Let the Testing Begin

Monday marks the beginning of the state tests. My poor students have state tests in writing, math, reading, and now science. Because funding is tied to our scores, if they do not do well, they have a test prep class next year in high school, instead of their study hall. I've been trying very hard to not focus on testing in my instruction, but there comes a point when we have not covered everything that is on the test and I resort to test prep myself. Accountability is a good thing, but this is just a high stakes test.

Enough complaining - I keep telling my students that it doesn't do anything useful.

Clover

I'm getting excited about what I plan to do to our lawn. I'm not a big fan of super-manicured lawns (for one, they take too much work), but do like to see green, rather than the yellows and browns associated with my dog's pee. So here's my great idea for my lawn. I'm going to seed it with a mixture that is very high in clover seed. It's green, grows easily, stands up to dog pee, and is rather drought resistant. It fixes nitrogen that the other grasses can use and it smells nice. To top it off, it doesn't need to be mowed as often. I had planned to go buy the seed today, but now the ground is covered with snow. I don't think it will last, but may make the Easter egg hunt difficult.

Fun Times

Today we had a gym event at school. Our district is busy raising $30,000 to build a school in Cambodia (I hear we are over $21,000 already) and the winning home room got to pie a teacher and duct tape another to the wall. I was duct taped, and I must say, I was rather disappointed. The kids do not do a very good job and I was suspended above the ground for exactly zero seconds.

Before that, we played this odd 4-way volleyball with one huge ball and 4 nets. It was fun, but another teacher and myself had put out the challenge to take on any team against the two of us. You would not believe the students who said that we were going down. I am not a professional volleyball player, but I am pretty competitive and the other teacher is even better. One student stands out in particular. He is about 5 feet tall (if even) and he said he and somebody else were going to crush us. It was all I could do to keep a straight face. It was fun to see how fired up the kids got about the chance to play against us. We need to see that it happens in the future.

Well, Spring Break begins today - a whole 4 day weekend thanks to snow make-up days today and Tuesday. Await testing rants next week as we get within one week of state testing.

Sleep...that sounds familiar

I know my daughter can nap. I've seen it happen at daycare. In fact, I saw a whole room of toddlers sleeping. They weren't even locked in the room. At home, it's a different story. For the last few months, we have given up on having her sleep during the day (It's been hard enough getting her to sleep at night). But baby #2's coming and I'm getting worried. #1 has learned to pitch a fit, and while I don't given in easily, she is very loud and I doubt #2 will sleep through it.

On another note, the snow is melting and it's sunny today. Days like this, although very cold, make me wonder if the weather has turned the corner on winter. Don't get me wrong. I love the cold and enjoy winter, but it's also expensive. I'm ready for the season change. However, since that means we will be spending time outside, I should probably go pick up the yard. Mr. dog (aka Vince) has made many deposits since the ground was last bare. I should also finish raking...

Tomorrow - my least favorite day of the year. Few days are ever worse than the first day after we turn the clocks ahead.

Beowulf

Well, I hated to admit it, but Beowulf was not a very good movie. I had high hopes which slowly got lower and lower as I learned more about the movie. The first blow was the animation style. Animation which is almost realistic is very distracting to me and it bugged me the whole time I watched the movie. Style aside, as I watched the movie, I found it hard to believe how uninteresting the characters were. The last I had heard, Neil Gaiman was attached the movie in some way. If that was true, it did not show through because the characters had very little going for them and the dialog was horrendous. Keep in mind, I watch sci-fi and fantasy with a very generous heart, but I couldn't finish this movie. For all I know, it became awesome after the 1st hour (and I do not mean the introduction of Angelina Jolie), but it sure didn't hint at greatness in the 1st hour. Hopefully, the Martian Child will be better.

Hope and Dread

Well, it is with both hope and dread that I prepare to grade the quizzes and tests from Friday. Algebra it a tough class for my kids because it means that they have skipped 8th grade math (Pre-Algebra), which really does get them ready for Algebra. It also doesn't help that a good portion of them should not be in the class. This is not because they are not smart enough, but many of them just aren't ready developmentally for Algebra. I hate seeing them struggle, especially when they work really hard and still do not do well. At this point in the year, it is made very clear who is ready and who is not. This is a tough nine weeks. I have tests that they took Friday to grade (as well as quizzes from the other three classes - am I cruel giving tests and quizzes on Fridays?) and I hope they did well. A bunch of the kids who have been working very hard told me after the test that they think they did very well. That always makes me worried, because that is the worst kind of bad grade - the one that follows anticipation of a very good one.

I guess this post is just my way of procrastinating. I should get started with the grading.

I would like to thank the one person who has viewed my blog since I installed mapstats. I hope you are joined by others soon.