Slacker, I know...

I haven't posted since the beginning of the year, which seems like just the other day!  I don't know about you, but this school year has FLOWN by!  I keep telling my students that and they look at me like I'm crazy, but all my teacher friends seem to agree! :)

Anyways, we've been totally busy this year.  The group of kids that I have are great.  We have a few issues, but for the most part they are doing their best.  In my county students must take a test every 4 weeks.  In elementary school, this is for grades 3-5.  The PARS (as they are called) lets teachers know how the students understood the concept that was taught, plus gives us an idea as to how they will perform on our end of the year state testing, CRCT.

Over the course of the school year students will take 7 PARS, which is actually 28 tests (Reading, Math, Science, and Social Studies).  I think the idea of the PARS is great, but for me in Science and Social Studies I have difficulty with going back and reteaching those concepts that were missed.  If I take time and go back and work with students who struggled on a particular standard then that will take time away from the next concept.  Yes, that is right EVERY four weeks the PARS is on different topic!

Overall my students have done well.  There are a handful of students who consistently are on the border of passing or failing, you know the "BUBBLE" kids.

Do you have something similar in your county?  Do you have suggestions for helping those students that need the reteaching, but will also need the new information?  How would you handle this situation?

Our state testing will be in the middle of April, so I've decided to start reviewing now.  We are actually learning NEW topics up until the CRCT.  In fact, last year I didn't finish my Science unit!  We looked at our Earth Science Standards, but I wouldn't say that my students were 100% ready on that topic.

So here is my plan of action...

1. Send home scores of all the current PARS.  We've taken 5 so far.  This will give the parents information as to what students struggled with.

2. Start having daily quizzes with old CRCT questions over the units we've already covered.  So starting with the older topics.  Hopefully, students will see the need for studying, plus will give me an idea what to spend more time on right before the test.

3. Extra homework.  Currently my homework isn't difficult at all.  Here is a video about my CURRENT homework.

You can also read more here, http://lazenbyclass.blogspot.com/2013/09/homework.html and here, http://lazenbyclass.blogspot.com/p/homework.html

The extra homework that I will assign will come from the CRCT Test Practice books for Social Studies.  If there is time, then we will utilize our Science one, too.  Students will be assigned so many questions a night. We will review them in class on Friday and students can keep the books to study with!

At the moment this is all I have.  Now once we are done with our lessons then we will utilize games that I've created for each unit and study.  What do you do to help students get ready for their big test?

LOVING my classroom!

Well, I went back to the school today.  I'm not complete done, but I'm ready for pre-planning and I can finish up the rest sometime during those three days.  I told my hubby tonight that this is the first time that I feel, "Hey this is my classroom."  Every year I've moved!  I've moved schools and classrooms.  I got to stay in the same room, same grade, and same subjects this year.  Anywho, here are the last minute items I made and hung up today. ;)  

 I absolutely love my SWAG banner. I hope the students like it, too.  The original idea came from http://blog.mdigitalmarketing.com/  However, I changed the got to has because I'm proper like that! LoL.

 Yay, for my timeline.  The hubby helped me with this.  All we did was cut poster board in half, draw a line in the middle and then put cute name stickers every five inches apart. ;)  The students will be adding facts and dates to the timeline throughout the year.

 I gave myself some extra "time" on my timeline by going to 2020! LoL

 Technically, our standards cover 1860 to present, but we talk about briefly about how "America happened" (referring to the McDonald's Commercial!)

UPDATE on my timeline, click here.

 We got the desk moved and I put a table up near the board to place the computer for the promethean board.  Ignore the mess, that is one of my to do's still.

Here is the desk in the corner. :) 

Got this awesome poster at Target. I will write reminders and notes from the office like "Johnny rides the bus today."  It will also be where I write homework. :) 

The green and purple bins will hold the Twitter items for the Twitter board. 

Right outside my door for parents to scan, even visitors.  It takes them to my blog and gives them my email address. 

View of the rest of the items around my door.  The green paper beside my QR poster is how I tell students what books they need to bring to class.  I'm not a big book user and books can get heavy, so sometimes we only need one, or even just paper and pencils. 

Still have a table, that is now in the middle of this picture, that needs to be moved out.  

The front of my room. :) 

I got the frames hung without the ribbons. :) I hope they stay!  These are my EQ frames.

How is your room looking??

Summer, you're moving TOO fast!

I cannot believe that it is July!  I remember a few weeks ago I wrote a post about my "BIG" plans for summer and the things I wanted to get accomplished.  I will say that at the moment I'm a big failure.  However, summer isn't over so I can still get some things done!

I know that next year I'm going to start a homework notebook.  This will be in a composition notebook and students will write responses to different questions covered in class.  This will be sort of like a journal!  My first year students kept a Science journal, but I found it nearly impossible to read them for the 72 students.  I stressed the importance of these journals, but by the end of the year I was TIRED of reading and grading them! Lol  For the homework notebook, students will have a topic for each day to complete.  I will alternate the Friday's that I take each classes up and read through them.  There will not be a time constraint on me, just as long as I have the homework grades in before the end of the 9 weeks.

I also know that I'm going to do a classroom Twitter board.  I'm still working on this concept, but as soon as I have a plan I will blog about it! :)

I also created some new items on VistaPrint and I wanted to share them with you.  I'm excited to use them next year!

Instead of giving out so much candy, I wanted to create something that students would still want to have!  I totally love these homework passes!  (Use business cards to create your own.)

We are departmentalized at my school and sometimes if the student isn't in your homeroom getting contact information and other important information is a hassle.  I created these cards to pass out to students on the first day.  They will be returned to me and I will alphabetize them and separate them by classes.  I will have the contact information for all my students very handy! (Use post cards to create your own)

I saw on Pinterest the QR codes being used at Open House!  I thought it would be great to go ahead and create a poster that can be used year after year!  I'm going to keep it up by my door for all to see.  One QR is for my blog and the other is my email address.  (Use a small poster to create your own.)

The last thing I created were these magnets to pass out at Open House.  Parents will easily be able to see my contact information at all times! The blue bar has my school email address underneath! ;) (Use business card magnets to make your own)

What other things have you done with VistaPrint?