Another set of parent-teacher conferences have come and gone. This will be my 33rd round of these meetings. Always, every year, I await this time with feelings of dread, reluctance, anticipation, and eagerness. I can never remember faces from Supply Drop Off night (who can with the amount of kids, parents, grandparents, etc eagerly pouring into the room). Beginning a conversation with, "Whose student are you?" isn't always such a great opener.
I will say that this round of conferences went well....even though we departmentalize and I have 60 students. We had right around 50 of the 60 students met with. Of course we had a few no-shows, only 2 actually. I like parent-teacher conferences, but I just wish it wasn't all jam-packed into two nights. This makes for one weary teacher. Thank goodness we get a day off after completion!
Rolling through about 25 conferences in 4 hours two nights a week is no joke. I am glad we had the turnout we did. Communication between parents and students is important. I just hope that
a) Parents understand what we are trying to assess.
b) Both parties uphold standards and trials of new ideas to best help students.
c) Administration continues to see that this communication is vital and to please, please, please give us more time to prepare for these nights.
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Monday, October 19, 2015
To basal or not to basal.....my latest conundrum
Well, my friends. I have decided to plunge back into the land of the basal. I have debated and debated and debated not only with my self, but with input from several of my outstanding colleagues.
I feel that with this group of students, this might be my best bet to see the greatest amount of growth. I feel that the structure the basal provides will help them stabilize themselves a bit more. Also, holding onto my two daily rounds with each section will help me differentiate my whole group instruction as well as keep discussions ongoing in regards to current good fit books.
I think that using the basal will help provide structure and perhaps push my 'white' group, yet I know that quite a few will struggle and this could be stressful. It will provide grade level material that we can work steadily through while providing the most support that myself and the two aides in this class can.
The basal will do the same for the 'blue' group, but I think with more success. This group is right on the cusp of grade level material. They should be challenged with grade level work.
The last group, silver, I feel will not be as challenged by the basal series. The structure will be good for this group, but I hope to see quick success with this group and move them into a UbD (Unit by Design) soon. I just want to be sure to not gloss over this group's capable-ness. There are a few red flaggers in this class that I do not want to slip through the cracks or get lost in the crowd.
So, today we dove in headfirst with the vocabulary lesson. Two groups did amazing...and one really struggled. Oh, the bane of cluster grouping. It is so difficult to do any partner work in this group. Many of these kiddos are not into school, find it difficult to focus (especially when a task is deemed too hard), cannot communicate in friendly manners, and even struggle to make it through a short 12 minute focus lesson. Uff da!
We'll see what the week brings...stay tuned.
I feel that with this group of students, this might be my best bet to see the greatest amount of growth. I feel that the structure the basal provides will help them stabilize themselves a bit more. Also, holding onto my two daily rounds with each section will help me differentiate my whole group instruction as well as keep discussions ongoing in regards to current good fit books.
I think that using the basal will help provide structure and perhaps push my 'white' group, yet I know that quite a few will struggle and this could be stressful. It will provide grade level material that we can work steadily through while providing the most support that myself and the two aides in this class can.
The basal will do the same for the 'blue' group, but I think with more success. This group is right on the cusp of grade level material. They should be challenged with grade level work.
The last group, silver, I feel will not be as challenged by the basal series. The structure will be good for this group, but I hope to see quick success with this group and move them into a UbD (Unit by Design) soon. I just want to be sure to not gloss over this group's capable-ness. There are a few red flaggers in this class that I do not want to slip through the cracks or get lost in the crowd.
So, today we dove in headfirst with the vocabulary lesson. Two groups did amazing...and one really struggled. Oh, the bane of cluster grouping. It is so difficult to do any partner work in this group. Many of these kiddos are not into school, find it difficult to focus (especially when a task is deemed too hard), cannot communicate in friendly manners, and even struggle to make it through a short 12 minute focus lesson. Uff da!
We'll see what the week brings...stay tuned.
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Testing Testing Testing
I know that my school year has officially begun when it is time for ... testing... That most wonderful time of the year for the tri-annual event of the FAST (Formative Assessment System for Teachers) literacy assessments.
I don't mind these tests. They are not horribly invasive, but they can be time-consuming, particularly since we administer them 3x a year. This means every class I teach will be out 3 class periods while we give the untimed aReading test on the computer. I will miss 1.5 full days while my students have a substitute teacher while I administer the fluency piece to all 60 of my students. Thankfully, a) I get to have a sub and don't have to pull kids during class time for 2-3 weeks and b) our reading coach and Title teacher are so helpful and test some of our kids for us as well. I still have 4 kiddos left to test despite some technological distress.
Testing these days for teachers is such a huge stressor. Particularly when we test for Iowa Assessments. Those dreaded numbers. Will you make 100% for the SINA/NCLB goal? Or more importantly, will you make the 80% mark that means that the Core Curriculum I've been teaching has reached brains and made an impact? Last year, my class reached an abysmal 55% on the Iowa Assessments for reading. I was horrified. I was honestly sick to my stomach despite reassurances from administration that it wasn't my teaching, "You are an amazing educator! We don't know what happened." These comments from both admins did nothing to quell the illness I felt over that 55%. If anything, it might have made me feel even worse because I knew they knew the number and by golly, what the heck happened there!?!?! Even worse was the K-12 meeting to set the school's annual goals. Again it was, "4th grade, reading... 55%?!! What happened there?" And to my thankfulness they focused elsewhere, but it was changed the next day for the goal to be focused on that class. I guess because they can't get any worse, right?
Despite that class having achieved the 80% on the aReading test, I still couldn't shake the ugliness that accompanied that 55%. Now I'm faced with a class that has just shown a 63% overall on the aReading FAST assessment. We have a ways to get to that magic 80%. I have a good feeling about these guys though. I think they will work hard. Most of them have shown a love for reading. With some guidance and a lot of hard work, I think we can make that magic 80%. (A few prayers might help us too!) As long as I keep them reading we'll be fine.
I don't mind these tests. They are not horribly invasive, but they can be time-consuming, particularly since we administer them 3x a year. This means every class I teach will be out 3 class periods while we give the untimed aReading test on the computer. I will miss 1.5 full days while my students have a substitute teacher while I administer the fluency piece to all 60 of my students. Thankfully, a) I get to have a sub and don't have to pull kids during class time for 2-3 weeks and b) our reading coach and Title teacher are so helpful and test some of our kids for us as well. I still have 4 kiddos left to test despite some technological distress.
Testing these days for teachers is such a huge stressor. Particularly when we test for Iowa Assessments. Those dreaded numbers. Will you make 100% for the SINA/NCLB goal? Or more importantly, will you make the 80% mark that means that the Core Curriculum I've been teaching has reached brains and made an impact? Last year, my class reached an abysmal 55% on the Iowa Assessments for reading. I was horrified. I was honestly sick to my stomach despite reassurances from administration that it wasn't my teaching, "You are an amazing educator! We don't know what happened." These comments from both admins did nothing to quell the illness I felt over that 55%. If anything, it might have made me feel even worse because I knew they knew the number and by golly, what the heck happened there!?!?! Even worse was the K-12 meeting to set the school's annual goals. Again it was, "4th grade, reading... 55%?!! What happened there?" And to my thankfulness they focused elsewhere, but it was changed the next day for the goal to be focused on that class. I guess because they can't get any worse, right?
Despite that class having achieved the 80% on the aReading test, I still couldn't shake the ugliness that accompanied that 55%. Now I'm faced with a class that has just shown a 63% overall on the aReading FAST assessment. We have a ways to get to that magic 80%. I have a good feeling about these guys though. I think they will work hard. Most of them have shown a love for reading. With some guidance and a lot of hard work, I think we can make that magic 80%. (A few prayers might help us too!) As long as I keep them reading we'll be fine.
Monday, August 31, 2015
It's Monday....what are you reading?
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| These blogs: Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers encourage readers to share books read each Monday to help us share our reading lives. Check out their sites for more information. |
Check out my shelfari shelves: http://www.shelfari.com/bluepersuasion77 also. I really enjoyed finishing The Last Good Day of the Year. It is definitely an upper junior/senior high book. My 4 year old son and I thoroughly enjoyed I Will Chomp You! and of course Elephant and Piggie's I Will Take a Nap. Sunny Side Up was a great new graphic novel from Jennifer Holm, but I unsure if I will put it out for my 4th graders quite yet.
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