I don't even have the words. The past 3 weeks have been so challenging.
I'll start by listing the topics we covered every day.
Week 31
M- Reflection/Refraction (toughie)
T- Fossil Fuels (another rough one)
W- Alternative Energy (not bad)
Th- Rock Cycle (not bad)
F- Soil (they hadn't been taught anything about soil in previous grades, so meh)
Week 32
M- Changes to the Earth's Surface (why can't they keep the landforms straight?)
T- Moon phases (did good with the moon phases song)
W- Day + Night (did OK, keep confusing rotation/revolution still)
Th- Water Cycle (did great)
F- Ecosystems (did great)
Week 33
M- Photosynthesis
T- Food Webs
W- Physical Adaptations
Th- Behavioral Adaptations
F- Metamorphosis
Our scores for Reading/Math came in. The news wasn't good. Because of this, the superintendent took it upon himself to declare all students failing a test were to attend remediation during study skills (we had 4 of our 6 teachers remediating every day), and had the option of staying after school.
Then, in a sudden twist of events, he declared, TWO DAYS before the re-test, that the failing students were to attend a 3 hour boot camp for each subject they failed. These kids were pulled out of class to do this on both Thursday and Friday of week 33.
Those kids who failed undoubtedly were at risk of failing my test as well. So why not take them out of Science and let them miss not only the 2 re-test days (which are the two days before my Science test) but also the two days before that.
Granted, there's not much I can do at this point anyway, but that felt like a slap in the face. We're all still reeling.
Fortunately, our principal denied the Superintendent's request to have us come in and remediate on SATURDAY (they day before Mother's day, btw). And he approved my plan to use the time AFTER the STAAR re-test on Monday and Tuesday of next week as Science boot camp. The kids are still going to rotate, but I'm handing out materials to all of the other 5th grade teachers, and I think we're all going to do the same thing for 5th, switch to a different activity for our 7th, and a third activity for our 8th. That way, they get the Science, 3 hours on 2 days, 6 different ways.
Let's all cross our fingers and hope for a miracle, folks. It's going to take one to have us all survive. That, or a 6-pack of straight jackets.
~Ms. Kat
I'll start by listing the topics we covered every day.
Week 31
M- Reflection/Refraction (toughie)
T- Fossil Fuels (another rough one)
W- Alternative Energy (not bad)
Th- Rock Cycle (not bad)
F- Soil (they hadn't been taught anything about soil in previous grades, so meh)
Week 32
M- Changes to the Earth's Surface (why can't they keep the landforms straight?)
T- Moon phases (did good with the moon phases song)
W- Day + Night (did OK, keep confusing rotation/revolution still)
Th- Water Cycle (did great)
F- Ecosystems (did great)
Week 33
M- Photosynthesis
T- Food Webs
W- Physical Adaptations
Th- Behavioral Adaptations
F- Metamorphosis
Our scores for Reading/Math came in. The news wasn't good. Because of this, the superintendent took it upon himself to declare all students failing a test were to attend remediation during study skills (we had 4 of our 6 teachers remediating every day), and had the option of staying after school.
Then, in a sudden twist of events, he declared, TWO DAYS before the re-test, that the failing students were to attend a 3 hour boot camp for each subject they failed. These kids were pulled out of class to do this on both Thursday and Friday of week 33.
Those kids who failed undoubtedly were at risk of failing my test as well. So why not take them out of Science and let them miss not only the 2 re-test days (which are the two days before my Science test) but also the two days before that.
Granted, there's not much I can do at this point anyway, but that felt like a slap in the face. We're all still reeling.
Fortunately, our principal denied the Superintendent's request to have us come in and remediate on SATURDAY (they day before Mother's day, btw). And he approved my plan to use the time AFTER the STAAR re-test on Monday and Tuesday of next week as Science boot camp. The kids are still going to rotate, but I'm handing out materials to all of the other 5th grade teachers, and I think we're all going to do the same thing for 5th, switch to a different activity for our 7th, and a third activity for our 8th. That way, they get the Science, 3 hours on 2 days, 6 different ways.
Let's all cross our fingers and hope for a miracle, folks. It's going to take one to have us all survive. That, or a 6-pack of straight jackets.
~Ms. Kat
