What did I do with my weekend, you might ask?
Well, I don't have beginning or end pictures -- just middle:
Ack! Do you see boxes on almost Every Single Desk??
I had been trying to stay a little late once a week -- trying to go through my closet. I just wasn't making much headway. So I decided to spend a Saturday working on it. I actually started Friday after school -- my hubby was out of town. I started on one side of the closet. That wasn't too bad. And then I started early Saturday morning-- I'm an early bird, and got started right away. It got a little chaotic, because I ended up sorting a few things and moving a few things.
About 11, I texted my hubby and asked him to come up and help me make my room pretty again. He did help with some stuff, but just having him there gave me the final push to get things done.
The happy news is I threw away my two trashcans and a box of stuff, and I put one big box and two smaller boxes in the teachers' lounge as giveaway.
I took home a paper box full of math games and went through those Sunday. I threw away another trash can of stuff.
Of course, it is hard to do - I was praying that I would make quick decisions and get rid of stuff I just don't use. And oh my goodness - all those copies and all that laminating! Yikes!
I told College Girl I was ready for summer now. My closet was the thing that had been bugging me for a while, and it's taken care of.
And the bonus is my hubby found some animal information/ trading cards and left two on each students' desk. The kids were surprised and excited about that!
Hello Friends - and I mean the grown-up friends who read, not the little friends that are really starting to act goofy. I sent a little friend to the office yesterday -- I think that might have been the first time I've had to do that all year. He's been acting progressively silly, and I warned him he would have to leave if he didn't stop. He didn't, and I started to remind him again to stop being silly -- but then I had to stop myself and remind both of us I had already warned him. Argh - and then he started crying.
Today I gave the AimsWeb test in math. You know, because it's relevant. Because I've been teaching all this stuff. Or not. You know, Engage New York. With fidelity.
So most of my kids kicked butt on the computation part. Because we've been doing computation since before Christmas. {Except this error - hello, little friends. The first thing we ALWAYS check is whether we add or subtract. Except the 6 students who didn't on the test.}
Many of my kids did not kick butt on the concepts part. Because we've been doing computation since Christmas.
And that even includes 3 days of teaching to the test. So my high kids, most of them, caught on to fractions, missing numbers, time, money. But I'm sorry my little friends that need to go slow and explore. We just haven't gotten there in my teacher's manual and quite frankly I don't think we'll make it before the end of the year.
And so, for me, this time of year becomes a time of reflection and what I want to do differently.
I'm afraid I need to cut out some of the "fun" things I've done and do a little more in math so that my students become more well-rounded in math. Of course, there is always the option of making the well-rounded stuff fun.
So, this is more just thinking out loud - or thinking through typing. I'd be glad to hear your thoughts.
