups to do (but he is about 60% attendance so far this marking period).

Yes, ITBS testing is done for my kids. The exact same test form as last year. Same questions that just kind of tweaked me last year tweaked me again this year. The cultural relevance of tests is a factor that needs to be addressed. Plus, one question to asses one concept is also a little wrong. Snapshots do not exactly tell what is outside the frame. Overall I think my kids did well. I did not feel as frustrated with seeing my kids mark wrong answers. It might be that they were actually performing better, or I reminded myself not to look so much, or I just calmed down in the room, or it was the fact that my principal decided to help proctor in my room. I'm not sure why, but I think it's something the TA that was helping me the other couple of days said. There are times when I feel like there is a lot of stuff going on behind my back, and I really don't know who I can turn to. But I try not to let things like that get to me, especially if it is just a TA.

Now we can resume real, regularly scheduled teaching. We have been sitting in groups and we are trying to work on Cooperative learning. A bumpy road, but we will get there. They have energy, they are sharp and they can help each other learn.

(Historical note for myself - The past two days with Dilland - turning point beyond what I can help with)

On to the list of things that went well.

1. Nearly all of my kids were able to work in centers and actually accomplish the work, and write it down correctly in their travel log. All had accomplished different levels, but the structure was there.
2. One girl was able to read nearly all of "Fox in Socks" with me on the carpet today. We've read it every day this week to help us listen to rhyming words in preparation of writing couplets. I even had one of my most speech problemed students joining in and trying to read the book of tongue twisters.
3. My students were better at telling time. They worked in groups to read clocks and tell times and I think that helped some of them. With just a little more practice we should be able to effectively tell time to the half hour.
4. I went to the 5-6 grade basketball game at the Community Center and I saw the team from my school beat the team from the KIPP school. The final score was 59-14. Kind of a blowout honestly.

One more slightly jumbled/test affected day. On Monday, though it is the week before spring break, we will be jumping back in hard core. We've still got a lot of ground to cover, and I really want to get this new tracking/accountability system down.