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!

Test Prep #2--Centers!

So I set up 8 centers for my students to rotate between.  Naturally, we ran out of time so I will need to find a way to get back on schedule.  The reason why I did 8 is two-fold...one is that for certain times/days during ELA there are 3 teachers.  That leaves only 5 stations where students are independent.  Which is what I usually have during "The Superlative Six."  Plus, with 8 rotations I can have SUPER SMALL groups...like 3 kids, which is beyond awesome.  That way I know they are engaged and involved.

On to the stations...

1.) Listening  I totally forgot to take a picture of that one. Anyway, the state releases the listening passages (except last year's because now it's Top-Secret) along with the questions.  I had students take turns reading the passage out loud.  Meanwhile, they took turns recording the GAP notes on the white board.  They then answered the three short answer questions.


2.) Context Clues (with teacher)

Students went and worked on finding the meaning of words based on context clues.  By putting the sheets in laminated protectors, it gave me the chance to reuse without making a million worksheets.  Since they were working with a teacher, she could check them as they went.

3.) Review of Practice Test

yes! That top one does say just "minus one"!!!

Anyway, here students were grouped based on the questions missed to go over and review what they got incorrect.  They worked with our AIS Reading teacher so this was structured and guided!

4.) CandyVocab

You can find out how I repurposed CandyLand here.  Anyway, I used this vocab practice cards which were pretty challenging for my kiddos as the questions.  Does anyone else use this brand of cards?  It was still tricky for some of them!

5.) Mimio Game Using the Mimio (basically a device that makes your white board a SMART Board, I found a review game for Main Idea on Quia.  The kids, naturally, LOVE this station.

6.) Would You Rather...?

This is how I ended up using the "Would You Rather?" cards.  I wanted kids to work on orally restating the question, providing and answer, evidence, and then summing it all up again.  I used the poster behind it for students to guide them at first and then eventually removed it.  Kids picked a card and then decided on what they would "rather" do.

7.) Author's Purpose/Too-To-Two Folder Games   These are two games I found in blog-land.  I made them and set them up for the kids to play as review.

8.) Ants in the Pants Comprehension I made this little center:

What does it do?  You might ask....well...

My kiddos have a short reading passage and four questions.  They work independently to answer the questions.  When they go over it, they can earn one "ant" for each correct answer.  Then they can play the game by trying to flick the ants into the plastic pants.  Total hit. :)


So in short, that's how I made Test Prep Centers!  We will be doing several more of these rotations in the coming 2 weeks before Spring Break and ultimately, The Test.

Happy Weekend!

Calling all ((middle school)) + other teachers!

Hey All!
   This post has nothing to do with any of my test prep ideas (those are coming tomorrow), or school, or ELA, or my job or anything.  It has to do with what Crystal over at Kreative in Kinder has started.  As you may (or may not) know, several schools in the Kentucky/Indiana region were impacted in March by tornadoes.  She started a Google Doc of four schools that were in need...letters of encouragement, tangible donations, electronic donations...etc. I am amazed by the outpouring of support---but primarily in the lower elementary grades.  The middle school especially in Salyersville has almost no donations.  I signed up my kiddos under the 6th grade at one of the elementary schools and for the 3 science classes.  I have a few tangible donations I am going to send but was waiting to see where items were needed since they were pretty generic school supplies.  I waited.  It's been 6 days and it is still so bare bones for the middle school.  They are in need too!  I would pretty please urge all of us middle level teachers to make a donation---a simple gift or spare school supplies...even used items from our storage.  As Crystal put it, imagine all the money we have invested in our classrooms...not just physical materials but also all of the time and home-made items.  PLEASE visit the Google Docs and consider signing up.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AobCctR2p-DIdG5lNTlMZ1MxUk8tNHA2Mks4T2ctRmc#gid=1

If you think about it, the post office sells those flat rate boxes for pretty cheap.  I will probably fill a medium box for around $10 or one of the packing envelopes for around $5.  Please please please think of donating just a little something.

If you want to get your class involved, here is a great YouTube video (OK so how did teachers teach before YouTube?)  I showed my students this today before they took their quick quiz on latitude/longitude.  After the quiz they made cards.  I'll post pictures Monday!

Anyway, consider doing some spring cleaning and helping out fellow teachers! We have to stick together!  Thank you thank you all in advance!