5 days left
Whoa, May sure went fast! We have 5 more days of school left. I think the kids have already checked out though. We have been working on a couple of interesting projects and that has really kept the kids on task but I think this week will be tough.Progress reports
Finishing up my progress reports was such a relief and basically I felt pretty good about them.What I really wanted to accomplish was to show what students know when they get done with 2nd grade. I feel like I have done that.
Some things to think about:
- When doing standard based grading make sure you have a plan when it will be taught and how to assess it right from the beginning of the trimester/quarter.
- If you pick a standard make sure you plan on guaranteeing that at least 95% of the students will know that standard when you get done with 2nd grade. All other grades above you are counting on that!
- Make a plan right away if students are struggling with a standard. How you will pull them out if it is only a quarter of your class? How did you teach it the first time? How did the other grade level partner/s teach it?
- What percent do you expect the student to get on the assessment? How will you assess the students to see if they exceed the standards?
- Make sure you only assess the standard at the level you expect them to be at when they finish 2nd grade. (we made that mistake and learned from it).
- Keep faith that the next time you teach it they will get it because they probably will.
What the government should really look at.
My favorite part of this week was when I got out the writing papers from September and October and had the 2nd graders compare and read what they wrote with a writing this month. One of my students told me that it was so embarrassing what they wrote in September. This shows so much more than the Iowa Assessments. If the government wants to know if students are proficient they should enter the 21st century and see what we see! I wish I would have copied a couple of those to post. One student at the beginning of the year wrote like a kindergartner and didn't use any spaces. Nothing made sense and what he wrote was off topic. What a difference a school year can make, I was truly impressed.Internal Motivation
Sometimes it is hard for a teacher to understand what motivates a student to do a good job on something such as an assessment. The writing that we did on Thursday this week was simply write about your favorite summer activity. I told them when they get done writing I will let them see what and how they wrote at the beginning of the school year. This was motivation for many students to do their very best. I didn't say it goes in the grade book, or if you do a good job you get a sticker. Sometimes we don't give enough credit to students internal motivations.
Final thoughts
Summer is almost here but teachers are never really disconnected from their job. I will spend a few days just watching movies or playing games but then I will think about what I need to do for next year.
I am teaching summer school for 3 weeks so I won't really be done working until the end of July.
Thanks for reading!
