Standardized Testing Week (1 of 3)

The testing environment.

This week has been the school's first time utilizing an online standardized test. I'm excited about the data that the MAP test is purported to provide for each student, and glad that the glitches to moving to a digital test (away from the very old school practice of bubble in tests with number two pencils) were minor. The bumpiness of working make-up tests into our daily activities with the requirement of a potentially different online proctor to restart a testing session I have already used remains to be seen.

I had the students reflect on their first MAP Test session, and got some interesting responses. Some were predictable, like the student who wrote "Testing was lame," and underlined it several times. My favorite one is not pictured, but said, "If you notice I got a question wrong, I clicked the right answer, but then it said I didn't." I'm not even sure what the student experienced to respond that way, but I love the confidence that allowed him to think he only missed one question, and that it was due to a technical difficulty.

Although this week was less disrupted than my previous standardized testing weeks, I am not very excited for the disruption to come again two more times this year. I am hopeful, and even a little expectant, that the data gathered through this process will warrant three disruptions per year. Planning for less homework and less rigorous lessons this week so the kids could be less frazzled for our afternoon testing slot (when we had access to the chrome books) wasn't too difficult this time of year, when we are ramping up in every subject area. But I'm less certain it will be as easy to pause again the next two times.

I did go ahead and teach my students about the history of the theory of continental drift. But since I do this largely through YouTube music videos (one by The Amoeba People and one made by a sixth grade class from California), with a Bill Nye top 100 scientist clip in the mix, I don't think the students felt too overwhelmed by the new information. Several students were excited to play with continent puzzle pieces in a recreation of Alfred Wegener's process that led him to propose the theory of continental drift in the first place. And the fact that their knowledge product to show they understand the history of this theory emerging from the laughable ruminations of a meteorologist to an almost universally accepted scientific theory, is a comic strip retelling helps them to see it as a fun lesson. Perfect for testing week.

Even though it has been a long week (and it's not quite over yet), I still find myself believing one of the catch phrases of my boss, which I posted on his door before school started (in the style of a set of IB attribute posters), "Holy sugar, we can do this!"

Like a Kangaroo on Steroids

Last week was the first full week of school. It included the introduction to our first major units of study in the school year, a lot of troubleshooting to get kids on chrome books, and my parent meeting for the fifth grade outdoor environmental education trip back to back with curriculum night. It was an exhausting week to be sure, but one that reminded me of why I'm in this profession.

Checking out the Learner Profile Attributes during a reflection.

The kids were excited to see photos of me participating in the DIG Field School's 2015 teacher field trip and see me with a partially excavated hadrasour scapula. It was easy to get them excited about investigating the theory of continental drift with that introduction. After I told them the story of Alfred Wegener cutting up an atlas to see if his observation of the continents looking like puzzle pieces that would match up where the fossil record matched up across oceans, they were ready to try it themselves, only using photocopied maps rather than actual atlases.

2015 DIG Field School

Cutting out Continents

Next week we will begin our first round of MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) testing of the school year. The MAP test is new to my school and new to me, but is supposed to create a personalized testing experience for each student based on their answers as they progress through the assessment. Then it will give the student and me immediate feedback about where they are and what they are ready to learn next. We will give the test three times a year, and use it to measure student growth as well as drive individualized instructional decisions. It all sounds like it will be great - if we can get our wireless set up to handle the demand of more than one class testing at the same time while the students and teachers are getting used to a brand new testing system.

Lots of collaboration and peer helping going on.

Thursday brought my annual parent meeting for the fifth grade Outdoor Environmental Education trip to Camp Seymour. Since I am going earlier than I have ever gone in the school year before, my meeting was earlier than it has ever been before, and ended up being scheduled for the same night as the school's curriculum night. I was in my school building for 14 hours straight on Thursday, but was able to pull off two enthusiastic presentations with the help of an evening cup of coffee and the letters my students wrote to their parents thanking them for coming to the meetings. One in particular made my day with a student's awesome simile and thoughts on the first nine days of being in my homeroom.

Like a Kangaroo on Steroids.

Steps Toward Becoming and IB School

Last week all the fifth graders spent their science and religion classes learning a little about reasons and ways to reduce food waste in order to create presentations about our school wide snack composting program to bring to all of the other classes in the building. They were excited to do research for their presentations and include facts and statistics from their research to take into the other classes. This was mostly a student driven inquiry process where I gave them some parameters, grouped them, and then did my best to stand back and offer support only when they asked for it, or it seemed necessary to help them get over a hurdle in order to meet our goal of having the program ready to be up and running for next week. Some of the students were apprehensive about approaching other teachers to schedule their presentations and others were nervous about presenting to the much younger or older grades. But everyone was engaged in the process and most were reflecting on their past food choices with an eye for making different ones going forward. One boy told me, "I feel bad about what I've done before and I think I need to talk to my mom about how we can compost at home." After reminding him that he doesn't need to feel bad about his past behaviors, especially before he knew about food waste, he started gathering information on how he can better deal with food waste in his own home going forward. Student initiated action based on their learning in the classroom is the best!

We also spent a couple of class periods coming up with our Essential Agreements for the new school year. These are the International Baccalaureate's version of classroom rules, and are meant to be student driven, set the tone for collaboration, and create shared expectations. Students were given the opportunity to discuss classroom expectations and then independently write down their top five classroom expectations for consideration in our Essential Agreements. The complete list was compiled and we came up with seven common ideas. I'd really prefer to have five or fewer ideas, but the students were reluctant to combine the remaining ideas, even when they saw overlap within them. So seven it is.  One girl said, at the heart of our Essential Agreements, is the idea that "we want everyone to feel safe and like they belong at school."  I think they're understanding important IB ideals already! 

Here are our Essential Agreements for the 2016-2017 school year:

• Take responsibility for your actions.
• Be considerate and respectful of others and their property.
• Be prepared with needed materials.
• Adjust your volume and actions to meet the activity.
• Listen to the speaker without interrupting
• Follow directions.
• Include and help others. 

Look closely at the idea on the board and then the boys in

the middle. I think they are already practicing this one!

Come to the Table of Plenty

Today was the second day full day of school, and we started it in the garden. The garden project was new to my school last year, and the beds were all planted in the spring and well tended over the summer. My class was blessed to be the very first class to have a garden session with Miss Maren from Seattle Tilth this school year. She gave them a very poignant visual representation of the amount of farmable soil on the earth with an apple. She ended up with the peel of one sixty-fourth of the apple, or the peel of 3.125% of an apple. (Both of those figures were proudly proclaimed by students of mine during the demonstration, and accurate to the demonstration.)

It was very fun to watch the students exploring the changes in the garden since June and work together to record their observations. One student found a zucchini that was "at least two pencils long" and another one was impressed with the observable changes in a raspberry from a flower to a slimy white protrusion through a green fruit to a fresh, pink berry. Students also played with water droplets on leaves and "painted" with fungus growing in the garden. It was an amazing way to spend the first period of the day.

Later students jumped into the more traditional practice of pre-assessments to drive placement and instruction for the first trimester of the year. But as they finished up, they were given free reign to read, draw, or find another quiet, non-distracting activity to fill their time. Several boys decided to make use of the new reading corner, which was one of those soul-filling teacher moments.

"Come to the Table of Plenty" was last year's school theme. But after a weekend spent at PAX West with my family, on a date night with my husband, and uploading my finally finished newest short story for Kindle publication, I feel my cup is overflowing and my table is abundantly blessed. This is going to be a fantastic year!

The First Day

Since yesterday was First Day of School Eve, obviously today was the First Day. As first days go, it was great. I got hugs and hi-fives from former students. I got flowers and a 12-pack of Diet Coke from parents.

First Day Teacher Gifts

I danced in front of the kids. I told them I was weird. I made them do a group activity they did not understand with no explanation until the end. I stood on a chair. I required them to shhh! when I needed them to, including for the prayer service in the church. I think they got a feel for who I am as a teacher - which might not exactly fit their normal perception of a teacher, and is pretty much my goal on the first day. And at noon, the chairs were put up and the kids left my classroom.

End of the First Day

"Elephants' based on
The Blind Men and the Elephant

I came home and drove my son and three of his teammates to soccer practice in the rain. Then I responded to email, talked to Kate (my partner teacher whom I am mentoring this year), and updated my website for the new school year before making sure I have enough activities and the required materials to teach a FULL day of school tomorrow.

Sitting at the table this evening, I found myself teary eyed over an ad for a shingles vaccine... you know, when the grandma can't play with her grandson because her shingles hurt so much. I might be a wee bit tired. It's a good thing tomorrow is Friday.

First Day of School Eve

Tomorrow is the first day of school. I have spent this week in meetings and activities with my fellow school employees, and trying to find time to finish setting up my classroom around these. This is the first time I have ever had my before school teacher meetings the same week as the first day of school. Meetings ran Monday-Wednesday from 8:00-3:00 and school starts tomorrow. One of the new teachers in my building told me this morning that my classroom looked "Pinterest ready." That feels like a pretty high compliment, so I guess I have nothing to worry about as far as having the space ready for kids to arrive tomorrow morning.

Blurring the nametags messed up overall look,
but you get the idea.

My head is having a hard time wrapping around the fact that tomorrow is the first day of school. But I think that's true every year. I'm too exhausted to know for sure right now... I had a back to school dream last night that combined teachers, students, and families from all three of the schools I have worked in over the course of my career. We were meeting to discuss a student of concern from my current building, and I had to drive from one building to another with a teacher from my previous building, only to meet with the new science teacher at my first building, who was actually one of my first third graders ever. When I woke up and started analyzing it, I realized my first third graders would be about 24 now, and therefore, one of them really could be a new science teacher at a school this year. It was fun to think about specific students, teachers, and families from each of my buildings when I woke up this morning. Given the content of my two back to school dreams, I have to say I can't find evidence in my life that I am worried or anxious about the new school year; I'm just processing it. Maybe I'll change my mind by tomorrow morning, but somehow I don't think that's likely.

There was a bit of shakeup in my building this week. On Monday we suddenly found ourselves in need of a new middle school teacher. With the two new teachers and IB PYP coordinator hired in June, that brings the total of new people in the building to four. For a staff of our size (just over 20 teachers), that's pretty significant.

Thankfully, even our meetings can be great fun. As an IB candidate school we have a lot to learn about this curriculum framework. One of the first things to learn is the learner profile, made up of ten attributes: Inquirer, Thinker, Reflective, Open-Minded, Risk-Taker, Communicator, Caring, Principled, Balanced, and Knowledgeable. Rather than reading about them, or being lectured to about them, we were teamed up and sent on a photo safari around the school to find places where these attributes are already in action around our building. Even after two IB workshops, this activity helped me to understand and cement the attributes into my brain.

Don't we look inquiring?

And when my principal schedules team building time, he knows what he is doing. At my previous schools we always went off campus during our in-service meetings for a "faculty retreat." It always included lots of prayer and touchy feely conversations. Although I know it was meant to increase morale and a sense of team spirit, it never quite hit its target goals for me. I'm not saying it wasn't valuable time, but it pales in comparison to what I've experienced in my current building. My first year we had a whirly ball tournament and last year we went to a cooking class at Hot Stove Society and prepared our lunch under the tutelage of actual chefs. This year we went on a scavenger hunt put on by the Electric Boat Company. One of the things I like best about these events, is the fact that the parish staff is always included in them. My current building is the first one where I have felt that that the school and parish staffs know each other well enough to really and truly work together. The other "best part" is that the activities is the fun that fosters genuine conversation, rather than the forced conversation that came from responding to prompts given to us at my previous retreats. In my current building, we play together in a structured activity, and learn much more about each other as a result.

Now this is team building!

Besides trying to figure out how to incorporate this lesson that I really learned today (after only my third time experiencing it... third time's the charm, right?) into my classroom culture this year, I hope to get a restful night's sleep that only includes feel good back to school dreams. As tired as I am, I am truly grateful that my first "week" of school is a day and a half, followed by a three day weekend.

The Weekend Before School Starts

Happy Saturday! I am having a difficult time wrapping my head around the fact that school starts this coming week. Monday-Wednesday will be meetings with the entire school staff, and Thursday will be a half day of school followed by a barbeque lunch for the school community, and professional development on our new math curriculum.

I spent four hours yesterday working on decluttering my classroom and then three hours in a meeting for new teachers and their mentors. Then I had an appointment and went to a concert with my husband. It was a busy day. Although there are still several things to do, I could certainly begin teaching without anymore classroom prep if I had to. But I'm glad I don't have to.

Date night before back to school.

Today I finished stapling together my newly created classroom procedure booklet, and am continuing work on cleaning up the small compost buckets that are used for compostable snack waste in each homeroom classroom. This is a new program that my students implemented after attending outdoor environmental education at YMCA Camp Seymour last fall. Getting last year's decorations and teacher labels off of the buckets for a refresh by this year's fifth graders has proven to be a daunting task. I actually started working on removing grime and permanent marker from the buckets on Thursday, and was successful at cleaning about five buckets with rubbing alcohol followed by nail polish remover. But I was working outside because I didn't want those smells in my house, and it was over 90 degrees outside, which caused me to pack it in for the day before using the nail polish remover on most of the buckets.

The smaller stack of buckets was
completed with these products.

In one stack, they are thicker than a
Harry Potter book!

I came back to the buckets today, a much cooler day, only to discover that the final pass with nail polish remover was not working on the remaining buckets. I don't know if it was the heat from the sun after the rubbing alcohol application or the time delay between the rubbing alcohol and the nail polish remover application or both, but I could NOT get the permanent marker to fade even a little bit today. So I did a little research online, and went around my house collecting the suggested products. I had all of the products on hand, and tried each in turn. Product after product made no visible difference, not even the Magic Eraser! I was getting frustrated to the point that my husband suggested just buying new buckets. But even at five dollars each, getting a new set of 20 each year would be prohibitively expensive, as well as run counter to the ideals of the snack composting program and the ideals of a Level Three Green School, a distinction earned by my school this past spring.

The products attempted for the second set of buckets.

Finally, I opened a tube of toothpaste with baking soda already in the manufacturer's mix, and grabbed a toothbrush we keep in the kitchen for scrubbing stubborn small spots. Viola! The permanent marker started disappearing, and with a nice minty scent rather than a caustic chemical odor. I still have about five buckets to scrub, and my forearms and wrists are very sore from the whole endeavor, but I am happy to have found a solution, and a cleaning process that I can hand off to the students in the spring. I was leery of handing them rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover, but I will have no problem handing out toothpaste and toothbrushes for them to use on the buckets.

I'll do my best to take tomorrow off before the official kick off to the school year begins on Monday. I did schedule a massage for myself, but I can't promise not to find "just one more thing" (or two or three...) to do. Right now, I'm off to scrub the remaining buckets, put names on nametags, and email parents a welcome back message.