I can breathe again!

*exhale*sign*shrug*grin*relax*stretch....the list goes on.

THE NEW YORK STATE ELA EXAM IS OVER!!!!  AFTER THREE LONG DAYS OF 90+ MINUTES EACH I AM SO HAPPY AND RELIEVED.  Now it's time and sit to wait for the scores.  It's literally certification-revoked-serious to talk about the exam now that the state has made them secure...so I won't be doing any of that. All I can say is that I hope my kiddos did well---I saw them really putting in effort (made me proud!)

Anyway, 3 days of testing is crazy long.  To help them along the way I gave them many treats like this:

Cereal, a gummy snack, and a water bottle (no label to make sure it stays cheating-free!)

and like this...

Cute pencils and a saying

along with bagels for breakfast (more on that later this week too!) and animal crackers and some smarties (forgot to take a picture) for my "smartie pants"....okay, I definitely tried everything to keep them focused and confident.  This week also made me remember why I teach---um, I can't sit still that long either!

Since there was testing, we didn't have ELA class Tuesday-Thursday.  Instead, we still had all three of the other "cores"---science, math, and social studies.  Since I knew my kiddos were exhausted and stressed....check out what we did in science! (fun with clay!)

On Friday I started diving into The Giver with them.  Yes, we read it in 6th grade in our district.  Since I love the book, I'm not complaining.  But I'll admit it is definitely an upper level read for them so I've come up with lots of new ideas to share about that during this coming week!

I am also VERY excited about the Everything Intermediate Teaching Expo that I won a ticket to!  There are four fabulous presenters and I hope to post on everything I learned and picked up on in the coming week too!  Oh so many goals for this week....and yet so little time.  I grade those ELA tests all day on Wednesday and we test for math Wednesday through Friday! eeeeee!